NEWS AND NOTES

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1680, 11 May 1904, Page 16

NEWS AND NOTES

, A discussion has been going on in tlm columns of the “Field" as to the reasdfr why horses when getting up from the recumbent posture raise themselves first on the fore limbs while ruminants do so on the hind-limbs. It appears that tapirs, aparently rhinoceroses, and swine follow the horse-fashion; an association Ayhich demonstrates that the movement is not dependent on the presence of a third trochanter on the fomur of the Perissodactyla (horses, tapirs, and rhinoceroses). One writer has suggested that the ruminants' mode of rising is for the purpose of bringing the horns into action ibr defence as soon as possible, but against this is the case of the rhinos ceroses. Possibly the raising of the hindlegs first may be connected with the function of rumination and the complex torm of stomach correlated therewith. One correspondent stated, however, that an ass rises like a ruminant, which, if true, upsets all theories.—‘‘Knowledge." # * *

The . Rev. W. H. Dallinger, D Sc., F.R.S., lectured recently ao Birmingham on the ‘‘Pond and its Microscopic inhabitants*." In his intoductory remarks. Dr Dallinger referred to the poetic myths that clung to woods and waters, and said that if science had relegated the imaginary inhabitants of the brooks and ponds to their true-sphere in fairyland, it had not left the waters tenantless, but has peopled ihem with denizens more wonderful than nymphs and fairies. It mattered little whether their pond was broad and lake-lik9, or—a simple basin in the corner of a field, for the smallest sheet of water might provide the richest and most fascinating objects for study. The illustratiohs enabled the audience to clearly understand how the stenter draws smaller creatures into a vortex by the rotary motion of its mouth, and how the melicerta ringens builds its cylindrical house of jewels and makes bricks out of the most unpromising material with the most simple appliances. The lecturer marvelled that a creature occupying only the 250,000 th part of an inch should be able to build such a wonderful tube. ■ » * *

The cucujo is the firefly, of the tropics, and it is the most brilliant of the whole tribe of light-giving insects or animals. Thirty-eight of them, yield one candle power. Photographs have been printed by two-minute exposure of bromide plates to their illumination. People in Cuba confine them in paper lanterns for going about the country at night or for indoor lighting. Sometimes they attach one of these insects to each foot, for travelling in the dark, to serve as a guide to the path; ladies use them as ornaments for the dress and hair. Cucujos are beetles, beginning' life as grubs. bkipjacks, or springtails,. they are sometimes called, because when placed on their backs they jump over with a clicking sound. « * •

A second exhibition is shortly to set out for Central Africa, with a very interesting object in view. In Lake Tanganyika is Ibund a certain species of jellyfish, -or mecusa, unknown to any other fresh-water lake. It, therefore, seems probable that the lake was once connected in some way with the sea. This theory has been strengthened by the presence of a series of whelk-like molluscs which Mr J. S. Moore has found in the lake. The Royal Society, therefore, instituted a Comnj#£se to investigate, and in the report which has been published many interesting points were noted, but no conclusive decision was come to. Hence the reason for the expedition which is just starting out. • * * »

There is something distinctly novel in m suggestion that the Dead Sea should be developed as a great industrial centre. &uch is nevertheless declared to be the case, and . French engineers are already stated to be at work upon three different projects with this end in view. The level of the Dead oea being more than 1300 ft. below that of the Mediterranean and Bed Seas, it is believed that if it were connected with either of them by a canal a stream of water would flow into it with a velocity calculated to produce some 52,000 h.p. There is no danger, it is asserted, of any overflowing of the Dead Sea, for the waters there evaporate at so great a rate (6,000,000 tons a day) that the incoming waters would make no appreciable difference in the level

Although natural history haa thoroughly established the fact that the sounds called the death-watch, proceed from a little harmless insect, hundreds of people, (says still exist who refuse to be persuaded that the noise is not prophetic of the charnel-house. Even those who have been brought tu credit the fact that the ticking is produced by an insect are reluctant all at once to abandon a gloomy notion. The insect is the "pediculus” of old wood, a species of “vermes/’ belonging to the order “aptoera” in the Linnsen system. There are two kinds of death-watches. One is very different in appearance from the other. The former only, beats seven or eight quick strokes at a timef the latter will beat some hours together more deliberately and without ceasing. This ticking,- instead of having anything to do with death, •is as harmless as the cooing of a dove. . v # :

