The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1873-01-31
THINGs usEFuI.-


common India rubber. Rub the wood
as if you were erasing pencil marks,
and then pass dry brush over it. No
water is necessary.
"A writer in the Household advises
ladies who have frrs to cleanse to take
nice Indian meal in large pan and rub
them with it-using no water, nothing
but dry meal, and they viii look as
good as new.
Injured trees that have had their
branches broken by winds or storms,
should have the wounded surface
smoothly pared and then covered with
a coating of shellac varnish or melted
grating wax, to prevent the water pen
etrating and causing decay.
Alum and plaster of paris well
mixed with water, and used in liquid
state, Will form a very useful cement
1t will be found quite handy for many
purposes. 1t forms very hard COM
position, and for fixing the brasses,
etc., on lamps nothing could be better.
-Borax is useful article to- have
about. A half pound of it will drive
the cockroaches out of any house. A
large handful of the powder to ten
gallons of water will effect saving of
fifty per cent, in soap. It is an excellent
dentrifice and the best material for
cleansing the scalp.
For preserving hams and shoulders,
take groud black pepper-a quarter of a
pound Will do for two hundred weight.
though little more or less will do no
harm sprinkle first with pepper until
black, and then salt in the usual way.
This method of preserving meat adds
much to its flavor.
"A writer in the Tech1,0LOgist says,
that he has in his possession flower
stakes, which have been in constant use
for over nine years. To preserve them
he takes common coal-tar and brings it
to the boiling point, in kettle some
ten or twelve inches deep. He places
the lower point of the stake in the
boiling tar, immersing it as deeply asthe
pot will allow Afaer being in the tar
for about ten minutes the stakes are
taken out. and the tarred part rolled in
sand.
An excellent fluid may thus be
made: Three tablespoonful of soda, the
same quantity of dissolved camphor (the
same as kept for family use), to u quart
we'll before using. For a large washing
take four tablespoonfuls of the fluid to
a pint of soap, make warm suds and
soak the clothes half an hour; then
make another suds, using the same
quantity of soap and fluid, and boil
them lust fifteen minutes; then rinse in
two waters.
"A method adopted in Portugal for
preserving fish consists in removing the
viscera and sprinkling sugar over the
interior, keeping the fish in a horizontal
position, so that the sugar may pene-
trate as much as possible. 1t is said
that fish prepared in this way can be
kept completely fresh for long time,
the saver being as perfect as if recently
caught. Salmon thus treated before
sailing and smoking possess a much
more agreeable taste, a tablespoonful of
sugar being sufficient for a five pound
fish.
To make court plaster, soak ising-
glass in little warm water for twenty
four hours then evaporate nearly all
the water by gentle heat, dissolve the
residue i'll little proof spirits of wine,
and strain the whole through piece of
open linen. The strained mass should
be stiff Jelly when cold. Now, extend
a piece of silk on a wooden thread
frame and fit it tight with tax and
wooded thread Melt the jelly and ap-
ply it to the silk thinly and evenly with
a hair-brush, a second coating must be
applied when the first is dried. When
both are dry, cover the whole surface
with two or three coatings of balsam of
Peru, applied in the same way. Plaster
thus made is very pliable and never
breaks.
An interesting case of tape-worm is
reported in the Buffalo Medical Journal
as being cured, after all the ordinary
remedies had been employed ineffectu-
ally, by taking bromide of potassium,
in twenty grain doses, every four hours.
After continuing the bromide for three
days, and taking half an ounce of the
spirits of turpentine and soon after
ward two ounces of caster oil, perfect
cure was effected. Two hundred feet
was passed from the first incidence, and
a few weeks afterward, after repeating
this treatment, fifty feet more were
passed, at which time the head was
voided Since that time the patient has
rapidly improved in health, and has not
been troubled with parasites.
In earliest infancy the covering for
the body should be more than usually
protective, gradually thinning it down
as the strength and adaptation of the
body to its new circumstances increases.
The best way to do this is by several
layers of ight-boiled wooden flannel,
fitted closely to the body. The clothing,
subsequently,, should neither Cypress a
child by heat, nor render it uncomfort-
able by cold The practice of keeping
boys and girls thinly clad, even during
very cold weather, with view OF
hardening them, is cruel and iniudicious.
1t does not harden for true hardening
consists in that which promotes the
healthful resources and vigor of the
body. Neither of these conditions is
augmented in any way by keeping q
child shivering with cold through the
winter. A complaint now and then OF
cold is an entirely different matter, often
quite proper and natural but for a
child to do 50 habitually indicates mad,
equateness which, if nothing worse,
stunts its growth. To feel hunger now
and then is natural and proper but to
hunger all the time is just like being
chilly or cold all the time, and clearly
indicates inadequateness.