Receipts, &c.

THE MANAGEMENT OF THE HAIR, EYES, TEETH, AND EXTREMITIES.

MANAGEMENT OF THE EYES.

WHEN these organs are strong and naturally well formed, they may be left pretty nearly to themselves; but when the sight is naturally in any way defective, some little management is required. It should be known that the conditions called short-sight and long-sight are not absolute disease, but are dependent upon mere alterations of form in the front of the eye, which are almost always born with the individual possessing them. When, therefore, they exist, some little management is required in order to relieve the deficiency of sight, which in some cases is very annoying.

The eye being an optical machine intended to throw an image upon the fine expansion of nervous tissue at its back, it follows that it must be made of a definite shape, and with its parts at certain known angles, in order to fulfil its office. In order, however, to understand the nature of its action, the ordinary laws regulating the transmission of light must be understood.

These laws are as follows:

I. Light travels in straight lines so long as the medium through which it passes is of uniform density.

II. When the rays of light pass from a rarer medium into a denser one, they are refracted towards a line drawn perpendicularly to the surface they are entering.

III. When the rays of light pass from a denser medium into a rarer one, they are refracted from the perpendicular.

IV. When rays proceeding from the several points of a luminous object, at a distance, fall upon a double convex lens, they are brought to a focus upon the other hole of it in such a manner that an inverted picture of the object is formed upon a screen placed in the proper position to receive it.

V. The further the object is removed from the lens the nearer will the picture be brought to it, and the smaller will it be.

VI. If the screen be not held precisely in the focus of the lens, but a little nearer or further off, the picture will be indistinct; for the rays which form it will either not have met, or they will have crossed each other.

The eye itself, as exhibited in man, is a most wonderful optical instrument, intended to form an exact image of surrounding objects upon the retina. For this purpose the rays of light, as they diverge from the several points of any object, and fall upon the front of the eye (cornea), are refracted by its convex surface whilst passing through it into the eye, and are made to converge slightly. They are brought more closely together by the crystalline lens, which they reach after passing through the pupil; and the refracting influence of this dense body, together with that of the vitreous humor, occupying the space behind it, is such as to cause the rays issuing from each point to unite at a focus on the retina. In this manner a complete inverted image is formed, which represents a vertical section of the eye, and the general course of the rays in its interior. The retina is so thin as to be nearly transparent, and is spread over a layer of black pigment intended to absorb the rays of light and thus prevent a confusion of the image by a reflection of its points from one side to an

other of the receding surface. Such is the simple account of the eye as an optical instrument, beyond which it may be considered as consisting of certain parts intended to keep the machine in order, and also to correct its otherwise irremediable defects; but which need not be attended to by those who merely want to understand its management in health.

The variations in formation already alluded to are chiefly two; in the first of which the cornea is too convex, and the refractive power is thereby made so great that the image of an object at a moderate distance is formed in front of the retina instead of upon it. When this is the case, in order to produce a distinct image, the object must be brought nearer to the eye, the effect being to throw the picture upon the proper place. Such an eye is said to be myopic or short-sighted, and it can only be rendered efficient at average distances by the use of a concave lens in front of the cornea, the curvature of which is of such a form as to neutralize the superfluous convexity of the cornea. On the other hand, if this part is too flat, and the refractive power of the humors is thereby rendered too low, the rays from an object, also at a moderate distance, will not meet upon the retina, but would form an image behind it, if it were not for the impediment afforded by the black pigment. The picture is consequently indistinct, and can ouly be made clear by increasing the distance between the eye and the object, or, as in the case of the short-sighted person, by placing a glass lens in front of the eye, but with an opposite formation, its surfaces being required to be convex. Such a condition is very common in old persons, who are scientifically said to be presbyopic, or, in common language, long-sighted. Sometimes the short-sighted person can see nothing distinctly unless it touches his nose; and, on the other hand, many old persons cannot see at all distinctly, even at the greatest practicable distance, without the aid of glasses; but this extreme state of flatness is not common, except as a consequence of an operation for the removal of cataract, which is almost always followed by a great demand for the opti cian's assistance.

