MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1932, 30 November 1888, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—All kinds of clever forgeries are not uncommon, but the police have recently arrested at Havre a swindler named Altmazer. After' being sentenced to 20 years-hard labour, this genius forged the certificate of his release, and ao obtained his freedom. Not satisfied withthis, he has committed several fresh frauds. —The United States Senate has amended the act relating to special crimes, so as to punish with £1000 fine and five years' imprisonment any person caught using the mails for the transmission Of indecent books, pamphlets, letters, or post cards. — The type-writer now in such common use dates back to 1714, when Henry Mill got a patent for it in England, but it was nob really made practicable until 1867. — People on Pall Mall were recently wonderstruck to see the cooks, kitchenniaids, waiters, and all the employes of the Arnfy and Navy Club, to the number of 100 oi; more, pour out' on the steps and pavements'.' They were photographed. , „ ■ <■ • , —Professor Warrington Smyth ascribes the great heat in mines, especially noticeable in those of Nevada,' to chemical changes changes going on in the lode itself. '- \ ■ ■ — Extraordinary swarms of flies have ap-' peared in the valley of the Tyne, giving the inhabitants just a taste of what the fourth plague of Egypt was. — Sunlight is found to penetrate the waters of Geneva to a depth of 170 metres, and there* shows a light equal to that of a clear, moonless night. — An amusing paper is the recently published "History of the Bonnets of Queen Victoria's Reign," the different and grotesque styles of which would not be believed if the pictures were not laid before the eye. — Chemical analysis shows that even th& better grades of cigarettes contain considerable quantities of opium, while the lower are full of the concentrated essence of. nasti--ness. — Experiments have been carried out on the Continent with the object of detecting the presence of tfoops in the neighbourhood of forts by means of the microphone with oomplete success, as there was no difficulty in distinguishing between the cavalry, infantry, and artillery. — During the last severe thunderstorm in St. Petersburg one of the eikons was struck by lightning, and the coins, which were on a plate before it, were impelled by the force of the electric fluid so as to form a circular shape round the holy picture. The incident has been regarded by the lower classes as a miracle, and thousands of peasants and merchants from different parts of Russia are daily visiting the image and making their offerings. — In Naples considerable success has followed the removal of portions of deceased lungs in animals. More than 50 per cent, of the cases recovered, and it is thought the time will come when it will be a recognised part of surgical practice. —Germany has effected a unity which had no very serious obstacles in its way, and she has beaten in two short wars two almost totally unprepared and scandalously badlyled neighbours. All the rest is mere swagger. In the history of the Prophet Mahommed — one of the most instructive of histories— we are told how certain amazons of Mecca unkindly danced and sang "After Beder, Ohod." When the kind of bragging which has been so frequent in Germany since the late accession, is heard, there are some by no means ill friends to the Germans who feel clined to murmur, " After Rossbach, Jena I" — Saturday Review. —There is a wonderful mirage in Glacier Bay, Alaska, reflected from the glassy surface of the Pacific glacier. It is 'said that 3*ust after the change of the moon in June, soon after sunset, and' while the moon is climbing above the sky, a city.appears above the glacier. It is so distinct that a photograph is said to have been made this season by a resident of Juneau, who learned of the mirage from the Indians, and has seen it appear and disappear for four years. — A New York watch dealer has imported from Switzerland the smallest watch ever made. The dial and works are just the size of a silver half dime, but it is a complete watch in every respect, being a stem-winder, stem-setter, and full jewelled. Other watches have been made quite as small as this, only they have always hitherto had their size through the omission of part of the works. —A remarkable double-headed child was recently born to a French family named Eeoulbault in Manchester, Maine. The heads are both perfect and are joined to the body by two short, well-shaped necks. It uses its mouths and eyes apparently at will in eating, crying, waking, and even sleeping. The parents were much shocked at the appearance of their baby, and went at once to Montreal to avoid the notice of their neighbours. The child is likely to live.