The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-29 00:00:00

HINTS TO SKATERS.

It is freezing, and freezing, to a very large and re3pecta-
ble part of the community, implies skating. To avoid acci-
dent, people in charge of the ice, and those who adventure
themselves upon it should remember the possibility of
stratification in the process of freezing. The Regent's
Park calamity was caused by this untoward circumstance.
The surface of the ice looked fair enough, but
under the crust that met the eye were serious flaws.
Not air bubbles or fissures skinned over, but hori-
zontal faults. The history of the formation of an ice
table supplies the only key to its integrity and bearing
powers. A slight frost will cover a pool pretty equally,
or, at any rate, the strongest part will be in
tho centre, as it should be. If the frost ceases
before the frozen mass is thick there will follow, especially
if any weight be thrown on the ice, a bending of the layer
on the surface of the water. , It becomes convex, or per-
haps concave. Another frost succeeds, and a new layer is
formed in contact with the first layer, below or sometimes
above it. Occasionally a third interval in the freezing process
and other changes in the ice occur, and again a third
layer is formed, In the case of the Regents Park ice there
were several such strata. When weight, especially a mov-
ing weight, comes to bear upon ice so constructed, the bent
layers give under the pressure, the new layers are sud-
denly strained, and, unless very compact indeed, aro
shattered into a thousand fragments partly by the
force of the diffused weight acting on many points at the
same instant, partly by the jerk caused by a crack in some
of the strata. The moral of this reflection is that the
history of ice, not its appearance, should be employed
as the test of its bearing powers. Many a fair-looking
table is treacherous by reason of its formation
in strata which have been bent under weight, or
by influence of the sun, or of their own gravity in a thaw,
just enough to soften without breaking up. On the other
hand, a thin but compact layer of ico floating upon the
surface of the water—not held in suspension by the banks
around it—will exhibit surprising powers of support if it
bo the product of a single continuous frost, or a succession
of freezings, the intervals between which have not been
sufficiently long to bond it. Bending is worse than
breaking.--Globe.

The disturbances at Rochdale parish church con-
tinuo. The magistrates have granted afiummons against
the vicar for assaulting a parishionir.

The Duke of Somerset and Sir L. Palk have de-
clined to attend the banquet to be given on Thursday to Dr.
Temple at Exeter, The Bishop has consented to distribute
the prizes to tho students of the Plymouth School of Science
at an early day. ,1 • . ste. .-.

The disarmament canard," as it is styled in the
continental papers, has now, been'cOnadicted fro n'L all
sides. Count Bismarck's organ, the lgord-Deutscha
mine 'kitting, declares in its issue of Thursday
evening that no correspondence of any kind has taken place
between the Powers on the subject of a disarmament. In the
Belgian Chamber a Ministerial statement was made to the
cffezt that nothing was known of the project.

Lieut. F. Ward, and a detachment of non-com-
missioned officers and men, from the depot of the
31st Regiment, left Chatham yesterday for Ports-
mouth, to embark on board the Serapis, 3, Indian
troopship, Capt. J. C. Soady, for conveyance to
Malta, to join the service companies at that stat'on.
AMERICAN NEWS.—The A nglo-American Times
this week and last, with Supplements, contains the Names
and States of the Members 41st Congress; The President's
Message; Reports of the Treasury, Interior, Post-office,
War, Navy, &c, , &c. Documents all must read who
would ;learn the Progress and Present Condition of the
tilted States. Price 4d. —l5, Cathoriuc-street, Strand.
Loth copies, posted, 10d.