> Some interesting particulars, are given in the current "Windsor” as to the cost of legal millinery. A Lord Chancellor's rohe demands an outlav of about 150

guineas. Very early in Queen Victoria's ■ Tefgn it was the custom for legal dignitaries to attend drawing-rooms in a figured damask silk 'gown. .with lace bands and ruffles, and Thesiger is said to have spent J 6109. on bands alone. This practice, of 7 boufse, does not obtain- now; but. as matters are, it is apparent that a sufficiently heavy tax has to be paid for the dignity of a - judgeship. An off-hand remark made by Justice Bid!ey, at Chest er Assizes not long ago, clearly showed that nothing of inferior quality, even in the matter, of ,stockings, enters the iudicial wardrobe. The plaintiff in a breach of

promise case handed in a list of articles purchased for her trousseau, which included “half a dozen pairs of black silk stockings, 275." “That is cheap, is it not ?" remarked his lordship; “I pay half a guinea a pair." * « #

The sudden appearance of the Gordiidm or hair worm in puddles of water or similar situations has caused the primitive peoples of many -countries to evolve a theory of their seemingly mysterious origin. In parts of Scotland they are believed to be the intermediate stage in the development of a horse-liair into an eel; in Iceland and the Beeroes, and also in some of the Malayan Islands, they aro thought to come down with the rain; in the Malay Peninsula they are said to be the offspring of an unnatural union between an earthworm and a female mantis, and to turn into a fern (Lygodium sp.), the creeping rhizome of which some of them (for example. Ohorodes montoni, Gamer.) closely resemble. # * «

Artistic Paris, we learn, is raving over the phenomenal cleverness"of a Polish boy Thaddeus Styka, who is doing big things both in painting and sculpture for the coming Salon Exhibition, at the very immature age of 13. It was at this age, one is reminded, that Landseer exhibited his first picture at . the Royal Academy; though as a child of six he had won more than family fame as a draughtsman. Millais was four years older when his “Plzarro Seizing the Inea of Peru'’ startled London from the Academy walls; and at 17. too. Mr Briton Riviere qualified as a Royal Academy exhibitor with two canvases —“'Sheep on the Cotswolds" and “Tired Out." But half-a-dozen years earlier than this, when he was a very junior bioy at Cheltenham College, two of his paintings were shown at the British Gallery; and before he had emerged into the dignity of teens he actually added «£2O to his pocket-money by the sale of a single picture, “Robinson Crusoe/’ Mr Riviere's precocity laurels are not endangered by this Polish prodigy.

The properties of radium seem equivalent to perpetual motion, which has hitherto been regarded as an absurdity by science, for its gives off energy without receiving it. A piece as big as a fine grain of sand send 9 cut enough rays to blister the skin. Some of the particles given out by radium travel at a speed of 120,000 miles per second, nearly that of light. The rays will penetrate the thickest substances. It is believed that there are only two pounds of relatively pure radium salts in the world. Most of -his is in France, in the possession of M. and Mme. Curie the discoverers of this extraordinary metal. They consider it worth <£2ooo per gramme, and as there are 31 grammes in an ounce, that makes the price <£745,000 per pound. It requires 5000 tons of pitchblende, the mineral from which radium is extracted, to make one pound of radium, and. according to Hammer, it costs <£4oo per ton to handle it, making the cost of radium, according to this computation, <£2,000,000 per pound. Professor Curie is credited with the statement that he would not enter a room containing a kilo of radium, as he says it would certainly take off all his Bkin and hair, and probably kill him by paralysing the nerve centres.

There are few things about which the doctors know less than about a "cold in the head." They call it a "Coryza," a name which has the advantage of being understood by the medical profession in all countries, and they know it to be due to a microbe —like ali infectious diseases. But they have not yet caught that microbe despite the countless opportunities for so doing, 'lhe bacteriologists are not likely to tackle this subject whilst the really deadly microbes are still imperfectly understood. As to curing a cold, very few doctors would claim such power. In this case the King gets no more help from science than does the poorest of his subjects. it * *

Professor Lancereaux, Dean of the i acuity of Medicine of Paris, read a paper before the Academy of Medicine recently on the case of the sleeping woman, of Thenelles, who recently awoke from a go years’ cataleptic trance, and then died of assumption. The daughter of an alcoholic father, she was 22 years of age when she fell asleep after extreme excitement, followed by convulsions. It was impossible to awaken or to feed her in the ordinary way. A feature of the somnolence was convulsive seizures at intervals without recovery of consciousness. When at length the woman awoke after a severe fit. she remembered things that had happened before the attack." She only lived a short period afterwards. •* * *

