RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 114, 7 February 1930, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS

LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Cosmos.)

About the time one learns to make the most of life the most of it has gone. • » » If the Prince of Wales gets married he'll be able to tell his bride just where to go, for a honeymoon. Middle age is that period in life when you frequently have occasion to try to recall what it was you ate the day before. o » * We hear that a certain Australian trade union recently ordered a “go slow” strike of its members, and was very much upset because the employers didn’t notice any difference. As a result of severe winter conditions in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan, U.S_A., wolves are now howling on the edge of bankrupt Chicago. Recently these animals were tracked to within an hour’s motoring run of the city, and Uve stock in the vicinity are reported' to be suffering from their depredations. It only requires a week or two of hard frost to make many of the larger cities of the world realise how near they are to the edge of beyond. Wolves have howled not only on the edge of Chicago, but on the edge of every capital in Europe. Incidentally, London, Edinburgh, Belfast, and a host of other towns In Britain have known the howl of the wolf. The only continents where the wolf has not yet penetrated are South America, South Africa, and Australia. At one time no country in Britain was free from them, and the King of Wales was forced to pay tribute to Britain to the tune of 300 wolf skins a year. Records of wolves continue in Britain until about A.D. 1500, and it may be assumed that they became extinct about that time.

In many of the remote districts of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales the wolf contrived to cling on till the middle of the eighteenth century. In the case of the continent of Europe, to this very day no capital city knows when it will next hear the howl of the wolf on its outskirts. In the cold snap on the Continent only last year wolves were reported near Paris. These brutes appeared in the Forest of Senlis, only 25 miles from the town. In Albania gruesome stories came through during the same' winter. In February, when a group of recruits for the. Albanian Army were marching from Permedl to Kontza, they were surrounded by fifty famishing wolves. After shooting seven of them ammunition ran out. Some of the recruits safely climbed trees, but eleven of them were torn to pieces and devoured.

Doctors are puzzled over the case of a girl whose muscles are inverted. When she laughs she means to cry, and vice versa. So closely are the muscles of the body related to the nervous system it is difficult to say whether in cases of this kind the nerves or the muscles themselves are to blame. There are numerous instances in which the muscles insist upon doing just the reverse to what is considered normal. Perhaps the most perplexing reversed action of a complicated system of muscles occurs in the case of so-called mirror writing. In these instances the patient Is Incapable of writing in the ordinary way. All writing is reversed in such a manner that it is only possible to read the result by holding it up to a mirror. Even Leonardl da Vinci was supposed to suffer from this defect to a limited extent. We know that he habitually wrote his notes in mirror-writing, whilst in some of his drawings it is thought that he must have been influenced in the same manner.

Mirror writing is often a sign of some form of disease, and in Leonardi’s case he suffered in later years from paralysis of his right side. In some cases it is found in children just learning to write, and instances in adults often occur when consciousness is suddenly switched off. During hysteria patients sometimes write backwards, whilst in some cases mediums are reputed to do so. Telegraphists have been observed jotting down mirror writing with their left hand whilst tapping out messages simultaneously with the right. In most cases patients realise that there is something wrong with their writing and cannot read it. On one occasion a patient spoke English but could only write Hebrew, and that backwards, whilst another girl habitually wrote in mirror-writing to her mother, but in a normal way to others. In certain well-kuown reflex modifications of the muscular system all sorts of upside down things occur, and serve as important tests in diagnosing disease. One well-known medical test is to tickle the sole of a patient’s foot. Normally, the toes flex on being tickled, but in certain cases they extend outwards.

The Maharajah of Patiala has declared that the Indian Princes cannot watch indifferently the growth in British India of revolutionary activities which might engulf them also. Considering that the Maharajah is the recognised head of the whole Sikh community. his opinions carry considerable weight. Sir Bhupinder Singh, Maharajah of Patiala, is only 39 years old and succeeded his father to his exalted position when he was only nine. Until be was nineteen, however, he did not receive full ruling powers. The intervening time was spent in most careful training and education. On attaining power he extended and amplified the progressive policies of his Council of Regency, and has always taken an interest in the moral and material welfare of his people. As the recognised head of the Sikhs, the Maharajah had enormous influence during the war in raising recruits, both in and out of his realms. Altogether his kingdom supplied no fewer than 28,000 troops, and 125 of these won battle distinctions. Interest in outside affairs has been a strong point in the Maharajah’s rule. Tn 1925 he represented the Princes of India at the League of Nations Assembly at Geneva. He is also interested in all foreign matters connected not only with his own kingdom, but with the British Empire as a whole. That Peary 20 years ago planned to organise an Antarctic expedition with airplanes is recalled by his old skipper, Captain Bob Bartlett. Considering the limitations of flying at that time, however, it is perhaps fortunate that the flight was not attempted. Byrd’s experience shows that it was no easy task even with a modern ’plane equipped witli instruments for navigation which had not been invented 20 years ago.