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Page 18
* * * * *
Very few persons realize the necessity of cultivating an equable
temper and of avoiding passion. Many persons have met with sudden
death, the result of a weak heart and passionate nature.
* * * * *
CONVENIENT VAULTS.
This is a subject which will bear line upon line and precept upon
precept. Many persons have availed themselves of the cheap and easy
means which we have formerly recommended in the shape of the daily use
of absorbents, but a larger number strangely neglect these means, and
foul air and impure drainage are followed by disease and death. Sifted
coal ashes and road dust are the remedy, kept in barrels till needed
for use. A neat cask, filled with these absorbents, with a
long-handled dipper, is placed in the closet, and a conspicuous
placard directs every occupant to throw down a dipper full before
leaving. The vaults, made to open on the outside, are then as easily
cleaned twice a year as sand is shoveled from a pit. No drainage by
secret, underground seams in the soil can then poison the water of
wells; and no effluvia can arise to taint the air and create fevers.
On this account, this arrangement is safer and better than
water-closets. It is far cheaper and simpler, and need never get out
of order. There being no odor whatever, if properly attended to, it
may be contiguous to the dwelling. An illustration of the way in which
the latter is accomplished is shown by Fig. 1, which represents a neat
addition to a kitchen wing, with hip-roof, the entrance being either
from the kichen through an entry, or from the outside as shown by the
steps. Fig. 2 is a plan, showing the double walls with interposed
solid earth, to exclude any possible impurity from the cellar in case
of neglect. The vaults may be reached from the outside opening, for
removing the contents. In the whole arrangement there is not a vestige
of impure air, and it is as neat as a parlor; and the man who cleans
out the vaults say it is no more unpleasant than to shovel sand from a
pit.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
Those who prefer may place the closet at a short distance from the
house, provided the walk is flanked on both sides with evergreen
trees; for no person should be compelled to encounter drifting snows
to reach it--an exposure often resulting in colds and sickness. A few
dollars are the whole cost, and civilization and humanity demand as
much.--_Country Gentleman_.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
* * * * *
POISONOUS SERPENTS AND THEIR VENOM.
By Dr. G. ARCHIE STOCKWELL.
Chemistry has made astounding strides since the days of the sixteenth
century, when Italian malice and intrigue swayed all Europe, and
poisons and poisoners stalked forth unblushingly from cottage and
palace; when crowned and mitered heads, prelates, noblemen, beneficed
clergymen, courtiers, and burghers became Borgias and De Medicis in
hideous infamy in their greed for power and affluence; and when the
civilized world feared to retire to rest, partake of the daily repast,
inhale the odors of flower or perfume, light a wax taper, or even
approach the waters of the holy font. These horrors have been laid
bare, their cause and effect explained, and tests discovered whereby
they may be detected, providing the law with a shield that protects
even the humblest individual. Great as the science is, however, it is
yet far removed from perfection; and there are substances so
mysterious, subtle, and dangerous as to set the most delicate tests
and powerful lenses at naught, while carrying death most horrible in
their train; and chief of these are the products of Nature's
laboratory, that provides some sixty species of serpents with their
deadly venom, enabling them in spite of sluggish forms and retiring
habits to secure abundant prey and resent mischievous molestation. The
hideous _trigonocephalus_ has forced the introduction and acclimation
of the mongoose to the cane fields of the Western tropics; the tiger
snake (_Heplocephalus curtus_) is the terror of Australian plains; the
fer de lance (_Craspedocephalus lanceolatus_) renders the paradise of
Martinique almost uninhabitable; the tic paloonga (_Daboii russelli_)
is the scourge of Cinghalese coffee estates; the giant ehlouhlo of
Natal (unclassified) by its presence secures a forbidding waste for
miles about; the far famed cobra de capello (_Naja tripudians_)
ravages British India in a death ratio of one-seventh of one per cent.
of the dense population, annually, and is the more dangerous in that
an assumed sacred character secures it largely from molestation and
retributive justice; and in Europe and America we have vipers,
rattlesnakes, copperheads, and moccasins (_viperin�_ and _crotalid�_),
that if a less degree fatal, are still a source of dread and
annoyance. All these forms exhibit in general like ways and like
habits, and if the venom of all be not generically identical, the
physiological and toxicological phenomena arising therefrom render
them practically and specifically so. Indeed, their attributes appear
to be mere modifications arising from difference in age, size,
development, climate, latitude, seasons, and enforced habits, aided
perhaps by idiosyncrasies and the incidents and accidents of life.
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