MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 40

MULTUM IN PARVO.

«— Dr Nansen recently told the Savage Club that he had lived 15 months without using so&p, and he thought that fully qualified him to be a member of the club. — When Morocco'! Sultan decides to marry, the whole country becomes shrouded in gloom, as every subject must contribute a wedding present. The Sultan is about to take a second wife, and much discontent is reported. — Three million fire hundred thousand steel pens are used throughout the world every day in the week. — A scientist says that many perfnmes aid health by destroying disease microbes. Thyme, lemon, mint, lavender, euoalyptus, and otto of roses are the most useful. — Tennyson, just after finishing the manuscript of " In Memoriam," had trouble with his landlady, and gave up his lodgings. He forgot the manuscript, but could not be induced to go back and face the landlady. His friend, Coventry Fatmore, who was with him, returned to the lodging?, forced his Way in, and found the poem, already thrown carelessly into a drawer ot rubbish. The various countries of the world now nso 13,400 different kindi of postage stamps. — There are about 17,000,000 cow« in Great Britain, or one to every four inhabitants. A Jjondon chemist, who analysed a sample of "hair restorer/ sold at 2s 6d for a 2oz bottle, found it to contain only common water, with traces of salt and sßge extract. — There are always 20,000 strangers sightBeeing in London. — It is stated tjiat type-writing and pianoplaying do tot go well together, so that young ladies should decide early which is the more worth learning. —It takes 37 specially constrHcted and equipped steamers to keep the submarine telegraph cables of the world in repair. The period of a "generation" has been lengthened. It used to be 30 years, and later increased to 34 ; now a eoientist says the average term of human life has increased in the last 50 years from 31 to 42 years. — An ' arrangement has been patented by means of which a runaway horse can be stopped by simply tonching a button. The wife of the captain of a British vessel is about to apply for a captain's oertifiuate. She has sailed with her husband for 18 years, and for seven years has carried a eecond mate's papers. The average number of wrecks in the Bulfcic Sea is seven a week, which is more than in any other place in the world. Experiments have proved that if fish get beyond a certain depth in the £ea they die from the pressure of the water, which they are unable fco support. There are many different kinds of animals in the world that never in all their lives sip so much as a drop -of water. Among these are the llamas of Patagonia and the gazelles of the Far E»st. A parrot lived for 52 years in the Zoo without drinking a drop of water ; and many naturalists believe the only moisture imbibed by wild rabbits is derived from green herb&se laden with dew. . — Bach year about £10,000 is expended in ■prinkling the streets of London with sand, to prevent the horses Iroin slipping. Metals are fatal to microbes, so there is little danger that bactstix may be transferred - on coins. A scientist saya that at a temperature of 95deg to lOOdeg Fa.hr., which is common in the pockets where money h carried, the destruction of microbes occurs within- three hours. A man applying for outdoor relief at Northampton said his whole family occupied one room, nine sleeping in one bed. It is stated that the first coit of building . » fleet of Atlantic liners is a trifle compared to the cost of running them. In less than three years it will exceed the cott of construction, bo enormons is the constant expenditure in wages, port does, ■and repairs. Two laclits were returned to Parliament in Edward Ill's reign. Since the beginning of this centnry no less than 52 volcanic islands have risen out of the sea. Nineteen of that number have sinoe disappeared, and 10 are now inhabited. Every seventh person in the United Kingdom is a Londoner.' — Only 70 years have elapsed since the first railway in the world was finished. During that comparatively brief period 400,000 miles have been constructed. Bjornstjerne Bjornson announces that he will always in future -use the word " Grossbrittanien" in place of England when he means Britain. The most valuable land in the city of Chicago is a quarter-acre section worth a million and -n- quarter dollars. In 1830 this was raw prairie land, and Chicago was a mere frontier pott on the western outskirts of civilisation. The population of what ia now a great city was then 50 souls In 1830 this quarteracre section sold for 30dol, a sum which an unskilled labourer could -have earned in a fortnight. Nearly 3000 labourers would bow ha to work for a whole year in order to earn enough to buy that quarter-acre at its present price. — The sun is slowly but aurely being conframed by its own fires. Astronomers say that its diameter is being reduced 2ffc per day. Some years ago there was discovered in Amsterdam the original deed under which, on November 7. 1626, the Dutch West India Company acquired the whole of the I|land of Manhattan tor little less than a five-pound note. The island 5s now covered by the city of New York. The African climate does not agree with Indian elephants. These animals become delicate and die if taken to that country. A few months ago some freehold land was ■old in Cornhill, London, lees than 20 miles from the " valueless " land ia E-sex. The Metropolitan land — ouce part of a swampy forest on the north bank of the Thames — fetched a price equivalent to £2,453,023 an aore —nearly two millions and a-half sterling for a single acre of land in the heart of the city of London. — During the Ikst 20 years the railways of the world haw absorbed 50,000,000 tons of Bteel, or almost half the total product. — Every EDglish warship has an outfit of over 150 flags. •— Only one out of every 1000 married couples live to celebrate their golden wedding. — A curious coincidence is noted at Oastlelown, Caithness. Throe brothers, the last of whom died there the other <lay, were each born in the month of December, each lived 69 years, and they all died in the month of -December, tyro of them on the same day of the month. — The worst thing that can happen to a man in Sjam is to get into debt. There is never any escape ior him, owing to the exorbitant interest charged. — Doctor* who have investigated the matter gay that stammerers and stutterers, are un-_. known among savages. — The wardrobe of the Prince of Wales requires the uncea'oiog attention of two men to keep it in order. - '

