MISCELLANY.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 57, 22 June 1908, Page 1

MISCELLANY.

HOW INSECTS "SPEAK." Are insects' dumb? They are, eajs Dr Henry McCook, if we thing of lani guage as a vocal medium for conveying thought and emotion from one individual to another. For insects have no true voice, • nor organ*, of speech, euoh as belong to "articulate speaking men." They also lack the means of uttering tho cries that characterise birds and brutes. But if we take language at simply an. understandable medium for ! expressing emotions, insects are thus endowed. They express emotions bj; bodily gestures. And mimetic language, though far more limited, is not less intelligible than vocal speech. Indeed, argues authority, a glance of the eye, a movement of the hand, a shrug of the shoulder, a stamp of the foot, * toss of the head, may betray in man the true thought or feeling, even when spoken language is used to conceal it. . v TELEGRAM. As it is alwayß interesting to know where and how a great invention had its' Origin, it may beunoted that Mr ! Marconi's first success in wireless tele* graphy occurred in a back garden in. Byswater. Some years ago Marconi was living with his mother in Talbot road, Byswater, and with very primitive appliances' was experimenting in sending electrical signals from the garden at the back of the house, where his mother used to sit with her needle-work-in summer, to a receiver which stood on the dining room table, the messages being sent by wire. One day he removed the connecting wire, and, to his great delight—if not altogether, 'to'his "Surprise—he succeeded in transmitting a signal to the dining room. Walking into the room, where his mother was at.the time, he said quietly, "There mother; it looks' as if I had done it'at last." A PAINTER'S PRACTICAL JOKES. ... Throughout his life George Morland, the great painter, was fond of practical jokes, mostly always, be it noted, of an amusing and innocent description. When a mere child, according to Mr David H. Wilson's most interesting biography of the artist, he used to draw beetles and chalk penciU on the floor and then watch his father stamp I upon the one and stoop to pick up the other. Tho housemaids he mischievousj ly terrified by drawing huge, ugly spidj ers on the ceilings. When he was a man he burgled his own house at dead of night to enjoy the fun of being given; into custody by his own folk, having first of all bribed the watchman to play his part. On another occasion, whilst' painting in' the country, he noticed some anglers fishing.' They had no luck, and, having left their lines in the water, retired to an inn for refreshment. During their absence Morland drew up the lines tfnfl fixed'to the hooks boots and shoes and other rubbish lying on the banks. The anglers on their return, delighted to see all their i floats sunk, eagerly drew in the lines, ; only to discover how they had been victimised. MEN IN OTHER WORLDS. Are there men in other worlds? Mr Alfred Russell Wallace, in his work "Man's Place in the Universe," arrives at the conclusion that the other worlds are not inhabited. Professor Simon Newcomb thinks they are, Dr Louis Robinson, in the .'Nineteenth Century,' says the. Martians, if there bo any, would not be recognised by u» as men and brothers. Beings who can perform gigantic labors, digging canals beside which the Mississippi iB a ditch, must have a chest development whictt would distort, them out of all semblance to humanity. If every physical condition under "which man; has evolved had been repeated oh some other orb, and the self-same chain of meteorological events reached on such living; organisms, as might there have sprung into being, even then the odds would remain incalculably great against the evolution of man,. Hence we*may say, with confidence, Hays Dr Robinson, that, whatever intelligent beings may exist elsewhere in the universe, they are totally different from human-kind.

" C-B's" PABENTAGB, How many people are aware of the fact that the late Sir Henry Campbell-Banner-man's father was once a ahdpassistant? The BtorV of the family fortunes is particularly interesting and romantic. James Campbell, Sir Henry's father, who ultimately became Lord Provost of Glaegow, and the exPremier's undo, William, were employed in a Glasgow shop, and one night hoard a lecture by Dr. Chalmers oa "Business Morality." The result of listening to that lecture was that tfafi two brothers set their faces once *sa fo> all against the two-price system, which was then in vogue at every shop. The brothers spoke forcibly about the matter to their employer, with the result that he offered them a loan of £SOO to start in business on their own account, marking the goods in the window at the same price at whieir thoy were to be sold. The brothers started a drygoods shop in Glasgow,' and it soon began to prosper so amazingly that when tho disruption of the Church came it was William Campbell who assisted the movement by- giving Dr. Chalmers (the i lecturer who had so influenced him) a cheque for £ip,ooQ. And it was James Campbell, who started in such a small way in Glasgow, who was the father of Britain's late Prime Miaifiter, Sir Henry Campbell-Bamier^n,