MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2240, 4 February 1897, Page 46

MULTUM IN PARVO.

'%— It is remarkable (says a gossip) how many prominent 'politicians have sons who may be described as ' ' chips of the old block." Amongst them are Mr Chamberlain, Mr Gospben, Sir Charlei Dilke, Sir Edward Clarke, Lord Salisbury, and last, but— to judge by his recent success at Balliol — not least, Mr Asquith, all of 'whom have clever and promising young sons. - .''"•* . - — When, snake venom it concentrated by removing the albumen substance* and retaining tbe other two, what is left constitutes the most powerful poison' known to fcoxicolgy. It has been reckoned that t. single thimbleful of it „ suitably applied would be enough to kill 25,000' people-./ " -- . ' — The oldest university at present in existence it Oxford, which claims to have been foundej} by Alfred the Great. — '''< .~ — Must in a crade state is worth £8 an sunce. It looks like axle grease, and smells worse. — What is porhaps one of the most exclusive decorations in. the world is the Order of the Double Dragon. It is the sole order of "the Chinese empire. All European Courts have decorations and orders innumerable, but the Chinese Court has - but this one, which has five grades, e»ch grade being subdivided into numerous degrees. — Poultry is good flesh-forming food. Fish is like poultry in its large amount of water and small 6upply of fat. There is nothing to show that fish is a brain food, except that the small amount of fat makes ib* a suitable diet for persons of sedentary habits. — In the State of, Washington there is an unknown land of 2500 square miles shut in by 'the Olympic Mountains WRiob, according to ' Indian traditions, is inhabited by a very fierce tribe, 'whom none of the coast tribes dared molest. ' , — Veal ia/less nutritive, possesses more waste and less fat, than beef. In Germany it is considered as excellent as beef, and is prescribed jfor invalids ; but in England it is thought harmful for persons with weak digestions. — Some years ago, iv a Hatton Garden dustbin, a- small cardboard box full of loose was discovered by' a dustman, and restored to the owner, a diamond merchant, who rewarded the finder with £50. - ' — The greatest depth at which earthquakes »te known to originate is about 30 mile*. It bas also been calculated that a heat sufficient to melt granite might occur at about the same depth. — The Hoheszollern family ghost, known as "the White Lady," hai been seen again wandering about the Royal Palace at Berlin, and the Emperor William has given orders for mantraps and spring guns to be set. — In most countries^ diphtheria has nearly doubled the number of its victims iv 20 years. — There are many animtls which have the sapacity of imitating the human voice, and it would be difficult to single out any one as most efficient in this respect. The female seal, when deprived ef its young, moans and dighs in a way that would be difficult to distinguish - from a woman in a state of grief. Seal-hunters have often found their work most painful and depressing owing to this. — A famous anatomist has discovered that by forcing air into the larynx of a dead animal sounds could be produced similar to those of the voice during life. — The little town of Nazareth in Palestine has no fewer than three hospitals, seven convents, and 12 schools under JEurouean suDervision.