The accommodating power of the eye is a very remarkable property, and one which should never be lost sight of by those who have the management of young persons who are afflicted with short sight. We have not been able to ascertain with any certainty the exact nature of the contrivance by which this is effected, but that it exists is shown from the known powers of the eye, and from the nature of its mechanical structure. As previ ously stated, the picture of a near object can only be distinct when formed at a greater distance behind the lens than the picture of a distant object. Consequently, when an eye can see both a near and a distant object equally clearly without moving its situation as regards them, and in a very short period of time, it follows that the instrument itself must have been altered in some one or more of its diameters or surfaces. It is considered highly probable that in the human eye the lens is brought backwards and forwards according to the distance of the object; but this is merely a theory, propounded as the most likely of the many which have been advanced, and not as being capable at present of distinct proof. It is upon the existence of the power of accommodation that any improvement in the short or long sight can be expected; but with a knowledge of the possibility of its being called into play, no one should give glasses to a young person until they had tried how far his sight might be improved by its education. All

short-sighted persons, however marked their defect, may by perseverance in using their eyes at the utmost limit of their powers call the accommodating power into play, and in process of time it will most materially aid them. It is in this way that the mariner is enabled to discern ships or other objects at a vast distance beyond that at which they are visible to an ordinary person; and, in the same way, a microscopist educates his eye until it accustoms itself to see minute objects which defy the scan of the unaccustomed organ of vision. When the defect is so great that there is no hope of ever dispensing with the use of a lens, it is of little consequence to educate the eye; but in more moderate cases there is little difficulty, if the possessor of the defective organ will aid in the task. The only thing necessary is to place a mechanical guard between the eye and the object to be seen, such as a book, slate, or copy-book, so that, in the first place, the nearer approach of one to the other is prevented; and in the second, the progress from day to day or from week to week may be measured. This progress is always slow, but it is also sure, and up to a certain point it goes on with great steadiness; so that if in the course of a week the distance at which a book can be read is increased half an inch, in another week it will most probably be read at an inch beyond the original position. But, as before remarked, up to a certain extent only will this go, as at last comes a dead stand, and beyond that all the powers and patience in the world will not often coax the recusant organ. But still a very slight improvement may sometimes even after this be made, and the attempt should be maintained for some time, especially as the practice must be continued for the sake of what has been already gained.

In the selection of glasses there is a great deal of quackery and nonsense. There is but one rule as to the concavity or convexity, and that is to use only such as are pleasant to the eye, and in all cases to err rather on the side of weakness than power. It is well known that the eye cannot long be kept at one pitch, if the condition is that, so common in old age, of increasing flatness of the cornea. Here the progress has been made from a healthy condition to a defective one, and the same cause goes on to increase the defect, whether glasses are worn or not. It is quite true that the accommodating power alluded to in the previous paragraph will make some little difference if drawn upon; but over and above this slight drawback the use of glasses certainly does not hasten the alteration of the eye. All those, therefore, who are in want of such assistance may safely indulge themselves with such a glass as is comfortable to them; and if it affords them clear vision without fatiguing the eye, they may rest satisfied that they are deriving all the benefit of which the optician's art is capable. If the glass after a time becomes insufficient, as it generally does, they should increase the power, and this will do them far less harm than the straining of the eye at a confused mass of letters, rendered barely visible by their previously insufficient glass. Short-sighted people are troubled in a different way, and one at the same time that requires still more attention. As they become older, their eyes become flatter from the same cause which af fects the long-sighted person, and the consequence is that their glasses become insufficient from being too strong, so that they require them less concave than before. This is particularly the case with those who only wear their glasses occasionally, for if worn constantly, the eye becomes accommodated to their use, and the necessity for change is not so obvious; but so far from

being objected to, it should be hailed with pleasure as the harbinger of a more perfect state of vision, to which each succeeding change in the power of the glass will bring the wearer more and more near.

