MISCELLANEOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 17 November 1880, Page 2

MISCELLANEOUS.

London has been budding un enormous j dock, which is now nearly complied, j Tin; magnitude of the work d^ue 'rou-d j make it almost as a g-.'«at a curi-j-iiy as | ihe Pyramids or the Chinese wall, if it trere not for ilia f.-ict that modern engi. neering appliances liava beeu cstcnsively employed to .-Ls/'iTy operations. P.-ur c-;J!ioui of enhic i'e .-t ri eni'li; Imvs u^eu 1 removed for the new L<»..u.>!i sioex a;iu j eighty thousand tons of Poiti.snd cement j were used in ba:!ding a wait three and a | half miles Lug, io ty feet high, auJ tr^m live to iiMjc ecu feet thick. The cost 01 ■ he work is estimated ut about one milli-jj, sterling. Amongst the eshihils sent from Auck. 1. vi. 1 to tho Melbourne Eshibilioa are

two pieces of timber— one of ja rah. 'tie other of (otara, cut from '-.vo pies which had formed part of a jetty. They h*73 been sent ly ihe Auckland Harbor Board to sbo:v Iho dolmrtive actios of tbe teredo nava'is iipo.-i i-irrab, and iho immunity which totara ei.jiys- The es* hibit has provoked much uo mourn!; from T"ic'orians and ether?, woo, perhr.ps are patriotically or pecuniarily interested in Australian timbers, and who freely express their doubts. Mark Twain, speaking of a new mc 3« qutto netting;, writes : — * The day is com* trig when we shall sit under our nets io church and slumber peacefully, while the discomfited files club together ani take it cut of the minister.' The old idea that plants in bedroj»M p.re unhealthy has alwaya bc?n a vex-1 question amongst medical men. but arL-u ments recently urged lend to show that: if plants have any i:Gfrct at all it is bene* cml rather than hurtful. The old ido.n was based on the fact that plants save off carbonic acid at ni-ht, but to'feviy tbe belief haa gained that there is nothing very deleterious in such carbonic acid as they -live off, while if their flowers aro capable of yielding odours they may in realitj' bo very beneficial, by producing peroxide of hydrogen, the great sanitary a^ent of nature. David Syme, of the Age. goes borne shortly on a visit. Mr Windsor, his editor (ormerly, by the way, editor of tho Argu-), 'looks after things' in David's absence-- sees that Civil servant? arc not allowed to become * cocky ' — thai the Age is properly represented ia Par* iiament, nnd so on. As the mind nukes the body il habits, using f.T that purpose the materials it collects from tho oiitcr world, so. its ia* I fl'ienee over the tenements it constants is | p-itent in the cxlrem-?. Every emolion it experiences cxerls a direct iufiuenca upon some one o.* m.n'e <-f its corporeal organs. Fear ir-j'sricusly r.ff:cts the heart and the skin ; an^cr, the liver ; sorrow and anxiety, the digestive crgat'S and tho alimentary canal ; a::d passion, tho blood* vessels ; cx:reme depression will induco dysen'try und scurry ; and Bichat, the great French anatomist, maintains that cancer of the stomach frequently owes its origin to powerful emotions.