Science, Art, And The Drama.

Science , Art , and the Drama .

SOME POPULAR REMEDIES . ( Continued ) . The author of The Frugal Housewife states that the narcotic scent from the elder tree makes it unwholesome to sleep under its shade . Country people are much impressed with the value of the exhalation from hops as a remedy for sleeplessness . It has been found that those who sleep in hophouses are with difficulty roused from their slumber . A pillow stuffed with

hops is often used to induce sleep in the wakeful , but it frequently proves quite ineffective . The names of certain flowers indicate that they were considered to'have a miraculous or magical power . The St . John's wort was supposed to have tbe power of keeping off all evil spirits , of being a marvellous cure for various disorders , and of having great efficacy in maniacal cases . The flowers of the plant , when made into a salve , were much used

in villages in Kent for dressing wounds . The peony is called after P .-con , in Greek mythology , the physician of the gods . " In our own days , " says Ann Pratt , " anodyne necklaces are worn by children , which are believed to aid dentition , and to prevent convulsions ; and the beads are turned of the roots of one or other of the common peonies . " The rustic poet , John Clare , refers to superstitious customs connected with the fumitory , and the name

of the plant is derived from the Latin word funites , " smoke , " because it is said the smoke of this plant was , believed by the ancient exorcists to have the power of expelling evil spirits . The giant puff-ball , a species of fungus , is edible when cooked ; but if eaten raw , sometimes causes poisonous symptoms . Recent experience has shown that it is an excellent styptic for wounds . It has also been used

successfully for troublesome bleeding from the nose , small masses of the fungus being inserted into the cavity of the nostril . Its action is mechanical , like the cobweb ' s . Fishermen and others living by the sea are often not quick to discover and utilise the medicinal properties of plants to be seen every day beside them . Readers of Charles Kingsley's " Two Years Ago" will remember how old Dr . Heale , of Aberaton , a small fishing

town in North Wales , complains of his new assistant , Tom Thurnall , and the unbusiness-like manner in which he performs his duties in the surgery . A patient , supposed to be consumptive , enters the surgery , and Tom Thurnall tells him he ought to try Carrageen Moss . " There was a drawerful of it to his hand " ( grumbles the old doctor ) ; " had been lying there any time this io years . 1 go to open it ; but what was my feelings when he goes on

cool as a cucumber , ' And there's bushels of it here , ' says he , ' on every rock , so if you'll come down with me at low tide this afternoon , I'll show you the trade , and tell you how to boil it . ' I thought I should have knocked him down . " Carrageen , or Irish , moss is a seaweed growing plentifully on rocky shores in Northern Europe . After it has been washed in cold water and dried , it can then be boiled and made to form a pleasant

demulcentdrink suitable for colds , like linseed tea . Boiled in milk it is said to be good for fattening calves , and if milk be employed instead of water it can be made into a kind of blanc mange , and flavoured with sugar and spices . It has been much recommended for consumption on account of its nutritive properties , but these , it must be observed , have been much exaggerated . Another common seaweed — the bladder wrack

has been judged to possess entirely different virtues . When trodden on , it makes audible protest by a slight report , like that of a pop-gun , the air-bladders with which the fronds are studded , bursting under the pressure of the foot . An extract made from this seaweed forms the basis of a popular remedy for obesity ; yet a recent observer declares that pigs in Ireland are fattened on it for the market . Extensive

advertising , a showy label , and a high-soundirg or foreign name , go a long way to make a remedy popular . Painful nervous affections being so common to the denizens of large towns there is an urgent demand for " pain killing " medicines . Many of these " pain killers , " contain very strong poisons , and , unfortunately , their power to kill is not restricted to pain , if they are taken in immoderate doses . Some of the so-called "blood mixtures , " also

contain poisonous drugs . It is to be regretted that these popular remedies should be sold by grocers , drapers , and general store keepers , who may have as little knowledge of the action of drugs as their customers . The greater part are proprietary medicines ; but bearing a Government stamp , the public are often led to imagine that they are p 3 tent medicines , and they are vaguely so termed . A proprietary medicine is a secret remsdy , whereas

the composition of a patent medicine is certainly known , and can be seen at the Patent Office . Both , however , bear the Inland Revenue stamp , which , of course , g ives no guarantee of their efficacy or wholesomeness . In France , Germany , Italy , and Japan , more stringent enactments are in force . The Governments of France and Germany do not allow even chemists to sell secret medicines ; and , in Italy , they must be sold only by chemists , under the surveillance of the sanitary authorities , and with medical prescriptions . ( To be continued . )

