CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10107, 4 August 1893, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

On April 7 Mr Archer, of the Canadian, Pacific Railway Company, 67 and 68, King; William street, London, posted a letter in London addressed to Hong-kong, which) went viA the Suez Canal route. The no* velope was reposted from Hong-kong, viA the; Canadian Pacific Steamship Line and Tans, couver, and was delivered in London abj 3.30 on Thursday, June 8, having gone round the world in sixty-two days.

Perhaps the most remarkable facade in the world is that of Fran Gelby, a nurse in Dr Schnitzler’s Throat Hospital at; Vienna, whose chief means of —and it is a handsome one—arises from l the extreme insensitlveneeß of her throat* She lets herself out to budding medicos aft; a subject upon which they may practise; manipulations of the throat and vocal organs. She can open her throat in such; a manner that the student can actually eeej the vocal chords, and can practise very delicate experiments thereon, snob aii painting the sides of the air passage with) a camel hair brush, introducing different! instruments, and so on. After the embryo: doctor has acquired a certain dexterity,; this extraordinary woman half swallows ft', glass bead, and the student practises re> moving it with forceps such as would bo used in an accidental case. Her confidence in his skill is indicated by the fact that she) keeps tight hold of a strong thread attached to the bead. People go from alii parts of Europe to study this lady’s throat.

Writing in the ZorTcsMre Weekly Post, Mr Harry Purniss says s— “ The moss tragic event I have heard of in connection with Derby sweepstakes happened to a member of a military club, who was a popular man about town, but exceedingly poor. For years he had entered the sweep, with the chance of drawing several hundreds of pounds, but he got so accustomed to hie ill-luck that he never troubled to see what he had drawn, taking it as a matter of course that it was a blank. On coming into the club the day after the Derby he was handed an envelope. Was it from some dun in reference to Ms debt*, tbe worry of his existence? A cheque fell out, and he saw that he had drawn the •winner of the Derby. Poor fellow—he fell down dead on the spot P”

A French railway company, the Chemin de Fer du Midi, is in a terrible fix just now. A short time ago a fire broke one in a pine forest between STehoux and Labouheyre, in the south of France, and the consequence was an immense destruction of valuable property. It was supposed that the fire was caused by sparks from &' locomotive on an express train from Bordeaux to Bayonne. The Company had enquiries made by its agents, and these gentlemen report that there is no doubt as to the fact, witnesses being forthcoming who saw the sparks set alight to the furze, . and who tried in vain to extinguish the 1 fire. A careful valuation is to be made of the actual damage, but it is believed* it will not be less than a million and a half: of francs, or iJ60,000. For all this the Company is unquestionably responsible in French law.

A French observer, named M. Cana, ha* been for some time past closely observing; the action of several common plants when the barometer indicated a change of weather. He found that if the heads ofii clover and other leguminous plants stand, upright there will be rain. If the leaves' of sorrel turn up, it is a sure sign of storm,' which is also foretold by the leaves of : willow grass slowly turning up. The closing of the flowers of convolvulus indi-! oates rain, which, as is so generally; believed, may be said of the flowers or the pimpernel, and also of the biblaotts flowers. When the flowers of the sorrel open, it is said to be a sure sign of fine, weather, but if they close it will rain, |£; the flowers of the carline thistle close, there will be a storm. The expanding! flowers of cinquefoil suggest rain, bat their, closing means fine weather. The African i tparigold flowers close before rajnj whilei Mu Ncalea 4 the teasel,