MENTAL EXCITEMENT.

Bad news weakens the action of the heart, oppresses the lungs, destroys the appetite, stops digestion, and partially suspends all the functions of the system. An emotion of shame flushes the face, fear blanches it, joy illuminates it, and an instant thrill electrifies a million of nerves. Surprise spurs the pulse into a gallop. Delirium infuses great energy. Volition commands, and hundreds of muscles sprint to execute. Powerful emotion often kills the body at a stroke; Chilo, Diagoras, and Sophocles, died of joy at the Grecian games. The news of a defeat killed Philip the Fifth. The doorkeeper of Congress expired upon hearing of the surrender of Cornwallis. Eminent public speakers have often died in the midst of an impassioned burst of eloquence, or then the deep emotion that produced it suddenly subsided. Largrave, the young Parisian, died when he heard that the musical prize for which he had competed was judged to another.

A Physician and a Stone Mason

A physician, passing by a stone mason’s, bawled out to him, “Good morning, Mr. W-; hard at work, I see; you finish your gravestones as far as `In memory of,’ and then you wait, I suppose, to see who wants a monument next?” – “Why, yes,” replied the old man, resting for a moment on his mallet, “unless somebody is ill, and you are attending him, and then I keep right on!”

A Sick Man's Recovery

A sick man was congratulated on his recovery by the assurance that God had safely brought him through it. “Well,” replied he, “may be he did, but I am certain the doctor will charge me for it.”

DEAFNESS.

Ear-ache and deafness are sometimes connected with chronic ulceration in the internal or external part of the ear, when injection of warm water and soap is advisable. In this case, there is sometimes a constant fetid discharge, for which the following mixture is recommended: - Take of ox-gall three drachms, balsam of Peru, one drachm; mix. A drop or two to be put into the ear with a little cotton. When deafness arises from deficient secretion of wax, take oil of turpentine, half a drachm; olive oil, two drachms; mix. Two drops to be introduced into the ear at bedtime. When deafness arises from a collection of too much wax. And pain is experienced on the drum of the ear, inject warm water with a gutta-percha syringe made for the purpose, and which can be procured at any respectable druggist’s.

Doctor & Patient’s Uncle

“Doctor, I want to thank you for your splendid medicine.”
“It helped you, did it?” asked the doctor, very much pleased.
“It helped me wonderfully.”
“How many bottles did you find it necessary to take?”
“Oh, I didn’t take any of it. My uncle took one bottle, and I’m his sole heir.”

ONE-TENTH OF A SECOND FROM DEATH

It will be remembered that the Rev. Mr Sellwood, of the Episcopal Church, missionary in Oregon, was in the Panama massacre and reported among the dead. In a letter just received from him he says that he received four wounds, and is disfigured for life. His narrow escape from death is thus described.

After I had recovered, and previous to leaving the Hospital, one of my medical attendants said to me; “I look upon your escape as a miracle; the ball passed so near the heart that it must have passed at the instant of its contraction, for had it passed at its expansion, you must have been killed, Just a one-tenth of a second made all the difference in your case between life and death.”

RESTORATION OF DROWNED PERSONS.

All testimony hitherto is decidedly in favour of Dr. Marshall Hail’s method, which is a very simple one, for it needs no apparatus, all that is required being that the body of the drowned person, be it man, woman, or child, be placed upon its stomach, with the arms under its forehead, and then turned from side to side, as one would roll a wine-cask or beer-cask in process of cleansing, but of course more slowly and gently, and continuing this rotary motion until full inflation of the lungs shall have taken place. Those acquainted with the principles of natural philosophy, and at the same time having any knowledge of the structure of the bony and cartilaginous chest in which is contained the lungs, will at once perceive the reasons on which is founded the advocacy of this simple method for the recovery of persons apparently drowned.

THE THREE DUTIES.

“Reading,” says Lord Bacon, “maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.” A young man who neglects reading is generally very meagre; one who does not see much of his fellows is seldom a man of affairs; and few who do not write much ever attain that precision of thought which is essential to real power. Therefore, young man, read – confer – write! Not one of the three duties can you safely neglect.

Pictorial Pages.

USEFUL HINTS.

Never enter a sick room in a state of perspiration, as, the moment you become cool, your pores absorb. Do not approach contagious diseases with an empty stomach, nor sit between the sick and the fire, because the heat attracts the thin vapour.