AKum'.'itic (Bijanamji, 
MOTHS IN FURNITURE. 
There aro two species of moths which 
infest furniture. One is « 1« rge My, of Silvery 
white color ; the worm of the same Is shaped 
like a chestnut worm, ami is familiarly 
known. It rarely infests furniture. The 
oilier is a small fly, of a dark drab color; the 
worm is about one-fourth of an inch long, 
and tapering from the head to the tail. It 
was first observed by upholsterers about 
thirteen years ago. This lly penetrates a 
sofa or chair, generally between the back 
sofas, or under the seats, where the vacancy 
among the springs affords a safe retreat. It 
may make a lodgment in one week after the 
furniture is placed in a house. If such should 
be the ease, in two months the worm will 
appear ; and the continual process of pro¬ 
creation in a. few months increases the num¬ 
ber to thousands. 
This moth lias no season. It destroys in 
winter and summer alike, as it is kept in 
active life by the constant heat of the house. 
We find at the Same time in the same, piece 
of furniture, the My, the worm, and the 
eggs—thus showing that they are breeding 
and destroying all the time. It does not eat 
good pure, curled hair, but fastens its cocoon 
to it, the elasticity of which prevents its 
being disturbed. The inside of furniture is 
used by it only for purposes of propagation. 
The worm when ready for food, crawls out 
and dest roys the covering, if of woolen or 
plush material, and falling to the carpet 
destroys it. They rarely cut through plush 
from the inside, as it is of’cotton hack, but 
there arc instances where they have cub up 
muslin on the outside backs of sofas. There 
is no protection against it but continual care. 
Now furniture should lie removed i romthe 
walls at least twice a week at this season of 
the year, and should be well whisked all 
round, and particularly under the seats, to 
prevent the lly from lodging. This is an 
effectual preventive, and the only one known, 
Cayenne pepper, Scotch snulf, turpentine, 
and all other remedies for protection from 
the large moth are of little or no avail against 
the furniture moth. Saturation with alcohol 
will not destroy them when in a piece of 
furniture, 
if the furniture is infested, they may be 
removed by taking off the muslin from 
under the seats, and off the outside ends and 
backs, where they congregate most, and 
exposing it to the air as much as possible. 
Heat well with a whisk or the. open hand, 
and kill all the flies and worms which show 
themselves. This done often will disturb 
them, and may make them leave the furni¬ 
ture, as its desire is to lie left quiet. When 
the furniture is flee from moths, and is to be 
left during the summer mouths without 
attention, it may be protected by camphor 
in small bags, or highly concentrated pa¬ 
tchouly. The safest way is to have the 
furniture, well whisked twice a week. 
If the moth attacks the carpet, which they 
will first do under the sofas and chairs, spread 
a wet sheet on the carpet and pass a hot flat- 
iron over it quickly—the steam will effect¬ 
ually destroy both worm and egg. If furni¬ 
ture is delivered in a dwelling free from 
moths, the upholsterer’s responsibibitv ends 
there, and all rests with the housekeeper, as 
no tradesman can tell whether the moth will 
attack it or not. There are cases where the 
furniture has been in use t in or twelve years 
before being attacked. It would be as fair 
to hold the tailor responsible for the safety 
of clothing ns to hold the upholsterer re¬ 
sponsible for the safety of furniture.— Cabi¬ 
net Maker. 
-- 
COLORING DRESSES. 
The Scientific American says it is not often 
that we find scientific items of any especial 
degree of interest to the members of the fair 
sex who may, perchance, glance over our 
pages ; hut now we believe we have got one 
which is simply absorbing. Probably, mad- 
arae or miss, you are the possessor of a sum¬ 
mer dress, made from some white diaphan¬ 
ous-material ; and it may be also imagined 
that during your shopping you havo inspected 
•goods of similar nature, only of varying 
colors, from, which you have purchased suffi¬ 
cient material to constmet a number of 
those bewildering garments in comparison 
with the intricacies of which the most elabo¬ 
rate work of modern engineering furnish no 
parellel. 
Now, a learned German professor has in¬ 
vented a plan whereby your single white 
dress may be changed as often as you desire 
to any color you may fancy, and this in your 
MOORE'S BUBAL MEW-YORtCER. 
own laundry, so that hereafter the money 
which you would devote to several robes of 
varying hues may be entirely saved, while 
you may appear daily, if you choose, in 
toilets of totally different complexion. The 
process is very simple, and consists in merely 
coloring the starch used in “doing up.” 
