The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-05-23
USEFUL KNOWLEDGE.

Ebony wood weighs SO pounds to
the cubic foot hgnum vitae, the same );
hickory, 50 pounds birch, IS pounds !;
beech, 40; yellow pine, 81 white pine,
%; cork, Is, and water, 60.
Cheap Sponge Cake.-Beat up four
eggs, yolks and whites separate add to
the yolks teacupful and a half of su-
gar; beat them together, and add to
them four tablespoonfuls of cold water,
and one teacupful of -four. Stir the
-four into the yolks and sugar, then add
the whites of the eggs after they have
been beaten to froth. Lastly, add a
teaspoonful of soda dissolved in water.
Flavor with few drops of essence of
vanilla or of lemon. Bake about an
hour.
-Cinchona Trees in India.-In the
plantations of the English Government
on the Neilgherry Hills, there are about
100000 cinchona trees, which cover
$50 acres of land. The largest trees are
thirty feet high, with circumference
of three feet. The quantity of 1926
pounds of splendid bark was sold last
year in London at the price of from fiji
ty to sixty cents per pound. There
we're also furnished about 30, 900 pounds
touthe Indian depots, so that the pro-
ceeds amount to about $4,000. The
capital invested by the Government for
the introduction of this important tree
will soon have been repaid with inter
est. Hundreds of natives have been
cured of fever annually with the quin-
inc obtained, and the object of the ben
efcent intention of bringing the anti
dote of fever within reach of the poor
est has been fully realized.
Sunlight and Health.-At the rear
end of our parlor it was not very dark.
Indeed, we could see to read small
newspaper print at the least lighted
point. At that point we put bracket
against the wall, and transferred to it a
plant from the window. In four days
it looked sick; in two weeks it was vel
low in five weeks it was apparently
dead. Another plant was placed on the
comfortable, which was about halfway
from the front windows to the position
of the first plant At the end of five
weeks that had lost its green and was
evidently failing. The girls in our par
lOr, who were out not more than an
hour day on an average, except they
went to places of amusement in the
evening, were as pale, yellow and sickly
as the plants, and we think for the same
reason-a lack of full, strong Light
DiO LetOis.
Our Control Over Disease Taking
into consideration the fact that it is
within the power of sanitary regulations
to prevent yellow fever, as shown in
New Orleans while under occupancy
during the late war by the Union forces
for more than two years, where over
100000 unacclimated soldiers were
stationed or passed through the city,
without single case of disease Origina-
ting there; that is impossible to stamp
out the germs of Asiatic cholera and
smallpox, and say, ''Thus far shalt
thou go, and no further" and taking
into consideration that the average du-
ration of life has been extended during
the past two centuries from nineteen to
twenty-one years, by slow appreeia-
ton and imperfect application of SAM
tary law alone. Taking these ard
many other factcs Of like character
into consideration, it does not seem too
much to say that it is within the power
of any one with q moderately good COLI
stitution to say whether he will choose
to cut short his days and die the violent
death of disease, or whether he viii ex-
tend the powers of his body to their
normal limits, and so die from the
effects of old age, or from the gradual
wearing out of the most imperfect or
gan of his body.