Miscellaneous.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 503, 10 January 1906, Page 7

Miscellaneous.

MEXICO is the only Amerioan rapublio in whioh divorces are not granted.

A Russian has invented an ioe-plougb. oapabla of breaking through ioe from 12in, to 20in. thiok.

Indian elephants oannot live in Central Afrioa, whioh is the home of a larger and stronger speoies.

The coronation robe presented to the Empress of Russia was of fur. It weighed only 16oz„ yet was worth £1,200, or £75 per ounoe.

In Alaska even the dogs are required to wear shoes. This is to proteot their feet againßt the rough mountain ioe over whioh they have to travel.

In the thirteenth century all the brewers and bakers were women. When men began to take up these trades, they were known as ' men brewers' and «men bakers.'

Swiss steamboat companies, to avoid disputes as to the age of children, have established measurement rules, Under 2ft. in height go free; ohildren under 4ft. din. and dogs pay half fare.

There are parts of Spain where the bat is unknown, except in pictures. The men, when they need a covering, tie up their heads, and the women use flowers.

Siuoe the progreßß of photographing upon silk and linen has been brought to such perfection in France, many persons have their portraits upon their linen instead of tbeir names or initials. The portraits are not injured by washing. A curious street oar line is that between Atami and Yoshihoma, two coast towns in the province of Izie, Japan. The line is seven miles long, the rolling stock consists of a single car, and the motive power is furnished by a oouple of musoular oooiias, who push the oar along wherever power is necessary, When the oar oomes to a down grade they jump on and ride, HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS. Berlin and Hamburg are about 155 miles apart in a straight line, with level oountry between presenting as good a field for a high-Bpeed railway as any to be found in Europe. One is now being talked about on the Berlin-Zessen plan, whioh has shown that a speed of 120 miles an hour was practicable and safe, and two companies—the General Eleotrio and that of Messrs. Siemens and Halske—have submitted bids on it. At present the time of express trains is three hours, the slower ones taking from five to six and a half hours. _>_ EXTRAORDINARY DENTISTRYPerhaps the greatest dental operation on reoord was performed upon an elephant some years ago in the city of Mexico. The aohing tooth was twelve inches long and four inohes in diameter at the root. After Mr Elephant had been seourely fastened by ohains his mouth was prised open; and a quantity of cocaine applied to deaden the pain. When this was done, a hole was bored through the tooth and an iron bar inserted. Then a rope was twisted around the bar and four horses attaohed. The reoord does not state what the elephant said after the operation, but let us hope that he was grateful if nothing else. EAR-RINGS FOR CATTLE. One often sees a bull with a ring in its nose, but to meet a cow with ear-rings; is not suoh an everyday ooourrenoe. Earrings were never made for oows, but every cow in Belgium must wear them now, for a regulation has been issued that ail animals of the bovine species are to be thus adorned on reaohing the age of three months. This is a hygienio measure intended to prevent the introduction into Belgium of animals suffering from tuberoulosis. Breeders are obliged to keep a striot aeoount of the animals raised by them, and the ring, on which is engraved a number, is fastened in the animal's ear for the purpose of preventing the substitution of one animal for another.

A BIG BOWL OF-'BUHCX. In 1694 Admiral Edward R<l3& 11. commander of the English Mediterranean Fleet, entertained six thousand people in a large garden in Alicante, where he served the largest bowl of punch ever brewed. It contained twenty gallons of lime juice, four hogsheads of brandy, one pipe of Malaga wine, twenty-five hundred lemons, thirteen hundredweight of fine white sugar, three paokages of toasted bisouits, fiftyone pounds of grated nutmegs, and eight hogsheads of water. The whole was prevented from dilution in case of rain by a large oanopy, which spread over a marble fountain bowl which held the punoh, Tbo punch was served by a boy, who rowed about the basin of the fountain in a boat built for the purpose and refilled the ompty oups, THE ORIGIN OF LlfE. Sir Oliver Lodge has his doubts as to the possibility of life being engendered out of death: —' Life may be something not only ultra-terrestrial, but even immaterial something outside our present categories of matter and energy; as real as they are, but different, and utilising them for its own purpose. What is certain is that life possesses the power of vitalising the complex material, aggregates which exist on this planet, and of utilising their energies for a time to display itself amjd terrestrial surroundings; and then it seems to disappear or evaporate whence it oame. It is perpetually arriving and perpetually disappearing. While it is here the animated material body moves about and strives after many objeots, some worthy, some unworthy; it aoquires, thereby, a certain individuality, a oertein character. It realises itself, moreover, beooming oonsoious of its own mental and spiritual existence; and it begins to explore the mind which, like its own, it oohoeiveß must underlie the material fabrio—half-displayed, half-poncealed by the environment, and intelligible only to a kindred spirit. Thus the soheme of law and order dimly dawns on the nasoent soul, and it begins to form clear oonoeptions of truth, goodness, and beauty; it may aohieve something of a permanent value, as a work, of art or of literature; it may enter regions of emotion and may evolve ideas of the loftiest kind ; it may degrade itself below the beasts, or it may soar till it is almost divine. Is it the material moleoular aggregate that has of its own unaided latent power generated this individuality, acquired this oharaoter, felt these emotions, evolved these ideas ? There are some who try to think it is, There are others who recognise in this extraordinary development a oontaofc between this material frame of things and a universe "higher and other than anything known to our senses; .a universe where the human spirit is more at home than it is among these temporary- oollooations of atoms; a universe capable of infinite development, of noble contemplation, and ot lofty joy, long after this planet—nay, the whole Solar System—shall have fulfilled its present spire of destiny and retired oold and lifeless upon its endless way,'