C. H. C.—No examinations are required for teachers in high schools; but of course preference is always given to those who have passed examinations, and they obtain better salaries. The senior or the higher Cambridge examinations for women would be the best, and would ensure a good position.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Marie.—Your having given your parrot meat has given her a taste for raw meat. Perhaps a chemist could suggest a wash or powder to shake in under the feathers, that would taste bitter and disagreeable and yet prove harmless. Possibly your bird is troubled with small vermin, which irritate the skin and induce it to pick at the roots of the feathers. Examine the skin and plumage. We have given a long recipe for destroying the vermin in canaries.
Tum Yum.—You had better buy a little bottle of oil-gold and paint your picture-frame with it. See our article, "Lissom Hands and Pretty Feet."
Erica Raeburn.—Your verses are not correctly written, but the sentiments expressed are good. When you make an adverb of the word "true" you should drop the final "e."
M. H. M.—Write or see a map-setter, such as Wyld, or any other of those in or near Trafalgar-square and Charing Cross. The ways and means of colouring and disposing of your maps will be explained to you by these people.
Peckham Rye.—The poet Wordsworth had an only daughter, Dora, married to Mr. Quillinan. She was burnt to death in 1847, and left two daughters. The bishops are nephews of the poet.
Pharmaceutical.—The word "Pharmacon" can be found in all Greek lexicons. It is probably of Oriental extraction. It originally meant any medicine taken internally or externally, and apparently its original signification was good—or, at all events, not bad. Then, secondly, it came, like the word "accident," to get a bad sense attached to it, and it was used for a "poisonous drug," from which is derived its third and last sense, an "enchanted potion," or "enchantment." In the New Testament the word is translated "sorcery," not "drugs." See Rev. xxii. 15.
Daffodil.—Pampas grass may be cleaned by putting it into a large vessel of clean cold water, when after some time all the dust and dirt will come out, and it may be lightly shaken till dry. It may also be bleached with chloride of lime.
Sunbeam.—Do not on any account do so dangerous a thing as to put paraffin oil on your hair. Besides, the very bad smell of the oil would be most offensive to others if not to yourself.