MONETARY ITEMS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2486, 21 June 1909, Page 3

MONETARY ITEMS.

The word Money is from the temple of funo, Monita, in which money was first coined by the ancients. Pecuniary is from ptciut, a flock : flocks ind herds of animals being originally squivalent to money or things constituting wealth.

Cash, in commerce, signifies ready money ttr actual coin paid on the instant, as it is from the French word caissc, a coffer or thest in which money is kept. Pound was never a coin. The term was •riginally employed to signify a pound weight of silver ; but afterwards it was employed to mean twenty shillings in tale or by Wunting.

► Guinea took its name from the coast of Guinea, in Africa, whence the gold for it was originally brought. At fiyst the piece was current at twenty shillings ; afterwards It was equal to' twenty-one shillings, and itxpence, and finally settled at twenty-one •hillings. ya»— . .•wgsS.'A

Shilling and penny are both from Saxon words. The penny was first coined da silver, , ,

Groat was a name given to silver pieces equal to four pennies in value, coined by Edward 111. This word groat is a corruption of firosscs, or great pieces, and was given to distinguish this larger coinage from pennies or small coin.

Farthing is a corruption of fourthing, or the fourth part of a penny.

BON THE WEED.

Napoleon Bonaparte could never smoke, although when in Egypt he attempted several times to do so in order to please the people. On one occasion, when the Persian Ambassador presented to him, on behalf of the Shah, a very valuable and gorgeous pipe, " all diamonds and rare jewels,” Napoleon’s attendant filled the pipe, and a light Was applied; but in the way the Emperor went to work no smoke would have appeared until doomsday. He merely opened and shut his lips in the manner of a mechanical figure. The attendant ventured , to observe that his majesty was not proceeding in the usual manner, and showed him the correct way in which to manage his pipe of peace. But the inapt pupil persistently returned to his bad imitation of yawning, until tired and vexed with repeated failures heat last desisted, saying, “ Constant, do you light tbejjpipe, I cannot. ”* So said, so done. And we are informed that the pipe was returned to him with the tobacco burning at a furious rate and a tremendous amount of smoke. Soon veiled in vapour, the unfortunate Napoleon was again in difficulty; the smoke, which he did not know how to get rid of, went down his throat and ran up through his eyes and nose. As soon as he regained breath, he gasped the words, “ Take it away! What an infliction ! What pigs they must be who smoke! lam so ill!” And ill, wears told, he was for some time, afterwards renouncing for evermore the •' soothing weed.” -

THE MOON AND THE WEATHER.

The popular fallacy that the moon exerts an important influence on the weather is by no means confined to sailors. It is a very common remark among weather-wise people, “ There is a new moon to-morrow, we’ll be having a change of weather.” Another vill look up to that " orbed maiden, with white fire laden, whom mortals call the moon,” and with a shake of the head remark sententiously, "She’s on her back.” All this is sheer credulity.

Heat must accompany light, but the amount of heat the earth receives from the reflected light of the moon is quite imperceptible on the surface of the earth, and its influence on our climate nil. Our atmosphere absorbs four-fifths of the heat which enters it, and Professor Piazzi Smyth thought that, although at the surface of the earth the heat of the moon could not be detected, it might be apparent at a great altitude above the earth, where less heat would have been absorbed. Accordingly, in 1556, he tried the effect of the moon upon a thermopile at an elevation of 10,000 feet on the Peak of Teneriffe. There was no doubt now that heat accompanies moonlight, and Professor Smyth estimated the heat as equal to that emitted by the hand at a distance of three feet. Lord Rosse also made experiments, and concluded that the beating effect of the moon upon the earth is one eighty thousandth that of the sun. Professor Ball says : —” There is one widely credited myth about the moon which must be regarded as devoid of real foundation. The idea that the moon and the weather are connected has no doubt been entertained by high authority, but careful comparison has shown that there is no connection between the two." Another authority says:—“As regards the weather, it really seems absurd to speak of any connection between its changes and those of the moon’s phase. For the weather (even in New Zealand) 3* almost always changing; and the moon's phase does not change by jumps four times in a month, from new to half-full, from halffull to full, and so on, but is always and continually changing. ’•

In order to test the real value of the lan changes on the weather, the Greenwich observations for fifty years were carefully examined, and compared with prognostications founded on the moon's changes, and it was found that the numb tr of instance'. which the weather was in accordance ■.». o

ruch prognostications was fewer th .11 iff..-,./ Jn which it was not. Although the supposed! influence of the moop upon the weather is an absolute delusion, the influence of moor* light on vegetation, though feeble compared ffUb that of tfra tus, ig wttU estabfojwA