News in Brief.

Evening Post, Volume L, Issue 48, 24 August 1895, Page 1 (Supplement)

News in Brief.

Herr Runge describes an original method of determining latitude and longitude on land by means of a photographio camera. To take latitude, the camera ia placed in a weighted box, lens upwards, and floated in a second box, the position being fixed by an attachment. The lens being thus directed towards the zenith, the start are allowed to draw their trails over the exposed plate in one direction, and then the apparatus is turned through an angle of 180 degrees, and a fresh exposure is made. It is said that the results obtained by this-rongh-and>ready method are in wonderfully close agreement with the published latitudes of the places in which these experiments were conduoted. Nows has been received from the remote island of St. Kilda in a strange form. A tin canister seourely sealed drifted ashore. It contained letters addressed to different porouus, also a note asking the finder of the oanister to post the same, the price of stamps being enclosed. The note went on to state that severe weather had beea experienced on the island during the winter, aud that no births, deaths or marriages had occurred among the islanders since last year. The coal-black negro who recently had conferred on him the Victoria Cross was the first of his rcae to receive this honour. The man is a corporal in one of the West Indian regiments, which have been doing such splendid service on the West Coast of Africa. He saved the life of his command' ingfcfnoer by throwing himself in front of tho latter, and receiving in his own body the bullets that would have otherwise found lodgment in that of his captain. The latest hygienio craze in Paris is the nse of porous glass for windows. This is declared to possess all the advantages of the ordinary window framing, and while light is ad freely admitted as through the medium of common glass, the "porous" further admits air, too, the minute holos with whioh it is intersected being too fine to admit of any draught, while they provide a healthy, continuous ventilation through the apartment. An American Ship Canal connecting the Hudson with Long Island Sound, by converting tho Harlem River into a navigable waterway, has been opened with great rejoicings at New York. In Hamburg, the authorities tax a dog according to its size. It is estimated that the people of England spend £250,000 a day in furniture-moving. A burglar who entered a house in Connecticut was attacked and terribly injured by a pet lion cub. Chicago has 33 women's clubs. There ore 10,000 professional musicians in London. Twenty per cent, of the pupils in England are short-sighted Stammering is practically unknown among uncivilised people. A general abstract of marriages, births, and deaths registered in England in 1894, has been issued as a Parliamentary paper. It gives the following totals :— Population, estimated to the middle of 1891, 30,060,763 ; number of marriages, 226,109 ; number of births, 839,242 (males 462,700, females 436,542) ; number of deaths, 498,515 (males 251,896, females 242,619). One person in every seven in England has a deposit in the Post Office Savings Bank, and the average balance of each individual is £13 19s. sd. In Scotland the depositors are one in twenty-five of the population, and the average balance is £8 12s. 3d. In Ireland the proportion of depositors to population is the same as in Scotland, but the average balance is £18 14s. lid., or more than twice as great ; a very curious fact. A court dressmaker in West London was fined for employing young women during prohibited hours on a Saturday. For the defence it was stated that the customers, being members of the aristocraoy, desired to " attend promenades and that sort of thing on Sundays (including churoh)," and required their dresses made at the hut moment and in the latest fashion. Two very fine examples of the iguana t lizard have just been placed in the Reptile House at the London Zoological Gardens. It> is a beast that is not unknown there, but never, within recent times at any -rate, have two suoh beauties been on view. They cannot be far short of five feet in total length ; this, of course, inoludes the tail, which is rather a serious matter in lizard physiology. Sir Win. Windeyer, the Sydney Judge, was at one time connected with the Empire paper, his father before him having been a reporter on the Morning Chroniole, the Times, and other London papers, while his grandfather was the first recognised reporter in the House of Lords. Evaporated potatoes is the latest preserved food product of the Pacific coast. A Washington concern engaged in the business of preparing evaporated apples and prunes has been experimenting with potatoes and finds that, prepared in this way, they will keep good for an indefinite time, and retain practioally all their food value. In London the number of paupers receiving relief in the second week of June was 97,453. Pauperism in London has not reached so high a point as at present in the corresponding period of any year since 1873, and, with the exception of the years from 1866 to 1873, the existing figures have not been exceeded since 1856. The Birmingham Recorder recently passed sentences of six months' imprisonment on two men for maltreating a third with loaded life-preservers and firearms. They were inemborsof rival gangsof "peaky blinders," who stand atstreet-cornersto assaultpassersby or get up free fights with other gangs. The importation of spirits into our West African oolonies unhappily shows a steady and rapid growth. The Aborigines' Protection Society recently appealed to the British Government to establish a uniform tariff of at least 3s a gallon throughont its West African possessions. The Surrey Cricket Club is, indeed, a Colossus in the way of expenditure. One thousand and forty - two pounds seven shillings and fourpence was paid last season simply to men who bowl at the nets, while the ground wages amounted to £1408 17s 3d. Of the 89 students who presented themselves at the first matriculation examination of the Welsh University, 76 were Welsh and 13 English. Every Welsh county except Radnor was represented ; 28 of the candidates hailed from Glamorganshire ; 22 took Welsh as one of their subjects. Divorce has been legal in France now for eight years. The first year the number granted was 1700 ; the second, 4000 ; in 1894 it was 8000 ; the total for eight years is 40,000. The working classes supply the largest proportion, 47 per cent.; the peasants the smallest, 7 per cent. It is reported from Constantinople that the Turkish police lately made a descent upon two Mussulman schools of theology, and arrested several Softas with anas in their possession. According to one version the number of arrests made on the occasion was 30, while another account places it as high as 80. It is stated that a service of omnibuses driven by electricity will shortly run between Hammersmith and Liverpool-street, London. A novelty in bicycles is in the window of a New York dealer. Its entire frame, including the handles, and, infaot, every part save the saddle, spokes, and tires, is of iron, oast in jmitatioD of tho branches of trees with the bark left on. A lady, while eating stowed eels in a London shop, experienced a choking sensation. An examination showed that a fishhook had become fixed in her throat.