MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2253, 6 May 1897, Page 40

MULTUM IN PARVO.

*— The reason that Mount St. Michael, off the coast of Normandy, and St. Michael's Mount, eff the coast of Cornwall, bear the same name is because the latter was once a dependency of the monastery which crowned the former. — The little black spots on the end of the snail's horns are its eyes. Ifc can see little with them, but they serve to distinguish light from darkness, and enable it to observe objects an inch or two away. — Detectives detailed to look after professional shoplifters always look to see if their mppectß are wearing gloves. A " professional," it is. 'declared, never works with his gloves on.

— A celebrated bacteriologist says that a

Mngle germ could, under exceptionally favour'^'o conditions, multiply in three days to •^772 billions and make a mass weighing '7500

— A« far as calculation can decide, the tem}u rfciHT. of comets is believed to be 2000 times fie-ftr thau that of red-hot iroD. — " Grisettes " (Parisian workgirls) were £.veu ILeir collective name by reaßon of the g.-ey cloth gowns they wore. In former times all the French inferior classes were expected to bo' about their business or pleasure clad in itnocest. grey. — Water-colour drawings will, it is said, !aiD 400 years if they are protected from direct tuwliabt. _

— In the Belgian Parliament when a. member it making a long speech, he may be supplied

w'th brandy and water afc Government expense. < — The parchment used on the beat banjoes . ja m»de from wolf skins. — The fish-hooke of 30 centuries back were Miirilar to those of to-day, except that the met.-jl employed was then bronze. * — There are 22 allusions in the Bible to the < a< wind, 19 of them being of a disparaging tta.-acter. — There are more than 100,000 children in the national schools of Germany who stutter. — An attachment for the piano has been invented which will make that instrument resemble the mahdoliu in tone. By the application of a lever the piano will pass from its natural tone to that of the mandolin with a perfect effecb. — There are no sheep in Japan, and wool is net used as clothiog, silk snd cotton being the staples. There are no pigs — pork is an unknown article of diet, and lard is not used in cooking. Neither are there any goi's mule?, or donkejs. — Eighly-one thousand passengers cross the

English Channel every month. — A practical engineer has, ib is stated, patented a new process of tempering steel by electricity that makes steel much harder, bub gives ifc the desired elasticity. .— An extraordinary facfc is, says a priscn

doctor, that a l&rge proportion of criminals can draw and sketch well

— •' It is soid that oat of 28,000 Jews in the city of Amsterdam, 10,000 are occupied in the trade of. diamond dealing. —Id escaping, from a fire creep or crawl along the floor of the room, with your f»ce as near the floor as possible. ~A,« smoke ascends. there is always a fresh current of air near tbi floor in which yoa can breathe with greater ease. . — A Persian carpet has been in use for 2CO years in the main hall of the Shah's palace in

Teheran, — A man who hits, by disease or injury, losb the faculty of talking is generally also unable to write, and it is only in exceptional cases that one of these functions persist while the other is in abeyance. — It is believed by a large portion of the residents of Berne that the newspaper reports of suicides cause an epidemic of self-murder ; therefore a concerted effort has been made to Suppress such announcements. — A whale recently captured in Arctic waters 'was found to have embedded in its side a harpcon belonging to a whaling vesstl that had been cut of service nearly, half a century. — In proportion to its population the United Kingdom has a greater number of women •workers than any country, and among them no fewer than 616,000 are set down as dressmakers. — Salt fish are most quickly and best freshened by soaking them in sonr milk. — In London each day 4-00 children are born ; ?50 enter school for the first time ; 200 begin their apprenticeship ; 150 persons enter married life, and 200 persons die. — Tbe most valuable sword in England is the one presented by the Egyptians to Lord Wolseley. It is valued at £2000. — Vanilla flavouring is obtained from the fruit of an orchid.

— With a single blow of his insignificant tail an elephant <can knock down the strongest XQ&n.

— Africa has nearly 700 languages. — Medical experts are of the opinion that shyness is simply a form of insanity. — No matter how many orders are received, no beer ever leaves the best German breweries until it has been standing for at least three months.

