MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2273, 23 September 1897, Page 40

MULT UM IN PARVO.

. —It appears that motion while » tr»in is flying through the air is communicated to the atmosphere many feet away, so that n large amount ©f air is dragged along with the train. A peculiar danger arises n*ar a swift-running tram from tbe tendency of tbe moving air to topple a person over, and at the same time to communicate a motion of rotation to tbe body.

— Tbe dexterity of a iki'kd perfornwx is due solely to practise. Contortionists are generally taught at an ca r ly age, beginning with some 'timple motions like bending b*ck■nard until tbe head toucbea the floor, and rising again without the &id of the haads. Afterwards n:ore difficult feats are learned, Miifcil the Biwcles and join's b*come so supple ihat the wbole frsroc can bo twisted to auy angle with apparent eass.

— All the fi-h deserted the Spitkead waters^ dnriDg the Naval Review, on zecuunt c-f tbe number of boats present and the firio£ of the guna.

—In the sixteenth century the average length of a doctor* life was 3Q years 5 monthe, in the seventeenth century it was 45 yfsite aud 8 mostba, in the eighteenth century 49 years and 8 B&ontbs, and in the ninctxeufb century 68 y*ars aud 7 tnonihs.

— Capt*in Cci, of tbe Italian army, is reported to b*ve invented a rifU by which 80 shots oan be fired in a minute without the ■weapon being removed from the nhculder.

— Dartmouth (6500) aud Rothessy (8400) are the largest watering places in Great Britain that are absolutely free from the railway.

— Serra&ts teem to have the upper hand in Rio Gr*Rde do Sul, Br*z>l. Tbey refuse to cook dinner later than 4 o'clock, aud insist on gcing home before dark, so limb not a bouse has a servant in it after 8, and mothers have to >t*y at home to look after their babies

— It is with the criminal world as with the literary, the political, or the financial world. Every now and again a master mind or a master band appears in it. Unfortunately for gre*t criminals, eociety happens to be at war with them, or they with society. Otherwise they would be public notabilities — rocogoised ornaments of their country. — St. Paul's.

— Se* bathing is often Rnewerabte for ear cemplnnts when ducking the head is practised It should be borue iv mind that tbe ear U intolerant of cold water, and, iv addition to this, the stimulating properties of tea water r»nd«r it irritating to tbe ear, and liable to set up infkmai&Uon.

— The Tartars take a man by the ear to invite him to eat or drink with them.

— Ro-sij- and Egypt are the two countries in which blind persons constitute the largest proportionate number of the total population. There were, according to the last o-nsus, nearly 200,000 blind perrons in Europfau Russia. The prevalence of blindness is a'cribed to the flatness of the country and the imperfect ventilation of the huts used by the peasantry. Though more than half the blind population of Hurope is to be found in Russia, there are only 25 asylums for tho blind in that empire — onetenth of the total number in Europe.

— The sympathy with the blind is universal —a f»ot of which beggars everywhere are well aware. — Spectator.

— For a short- distance a lion or a tiger can Dutrtin a man, and can equal the *peed of & fasl lees?, but they lose their wind at the end of about half a mile. They htve little enduracee, and are remarkably weak in lung power.

— The cociumptiou of soap in India only reaches the modest amount of liz per head annually.

— Floating islands are not so rare as may be generally supposed — it is largely a matter of locality, and the one sighted three times iv 1892 in the North Atlantic Ocean. w«s not only aa unusual occurrence, but also of peculiar scientific interest. Ou the three instaoaes the island was seen it was moving toward the Azorefi at the rate of about a mile an hour. Its extent was nearly 800 ft each way, and it contained much forest growth, many of tho trees being 30ft high.

— Sir Christopher Furness, who recently gave £12,500 for pensions to old seamen at Hartlepool, has given another £7500, thus raising the gift to £20,000. — The poor box afe the town hall of a continental town had for a long time been in * condition discreditable to the more prosperous of the inhabitants. To remind them of lh*ir duty towards poorer neighbours, a parrot was purchased, which was installed close to the box and trained to cry, " For the psor, if you pleaso!" The result, it is stated, h&s been highly satisfactory.

— A cannon made of solid gold, mouoled upon a earring© of rosewcod, and inlaid with costly geme, is the unique bauble of warfare that has come into the posseßsii n of the imperial army of Berlin. This tiugular gun was present-ed to the Berlin army by the managers of the Hamburg Museum, ia whose keeping it has been for two centuries. It is v*lued at £5000.

— One can easily understand foreigner* borrowing from English, but it teems inexcusable for Englit-h writers to burden their werks with vro:ds taken from languages with a much em alter number of words than are to be found iv our dictionaries.

— The world is a cold place to those who look on it with a chilling glance. — H. S. Herriman.

— A chameleon from the Cape of Good Hope was seen to turn white with fear, having betn eavtd from -the attacks of a cat. The most extraordinary thing about this lizard is the wonderful way in which the two tyes work quite independently of each other, and eaable it to survey comfortably objects in quite opposite directions.

