屯 MECHANICAL SUBSTITUTE FOR A HORSE. arose whether, under the principal Act, persons, of preventive inoculation. Only after having one of whom only was the inventor, could experimented on hundreds of dogs and rabbits, jointly obtain letters-patent. By the Amending has he succeeded in obtaining the virus, inoculaAct it is declared that it has been and is lawful tion with which is not only a means of preto grant such patents under the principal Act. venting the disease among dogs, but a remedy, if taken in time, for hydrophobia in those who have been bitten. It was necessary also to perform experiments not only on animals but on men. This was a serious matter. M. Pasteur some time ago stated that he had experimented with success on a man in a hospital, but that he did not then wish to say anything of the results, as a single case did not seem to him sufficiently conclusive. However, M. Pasteur has now spoken of a second case, which was conclusive, and of a third which was in the course of treatment. A boy twelve years of age, named Meister, had come from Alsace with his mother. He had been bitten fourteen times. Inspection of the dog which had bitten him left no doubt that it had suffered from hydrophobia. M. Pasteur took the celebrated Dr Vulpian, along with a professor of the School of Medicine, to see Meister. The two doctors stated that he was doomed to a painful death and might be experimented upon. treatment thoroughly succeeded, and Meister is in perfect health. When the treatment began, he had been bitten sixty hours, and had travelled from Alsace to Paris. A shepherd boy of fifteen, named Judith, bitten a fortnight ago, had been a week under treatment, and M. Pasteur was confident of curing him. Some time ago, a gentleman who was prevented, by physical disqualification, from continuing the exercise on horseback which had always been so beneficial to his health, was possessed with the singular notion that it would be possible to construct a machine which, when seated upon, could be made to evolve the same action as a galloping horse. The inventor made his machine; it answered its purpose to his complete satisfaction; and the device having been patented, it has recently been manufactured and brought before the public. Whimsical as is the purpose of the machine, it has upon trial been commended by many medical authorities, and won no little favour. The rider' seats himself upon an ordinary leather saddle, his feet being in fixed stirrups, and his hands grasping a handle attached to a metal projection. The saddle is firmly attached to a small wooden platform below by means of metal connections. This platform is suspended by leather straps from the topmost extremities of four semicircular steel springs, which are firmly attached at the bottom to the metal foundation of the machine. Seated upon the saddle, the operator can be swayed about in all directions. Beneath the platform are four padded buffers-corresponding to the horse's feet —and by the weight and motion of the operator's body, these buffers strike or bump, at each depression, upon the foundation below, so that, with a little practice, an automatic imitation of horse-exercise can be produced. The movement can be made either very easy or very violent. By the full use of the handle, a good muscular action is said to be given to the chest and lungs. For invalids and all of a weak bodily constitution, the machine is strongly recommended. It is adjustable for the use of persons of different stature and weight; and for those condemned to sedentary employment, its daily use is said to be attended with beneficial results. The Automatic Horse-exercising Machine is manufactured by the Western Mechanical Company, Exeter. OCCASIONAL NOTES. PASTEUR'S SUCCESSFUL TREATMENT OF HYDRO PHOBIA. A DISEASE which is perhaps more awful than Asiatic cholera has at last, there is every reason to believe, been conquered by science. M. Pasteur, who has devoted his life to the development of the Germ theory of disease, and who, by close study of the effects of inoculation on the lower animals, has saved many thousands of sheep from that terrible scourge called splenic fever, has at last demonstrated that hydrophobia in man can be cured by similar means, and two cures have already been actually accomplished. At the Academy of Medicine, Paris, M. Pasteur has given a statement of his researches and experiments regarding hydrophobic virus, with a view to its being utilised for the purposes The As to the origin of hydrophobia, M. Pasteur always says that nobody in the world can explain primal causes. As to its cure, his theory, he remarked, will require study by the profession in order to be made practical; but he emphatically stated that a cure for hydrophobia had been found. This news is all the more welcome to us, for it comes at a time when in this country an extraordinary increase of the number of cases of rabies in dogs is reported. In South London, one veterinary surgeon alone has during the past six months had at least one case of rabies to deal with weekly; while during the same period the London coroners have had more inquests to hold on deaths from hydrophobia than they have known for many years previously. As rabies in dogs is conveyed by one animal to another by biting, and as hydrophobia in man is produced in the same way, it is obvious that a general law that all animals should wear a muzzle would very quickly stamp out the dread disease. This, however, would be punishing the great majority of innocent dogs for the infinitesimal minority of tainted ones, though in Jutland, some years back, the disease, which had assumed