Punch (72.1877)

96

PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI. [March 3, 1877.

"WICKED WASTE."

{Reflection at the Westminster Aquarium.)

SLEEP; ITS CAUSES, AND ITS CONSE-
QUENCES.

What shall be done to the driver found sleeping
on his seat ? This question came before the Ux-
bridge Police Court one day last week, when—

" Charles Castle, 15, in the employ of Mr. Timms,
hay-dealer, Iver-heath, Bucks, was sued for riding asleep
while in charge of a horse and cart at Hillingdon Hill, at
a quarter past two on the morning of the 10th inst. A.

fortnight ago the defendant was summoned before the Slough
Magistrates for a similar offence, and, as was mentioned in
the ' Times' he pleaded that he had been on the road tiventg-
four hours. On the present occasion he stated that he went
to London with a horse and cart three nights in the iveek.
When stopped he was thoroughly exhausted."

Whose fault was that ? The Uxbridge Magistrate
seems to have been not quite sure. A little uncer-
tainty on this point apparently influenced him in
dealing with the culprit, Charles Castle.

" The Magistrate fined him ten shillings—five shillings
less than usual at this court, and allowed him a week for
payment, in the hope that his master would give him the
money."

Thus lightly was let down not exactly an old
offender, being a lad of fifteen, but one whose offence
was a second conviction, following only a fortnight
after the first, with six days out of the fourteen,
however, spent on the road. The Magistrate's hope
that in these circumstances Castle's master would
give him the money to pay a mitigated fine, may
appear to imply an idea that he was not himself to
blame for exhaustion from overwork, and consequent
sleep. His master, now that he is' aware of the
possibility of such a collapse, will of course take care
that it does not occur again ; for if it do, the over-
worked driver may not merely tumble in his sleep,
and break his neck, but he may have the misfor-
tune to run over and kill somebody else_; and then
there may be not merely a fine of ten shillings, but
the dickens to pay.

"ah! che la norte'."

Perhaps one source of the alarming increase of the
Cattle Plague, particularly among the older beasts,
may be traced to the Music Publishers. When
such a lot of tunes appear every week, is it any
wonder that old cows should die off so rapidly ?

PARALYSIS IN THE PEAS.

Beware how you try the effect of strychnine, prussic acid, or any
other poison, on a rabbit, or a guinea-pig. Have the fear of the
Anti-Vivisection Act before your eyes. If you want to try experi-
ments with poisons on a living animal try them on yourself.
Should you kill yourself, unintentionally, the law will acquit you of
suicide, as it does not forbid any donkey to experiment on a
donkey.

Suppose, for instance, you want to know what is the effect of
repeated small doses of copper upon the human system, take a frac-
tion of a grain of the sulphate or acetate of that metal once a day
continually till you discover. Ultimately you will find it produce
paralysis. You will lose the use of your hands or legs, or one side or
more, of your body. Salts of copper will paralyse you sooner than
even salts of mercury. But you must take them in minute quantities.
In large doses they mostly rid you of themselves—copper acting like
antimony.

In order to take 'y°ur copper pleasantly, your best plan will
be to swallow it at dinner-time, daily, along with | green peas.
This you can do all the year round, as peas are always to be had
preserved in tins. You can mix your copper with your peas if neces-
sary. If the peas are of a dull, greyish, faded, ugly colour, there
is probably no copper in them, and you may have to put some. But
when their tint is a beautif ul bright green, then you may suspect that
there is plenty of copper in them to cause paralysis if persevered with
sufficiently long. The copper is mingled with the peas to make them
look pretty ; and few people seem to'be deterred by the fear of poison
from preferring pretty-looking peas to plain ones.

It is possible, however, that it may become rather less easy
than it; has been heretofore to procure tinned peas, which besides
being tinned are also coppered. Several foreign provision-dealers

have lately been'summoned before Mr. Knox, and, on medical evi-
dence, fined for selling tinned peas containing copper in dangerous
quantities. As they sold them in ignorance, they have been let off
with nominal fines, but in future vendors of coppered peas may
expect to incur a penalty of fifty pounds for each offence—and have

to Pay- ' . ,

Of course the multitude ignorantly eating peas greened with
copper must be, all of them, greener than any peas. Bright green
tinned peas may always be suspected of containing copper. If there
is any question on that point, it may be summarily settled by
pouring on the peas a little strong liquid ammonia, which, if copper
is present, will make them turn bluer than even their seller will
look when he is fined fifty pounds. So also with pickles; only the
vinegar of the pickles will require a large excess of ammonia. In case
there is no ammonia or other means at hand of determining whether
the greenness of peas or pickles is owing to copper or no, a philoso-
pher would give crpper the credit of the colour, and himself the
benefit of the dou

Hard Enough Either Way.

Our Turcophiles, than Turks who more Turk oft are,
Say Edhem is too soft—lacks Moslem ardour :

But Stamboul's rule were harder with a Sof ta,'
And scarcely would be softer with a harder.

more clerical errors than one.

With apologies to an "Old Subscriber," and to his Maidstone
readers en masse, Punch begs to explain that, in a paragraph
headed the " Pains and Penalties of Ritualism," " Maidstone " was,
by a clerical error, printed for " Folkestone."