Glasses for rectifying short sight may be either concave on both sides, or plano-concave, or concavo-convex, the last of which is particularly applicable to that worn in the eye, as by its shape it allows the eyelashes full play, and is very much more comfortable than the flat glass. For long sight, also, the glass may be convex on both sides or plano-convex; but the former is that most generally employed. Glasses are always numbered, but the different makers employ different gauges, and therefore they are only useful in comparing those belonging to any one maker.

MISCELLANEOUS COOKING.

CHEAP PEA-SOUP.-To one gallon of water put a pint and a half of split peas (if the water be hard, add half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda). Wash a head of celery, cut up small, and put it into the pot. Let this simmer without boiling till the peas are completely blended with the water. Cut a few onions into thin slices, and put them into a frying-pan, with two ounces of beef or mutton drippings; dredge or sprinkle a tablespoonful of flour over them, add a teacupful of the pea-liquor, and fry till the whole is nicely brown. Then pour all into the boiler; season with pepper and salt to taste, stir well, and let the whole boil for about five minutes, when it will be ready for use. A little common mint, dried and powdered, may be sprinkled over it, if agreeable.

A DELICATE OMELETTE.-Break eight eggs in a stew. pan, to which add a teaspoonful of very finely chopped eschalots, one of chopped parsley, half ditto of salt, a pinch of pepper, and three good tablespoonfuls of cream; beat them well together, then put two ounces of butter in an omelette pan, stand it over a sharp fire, and as soon as the butter is hot pour in the eggs, stir them round quickly with a spoon until delicately set, then shake the pan round, leave it a moment to color the omelette, hold the pan in a slanting position, just tap it upon the stove to bring the omelette to a proper shape, and roll the flap over the spoon; turn it upon your dish, and serve as soon as done. Take care not to do it too much.

KNUCKLE OF VEAL, BOILED.-As this is a very small joint it is best to have a couple. Let them be sawn into two or three pieces and put into a stewpan, with about two pounds of streaked bacon or pickled pork, some onions, turnip, and carrot. Let all be well covered with water. Skim well, and as soon as it boils add a little salt and white pepper, and let it simmer gently for two hours. A teacupful of rice may be added, and a little chopped parsley. When done, lay the bacon or pork in the middle of the dish, place the pieces of knuekle round it, and the carrot and turnip round them. Serve up with melted butter and parsley, or a portion of the liquor. If the liquor be not used at the time, it will form a foundation for some excellent soup.

TO BOIL RICE AS A VEGETABLE.-Wash several times in cold water, otherwise in cooking the rice grains will stick together. Let water boil very fast, say two quarts for a quarter of a pound of rice, and throw in the latter, still keeping the water rapidly boiling; let it continue to do so for a little more than a quarter of an hour, or till a grain will rub away between the finger and thumb; then throw the rice into a colander to let the water drain

thoroughly away; then put it back into the saucepan, throw in a teacup of cold water, keep it covered for a few minutes; then turn it out, and every grain will separate, one from the other.

TO FRY EGGS.-To fry eggs nicely requires some little attention, as they are apt to become hard, black, and unpalatable. There should be plenty of butter or oil, and care taken not to let them be overdone. If ham or bacon is fried with them, it must be done first, and the eggs afterwards.

VERMICELLI SOUP.-To make vermicelli soup, take as much good stock as you require for your tureen; strain and set it on the fire, and when it boils put in the vermicelli. Let it simmer for half an hour by a slow fire, that the vermicelli may not break. The soup ought not to be very thick. Half a pound of vermicelli is sufficient for eight or ten persons.

MULLAGATAWNY SOUP.-Cut up a knuckle of veal, and put it into a stewpan with a piece of butter, half a pound of lean ham, a carrot, a turnip, three onions, six apples; add half a pint of water. Set the stewpan on the fire, moving the meat round óccasionally. Let it remain until the bottom of the stewpan is covered with a strong glaze; then add three tablespoonfuls of curry powder or of curry paste, and half a pound of flour; stir well in, and fill the stewpan with a gallon of water. Add a spoonful of salt and half a spoonful of sugar. When it boils, place it on the corner of the fire, and let it simmer two hours and a half, skimming off all fat as it rises.