— Plum pudding was almost unknown in England before the middle of the last century. — A horse died at Liverpool the other day in whose stomach was found over a pound of nails. — A horse will eat; in a year nine times his < own weight, a cow nine times, an ox six times, ! and a sheep six times. ' j - - — The number of persons born blind is 65 to 1,000,000. ' — Sheet iron is rolled so thin at the Pittsburg iron mills thai 15,000 sheets are required to make a single iuch in thicknesi. Light shines as readily through one of these sheets as through ordinary tissue paper. — Pale blues or greens are the most restful wall papers for the eyes, whereas red is exceedingly fatiguiDg. Dp not read, write, or work longer than two hours together without resting your eyes and closing them fully five minutes. — Aluminium' coffins, costing from £150 to £200,' are now in great demand in (he United. States. ' • ; ' — A scheme for sterilising water by electricity is to be tried in Paris oh a large scale.. — Camels eojoy thistles, and menagerie I camels when on tour will eat every one they | can pick by the roadside* , ' — A cubic fcot of idr at sea level weighs I4OZ ; water weighs 840 times as much. —7 It is a widespread belief, both in Scotland and Ulster, that the line, "Sea gull, 'sea gull, sit 00 the sand, it's never good weather while you're on land," alludes to the well-known fact that when the bird flies out early and far to sea ward, or remains on the sand,. fair weather may be looked for, while if it takes a contrary course storms most frequently follow. — Mathematical calculations show that an iron ship weighs 27 pet oent. less than a wooden one, and will carry 115 tons of cargo for every 100 tons carried by a wooden ship of the came dimensions, and both loaded to the same draught of water! — Cornwall is said to be at the head of all other, counties in England for freedom from crimes against property. Next io comparative honesty come the western counties of Wales. • — All natural" wings, whether of ineect, bat, or bird, act on the fame principle — that of a' screw. When the bodies of flying creatures are fixed, the wings, striking downward and forward, and upward and forward, in alternate down And up strokes, describe what are called figure-of-eight tracks, in space. — The oldest firearms were used in China. The Chinese were fighting with guns at a time, when Europeans used bows and arrows. — In a certain sense -elephants are still used in battle by Indian troops, but they are only used as beasts of burden and draught for artillery ; but years ago they were used in the East as fighting animals, and taught to swing chains and bars of metal in their trunks. —It is asserted that women t are on tbe whole cooler and more self-possessed than men in cases of disasters at sea. — Beef is the moßt nutritious of all human foods, and can be eaten longer continuously than any other kind of meat, resembling rice and bread in this respect. Fresh beef is almist completely digested — more completely than milk is — by an adult. — There is a church in the qity of. Cork which is*known for miles around on account of the peculiarity of its steeple. The steeple is built of two different coloured stones, two sides being built in white and the other two in red j stone. — A Cashmere shawl weaver in Persia earns by the hardest labour about lSd a day. — Four railway companies, the Qreat Western, the Qreat Eastern, the South-western^ and the North-western, bring into London about 20.000.000 callous of milk every year.

— The idea of tbe numbering of the heavenly bodies, whether planets, satellites, or stars of the smallest size, was formed at the Astronomical Congress in. 1887, -and .already 189 photographs have been taken" with, a view to I the publication of an international catalogue. i Some of these photographs only contain a i dozen stars, but others are crowded even to the number of 1500. It is. expected that tbe catalogue will enumerate about 3,000,000 stars. — The white of an egg -applied- at once to a burn or scald gives prompt relief. — A submarine mountain range has been discovered in the southern part of Davis Strait by. tbe Danish steamer Ingolf,' which has been carryiog on deep-sea explorations on t the Iceland and Greenland co&sts for the past two years. — A London vestryman 'possesses quite a little museum of articles that have been fouud . in N London dustbins. These, include, several .wedding ringa, a revolver, a burglar's jemmy, several county court summonses, three ivory chessmen, a human skeleton, and' a book on I anatomy, a small bronze idol, twQ mecrachaum' pipes, and a packet of love letter's with a lock of hair and » youth's photograph, tied with ribbon,. presumably thrown away in resentment after a " lovers' quarrel." —An English motor car' manufacturer is building a . two-storey house to run on wheels propelled by a motor under it. The top storey is collapsible, so as to enable the house 'to paes under bridges. — A well-known expert has made the interesting calculation that the addition of £d to the pi ice of the 41b loaf of bread involves a total increased expenditure in the United Kingdom of £3,700,000 per annum. — If the -inhabitants of the fixed stars had powerful enough telescopes ' to see us ? they would not see us as we are to-day, but as we were 50, 100, or even 1000 years ago, for it would take light that long to travel to us. — The average weight of the brain of the despised Chinaman is larger- thau that of any other race on the globe, except tbe. Scotch. — When tbe Dyaks in Borneo have to decide which is in the right, they, have two equal lumps of ealt given co them to drop into water, and be whose lump dissolves fitst is deemed to be in the wrong. Or they put two live shellfish on a plate — one for each litigant — and, squeezing lime juice over them, the verdict is given according to which man's mollusc stirs , first. —If the earth wera not enveloped with atmosphere, the temperature on the surface would be about 330deg Fahr. below zero. - — A celebrated aeronaut asserts, after patient investigation, that the ninth day of the moon is the most rainy of the whale 28, aud 4 o'clock in the afternoon the rainiest hour of the day. — A hot batb", if taken frequently, will keep the skin in an excellent condition, and is also an unfailing cure for weariness. — In the Belgian Parliament, when a member is making a long speech, brandy and water is supplied him at -the expense of the Government. — Within the last 30 years there have been on the British coasts 66,377 wrecks, with the fearful lo»s of 22,312 lives. — Canaries that are fed on too much sugar will be ruiued as far as their singing is concerned. — Birds differ very much in the heights to which they commonly ascend. The condor, largest of vultures and of all flying birds, has been observed soaring over 29,000 ft, or about five miles and a-half, above the level of the sea. — Dr Cold, an eminent German physician, says that every person under 21 years of age needs nine hours' rest out of the 24j

