The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-24 00:00:00

THE' ARMY.

In addition to the reinforcements of cavalry and Infantry
troops ordered to embark at Gravesend for Calcutta, Bom-
bay, and Madras, of whom a list was given :in The Sun
of yesterday, orders have also been received at Chatham
Garrison for the following draughts to be held in readiness
to embark for Kurrachee—viz., 10 men of the 61st Regi-
ment, 15 men of the 70th Regiment, 10 men of the 81st
Regiment, and 24 of the 94th Regiment, from Chatham ;
30 men of the 7th (Princess Royal's) Dragoon Guards, and
35 men of the 94th Regiment, from Canterbury; 40 men of
the 27th Enniskillens, and 30 men of the 87th Royal Irish
Fusiliers, from Buttevant; the whole of whom are to em-
bark on board the Velocity, 1,100 tons, Captain E. Shrews-
bury.
Yesterday orders were issued from the East India-
house for the following vessels, which have been taken
up by the East India Company to convey nearly 3,000 addi-
tional reinforcements to India, to embark the troops at
Gravesend on the dates mentioned—viz., the Sardinia, 470 ,
men for Bombay, to embark troops on the 4th Sept.; the
Velocity, 190 men for Kurrachee, to embark on the Ist Sept.;
the Octavia, 450 men for Calcutta, to embark on the 2d
Sept.; the Goforth, 320 men for Calcutta, to embark on the
2d Sept. ; the Alfred, 500 men for Calcutta, to embark on
the 3d Sept.; and the Walter Morrice, 240 men for Madras,
to embark on the 7th Sept. The following ships have also
been taken up to convey East India Company's recruits to
India :—The Jelawar, 300 men, to sail from Gravesend for
Calcutta on the 31st Aug.; the Gloriana, 150 men for Ma-
dras, to sail on the 4th Sept.; and the Vernon, 150 men for
B mibay, to sail on the 4th Sept.
By the death of Colonel Thomas Edwin Kelly, late super-
intendent of the recruiting department of the army, a good
service pension of £lOO per annum is placed at the disposal
of the Commander-in-Chief. Colonel Kelly was on the full
pay of the army upwards of 50 years.
The announcement that the 11th Hussars were ordered
for India is premature. On leaving Aldershott this week
that regiment will take up quarters at the Cavalry-barracks
at Brighton.

MILITIA.
The let Warwickshire Militia, under the command of
Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant J. M Boultbee, have re-
ceived orders to assemble at WarwiFk, for 21 days' training,
on the 10th of September. The regiment is nearly complete,
and a strong muster is expected.

FRENCH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.—At the last
sitting Dr. Bonnett, of Lyons, communicated a paper on a
peculiar method of his for reducing deformities of the limbs,
and for effecting the cure of white tumours by cauterisation,
the cauteries employed being potash or chloride of zinc.—M.
Pouillett read a report on a question addressed to the Aca-
demy by the Minister of War, concerning the distance at
which it might be safe to let telegraphic wires be stretched in
the neighbourhood of powder magazines. The committee
appointed to examine the question was of opinion that the
electric currents developed in the wires for the purpose of
transmission could never lead to any accident, for, even sup-
posing the wires to be broken during transmission, either by
the wind or any other cause, the small sparks which would
then issue from them would be insufficient to inflame the mi-
nute particles of gunpowder which might have settled on the
wires or their supports. ' But the case would be far different
if the wires were struck by lightning, in which case a portion
would be melted and transformed into incandescent glo-
bules, which might be projected to a considerable distance.
Hence the report concluded that in the neighbbourhood of
powder magazines the wires should be laiduuderground,
instead of being exposed to the atmosphere ; that the sub-
terranean channels ought to be at a distance of at least 100
metres from the magazines, and that lightning conductors
should be established along the line in the vicinity of the
said magazines. M. de Luca read a paper on a substance
closely resembling marmite, and extracted from the tubercles
of cyclamen, or sowbread ; besides other new properties of
the vegetable base cylamine. Dr. Blanche communicated a
curious surgical case, the circumstances of which are as
follows :—Nine years ago a young man, 17 years of
age, fell upon a glass tube, which broke; a fragment about
an inch and a7half in length penetrated upwards into the
zygomatic region, and got so deeply imbedded there that the
surgeon who was called in to dress the wound did not even
suspect the existence of such a fragment, and simply applied
diachylon plaster, until the wound got well. This extraneous
body did not give the slighteat pain for the space of nine
years, and it was only three weeks ago that the young man
first began to feel an uneasy sensation in roving his eye. The
same surgeon being called in, he discovered a sharp fragment
of glass close to the lacbrynial caruncula, but could not
extract it. It was they the case was brought under the no-
tice of Dr. Blanchet, who found that the fragment, which he
succeeded in extracting, might have remained in many years
longer, had it not been displaced by a swelling of the gums
and a toothache. The cavity in which the fragment was
lodged was lined with a membrane perfectly resembling a
mucous one.