Minor Artists And Architects In The Reign Of Elizabeth.

MINOR ARTISTS AND ARCHITECTS IN THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH .

( Continued . ) In Caius College is a good portrait , on board , of Dr . Keys , not in profile , undoubtedly original , and dated 1563 , : c ; atis sua :, 53 , with Latin verses and mottoes ; and in the same room hangs an old picture , bad at first , and now almost effaced by cleaning , of a man in a slashed doublet , dark curled hair and beard , looking like a foreigner , and holding a pair of compasses ,

and , by his side , a polyhedron , composed of 12 pentagons . I his is , undoubtedly , Theodore Havens himself , who , from all these circumstances , seems to have been an architect , sculptor , and painter ; and having worked for many > ears for Dr . Caius , and the College , in gratitude left behind him his own picture . In the gallery of Kmmanuel College , among other cid pictures , is one with an inscription , recording an architect of the same age , with the preceding head and hands , wiih a great pair of compasses . officein the of the barl of

Inabuuk belonging to the jewel , possession Oxford , Vertue found mention " of a fair bason and lair ( ewer ) guilt , the bason having in the bushel ( body ) a boy bestriding an eagle , and the ewer , of thewoikeof Giotestain , with gooses heads , antique , upon the handle , Bnd spoute , we-ghing together xx ounces . " In the same book was this n . tim-iandutn : " Remaining in the hands of Robert Brandon and Assabel PabUBge , the queen ' s goldsmith ' s , 4000 ounces of guilt plate , at 5 s . 4 d . the

Minor Artists And Architects In The Reign Of Elizabeth.

ounce , in the second year of the queen . A sketch of the history of the architecture in use , to the close of the reign of Elizabeth , will be appropriate , and worthy of notice . More interesting specimens of that peculiar style could not be adduced than the mansions erected by her ministers for their own residence . She rather encouraged that enormous expense in the noblemen of her court than set them any such example . She neither built nor

rebuilt any palace , for she considered that her father s magnificence had supplied them ; and excepting the gallerv at Windsor Castle , no Royal building claims her for its founder . The Earl of Leicester is said to have expended , £ 60 , 000 upon Kenilworth only , which sum will not bear the test of comparative examination . Of the palatial houses , finished before I 6 OJ , the following list will include those of greater celebrity in that era ; there

is undoubted authority for the names of certain individuals , as archrects , whose works are not exactly known at this period , but whose fame must have been acquired by the eminent talents they displayed in the age wherein they lived . Such names as Robert Adams , Bernard Adams , Laurence Bradshaw , Hector Ashley , and Thomas Grave are mentioned as holding tbe employments of architects , surveyors , or master masons to the Queen

and her nobili ty . r—Burleigh ... 1580 ... Lincoln—Lord Burleigh . 2—Kenilworth ... 1575 ... Warwick—Earl of Leicester 3—Hunsdon Herts—Lord Hunsdon . 4—Stoke Pogis . ... 1580 ... Bucks—Earl of Huntingdon 5—Gorhambury ... 1565 ... Herts—Sir N . Bacon .

6—Buckhurst ... 1565 ... Sussex—Lord Buckhurst . 7—Knowle ... 1570 ... Kent— do . 8—Cutledge ... 1560 ... Cambridge—Lord North . 9—Longleat ... 1579 ... Wilts—Sir J . Thynne . 10—Basinghouse ... 1560 ... Hants—Marq . of Winton . 11—Wanstead ... 1576 ... Essex—Earl of Leicester . 12—Wimbledon ... 1588 ... Surrey—Sir T . Cecil .