— Only auuu. two minutes are required for , the blood to course through the heart, thence < to the luDgs, back to the heart, and then ' I through the entire body, aud return to the ! heart. — The vital spark in tortoises is very strong. There is a record of a tortoise which lived six months after its braius had been removed. I Another, which had Buffered decapitation, I showed life in the severed head three days afterwards. — In opening the new Technical College at Colchester, Lord Rosebery said that Germauy was 40 years ahead of us, aud we were losing I ground compared with' that country. Ha further expressed his regret that his suggestion for Government iuquiry on Technical Education had not been 'adopted. — There are tome 50 or more Jewish papers in the United Sra'toi, and a large proportion of them are edited.by rabbis. — In Germany every inn has its room eeb apart for dancing, and nearly every village "its dancing clnb. — General statistics ' prove that since the Trojan War, 3000, years ago — that js, since the beginning of history — not a single year has elapied in which some war has not killed a large number of men. — London is better off for trees than any other city in Europe. — The most quarrelsome creature In the world is the scorpion. Two placed in the same box will always sting each other to death. i — Analysts say that butter is the most r nutritious article of diet, and that bacon comes nexb. ' ' ! — The latest craze in Paris is the wearing of a lighted lantern as a. personal ornament. The j fashion originated with*a speculative manufacturer, whose little lanterns were bought by tens of thousands at the fair of Neuilly. The lantern it very small and ■ neat, and made in a Gothic form aftar an ancient model. — The only dumb animal is the giraffe. It cannot express itself by any sound. — A favourite story of Sir Andrew Lask, who some time back retired from public Ufa, is tbat of an old Essex lady who wrote to him after he had passed a heavy sentence on a man for cruelty to a donkey " thanking him in her own name and tbat of all the donkeys in the United Kingdom." ! — Careful weighiog shows that an ordinary bee, not loaded, weighs the uve>thousandth part of a pound, so that it takes 5000 bees to make a pound. Bub the loaded bee, wht. he comes in fresh from the fields and flowers, loaded with honey or bee bread, weighs nearly three times more. — The King of Portugal, although still a young man, has become so obese as to be scarcely able to walk, all medical treatment, even that of his clever consort, who is a physician, having proved inadequate to check the progress of his phenomenal embonpoint. — - White tar is oue of the latest inventions or discoveries. It is claimed that it will not become soft under the sun's rays in any climate. — It is recorded that an eagle kept in confinement has been known to fast for three weeks, those who had charge of it having forgotten to provide its üßual supply of food. It soon, however, recovered its strength, and I did not appear to suffer from its extraordinary | abstinence. — The human brain contains a considerable proportion of phosphorus, varying from onetwentieth to one-thirtieth of the whole mass. If the average weight of the brain is taken at 47£oz, it will then contain phosphorus amounting to about l£oz. Phosphorus is found to ba 1 almost entirely wanting in the brains of idiots-

