MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2232, 10 December 1896, Page 46

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— r Few clubmen can boast of the long record of having been all the 70 years of his manhood a member of his club. This, however, was th® record of Mr Grenville C. Lennox Berkeley, uncle of Lord Berkeley, who has just died, the oldest member of the "Travellers." Mr Berkeley, when he died, was 91 years of age, and had been a " Traveller " for 70 years.

— There is only one place of worship in EDgland to every 4000 people.

_ ~ In proportion to its size, a fly walks 13. times as fast as a man can run.

— Siberia, bo far from being a region of desolation and of .death, is a northern Australia, with larger rivers, more extensive forests, and mineral wealth not inferior to that of the island continent.

— Bullets made of preoious stones are rarities in warfare. But it is reported that, during the recent fighting on the Kashmir frontier, when our troops defeated the rebellions Hubzss, the natives upf-d bullets of garnets encased in lead.

— One of the results, of the excessive bowing for which Frenchmen are noted is that Paris hatters do a larger business than those of any city. Nothing ruins a bat so quickly as constant bows with ic.

— The biggest rope ever nsed for haulage purposes has jusfc _ been made for .a district subway in Glasgow, Scotland. It is seven miles long, 4|in in circumference, and weighs nearly 60 tons. It has been made in one unjointed and unspliced length of patent crucible steel. When in place it will form a complete circle around Glasgow, crossing the Clyde in its course, and will run at a speed of 15 miles an hour.

— Some medical specialists have recertly shown that there is a notable incieaje in tho proportion of the number of corpuscles in the blocd of persons who go from a low to a high altitude. This increase takes place in from 24 to 36 hours. It is possible that this fact may be one of the reasons for the beneficial effects of- high altitudes in cases of consumption and othsr lung diseases.

— The forty-second anniversary of the Battle of Alma has recently been celebrated. At dinner the Queen proposed the usual toast, "To the glorious, immortal memory of the blessed dead who tell fighting for me." The Queen merely puts the glass to her lips, as she is forbidden to dtink champagne by her doctor.

— Rain falls on the eastern coast of Ireland about '2oß days' in tho year.

— Jabez Balfour and Wells of Monte Carlo notoriety are both at Poitland. Balfour, who has "lost all his fat," is kept at hard work in the quarries, having been certified fit for firstclass hard labour. He is downcast. Wells is cheered by being allowed to play the organ.

— Five hundred and eighty-seven different languages are. spoken in Europe.

— A queer little trait attributed to the Queen is a belief that things made by blind people bring luck.

— It is said that the inferior grades of tea are greatly adulterated by the Chinese, who nee -for this -purpose plumbago, turmeric, indigo^.prussian blue, china clay, and other tubstances.

— The Britr'sh South African Company has secured to the British empire 750,000 square miles, which would otherwise now be held by the Boers, Germans, and Portuguese. It has opened out this vast territory, built seven towns, and completed 1400 miles of telegraph line, about 1000 miles oi road, and 3000 miles of railway. nV*— The most western island of Britain is Rockall, which is 184 miles west by south of St. Kilda, and 290 miles from tho Scottish mainland. It is not of imposing dimensions, being merely an upstanding rock of darkcoloured granite, highly magnetic, about 250 ft in circumference, and so whitened by the sea birds that, when seen from a distance, it is generally taken for a ship in full sail.

— Perhaps one of the very oddest monuments is the tablet in a Berkshire church in memory of a soldier who had his left leg takea off "by the above ball," the actual cannon ball being inserted at the top.

— The lord mayors of London during the past 20 years have collected a little over £20,000,000 for charitable and benevolent purposes.

— The perfume of flowers disappears as soon as the staroh in the petals is exhausted ; and it may be restored by placing the flower in a solution of sugar, when the formation of starch and the emission of fragrance will be at once resumed.

— One-third of the femaleß of France over 14 years of age are farm labourers.