A dramatic scene, in which the leading part was played by a boy of 11, took place in the Paris law courts lasc month. His parents, between whom divorce proceedings were pending, were summoned before the magistrate sitting m chambers with a view to bringing about a reconciliation, this procedure being required by law as a preliminary to trial. The hoy followed his father and mother into the private room and begged them to make friends. The mother remained obdurate, and ordered the boy to go away, whereupon he drew a penknife and attempted to stab himself in the chest. The blade doubling up cut the boy's hand, causing a few drops of blood to flow. The mother's resolution gave way, she frantically embraced her son, and promised to abandon the idea of divorce. The husband, wife and son left the room arm in arm.

This is _an inquiring age, and no sooner is one foolish query unsatisfactorily disposed of than another crop a up to worry an unoffending public. The latest conundrum is. Why do doctors write their dog Latin prescriptions so badly? This is easy, it is to prevent a mystery loving people from seeing with what simple mixtures they are being dosed.

"Gossip parties" are being held in America.. The gentlemen and lady guests are arranged in pairs, a settled subject is announced, and concerning it each pair have to talk for ten minutes. Then a bell rings and; the guests are arranged

in fresh couples with another prescribed topic of conversation. So every gentleman present talks with every lady, and at the close of the entertainment prizes are awarded to the gentleman and to the lady who. by the votes of the opposite sex, are held to have been the most interesting conversationalists.

Owing to the fanaticism aroused by a series of evangelistic services recently beld in Beale Island, Maine, some 500 of the inhabitants have been seized with religious mania, and a number have been sent to a lunatic asylum. After burning cats and dogs as sacrifices, several were preparing to burn their children, but were prevented from doing so by the opportune arrival of several deputy sheriffs, who were successful in temporarily allaying the wave of fanaticism. The fanatics destroyed vast quantities of jewellery and tobacco. * >

Imagine the countless tliousandis> of machines for trade, for transit, for pleasure that will.be invented in the course of the twentieth century! Think of the myriad precise brains and clever fingers that will be engaged in that world-wide maze.of mechanism! Leap another half century and London becomes a labrynth of mechanical transit accommodation. Steps will have become a legend, for lifts, moving ways and revolving staircases will be at the service of the hustling pedestrian. «**»*► The Canadian Senate must take first prize for longevity. It is the only legislative body in the world that rejoices in a centenarian member —Senator David Wavk. Nine of its members are over 80, and there are seven between 75 and 80, including the veteran Liberal Secretary of State, the Hon. R. W. Scott. * He =» The Earl of Leicester holds a unique positioii in the British peerage. He has been the father of 18 children, of whom 14 survive, and he numbers among his sons-in-law four earls, a ‘viscount, and a baron. There is a difference in age of close on half a century between his eldest and his youngest son, and he is a greatgrandfather several times over. * ■ =» * Mr John William Benn who has been elected chairman of the new London County Council, is a member of the printing and publishing firm of that name in Finsbury Square, is editor of the “cabinetmaker," and a journalist. He has been called tbe “Father of the L.C.C.," of which he has been a member from the first, and has been deputy-chairman. The tramway and housing enterprises of the Council have been largely, if not mainly due to his initiative.

Mr J. L. Toole is 71. He played for over 30 years, and the parts he played were legion. He is the owner of the original umbrella with which Liston played Paul Pry, one of T>ole’s best parts, about eighty years ago. Once Toole played Eccles under unkind circumstances. He went in full dress to the house of a pompous and purse-proud man whom he deemed deserving of the trick, and announced himself to the magnificent manservant as Mr 's brother from the workhouse.

The Marquis Ito. the great Japanese statesman who has gone to Korea on a diplomatic mission, is a lover of all things European and especially British. Even in Japan he wears a frock-coat which would do credit to a West-End tailor; half of his.delightful villa of Oiso, on the outskirts of Tokio, is as thoroughly European 'as any home you will find at Twickenham, and on -ins study table is a litter of English newspapers and reviews. In his beautiful garden, too are beds of almost all the gayest flowers which EUrope can show.