TO MAKE JELLY STOCK FOR ALL JELLIES.-Take an ounce and a half of isinglass, or two ounces of gelatine, three ounces of loaf-sugar; wet the isinglass first with boiling water, then boil in a quart of water till the latter is reduced to a pint. Now run it through a fine sieve or jelly-bag of flannel.

TO STEW ONIONS.-Peel them, flour, and fry them in a little butter, a light brown; then put them into weak gravy, season, and stew slowly two hours. Dish them up-side down, with the sauce over them. In peeling, be careful not to cut the top or bottom too closely, else the onion will not keep whole.

A SAVORY DISH.-Take two pickled herrings, put them into a stone jar; fill it up with potatoes and a little water, and let it bake in an oven till the potatoes are done enough.

DRIED PARSLEY.-To have parsley for winter use, dry it in a slow oven, rub it to a powder, and put it into a preserving bottle, and it will long retain its smell and flavor.

TO STEW RED CABBAGE.-Shred finely half a cabbage, and put it into a stew-pan, with a teacupful of gravy and two ounces of butter; stew slowly till tender, season with salt and serve. To heighten the color of the cabbage, a slice or two of beet-root may be added, but should be taken out before serving.

CAKES, ETC.

COCOANUT PUFFS.-Break up a large ripe cocoanut. Pare the pieces, and lay them awhile in cold water; then wipe them dry, and grate them as finely as possible. Lay the grated cocoanut in well-formed heaps on a large, handsome dish. It will require no cooking. The heaps should be about the circumference of a dollar, and must not touch each other. Flatten them down in the middle, so as to make a hollow in the centre of each

heap, and upon this pile some very nice sweetmeats. Make an excellent whipped cream, well sweetened and flavored with lemon and wine, and beat it to a stiff froth. Pile some of this cream high upon each cake over the sweetmeats. If on a supper-table, you may arrange them in circles round a glass stand.

PALMER CAKES.-Sift a pound of flour into a pan, and rub into it half a pound of butter and a quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Add a teaspoonful of mixed spice, powdered cinnamon, nutmeg, and mace. Wet the mixture with two well-beaten eggs; the juice of a large lemon or orange, and sufficient rose-water to make it into a dough just stiff enough to roll out easily. Sprinkle a little flour on the paste-board, lay the lump of dough upon it, roll it out rather thin, and cut it into round cakes, with the edge of a tumbler, dipped every time in flour to prevent stickiness. Lay the cakes in buttered square pans. Set them in a rather brisk oven, and bake them brown.

A NICE SODA CURRANT CAKE, SUITABLE FOR YOUNG FOLK. Rub into two pounds of flour the ordinary quantity of salt; add a quarter of an ounce of carbonate of soda, with a little of the flour first, and then with the whole; then put a quarter of an ounce of muriatic acid in a pint of cold water, mix it with the flour and other ingredients, adding half a pound of currants, nicely washed; knead it well, and put it in the oven immediately.

CHOCOLATE PUFFS.-Beat very stiff the whites of two eggs, and then beat in, gradually, half a pound of powdered loaf-sugar. Scrape down very fine an ounce and a half of the best chocolate (prepared cocoa is better still), and dredge it with flower to prevent its oiling, mixing the flour well among it. Then add it, gradually, to the mixture of white of egg and sugar, and stir the whole very hard. Cover the bottom of a square tin pan with a sheet of fine white paper, cut to fit exactly. Place upon it thin spots of powdered loaf-sugar, about the size of a half-dollar. Pile a portion of the mixture on each spot, smoothing it with the back of a spoon or a broad knife, dipped in cold water. Sift white sugar over the top of each. Set the pan into a brisk oven, and bake them a few minutes. When cold, loosen them from the paper with a broad knife.

PUDDING SAUCES.