alarming proportions, was successfully arrested by a law which compelled all owners to chain or lock up their dogs, while the unfortunates which had no home were mercilessly killed. UTILISATION OF WASTE FISH-PRODUCTS. Amongst the schemes for the utilisation of what are now regarded as waste products in connec tion with our fisheries, is a comprehensive one promoted by Mr Nordenfelt, of gun-making celebrity, and which many of the visitors at the Aberdeen meeting of the British Association had Nov. 28, 1885.] an opportunity of testing in a practical way. Already, there is a factory at work in Aberdeen for the realisation of this project; and it is proposed to extend operations to fishing districts in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Sir Spencer Walpole estimates that in connection with herring-curing alone we annually throw away thirty thousand tons of fish-refuse. At the public luncheon in connection with the British Association, there was a demonstration of what could be done in the utilisation of what are now waste fish-products. Those who were present were treated to some extraordinary dishes. There were fish-extracts after the manner of Liebig, from which, with the aid of vegetables, Soups were prepared. When it was explained that some of these extracts were derived from whale's flesh, the soups were regarded with some suspicion, but without reason, for they were as fresh and savoury to the palate as could be desired. Other novelties were extracts made from lobsters, crabs, mussels, &c. In the preparation of tinned lobsters, there is a great deal of waste, the flesh from the tail and claws only being preserved. An excellent extract can, however, be made from what was formerly regarded as offal, which has the same fine taste and flavour as the flesh of the lobster. The crab may be treated in the same way. In order to show, further, how cheapness and utility may go hand in hand, it is intended to establish Penny Kitchens, where a wholesome meal of potatoes and fish may be enjoyed for that coin. The idea of the promoters of this new departure seems to be that every part of the fish can be utilised. The whale's flesh will be made to yield oil, extract of food, glue, meat-fibrine for dogs, and guano. The bones will yield oil, gelatine, and bonemeal; the entrails, glue and guano. From the blood will be drawn albumen; and the sinews and skin will be tanned into leather. From cod and ling will be produced the usual dried fish, or an extract, and glue and guano. INDIAN TEA. A continental newspaper remarks, that the increasing favour Indian tea enjoys in England and her colonies is causing considerable anxiety to the producers of Chinese tea and to the European tea-firms established in China. Calcutta alone exported last year 62,773,187 pounds of tea to England, as against 58,830,478 pounds in 1883, and 51,579,704 pounds in 1882; whilst the Australian and New Zealand markets received in 1884, 1,029,463 pounds of Indian tea, as against 696,479 pounds in 1883. It is true that this latter figure exhibits a considerable fallingoff as compared with the year 1882; but at present, Australia has also begun to give the preference to the teas of India, the quality of which surpasses by far the average produce of China, as does likewise that of the teas of Ceylon, for which there is also a prosperous future in store. The successes obtained by Natal in the cultivation of tea give rise to the supposition that South Africa will within a short time provide itself with home-grown tea. The total exportation of the largest Chinese tea-port, Foochow, amounted during the past season to 77,631,997 pounds, as against 81,100,875 pounds during the same period in the preceding year. [The total exports of tea from China to the United Kingdom, 1875-83, have been over one hundred and forty millions of pounds annually.] At Hankow, Canton, Shanghai, and Macao, the proportion will probably be the same, or nearly so. The decrease in the exportation of tea from the whole of China, as compared with the preceding year, will amount to about ten millions, and this diminution is essentially to be attributed to the deterioration of the quality of Chinese tea. The sorts of tea produced in the province of Fukien, which were formerly very highly esteemed, are principally those which have deteriorated the most. The cultivation of tea on Chinese methods was first tried by the Indian government in 1834, and the most profitable growth is a hybrid between the indigenous and Chinese varieties. Assam supplies about seventy-seven per cent. of the total yield, and the industry is almost entirely in the hands of Europeans. These statements are amply borne out by a reference to the state of our retail trade in Indian tea. A recent number of the Grocer says that Indian tea is gaining favour with the retail trade, who are evidently turning their attention more to Assam than to China growths, owing to the taste which is spreading amongst consumers for teas of undoubted strength and quality. Useful China teas are to be had suitable to the requirements of the home-trade, but they are generally weaker than Indian. sample of Natal-grown tea sold for more, in London, lately, than a similar sample from Ceylon. FOOD-ADULTERATION. A Of The Annual Report of the Local Government Board for last year shows that there are now two hundred and sixty public analysts, appointed in various parts of the country under the Sale of Food Act, to guard the interests of consumers. About twenty-three thousand analyses of samples of food were made. In connection with the grocery trade, out of five hundred and fifty-one samples of flour