— A statistician hat estimated that a man 50 years old has worked 6500 days, has slept 6000, has amused himself 4000,, has walked 12,000 mile*, hits been ill 500 days, has partaken of 36,000 meals, eaten 16,0001b 0f meat and 40001b of fish, eggs, and vegetables, and drunk 7000 gallons of fluid. — John Hardy, the inventor of the vacuum brake , died recently in Vienna, where lor mtny - years he had been employed by the State rail- . roads. He was born in 1820,- worked for a time under George Stephenson, and is believed to have been the last survivor of his assistants.

— France is still much troubled over tbe strangers; within 'its gates. It is now found that Paris is not a city of Parisians, if even of Frenchmen. „ Only 36 per cent, of tbe inhabitants were born within its walls, and 75 in every 1000 were born outside of Francs— atotal of 181,000 aliens.; "QI fjiese latter no fewer than 26,823 are Germans, while in Berlin there are only 397 ■ Frenchmen. While Paris has 75 foreigners to the'lOOOfTJondon has only 2,2/ St. Petersburg 24, Vienna 22, and Berlin 11. — AH' male wage-earners in the town of St. . Gall, Switzerland, earning more than 2s a day aud less than 4s are required to pay from JL^d to 3d a week to an out-of-work insurance managed by. the municipal council. In the dull season, if work .cannot be procured, the insured receive fro)m Is to- 2s each per day. In . Cologne, Germany, a 'similar , scheme is in operation, bub membershship is optional. — There has been registered in Dublin a company with shares of a penny each. The company has the title of Jehol Mining Company (Limited), and . has been formed to take or otherwise acquire concessions for any publio or private undertaking in Asia or^elsewbere— a pretty wide scope of operations. Tuis company, which- has powers to -undertake .business all over the world, has a capital of £2500 in 600,000 •bore* of one penny each. The qualification of the directors .is 1000 shares etch, which lobk« a large sum until it is expressed in its monetary value of £4 3s 4d. t- A new fireman's cap has been invented. - It is made of fine strips of asbestos,' and is held in place by a rabbet bund, making it air'-tighj;. There is a strip of mica before the eyes, and a ' silk sponge, through which no smoke can enter, but which admits air in plentiful supply, fills an aperture for the mouths It is claimed that with this contrivance a man oan work for an hour in a stifling smoke, aud that its use will be of immense advantage to firemen. — It is not generally known that there is ft strange and ceremonial by which the Vatican authorities assure themselves that the Pope is dead. The Cardinal Chamberlain ap- * proaob.es the bed of the dead Pontiff, and bears in his. band a little silver hammer. He prostrates himself before the bed, and calls the * dead man three times, not by bis name m Pope, but by tbe name tbat was given him at his baptism. Then he touches him Tightly on the forehead three times with the hammer. The (silence whioh follows this appeal by voice and by touch is final proof that he who makes no answer to it is beyond its reach. After this formality the Cardinal announces to the waiting priests that the Pope bas ceased to live. Valuable Discovery for the Haib.— lf your hair is turning erey, or white, or falling off, use the "Mexican Haib Reneweb," for it vnllpositively restore in every ease Qrey or White Hair to its original colour without leaving the disagreeable " * Bmell of most "restorers." It makes tne hair charmingly beautiful, as well as promoting the growth of tbe hair on bald spots where the elands arc not decayed. Ask your chemist for "Th« Mexican .Hair Renewer." Sold by chemists and perfumers everywhere at Ss 6d per bottle* , Wholesale denst. 33 Famngdon road. London.-? Ady*.