Imatges de pàgina
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she had determined to keep the dog, if possible.

When Mr. Carlton came home from his store that evening he found Minnie seated contentedly with her visitor asleep in her lap, and looked to his wife for an explanation; but Minnie eagerly began to give an account of the "grand event," as she called the dog's appearance. Mr. Carlton was a very kind-hearted man, and the idea that the little animal had come to them cold and half famished had some influence with him; he perceived that Mrs. Carlton did not oppose Minnie's delight, and when he saw how gratefully the dog licked her hand as her caresses awoke it, he smiled and began to read his daily paper.

Minnie went to bed that night in a state of supreme satisfaction, for though nothing had been said, she felt sure that she could keep her new pet, and she lay awake for some time trying to decide what she should call it. The next day, after much anxious thought, she announced that she had named the dog Schneider, for she had been to see Rip Van Winkle, and thought it a nice name. Only one thing troubled her; and that was a fear that the owner of the dog might come for it and she be forced to part with it. This was rather selfish in Minnie, but very much the way that most children would feel in such circumstances.

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Days and weeks passed, and still Minnie kept her Schneider, for no one appeared to claim him, and she confided to her friend Alice that she never was so happy in all her life, for Schneider was such a treasure." He was really a very intelligent little dog, and Minnie had no trouble in teaching him several cunning tricks beside those he had already learned. He would shake hands, beg for his dinner, and if Minnie approached with some dainty morsel in her fingers, he would mount a cushion, assume the position represented in the engraving, and hold the savory bit balanced on his nose until a certain motion of her fingers, when presto! the morsel disappeared with almost lightning-like rapidity. He was also very affectionate, and quite a jealousy existed between him and the parrot, Polly often having long stories to tell about the naughtiness of Schneider.

The summer came again, and with it the usual number of visitors from the city. One day as Minnie was walking out followed by Schneider, she saw approaching

her a very nice-looking lady, accompanied by a little girl about her own age who was carrying a tiny snow-white poodle. Suddenly Schneider began to give little short barks of delight, and ran past her, while the little girl exclaimed:

"Why, there's Comfort!"

Schneider, on his part, wagged his tail and danced about as if frantic, while Minnie's heart sank as she thought, "O dear! now I shall lose him! What shall I do?" And her eyes filled with quick tears.

"Where did you get Comfort?" said the city child to Minnie, as she caressed him with one hand and the poodle with the other, while Schneider's joy began to subside, and he at last actually snapped at the white bit of a dog that had usurped his former place in his mistress's arms.

Thus addressed, Minnie told how the dog had come to her, how she had named it Schneider, and last of all how much she loved it; but here her voice broke down, and Schneider, seeming to understand her grief, ran to her and began to show his affection in every way possible for a dog. The lady who had witnessed this little scene was touched by Minnie's sorrow, and turning to her daughter, she said:

"Lilla dear, this little girl feels as badly to think she has got to give up her pet as you did last fall when we lost him on our return to the city. Now, since papa has bought you pretty Fido, can't you let her keep Comfort ?"

Minnie's heart gave a great hopeful bound, and her face was all smiles and tears as generous-hearted Lilla replied:

"Yes, mamma, I suppose I ought to, she has taken such good care of him, and thinks so much of him. Besides, I think I shouldn't know how to share things between two dogs, and I couldn't give up Fido."

"O, how good you are!" cried Minnie. "I thank you so very much!" And then she hugged Schneider as if he were, indeed, as she had often told him, "the very dearest dog in the worid."

The result of it all was that Minnie and Lilla spent many happy hours together that summer, each attended by her dog, and when Lilla returned to her home in the city Minnie had promised to visit her during the winter. So Schneider not only gave Minnie pleasure himself, but was the means of introducing her to those who proved to be true and pleasant friends.

POISONS AND POISONOUS PLANTS.