— The strength of the London police force consists of a chief commissioner, 3 assistant commissioners, 5 chief constables, 31 superintendents, 597 inspectors, 1834 sergeants, and 12,755 constables, making a grand total of 15,22b of all ranks. — The Queen was a grandmother at 40, and her descendants either now occupy or are destined to occupy seven thrones.

— The largest shipyards in the world are those of Harlund aud WoJff, of Belfast, Ireland. The worke employ at present over 9000 skilled, workmen and apprentices. Since its organisation the firm has turned out over 1,000,000 tons of ocean-going craft.

— ■ At the funeral of an unmarried woman in Brazil scarlet is the mourning hue. The coffin, the hearse, the trappings of the horses, and tho livery of the driver must be scarlet.

— Within the last 20 year« 120 new peerages have been created, while 54 have become extinct. Nearly half the peers and baronets have inherited or received their titles within the last 10 years.

_ ■— It is a marked feature of the mortality statistics of American college graduates that there is excessive mortality in the years immediately following graduation. This, Professor Newton thinks, is no doubt due to the strenuous efforts of young graduates to attain a good position in their profession.

— A typical South African householder, described by Olive Schreiner, had an English father, a half Dutch mother with a French name, a Scotch governess, a Zulu cook, a Hottentot housemaid, and a Kaffir stable boy, while the little girl who waited at table was a Basuto.

— A French autograph collector says the signature of Christopher Columbus caa always find a buyer at £800.

— A woman riding a bicycle on the Goodwin Sands at low water serves to attraot holiday crowds at Deal, the element of exoitement being that she may bj swallowed up by a quicksand, or be unable to be taken off if a sudden storm arises.

— It may nob be generally known that the story of Enoch Arden, as it stands in the poem, is in every detail & true one. It was related to Lord Tennyson by the late Mr Woolner, the well-known sculptor, whose widow has the manußcript of the story. —At the Battle of Trafalgar the heaviest gun used threw a projectile weighing only 321b, which was 6 Win in diameter. The modern JlO-ton gun uses a shell weighing '20001b., of Z3£in itt diamets*.