examined, only six were found adulterated. Spirits, butter, and coffee seem to lend themselves most easily to adulteration. two thousand one hundred and thirty-eight samples of spirits examined, there were about five hundred cases of adulteration; in the case of eighteen hundred and thirty-two samples of butter, there were three hundred and seventythree; and of thirteen hundred and thirty-eight samples of coffee, two hundred and seventy-two. In the case of jam, out of two hundred and eleven samples, twenty-four were adulterated; and of seven hundred and seventy samples of mustard, eighty-two contained foreign admixtures. Report is severe on the sale of butterine as genuine butter. The sale of imitations of butter is apparently on the increase, and there is no doubt that they are generally purchased as butter. We have no information as to actual injury being caused to health by the consumption of butterine, which is mainly composed of beef or pork fat, though it is stated to be less easily digested than real butter. The practice, however, of selling it in substitution for and at the price of genuine butter is not only a fraud on the buyer, but is exceedingly The hurtful to the English and Irish dairy-trade.' Coffee continues to be one of the chief subjects of adulteration, the mixture sold as such frequently consisting of one-fourth part of coffee added to three-fourths of chicory. No attempt is made to adulterate sugar, apparently, for the three hundred and twelve samples analysed were all found to be genuine. FRUIT-GROWING IN THE FENS. A contemporary remarks that the quantity of fruit which has this year been grown in the neighbourhood of Wisbech is enormous, a considerable portion of the crop having found its way to London for the purpose of conversion into jam. Upon a farm of some hundred and forty acres, the growth of strawberries for preserving has this season been a speciality; and it is said that for two or three weeks as much as ten tons-weight was the periodical consignment to London of this one fruit alone. The gooseberry crop has also been a good one, the berries being raised upon bushes planted beneath pear or plum trees, in order to keep them green, which is their most marketable condition. Many farms of considerable extent, which only a year or two ago produced corn at a loss, now grow fruit at a profit; and the increased area under the latter description of crop may easily be estimated, when it is stated that hundreds of Londoners of the class which supplies the hop districts with pickers have been imported into Wisbech during the past two months. Taken as a whole, the crop of currants, strawberries, gooseberries, plums, and other preserving fruits has this year been an exceptionally heavy one in that district, and consumers of jam are likely to have a good time. ANOTHER USE FOR CHLORAL HYDRATE. In addition to the use of chloral as an opiate, mentioned in article Curiosities of Poisons' (Journal, No. 92), a medical correspondent kindly points out that it is also a very powerful preservative of animal tissues. It has the property of checking the decomposition of a great number of albuminous substances, such as milk and meat, and is consequently largely used by medical men for the preservation of anatomical structures, and for their preparation for the microscope. Ten grains to the ounce (liquid measure) of water is the ordinary strength used; and to preserve any very large anatomical specimen, two or three ounces may be used of the chloral, to be dissolved in water sufficient to cover the material. Personne recommends its use with glycerine for the preservation of anatomical specimens. UNSWEETENED PRESERVED MILK. In connection with the subject of " 'Preserved Milk,' the manufacture of which we have already described (Journal, No. 96), it may be well to state, that unsweetened preserved milk may also be had. For those who do not want thirty or forty per cent. of cane-sugar in their preserved milk, good ordinary milk may be had which has simply been concentrated by careful evaporation at a very low temperature to one-fourth of its bulk. One quart of the liquid condensed milk mixed with three quarts of water will produce four quarts of ordinary fresh milk. It is claimed for this preparation that it will keep good in any climate: it is used in some of the London hospitals, and was of service to the sick and wounded during the Soudan campaign, some of the nurses preferring it for this purpose to the sweetened milk. Mr Gail Borden of White Plains, New York, has the honour of originating the industry of plain condensed milk,' and 'preserved milk' to which sugar has been added. He introduced his plain condensed milk in 1851, and ten years afterwards his preserved milk was largely used by the American army in the field. The manu facture was introduced to Switzerland in 1865, and now condensing factories are established in England, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Bavaria, and other countries. ONLY A SONG. Ir was only a simple ballad, She sang of the wondrous glory That touches the woods in spring, The requiem of the day, And one in a distant corner, Her eyes were veiled in tears. Then when the song was ended, And went on her way alone. She passed; but her heart was strong; And she prayed, 'God bless the singer ! And oh, thank God for the song !' FLORENCE TYLEE The Conductor of CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL begs to direct the attention of CONTRIBUTORS to the following notice: 1st. All communications should be addressed to the 'Editor, 339 High Street, Edinburgh.' 2d. For its return in case of ineligibility, postage-stamps should accompany every manuscript. 