— New York Sun. ' At Marseilles a man who fancied his wife would look well in ostrich feathers entered a railroad truck wherein were several birds just arrived from Algeria, en route to Paris. The poor fellow selected a fine specimen, an 3 was about to .pull it out when the ostrich kicked and killed him on the spot. —A correspondent in the Morning Post suggests that old cannon may be utilised by using them to throw shells charged with melinite. Tbe idea is worth consideration. An old gun which cannot generate sufficient velocity to drive a shot through the harness of an ironclad might drop a shell on her deck charged with an explosive fstrong enough to blow the ship to pieces. The science of naval attack and defence will have to be reconsidered in the light of the new explosives. The difference in the colour of the races j of mankind cannot be laid to the effect of the sun's heat. Some of the hottest countries are inhabited by people with white skins, as ! the Touaricks of the African Sahara and the Fellahs of Egypt. On the other hand, darkskinned races exist in the cold Arctic regions, and iv the New World we find an almost unvarying shade of dusky brown prevailing among the aborigines, through every variation of temperature and climate, from tho icy regions of Hudson's Bay to the sun-dried pampas of South America. A Russian Jew has invented a watch that goes by electricity. There .are" no springs, but two wheels and a second hand, which moves by momentary leaps, and thus makes it valuable in astronomical observa-

tions. It is thought that the invention will revolutionise the making of watches, and •then the time will come when they can be used for telegraphy. — " Ouida " opens the " Woman's World " for October with a sharp, and, in some respects, truthful, attack upon the ugliness of the streets of London. She says that no city in Europe is so badly lighted an d so meanly laid out. ' — No one who travels much on < the Continent can fail to note how much less conscientious hard work there is in this country than there is abroad ; yet conscientious hard work is the key, to every success in life. When the foreigner has already been some hours at work the Englishman has hardly risen from his slumbers. The day of labour which in the time of our ancestors began at >8 or 9 o'clock is gradually now falling away to 11, yet the secret of success in business is almost always to be before the time.—" Mac- ] millan's Magazine." ,-r-A method of bleaching bonea and giving them an appearance of ivory has" been discovered in Europe. To. remove the fat the bones are digested with ether or benzine. They are then dried and "immersed in a" , solution of phosphorous acid, in water, which ' 1 per cent, of phosphoric anhydrate. After a few hours they are washed and dried, and the object is accomplished. —If Prince Bismarck can get a big order for Krupp by a judicious distribution of decorations among expectant Ministerial un- ; derlings.or if he can oblige "a group of financiers from Berlin or Frankfort by, bringing'pressure to' bear upon the Chinese Government for the concession' of a loan, it seems to him quite right'-'and- proper. His finger is in everything. He nobbles newspapers, pushes rivals out of the field in business, and rigs the market. No one imputes.to Prince Bismarck for a moment any personally interested motive in all this. It is not for himself, but for his country, for the greater honour and glory and profit of Germany, that this is done. — Pall Mall Gazette. —Lord Randolph Churchill has been Lord Salisbury's Chancellor of the Exchequer. - He has been behind the scenes, and made diligent use of his means of observation. What has he to . tell us 1 He speaks of 11 waste and extravagence going on to an incredible degree ; " of " the most terrible and probably -fatal chaos and confusion at the Admiralty and War Departments, to which the British people entrust millions every year." In terms like those addressed by the Roman Senate to an unfortunate general he would say, "Lord Wolseley, what have you done with our millions?" — "Contemporary Review." —The boiling points of liquids vary greatly, as may be seen from the following table :— Deg. Dog: Fah. - F«h> Morcurj ... 662 Oil of turpentine <.. 3t4 Sulphurio acid ... 610 Water ... .... ,213 Olive oil ... COO Nitric acid ./. • 210 Phosphorus ... 554 Alcohol... ... 173 lodine ... ... 347 Sulphuric ether ( .. U3 Napbtha ... 320 Muriatic ether ... 62 — Mustard, was little known at English tables until 1729, when a Mis Clements, residing in Durham, began to grind the seed in a mill, and to pass the flouT through several processes necessary to free it from its husks. She kept her secret to herself for many years, during which she sold large quantities of mustard throughout the country, but especially in London. Hare it was introduced to the royal table, where ifc received the approval of George I. From the circumstance of Mrs Clements being a resident at Durham it obtained the name ''of Durham mustard.

— There is not a British consul in any part of the world who will not tell you that it is the German who is our most formidable competitor. There are more German Commercial travellers on the road in Finland than British tourists, and there -is not; a village in the Transvaal where you will not come across the trail of the übiquitous Teuton bagman. They go wherever we go, and then if they can they shut us out from wherever they have got the upper hand. They crushed our mission stations in the Cameroons, and snapped up Northern New Guinea under our very noses.— Pall Mall Gazette. —The Mohammedan ideal of a missionary is a lean old man with a staff and a couple of ragged disciples. Among the Hindus, for the past 2400 years, every preacher who would appeal to the popular heart must; fulfil two conditions and conform to a certain type — he must cut himself off .from the world by a solemn act, like the great Renunciation of Buddha ; and he must come forth from his solitary self-communings with a simple message to his fellow men. Our missionaries do not seem to Indian thinkers to possess either of the initial qualifications necessary for any great awakening of the people.— Sir W. W. Hunter.