MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2076, 7 December 1893, Page 38

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The French Minister cf Public Works has published a list of European railway lines. Germany comes fin-t, with 27,130 miles; France next, with 23,715 Great Britain and Ireland, with 20,34-5 miles, are followed by Russia with 19,4-20, and Austria with 17,54-0. France a'-d Austria each added 656 miles to their lines in 1892, Germany 315, Italy 174, and Spain 153. — Mr Stanley, the explorer, says : -" From my own investigations I have arrived at tho conclusion that the average stature of the human race increases at the ra l o of l|in per 1000 years." - — The objectionable habit of biting tho nails is not uncommon. Those who indulge in it Bhould take the following history as a warning. A young girl died from a painful internal disease which bafflsd medical science. A post moitym was held, and in a vital part there was diecovered a large ball, formed entirely of morsel 6of nails, which were quite indigestible, and wh ; ch had increased gradually. — When pursued by a swift dr.g the common grey rabbit jumpi about 9ft clear on level ground. In proportion to length a hor?e, to jump as far as a rabli 1 -, would h=wa to ck-ar dUb at a jump. — The mayor of Sfc. Joseph, Mis-ouri, recently gavo permission to a citizen to kill two dogs which annoyed him, aud the n?xfc morning the mayor found two of hisowa dogo dead, with bis own warrant of permission for their killing pinned on their bodies. — Tho French Government has just created, in the nature of an experiment, a post alpf-r vice by camel espreEß ia the French territories _ of ObDsh and tic Somali coast. In connection with this servile a ppecial provisional stimp ■will be i.-siu'd, the value beiDg sfr. — Every sprii'g thf Emperor of China goes to the "Emperoi's fit-Id," ploughs a portion of it, sows ib with several kinds of seeds, and superintends the ceremony, while the princes and nine courtiers perform the same act in honour of the g>d r-f agriculture. — Of the 203 OCO,OOO natives of ladia, but 2.000,000 can speak Euglish, tho language of the rulers. The native courts are conducted in Hindustani, and intercour.-e with the English is carried on by a sort of jargon. — Rouen Cathedral is in danger, the west front being seriously dilapidated. The local authorities will nob pay for the necessary restoration ; so, unices the Stale comes to the rescue speedily, this flue old building promises to be irreparably damaged. — There is a difference in the time r.f digestion between one meat and another, aud between different conditions of the same meat. Raw beef dieappsars from the stomach in about two hours ; the same beef boiled takes^ three hours, while thoroughly -roasted berf is nut digested uatil four hours have elapse^. — It is a peculiar fact that with most men the growth of hair is stronger oa one side of the face than the other. It is eaid that Lair always grows more strocgly on that side on which we are stronger. Hair also grows less strongly upon the side which is most subject to the pressure on the pillow while BleepiDg. — Apollinaris water comes from a sprisg in the valley of the Ahr, in the Rhine country. A ■whole village is engaged in bottling it and shipping it. From 100,000 to 150,000 bottles are prepared in a day. — There is a curious instanca on Lord Armstrong's estate, in Northumberland, of his lordship's applied science, in the shape of a workman's clock, which was designed and made under his direction. Besides striking the hours, the clock rings a bell aii the various times when the workmen go to and from their work. Oa Saturday the bell varies its warnings in recognition of the half holiday, and Sunday it observes as a day of rest. — Well preserved flowers— lotus, red poppy, aud others — have been found on Egyptian mummies 5000 to 6000 years old. Some are on exhibition in the Egyptian museum, Cairo, at the present time. — Twelve million pounds' worth of leather is required cvory year to provide boots and shoes for the inhabitants of Great Britain. — A man and a bear were taken to a Paris police station recently charged with begging on the public highway. The bear was found lo be an imitation, not a genuine grizzly, being simply a man disguised in a bear skin. — A species of Bcacia, which grows very abundantly in Nubia and the Soudan, is also called the " whistling tree "by the natives. Its shoots are frequently, by