Suppose a white dress is to be tinted a 
beautiful crimson :—Three parts of fuchsia, 
an an aline color, which any chemist can 
readily procure for you, aro dissolved in 
twenty parts of glycerine, and mixed in a 
mortar with a little water. Then ordinary 
starch, finely pulverized, is st irred in, and the 
thick mass obtained is poured out and dried 
on blotting paper. The powder t hus Obtained 
is used just the. same us common starch, and 
so applied to the fabric. When the latter is 
dry it is -lightly sprinkled and pressed with 
u moderately warm iron. By means of other 
coloring materials, mixed as above described, 
any desired tint may be obtained. 
We should counsel, however, an avoidance 
of damp localit ies, and strongly deprecate 
going out in the rain, as we. rloubt. the “ fast¬ 
ness” of the dye and would not be at all 
surprised to behold the garment shortly 
assume a rather streaked and zebra-like 
appearance. 
-- 
DOMESTIC BREVITIES. 
Tlartshom Cookies ,—One pound of sugar, 
one ounce of betters’ or salts of hartshorn, 
one pint of sour cream, mixed with butter¬ 
milk, one teaspoon of salt, flavor with any¬ 
thing to suit the taste. The hartshorn should 
be pulverized and dissolved hi the cream. 
This quantity, rolled thin, makes a hundred, 
cookies. They are very wholesome and con¬ 
venient. It is better to buy a qua rter of a 
pound of hartshorn at once and keep it bot¬ 
tled t ight, as it loses strength if exposed to 
the air. The above quantities, after being 
weighed once, can be measured and the 
cookies made by measurement afterwards, 
which is shorter. Good hartshorn is very 
hard and needs pulverizing thoroughly.—A 
Farmer’s Wife. 
Hair Pin Care .—1 have just been reading 
an article in the Rural New-Yorker telling 
how to make a hair-pin case. I have made 
several of them. The prettiest and cheapest 
way is to take a small, round collar-box, 
without the cover, fill it with curled hair, or 
any hair, cover the bottom with a piece of 
cambric, then crochet a piece large enough 
of red and white worsted fur the top. Then 
sew it on tightly, drawn over it; put. a piece 
of red flannel or merino around the side ; 
then get a stick of scarlet braid, plait it box- 
plaits, put it around the upper and lower 
edges of the box, and you will have a neat 
hair-pin case. L have made them of other 
colors, but none so pretty as scarlet. —0. o. u. 
Hgjjienttt Jnforotation. 
ITCH REMEDY. 
The person who desires a remedy for that 
old-fashioned, eruptive, cutaneous disorder, 
spelled with four letters, may be assured 
that thorough daily bathing, from crown to 
soles in clean water with a little soap, will 
help to render the malady obsolete, as it 
ought to be. Of course, nobody could sup¬ 
pose that a family of intelligence enough to 
read the Rural New-Yorker, would be se¬ 
riously troubled by such a disease ; every¬ 
body knows that this, and a kindred relic of 
barbarism that makes fine combs and barbers 
necessary, arc preserved in.a few instances 
among the lowest specimens of. humanity, 
and occasionally introduced among decent 
folks by contamination in the public 
schools. I consider this liability to contract 
filthy diseases one of the most objection¬ 
able features of public schools. Having 
had many years’ experience as a teacher 
both in New England and the West, 1 know 
it to be a difficult matter for neat and cleanly 
children to escape unpleasant results from 
contact with those who are neglected and 
filthy, but who have the same rights in t he 
schoolroom as the most tidy. “ Eternal A T ig- 
ilance,” with the free use of water, early, 
late, and constantly, is a sure remedy. Keep 
clean, and you will not be troubled with 
either itch or lice very long. 
Mrs. C. Hammond. 
---*♦-*- 
CHRONIC CONSTIPATION. 
In Rural New-Yorker of May 24th, M. 
A. 8. asks for a remedy for constipation. I 
give a remedy which 1 believe to be a certain 
cure if followed to the letter. Never use fine 
flour in any form. Take as much out-of-door 
exercise us you can bear ; sleep in a well ven¬ 
tilated room ; bathe at least four times din¬ 
ing the week in a warm room, and never lie 
more than ten minutes doing it; for your 
breakfast, eat oatmeal or when ten grit,;, with 
milk or sugar, Graham bread, and beef or 
mutton; for dinner eat beef or mutton, veg¬ 
etables ami Graham bread, avoiding all des¬ 
serts except uncooked fruit or some pl ain 
sauce. If M. A. 8. will try this for one 
month, and at the end of that time is not 
benefited, then the case has not been reached. 