— It is quite unnecessary for any writer to interlard his work with foreign words or phrases. There are now over k50,000 words in the English language, a-kr.owledged by the best authorities, or about 70,000 more than in the German, French, Spanien, and Italian languages combined. — Among the curiositiet of tropical pant life are the pearls "found occasionally in the coeoanut palm of the Philippine Islands. Thes« pearle, like those of the ocean, are composed of carbonate of lime. The bamboo also yields another preeions product, in the shape of true opals, which are found in its joints. — Only about 70,000 of the inhabitants of Greece speak any language other than tbeir own, and only about 20,000 profess any religion other than the orthodox cue. — It is stated that there are 1,000,000 blind people in the world, or one to every 1500 inhabitant!. Latest reports show 23,000 blind persons in England, or 870 for each million inhabitants.

— The paper for printing Bank' of England notes is damped with water in the exhausted receiver of an air pump. The ink used in the plate printing is made of Frankfort black, -which is composed of the charcoal of th« tendril* «.nd husks of the German grape, ground with linseed oil.

— A naturalist states that an eagle kept in confinement has been known to fast for three weoks, those iv chargo of it having forgotteo. to provide its iwual oupply of food. It soon, bowev«r, recovered its strength, and did not appear to Buffer from it* extraordinary abstinence.

— The organ of sight is more highly developed iv birds than iv any other animal. Naturalists declare that the kestrel is possessed of such wonderful powers of sight that it is able to »te a mouse when it is itself at such a height in the air that it is invisible to the naked human eye.

— Sufferers from neuralgia are warned by a medical writer not to drink tea, but to partake fre*ly <<i coffee into which the juice of a lemou has be?n f-que<&sd.

— A Fr;-nchman w«« recently attacked by a discharged waiter, who threw a bottle of vitriol ab his face. The bottle broke on the pipe the Frecchi&au «aa smoking, sending tbe gwaier part of its conients into fct.e faoe of bis assailant, who w»s terribly burned. — The e-nra of the most defenceless animals, like the ribbifc, are turned backward, because tbesc creatures are in oonitaut apprehension of pursuit. i — The most valuable dreesea in the world j are worn by the women of Sumatra. Many are j made of pare gold and Bilrec. After the metal j is mined and smc-ltod it rs formed into fiae wire, which is woven ioto a kind of cloth. — The purest water in tbe world is said to bo that <<f fcbe small Swvdich rirec Lroka, wbioa ia 100,000 parts contains ooly 434- partis of mineral substauoeß. ' The Th«Me« at London Bridge I contains iv the seme quantity of water from 09 ' to 70 psvrts. j — Clw-lk is composed of fo*sil«. If you take the tiuwet bib and place it under a powerful microsoiipe, you will see au infinite uuitib^c of t-xbremely diminutive sheik. — Bhepherde oan foretell the weather from the coßditiou of the wool on the backs of their sheep. An increase in the cudines* indicates better weather. — It is «vtd that the blind rarely dream of visible obj'-efc*, a-nd a mute has b*ea observed, ■when dreaming, to carry on a conversation by means of hi 6 fingers. — Tbe only mountain electric railway iv the United Kingdom circles round Snaefdl, now the popular resort for excurtiouista in the Isle of Man. — Ther« was recently erected in 24- hours, in* Chicago, a house of worship that holds 3000 per«on?, with organ, farniture, and other equipment ready for use. — Vienni b*s a "Silence Club," the ro>mbers of which »pead the eveoing together without txlking. • — WSaeu you have no oars, nor any sort of substitute with •which to propel a boat to shore, tie the rope to the xffcer thwnrt and give a serieß of jerks in a direction parallel to the keel, and <-he boat will begin to move forward, elo-wly indeed, but tucely. The tug on the rope contracts the length of tbe boat and makes its tide bulge out. A speed of two or three miles p*r ~hour can be obtaioed by this means. Try the experiment when you are next on a f»ir-sized pwee of smooth water. — A British steamer put in at Rangoon recently the officers of which were all Germans aud the apprentices all Japanese. — No less a turn than £197 was thrown to the children of toe Button Pt>or Law Schools by raoegoers on the Derby and Oaks days, the fobools being on the main roed to Epsom. — There are 22 alluvions in the Bible to the east wind, 19 of them being of a disparaging charact> r.

— When tfce Court is at Balmoral two extra trains, called Queen's messenger trains, are put on specially to bear despatches to her Majesty from London.

— On an average every halfpenny in circulation changes hands eleven time 6 a week, ev«ry penny eigbt times every sixpence five time£, and every shilling three times.

— It han been averred that Lord Salisbury waa the firtit victim of influenza in Western Eluropf, aud that the malady was conveyed to him through some Fortign Office despatches from S r . Pfifceroburg.

— A? illustrating the excellence oE the papar - upon which Bank of England notes are printed, it is fct-tsd th»fc when one of these notes is twisted into a ropa it will sustain a weight of 3591b.