The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-05-14

olAty tnOuoduu NOW loihoIo uoo |
.oller skates, and there are over 500 |
of the skates in the |
United States, who sell 10000 pairs a
week. The business gives employ |
ment to 100000 men.
The number of railroad accidents in
the United States during 1884 is given
at l,19l. OF these AS were collisions,
and 6Sl derailments; 65 are recorded
rs "various." There were in all 389
persons killed and $3.50 injured.
The average maple sugar crop of
Vermont is in the neighborhood of
twelve million pounds. but this year
it will exceed that amount The
Green Mountain state produces about
one-third of the maple sugar crop of
the country.
Paralysis, cholic, gout, rheumatism,
kidney disease, blindness and insanity
may all come, it seems. from drinking
water with lead in it. Under these cir
cumstances, simple test for discover
ing the presence of lead in water may
well be useful. 1t consists of adding
a little tincture of cochineal, which, if
there be the least trace of lead in the
water, will color it blue instead of
rose,
When Proctor Knott made his fanci-
full speech in Congress on Duluth, the
little Minnesota town, fifteen years
ago, the humor of the thing tickled
the entire continent. No one dreamed
that Duluth would ever amount to
anything and when Knott called her
"the paragon of cities" everybody
laughed. Still this town is third in
the list of grain receiving points. beat
ing Milwaukee, Toledo and st. Louis.
1t is lamentable to think that the
virtues of the hardy mountaineers of
Switzerland should be sapped by drink.
In the matter of brandy alone the
population which, all told, including
women and children, numbers but
2,500,O00-consumes 27,0O0,000 litres
per annum, litre being pretty well
equivalent to an ordinary wine bottle.
This is an average Of thirty bottles OF
brandy to each adult male The term
frugal, which has for centuries been
applied to the Swiss, is now clearly an
misnomer; or, if still frugal in Other
matters, the Swiss of to-day has alto
gether ceased to deny himself in the
matter of intoxicating liquors.
Cocaine, the new local an9sthetit
that thas suddenly achieved such an ex
cellent reputation, has been known a:
such for a great many years, but for
long time was found to be too expen
sive for general use. The great pro
gress now is the cheapening of the
product. Its properties are due to {
substance nearly identical with theme
the active principal in tea, and it j
indeed obtained from one of the tie;
plants, the mate, of Paraguay. Thi
is known botanically as Erythrorylo'
coca, cocaine, of course, being derived
from the specific name. This plan
has long been known to the Para
guayans, who chew the leaves, a
deadening the pangs of hunger.
The Russians of the Baltic province
have not been slow in following tn
example of Americans and Australian
who are supplying the Englisl
market with frozen meat. Accordin
to the Moscow Gazette large com
pany has been formed at Libau TO
the expectation of meat. At one tim
it had to suspend operations becaus
of American competition. At present
however, business appears to flourish
The scale on which the company i
carried on may be inferred by the fac
that unless $l,500000 is realized pc
annum the company will not be abl
to declare dividend. The slaughter
house at Libau is so constructed as t
enable the company to kill ninet
thousand head of cattle annually.
Professor Tyndall thus endeavors t
explain the immunity obtained agains
second attack of a contagious dis
ease. Zone of the most extraordinar
and unaccountable experiences i
medicine was the immunity secure
by single attack of communicate
disease against future attacks of tn
same malady. Smallpox, typhoid Q
scarlatina, for example, was found, a
a general rule, to occur only once in
lifetime of the individual, the success:
full passage through the disorder al
| parently rendering the body invulnerf
BILE. Reasoning from analogy, l hay
ventured to express the opinion thu
the rarity of second attacks of con
municable disease was due to til
removal from the system, by the fir:
parasite crop, of some ingredier
necessary to the growth and propag,
tion of the parasite"
The discovery of a new tannin
agent has long been great desider;
tum. in view of the growing scarcit
and costliness of hemlock bark. If ii
Arizona Gazette is correctly informet
this importantresult has been attaine'