MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1813, 20 August 1886, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—The Rig Veda, the religious book of the "Hindoos, is thesfcronghold oi jq Hiu-100 religion . Hitherto it has existed \a Sanskvk and the people of India have not boeu. able 16 Vead it bat have regarded it with superstitious reverence. It is now to be translated into Bengali ; «Bdit is thought that when once the people can itead it much of the veneration for it will be ■destroyed. So knowledge becomes the ally of the Christian sessionary. — The testimony of a woman before a Salt Lake Court the other day in a polygamy case was ia substance that "she didn't know whether her husoand had another wife or not ; it wasn't of sufficient importance to talk about." — Of the hundred and seventy-five millions of Moslems that constitute the population of Islam, nearly fifty millions acknowledge the j authority or influence of this country. Yet Islam is known to a few specialists only, and even these are interested rather in the literature of Arabic-using peoples than inj the creeds and traditions which govern the action of so important a section of the human race. — Spectator. —As to the relative merits of hard and soft steel rails, the investigations in Germany seem to leave the matter of wear indeterminate, with the conclusion' that the wear of rails depends more upon the impurity oE the steel than upon its hardness or softness. — The history of young Princes is usually a history of over restriction, carried in cases one has heard of to the verge of the pathetic, the sense of responsibility weighing incessantly not only on nurses and tutors, but on the closest relatives, who not unfrequently regard calumny as to their treatment with a paralysing dread. — Spectator. — A St. Paul (U.S.) paper has been sued for libel by a young lady of that city, who is aggrieved by its publication of a wood-cut purporting to be her portrait. — The Borneo tree toad has a slender body and broad, webbed feet that can be spread out to act like a parachute, enabling the animal to leap- from a tree-top and float through the air for a considerable distance like a flying squirrel. — " Of the making of books .there is no end," <and verily gardening and cookery books 'are the chief exponents of the words of the patriarch Job. Whether there is some invisible bond between these two branches of literature we know not, but both are decidedly on the increase. — Saturday Review. — Women are continually striking out in new industrial paths, A youug girl in Now York is a skilful and successful locksmith. She used to help her father in his shop, and finally concluded to start out on her own account. She gives satisfaction and is making money. •—The printers in the calico making mills of the Connecticut valley have a very close organisation of their own in each neighbourhood, and will not impart the secrets of their trade to any but their own sons or the sons of members of affiliated organisations. — No capital in Europe offers such an endless art panorama as London in May. Paris has its Salon, but few private exhibitions ; glance, however, at the Times supplement, and you will be surprised at the number and variety of London picture shows. — The State. — The strikers in Chicago have caused a startling increase in the nnmber of chattel mortgages placed on record. The amount involved in the business of the past week is 100,000dol. — Chicago Times, June 12. — Doubtless the best things will come to those who know how to wait and to earn ; but they may be, and often are, delayed till hope deferred makes the heart sick. — Spectator. — The replacement of a diseased eye by the healthy eye of an animal has now been done five times, with, one success, says the Medical Record. In the four cases the cornea sloughed; in two, however, firm vascular adhesions took place. — The introduction of photo-lithographic presses is likely to revolutionise the Chinese Book trade. Two firms at Shanghai, one English and one native, now issue the celestial classics at a price that causes each individual pig-tail to stand on end with delight. — Mr A. S. Barker of Philadelphia, has taken very fair photographs by the light of a flash of lightning. They were taken after dark at 7 p.m., and the actinic effect has been estimated as equivalent to an exposure of l-300bh part of a second in bright sunlight. — The French Railway Commission has decided to send delegates to London to study the underground railway, with a view to its introduction in Paris. A delegation to study the New York elevated system has also been over to America. — When will novelists learn the great truth, which perhaps only Scott.thoroughly knew and faithfully followed, that the art of story-telling is to tell stories which it is a pleasure to read ? Not that there is nothing to be learned from the " Waverley Novels," far from it ; but the teaching is indirect, like the moral or mental improvement to be got out of a good picture or a good play. — Saturday Review. — A special committee on railroad axles has reported that iron axles are safer than steel axles; that all cranks should have the webs hooped ; that as iron cranks appear to fail after running 200,000 miles, and steel after 170,000, it is highly desirable that they should be taken off and not again used on passenger engines ; and that crank axles, properly constructed, are as strong as straight axles. — The sharpest sting of poverty is when you are made to feel your own impotence to relieve the suffering which wealth can remove — even to avert the death which wealth can stave off. — Walter Besant. —The Marquis Tseng has kept a diary during his residence in England, and when he returns to China, he intends to leave it in the hands of a friend in London, who is to prepare it for publication. — An interesting bust of Brutus, in white marble, from Rome, has just been placed next to the well-known bust of Julius Csesar in the Roman Gallery in the British Museum. —Archbishop Ryan recently appointed a commission to inquire into the life, character, and work of the late Bishop Neuman, who preceded Archbishop Wood as the head of the Catholic Church in the Philadelphia diocese, and to send the testimony they procure to Rome, with a view to having Bishop Neuman eventually canonised, and his name placed upon the calendar of saints. — Globe Democrat. — Epsom firsb became celebrated by reason of its salts. In the time of Charles 11. it was fashionable. When Queen Anne came to the throne Epsom rose to the height of its prosperity. To-day it is sleepy except in Derby week. — Newfoundland was discovered by the 'Norwegians in the eleventh century, long before the discovery of North America, but it was not until 1497 — subsequent to Columbus— that Jacques Cabot visited Newfoundland, and, gave jfc the j pame which it has ein.ee borce, , i

