Irvine Express and North Ayrshire Post. — 1886-09-03 (Irvine, Strathclyde, Scotland)

BRIC-A-BRAC.  Tim dimensions of the Chinese quarter of San Frei oise., have increased enormously in the last 15 .year.. It now occupies a section nearly or quite a wide in length auti between three and four squares in width. -  A VIOLEN r liaturronm. --Nogent - nor - Marne, Joh.ville to rent, Vincennes and other villages in France were recently visited by a terrific hailstorm. The vino, peach, plum, and cherry orchards were much injured, windows were smashed in. poultry killed in numbers, and persons injured. The hailstones were as large as filberts, walnuts, and gooseeggs. A strong artud drove them with great fury, like stones dung from slings, and they smashed the thickest glass. Tne storm lasted for about twenty minutes. and the damage to the old city of Rheims is estimated at 1.80.000. It is doubtful, however, whether this pheausinehon was as remarkable as the Australian storm, of which the effects arc to be seen in the Scat!). Kensington Colonial Exhibition, especially a piece oi metallic zinc roofing which has been shot through by the falling stones as if they had been large bullets.—ffsgiatering. -  IN England the avenge cost of making a line of railway has been in excess of every other country. The cost per mile has been £.38.960, while in Scotland it has only been .0.!2,60, and in Ireland £13,874. The United States lines have not coat more than an average of £11,500 per mile; Belgian lines £13.2&() per mile; German hues 1:18.235 per mile : while British lines have averaged £37,;5110 per mile. In some particular instances, such as the Metropolitan (underground) lime, a mile of railway has cost two-thirds of a million of money. The short length of railway to complete the inner circle of the underground railway between the Mansion house and Alilgate stations cost nearly £2,000,000. Sir E. IV:Akin:on the opening, stated that the cost of the line between Trinity Square and the King William statue was no less than 1,000 guineas a yard, which meant something over £3O per inch. PRE,ERVATtON or FRESH FrAti.—An important advance in the art of food preservation, especially Epliialableer iii of lla;ubnrg. hebeefinshpefected b so on ya:, caught, are placed inwteel barrels, each capable of holding about 3001 b. The barrels are then filled up with a harmless antiseptic solution, consisting of Wrack acid, tartaric acid, salt and water, and closed with air-tight lids. By means of a small hydraulic hand-pump, water is then forced into the barrel, the air being at the same tune expelled, until the gauge indicates a pressure of about 601 b per square inch. To open the barrel a stop-nut is brat unscrewed, which relieves the pressure; the lid is then taken off and the contents of the barrel removed. Fish thus preserved for several weeks have been partaken of with entirely satisfactory results. It is to be hoped that the process will result in a largelyincreased consumption of a wholesome article of  diet. A PI.EA roa Aaconoa.—The Ilc roe Seieslflee publishes a paper on alcohol and alcoholism which presents statistics and conclusions of a startling nature. The author, M. Fournier de Flaix, affirms that the outcry against alcohol in utterly unmerited, as it does far more good than harm. To demonstrate this 101. de Flea furnishes tabular statements to show that not only in the French departments, but in all other countries the birth-rate is lower and the deathrate higher wherever the consumption of alcohol is small. It is further argued from these figures that neither criminality nor suicide is in proportion to sk.holic cansninption. In the Seine et Oise the caLsumption of alcohol is just about half what it is in Seine Inferieure, yet the suicide rate is double in the former. In England, again, more alcohol is consumed than in France, and yet in France, the writer points out, the brith-rate, the death-rate, and the statistics of crime and suicide are less favourable than in England. The comparisons for Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway. Denmark, Russia, Austria. and Germany show analogous results. M. de Flaix's conclusion is that it is the nations with the most vital powers, the greatest wealth, and the best morals who consume the most alcohol. Alcohol he maintains to be an alimentary element, whose consumptioa should depend directly upon the requirements of the climate. Our late Prime Miuister, among others, is cited by M. de Flaix in support of his thesis, lie says —"Mr: Gladstone takes every day two glasses uf claret at lunch and two at dinner, with a glass of port wine. his alcoholic consumption has been estimatl by his son at seven gallons per year, which would he three-and-a-half times the average consumption per head in England and fourand-a-half times the average in Europe."