A. J. Pattison.—There is no drug known which will reduce corpulency without harm. Very few drugs indeed influence obesity at all, and the few drugs which do have an influence cannot be taken with safety. Look at the drug you suggest, for instance; bromide of ammonium is an exceedingly powerful drug. It has no influence whatever upon the absorption of fat, save that which results from its depressing effects upon the organism. Even if it did cure corpulency, it would be inadvisable to take it, for, however annoying obesity may be, it is nothing compared with the condition which arises from taking bromide habitually. Have nothing whatever to do with drugs, they will only do you harm. It is by dieting and exercise that obesity must be kept in check.

A Winter Sufferer.—A few weeks ago we gave a long answer about chilblains. The remedy you suggest, hazeline, is an exceedingly useful application to unbroken chilblains, especially in those cases where chilblains develop in persons in whom the circulation is perfect. It is less useful for chilblains connected with anæmia or feeble circulation. It should not be used as a dressing for broken chilblains.

Clairette.—We will give the treatment of “relaxed throats” in full as we have not given advice on this subject lately. Avoid talking too much. Avoid highly-spiced food, cayenne pepper, sauces, pickles, etc. Do not take very hot or very cold food, nor boiling soups, nor tea, nor ices, nor iced drinks. Avoid draughts as far as you can. Never sleep with your mouth open. Do you breathe through your nose? If you do not, you must have your nose seen to. Mouth breathing is the commonest cause of catarrh, and relaxed throat is only a mild form of chronic catarrh. The best applications for the throat are a two per cent. solution of alum in glycerine and water, and a one-in-eight solution of menthol in paraleine. These may be used either as paints applied with a brush to the throat, or as a spray with an atomiser. Gargling is no good whatever, for in this process none of the solution can get further back than the tonsils. An astringent lozenge, such as the rhatany and black currant, or the compound liquorice lozenge, is very useful, and will relieve the cough and soreness, and diminish and relax the expectoration.

A Martyr to Dyspepsia.—Fruits vary very greatly in the ease with which they are digested. Taken as a whole, uncooked fruits are difficult to digest, and should only be taken by dyspeptics in moderation. The most digestible of fruits are grapes, especially the yellowish-green ones. It is hardly necessary to tell you that you must be careful not to swallow either the seeds or the skins. Apples and pears are fairly easy to digest, but of course they must be peeled and cored. Raspberries, mulberries, blackberries, currants, and gooseberries are also fairly digestible if they are fresh. Perhaps if these fruits did not contain seeds they would be very digestible. Stone fruit is difficult to digest. Melons, pineapples, meddlers and wall-fruit rarely agree with dyspeptics. Strawberries agree well with some persons; in others the first dose of strawberries in the year is followed either by symptoms resembling mild typhoid, or else by a peculiar nettle-rash. Every summer we have quite an epidemic of nettle-rash due to strawberries. Nuts should never be taken by dyspeptics. Oranges and lemons are digested easily by most persons. Fruit is undoubtedly more wholesome and less liable to disagree if it is cooked: but some persons cannot bear the flavour of cooked fruit. Dried fruits are very indigestible, for they are dry and hard and impregnated with sugar. Jams and marmalade are very good, and may be partaken of by most dyspeptics.

Lydia.—The chief sulphur waters are those of Harrowgate and Strathpeffer in this country, and Aix-la-Chapelle, Kissingen, Enghien, Bonnes Barèges, Cauterets, and Challes abroad. Of these Harrowgate and Aix-la-Chapelle are the most popular and the most generally recommended. There are “baleanologists” who think that each and every mineral spring has special virtue of its own; but to the ordinary physician the natural waters are arranged in groups, of which the various constituents are much alike. For most things one sulphur-water is as good as another, but do not expect any of them to do what it is advertised to do.

Emily Cave.—Certainly, if you are healthy and like gymnastics, by all means join a gymnasium. But don’t overdo it and tire yourself out. Remember that at your age you must start very gradually, and beware of overstraining yourself.

An Italian Girl.—Obviously it is to your parents that you should go for advice. If you lay your troubles before them, they will counsel you. It is impossible for us to help you in the matter. We advise you to read the article on “Blushing and Nervousness,” which we published a short time back.