Many persons eat coarse food once, or twice 
a day. and at the same time eat something 
else to counteract the good effects of it, and 
come to the conclusion the coarse food docs 
not benefit them. I know of persons who 
have been cured by this mode of treatment. 
Medicines are of but temporary relief, as M. 
A. 8. has proved, and after a time, cease to 
act at all. e. t. 
room to spread out naturally, and bathe 
them thoroughly twice a day—morning and 
evening—in cold water. There is no need, 
whatever, of having corns, 
Enlargement of the, Heart.— My wife has 
been severely troubled with enlargement of 
t,h3 heart, and has tried the best physicians 
in this vicinity without help. Perhaps some 
of your readers can suggest something that 
will help her. Please ask them to do so.— 
L. Elms. 
Mamjield's Aeoustic, Instrument. —IV'IL- 
liam Cochrane, a gentleman in his eighty- 
fourth year, asks us or our readers if wo 
know anything of the value of instruments 
to aid the deaf to hour, advertised, in circu¬ 
lars, by H. Mansfield of Connecticut. We 
do not. 
/try Mouth and Throat .—A correspond¬ 
ent writes that a friend is afflicted with a 
dry mouth and throat, called by physicians 
“a, contraction of the stomach ;” can get no 
help ; asks if any of the readers of the Ru¬ 
ral New-Yorker can suggest any. 
Treatment of Scalds .—A French physician 
recommends covering the scalded part of the 
body as speedily as possible with a thick 
coat of powdered alum, or to whitewash it 
with water in which alum has been dissolved. 
Chronic. Bronchitis .— Anna R. 11 ILLS arks 
some one who knows, from experience, to 
send the Rural New-Yorker a Bafe and 
sure remedy for chronic bronchitis. 
Jsi'H'ntifiii mut Useful. 
HISTORY OF A LEADEN BULLET. 
On Friday last Dr. Small was called to at¬ 
tend a young man named Clarence Abbott. 
The doctor discovered unmistakable symp¬ 
toms of lead poisoning, it appears that 
Abbott was wounded in the thigh by a Minie 
bullet at the battle of the Wilderness, in 
1804, and that the bullet could not lie found 
at the time. He has suffered somewhat ever 
since. Drs. Sm all ami Gordon on Saturday 
morning etherized the patient, and proceed¬ 
ed to make a surgical examination, which 
resulted in the discovery of the ball in the 
thigh. The bullet was incased in a bony 
substance of about the size of a goose’s egg, 
the shell of which was one-fourth of an inch 
thick. The bullet has been tumbling about 
in this cavity for eight years and become 
worn and polished as smoothly as though it 
lm.d been done on an ornery wheel. Sufficient 
a mount of the lead, however, had permeated 
the. incasing and entered the system to pro¬ 
duce lead poisoning, which would have 
proved fatal in a short time but for the 
timely relief afforded .—Portland Argus. 
Sympathetic Inks ■ —Nellie Runhaiore asks 
for sympathetic inks ; if she has not already 
been answered, she may find the following 
useful: Muriate of Cobalt is said to be the 
best., but Nitrate, Chloride, and other salts of 
this mineral are also used. When written 
the marks become invisible; but application 
of heat, even that of the hand, or breath, 
will bring out the color, which wifi fade as 
the heat is withdrawn, and may be renewed 
in the same manner indefinitely. Nitrate of 
silver may bo also used, avoiding much light, 
and afterwards, if the paper be placed in the 
sunshine the writing will assume a brown 
color, which will remain,—E, 
A Neat Picture Frame.— To Julia How¬ 
ard :—A neat picture frame hangs before 
me, made from black inoroeco leaves over¬ 
lapped ; CQt after a small oak leaf, the vein- 
ing marked with a small knife, and fastened 
ou a large slate frame with a carpet tack 
drived in the stem end and covered with t he 
point of the next leaf, slightly turned, to 
make, it viuing ; four.small leaves in opposite 
directions in each corner, with or without a 
bunch of acorns glued in the center. For 
some pictures brown leather looks best, with 
wax or leather grapes. Varnish.— Anna R. 
