NEWS IN BRIEF.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10407, 3 April 1897, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS IN BRIEF.

The first false teeth were made on lead plates. A ton of, oil has been gained from the tongue of a single whale. Id is said that 60 per cent, of the cases of short-sightedness are hereditary. Only 9 per cent, of the soldiers actually engaged in war are killed on the field of battle. In proportion to its size, Britain has eight) times as many miles of railway as the United States. Policemen in Vienna must be able to swim, row a boat, and understand telegraphy. It is calculated that the average weight) of a shooting , star does not exceed from 1J >_ to 2 grains. H The growth of nails on the lefb hand requires eight or ten days longer than those on the right. Australia has more places of public worship in proportion to population than any other country. The largest room in the world is in the Imperial palace in St. Petersburg. It) if 100 ft long by 150 ft wide. When the British sparrow-hawk is flying towards its dinner it cleaves space at the rate of 150 miles an hour. The huge gone of modern navies can only be fired about seventy-five times. Tbie suffices to wear them out. A great authority on fish says that every square mile of the eea is inhabited by 120,000,000 finny creatures. In the banks of London are deposits to the amount of £6,543,017 which have remained unclaimed for 30 years. In the public schools of Germany the bright pupils are separated from the stupid ones. Medical men do the sorting. A girl always wonders whether a man will propose to her anything after the fashion of the hero in her favourite novel. A large proportion of the marine creatures found at a great depth in the colder parts of the ocean are of a red colour. Sharks grow a new row of teeth for every year of their ago until they reach maturity. The jaws of a full-grown specimen can be extended aboub 18in.

The frog cannot breathe with its mouth open, its breathing apparatus being so arranged as to exclude air nb all times, excepb when the nostrils alone are working. The Court of Appeal in Ireland has ruled that a legacy to clergymen to have masses said for the repose of the testator's and his wife's souls is a charity and not subject to legacy duty. A Council of War at Stanley Falls has condemned an ageut of the Congo State to penal servitude for five years and a fine of IOOOf., for the murder of a native woman living at Kassongo. An orange pip that lodged itself in the bronchial tube of Lilian Rice, a three-year-old of Little Edward-street, Hampstead Road, was said at a coroner's inquest to account for her death.

If we boil a pound of water until ib all goes away in steam we shall have used, in doing so, a quantity of heat which would have raised 967 pounds of water one degree higher in temperature. The lightest known wood is that of the Anona palustris, of Brazil, which is much lighter than cork. The heaviest is the iron bark, of Australia, which weighs dearly 1001b to the cubic foot.

The voice can be heard to a greatei distance through a speaking-tube than through the air because the sound is confined to the air within the tube, and the tube itself is a good conductor. Through swallowing a French halfpenny a Wimbledon boy of five, named William Barnetb, has died. The coroner's jury were told that the coin bad caused perforation of the pullet followed by an abscess. Speaking at Wesley Chapel, Leeds, the Rev. Hugh Price-Hughes stated that the most) awful fact in England to-day was not the wretched condition of the poor, bub the demoralisation of the sons of middle-class parents.

A new and less destructive method oi getting robber has been discovered. Heretofore the trees were cut down, but it has been found that the leaves yield a purer and more abundant article, wherefore the trees can be spared. With the aid of an enormous minor—said to be the largest in Europe—and a number of smaller mirrors placed in a certain way, a London astronomer has succeeded in obtaining such intense heat as to melt the most refractory metals. A seaweed of the South Pacific often grows to be thirty or forty inches in diameter, and fifteen hundred to two thousand feet} in length. It has no root in the proper sense, the nourishment being absorbed from the water.

The turquoise is the most treachorous of all gems, often losing its colour or developing white spots, which, though at first only to be seen with the aid of a microscope, soon envelop the whole stone. Dampness will revive temporarily a faded turquoise. The very finest) specimens of sponges are found in the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and in the waters o{ the West Indies. They anchor themselves to any good holding-ground that may be convenient—such as coral, or a jutting rock.

Floating beds of seaweed, which are often met) with in mid-ocean, have heea observed to reduce the height of waves, like oil thrown upon the water. Taking advantage of this fact, a scientist h;is invented a thin cotton or silken net to answer the same purpose. According to the new metropolitan valuation list the gross value of London has now reached the enormous total of £43,461,733 3s, the net value being £30,115,407 10s. The previous one was, gross £41,239,847 123, net being £34,230,334 15s. Persons with unhealthy constitutions cannot take too much care of small injuries in the way of cuts and bruises. There is always a danger that even the most insignificant wound may become poisoned unless it is carefully guarded from coming into contact with particles of dirt. At Cannes, the Battle of Flowers was favoured by splendid weather, and proved a great success. A large number of English residents and visitors took part in the festivities, the Duke of Cambridge being among the number. Thirty banners were distributed as prizes for tbe best decorated carriages. Tho two biggeet fire-engines in. the world are in Liverpool. These are the most powerful fire-engines known, throwing 1800 gallons of water a minute, and a jet 140 ft high. The force with which the water is ejected from them may be estimated from the fact thtb the jet was " warranted to kill a man at 350 ft."

The other day the Queen's eight famoue creams were out in the London streets tc accustom them to the traffic, for they have not been requisitioned for any public procession for a long time past. The horses were harnessed to one of the Royal brakes, and with their full trappings and postillions attracted a good deal of attention. The body of the Queen's State coach is composed of eighb palm trees, which, branching out at the top, sustain the roof. On the centre of the roof stand three boys, representing the genii of England, Scotland, and Ireland, supporting the crown of Great) Britain, and holding in their hands thf sceptre and ensigns of knighthood. Here is a neat retort by a young lady tc a cabman, for the record of which we owe a debt to the London correspondent of the Sheffield Telegraph: " Cabby, I wish you would be more ausemic in your observations." The cabman was cowed by this unexpected retort. He had no idea what the word meant, but it was evidently some' thing dreadful. The average height of clouds above the earth is between one and two miles, bat highly electrified ones are much lower. Lightning clonds are seldom more than 700 yards from the ground, and often they are much closer. Some clouds are about twenty square miles in surface, and about) a mile in thickness, while others are only a few yards or inches. Two Uvea have been lost under very sad circumstances, says Dalziel, in a fire at Viborg, Denmark. A dwelling-house was discovered to be in flames, and one of the inmates, a young woman, was unable to make her way oiib of the .building. Her sweetheart, a young man named Aalkjar, rushed into the burning house to endeavour to effect her retcue, but was unsuccessful, »nd both perished in the flames together. 5