COMMON WINE SAUCE.-Make thin a few ounces of melted butter, then add from a tablespoonful to two of coarsely pounded lump sugar, and a glass of sherry with half a glass of brandy; a little grated lemon-peel or nutmeg, or both together, are improvements.

ARROWROOT SAUCE FOR PUDDINGS.-Mix a small teaspoonful of arrowroot with a little cold water, and boil a large teacupful of sherry or raisin wine with sugar enough to sweeten it. Make the arrowroot with this, and pour over the pudding. It is an improvement to rub a lump or two of the sugar on lemon-peel.

BURNT CREAM SAUCE.-Put two ounces of sifted sugar on the fire in a small saucepan, stir it, and when quite brown pour slowly in a gill of thin cream, stirring it all the time. To be used as a sauce to custard or batter pudding.

SWEET PUDDING SAUCE WITHOUT WINE is made with melted butter, a little cream added, sweetened to the palate, and flavored with nutmeg, cinnamon, or mace.

PLUM PUDDING SAUCE.-Add to four ounces of melted

butter, or thick arrow root, an ounce and a half of each of the following-viz.: sherry, French brandy, and curacoa; sweeten to the taste, and add also a little nutmeg and lemon-peel grated.

FRUIT SAUCES are easily made for any plain puddings by stewing the fresh fruit with rather less sugar than for preserving, and adding water till they are of a proper consistence for a sauce. Some cooks mix a little arrowroot with the water, and then strain before serving.

PERFUMES AS PREVENTIVES OF MOULDINESS.

AN interesting paper on this subject has been published by Dr. Macculloch. We presume our readers are aware that mouldiness is occasioned by the growth of minute vegetables. Ink, paste, leather, and seeds, are the substances that most frequently suffer from it. The effect of cloves in preserving ink is well known; any of the essential oils answer equally well. Leather may be kept free from mould by the same substances. Thus Russian leather, which is perfumed with the tar of birch, never becomes mouldy; indeed it prevents it from occurring in other bodies. A few drops of any essential oil are sufficient also to keep books entirely free from it. For harness, oil of turpentine is recommended. Bookbinders, in general, employ alum for preserving their paste; but mould frequently forms on it. Shoemakers' resin is sometimes also used for the same purpose; but it is less effectual than oil of turpentine. The best preventives, however, are the essential oils, even in small quantity, as those of peppermint, anise, or cassia, by which paste may be kept almost any length of time; indeed, it has, in this way, been preserved for years. The paste recommended by Dr. Macculloch, is made in the usual way, with flour, some brown sugar, and a little corrosive sublimate; the sugar keeping it flexible when dry, and the sublimate preventing it from fermenting, and from being attacked by insects. After it is made, a few drops of any of the essential oils are added. Paste made in this way dries when exposed to the air, and may be used merely by wetting it. If required to be kept always ready for use, it ought to be put into covered pots. Seeds may also be preserved by the essential oils; and this is of great consequence, when they are to be sent to a distance. Of course moisture must be excluded as much as possible, as the oils or ottos prevent only the bad effects of mould.

MISCELLANEOUS.

USES OF THE DANDELION.-Its uses are endless: the young leaves blanched make an agreeable and wholesome early salad; and they may be boiled, like cabbages, with salt meat. The French, too, slice the roots and eat them, as well as the leaves with bread and butter, and tradition kays that the inhabitants of Minorca once subsisted for weeks on this plant, when their harvest had been entirely destroyed by insects. The leaves are ever a favorite and useful article of food in the Vale of Kashinir, where, in spite of the preconceived prejudices we all have to the contrary, dandelions, and other humbler examples of our northern "weeds," do venture to associate themselves with the rose or the jasmine of its eastern soil. On the banks of the Rhine the plant is cultivated as a substitute for coffee, and Dr. Harrison contends that it possesses the fine flavor and substance of the best Mocha coffee, without its injurious principle; and that it promotes sleep when taken at night, instead of banishing it, as coffee does. Mrs. Modie gives us her

experiences with dandelion roots, which seem of a most satisfactory nature. She first cut the roots into small pieces, and dried them in the oven until they were brown and crisp as coffee, and in this state they appear to have been eaten. But certain it is that she ground a portion of them, and made a most superior coffee. In some parts of Canada they make an excellent beer of the leaves, in which the saccharine matter they afford forms a substi tute for malt, and the bitter flavor serves instead of hops. In medicine, too, it is invaluable.

