NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 154, 2 July 1927, Page 23

NEWS FROM ALL QUARTERS.

A THIRTY-TWO YEARS' SLEEP. Remarkable case of a woman who slept steadily for 32 years was reported some f time ago from Sweden. Karoline Karl*datter was a schoolgirl of 13 when she suddenly fell asleep over her books in the schoolroom. She slept for 32 years, and when she awoke found that her childhood and girlhood were long past, and that she was a middle-aged woman of 45. HEART BEATS. The bigger the body, the slower does the heart beat. The elephant's heart beats only 25 times a minute; that of the donkey 50 times. The normal rate is 70 for men, .80 for women, 00 for youth, 140 for a new born babe, 150 for a rabbit, and 175 for a mouse. Activity speeds np the beating of the heart. If you remain quietly in bed for a day or two you will have saved 20,000 beats. THEIR MAJESTIES BUY BRITISH PIANOS. Recently His Majesty has purchased a British grand piano for Buckingham Palace, while the Queen has bought for Sandringham a British reproducing piano. This is not the first time Their Majesties have recognised the qualit; of the piano of Britain, and it is gratifying assurance of their satisfaction with the instruments formerly purchased by them. FORTY YEARS IN BROADMOOR. The murder of a vicar by his cur-te is recalled by the death", at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, of Howard Gilbert Cooper, aged 73. Cooper was a curate at Cretingham, Suffolk, in 18S7, and lived at the vicarage. He killed the vicar while the latter was in bed, was tried at Suffolk Assizes in November, found insane, and sent to Broadmoor, where he has been since. At the inquest it was stated that Cooper, during the last three years, had crown more and more mentally weak. • * MILLIONAIRE OROERS IS SUITS. Mr. W. B. Leeds, the American millionaire husband of Princes* Xenia of Greece, was met by his tailor, the head of a London firm, when he landed at Southampton without either a passport or luggage. Mr. Leeds had cabled bis tailor when in midocean, ordering 16 suits, as well as four odd pairs of trousers, and had instructed him to hire a car at his expense, and meet him at Southampton. Mr. Leeds was to leave for America at the end of the week, and wanted to take bis 16 suits with him finished. MUSIC AND BURNEO MEAT. "She let the meat burn while she played the piano in the drawing room," said an employer at WiUesden Police Court, when his cook, Ada Cotton, summoned him for an alleged assault. She staled that he put her out of the house. The employer, who denied the assault, said that the cook also complained that the white tiles in the kitchen got on her nerves, and she asked to have the colour changed. Her last request was that the kitchen wall should be moved back four feet, and after that she was discharged. The summons was dismissed. RAT HUNT TRAGEOY. Mrs. Jessie Rae, wife of John Rae, blacksmith, Peterhead. Scotland, who was accidentally shot by her husband during a rat hunt, died in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Mrs. Rae, whose chicke had been preyed upon by rats, found a large rat in the hen-bouse. She called her husband to shoot it, but the rodent took refuge behind s barn near the henhouse. Mrs. Rae chased it ont and shouted to her husband, who was ready with a doublebarrelled gun at his hip, and, when he wheeled round to get a shot a tthe rat, which was near his wife, the gun was accidently discharged, and the pellets entered Mrs. Rae'a left leg. MAYOR'S BADGE STOLEN. The gold and enamel badge of office of the Mayors of Lambeth has been stolen by a burglar from the house in Clapham Road of Dr. R. S. Pearson, the present Mayor. The badge bears the coat of arms of the Borough of Lambeth. It was presented to the borough by Sir Edwin Durning Lawrence for use at dress and social functions when the mayoral chain is not worn. The burglar worked throughout the night while the Mayor and his household slept, and he stole jewellery worth several hundreds of pounds. The Mayor told a reporter that the thief had been into bis own room while he slept. "I am worried about the badge," said the Mayor. "The thief was very bold. He ransacked the rooms, and it appears to me selected just what he wanted and took it." With the badge of office was the chain worn by the donor s father. Sir William Lawrence, during his vear of office as Lord Mayor of London in '1902.

FRESH EGGS, » YEARS OLD. After being kept 30 years without preservatives some eggs belonging to Dr. C. £. Shelly, of Hertford, are still perfectly sound. Hearing of the ancient legend that hen's eggs laid on Good Friday remain fresh for a whole year. Dr. Shelly determined to test the truth of what he regarded as a mere superstitious belief. He told a "Daily Mail" reporter: "It is supposed that it was as a reward for the crowing of the cock that roused St. Peter's conscience that eggs hud on Good Friday would keep for twelve months. I found, however, that not only Good Friday eggs but those hud on any other day would keep, and not only for one year but for twenty. I still have some which I have kept for this long period, and, although they are now so dried up that they resemble lumps of burnt sulphur, they are quite fit for food." Dr. Shelly added that in the legend it was stipulated that the eggs to be kept must be absolutely clean. This is the soundest advice that could be given (he said), for if put away dirty the eggs would very soon be contaminated by bacteria. The only secret of keeping eggs without preservatives for years is to make sure that they are perfectly clean. I kept mine in a cardboard box in a room that in the summer is. flooded with sunlight.