111 E PUBLIC IIEA LTII.

The following is the weekly return by the
Registrar-General of births and deaths in Loudon
and in 13 other large towns of the United
Kingdom :
General Register-office, Somerz et- house, Dee. 27.
In the week that ended on Saturday, the 25th of
December, 4,050 births and 3,095 deaths were
registered in London and in 13 other large towns
of the United Kingdom. The annual rate of
' mortality was 25 per 1,000 persons living.
The annual rate of mortality last week was 22
per 1,000 iu London, 27 in Edinburgh, and 25 in
Dublin ; 29 in Bristol, 26 iu Birmingham, 25 in
Liverpool, 29 in Manchester, 24 in Salford, 30 in
Sheffield, 16 in Bradford, 22 in Leeds, 23 in Hull,
23 in Newcastle-upon=Tyno, and 36 in Glasgow.
Iu Paris the annual rate of toot tality in the week
ending last Saturday (December 25) was 27 per
1,000.
Iu London the births of 993 boys and 950 girls,
in all 1,943 children, were registered last week. In
the corresponding weeks of ten years, 1839-68, the
average number, corrected for increase of popula-
tion, is 1,856.

The deaths registered in London during the

week were 1,357. It w,:s the 51st week of the year,
and the average number of deaths for that week is,
with a correction for increase of population, 1,569.
The deaths from zymotic diseases were 340, the
corrected average number being 341. Five deaths
from smallpox, 31 from measles, 123 from scarlet

_ .
fever, 7 from diphtheria, 65 from whooping-cough,
S from typhus fever, 14 from enteric fever, 1G from
simple continued fever, and 14 from diarrhcea were

registered.

Of the 31 deaths registered from measles, 14 oc-
curred in the South districts.

One hundred and nineteen persons died frum
phthibis, 185 from bronchitis, and 87 from pneu-
monia. The corrected average number of deaths
from phthisis is 167, from bronchitis 214, and from
pneumonia 104. In the preceding week, which

ended December 18, the deaths from these diseases
were 157, 208, and 103 respectively.
One hundred and forty-six persons died from
d seases of the brain and nervous system, and 59
from diseases of the organs of circulation.
The deaths of 2 nonagenarians were registered
during the week, and the widow of a farmer died
on the 22d of December in the Aged Pilgrims'
Asylum, Camberwell, at the age (as stated) of
100 years.

The deaths of 7 infants from syphilis, of 3 per-
sons from drunkenness, of 3 children and 2 adults
from burns or scalds, of 6 infants and one adult
from suffocation, and of 7 persons who committed
suicide were registered.

The daughter of a horse-dealer, aged 2 years,
died on the 18th of December, at 10, Great York-
mews, Marylebone (rectory sub district), from
" relapsing fever (10 days) ; typhus fever."
The following deaths of 4 adults and 1 child cc-
curred in the London Fever Hospital :—A female,
aged 70 years, from Rose and Crown-court, lslieg-
ton, died on the 12th of December, from " relaps-
ing fever; bronchitis." A male, aged 28 years,
from 2, Bedford-street, S.rand, died on
the 15th of December, from " relapsing
fever ; albumenuria ; coma." A boy, aged
6 years, from 2, Henrietta-street, Marylebone,
died on the 16th of December,' from " relaps-
ing fever; pneumonia; and pleurisy." A. char-
woman,- aged GS years,- from Woolwich, died oa the

16th of December, from " relapsing fever ; pleurd-
pneumonia ; fatty liver and kidneys." A female
servant, aged 26 years, from 7, Granby-place,
Drury-lane, died on the 17th of December, from
" relapsing fever ; o3lcma glottidis ; sudden."
(Post-morte►n.)
A female hawker, aged GG years, died on the 18th
of December in the Union Workhouse, Battersea,
from " relapsing fever."

The waters supplied by the metropolitan coin
patties during the month of December contained
(according to Professor Franklaud's analysis) in
109,000 tons foreign solid matters amounting to 28
tons in the Chelsea water, 27 in the West Middle-
sex, 28 in the Southwark and Vauxhall, 28 is the
Grand Junction, 29 in the Lambeth, 29 in the New

,fiver, 29 iu the East London, and :10 in the Kent.

100,000 tons of the Chelsea water contained 19 ton 4,
the West Middlesex 23 tons, the Southwark and
Vauxhall22 tons, the Grand Junction 23 tons, the
Lambeth 19 tons, the New River 25 tons, the East
London 25 tons, and the Kent 30 tons of carbonate
of lime, or an equivalent quantity of other soap-
destroying ingredients.