CEMENTS FOR PORCELAIN, MARBLE, ALABASTER, GLASS, ETC.-Take of isinglass two drachms, wet it with water, and allow it to stand until softened; then add as much proof spirit as will rather more than cover it and dis solve with a moderate heat. Take of gum mastic one drachm, dissolve it in two or three drachms of rectified spirit. Mix the two solutions, and stir in one drachm of gum ammoniacum in a fine powder, and rubbed down with a little water. Keep the cement in a bottle. When required for use place the bottle in warm water, and apply the cement with a stick or small hard brush to the china, previously warmed. Compress the pieces firmly together until cold, taking care to make the contact perfect, and using a very thin layer of cement.

The white of eggs, thickened with powdered quicklime, is also used as a cement for broken china, marble, and glass.

White resin and white beeswax melted and mixed with plaster of Paris make a good cement for mending alabaster and marble ornaments.

A GOOD BLACK DYE FOR STRAW BONNETS.-Straw bonnets may be dyed black by boiling them three or four hours in a strong liquor of logwood, adding a little green copperas occasionally. Let the bonnet remain in the liquor all night, then take out to dry in the air. If the black is not satisfactory, dye again after drying. Rub inside and out with a spouge, moistened in fine oil. Then block.

TO CLEAN PLATED ARTICLES.-They should always be clean-washed with warm water and soap and perhaps a little soda, then wiped dry with a clean cloth, before polishing with whitening, or rottenstone and sweet oil.

FOR REMOVING INK-SPOTS FROM MAHOGANY.-Apply spirits of salts with a bit of rag till the ink disappears. Or: Put a few drops of spirits of nitre in a teaspoonful of water, touch the spot with a feather dipped in the mixture, and, on the ink disappearing, rub it over immediately with a rag wetted in cold water.

FOR WHITENING THE HANDS.-Take a wineglassful of eau de cologne, and another of lemon-juice; then scrape two cakes of brown Windsor soap to a powder, and mix well in a mould. When hard, it will be an excellent soap for whitening the hands.

A CURE FOR SOFT CORNS.-Scrape a piece of common chalk, and put a pinch to the soft corn, and bind a piece of linen rag upon it. Repeat the application during a few days, and you will find the corn come off like a shell, and perfectly cured. The cure is simple and efficacious.

HOW TO HASTEN THE BLOWING OF FLOWERS.-To hasten the blowing of flowers, use the following mixture: Nitrate of sulphate of ammonia, four ounces; nitre, two ounces; sugar, one ounce; hot water, one pint; dissolve and keep well closed. Add twenty drops to the water used to moisten or surround the flowers, changing it each week. Cut flowers may be preserved longer by using a little nitrate of soda to the water in which they are put, or by placing over them a bell jar.

NEW IDEA OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

What might a single Mind may wield,
With Truth for sword, and Faith for shield,
And Hope to lead the way;
Thus all great Triumphs are obtained,
From darkness, light-as God ordained
The night before the day.

IN June, 1857, an English lady, being in London, took a walk through the Seven Dials to see, for herself, the condition of the miserable population of St. Giles. The Lady was accompanied by a friend, a retired physician, who knew the city, and this wretched portion had been the scene of his benevolent labors; he was therefore able to go where no stranger would have dared venture. They went on and on through the terrible crowds of ragged, dirty, lazy loungers, many of whom were women of the vilest sort, for the dwellers in the filthy cellars had come up in the afternoon to breathe the air, though it was hot and fetid. What haggard and disgusting forms were gathered together! Among these was the mournful spectacle of lanky, sallow, squalid children-" not a true child-face among them all"-dirt and rags, ignorance, misery, wickedness, and want were everywhere!