The death has occurred at Montreal of Mr George Simpson, manager for Canada of the Boyal and Queen Insurance Companies. Deceased, who was a native of Dundee, entered the office of the Caledonian Insurance Company, Edinburgh, as a boy, and after rising to the position of chief clerk, he became secretary for the North of Scotland at the Aberdeen branch of the company. Mr Simpson was appointed manager of the Caledonian at Dundee in 1891, and the following year he went out to Montreal as assistant manager for Canada of th Boyal and Queen Insurance oompanies succeeding Mr Wm. Tatley as manager in 1896.

Mr Peter Mosley, known as the “father” of the British Telegraph -Service, has just died at Gateshead. Mr Mosley when a lad was employed by .the Electric and International Telegraph Company, and at that time the service was in its long clothes. There was no through communication between London and Newcastle. The Tyne had then no high-level bridge, and when mes ages arrived from the south of Gateshead they were transcribed, and boys (of whom Mr Mosley was »ne) ran at breakneck speed over the old low-level stone bridge in Newcastle, where the telegrams were again put on to the wires and sent northwards.

The Austrian Emperrr. who recently shot his 200th chamois, was reckoned in his prime one of the finest shots in. Europe, and chamois-hunting has long been one of his most favoured outdoor reoreations. For this purpose he visits one or other of his shooting-boxes, generally in the Styrian Alps, where he gives himself up. entirely Bo the sport, wearing the Tyrolese mountaineer's costume. He used to be a most intrepid climber. The Emperor excels in another respect. He is one of the finest linguists in Europe. It is said tnat he speaks fluently every one of the many languages used in his own polygot realm, besides French, English, and Russian.

There is no member of our Peerage who has had quite so nomantic and varied a career as Lord Lyveden. who was received by the King of Greece in private audience a few days ago. Before succeeding his uncle in 1900 as third baron, _ his . Lordship had been a private soldier in the

Royal Artillery, utility actor at the Haymarket, and waiter in a Bowery eatinghouse. He had been steward on an American coasting vessel, had toured the States with a fit-up company, and had run a company of his own in England. Later he owned nurseries of his own, planning at Stan wick, Higham Ferrers, and introduced a new tomato known by the initials ‘ P.V." to the gastronomic world. But there was no gold in tomatoes, and, shaking Stanwick dust off his feet, Mr Vernon went to sea again, served as steward on several lines of steamships, incidentally contracting yellow fever at Buenos Ayres, and wound up the romance of his untitled days by three months’ catering for the General Steam Navigation Company.

A pretty romance circles round the Countess of Aberdeen, who has just celebrated her 47th birthday. One day when the son of the old Earl of Aberdeen, then about two-and twenty had been riding across country in the Highlands, he lost his way. Leading his pony, which had gore lame, he came suddenly upon Guisachan, the Scots home of the late Lord Tweedmcuth, and asked that his pony might be stabled for the night. Sir Dudley Marjoribanks who was then living there, gave the traveller a cordial welcome on hearing that he was the son of Lord Aberdeen, and Sir Dudley's daughter Ishhel, then a girl of 15, helped her brother to entertain the unexpected guest. It is said in the Earl's family that 1m fell in love with the latter lady ther© and then. However that may be, a comradeship sprang np between them which ripened into something more, and nin© years later they were married. The Qountes' ba« always been very popular in society, and is still'warmly remembered in Ireland, where the Earl was Viceroy in the eighties, and in Canada, of which he was Governor-General from 1893 to 5898.

Bailie Munro, Kilmarnock's great hu-mouri.-ts, has succeeded in tracing the pedigree of Admiral Makaroff, the late commandant at Fort Arthui, and makes him out t.v be S-andy Macara, hailing from Mort-n Place, xviimamock. x’he same ingenious gentleman some years ago disOovereu in joalmaceda the long-lost Archibald M Creauie. from the same location, ana there are many yet who believe that the ill-fated Chilian President was the salf-same “Rauldy." The long list of Kilmarnock celetmties from the same source are general Bcobeloh. who- was a bcobi \ from Huidtord; Haul Kruger, originally Feier M Gregor; Dr -Loyds was a MLeo-d; Lobengueia, formerly Benjamin M Guigan, Osman Digna, Osborne uouglas general Kuropatiun, Gxhirane r atiiok, etc., etc., all of which gained s.me credence In place of a Temple containing jLoUrns heroes, it is a Pantheon lull of Munro s immortals that is needed for solemn and serious Kilmarnock.

