MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2201, 7 May 1896, Page 53

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— In Switzerland and other mountainous eonn' ties the goat leads 'long string* of animals daily to and from the mountains, but it ib in South Afrioa, -that it is regularly kept and emp'oyedas a leader of flocks of cheep. Should B. blinding storm of rain or hail drive the -silly cheep before it, or cause them to huddle together in a corner so as to euffooate each other, the trained goat will wake them up, and, by^a method beat known to himself, will induce them to follow him to a place of safety.

— The largest theatrical building is the Grand Opera of Fans, It covers three aores of ground. — In certain parts of India, if .a -wealthy perccn is desirous of performing a charitable action, 'he weighs himself against gold, which is then dispensed in charity. — A. pot that cannot boil over has recently been invented in Berlin. It has a perforated rim, through which the overflowing fluid returns to the pot. — Since 1850 the world .has expended £300,000,000 in waging war, and four- times that sum in holding standing armies in readiness.

— The .golden flower of the celandine is poisonous, as is also the daffodil, from .the getting of some of the bloom of which into f heir mouths infants have died. The bulbs of the meadow saffron are highly poisonous ; and even the sorrel, which from the pleasant acid is sometimes used m salads, is fatal when taken in' large quantities. The snowdrop, also, the emblem of purity, Is poisonous, as is, too, the wild hyacinth. —As London is adding to its population something like 100,000 a year, in a constantly increasing ratio, the problem has naturally presented itself : To what size can London grow. Fifty years hence London may contain 20 mil]toti* of people.—^Morning. — Indiana furnished a great many tall men for the American army. Oat of 118,254 men whose ■ descriptions were taken at the time of enlisting, 11,392 ware 6ft in height or more; there were 2614 6ft lin, I3s7'6ft2in, 406 6ft 3in, and 303 over 6ft 3in.

— The honey product *>f Europe is valued at £2,200,000 annually. — In Siam there is a species of email black ant < fiicered by mounted " generals." Among fche working troops monster arits — elephants as compared with the others— move at regular intervals, and on each of these ants sits or tides one of the small ants, evidently in command.

>~ An enterprising manufacturer of glass at Liverpool has succeeded in advertising his busiuess in a very clever manner. He built a factory of glass bricks, and laid it with a heavy glass floor. The roof was shingled with glass shingles ; glass boxes were provided for his machinery; and, as a fitting climax to this glassy performance, he added a glass chimney, 105 ft high, built wholly of glass bricks. This is said to be one of the lightest and most «ubBt&nti&l factory buildings in Britain. It is also fireproof. — In France there is an idea that if a fisherman counts the fish he has caught he will catch no more that day.

— In 1894 the amount per head consumed for .drink in England, Scotland, and Ireland —respectively £8 17s 4d, £3 Is, *nd f £2 2s Bd— proves that Ireland is twice as sober as Bnglam 1 , and once and a-half as sober as Scotland.

— Madagascar names ate not so terrible as; they look (according to a learned writer), their apparent length being due to several words being written in one. Antananarivo, the capital, is .made up of An at, tana place, and arivo a thousand, and means "at the place of a thousand hutß." An or am, in all Malagasy names, means at, nosi is an island, be is hig, maro many, bohi a hill, Mz.blue. The longest name in the island is (Bopgawandrianitujpoinitnerina, meaning "fit the hill of Andriamandroso, the fihibf who conquered Imerina." — Before the inventian of soap fuller's earth wao.largely .used for cleansing purposes. — The commander-in-ch'ef x>£ .the Sultan of Morocco's army is A Scotchman, M'Lean by

~ The first pnblic 'library know '-to have abcut existed was founded at Athens .540 JB.c-.by RiMstntas. The. Alexandria. Library contained 400,000 valuable books, and w*s burned ia 47 'B.C.

— Spanish bull-fighters get salaries as large .ss those of exceptionally great actors. " First Bwon?s,"likeMazzsntini orGuerrita, are among the richest men in Spain. Gueritta, who is not yf-t 30, earns an income which is never less thau 8000 in one year, and owns near Cadiz a villa and park, where in the winter months he entertains his friends -with lavish hospitality, fldfezautini has £80,000 invested, and.it is a bad yesr for him when he does not earn £10,000.

. — In some English prisons, where the energy derived from the working of the treadmill by the convicts has hitherto been insufficiently utilised, ■ it isuow.pr.oposed to p turnit~to the generation ■oil electricity for lighting the buildings, making the. prison industries more remunerative and giving Che prisoners a training which will enable them to live honestly when they are discharged.

— Cardinal Wolaey's seal ring is preserved in ' flic Tower of -London. It is set with a peculiar ■tone, the mature of which is unknown, -but, which was believed by hiß enemies to possess

magical -properties. l — Australia isiobbing us of* curate who had l » singular experience. The Rev.. H. 'Bryant, according ,to the Record, was :onrate of Bearpark during .the tfoal -striked 1892. Coal was. needed for the fires. to copks meal for the chil-' dren of the parish, butt go embittered were the pitmen that none of them would descend the Hbaft to hew (the uecegsaoy fuel. Mr. Bryant distinguished himself by going single-handed down the pit and hewing £o*l enough for the fires. — Western Mail.

