MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1893, 2 March 1888, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The practice of mixing separated wibh whole milk is becoming very common in England, and as a consequence there is much grumbling at the inferior milk retailed.

— A non-speaking telephone is exhibited in Pittsburg. A sensitive plate presses against the larynx and glands of the neck, and as the jaws are moved in conversation the motion sends the words along the wire as distinctly as the telephone now in use.

—Much suffering is reported in parts of Buenos Ayrc?, owing to a failure of crops, due to excessive cold weather.

— A device has been patented for killing cattle, which consists of a mask or plate to which is fastened a short steel gun. A tap with a hammer discbarges this gun in such a manner that the bullet pierces the centre of the brain and is buried in the spinal marrow, causing instantaneous and painless death.

—In August last the " Jubilee Fifty " (officers of the Salvation Army) left London for India. On their arrival Commander Tucker received a cheque for £11,000, to assist in maintaining the work of the army in that country. The donor, who has amassed a large fortune mainly in India, not long ago gave £5000 towards the same object. — The political changes in France within 98 years have been numerous. The various forms of Government existing in that country within the time named are as follows : — Date of Estab- Years of Dulishmenfc. ration. First Pnpublic ... 1789 J5 First Empire 180 1 11 Bourbon Kingdom ... 1815 15 Orlenuish Kingdom ... 1830 18 Second Republic ... 1348 4 Second Empire ... 1852 18 Third Republic ... 1871 17 — Because tens of thousands beb where hundreds betted before, the death of an honest jockey was a few months since treated as a great event.— Spectator. --In Newcastle, since 1537, the working hours have gone down from 01 per week to si ; while the average wage per hour has increased by 2G per cent.—comparing the first 25 years of the half-century with the last 25.

—It is stated that flax of excellent quality grows in abundance in Chili, and that the native Government has just offered free passes and good grants of land to 20 Irish families who arc exports in the dressing and preparation of the flax. Should the natives become acquainted with the proper manipulation of the fibre, this industry promises to develop into a large and important one in the near future.

—The good side of the French character revolts from the leadership of men even asserted to be tainted as regards money.— Spectator. — In Prussia a large number of ladies have petitioned the Minister of Education against appointing male instead > of female teachers for the upper classes in girls' schools. The petitioners take the ground that male teachers do not understand the inner life of girls, who are thus educated in a puiely external, inconsistent, and superficial manner. —The cherry, the peach, the plum, the apple, and the pear, are believed to have been introduced to England by the Komans. The three last as well as the cherry, in all probability, reached them from Armenia, the poach from Persia, the fig from Syria, the orange from Media, and the apricot from Epirus. —The highest waterfalls in the world are the three Krimbs Falls, in the Upper Prinzgau, which have a total height of 114Sf t.

—The Times of India says that a general order is about to be issued by the Comman-der-in-chief directing that cavalry, like infantry, shall henceforth cheer when charging.

—The Severn tunnel is four and a-half mile long, and; is the longest in England; it extends two and one-quarter miles beneath the Severn, at a depth of 45ft to nearly 1000 ft below the bed of the river. The tunnel joins the South Wales Union line at Pilning, on the Gloucestershire side.

—The Dean of Manchester Cathedral (England) has accepted the offer of a wellknown citizen to place a stained glass window in Manchester Cathedral in memory of General Gordon.

—It is stated on good authority that blindness in the United States is increasing. While the population during the 10 years from 1870 to 1880 increased at the rate of 30 per cent., blindness increased over 140 per cent.

—Some of the large manufacturing firms in Sheffield (England) are forming insurances fcr their workmen against epidemic, the workmen contributing 2 or 2h per cent, of their weekly wages and being guaranteed a sum equal to his average wages in case of his family being attacked by small-pox or other contagious disease. — I only begin to believe in a medical man when his colleagues call him a quack, which simply means that his mind is open to new ideas.— Henry Laboucherc. — The Russian Government issued orders preventing Russian Poland from sending addresses, money, or presents to the Pope on the occasion of his jubilee. The Czar and his family also abstained from sending presents. —A new thing out is a clock, with ordinary works, that will run for a year without attention. An electric battery concealed in the case winds up the clock from day to day or week to week, as the need may be. Once in a great while the battery must be renewed, but that is all the care the clock calls for.

—A new theory advanced by Professor Oertel.and proven good by experiment, is that well regulated exercise is essential to the successful treatment of heart disease.

—Waterloo bridge, London, is the "English Bridge of Sighs," and gets its name from the number of suicides that have taken place from it.

— The young gorilla which the London Zoological Society was endeavouring to acclimatise is dead. The society has nob yet succeeded in raising an animal of this kind.

—The oldest titled family in the peerage of England is that of de Ros ; their peerage was created in 1264.

A law has been passed in Waldeck, Germany, forbidding the granting of a marriage liscense to a person addicted to the liquor habit.

—A short time ago the Ameer of Afghaniston seized 13 men of the Mungal tribe at Logar and had them killed at Ohawan, in Cabul. They were shaved and a circle of mud was made on their heads, in which oil was put and burned.

—Hatred of the Jews is unabated in Russia. The recommendation of the Imperial commission to permit Jews to dwell in any village of Russia has been rejected by the Government.

—There are about 4400 pawnbrokers in the United Kingdom. — An Amati violin, which originally belonged to King Louis XIV, has recently been sold at Buda-Pesth for £700.

—A number of persons in Hamburg have been attacked with trichinosis after eating ham. The authorities have seized large quantities of infected pork. —A New York millionaire is said to be the owner of a St. Bernard dog that cost 3500d0l and to pay a man 15dol a week to devote his time to exercising and caring for the pet. — Violent changes like the rise in the prices of tin and copper are, in fact, a curse to everybody, and totally contrary to what should be the law of modern trade£— Standard.

— Formerly nations saved in timekof peace and spent during war. Now the preparations drain their treasures, and they are deep in debt before they strike a blow. They are like men who run too far to a leap, and are breathless as they try to take it.— Telegraph.

— Queen Victoria owns the largest book ever bound. It measures 18in across the back, and weighs 301b. It contains the jubilee addresses of congratulation from members of the Primrose League.

■ — It is stated in the life of the late Mr Samuel Morley that there is at the present time in the employ of the Nottingham House an old man named John Derrick, a silk framework knitter, who made the Queen's stockings for her coronation, and who, at the age of 84, made stockings of an absolutely identical description for her jubilee.

—Russia on one side of Europe and France on the other cannot for ever go on " playing at soldiers " without furnishing the Powers against whom their game of military parade is directed with a justification for declaring that they will stand this sort of costly and irritating trifling no longer, and prefer a short, sharp, and decisive conflict to an interminable armed peace.— Standard.

— December 20 was the centenary of the waltz. The dance was first introduced, so the story goes, in an opera at Vienna December 20, 1787, by one VinGent Martin. It became popular at once, and probably will continue to be so long as fiddlers scrape and men and women continue to class dancing in their list of amusements.

— The duration of life is longest in Norway, with an average of 474 years. Great Britain comes next with an average of 43*56 years. The length of life is gradually increasing in almost all the nations of the world, and the reasons for this increase are to be found in the better sanitary arrangements which generally prevail, and in the decrease of infantile mortality.