Dr. TURNBULL says in the _Medical Gazette_, "It has struck me that, if we could discover any substance which could be so applied as to contract the _iris_, one cause of the effect of shortsightedness would be remedied. The result, I am happy to say, has been most satisfactory. In the first instance I applied the extract of ginger, which was rubbed five or ten times over the whole forehead, with the view of acting upon the fifth pair of nerves. Afterwards I substituted a concentrated tincture, of the strength of one part of ginger to two parts of spirits of wine, decolorated by animal charcoal. In numerous cases this application has almost doubled the vision." * * * * * Mr. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK has presided over a temperance meeting at Bristol. He maintained in his address that if Shakspeare were alive now, he would be of their society! "In 'Othello,' there was the character of a bad man, one Iago, who, setting himself to work the ruin of another, begins by making him drunk, and when it is first offered to him the answer is, 'Not to-night, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of entertainment.' They would re-echo that wish, he was sure; courtesy might invent a better custom of entertainment than that of drinking"--(applause). We observe that the meeting gave three cheers for "The Bottle." A stranger to modern engravings would no doubt consider this in the last degree inconsistent. * * * * * We find in the London papers accounts of a Copying Electric Telegraph, invented by a Mr. Bakewell, who had given lectures upon it at the Russell Institution. Its object is the transmission of the _handwriting_ of correspondents. Its advantages are, freedom from error, as the messages transmitted are fac-similes of the originals: authentication of the communications by the transmission of copies of the handwriting; increased rapidity, to such an extent that a single wire may be as effective as ten with the needle telegraph, and consequent economy in the construction of telegraphic lines of communication. The secrecy of correspondence would also be maintained in a greater degree by the copying telegraph, as it would afford peculiar facility for transmitting messages in cipher, and the telegraph clerks, instead of being compelled by their duties to read all the messages transmitted, might be forbidden from perusing any portion but the address. As an additional means of secrecy, the messages may be transmitted invisibly, by moistening the paper with diluted muriatic acid alone, the writing being rendered legible by a solution of prussiate of potass. * * * * *