Uncle Peter’s Corner

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 44, 22 February 1936, Page 16

Uncle Peter’s Corner

The seemingly • harmless , little fly that buzzes merrily around us is'acUuuly ono of our very worst enemies, being a dangerous carrier of info'-tiqn which has a lot to account for. If we follow its movements throughout the day. we shall find out that it spends its life going to and fro between manure and refuse heaps and our larders. A photograph taken under a microscope will reveal that the fly carries with it thousands of germs which stick to the hairs covering the fly’s abdomen and legs. Besides flics have a marked preference for leaving their germ-filled offerings on our food. So you see there are sound reasons for suggesting that you -wage war on the insect..”. A suitable start would be "to kill any hibernating flies you may come across. There can be no doubt whatever of your performing a very use\'ul action in so doing, for it has been as-

Fig 1. How many lines are there in this confused mass? Fig 2. Clearly and plainly 20 lines. You may have guessed already what I am aiming at with this introduction. However, you shall not bo bothered with a lengthy admonition, for the picture speaks for itself about the value of doing everything methodically. Once you make it a rule to bo systematic in all your doings, it will finally become sheer.matter of habit. Thus you will be ablo not only to work much faster, but also to relieve your brain with the result that its efficiency will be doubled on an emergency.

Can you perform this balancing exercise and get hold of the piece of sugar lying on the back of the chair? You will fall on your face the first time you try, I promise you that. But if. you go about it cautiously, taking care to keep the hind part of the body well back and craning your head in the meanwhile to reach the sugar, you will no doubt succeed in finding the right balance after a little practice.

,We Declare War on Flies t

certained that a pair of-flies allowed to multiply unchecked can attain a family of up to 5,000,000,000 flics in the course of the summer. Fig a—The Life of a Fly. 1. —A fly lays its eggs on a refuse heap. 2. —A collection of maggots. o. A maggot becomes a chrysalis. 4. —The fly is hatched. 5.—A greatly magnified leg of a fly. You can imagine at what a rate flies amass, when you hear that the whole process can be completed in a. fortnight, and that ten days after it has taken to its w-ings it is able to breed. The enlargement of a fly’s leg reproduced here clearly shows how much dirt is clinging to the hairs. The mere thought of tho hosts of flies flying around our heads and settling on our food without wiping their feet on the mat first, should suftico to make us ardent enemies of this vermin.

We who have dabbled a little in the department of card tricks and the like, feel all the more admiration when we see what professional conjurors are able to do, to say nothing of the fantastic feats of an Indian fakir. Fig. d.—What the Spectators Thought They Saw. For instance, a European relates how he was once present ata seance in India, where a fakir threw a long rope up into the air amid endless incantations. The rope remained upright, going higher up than the eye 1 could follow. Thereupon a little boy climbed up the rope and disappeared before the eyes of the startled spectators. Just when they were beginning to fear for his fate, tho fakir climbed up himself and came sliding down the rope a moment later with the boy under his arm. Notwithstanding his amazement the European did not forget to take photographs of the various phases of tho seance. These pictures revealed that the rope had been lying on the ground all the time, and that neither tho fakir nor the boy had made a move. What a remarkable proof of the immense hynotic power a: fakir can exercise over this audience! In this particular case we have a solution of the mystery, but other xiroblcms still remain unsolved.