As they walked on, the heart of the lady was moved with the tenderest compassion for those wretched outcasts of humanity, compared with whose daily life the condition of brute animals seemed happiness, when two thoughts or questions were suggested to her heart:

1st. "Has the Bible found its way to these dark places?"

2d. "If it had, would they remain as we now see them ?"

Then the NEW IDEA flashed like a burst of sunshine on her mind-that of finding a poor, pious woman who, living in the district, would not be afraid to go among this dreadful population, and sending her as a Bible-Woman! This messenger could find entrance to the miserable abodes where a lady would not dare to go, and would not be admitted; and through the ministry of the Biblewoman, this multitude of neglected women and children whom the clergy could not reach, nor the bounty of the benevolent relieve, would be reached and be taught the Word of God!

The Idea was clear and true in the mind of the lady. She consulted the physician, and, to his honor be it recorded, he did not cavil because it was a woman's thought, but encouraged her and strengthened her hope. He knew of a poor woman whom he commended for the work. The lady found her, engaged her for a month on a small salary, and being successful she served a year. This poor, pious woman went forth through the worst streets of London, with the Bible in her hands; she told its message of mercy to all who would listen; she read of the Saviour's love to those who could not read; she sold the Book by subscriptions of one penny a week to those who would buy, till the Bible became popular in the Seven Dials, welcomed and purchased by the poorest and by those who had been the worst women in that It has not only proved a cleansing fountain for that dark valley of pollution, but by the wonderful in

street.

crease of this ministry of Bible-women, during the succeeding four years, it has found its way to multitudes of the lowest and most degraded of the London poor, is healing their worst diseases and transforming them, from lazy, drunken, ragged, and hopeless outcasts, into industrious, sober people, "clothed and in their right mind."

The lady whose idea of Bible-women has wrought this wonderful change is Mrs. L. N. Ranyard, of London, then editress of "The Book and its Mission"-now better known as authoress of "The Missing Link" and "Lifework; or, the Link and the Rivet." Both books are descriptive of the manner and the means by which the progress of the Idea has been sustained and managed. Marian was the name of the first Bible-woman; her story is told in the "Missing Link," which gives a sad picture of the lowest depths of misery in which human beings are existing in the Great Metropolis: but then comes the silver lining to the dark cloud-these hard hearts can be softened by woman's Christian sympathy, can be turned from evil indulgencies to the love of the good by the power of the Gospel. The changes wrought in their domestic character is one of the wonderful results on these poor wives and mothers. As soon as the Bible was made known in its holy precepts and blessed promises, it infused hope, and with that came the wish and the energy to try for a better life here as well as for the life hereafter. The women were willing to give up the gin-shop and save their hard earnings to buy beds and clothing. These articles were furnished by the Lady Superintendents of the Bible women; the poor subscribing, in clubs, one shilling weekly for beds, clothing, etc., were supplied at cost; many a weary creature, who then had never in her life slept on a bed, now has one of her own; and children, whose only clothing had been rags and dirt, are now clean and neatly arrayed.

"Life-Work" continues the story of the Bible-woman down to July, 1861-so that we have the result for four years, since Marian was first sent out to this work. There are now over one hundred and fifty Bible-women in London; these have sold, in the four years, upwards of twenty thousand Bibles. During this time the outcast poor have paid over $8,000 for Bibles; and the poor mothers in London have contributed to clothing clubs and to purchase beds the astonishing sum of $25,000! They paid this in penny or shilling subscriptions, mostly the penny saved from the beer-shop and gin-palace. Is not this change wonderful? It is the result of a new IDEA-that woman must minister to woman. Mrs. Ranyard says truly: "When the women hearken the men will follow. The Bible must make the women, the women make the homes, the homes make the men and the children."

Read her two books and then say-has not this Idea of Bible-women, carried out in the manner of having Lady Superintendents as it is by Mrs. Ranyard, done more, in the four years described, to make the reformation and

These books are republished in New York by Robert Carter & Brothers; sold in Philadelphia by Wm. Martien & Co.