E. V. O.—1. You must not be disappointed when we tell you that it is a very usual thing for friends and relations to be favourably impressed by the poetry composed by younger members of the family, and to hope for their future literary success; but the power of stringing rhymes together is also very usual, and we cannot encourage you by any glowing prophecy. Do not however suppose that we dissuade you from writing in leisure moments for your own pleasure. “Home” and “alone” do not rhyme.—2. Would you like to take up the study of some language, e.g., Italian and its literature? or Greek? We suggest a language as you say you do not care for music, drawing, or painting. You might take lessons in wood-carving; or learn cookery as a fine art. There is always abundant opportunity for those who are willing to work among the poor. To be eighteen, and have all your time on your hands, is a great responsibility! For opportunities of technical education, write to the secretary, Technical Education Board, St. Martin’s Lane, W.C. If we knew your character and capacity, we could of course advise you more definitely.

Juliet and E. M. P.—“The Bishop and the Caterpillar” first appeared in a number of the “Boy’s Own Paper.” If you write to the Boy’s Own Paper Office, 56, Paternoster Row, enclosing 6d., and 2d. postage, you will doubtless be able to obtain it. It is also to be found in Alfred Miles’ Platform Reciter, part 1. E. M. P.’s handwriting would be improved by more care and regularity.

S. B.—Many thanks for your amusing jeu d’esprit on the varying styles of punctuation.

E. W. H.—Browning and Tennyson are most emphatically not “minor poets.” Some consider Wordsworth as greater than either. Scott, as a poet, would rank below these three. It is a difficult matter to appraise poets exactly, as you suggest, but the work of Wordsworth, Browning, and Tennyson stands in the foremost rank of English literature.

E. M. M.—1. You cannot certainly “take lessons from the Royal Academy or College without entering.” To take lessons is to “enter.” But you can be examined at a local centre by the Associated Board of both institutions. The cost of training at the Royal Academy of Music is £11 11s. per term, with an entrance fee of £5 5s. The fee at the Royal College is £40 a year.—2. Only two questions, please. Your age would be all right. Apply to the Secretary of either institution for fuller details.

Bluebird.—There are numerous collections of temperance recitations. “The Geese” is a favourite recitation, but requires two characters. A “Reciter” of Alfred H. Miles’ series (6d. each) would probably suit you. Inquire at any bookseller’s.

Alofa.—1. Your verses are perhaps a little above the average of those sent to us for criticism. It is pleasant to see the beauties—too seldom appreciated—of our suburban common-land made the subject of a poem. One line is faulty—

where, as you will observe, a forced emphasis on “un” must be used to make the line scan. But for this error, we should say that verse—the second—was the best. Perhaps the first now deserves most praise.—2. We can hardly encourage you to persevere in writing “realistic fiction” without seeing a specimen of your work, but from your poem, and your pleasant letter, we should judge you had some talent.

Georgina.—We presume that yours are the poems signed “M. D. A.” In the great accumulation of MSS., it is a help to us if the same name or pseudonym marks both letter and manuscript. There is much that is defective in the form of these two poems; but the idea embodied in both is striking. We should advise you to study the laws of poetic form, and then perhaps try to express these ideas in a more finished way.

Fidelia.—We are much interested by your letter, and applaud your desire for self-improvement. We think the series of articles now appearing in the Girl’s Own Paper by Mrs. Watson on “Self-Culture for Girls” may help you. You are wise in supposing that if you indulge in desultory reading alone, it will spoil your taste for solid reading, and interfere with your power of concentration. At the same time you must remember the old proverb about “all work and no play.” We should recommend you to begin by reading one of Scott’s historical novels, e.g., Ivanhoe; or The Cloister and the Hearth, by Charles Reade; or, better still, Kingsley’s Heroes, and then follow on the line of study suggested if it appeals to your taste. But we think you are under a misapprehension as to the expense involved in joining the National Home Reading Union. Apply, at any rate, for full particulars to the Secretary, Miss Mondy, Surrey House, Victoria Embankment, London.—2. Your letter is well composed, and your writing is decidedly good.

