Year: 1874

htOuQ IN the SICK rOOtD, my eAP''I'euCo 10 'na'
when the sick are too i'll to read themselves,
they can seldom bear to be read to. Chill
dren, eye-patients, and uneducated persons
are exceptions or where there is any me
chancal difficulty in reading. People who
ike to be read to have generally not much
the matter with them; while in fevers, or
where there is much irritability of brain, the
effort of listening to reading aloud has often
brought on delrium. | speak with great
diffidence, because there is an almost univer-
sal impression that it is sparing The sick to
read aloud to them. But two things are
certain.


a. If there is some matter which must
be r .ad to a sick person, do it slowly. Peo-
pie often think that the way to get it over
with least fatigue to him is to get it over in
least time. They gable; they plunge and
gallop through the reading. There never
was greater mistake. Houdin, the conju
rer, says the way to make story seem short
is to tell it slowly. So it is with reading to
the sick. have often heard a patient say
20 such mistaken reader, "Don't read it to
me; tell it to me.


~ The extraordinary habit of reading to
ones self in sick room, and reading aloud
to the patient any bits which may amuse
him, or more often the reader, is unaccounta-
bly, thoughiless. What do you think the
patient is thinking of during the gaps of non
reading Do you think that he amuses him
self upon what you have read for precisely
the time it pleases you to 90 on reading to
yourself and that his attention is ready for
something else at precisey the time it pleas
es you to begin reading again Whether
the person thus read to be sick or well wheih
er he be doing nothing or doing something
else while being thus read to, the self-ab-
sorption and want of observation Of the per
son who does it is equally difficult to under
stand, although very often the readee is too
amiable to say how much it disturbs him.


A SIMPLE DIsINFECTANT.-One pound of
green coperas, costing seven cents, dissolved
in one quart Of water and poured down
water-closet, will effectually concentrate and
destroy the foulest smells. On board ships
and steamboats,, about hotels, and other pub
lie places there is nothing so nice to purify
the air. Simple green copperas, dissolved
in anything under the bed, will render an
hospital, or other places for the sick, free
from unpleasant smells. In fsh-markels,
slaughter houses, sinks, and wherever there
are offensive gases, dissolve copperas and
sprinkle it about, and in few days the
smell will all pass away. If a cat, rat or
mouse dies about the house, and sends forth
an offensive gas, place some dissolved cop
peras in an open vessel near the plac9 where
the nuisance is, and it will purify the atmos-
pbere. Then keep all clean,


CAsrRA11NG CoI1s.-What age is best
for castrating colts? Answer-Tbe proper
age to castrate colt must depend on cir
cumstances. The operation is usually per-
formed just befo e weaving, the Fall of
the year, upon such cots as are intended for
the race-course. Much, however, will de-
pend upon the development of the individ
ual, it being ascertained that the longer
colt remains uncut the more is the fore quar-
ter developed, and especially the head and
neck. If, theiefoIe, these parts as well as
the shoulder are already forward in their
growth, the operation should te performed
early while, if the contrary state exists, it
should be deferred till later period but it
is seldom desirable to postpone it beyond the
age of twelve months.


CUsTARDs TO prevent custards from
curdlmg it must not boil, but should be sti
red continuously over he fire unt it be-
comes the thickness of double cream No
favoring will color it except lemon. To give
custard this flavor, thi Ily-peeled lemond rind
should be boiled in the milk with little su-
gar before adding the eggs. When custards
curde the reason is that they are overdone,
al Lo, H.
tard mixture is poured into a wide-mcu he'd
jug, placed in a saucepan of boiling water
over the fire, and constantly stirred till it is
thickened, it cannot possibly become lumpy
or curdled. Flavoring essence should be ad
ded when the custard ls cold


HEAvEs "A correspondent writes: "Will
you please inform me what is the best thing
to do for horse that has the heaves and "a
troublesome cough" Answer.-rhe trert-
ment of heaves at best can be only palliative.
The rule is to feed heavy horse on II
centrated food-a liberal allowance of good
oats and limited quantity of clean fresh
hay. If the cough is troublesome, apply
mustard paste to the throat and along the
wind pipe TO the chest. A powder compos
ed of iodide of potassium, half drachm,
with two drachms of powderd gentian, Civ
en- in the food once day, will be very ben
efcial.


DABET1o BREAD,-M. Dannecy proposes
the use of bread made from roasted -four for
diabetic patients, instead of a gluten biscuit.
He asserts that roasted starch cannot be
converted into glucose, and that bread made
out of the various farinas so torrefed is gen
orally greedily eaten by patients who have
been restricted to the ordinary preparation
Of gluten until they have become thorough
ly disgusted. Moreover, under its use the
thirst lessons, and the digestive derange-
ments are markedly ameorated.


To MAKE SHIRT BosoMs GLOSSY. Dis