A sample of Thames water taken on the Bth of
December, at Loudon•bridge, in mid-stream at low
water, and filtered, contained on analysis, in
100,000 tons, foreign solid matters amounting to
34 tons, awl 25 tons of carbonate of lime, or an
equivalent quantity of other soap-destroying in-
gredients.

Professor Frankland remarks :—" The water

drawn from the main of the Lambeth Company
was very turbid and unfit for domestic use without
previous filtration. The Chelsea Company's water
was moderately turbid, while that of the East
London Company had brownish particles suspended
in it. All these waters contained living organisms.
The rest of the companies delivered perfectly clear
and transparent water. The water supplied by the
New River Company contained the smallest pro-
portion of organic elements. The West Middlesex
Company delivered water of much better.quality
than supplied by any other company drawing from
the Thames."

At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.488 in.
The barometrical reading increased from 29.15 in.
at 1 p.m. on Sunday, the 19th of December, to
29.85 in. on Friday, the 24th of December. The
mean temperature of the air in the week was 38.2
deg., which is 0.3 deg. below the average of the
same week in 50 years (as determined by Mr.
Glaisher). The mean temperature of Sunday,
December 19, was 6 dog. above, while that of
Saturday, December 25, was nearly 7 deg. below
the average. The highest day temperature was
52.5 deg., on Sunday, the 19th of December.
The lowest night temperature was 29 deg.,
on Saturday, the 25th of December. The en-
tire range of temperature in the week was
therefore 23.5 deg. The mean of the highest
temperatures of the water of the Thames was 42.7
deg.; that of the lowest was 40.5 deg. The
difference between the mean dew-point temperature
and air temperature was .1.3 deg. The mean degree
of humidity of the air was 85, complete saturation
being represented by 100. Rain fell to the amount
of 0.86 in., of which 0.77 in. fell on Tuesday, the
21st of December. The general direction of the
wind was N.N.E., N., W.S.W. The amount of
ozone was one half of that in the preceding week.
According to returns furnished by the engineer
of the Metropolitan Board of Works, the daily
average quantity of sewage pumped into the river
Thames at Crossness was 292,685 cubic metres, and
at Barking 187,431 cubic metres, equivalent to
about as many tons by weight. (A cubic metre is
equal in volume to about 35 cubic feet, or to 220
Imperial gallons, and weighs 2,2001 b.)

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

The various draughts from depots at Chatham
which are about to leave that garrison to strengthen
the service companies in India (for.ning alto-
gether a considerable body of officers and men)
were inspected yesterday by Col. J. W. S. Smith,
0.13., commanding the Ist Depot Battalion, who
is in temporary command of Chatham district during
the absence on leave of Major-General Freeman
Murray, the Commandant. The draught3 for the
2d battalion of the ht Regiment, Ist battalion of
the 33, Ist battalion of the Bth, the 38th, 45th, and
109th Regiments; they left Chatham today for
Portsmouth. They will embark in the Indian
troop ship Crocodile, 3, Capt. G. W. Watson. The
service compani.s arc stationed in the three presi-
dencies.
A telegram has been received from Bombay
stating that her .111:.jesty's Indian tro)pship
Euphrates arrived at that port on the afternoon of
the 24th init from Suez.

WE TRIAL OF TRAUPPMANN.

The following appeand in our Latest Edition of yesterday
evening:

PARIS, DLc. 28.
The trial of Trauppmann, for the
.murder of the
Kinck family, cot/In-lA-lee l this morning. An
immense crowd •assembled at the Court. The bill
of indictment was read. There arc 63 witnesses
to be examined.

Trauppmann listened almost with indifference
while the bill of indictment was being read over ;
however, when the indictment recited the plots laid
to inveigle the Muck family to Paris, Trauppmarn
became evidently agitated and Crew pale.
When that part of the indictment giving the de-
tailed account of the murders was read, Traupp-
maun exhibited no signs of emotion.

Trauppwann, on being interrogated, persisted in
asserting that Kiuck senior was concerned with him
in the forgery affair, and that Jean Finch was
poisoned by one of their accomplic:s.
The court is crowded