3d. To secure their safe return if ineligible, ALL MANTSCRIPTS, whether accompanied by a letter of advice or otherwise, should have the writer's Name and Address 4th. Offerings of Verse should invariably be accompanied written upon them IN FULL. by a stamped and directed envelope. If the above rules are complied with, the Editor will do his best to insure the safe return of ineligible papers. Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH. All Rights Reserved. POPULAR LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART Fifth Series ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832 No. 101.-VOL. II. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1885. PRICE 11d. have gone on for many years. By the courtesy of LORD TOLLEMACHE'S COTTAGE-FARMS. his lordship the writer was permitted to visit his BY A SPECIAL REPORTER. THE present condition of British agriculture is an anxious one for all concerned, the landlords, the farmers, the labourers, and the nation as a whole. Everywhere, the old system is in process of modification, and all sorts of experiments are being suggested and tried. In the multitude of counsellors there is both wisdom and folly. Some advocate the re-creation of the old yeomen; others are eager to foster peasant proprietors; others, again, urge co-operation among the labourers. Doubtless, all these methods of dealing with the soil will be tried; and it is well that they should; for only actual trial, over a sufficiently long period, will prove or disprove the fitness of the methods. The present phase of agricultural depression is not confined to England; it is more or less acute throughout Europe; America has its own special share of it; Asia and Africa and Australasia are by no means free from it. This universality of affliction is a grim consolation to British farmers, and it ought to give them courage to bear the trials of a most exceptional period. Agricultural reformation being unavoidable, it is wise to accept it in a cheerful and hopeful spirit. Bad as the actual state of things is, it might be worse; dark as the immediate future seems to landlords and farmers, it is not wholly indicative of ruin, if both will come to a friendly understanding. While many are vainly contending for the continuance of the old system of tenancy, cultivation, and labour, some have embraced the new order of things with satisfaction to themselves and those associated with them. cottage-farms, to question the labourers and their wives, to judge from reports and visible facts how the experiments have ended. They are in every respect most encouraging. The landlord is satisfied, the farmers are satisfied, the labourer is satisfied. While dread and perplexity pervade the shires, the happy dwellers upon Lord Tollemache's estates are at peace. Every large farm is occupied; and in case of a vacancy, there are numerous applications. Every labourer's cottage is tenanted; and the obtaining of one is the great object of those living outside. The contrast between these cottages and the ordinary dwelling of the English farm-labourer is striking. They are mostly built in pairs, and stand each upon about half a rood of garden-land. The windows are large, the structures are substantial, the sanitary details excellent. The living-room is a sort of parlour-kitchen, home-like to a degree, and fitted with all sorts of conveniences for domesticity. Behind, are a scullery and a pantry. There are three bedrooms, one down stairs and two above, which are wholesome and comfortable. Few artisans even of the better class have such homes in our best-built cities. In the rear is a yard for coals, and a large oven for baking the family bread. Regarding this, much was heard in praise from the housewives. Still further in the rear is an outhouse for a cow and a calf; also a capital piggery. These buildings are so constructed as to facilitate dairy operations as much as possible. Adjacent to the dwelling is a little croft of land of about three acres. At the time of the writer's visit, a goodly haystack adorned a corner of each croft, showing that the grass-crop had been a good one. In each croft, a cow was feeding upon a pasture which the autumn had not much thinned. Although many of the cows did not appear to be of a very illustrious race, they were in capital condition and are good milkers. No doubt the breeds will be improved as time goes on, for 'advance' is the standing order of Conspicuous among the English landlords who are adapting themselves to the times is Lord Tollemache of Peckforton Castle, Cheshire. He has in his own way solved one of the problems of the hour-that of satisfying the agricultural labourer, for the experiments of Lord Tollemache the community. As far as possible, each cottage-farm has its pasture adjacent. But where the symmetry of the large farms prevents this, or where it is beneficial to the tenants to be associated in a larger pasture, modifications are made. On one part of the estate were three cows in a triangular meadow. Their owners 'bone' and fertilise the land in common; they also mow and make the hay in the same manner. From inquiry, it appeared that this joint system was rather objected to by the labourers; each likes to be lord of his own little place and to keep_neighbours on the other side of the hedge. But though feelings run in this unsocial groove, the associated tenants fully appreciate the advantages that Lord Tollemache offers to them. Not one would have given up his cow and pasture; on the contrary, all were grateful for the privileges they enjoyed. In the neighbourhood of the castle many