Says a London oniempoiary“lt is gratifying to find that peopK are beginni g to take a mo-re sensible view of athleticism. Ihe craze lor making boys great footballers, captains of cricket elevens, prize oarsmen and swift runners can bs overdone and to a very large extent it rests with women to abate the almost insane passion which has possessed the other sex of recent years. The ridiculous worship of physical strength which they proiess naturally encourages men to develop their bodies rather than their brains, and too often with disastrous results. Mr Eustace Miles, the no.eu vegeterian athlete, mentioned the other day that most of the show ‘ strong men died of consumption, and Mr Rufus Isaacs has recently said that a devotion to athletics is too expensive a luxury for men to indulge in who wish to keep their heads clear. In these circumstances surely mothers and sisters and women generally should n t be so eager to rave over the athle tic triumphs or the boys and men with whom they iiave to do."

A H mdon press representative who called recently to see the secretary of a ladies’ club where many Blue-stockings congregate was mildly astonished to hear a smali and spectacled lad. call a waitress in the corridor, and ask her, in shrill tones: "Do you know where I left my pipe last night?” * * *

Men have laughed and women have wept for ages. Woman's tears have been fostered far more than they deserve. The fact is that women have overdone their crying, and Pave allowed any amount of health, courage and force to ooze from their tear glands. Weeping in the did days was really as fashionable as fainting, but the woman of the future will laugh, and will be all the better for it.

Mrs Malaprop sometimes hits the nail on the head. It rained in torrents as she left the church on Sunday morning without an umbrella. “How irrigating this is!" she ejaculated.

It will be a long time, says a London contemporary, before the Europeans and Chinese understand each other. A short time back a Chinese coolie met with an accident. He was taken, to a European hospital in Pekin, and it wa. there found possible to save his life by prompt amputation of one of his legs The glad) news was carried to his relatives. Without loss of time they procured a supply of arsenic, with which the whole family proceeded to the 'sick man's bedside. When their mutual greetings had been feelingly exchanged, the patient swallowed the arsenic qnd died. Without wishing in any way to hurt the reeling's of the European doctors, he yet felt it incumbent on himself to reacn paradise before it should he too late claim the leg which" had preceded! there.

Spitting is freely indulged in in American theatres. Mr W. J. Abingdon, who has just returned from the States, says his composure.was somewhat upset’ when on one occasion he stepped upon the stage of a particular theatre and saw used in front of the footlights a board, bearing in large letters, “This is not a spittoon.

The formation of a woman’s club which make a particular point of the fact that cprds and cigarettes are to be forbidden has given rise to a good deal of discuswon. Nt> doubt before long we shall hear of clubs at which high heels are sufficient to cause blackballing, or we may even take a hint from the provinces and start an Anti-Corset Club to which no men who follow the prevailing fashion are to be allowed admission as guests. * # •

The latest form of physical culture in American is the swinging of a heavy sledge hammer. “Buy a 14-lb sledge hammer, and swing it half an hour twice a day,” is the advice given. * * *

* In Japan there is no ‘'weaker' sex.’' Physically the women are th 3 peers of the mer. rf their own age and weight and the fact is attributed to the use by both sexes of the same careful methods of cultivation of the body. Here is obviously the reason for the .devotion of the men 'if Japan to the culture of muscle and subtle tricks of defence, and it also becomes plain why the Japanese are so progressive and fearless. After the Japanese husband, has settled his domestic problems with a wife as strong md agile as himself, international warfare has no terrors for him.

How Edison invented the phonograph fs an interesting story. “I was singing to the mouthpiece of a telephone,” the in-ventor-has recorded, "when the vibration of the voice sent the fine steel point into my finger. That set me thinking. If I could record the actions of tlm voice and send the point over the same surface afterwards I saw no reason why the thing should not talk. My assistants laughed. But I made them set'to, The phonograph is the result of the pricking rf a needle.” For fifteen years Edison worked on an average something like twenty hours a day, and consequently considers his present fourteen or fifteen hours a day mere loafing. Sometimes he will remain puzzling over a problem for 60 hours, and then drop of to sleep the moment the result is reached. He is very lucky in . Jim respect, for most people would drop oil to sleep long before. He always has at least half a dozen projects of one sort and another on hand.