' -» ' A copy* of " Esmond}" presented by Mr {Thackeray* to Charlotte 1 Bronte r and bearing *n intcription, fhas recently .been, purchased at auction ia London .for £75. — A JBreton sea.poat, who was a fisherman, grid whoifor some. years pxst'has sung'his songs in public m Paris, is now employed by the Bceooh Government in teaohing them to the eilozs of the navy. He goes from 'one .ship to hoUwti spending about a month in each,

— In earlier times war, always, was beautiful, like its goddess Bsllontv, in its s»\wge splendour. Its camps, its troops, its standards, its panoply, were »11 full of colour and of pomp. Even so late as the Napoleonic -wars its a wf illness was blended with beauty. Now the passage of an army is like the course of .so many dirty luggage trains filled with bales of wool or hampers of fish. Its monstrous maw licks up all loveliness as all life which it finds in its way. Its frightful steel cylinders belch death on every gracious and bappy thing. It is nnenlivened by pageantry as it is unredeemed by courtesy, Bellona is no more a goddess, but a hag.— Nineteenth Century. — A north of England city ventilates its sewers by making .them open into 30 tall factory chimneys. .These of course, create astrong draught, keeping the foul air in the sewers constantly changing, while theheat in the chimneys burns the sewer gases and destroys the disease germs that they convey. — Piercing the flesh with even the finest needle hurts, because the nerves are so thickly matted just under the skin that not even the finest point can be introduced without wounding -one or more. —It is said that dew will not form on some colours. While ayellow board will be covered with dew, a red or a black one beside it will be perfectly dry.

— The spider is so well supplied with the silky thread with which it mates its web that a zoologist once drew cut of the body of a single specimen 3480 yards of the , thread — a length but little short of two miles. A fabric woven of spider's threads is more glossy than that from >the silkworm's product, aud is of a beautiful golden colour. — Egyptian figures found on-obelisks mounted on two-wheeled vehioles show that the Pharaohs had some idea of the velocipede. — The product of the wax tree of .the Andes cannot be distinguished from beeswax. Sf' — The present bronze -coinage (panny, halfpenny, and farthing) is composed of 95 parts of copper, four of tin, and one of zino. — Dropping or striking a steel magnet, or causing it to vibrate by .any other means, diminishes its magnetism. — In ancient times bones were collected from the battle-fields, grouud to powder, and used to fertilise the land.

_ — One eingle germ of some contagious disease, if placed in surroundings favourable to its growth, will multiply itself into more than 16,500,000 separate germs within 24 hoars.

— Dr YouDg records that at Gibraltar the human voice has been heard at a distance of 10 miles, and it is true that over water, as well as a surface of ice, sound is propagated with extraordinary clearness and strength. — There are eight times more white men than women in India. — There are About 20.000 engine-drivers in Britain, /and the average distance travelled hy each driver is about 40,000 miles every year. — R. M. Eellog, a Michigan fruit-grower, says that a tree has its lik«s and dislikes ; that it knows its friends and its enemies when they approach, and has a high degree of intelligence generally. — The world's navies employ 1,693,000 men. — Eighteen tons of steal disappear daily on : the London and North-We«tern Railway through wear and rust. — The men of the United States and the men of Switzerland are the most inveterate smokers in the world. In these two countries ■ the .consumption oE tobacco par head is three times greater than in Germany. — The first known coin is Chinese. It is copper, and specimens weighing from lib to 51b, -and supposed to date from a period of .at least 1000 years before Christ, are still in v existence.

— A curiously ingenious device is regarded 'as i being sometimes employed by Mongolian letter carriers. These men make very long journej s on foot, and within a time which allows them only the briefest intervals for an occasional nap. ' To ensure themselves against oversleeping, therefore, they tie a •piece of joss-stick to one of their thumbs light-it, «nd'Ue down to rest. >Wh6n the stick burns down to the flesh the< pain awakens .-them, mnd they resume thejourney. — Ants' eggsareiconsidered a choice dish in* .some countries. They are spread upon a slice ' t>f bread -and batter, And -sauces considered excellent -are made with them. They are esteemed as a -costly food' in, Siam, within 'the reach only of well-tondo people. -—.No living representative of the anhaal' ikiagdom has morerthan five toes, digits, or claws .to each foot, hand, or limb. The horse is, the itype of the oae-toed creation, the camel of the 'two*toed,the rhinooerous of the three-toed, and the hippopotamus of the four-toed animal life The and hundreds of other animals of aifierent orders, belong tothe .great five-toed tribe. NEVEE TOO 1.A.T8 TO tSASN. Gato, at -80 years of -age, began to study the Greek'iangaage. .Socrates, tat an extreme old age, learned to play on musical in-struments. Plutarch, when between 70 and 80, began to learn Latin.

Dr Johnson applied himself to the Dutch language ;but» few years 'before 'his death.

Lud&vico Monaldesco, •-$& the great age of 115 yens, -wrote the memoirs of his own times.

Ogilvy, the translator of Homer and Virgil, was unacquainted with Latin or Greek till he was past>w).

Franklin aid not 'begin bis -philosophical . Btudies.tiil he had reached his 50th year. ' Dryden, in > his 68th year, commenced 'the translation of the Mneid, his most pleasing production.

Boccaccio was SO years old when he commenced his-stadies in light literature ; yet he became one of the three greatest masters of ; the Tuscan dialect, Dante and Petrarch being the Other two. Many similar cases might be cited.