the agency of the larvae cf insects, distorted in shape, and swollen into a globular bladder from lin to 2in in diameter. After the insect has emerged from a circular hole in the r<ide of this swelling, the openiDg, pla} ed upon by the wind, becomes a musical instrument, nearly equal in sound to a sweettoned flute. — The smallest screw in the world is that used in the movement of a watch. Borne of these are so minute that a box of them appears to the casual observer to be filled with floe, black sand. With a strong glasa, however, they are seen to be perfect in every part, though only 4-1-OOOth of an inch in diameter. A thimble will bold over 100,000 of them. They are not counted, bub sold by weight. — Officers and soldiers of the French army will henceforth have a metallic name-plate fastened to their collars for identification. A similar scheme is beiDg considered for the benefit of miners. — The American colony in Paris now numbers 3599. This is a failing off from the census of two years ago of 1200 f — Iv tbe Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, perBorss desiring work or help have now only to bend a postal card to the director of the postal adtrdnisfcrati.-u in order to have their wan s adveitised iv every post office in the Grand Duchy. — The sheriffs of London annually pay into the British Exchequer Fix horseshoes with the proper number of nails as rent for a piece of ground in the parish of St. Clement. In 1234 this lot was rented from the Crown by a blacksmith to build a shop on, and afterwards the property came into tho hands of the City Corporation at the sam 3 rental. The horseshoes and nails have been annually paid ever since the day mentioned. — The average amount of time that a human being is ill in a year is ten days. — Roumania has some queer taxes. There is a tax on female servants, on doorplates, and on doctors. — According to Rev. De Chitc, Ind , a product possessing the properties of gum-arabic is oMair-ed by boiling one kilogramme flax Peed with oigh'o kilogrammes sulphuric acid and ten iLres water, fiitsriug after three or four hourn, iteldiDg four times the volume of alcohol, washing a d drying the precipitate. Tiie product is amorphous, colourless, insipid, aud dissolves in water like gum-ar.vLic. — The largest British lanclowner in America is tho Pvlarquis of Tweeddale, who owns a million and three quaitcra acres. Sir Edward Reed, in conjunction with a syndicate, owns t.To million seren in tho State of Florida. — Tho tomb of Mohammed i<3 covered with diamonds, sapphires, and rubiea valued at £2,000,000.

— President Carnot has been informed by the cashier of a Paris savings bank that he has the sum of 50fr and a few centimes standing to his credit. This account M. Carnot opened in his youfch, when he was a humble joiner's apprentice, and then forgot about it-. — There are said to be quice 163,000 families in London living in siDgle rooms. — About 4-0 French women have been decorated at different times by tho Government. The fksb was Sergeant Virginie Ghesquicre, who fought iv the wars of the empire until she received a wound which led to the betrayal of her sex. — Two thousand varieties or apples are raised in the United States. — A laundry in England owned by women, and employing only women, earned £6000 last year. Good players of the harp are said to be the scarcest of all musical performers. Seven hundred and twenty tons of cardboard are utilised every year ia the shape of postal cards. — It is estimated th%t of the 90,000 paupers in Loadon, two-thirds are able-bodied and capable of working. — A remarkable operation hag been recently reported from HuU. It was performed by Mr Lowson, and consisted in the extirpation of a portion of the right; lung of a patient suffering from consumption. Tho patient recovered, aud three months after was coaiparatively well. A similar operation has been performed once o'c twice abroad. TMs is tho firsb case in England. — A machine for rnakiog tacks was patented in 1803, bub nob pub into practical lisa until near the middle of the present cenfury. Now tho world ccnMimcs 50.C00.000 tacks a day. — Baron Felder, of Vienna, has occupied his timo for many yeara in gathering rare butterflies. Recently he sold his collection to Lord Rothschild for fete sum of £5000. — At one time two soldiers died of consutnpticn for one civilian ; now four civilians die for every three soldiers. —"it is estimated by Major-general Tyrell that whereas, at