Among the Danes, Norwegians and Finns, women are employed as sailors, and prove themselves to be exuert mariners. In the smaller saili/mr shin*, whan there is a worn an: on board whether she be the wife of the skipper or the stewardess, she is expected t>o take her turn at the ordinary work of a sailor, not even excluding the duties of the man at the wheel' or of the night watch. Denmark employs several women a= State at sea. Experienced captains assert 'th at the women make excellent sailors, ayd are equal to most seamen in dexterity and power of endurance.

The oven at a baker's named Vungor, in Raab (Hungary), suddenly fell in on 7th March when the baker’s wife and tbeir four children were taking a meal close in front of it. They were all buried tinder the debris, and their bodies were charred 'beyond recognition’before they co-uld be recovered.

It would appear that Spain's criminal settlement in the Zafarinn Islands is quite a paradise of convicts. Their •liberty is restricted only so far that they must not leave ?he islands, and must return at night to prison unless they obtain leave of absence for the night. At 6 o’clock in the morning the convicts leave the prison. Some do a little work, but the majority go straight to the various wine sjiops and hostelrie3, where they pass the day drinking, singing and occasionally breaking the monotony of life with a little knifing—for each respectable prisoner- carries his ‘ f faca’' (knife) day and night with him. This idvlTic state of things appears less strange if one considers that the prison warders —the *‘capatares”—are the publicans of the is- - lands, and that a deal of illicit * trading is carried on in those places of resort, the prisoners buying revolvers, ammunition, jemmies and so on. ’. v • » •

The illumination of the outside of the buildings and grounds at the World's Tair to be held at St. Louis this year will probably be the biggest piece of work of its kind that has yet been carried out. The contract provides for 300,000 incandescent .lamps. Those lamps are for lighting the exhibit places, grounds, and architectural features of the exposition proper., and do not include those for State, national, and private concession buildings. To give_ an ide x of the distribution of the lamps, it is stated that 12,009 alone are to be placed on the Palace of Education, which building furnishes an excellent setting for night effects produced by the electric light The illumination. of the grounds is to be carried out on very ambitious lines. Each monumental standard will carry 24 incandescent lamps, so distributed that 12 will liang on each, arm of the supporting post. The lighting of the inside of the buildings will bo accomplished entirely with arc lamps.

#' - - . W", 1 # Professor Howell of Flagstaff lias been devoting considerable attention recently to the planet Venus as well as to Mars. In the case of the latter, besides noting the colour changes, described in a "note" last week, he has been fortifying his belief in the real existence of the much disputed ‘ f canal” system on the surface of that planet. He not only still Sees the oanals but reaffirms their "duplication"— that is, their appearance at certain times as two parallel lines instead of a single line. He scouts the notion of "illusion" or "out of focus”, explanations, and describes some testing observations which disprove/ the latter., On Venus he still descries ; the, lines; and spots .which many / astronomers won't believe in. By watch:lng these markings ho also; arrives at the . conclusion that Venus has no independent ; : ; rotatibh • on .her axis—at, least no. more than our moon has—that her period of . rotation, like that of our moon, coincides with her period of revolution, a period of some 235 days. , If the two. planets nearer the sun than ourselves have lost their

rotation from the tidal influence of the sun, our earth may have made a narrow escape from Hosing her rotary period of 24 hours, when instead of having 365 days in our year we would have had to be content with one, or rather, it should perhaps be said, with none at all.

An oxyacetylene blow-pipe is described by M. Foiiche, in the Bulletin of the French Physical Society. The flame is formed by the combustion of a mixture of one part -of acetylene one-eighth of oxygen, and in order :liat the explosion may not travel back into the blow-pipe, a jet velocity is required, due to the pressure of a water column four meters in height. The flame melts most metals readily; it will solder iron and steel. silica and lime are melted by it. With the reduction of the proportion of oxygen, the flame becomes luminous, and on falling on lime the free carbon goes to form carbide of lime.

That the poison; or germ, of influenza sometimes expends its force upon the intestine is a well-known fact. From this con cep ion of an intestinal catarrh, the "Family Doctor” thinks, it is but a step 1o the conception (f an appendicitis due to the same cau e —the grippe. This idea Las been held and advanced by some clinicians, and is in accord with the idea that appendicitis is in iact always an infectious disease rather than the result of a trauma by a foreign body

A nrofessor of M'Gill University, Montreal has brought out an invention which may enable ships t dispense with pilots in rivers' and harbour®. By means of Ulmhones a ship’s officers are enabled to keep to- the line of an insulated cable laid on the bed of the navigable channel.