— The good folk of Garmany are exercised | over their Emperor's moustache. For some years he wore his moustache with a ferocious upward curl, fchafc gave him a very bellicose aspEcfc. A great change has taken place during the last few months. The imperial moustache cow stands oub &b right angles with the imperial countenance, and has taken & more pacific turn. — There are not lets than 2,000,000 dogs in the British Isles. • — The manufacture of jewellery in Birmingham gives constant employment to 14,000 persons. — The regulation step of the British army is 12Q to the minute. —In the language spoken between the Caspian and Black Seas, " dada " means mother and " mama" father. — The annual champagne consumption in Great Britain is 21,000,000 bottles. — A submarine wrecking boat, which can be transformed into a locomotive and train of freight care, is about to be constructed. It can float or sink, and will run on the bottom of the sea, and be used to take the cargoes out of Bunken vessels, and raise the hulls. The craft will be able to descend 300 ft, and me or sink at the will of the operator. It will travel 100 miles under the sea, using electrical power from storage batteries, and carrying six men. Movable stairs, which revolve on drums, are coming into use in many residences on the Continent. They work on the principle of an (endless chain, the passenger stepping on, and being gradually conveyed to the landing above. The skin not only varies in thickness in different individuals, bnt also in different parts of the same person, being in seme places only l-240th of an inch in thickness, whilst in others Ifc is l-25th of an inch. A thick skin is always developea over parts where there is frequent pressure, as on the bands and feet. The finest Bkins belong to blondes, and are a usual accompaniment of auburn or flaxen hai%

— A good horse can travel 400 yds in four and a-half minutes at a walk, 4-OOyds in two minutes in a trot, and 400 yds in one minute in a gallop. The usual woik of a horse is taken at 22,500 ib raised one foot per minute for eight hours per day. A horse will carry 2501b 25 miles per day of eight hourß.

—An Edinburgh physician has written a boob to prove, among other things, that moßt people, working men included, eat too much. In his younger days, he says, when the food of the working man consisted mostly of milk, eggs, fish, oatmeal, and potatoes, and when there was no butcher or baker in the parish, everybody was healthy. But when white bread and meat came into the market the doctor came with them.

— It is slraDge, though true, that in Asia and Africa, where grass will not grow, the mosfc beautiful flowers and shrubs flourish to perfection.

— A British army surgeon is authority for the statement thafc the cause of death is clearly shown in the expression of the face of a corpse on the field of battle. He states that those who have been killed by sword thrust have a look of repoae, while those killed by ballets usually have pain of an intense nature clearly depicted.

— The greyhound seems to have been developed in level, treeless, and shruble^s countries, where a moving object is visible at a long distance, and great speed, therefore, necessary to enable a predaceous animal to overtake its prey.

— Anycircu3 man will tell you that it is a most difficult thing to overcome the miserable sensation caused by ronstautly circling round a small ring. Clowns, even, and ring masterß suffer from ifc, rnerolv from seeiDg the horses go round and round ; and one well-known ring maaler, after years of experience, sfcill finds that if a horse baulks a little, or ge'.s behind time, compelling him to fol'ovr close upon it, be will probably undergo a painful fit of sickness after leaving ths ring.

— A journal devoted to the pen, ink, and paper trade says that the •world now uses 3,500,000 steel pens every day in the wcuk.

— A workman who was knocked otnsele^s by an electric shock at the foundry of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company was resuscitated, after the usual expedients had failed, by removing his clothes, burying him in the foundry eaud, excapt his mouth and nose, and thoroughly soaking the sand with a jet of water. The same experience happened to the game man twice. •

— Medical statistics show that in London 70 men have died suddenly during the lasb 10 years while running after omnibuses.

— A rrnoker'n pipe recently preserved its owner from disfiguiement;. He was attacked by a discharged waiter, who threw a bottle of vitriol at his face. The bottle broke on the pipe he was smoking, sending th<3 greater part of its contents into the face of his acfailsiit;, who was fcerriblv burned.

— A tree grows in perfect balance on every side. When a large branch shoots out on one eide, one of equal size or two smaller appear on the other aide.

— On the consolidation of the two great iron manufacturing firms of Schneider and Canet, of Paris, recently the heads of the two foundries visited President Faure and assured him that France now has an iron manufacturing plant rivalling the Krupp establishment in Germany.

— As a result of a recent football game in the city of Mexico, the Mexican pipars condemn the game as_ far more brutal than bull fighting.

— The Forth Bridge is constantly being repainted ; in fact, no sooner have the painters resched one end than they have to commence again at the other. It takes 50 tons of painfc to give ifc one coat, and the area dealt with is something like 120 Jicreß.

— In the neighbourhood of the Bermudas the sea is extremely transparent, so that the fiihermen can l'eadily see the horns of lobsters protruding from their hiding places in the rocks at considerable deptha. To entice the crustaceans from these crannies they tie a lot of snails in a ball ar.d dangle them in'front of the cautious lobster. When he grabs the ball they haul him up

— The Westminster clock, Big Ben, "reports itself " each -day automatically at Greenwich, wbere a record is kept of its accuracy.

— The death has just occurred at Bladlow, Back?, of the Rev B. B. Dry, of University College, Oxford, who is s»id to have lived by himself in abject penury for 30 year?, only going cub of an evening, and not seeing his wife and children. He died on & bare bsdstead, though there were three good feather beds in the room. He is alleged to have left; £30,000 to the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge.