MISCELANIOUS.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1342, 31 December 1883, Page 2

MISCELAN IOUS.

Those who suffer from asthma will Jbe glad to learn (says a contemporary) that Dr Perst, has invented an elastic respirator, hy means of which important relief is afforded to the afflicted. The difficulty of respiring in the case of the asthmatic is. due to the lung having lost a portion of its elasticity, so that, after having been opened by the efforts of the muscles, it does not resume completely its original position. The inspiration is followed by an insufficient expiration ; the air thus rests in the | cells of the lungs, and renders the oxydation of he blood difficult or imperfect. Efforts have been frequently made to force the lung to ; part with its non-evacuated and ! vitiated air. Dr Feris accepting the elasticity of the lung as lost, substitutes for the natural elasticity of the muscles a kind of double spring, acting simultaneously on the back and the chest. The apparatus thus keeps the lung in its normal position. Patients supplied I with the springs have been able to | mount two flights of stairs were previously they could not ascend any, and to inhale 140 quarts of air where otherI wise 82 could with difficulty be inspired. ; Some interesting facts regarding the origin of words are given in a recent article in th e " Geel ong Grammar School Quarterly." We take one or two instances. The wojd •'blackguard" comes from the rude times when the kings of England, in making a royal progress through the realm, were accompanied by a retinue of cooks, scullions and other menials, named the " blick guards" of the king from their grimy faces. The sign " Goat and Compasses," to be found on many an English inn, is derived from the Puritan times when texts of Scripture were even -affixed to public houses. "God encomp;is?>«tL us" has, by a curious corruption, b. en raetamorphised into '• Goat and Compasses." A word in very common ; ' use, " salary," has a history oi its own. The Roman governor of a conquered province — at all events in the earlier times — had no direct emolument for his services. The provincials, however , wore obliged to afford supplies for the table of the governor and his retinue, "frumentum in celluni." Salt, of course, was one of the articles which had to be supplied in kiud, and it, under the foVm of "salarium," gave its name (sal) to the rest. lii process of time, a payment in money was probably substitutei-i for this payment in kind, and so "salarium" came to mean any piynirtnt in return for service. [We alw ;ys thought it meant " sugar."] Over the great Los Angelos earth quake the communities down south are excessively pi-oud. They claim that a man at San Fernado was actually thrown out of his bed by the shock. That this is nntme can be seen by the following despatch : Editor — Please corr. ct the statement in daily papers. My husband was not thrown out of bed by any earthquake. I threw him

out of bed myself, and 111 do h e,very times he comes homo intoxicated, and. lies down at the foot of the bed and puts his muddy boots on my f:i;;e. (Signed) Jane Wilkins. Tins vak;s the starch out of all their foutth-chs-earthquakes m Los Angola-?. — Frs-ncise* News-Letter. Skinny Men.—" Wells" r.'e.iith Renewer" restores health and vi^or. cures Dyspesia, LupotojKe, lr.»bi.ii;.y. Moses, Moss & Co., Svi : ::<-y,. ; .Vaneih: Agents.