Samaritan (Art and Designing).—To pursue any branch of artistic design successfully, you would need to give all your time to it. And we are obliged to admit that, outside the chief centres of artistic production, it is not easy for a draughtsman or woman to find employment. Perhaps in your own town there may be some firm of lithographic printers. In that case, it would be well to inquire what kind of work the firm could use, and then try to supply the class of design needed. Some artists in London (including one or two ladies of talent) combine such work as the designing of book-covers, illustrations, head and tailpieces, initial letters, etc., with the drawing of picture-posters. Nor is this work confined to the Metropolis. A gifted artist in Liverpool has designed beautiful wall-posters for the announcement of picture exhibitions, and he has not even scorned other kinds of decorative advertising. Does not this give you an idea? Might not you at least endeavour to do something of this sort in your own part of England? Find out who are the colour printers who produce the large fashion-plate figures which probably cover the hoardings in your own locality in order to announce the attractions of the leading draper. See whether you cannot do something that is prettier and equally effective, and then submit your specimen to these printers. But do not forget that you must draw and paint in a very broad style, and use the fewest possible colours. Content yourself with red, black, and a neutral or flesh tint, or some such combination. If you prefer to attempt drawings on a smaller scale, you could design Christmas cards, menus, almanacks, and the like. Messrs. Raphael Tuck and Sons, 72, Coleman Street, London, E.C., are among the largest manufacturers of things of this kind. Ideas, however, rather than coloured pictures are what they require.

Would-be Traveller (Nursing in India or Egypt).—There is no “hospital in London or Dublin where probationers are trained for nursing in Egypt or India.” The best course for a nurse to pursue who wishes eventually to obtain an engagement for foreign service is to enter one of the large London hospitals as a probationer, and afterwards apply to enter the Army Nursing Service, and spend a year or two at Netley. The rules of the India Office, however, only stipulate that a nurse must have had at least three years’ preliminary training and service combined in a hospital in which adult male patients receive medical and surgical treatment, and in which a staff of nursing sisters is maintained. Your best plan at the present time would be to seek admission as a probationer to the London Hospital, St. Thomas’s, or St. Bartholomew’s.

Louise (General Hospital for Training).—The London, St. Thomas’s, Guy’s, St. Bartholomew’s, and King’s College Hospitals are among the best hospitals in the Metropolis for a nurse to enter who desires general training. Regular probationers (that is to say, those who do not pay for training) must be between 25 and 35 years of age, and are trained for two years on the agreement that they remain in the service of the hospital for a third year. They receive a salary of £12 for the first year, and £20 for the second. Paying probationers pay a guinea a week for training, and should be between 22 and 40 years of age. The rules in the other hospitals mentioned differ in detail, but resemble these in general principle. Most of the good London hospitals, however, are so besieged with would-be probationers that we often think a girl is wise who enters a first-rate infirmary by preference. The Birmingham Infirmary and the Brownlow Hill Infirmary, Liverpool, are both most excellent, and several London Infirmaries, notably those in Chelsea and St. Marylebone, are much to be recommended.

A Constant Reader (Domestic Help).—This is a matter concerning which you would need the assistance of some good registry office. It is outside the scope of our correspondence columns.

Stenographer.—We fear you may have a struggle to support your husband and son in this country by your own unaided exertions as shorthand writer and typist. Still, we believe it might be done if you are very efficient and ready to undertake work at all times and seasons, and to do it often under conditions of great pressure. If at first you could manage to join a lady who already has an office, and act as her chief assistant, we think that might be wisest, as we assume that you have no means of setting up an office of your own. You ought to stipulate for a fixed salary and a certain percentage on the business done by the office. If you simply went out to work on your own account, you might look to receive a guinea a day for first-rate verbatim reporting of meetings, etc.—but orders of this kind are only occasional—or from £1 10s. to £2 a week if you were competent to take an important secretarial post to a society. Merely as a stenographer and typist you would probably not receive so much. Altogether we fear you will have a hard struggle to make a living for three persons.

E. M. B.—What you really mean are “cheese straws,” and if you had looked for them by that name, you would have found them, we are sure. They are made as follows:—2 oz. of butter, 2 oz. of flour, 2 oz. of parmesan cheese, 1 oz. of cheddar cheese, 1 egg, salt, red pepper. Put the flour into a bowl, and mix with it the salt and pepper, the grated cheese, and the butter, and, with the yolk of the egg, make into a smooth paste, rather stiff. Then roll it out into a strip of about five inches long, and about an eighth of an inch thick. Cut into strips of equal sizes, and also some rounds for rings. Grease a tin and put them on it, and bake in a hot oven for ten minutes till of a pale brown. To send to table, put the straws through the rings like a bundle of sticks, and hand round in a silver dish.