The British Post Office regulation, by which goods may be . sent in an unclosed envelope bearing a halfpenny stamp is made inoperative by the action of the Department, writes a managing director. In forwarding an order lie prefaced to it the words. "Dear Hir—Please send,” and concluded with "Ycurs faithfully.” As a result of his courtesy the order was surcharged. 011 inquiry he was informed that the words "Please send” constituted a lei ter, and were not permissible in a written order.

An attorney ou'ce took strong exception to a ruling of bis court .tha* certain evidence was inadmis«able. "I know, your honour,” said be, warmly, "that it is proper evidence. Here I have been practising at the Bar for 40 years, and now I want to know if I am a fool?” "That,” quietly replied tlie court, "is a question of fact and not of law, and so I shall not pass upon it, but let the jury decide.

Aquiline noses,, said Professor Boyd Dawkins, in a lecture on "The Ancient Britons” at Owen’s College, Manchester, ind ; cate that their possessors are descended from the race of small, dark people who were the prehistoric inhabitants of Britain., and who are to be more commonly found on tlie western fringe cf Great Britain and in Ireland.

A minister opened Sunday-school class with the well known hymn "Little drops of water, little grains of sand.” In the middle of the first verse he stopped the singing and complained strongly of the half-hearted manner in which it was sung. "Now then,”, he shouted, “Little drops of water, and for goodness sake put some spirit into it.” * * *

A wealthy man was once proudly exhibiting to some friends a table which he had recently bouelit, and which be said was 500 years old. "That is nothing,” said one of the company. r I have a table which is m re than three thousand years old.” '-Three thou and years old! ’ exclaimed the host. "Impossible!" Where was it mad??” "Probably in India.” "In India! What kind of a table is it?” "The multiplication table.”

The following notice has been issued by the War Office:—“The Army Council have decided to grant the following increased rates of pay members of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service : —Matron-in-chief, .£3OO, rising by <£lo annually to <£3so; principal matrons, <£l7s, rising by <£lo annually to <£2os; matrons, <£7s, rising by <£lo annually to £150: sisters, £SO, rising by £5 anmially to £65; nurses, £4O, rising by £2 10s annually to £45. These ladies also receive board and washing allowances, and mat-rons-in-charge at the larger hospitals draw extra pay according to the magnitude of their charge. =» ■* *

You are always as young as you feel; people never grow old until they think themselves old. According to Balzac “a woman of 30 is most fascinating and dangerous.” The fashionable age for a so-, ciety woman is without doubt between 30 and 40. Never either admit your age or give landmarks which will enable others to guess it rightly. Take plenty of exercise, move briskly, and speak firmly. Take a half-hour’s, rest in the middle of the day; nothing conduces more to a good appearance. It renews strength and freshens the complexion. Tne want of occupation does not conduce to youth or to rest; mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.” Energy keeps the musoles elastic, and romance is an amulet against wrinkles. Defy time by keeping your heart young. It is envy, loss of heart, and impatience that brings lines to the face.

Is it true (asks a correspondent) as has so often been asserted, that the Japanese language has no “swear words?” If so, appearances are deceptive. To look at a piece .of Japanese writing yon would think it was all swear words. On the other hand, in view of this ghastly hiatus, one can quite understand why, when the Japs wanted an ally, they should have come to us. We can at least make good the deficiencies in their vocabulary. No other combination of Powers could possibly have afforded them the immoral support we are able to supply in this particular But how will it be with the "great. Russo-

Japanese war novels” that are bound to come? Never were our historical romanticists so awkwardly placed. To fight wiihout swearing is just conceivable, but to write about it and leave out o-f all the “ ’sdeafhs” and their sulphurous equivalents—that is flatly impossible. 4 -H- #

Those who like dog stories will read with pleasure an artk.A wl ph Mr W. H. Hudson contributes to "The Speaker” on "The Little Bed Dog”—a mongrel animal to be found, he thinks, in most countries. Being sniall and puny, the little red dog enjoys a subtle intelligence by way of compensation. Mr Hudson saw such a little red dog outwit a lurcher one day in the heart of London. The lurcher was lying on the pavement outside Peter Bobinso-n’s gnawing a beef bone. The little red/dog came up and pretended to .stare at something in Oxford Circus. Suddenly he rnslied toward'’ the circus, and the lurcher dashed after him to see what was the matter. The lurcher soon g n t ahead, and the little red d* g ran back, picked up the bone, and made off in the opposite direction.