OUR MAIL BAG.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 716, 27 March 1900, Page 4

OUR MAIL BAG.

NEWS FROM EVERYWHERE. HAS THE BRAIN A "NAME CENTBE ? " An Austvain savant has declared that the human brain contains a " name centre." He says that it is tho ottiee of this cell to retain names. A striking case which would seem to conlirui this theory recently occurred at Cleveland. A brakeman was shot by a conductor, and the former could not remember the names of persons or things, although he could perfectly well describe the functions of all articles exhibited to him. The surceon probed for the bullet, and found it in the exact spot necessary to affect the remembrance of names, according to the Austrian's theory. When the pressure on the brain had been relieved, the patient remembered name s and told that of his assailant. A rECULIAB I'AKIBII. One of the Kings of England, being in the North, was entertained by the Bishop of Durham at his palace there. Among many of the clergy at that time with the Bishop there was the then Hector of Elswick Hull, near Harllepool. His Majesty was very particular in inquiring about the North, and asked the Rector of Elwiek Hall if there was anything remarkable in his parish. The rector replied there was, for in his parish there was not either town, village, surgeon, apothecary, midwife, schoolmaster, schoolmistress, blacksmith, shoemaker, cartwright, joiner, house carpenter, chandler, grocer, mason, bricklayer, publichouse, tailor, weaver, barber, baker, butcher, or brewer ; nay, scarce one day laborer, and frequently neither a funeral nor a marriage for twelve months. His Majesty listened to all this with great attention, and laughed heartily when the rector had finished his long string of names. What is extraordinary is, that the parish in 1782 was nearly in the same state. The living wps worth £400 per annum. The whole parish contained about seventeen or eighteen farmhouses, situated in various parts of the parish, and former rectors had often entertained all the' parishioners at their tables. mSTUIBUTIOK 01' ItAILWAYg. The people of George Stephenson's race have not kept railroads to themselves, but so far they have a long lead of the rest of the world in constructing them. There is not much room in Great Britain for a great mileage, and in Europe of the total 155 2!)4 miles, only 20,977 miles are on British territory. But of the 20,890 miles in Asia, 19,700 miles are on such territory ; in Africa, 2845 miles out of 81G9 ; in America, of the 48,005 miles outside of the United States, 10,719 miles are British ; and, of course, all the 13,888 miles in Australia. Altogether there are 74,12<l miles of railroad in the British possessions, which, added to the 181,717 miles in the United States (all the figures are for 1805) makes the considerable figure of 255,840 miles, which is nearly threefifths of the railroads of the world. And this takes no account of the 7127 miles of Mexican railroad, all built with American and British capital and skill, and nearly all with their materials, nor of the countless lines built elsewhere in the four quarters of the globe with English money and skill, and mostly with English iron and machinery. We seem to be pre-eminently the railroad race.