MISERABLE DEATH OF A MISER.—A wretched
old miser, named John Few, has just passed out of the
world at this place (Potterne, in Wiltshire) after living for
60 years in a state of the most abject parsimony and squalid
filth. For years past he had never been known to bay any-
thing except bread, and now and then a morsel of cheese.
He was generally to be seen wandering about with a small
piece of each of these commodities in his left band, but his
penury was so great that he rarely ate anything except
bread, and that very sparingly; indeed he has been known
to carry the same piece of cheese in his hand for weeks
together. As to his clothes, they wete in tatters, and the
excuse which he made for them was that he was so badly
off that he was unable to procure better. In this con-
dition he passed through life, under the cognomen of
" John Few, the old miser." On Saturday week he was
seized with diarrheas, and finding himself very weak and ill,
be went to the house of a distant relative, about a mile from
his own cottage. He was immediately carried to bed, and a
medical gentleman was sent for, and on taking off the old
cloth which he worn round his neck, 50 shillings were found
concealed in it. lie lingered on for a day or two, and in the
meantime was visited by the vicar of the parish, who, feeling
confident that the old man was worth some property, in-
quired of him whether he had made a will ? He replied that
he had not, but that he should get better, and that be might
then perhaps think about it. Upon being pressed to do it
at once, he agreed to do it at nine o'clock the following
morning ; but by the following morning he was insensible,
and in the afternoon he was a corpse. Immediately after his
death, the vicar very properly communicated with the
churchwarden and overseer of the parish ; and, as the de-
ceased appeared to have no immediate relatives, it was
thought right to go to his house and take possession of any
goods and chattels which it might contain, until a legal
owner could be found for them. Mr. Weeks and Mr. Illb-
herd accordingly forced open the door, but the stench inside
was so overpowering as almost to prevent respiration. The
room was literally one mass of filth—the accumulation ap-
parently of years. With the exception of a miserable little
table, it contained no furniture of any kind, nor was there
the slightest appearance of any fire having been used ; in
short, there was neither fire-irons, kettle, pot, saucepan, or
a single utensil of any kind in the house. An attempt was
next made to go up-stairs; but the stench which proceeded
from this part of the house was really so intolerable that
even with a silk handkerchief over his mouth, Mr. Weeks
found it impossible to enter the bedroom ; and it was only
after a quantity of tobacco had been burnt, and the church-
warden bad fortified his stomach by a couple of glasses of
brandy, that he could venture to go into the room. Such
a scene of filth as this room presented was perhaps never be-
fore seitnessed. The room down stairs was bad enough, but
it was nothing compared to the room in which the wretched
miser had passed his nights. It contained neither bed, bed-
stead, nor bedding of any description; twe old sacks and
part of an old great coat were the only things upon the floor
(and upon these the old man appeared to have slept). But
the filth around baffles all description ; the floor was nearly
six inches thick with filth and human excrement, and was
literally swarming with masses of living maggots ; even the
sacks on which the old man had lain were covered with the
most loathsome matter. The only piece of furniture in the
room was a box about a yard long, which upon being opened
was found to contain what had once been a suit of good black
clothes, and a pair of buckskin and a pair of corduroy small-
clothes, but the mildew and rot had taken such possession of
them that upon being removed from their long resting-place
they fell to pieces. But besides these articles of clothing
there were some aid things hanging El boat, rid cn searchitiv
them the deeds of two or three cottages belonging to the old
miser were found in one pocket; a banker's receipt for
£1435 (upon which it has since been ascertained that no less
than £4O interest is due), in another ; a savinas' bank book,
in which he was credited to the amount of £195, in another ;
and in others several odd memoranda of money lent—
amongst them a note of hand for £2OO ; whilst upon further
search down stairs, there was found in a corner, buried be-
neath a quantity of rubbish, an old shoe containing 30
sovereigns, and concealed in other parts of the house various
sinaller sums in sixpences, half-pence and farthings. The
search altogether proved the old man to have been worth
upwards of £6oo—the whole of which will be divides
amongst persons by whom he was loathed during life, and
who Col have no respect for his memory now that he is
gene.—Devizes Gazette.