cows are pastured in the park. These variations in the cottage-farm system show its flexibility to all the conditions. The primary object is to give every labourer the opportunity to keep a cow; and that object is attained. The rent of cottage and three acres of land is ten pounds per annum. The labourer and his wife are not heavily burdened by the work of their little farm. Both are skilled in dairy operations; if they have a family, the care of the cow and pigs adds but little to the toil of life. There were no evidences of over-worked men; and the vivacity of the women and children proved that they were living pleasantly. As an average, the labourer pays his entire rent-charge out of the profits of his farm. Besides, he has ample supplies of dairy produce and bacon. The generality of cottagers make butter of their surplus milk; it is of a good quality, though inferior to the delicate butter made by the Dutch and Danish small farmers. In time this stigma ought to be removed, as there is no reason for the inferiority save want of care. The cattle and the pastures of these Cheshire dairymen are superior to those of Holland and Denmark. If the rising generation were taught the art of butter-making by an expert from some of the agricultural colleges, and if prizes were given by Lord Tollemache for first-class butter, the improvement of quality would soon add to the income of the cottagers. Small industries of this kind can only hope for high success on quality. Lord Tollemache had three ends in view. The first was, to satisfy the natural and praiseworthy desire of the labourers to have a cow, and land to maintain it. The second was, to train the rising generation of labourers' children in dairying and agricultural pursuits from infancy. That can only be done when the household is engaged in the tending of animals and the cultivation of the soil. The offspring of rural labourers, who have no home but a hovel in a village or in the grimy suburb of a manufacturing town, are rather repelled from rustic pursuits than won to them. Cut off from intercourse with farmlife, owning nothing that depends upon their care, either in garden, field, or stall, the labourer's family as they grow up go into the ranks of town artisans or those of the rudest toilers. The spectacle of their father's continued drudgery at low wages, his discontent with a hard lot that is without hope of amelioration, repel them from following the paternal occupation. In another fifty years, the country would be denuded of labourers, if the alarming migration to the towns went on at the same ratio as during the past fifty years. But that is not the whole mischief-the labourer is deteriorating. plaints are heard on every side that farm-servants are not so useful as their parents were. They are careless, restless, eager for amusement; and higher wages but intensify their failings. This is an ex parte judgment, it is true; and as farmers have got into the habit of thinking dismally upon all things connected with their business, they may paint the labourer in darker colours than he deserves. Still, no one doubts that our rural toilers are different from their sires; and it is the duty of great landowners to prevent the deterioration and discontent of a class that plays so indispensable a part in the national welfare. Com Lord Tollemache has intervened to save the old English labourer from extinction, and he has the satisfaction of having done it admirably well. The labourers upon his extensive Cheshire estates are markedly superior to those of their class in most counties. Their wives are robust, their children unusually intelligent, and the social atmosphere of the neighbourhood is exhilarating. In every house visited, the furniture was good and excellently cared for. Neatness and cleanliness were evidently habitual; and from these habitations will proceed a race of farm boys and girls that will add to the moral and material prosperity of England. Some few small farmers convert their milk into cheese, which is the special product of the Public-houses are to be found in the hamlets, district. But the ordinary Cheshire cheese is of but they receive little custom from the cotgreat size, and many small farms must combine tagers, and are closed during Sunday. Encour to make them profitably. And the makes of aged in thrift, the community waste very little this sort have no chance to rank high. Cheshire upon drink. When the labourer has finished cheese, unless of the super-excellent kind, has his day's work, he has always some little job not the reputation that it formerly had. In their to do about his farm. His interests and ambistruggle with adverse times, many farmers have tions fence him off from vice. When he finds gone in for quantity, and have attempted to time to smoke his evening pipe, he leans upon compete with common American makes, instead his garden gate and looks at the boundaries of of working on the old system. This foolish his croft, wishing that they might be expanded. attempt has done much harm to cheese-makers He would like another acre in general; and bitter are the complaints heard in every dairy and market-place that Cheshire cheese is falling out of esteem. It will be further injured by the introduction of the poorly made cheeses of small farmers. In establishing cottage-farmers upon his estates, or two, another cow, and a few more pigs. He is winning at the game of life, and is encouraged to go on. It is just upon this point that Lord Tollemache and his cottage-farmers are divided in opinion. The labourer wants more land, believing that he could manage an extra acre or two with very little |