Rice Pudding. —One and one-half cups 
rice, one cup sugar, one egg, four quarts 
sweet inilk, one quarter nutmeg. Bake three 
hours and stir often until it is half done. This 
pudding is very nice when eaten cold, as 
well as warm,—j. At. w. 
» 
Jelly or Tea Cake. — Three cups white 
sugar, 3 eggs, 1 cup butter, 1 cup of milk, 1 
teaspoon of soda, 4 cups of flour sifted. Beat 
up well and bake in shalloAv tins. Flavor to 
taste.—J. M. w. 
To Mend Rubber Boots it is recommended 
to let the shoemaker sew on leather patches 
the same as on leather boots. They will last 
as long as the boots do. 
A Recipe for Pickling Eggs is asked for 
by C. G. Stewart, Jefferson Co, N. Y. 
TO REMOVE FRECKLES. 
“Americus,” in Rural New-Yorker, 
April 2(5, calls for a recipe to remove those 
unattractive discolorations under the skin 
called freckles, to which persons of very fair 
complexion, Avho aro exposed to suu and 
wind, are subject, lean imagine how very 
annoying it must, he to endure the ridicule 
which is often launched at the devoted head, 
or rather face, of the unoffending and sensi¬ 
tive victim. Out of sheer pity 1 send to that 
seeker after knowledge, and also to thou¬ 
sands of the Rural’s readers and out-of- 
door workers, this ne plus ultra of recipes : 
1 ounce each of lemon juice, borax and rose 
water, mixed. Rub on at night, and in the 
morning bathe with soft water ; no hard 
water should ever be used, if you value the 
complexion. “Americus” should shave 
daily for a few months, then let the beard 
grow out and apply to the roots of the hair 
a mixture composed of 1 pint glycerine ; 1 
ounce salts of ammonia 5 1 ounce rose water. 
It is a nice, clean dressing for the hair. 
Michigan. Anna R. Hill. 
-- 
HYGIENIC NOTES. 
A sthma Remedy, —As a remedy for asthma 
is wanted, I will give one, both simple and 
effective :—Gather what I. call brakes, (by 
some called ferns,) in the.woods ; dry them, 
place some under the sheet, and sleep on 
them ; add a few l’resh ones every few weeks, 
and do not abandon it as soon as a little bet¬ 
ter ; continue a year or more. I have known 
persons cured by this remedy who never had 
a return of it. This is an old Indian remedy. 
—M. E. L. 
A Sure Cure for Corns is asked for by “ A 
North-Easter,” who says he Inis tried many 
of the Rural recipes therefor, but to no pur¬ 
pose. “North-Easter ” should do as Ave do : 
Wear boots large enough to give the feet 
--- 
SCIENTIFIC AND USEFUL NOTFS, 
A Cement of Great Adhesive Quality, 
particularly said to be serviceable in attach¬ 
ing the brass mountings on glass lamps, as 
it is unaffected by petroleum, may he pre¬ 
pared by boiling three parts of rosin with 
one part Of caustic soda, and live parts of 
water, thus making a kind of poap, which is 
mixed with one-half its weight of plaster of 
Faria, Zinc Avhite, white lead, or precip¬ 
itated chalk may be used instead of the plas¬ 
ter, but when they are used the cement will 
he longer in hardening. 
Dextrine, Paste .—In hot water dissolve a 
sufficient quantity of dextrine to bring it to 
the consistency of honey. This forms a 
strong adhesive paste, that will keep a long 
time unchanged, if the water is not allowed 
to evaporate. Sheets of paper may be pre¬ 
pared for extempore labels by coating one 
side with the paste and allowing it to dry; 
when lo be used, by slightly wetting the 
gummed side, it will adhere to glass. This 
paste is very useful in the off ice or laboratory. 
To Restore Old Files the following direc¬ 
tions are given : -Boil the files in a solution 
made by dissolving four ounces of saleratus 
in one quart of water, for half an hour. 
Then wash and dry them, and stand them in 
a solution of sulphuric acid and water, mixed 
in proportion of four ounces acid to one 
quart water. If the filesore coarse they will 
need to remain in about 12 hours, but for 
fine files, 6 or 8 hours Avill suffice. When 
taken out they should be washed clean and 
oiled. 
To Darken the Hair without injuring the 
health, the Scientific American answers a 
correspondent by saying “ Lead is one con¬ 
stituent of nearly every hair dye in market; 
a few contain silver. Both are detrimental. 
A decoction of chestnut burs will darken the 
hair, and is less injurious.” 