Among the many dangerous plants which it is well to be able to recognize and avoid is the Jamestown weed-sometimes called the "Jimpson weed "-otherwise Peruvian Thorn Apple, and classed in botany as the Datura Stramonium. Its blossom has a disagreeable smell, and its purple pallor and generally unattractive look make it less likely to injure as a poison than a more beautiful plant, but children sometimes die from the effects of eating its seeds. It furnishes a powerful medicine that is found very useful in spasmodic cases, but which is too dangerous to be made use of by any but experienced physicians. This plant is so well known and grows so luxuriantly on commons and other spaces, that we have not thought it necessary to add illustration to this description.

A poisonous plant not so well known as the above, since it grows in more retired situations, is the Belladonna or Deadly Nightshade, the subject of our first engraving, whose round, black, shiny berries, which grow singly, are very poisonous, while all parts of the plant are dangerous. From it is derived the extract of belladonna, which possesses the peculiar property of causing the muscles to relax when they are contracted by disease, and for this reason it is a valuable aid to the doctor in many cases. It is used with comparative safety on the skin, but it is dangerous if taken internally except in minute doses. Young ladies who have more vanity than wisdom rub it on their eyelids to make the eye expand, and for such an absurd use of it they pay for it in a few years by a wrinkled look about the eyes; the fibres called on so often to dilate under a stimulant finally lose all flexibility, and the devotee of fashion acquires a look of premature old age. It is far better to leave the use of such dangerous productions to physicians. The roots of the belladonna have been mistaken for parsnips, and we hardly need add that the mistake is a perilous one.

The hemlock, seen in our second engraving, is a vegetable, the extract of which is nearly as powerful as prussic acid. It was much used by the ancient Athenians for the execution of criminals, and is famous as the means employed for putting Socrates to death. It is supposed by some to have

been the conium maculatum, a wild plant from five to ten feet high, with fernlike leaves and greenish-white flowers, naturalized in the United States, and possessing highly narcotic properties. According to others, it was the cicuta virosa, a plant somewhat resembling the former in appearance and effect, but much more dangerous.

Another poisonous plant, illustrated on page 11, is henbane, or aconite, so called from Acone, in Bithynia, a place celebrated for its poisonous herbs. Many spe

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BELLADONNA, OR DEADLY NIGHTSHADE.

cies of this plant have long been known for their dangerous properties, and several are cultivated in our gardens, where they are designated by the familiar names of wolfsbane, monkshood, etc. The latter term indicates the distinguishing mark of the class, which is the form of a helmet that is shaped by the overhanging cup and petals. The roots and leaves of the aconitum napellus are used for the preparation of some powerful medicines, which act as drastic purgatives, and which are also externally applied as an anodyne remedy in various disorders. The juice of the leaves taken internally soon proves fatal, and

even the perfume affects some sensitive persons with faintness and dimness of vision. The poison acts upon the brain and nervous system, and produces frenzy; so virulent is it that one-fiftieth of a grain of aconita taken internally has endangered the life of an adult. In preparing the extract, the operators are sometimes powerfully affected by the vapors, and therefore great care is necessary in this process. The most effectual antidote in case of poisoning from aconite is the stomach-pump or warm water administered till it produces vomiting; after this stimulant remedies should be applied internally and externally. Lin

THE HEMLOCK.

næus said this plant is rendered harmless by simply boiling it and adding a little fat or butter. The alcoholic extract is the only valuable preparation of aconite except that made by sulphuric ether. The processes are expensive, owing to the danger attending them, and the great quantity of the plants required to produce a small quantity of the extract. The pure article is consequently held at prices almost fabulous. Probably the aconitum ferox, from which the bish root of Nepaul in India is obtained, possesses the most deadly qualities. This was used by the natives to poison their wells on the advance of the British armies into their territories during the last war.

The winter aconite is a plant of another class, which grows without stem, and bears in early spring bright yellow cup-shaped flowers. It has smooth pale-green leaves, is only a few inches high, and singleflowered. Horseradish has somewhat the appearance of monkshood, and fatal cases of poisoning have occurred from the root of the latter being taken by mistake for the former. In one of these cases, which occurred at Bristol, England, it appears that not more than one-twentieth of a grain of aconita could have been contained in the roots eaten. The aconite roots have little or no resemblance to those of the

horseradish, and the scrapings differ from them in assuming a pinkish brown color on being exposed to the air.

