PROOF AGAINST POISON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19011, 6 November 1923, Page 8

PROOF AGAINST POISON.

IMMUNITY OF ANIMALS. Some animals can absorb enough poison to kill a regiment of men without suffering any ill-effects at all. Morphia, for instance. Of this deadly drug a goat can swallow with impunity enough to kill 1000 human beings. Cats seem morphia-proof. They can take quantities of the poison without being made in the least sleepy. On the contrary, morphia seems to excite these animals. A pigeon has been known to eat 800 grains of morphia mixed with its food in a fortnight. Here, again, the bird was not in any way harmed. Rabbits will eat belladonna to such an extent that (heir flesh becomes poisonous, while they themselves are not any the worse. Cantharidin is not so deadly as the poisons already mentioned, yet one grain has been known to kill a human being. You might, however, give a whole spoonful to a hedgehog without doing him the slightest harm. Arsenic is one of the few poisons which kill all forms of life—insect, animal, and vegetable—and of the vegetable poisons there is one—namely, nicotine—which is even more deadly in its effects upon the lower animals than it is upon mankind.

The Corporation of London’s gardener who attends to the little green spaces around St. Paul’s Cathedral has chosen the city’s arms and motto for his landscape lesson, or “Sermon in Foliage,’’'this summr It can be seen on the grassy slope near the south door. The general groundwork is in dark green “thrift’’ grass, and cross and sword in the shield are in rich bronze, and the “quarters” in delicate leafy plants in silver tones. The motto, “Domine dirige nos” (“O Lord guide us”), and the text from the fresco in the Guildhall of St. Paul presenting his sword to the city fathers, “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain,” are in golder pyrethrum. There is at least one snot in England where a ball can take with the band playing in one county ainl tile dancers tripping it in another. 'lh.s is at a publichouse known as the Flying Bull, which stands on the boundaries of two parishes and the same number c£ counties. The inn is built partly in the parish of Rogate, in the county of Sussex, and partly in. the parish of Liss, in the county of Hampshire. The consequence is that when a ball takes place at this singularly situated publichouse, the musical performers play in Sussex and the company dance in Hampshire. —To recover the body of a 12-year-old crippled child for his widowed mother, the whirling waters cf Xuba River, California, have been diverted at a cost of over £4OOO. \V nen she was prevented from jumping into the rapids to find the body, the mother fell on her knees and prayed that God would let her hold the boy in her arms once more before she let him go. For 14 days hundreds of men, assisted by the engineers, threw themselves at the herculean task, brought the body ashore, and placed it in his mother’s arms. To accomplish their work they had to divert a portion of the river into a channel, and to pump out the 30ft of water under which the boy was pinned to the rocks below. Paderewski has returned from politics to the piano, to the great gain of the art of music. He gave up the work to which his genius was best fitted, for five years, to serve his country, and during that time he touched the piano about twice a year. Now he practises many hours a day, and during his recent American tour he had an upright, piano always in his railway car. After London, he sets out on a world tour. He lost all he possessed in the war, and is now beginning the world again, financially at least, at the age of 63. v That he will make a second fortune those who have heard him play of late will have no reason to doubt.