GENERAL INFORMATION.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1988, 14 May 1906, Page 7

GENERAL INFORMATION.

I The of sickness In ■ ; human life is thirftKm^days. ~ . i About 1.20U persons haVg. been buried in Westministei Abbey. i | In normal respiration the air is ’> expelled from the chest at the rate ■ of four feet per second. ■ I 1 ! It is claimed that Lake Erie proj duces more fish to the square mile than any other body of water in the world. Nearly 5,000 orphans or waif chil- ’ j dren arc always being maintained, j educated, and taught trades in the I Barnardo Homes. ■ I . Washing is done in Japan by getting into a boat and allowing the garments to be washed by being dragged after the boat by a long string. * The farmers of the Falkland Isles | are offering rewards for the destruc- ! lion of wild geese, who increase and i multiply to such an extent as to threaten the subsistence of the sheep. —*r — India-rubber trees that are lapped every other day continue to yield sap j for more than twenty years : and it is a curious fact that the oldest and most frequently tapped trees produce the richest sap. * Madame Adelina Patti often declines to speak on a day when she is engaged to sing during the evening ; she regards this as absolutely necessary for the preservation of her beautiful voice. T The value of a prisoner's labour (apart, from prison service) is a ve*y instructive figure. In a. local prison such labour is valued at £6 per year ; in a convict prison. £l9 per year ; in an inebriate reformatory £2. ♦ V So great is the demand for “Yarmouth” bloaters that, besides those that are home-caught, huge consigni ments of herrings are regularity brought over from Norway, to be smoked in Yarmouth, and thense sent all over England. • V The London Hospital dispenses 2,500,000 pills and about three tons of cough lozenges per annum. In dressing for the patients during the twelve months 92 miles of lint. 470 miles of bandages, 9 miles of plaster and six. tons of cotton wool arc required. The largest counsel's fee for legal work ever known was paid to Mr. William Cromwell, of the American Bar, who appeared for the French shareholders in the Panama Canal case. He received 5 per cent. of the purchase-money, or a sum of £4O, 000. * The British Empire occupies about one-fifth of the surface of the habitable globe, and consists of the United Kingdom, with its attendant islands, and about forty-three dependencies under separate and independent Governments, varying in size from Canada, which is thirty times the size of the United Kingdom, to Gibraltar, the area of which is two square aalee 1496.