The name of arsenic is now applied to the white oxide of arsenic, or arsenious acid; but in ancient times it was a reddish-colored mineral compound of arsenic and sulphur to which this name was given-a substance in use then as a medicine, and also in painting. Metallic arsenic occurs native in veins in the crystallized rocks and older slates, and is also prepared by a certain process. Many modern chemists do not regard it as a metal, but it is commonly treated as such, and it is remarkable as one of the most volatile, and one of the most combustible of the metals. It readily combines with other ores as an alloy, and renders them more fusible and brittle.

Arsenious acid, or white arsenic, is the most common combination of this metal. It is the sublimate, which escapes when arsenic is heated in the open air. This sublimate, after exposure, forms a white powder, but may be collected in glassy transparent cakes, or eight-sided crystals. It is partially soluble in boiling water, and less so in cold water, the solution being slightly acid.

Arsenious acid is manufactured on a large scale at Altenburg, and Reichenstein, in Silesia, from the ore called arsenical iron. In many other places it is obtained as a secondary product in the treatment of cobalt ores, and of other metallic ores with which arsenic is associated. The process consists in roasting the ore in large muffles, ten feet long and six wide, in charges of nine or ten hundred weight each, and collecting the vapors, as a sublimate, upon the walls of a succession of chambers, ar

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ranged in a tower through which they pass, and from which the incondensable gases escape by a chimney. The muffles are placed inclining upward from their mouth, and are left open for the passage of heated air to aid in subliming the arsenic and converting it all into arsenious acid. A charge is worked off in about twelve hours, and is immediately followed by another. Charcoal is the fuel used, as very little more heat is required than what is evolved by the chemical changes. The quantity consumed is very small. The purest arsenic is found in the flues and chambers nearest the furnace; in the upper chambers it is intermixed with the condensed sulphurous vapors, and to purify it for market it is all sublimed again. It is placed in cast-iron or porcelain pots, which hold between three and four hundred weight each, and these are set vertically in a furnace. They open above into sheetiron drums, which serve as condensers, and which are connected by a funnel with the condensing chamber. The fire must be carefully regulated to maintain the proper temperature for the acid to sublime in the form of a glassy cake. If the heat is too high, metallic arsenic is apt to be sublimed and mixed with the acid, appearing in dark spots, which must be picked out, or the whole sublimed over.

The preparation of arsenious acid is a most dangerous occupation. The workmen employed generally die before the age of forty; indeed, their average term of life is stated to be only from thirty to thirty-five years. Dumas states that they

HENBANE, OR ACONITE.

are compelled to avoid alcoholic drinks, and live principally upon leguminous vegetables, with plenty of butter, taking very little meat, and that very fat; and to each man two small glasses of olive oil are administered daily. In removing the acid from the chambers the workmen are completely enveloped in a dress and helmet of leather, the latter furnished with glass eyes. The passage for the air is protected with a wet sponge, by which it is filtered as it passes to the mouth and nostrils.

FEATHERED ARCHITECTS AND PETS.

The more familiar we become with the traits and habits of those portions of creation that are dependent upon instinct rather than reason for their guidance, the more we are led to wonder at the unerring intuition which brings about results that would seem to be based on the nicest calculation. Aware of their own peculiar needs and dangers they seem to be, and the dwellings fashioned by bird or beast are suitable both for the comfort and defence of the inhabitants. Examples illustrating this fact will rise to the mind of every reader, but no pleasanter object for contemplation

can be suggested than the carefully and neatly built home of a pair of those feathered warblers which delight our eyes by their beauty and our ears with their melody.

The nest selected for illustration, on page 12, is that of the long-tailed titmouse, and is remarkable even among others of its class for its singular construction. This variety of bird is scarcely larger than a wren, and is almost constantly in motion, making use of countless precautions to insure the comfort, safety and concealment of its home. The nest is shaped like a

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