Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper/Volume 18/Number 450/Miscellany 1

Plaster of Paris for Paint.—A writer in the Register of Rural Affairs recommends the use of plaster or ground gypsum, instead of white lead, to mix with oil for paint for outside work. IF, as he says, it is equally, in fact, more durable than white lead or zinc white, it deserves to be widely known, as the plaster is very cheap and easily obtained. Take equal parts of the plaster and white lead with oil enough to make it the consistence of cream, and run it through a paint mill. This will have a good body and be very serviceable. For painting the roof of buildings, the plaster and oil answers a good purpose, as it is durable, and when rain water is collected in cisterns, it will be found to be purer than when it comes in contact with lead. Plaster is sometimes found ground very coarse, and it should therefore be run through a paint mill before it is used.

——— Dr. Biggs, of Mitchell, Lawrence county, Ind., was, about two months ago, called upon by two men, who, being admitted to a private room, locked the door, and producing a weapon, told him they had a warrant to arrest him for having counterfeit money, but if he would give them $1,200 they would release him. The doctor gave them $300 in cash and a note for the remainder, when they left. By advice of his lawyer, no action was taken until a few days since, when one of the men returned to collect the note, when he was arrested and made to give bail in $1,500, to appear at the Circuit Court. The trial over, the man said he was a U.S. detective, showed a warrant to arrest Dr. B., and did arrest him and took him to Indianapolis.

——— A few years ago a physician of Georgetown, West Indies, examined the body of a man that had been discovered under a heap of cane-trash, or the fibrous residue of the canes, and found that the body emitted no smell, and was dried up like a mummy. He did not at the time proclaim his discovery, but immediately instituted experiments on dead animals, which completely confirmed his observations. Convinced thereby that by the fermentation of fresh cane trash a disinfecting and antiseptic gas was evolved, he immediately turned his attention to the means of employing the sugar-cane as a preservative against epidemics and contagious diseases, and as a medicinal plant generally. There happened to be at the time a great number of patients suffering from ulcers at the hospital, and a contagious gangrene had declared itself: the physician caused several tubs containing cane-trash to be placed in the wards, and the supply to be renewed at intervals. In a short time the atmosphere of the hospital was purified, the contagion entirely ceased.

If a man has nothing to say, he is sure to take much time and use many words in saying it.