— There are three times as many muscles in the tail of a dog as there are in the human hand and wrist. — A new system of ventilation has been put in use in the U.S. Senate Chamber at Washington. The benches in the visitors' gallery have been removed and theatre chairs, with folding seats, substituted. The legs of the chairs are hollow, with perforated sides, and the fresh air for ventilation, hot or cold as may ! be desirable, is distributed through the perforations. — Nearly £300,000 worth of articles are pawned in London weekly. — Ib is said that the English language is better spoken in Huntingdonshire than in any other part of the kingdom. — In the Egyptian department of the British Museum is a wooden doll which was found in the sarcophagus of a libtle royal princess who died three centuries before Christ. Her baby fiugers still clasped it when the mummy wrappings were unfolded. This ia probably the ! oldest doll in existence. 1 —It is asserted that those who dine at 12 ' o'olook, or a little after 12, *re healthier and stronger, and have better chances of long life, than others. — The black horses used by English undertakers are all bred by Dutch farmers, who make this a distinct business. i — The reason the eye sinks back in the head I when a person is ill is that the eyeball rests on a cushion of fat, which entirely surrounds it. When a pereon is sick and emaciated the cushion of fat is absorbed, and the eye thus falls back. — A San Francisco earthquake-proof hotel is constructed of iron and in the form of two' hollow squares, one within the other, arranged co as to brace each other. — A gold coiu passes from one to another 2,000,000,000 times before the stamp or impresßion upon it becomes obliterated by f ricfcioD, while a silver coin changes between 3,250,000,000 I times before ib becomes entirely defaced. — It is claimed there is a lighthouse to every 14 miles of coast in England, every 34 miles in Ireland, and to every 39 miles in Scotland. — A French professor claims that cats can | talk qnite as readily as human boiugs, and that he has 'learned their language so as to be able to converse with almost any feline. — Jewish convicts are now sent to Parkhursfc Prison, Isle of Wight, where a synagogue has been provided for their use. — St. Moritz, Switzerland, has the champion toboggan slide in the world. It is threequarters of a mile long, and has been descended in a whiz of 71sec. — About 865 tons of gold are estimated to be in actual circulation as money in England, that being approximately the weight of £110,000,000 sterling. — They have a novel way in Italy of advertising vacant apartments. In place of the placard inscribed " Rooms to Let " or "To be Let" which adorns our windows, a white oloth, about the sizft of a napkin, flutters from the casement, notifying the passers-by that the apartmer-ts can be rented. — In some of the cantons of Switzerland all the dead, rich as well as poor, are buried at the public expense. Coffins and all other necessary articles are furnished on application to certain undertakers designated by the Government. Everything connected with the interment is absolutely gratuitous. — Calico print works use over 40,000,000 eggs every year. Photograph establishments use millions of dozens, and wine clarifiers use 10,000,000 dozens. Bookbinders, kid glove makers, and leather finishers use them in abundance. — Snareston, near Burton-on-Trent, possesses an aged chorister in John Siddons, .who hfis ju*t celebrated his ninetieth birthday. He joined the parish church choir in 1814, and has continued to chirp hi* sacred lay to the present time. He has held the office of parish clerk for over 50 years. — - There are 119,000,000 old copper pennies somewhere. Nobody knows what has become of them, except once in a while a single specimen turns up in change. — The raal aristocracy of Spain is limited to the 243 grandees, many of them untitieJ, who enjoy innumerable privileges, including those of remaining seated and covered in the pressneo of royalty and of access to the Sovereign at all times. Admission to the " grandeza "is exceedingly difficult to obtain ; for it is necessary to prove a long line of blue-blooded ancestry, unsullied either on the paternal or on the maternal side by any plebeian strain. The ancient ceremony of conferring the " graudeza" is termed an " Almohada," and is exceedingly rare. — Wood for pianos requires to be kept 40 years to be in perfect condition. — The stage is in China tha lowest of professions. Actors share with barbers the pain of exclusion from competition at literary examinations. Every other man in the empire can compete, and every successful candidate is a probable mandarin. Actor* and barbers alone can never attain to tho privilege.