Flora.—As we are quite old-fashioned people, we should say, “Never marry without your mother’s consent,” and certainly do not worry yourself about matrimony as long as you write so dreadful a hand and distribute your capital letters so recklessly. Of course, marriage is an important subject, but we can dispense with capital letters when we inquire At What Age We May Marry Without our Mother’s Consent. In point of fact, dear foolish Flora, you are of age at twenty-one, and, in a restricted sense, are at liberty to do all sorts of silly things, which we hope you will avoid doing. As a Christian, you are only free in so far as you honour your parents.

Susan.—There is a demand for capable women at Vancouver (Canada) at good wages, and laundresses are specially wanted. “Intermediate class” fare to Halifax amounts to £7, and other emigrants to £5 only. There are lodging-homes at Montreal, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Mothers’ helps find situations in the North-West. Women starting from London assemble at 53, Horseferry Road, Westminster, the night before embarkation. If starting from Liverpool, they must sleep at Bromborough House, 10, Great George Square, where they will be met and conducted on board ship. Women desiring to emigrate should make application to Miss Bromfield, Friary Cottage, Winchester, or to Miss Lefroy, Imperial Institute, London, S.W., so as to obtain “protected emigration.” The fares for South Africa, Rhodesia, and New Zealand, are more expensive. Lady nurses, members of the Church of England, having had three years’ training, would find engagements at the Kimberley Nurses’ Home, at a salary of £60 per annum, and all found. Those holding “L. O. S.” are preferred.

Rose.—1. You should read our present series of articles on “Etiquette,” by Lady William Lennox.—2. We fear that the present is by no means a good time for selling pictures of any kind. All artists seem to complain of difficulties in that way.

Learner.—“Buddhism” can scarcely be called a “religion,” since it does not acknowledge a Deity, although paying divine honours to their supreme teacher and his effigies. The system was founded about 2,500 years ago by Guatama Buddha, reputed by his followers to have been the son of Sudhodana, King of Kapilawastu, a region at the foot of the mountains of Nepal, Central India. The name Guatama was given to distinguish the great teacher, as his family belonged to the chain of the Guatamas. Sidhartha was his real name, and “the Buddha,” or “the Enlightened,” his self-assumed title. He set out on a proselytising mission to Benares, the sacred city of the Brahmins, and so successful was he, that by the third century B.C. his tenets became the so-called religion of India. Ceylon was the first new country that accepted his teaching, and then followed Siam, Burmah, and China, the latter mission dating about 100 years B.C. Buddhists have a sacred book called the Tripitika (or three baskets), the first, or Sutras, containing the discourses of Buddha, recorded from memory after his death; the second, or Vinaya, having reference to discipline and morality; the third, the Abhidarma, or metaphysics. Their moral code is very pure, but always remember they deny the existence of a God.

Queenie Desmond.—The word mandoline is thought to be derived from the Latin pandora, or the Greek pandoura, from Pan. But we must go further back for the origin of all instruments of the guitar class, which are said to owe their beginnings to the ancient viol, which was a six-stringed guitar. This instrument is called a psaltery in the Bible; and you will find in Smith’s Bible Dictionary an account of them. The words psaltery, or sautry, lute and viol, are all often found in the old English poets, and were all different, though alike. The first originals of the mandoline lie, probably, in the psaltery.

Bazaar (1) would find the quotations she needs for her book in any dictionary of quotations. We could not undertake so long a search.—2. For painting in oils on satin there needs no preparation, but in both cases, for either oils or water colours, the satin must be very tightly and evenly stretched on a drawing-board, or frame for water colours. Take one ounce of Nelson’s gelatine, and cover with cold water for an hour; pour off the cold water, and put a pint of boiling water to the gelatine, stir and dissolve quickly; then strain through muslin, and while still hot apply to the satin with a clean sponge. Go over the whole surface, making it not too wet, but rubbing it in. Rub with a piece of clean silk, and dry, stretched as you have placed it.

Essex and Lover of “G. O. P.”—We can obtain cross-stitch patterns for working in Weldon’s Work Series, an excellent paper of the kind, issued monthly, price twopence, at any newsvendor’s.

A Welsh Girl.—We should advise you to put glass over the panels. That would look the best, and be the most reliable preserver in such a position.

Lady Betty.—We do not know of anything better, nor more easy to obtain, than Weldon’s Practical Work Series, price twopence a number, at any stationer’s.