the time of the Crimean War, the aggregate strength of the armies of the Great Powers of Europe did nob exceed 3,000,000 in round numbers, to-day ib is more than 20,000,000. — On the body of a notorious brigand recently killed ia Turkey was found £4-000, and a notebook which showed he had murdered 192 men. —It is said that there are in the United Statrs about 4,500,000 Germans, nearly 4-.2C0.000 Irieb, perhaps 2,000,000 Ecglish, and 300,000 Scotch. — The crew of an Austrian barque abandoned their vessel iv the Atlantic because they thought the bones which formed part of the cargo were those of human beings brought from the bactlefields of Egypt. The crew, believing thab the ve?sel wag haunted by spirits of the departed warriors, determined to desert her. — Emigration from Spain to South American republics is assnming considerable proportions, owing to the extreme distress prevailing iv the country, especially in the agricultural districts. — A carpet loom has been devissd which runs two F,ets of needles, and the inventor claims that it will produce a square yard of carpet material in onu minute. — We know from the highest possible source (says an English paper) that in this recent Siamese difficulty our Foreign Office took a very much higher hand than is supposed — in fact, that we were as peremptory to the French as the French were to the Siamese. This will not transpire for some time yet, for the Downing street people are now anxious, of course, not to' wound the vanity of our Gallic cou&ins. — Oae of the first companies to use the vast power which man has harnessed Niagara Fails to supply him is a concern to produce aluminium on a large scalo. — " The best water I ever drank," writes a correspondent, "was at Malta, where it is collected on the flab roofs, which are mesh carefully cleaned, preparatory to the heavy fall of rain which takes place when the weather breaks (the lir»ti or eeeond week in September). Every house has below it an immense tank, often of the same area as the hoasc, and about 12fb deep, and into this pours the beautiful fresh water, which comes up cool and sparkling when wanted." —It is under renewed contemplation to extend or supplement the old Tjaoguedoc canal (Canal dv Midi), built some 200yesrs ago, from Bordeaux, at the Garonne river, to the Mediterranean, by means of a new canal, to bo 271b deep, 140ffc to 200fb broad, and some 300 miles long. — The most ancient bridge in Eugland is the Gothic triangular bridge at Croyland, in Lincolnshire, which is said to have been built in 860. This singular structure has three approaches from as many roadt>, formed by three segments of a circle which meet in the middle and form three pointed arches. The longest bridge in England is thab over the Trent; at Burton, in Staffordshire, built in the twelfth century, of squared freestone. Ib consistsof 34arches, and is 154-sfb in length. P^BIIAPS YOU ABE NOT AWARE That there are 9,000,000 English-speaking people who profefs no particular religion. That there are 1,100,000*- atheists. Thab an ordinary man can support on his shoulders 3301b, and can lifb with both hands 236 b That the sewing machino was fi rst patented in England in 1755. That in Portugal men marry at 14- and women at 12 years of sge. Tbab amongst the Engliah nobiliby 19 per cent, arc childless. Thf.fc a woman's bo*t chaace o5" marriage in EDglaud is between the ages of 20 and 25. It is then 52 per ceDt.

DO YOU SUFFER ? ARE YOU AFFLICTED WITH INDIGESTION, BACKACHE, TIRED ACHING LI MB 3, LIVER COMPLAINT, * LASSITUDE, OR Any complaint arising from an impoverished nervous system ? CLEMENTS TONIC IS A QUICK, PROMPT, A*'D SURE CURE ; IT DOES NOT MERELY ALLAY THE SY&PIOMS. BUT EFFECTS A PERMANENT AND POSITIVELY LASTING CURE. ASK Mr George Hawker, Ferry road, Christohurch, N.Z., who writes on April, 11 1893 :— "My wife his bscn a dreadful sufferer from palpitation of the heart for a long time, also general weakness and a poor and fickle appetite, so much that she was oftentimes not able lo get about. She hag tried many remedies, but to uo avail ; she had a great pain ia liei- Bide. Having got one of your books and rer.d it, sbe determined to give your Clemokth Tonic a trinl, anl tho firbt dc se along with Flutcher'B Pills mr.do a great impeovemciij in btr health. She got another battle, and tho stcond bottle has made a corapletoiy new woman of her ; ;ho ia now quite well. — Yours truly, George Hawker, Ferry road, Ohrißtchurcb, N.Z."