MISCELLANEA. 
175 
The case was proved by Captain W. Elliott, and the de- 
fendant was fined 10s., or seven days’ imprisonment. 
In another case a horse, nearly starved, was brought up in 
the charge of Rutherford, an officer of the Society. It was 
in a hackney-cab at four o’clock in the morning. 
The defendant in this case was fined 10s., but if he got the 
horse slaughtered the fine was to be remitted. 
In the course of the day Rutherford informed Mr. Broughton 
that the animal had been sold for 7s. Qd., and slaughtered. — 
The Times. 
MISCELLANEA. 
A BASKET OE RUBBISH. 
In no instance are, the transmutations of chemistry seen to 
a more wonderful degree than in the changes which can be 
produced from the refuse-basket of the chiffonier or collector 
of old rags, bones, offal, &c. (i Let us,” observes an intelligent 
writer, in the Irish Industrial Exhibition Report, “ examine 
the ragman’s basket. What do we turn up first? We have 
pieces of cotton and linen rags — the raw material of the paper- 
maker, who transforms these unsightly objects probably into 
the most delicately scented note-paper. Here again, we have 
pieces of paper of all kinds — what can they be for? They 
form materials for making pasteboard, dolls’ heads, and occa- 
sionally papier mache. What a singular history we have 
here; the ball-dress of a lady drops into the rag-basket and 
reappears as a billet doux ; disappears again to reappear 
once more in the drawing-room or the nursery as a work-box 
or a doll. Returning to the basket, we find pieces of woollen 
cloths of various colours ; what use can we put them to, as 
they do not make paper? The bits of scarlet cloth, which 
are dyed with cochineal, are boiled with soda, to extract the 
colouring matter, which is used in dyeing chessmen, billiard 
balls, &c. ; or we may sort the different coloured cloths, and 
prepare from them materials for making flock papers for 
rooms, or we might make roofing felt of them. From the 
bones rejected from our dinner tables are made knife-handles, 
buttons, and a thousand other articles of a similar kind; or 
we may obtain oil from them, on the one hand, from which 
soap is made, and, on the other, glue, or the most transparent 
gelatine, from which ornaments or visiting cards may be made ; 
the residue being burned to make ivory black for the manu- 