13—Westwood ... 1590 ... Worcester—Sir J . Pakington . 14—Penshurst ... 1570 ... Kent—Sir H . Sydney . 15—Kelston ... 1560 ... Somerset—Sir J . Hartington . 16—Toddington ... 1580 ... Bedford—Lord Chesney . 17—Hardwick Hall ... 1597 ... Derby—Countess of Shrewsbury . 18—Theobalds ... 1580 ... Herts—Lord Burleigh . In the above list the names , dates of their erection , their respective founders , are given ; subsequently we shall mention the respective architects and the present condition of such mansion . ( To be continued . )

Links With The Past.

LINKS WITH THE PAST .

During the last week many persons passing towards the City have wondered why the large hoarding was being erected around the church of St . Clement Danes . The reason is that the churchyard is shortly to become part of the new thoroughfare , now in the course of formation , from the Strand to Holborn , and in consequence the bones of those who have lain so quietly for generations , amid the turmoil ot the London streets , are

to be removed to the more peaceful surroundings of Woking . Needless to say , a church in the situation of St . Clement , was a favourite place of burial in the days of our ancestors , when little was understood of the laws of sanitation , and between 1822 and 184 S there were no fewer than 2759 interments in the churchyard , 705 in the poor ground , and 213 in the vaults . The registers of the parish date from 1558 , and having been exceedingly well

kept and legibly written , are of the greatest interest . Among the names which are now seldom given , to be found in the fading handwriting , are those of " Syrophenissa , " " Venus , " and the pretty old English name of " Cicely , " while on the authority of the late Mr . Diprose , who may be well termed the historian of the parish , in 1567 two boys were baptised with the familiar names of "Richard Cobden " and " John Bright . " Perhaps the

most noted personage buried in St . Clement is Bishop Berkley , who was described by Pope as having " every virtue under Heaven , " if we are to discard a tradition that Harold Harefoot , eldest son of Canute , found a resting place within the walls of the ancient church . The word " Danes " is supposed to have been added on account of the fact that in the days of Canute , the Danes formed a colony in the neighbourhood , and there is

another memorial of this in the adjacent Dane ' s Inn , though , of course , now rebuilt out of all knowledge . The last burials which took place were on 19 th June , 1 S 53 , and five years later , further interments having been prohibited by an Order in Council , the coffins were piled up in one portion of a vault , which was bricked up . It is a somewhat curious fact that an admiral had paid , £ 250 for the right of his family ' s interment in a particular vault only a couple of years before the Order in Council alluded to

rendered further burials unlawful . Among the more or less illustrious dead , we find the name Hippocrates Otthen , the son of a physician Qjeen Elizabeth sent for . Bishop Berkley is not the only bishop who rests within the sacred precincts , as , according to Stow , two bishops of Exeter were also interred there , the inscriptions in the old church bsing , " Hie jacet Johannes Arundel ! , Episcopus Exon , " and "Corpus VeneraDilis , F . Booth , Legum Baccalaureus , Episcopus Exon . " This church will ever De deir to Englishmen for its connection with Dr . Johnson .

General Notes.

GENERAL NOTES .

A recent loss to the theatrical world is that of Mr . Chas . L . Canon , for so long the editor and part-owner of the Stage newspaper . Carson hid in his younger days been himself a professional , and that , no doubt , was what made his direction of the Stage so particularly practical and benefi : ent . He was very popular with players , and deserved his popularity .

London playgoers have reason to bs thankful that Mr . Binson has included " Coriolanus " in his scheme of performances at the Comedy . It is announced for the evening of 13 th February , and will be played on certain days of the week till 25 th February . It will be a welcome " appetiser " for the revival which Sir Henry Irving promises for April at the Lyceum .

A grand concert will be given at the Guildhall , City , on i 6 : h February in aid of the funds of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution . Midame Albani , Mr . Lloyd Chaidos , and other emine . it artistes have already promised their services .