Oddments

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 June 1948, Page 4

Oddments

Says a baby specialist, Dr Henry Hart: “Children have just as much right to suck their thumbs as adults have to smoke cigarettes.” * $ sn » o Wullumbilla, South-west Queensland, has been having a mouse plague. Lcn King, a farmer, caught 2500 mice in one c:ay. For the last three months he has averaged 500 daily. He cuts a 44-gallon drum in half, sinks the halves into the ground, and fills them with water. “They just blunder in by the hundreds,” he said. “I’m just a small-time operator. My neighbour catches 200 in his bedroom alone each night.” * * * * * A well-known Melbourne doctor wrote a small book, ‘Sickness without Sorrow.” It sold well. Many people who bought it received their money’s worth in laughter, for it is a humorous commentary on the daily life of a general practitioner. Others, fearing that seme of the characters might be themselves, endeavoured to obtain the author’s name. But it was of no avaid. He wished to remain anonymous. The Melbourne Lord Mayor's Food for Britain fund has received a cheque for £llO from the publishers. They explain that the money represents royalties on the book and that the author had asked that the money money be given to the appeal. He wished to preserve his anonymity. « « « « * Dr Griffith W. Williams, a New Jersey psychologist, confirms what most motorists know—thpt some people can drive ,in a trance. Dr Williams said he hynotised a Rutgers University student and sent him driving for several miles without mishap. The student stopped, started, and turned as required, but his reactions were slower than normal. Dr Williams said that the trance could be induced by monotony such as caused by driving on long stretches of highways free of distractions. For persons liable to such trances, however, a back-seat driver was a possible cure. “The trance is broken, of course,’ ’ Dr Williams said, “by some distraction such as the honking of a horn dr other sudden noise.” - —The Seeker