— • There are 30 palaces belonging to the Imperial family in various parts of Japan, but the present emperor has never occupied more than three or four of them, and some of them he has never seen. — Among the four longest-lived trees are the olive and the yew, both evergreens. The rnnxi- ! mum age of the former is 2000 years, and of ! the latter 2880. — A New York florißfc was stung in the tongue by a small insect. The injury was 80 serious that a surgeon was compelled to cul the man's tongue out in order to save his life. — - The population of the world averages 109 women to every 100 men. Eight-ninths of the sudden deaths are these of males. — The exact distance to either tbe North or South Pole from the equator is 6000 miles. — The air -tight compartment theory of building ships was copied from a provision of Nature shown 1 in the case of the nautilus. The- shell of this animal has 40 or 50 compartments, into which air or water m*y be admitted, to allow the occupant to sink cr float as it pleases. — The five leading surnames, in order of numerical importance, of babies born in England and Wales are Smith, Jones, Williams, Taylor, and Davies. In Ireland the list reads Murphy, Kelly, Sullivan, Walsh, and Smith. — There are 75 doctors to every 100,000 persons in London. — The, deepest running stream in the world is fisid to be the Niagara River just uudcr the Suspension Bridge. — English statistics show that the death rate from consumption is most alarmingly high. In the gene^ average of the population about 13 out of every 100 deaths are due to consumption, I but among telegraphists the ratio is 46 oub of ; every 100, aud a good deal more than half of | them die from some diseaee of the respiratory i organs. What there is about the occupation that favours the development of pulmonary complaints does not appear. — A medical paper estimates that £250,000 worth of medicine is annually distributed gratis at British dispensaries. — The sun, if hollow, would hold 300,000 globes as large as the earth, and an eye Capable of hourly viewing 10,000 square niileo would require 55,000 years to see all its surface. — The most accomplished negro scholar in the world is Edward Wiluaofc Bidden, one of the most profound thinkers the negro race has yet produced. He is the author of % work entitled "Christianity, Islam, and the Negro Race." — That the earth is solid right to the canfcre, with the exception of lakes and reservoirs. of molten matter below the crust, has been demonstrated by the recent researches of Lord Kelvin and other authorities. — In 1889 Clement Garrett Morgan, a distinguished negro, was chosen, over all his white competitors, orator on class day at Harvard University. — The University of Calcutta is said to be the largest educational corporation in the world. Every year it examines over 10,000 students. — In Iceland whistling is a penal offence, as the inhabitants consider it disrespectful to the Supreme Being. At Buenos Ayres the police are the only penons allowed to whistle. In the streets of Berlin ifc is punishable by fine. — Potatoes in Greenland never grow larger than a marble. — Some idea of the extent of the business done by Bass and Co. may be gathered from the fact that last year the firm paid nearly £50,000 into the Exchequer in the way of duty. The annnal output is about 1,300,000 barrels, and the annual issue of bottling Übels with the red pyramid on them is about 230,000,000. Moreover, no less than 80,000 acres are employed in growing hops for the manufacture of Bass's ale.' — London has now about 23 miles of carriage ways laid with noiseless materials, out of which, roughly speaking, asphalt counts for three-fourths and wood for one-fourth. Iv the noiseless footways, which are calculated to amount to about 15£ miles, asphalt has tho field entirely to itself. —At Chirra Punji, in Assam, where the Khasia Hills intercept the south-west monsoon laden with moisture from the Bay of Bengal, as much as 30in of rain has been recorded, as falling in four hours. This is regarded as the wettest place on earth, where' the average yearly fall is about 600iu, while in some years it reaches 830iu. Most of this falls in from six to nine months. — A money changer's office in Marseilles was recently entered by a gang of burglars, who had taken the precaution to bring with them a 'Steel saw of the newest construction, worked by a handy little petroleum engiue. The nefarious scientists found little difficulty in overcoming the resistance offered by the iron walls of the safe, which promptly yielded up its contents, consisting of gold and notes to the value of £600/ — The Government of Hawaii ha 3 put an order on the market in Southern California for 10,000 horned toads, by means of which it is hoped to abate the plague of bottles which is working destruction on tho islands. — The men and boys engaged in the ac'ual work of Bass's breweries total up to 3000, and the number of clerks employed in the offices is nearly 300. Ocer this army Lord Burton is Commander-in-chief, and he exacts the strictest discipline. He has the very genius of organisation and at the same time the eye of a martinet, which detects at once the smallest weakness or failure in any part of this huge stiff. The breweries in themselves are among the largest producing establishments in the world. There are three of them, and they cover about 200 acres of land. — There are certain oecrets in the manufacture of playing cards which are most jealously guarded and whioh are known only to the heads of the firms. The paper is prepared by special process ; the enamelling is composed of a compound the ingredients of which are a secret, and the ink is made of different stuff from the usual kind. The acrimonious newspaper correspondence between the Rev. C. H. Garland and the president of the Licensed Victuallers' Association, at New Plymouth respecting a charge agsiosb two hotelkeepera there, h&s terminated. Mr Garland, in publishing a letter admitting that the charges were founded on hearsay evidence and that he cannot prove them, says that he regrets having made them. The matter has been exciting intense interest there, and the opponents of prohibition are much elated at the result. Floriune I— Fob the" "Teeth and Breath— A few drops of the liquid "Floriline" sprinkled on a wet toothbrush produces a pleasant lather which thoroughly cleanses the teeth from all parasites or impurities, hardens the gums, pre vents tartar, stops decay, gives to the: teeth a peculiar pearly whiteness, and a delightful fragrance to the breath. It removes all unpleasant odour arising from decayed teeth or tobacco smoke. "The Fragrant Floriline," being composed in part of honey and sweet herbs, is delicious to the taste, and the greatest toilet dia- j covery of the ago. Price 2s 6d of all chemists and i perfumers. Wholesale depot* 33 Jfarrinsdon ■ toad. London.— Ad vx