WATER AND LIFE. If s man weighing 1501b. could be thoroughly dried out. he would weigh only one-third as much as before; he would have evaporated 100] be of water. Half the entire water content of the body is found in the muscles; bones are nearly half water; blood contains 90 per cent of water. ANTS WITH PARASOLS. A colony of parasol ants has arrived a, London Zoo from Trinidad, and will k.oh be seen raising a mushroom crop as a food supply. At present they are fashioning their underground chambers and tunnels. When this is completed, however, they will proceed to cut off, with their sharp, scissor-like jaws, circular pieces of 1-aves, which, after being carried below t-> a special bed, and nibbled into «mail fragments and packed so that they will Jerment and produce a crop of small mush* rooms. Sprays of rose and privet liavc been provided for the purpose, as wt-H as the pith of orange peel. It is their method of transporting the leaves which has earned for the ants their popular name, the circular pieces, whilst gnpinxl by the jaws, being carried over the head as though as a shield from the sun. DOG'S ANTIPATHY TO POSTMEN. The story of a dog's attacks on postmen was related at Glasgow Southern Police Court. The Fiscal stated that last December a black and white mongrel bit a postman while on his rounds, and the owner was instructed to keep the snimal under proper control. In April another postman on going to the house of the owner in Abbotefoid Place was attacked and so severely bitten on the leg that he went off duty. An agent said the animal was kept as a watch dog, and had never interfered with anyone except the postmen, biuce the last incident no letters had been delivered to the bouse, and he understood that the Post Office authorities had refused to continue delivery so long as the dog r* - s? ***; B *" ,e Aoonan issued an order for the destruction of the dog, without imposing any penalty upon the owner for failing to keep it under proper control. "SWEET" ADVICE. A young married woman summoned her husband at West Ham Police Station for assault and alleged that he attacked her because she slapped the baby. Mr. St. John Morrow: "Why slap a baby? The wile: Because she is continually pulling £«**■ off the table, and that must be stopped. The magistrate: It is rather drastic to beat a child. I suppose your T*"S * ot ""Wrw* *»tb you then. The wite: How would you like a child to pull things off your table? The magistrate: You are asking an awkward question. If n were marmalade, of course, it might be unpleasant-but take my advice, give Ae child a sweet next time ThTwife: *^! noom :* Be it? (Laughter.) The magistrate: This case will be ad' 3°™?*?"""Sr «° n «ne both of you and 000 t be silly. MAGISTRATE LIKES OARE-OEVIL BOYS. ASLIL *%?**• l^i L * mbeil, "»«irf«>Ae, £?«*• nxoghty boys who are brought before him, when be addressed a meeting on the subject of juvenile dchnqnency, at Clapham. "When 1 meet a boy who is companionable with grandmothers and aunts, and who has nothing T 1 »**»«* *"»." Mr. Scanlan said, "I always fed there is something wrong with but. I like a boy with a bit of devil ia turn, for he u the boy who will keep the empire going. My heart goes out to those boys who cone before me for playing footfoot from the ball myself whether it is in the street or anywhere else. In the sotaer «**w«w* Jwmsj 1 have spent in the pouce courts, I have come to the conelusion that the best material for dtisen. abip u contained in the boys who err in this way." MUSIC SOOTHES HOSPITAL PATIENTS. Music has recently been successfully used in a New York hospital for the purpose of engaging the thoughts of patients undergoing operations with local anaesthetics. Such patients are, of course. quite conscious during the operations, and music was conveyed to them by transmitting wires attached to a gramophone which was placed in a room 100 feet away, earphones completing the transmission. The president of the hospital wis announced the success of the sehane. The distance of the gramophone makes the music inaudible to the operating surgeon, but the patients undergoing these operations are declared to hare been much benefited by the diversion of their attention to its strains As to the curative value of music, this president also said that the American National Association for Music in hospitals had given last year in hospitals 10,090 musical programmes. MARRIAGE PROBLEM SOLVED. The Birmingham Stipendiary (Lord Ilkeston) gave bis decision in a case in which Wm. Read, of 57, Rosebcrry Street. Brookficlds. Birmingham, a tube drawer, was summoned for maintenance by Lilian Beatrice Read, of Speaking Stile Walk, Bath Row. When the case was before the Stipendiary formerly, counsel for the complainant said he knew that the defence was that there was no legal marriage. The matt —meanly, lie submitted—was pleading that as he was the son of the woman's first husband's sister be was not eligible to marry her, under the "prohibited degrees.'* The parties did not realise this at the time of their marriage. The question, therefore, that had to be decided was: "Can a widow legally marry the son of her first husband's sister?" Giving his decision. Lord Ilkeston said that it was quite clear that the man and woman stood within the prohibited degrees of relationship, and therefore there was no valid mania/ between them. DUAL ROLE PROBLEM. The question of allowing Mr. Brownlie, a street sweeper employed by Glasgow Cleaning Department, the neccssajy ume free from his employment ior the purpose of attending to his duties as a member of Glasgow Education Authority, was discussed st a meeting of the Glasgow Corporation. The Cleaning Committee pointed out that a special sub-committee, after having considered the matter, agreed to recommend that as continued and prolonged absence of an employee causes inconvenience to the department, the application by Mr. Brownlie be not entertained, but that he might be given an opportunity of making up night-shift work. Mr. Brownlie, however, was not-prepared to undertake night work, and he stated that if the terms of the committee's recomm«>dation were adhered te he would lw forced to give up his employment in the department. The committee's recomdation was carried by 44 votes to 34. GLASS PALACES FOR BABY FLIES. At Rothamstead, that world-famous agricultural station near Harpenden, a ceaseless war is waged against the hosts of malicious insects that destroy the food of man. This very useful war is divided into two campaigns—one directed against our "creepy and crawly" enemies. an«l the other against those equally sinister foes. the various fungi, blights and other plant diseases. The work of studying the methods of defence and attack of these tiny warriors is done in large glass-houses in which heat and moisture can be regulated to reproduce almost the exact conditions of any locality in the world. One of these crystal palaces is devoted entirely to the greenfly. An attempt is being made to discover a means of checking the alarming, increase of the species. It is known thct a greenfly injects a long "tongue" into the juicy part of a plant, and it is hoped to treat the soil in a way that, without injuring the plant, will give it a component to poison the hungry insect