Facts About the Human Body.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VII, Issue 68, 19 September 1901, Page 3

Facts About the Human Body.

Wonderfully Constructed. The heart is a little larger than the fist. About 174 million cells are contained in the lungs. The average height of a newly-born infant is eighteen inches. It takes three years for the child to grow a second 1£ feet. The stomach is of a capacity of about a pint (without distension). An average adult male should weigh 1451 b. and stand sft. 7in. The intestines are about thirty-four feet in length. The area of the body is about 2,500 square inches. There are about 7,000,000 pores contained in the skin. Adults require eight or nine hours' sleep. In Britain the average weight of the newly-born male is 7ilb. You should possess a drawing strength between hands of at least 751 b. The adult male brain weighs 49 to 50oz. ; the female, 44 to 450 z. A skeleton is one inch shorter than the living person. The body contains about twenty-eight pounds of blood. The spleen, about the size of the fist, has functions undetermined. About 1,000 ounces of blood pass through the kidneys in an hour. There is a total length of nearly twentyeight miles of pores in the skin. A woman sft. in height should weigh about 1001 b. There are 240 bones in the skeleton; weight about 141 b. YVe only breathe to oxygenate the blood. The nerves of motion and sensation frqm every portion of the body end in the spinal cord.

What Is Beer? Weak Points in "Pure Beer" Bills. The weak point of all the various " Pure Beer" Bills that have come before the House of Commons (the "Daily Graphic" says) is that they are based upon an arbitrary definition of beer. Barley malt is an essential ingredient in beer, but there is no scientific ground for limiting the assistance that may be given to the malt by adding substances that provide one of the elements that the malt itself provides in insufficient proportion. Alcohol is alcohol, whether it is obtained from barley or from potatoes, or from sugar, or from sawdust, and no analysis can determine from which of these original substances pure alcohol has been made. The brewers have found by experience that when they supplement the malt by some other alcdiiol-producing substance they obtain a better beer than when they rely on malt alone. For more than fifty years the use of sugar has been legal, and until the barley-growers took up the question no one dreamed of suggesting that beer brewed with the aid of sugar was otherwise than pure. The barley-growers themselves seem to be under a delusion, for the brewers assert that English malt is so heavy that if they wore compelled to use malt alone they would have to buy foreign malt. It is on this ground that some of the representatives of the agricultural interest are the strongest opponents of the bill, but the right note on the question was struck by Sir Michael Foster, who in an admirable speech warned the House not to interfere with the science of a highly scientific industry. The Sultan's Alarms. His Bread of Assassination. According to reports, fear of assassination is driving the Sultan of Turkey rapidly along the high road to madness. Sometimes at table terror seizes him that the food and water have been poisoned. Jumping from his divan he will seize all the water earaft'es and dash them to pieces on the marble floor. Calling for an empty one he will go cautiously to the fountain in the court of his palace and, after allowing the water to run for a long time, finally wash the caraffe, fill it, and resume his place at the table. The Sultan's food is now prepared by a French cook brought from Paris and closely watched by spies. The cook has a set of royal seals given him by the Sultan, with which each plate of food is sealed up in an iron and steel coffer, which is brought to the Sultan to personally open. The Sultan alone knows the combination of the lock, and, after careful examination, breaks the seals and takes out his food- Despite these precautions fifteen trusted spies watch the French chef, and a bodyguard conveys the food coffer to and from the dining-room. Each of these detachments of spies is surveyed by another so as to insure fidelity, and it is estimated that the Sultan spends the third of his income on his personal spy system. Maple Sugar. One of the striking characteristics of this choice variety of sugar is its increasing scarcity in the market. The maple trees of Canada and other parts of North America become scarce by degrees. They have been bled for sugary sap (and neglected, in every other way) until they threaten to disappear from off the face of the earth, leaving maple honey—as the crude form of this sugar is called—only a/ delicious memory. As a matter of fact, the chemical and physical characteristics of pure maple sugar are identical with those of the best refined cane sugar; but in its relatively impure state (when it has a brown colour) a very exquisite rich maple flavour is apparent—a flavour so unique and enjoyable that it should be missed by no lover of sweet things,