Items.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 7690, 6 December 1899, Page 3

Items.

Pruntrian bluo is mado by fusing horses' hoofa and other auimal rofuso matter with linpuro potassium carbonato. It is atatod that about one in eightoon of tho population of Paris lives on charity, with a tondenoy towards orime. Over a quartor of a million poople have already perished In consequenco of tho famino in Russia. (Tho Fronch statistician, Dr Livrior, says that half of all human beings die beforo 17, that only ono poraon in 10,000 livoa to be 100 years old, and that only ono person out < o! every 1000 lives to to GO. Tho greatest holght ovar reached in a balloon was 26,160 foet. Two of the three aoronauts who mado this ascent wore suffocated. Tho uso of blotting paper for cleaning machinory is a now idea, but it has boon tried in tho Gorman workshops, and found to anawor woll. Milk ia auggestod as a good extinguishing agont for burning petroloum. It forms an emulsion with tho oil, and, by diaturblng its cohesion, attenuates tho combustiblo oloment aa wator cannot. A prizo of about L 1,200, open to all nations, will bo awardod in 1903 by tho Koyal Academy of Soieneos of Turin for the most important work on physical science of tho four preceding years. 'l'hu curious fuct is noted by M. Maurain, iu tho Journal do Physique, that careful measurements of the intensity of gravitation iu different parts of tho globo bliow this to 1, 0 greater on islands than on continents. Tho doll ia probably the most antiquu of toys. It han been found inside tho graven of ohildron of anciont Rome, Tho teaching of English is obligatory in Ruuaian commercial schools. Australia ia highesto in tho list as a meatcatlng nation, with a consumption of 2761bs per Inhabitant por ycur. Great Britain comes next with 1181bs. It ia aaid that if children are givon all the honey at meal times that thoy can cat, it does away with tho iiwnlinuto craving for candy between meals. Honey is harmless UL'ho Jowiah race botrays an absolutely unprecedented tenacity of life. It far exceeds, especially in Ureat Britain, that of any other known pooplo.

Prußßian military experiments show that severe muscular exertion renders the blood vory poor in sugar, and that sugar renders tired muscles capable of renewed exertion, whilo saccharino is far less beneficial. A similar impression prevails in Kentucky, whero the sugar is mingled with mint and other ingredients. Rings sot with valuable stones should always bo takon off when washing the hands, for the constant use of eoap is apt to discolor the gems and loosen the settings. Chief Dinizulu, son and successor of Cetewayo, ia advertised as a subscriber to the London Times' reprint of the " Kncyclopculia Rritannica." Snails and worms arc active agents In distributing tho pores of mildow. Mr F. L. Stevens, of the University of Chicago, observed that the mildew was distributed in tho path they had followed in crawling over fresh leaves.

Fridtjof Namon'a sharp eye for the money side of his ventures lia3 won him the nickname of ' Finanzen Nansen ' in Norway. He has bought a number of farms in the Namedal, near tho Todemarken, in tho Christiania district, which ho is making into a larger ostato.

A law recently passed in Norway makes a girl ineligible for matrimony unleEs she can show certificates of skill in cooking, knitting, and spinning. iileotricity In the hands of a Vienna doctor has turned tho Ethiop white. The negro went to the hospital from an Austrian gaol, and was treated with electricity for four months. At tho end of that time he wa« cured and alßo completely bleached. From recent statistics it appears that the annual doath rate in the United States is 18 porlOOO; in Great Britain it is 19 '4; Ireland, 182; France, 22 5; Germany, 24'4 ; Austria, 29'5 ; Hungary, 32 4. In Norway and Sweden it is less than 18.

Among the points dwelt on at the recent Tuborculosis Congress in Berlin were tho facts that more than 40 per cent, of the printers of Berlin who had died were phthisical.