—In 18G0 there Wet e 357,833 public houses in France* Now there are 356,185, or one establishment where drink is sold for every 97 inhabitants. — "Smokers may be well pleased," says a medical paper, " to know that an antidote has been discovered which will enable them to enjoy their pipes or cigars without any fear of being poisoned by nicotine. It appears that the water-cress destroys the toxic principle of to- , bacco, preserving at the same time its aroma. It is sufficient to wet the tohacfo with the juice of the water-cress, which will completely deprive the tobacco of its deleterious principles." — The total expenditure of Great Britain — or the civil charges of all kinds — from 1874-5 to 1879-80 was £92,386,000. The total expenditure from 3880-1 to 1885-6 was £112,016,000. The yearly average inthofirstperiodwas£ls,397,ooo, and in the second period £15,66 D,OOO. Average increase £3,272,000. — Professor Leslie predicts that the amazing exhibition of natural oil and gas which has characterised the past twenty years, and will probably continue for ten or twenty years more, is, nevertheless, not only geologically but historically a temporary and vanishing phenomenon — one which young men will live to see come to its natural end. This opinion, he says, is the result of both an active and thoughtful acquaintance wi,th the subject. — A discussion upon smoking in the presence of children is agitating society in England. Instances of tobacco smoke acting like slow poison upon youug children are cited, and " smoking fathers " are asked to have the goodness and consideration to smoke in other rooms than where their children are present. — There is a curious animal in Loch Fyne, which, dredged up from the bottom of the sea, performs the most extraordinary and unaccountable acts of suicide and self-destruction. It is a peculiar kind of star- fish, which, when brought up from the bottom of the water, and when any attempt is made to take hold of it, immediately throws off all its arnis,',its very centre breaks up, and nothing remains of one of the most beautiful forms in nature but a thousand wriggling fragments. Were the sun placed in one pan of a mighty weighing-balance, and were 300,000 bodies as heavy as our earth placed in the other, the sun would still turn the scale. — Warm water is now supplied at the rate of 175,000 gallons a day at Pesth, from an artesian well that is said to be about 3000 feet deep and the deepest in the] world. The temperature of the water is 161 degrees, but the work, towards which the city contributes £40,000 is to be continued until the temperature rises to 178 degrees. It is expected that the supply will also then be ample for all the wants of the city. ,— We cannot afford to allow Burmah to become a second Egypt — a theatre for the intrigue and counter-intrigue of competing Western Powers. That is the negative ground for taking the country under our direct administration. The positive ground is, of course, the immediate and important advantages which we shall draw from opening up to commerce the region which separates us from the Chinese Empire. — Saturday Review. — On an average each inhabitant of London consumes each year thirty-two times as much fish as each inhabitant of Berlin, and Paris consumes more fish than the whole of the German Empire. Efforts are now being made to popularize the eating of fish in Germany. To bring this about a German paper suggests that fish be mado into sausages. — Bismarck is about to found in Berlin a school for the teaching of living Oriental languages. As a measure of economy the school will be located in one of the buildings of the Berlin University. Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Japanese and Hindustani -will comprise the course. — In Russia drunkenness is said to be cured by steeping in liquor the bread, meat and vegetables fancied by the patient, and also by putting into his tea and coffee his favourite spirit — at least one-third of a cupful. The result is that he soon becomes disgusted with even the colour of liquor. — A legacy of some £12,000 has been left to the Jena University, to be applied in zoological research on the basis of Darwin's evolution theory. The testator is Herr Paul yon Ritter of Basle, who believes the teaching of Darwin to be the greatest sign of progress which the century has yet given. — Take a small piece of cinnamon, hold your nose tightly, rather high up, between the thumb and finger, and begin chewing it. You will find that it is absolutely tasteless ; you are merely chewing a perfectly insipid piece of bark. Then let go your nose, and you will find immediately that it " tastes" strongly, though in reality it is only the perfume from it that you now permit to rise into the smelling chamber in the nose. — It is said that there are not less than 600 American girls studying singing in Milan alone. Paris is not far behind in its quota of the like. London has some dozens, and Germany is full of them. — English painting at the present day is struggling against many adverse influences ; but the worst influence of all, the most subtly deteriorating and entirely bad, is the influence which asks us to subsfcitnroflashiness for strength, recklessness for care, theatrical effect for meaning, and coarseness for delicacy. — Spectator. — The speeches of debate at their best will never be the speeches of literature. The orator, like the actor, must be content with the audience of the moment, and be content to live as a name and as a tradition, unless great achievements of administration, of policy, and of legislation give him a place in history. — Saturday Review. — The Wisconsin Catholics have a local shrine at Holy Hill, which is becoming noted in the State for miraculous cures. There is a church on a hill in a rural neighbourhood where services I are held on certain days during the summer season, and to these services the devout of all the region resort for cure from all sorts of physical afflictions. The church has the tribute of crutches from the lame who have gone home healed, without which no shrine for cure is complete. — Science has revolutionised the whole method of naval war, with a cruel disregard of routine and the habits of the departments. Wars by sea and land can no longer be improvised. Everything is settled by crushing blows swiftly dealt ; but these are only possible by long previous preparations and " the development during peace of an organised system and plan." — St. James' Gazette. — The Medical Record gives a paper read by Dr A. L. Loomis, of New York city, before the American .Clitnatological Association, in which he tells of heart disease being induced by a change from a low to a high altitude. Two of the persons he referred to went to St. Regis Lake in the Adirondacks, an elevation of 1000 ft; one went to the Catskills, and the fourth to Colorado. They obtained relief by returning to lower levels, but all of them died in four or five weeks. Dr Loomis thinks anyone with the slightest heart should shun the mountains.