MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2287, 30 December 1897, Page 40

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— President M'KiDley receives »n average of 60 begging letters a day. People in all parts of the country write soliciting his aid to get them temporarily out of trouble. The other day the total amount requested was 25,000d01. — It is estimated that the milk of 5,000,000 cows is annually* consumed in the United Kingdom, an average of 25-| gallons per year to each person. — Making the flies that are used as fishing bait is work that ia done for the most part by nornin. Men's fingers do not tie so ueatly. — All the members of the Rojal Family have % great fancy for designing jewellery, and as a rule design all the presents they give to each ' other. ' — Lord Kelvin calculates that the number oF molrculea in a cubic inch of any gas is 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, and in each of these molecules there are several atoms moving among themselves at the rate of 70 miles a miuute. — The region between the first and second cataracts of the Ni!e is the hottest on the globe. It never rains there, and the natives do not bdkve foreigners who tell them that water can descend from the sky. — A Girmau paper calls attention to the fact that at Aachen alone 800 tons of steel wire are used up annually in the manufacture of •needJei— 4,soo,ooo,ooo in number, valued at ;£300,000. — Food is served in one of the London -restaurants ,on electrically-heated plates, *so ,bbat the guests can eat leisurely and still have the viands warm nntil the close c f the aceal. - — During the Queen's reign there bas been a 'diminution in the marriage rate. , The rapid -increase in the population has been brought about by the decline in the death rate. — By a curious coiccidence the number of lives lest at sea during 1896 in British merchant ships is returned as exactly 1897.

— The largest parish in London in point of area is Lewisbam, which „ has 5773 acres ; and the largest in population is Islington, which has dow 330,000 inhabitants.

— Aa explorer recently ftund in Egypt a bronzt: bowl and a series of iron tools of forms quite unlike any known in that country, and they are thought; to belong to an Assyrian armourer about 670 be. These tools, comprising three saws made for pulling, not pushing, one rasp, one file, several chiit-h and ferrules, a scoop-edged drill, two centrebits, and others, are of the greatest value in the history of tools as showing eever.il forms of an earlier date than was<h< ughtpos^ble.

— The game of golf is said to bave been invented in ancient times by a lonely shepherd, who had nothing better to do than to knock round stones into a rabbit-hole with his crook.

— According totbe result of many measurement* made at the Anthropological laboratory in London, the right arm in human beings if, 'in a majority of cases, longer than the left arm, 'while, on the contrary, the left leg is longer than the right leg. Sometimes, bowevvr, the relative proportions are exactly reversed, but very seldom does perfect equality exist between "the two 'sides. The tendency of the right arm to exceed the left arm in strength is somewhat greater in m»n than iri women, while equality of f strength in the two arms occurs almost twice as .frequently with womeu.&s with men. —Dr Giering, &. Gmjdiii scientist, has accidentally discovered -that -in every photo-;g-aphic negative there is-Hko itmige of all the '^fibres and tissues that 'go to'make Tip the body, and that they may be all Drougntout and made Visible by deve'opment--with-certain checoic».l». ;To secure the plainest show of these nerves ond •arteries the light must be at the back of the figure, where it will shine through it into the camera.

— The Prirce of Wales has 17 brothers-in-law, 1 6 uncles, 57 cousins, and 58 nephews and nieces.

— The French millicnaire, Pierre Lorillard, has just ordered to be built an extraordinary boat. It ia being made entirely like a salmon. The minute following of the outlines of thatiiih has resulted in a jacbtof extraordinary narrowness. It will be 50ft in length and only Bft in breadth. The shape of the salmon was chosen on account of its well-known extraordinary iwiftne>s. Mr Lorillard built the first houseBoat ever seen in America, --and some time after he added to his floating home a curious sable boat, which has accommodation for six horses, two cows, ten dogs, and two waggons;

— Quite recently a thrifty peasant of Lausanne, Switzerland, who had saved some money, which he kept in bank notes, went from home, and the better to gnard bis heard from thieves hid the notes in a part of his stove. Unluckily his ton, finding the day chilly, kindled the stove, and the peasant, when he returned home, found to his dismay that the notes were burned, or rather charred. For- j •Innately for him, Professor Amam, of the \ 'University of -Lausanne, heard of his trouble ! and came to his relief. Photographs taken, of i fch'e charred notes revealed their nature sufficiently to satisfy the bank, which re-; funded, the money. „ — Some time ago the Grand Junction Canal 'at Berkhampstead. upon which large quantities 'of perishable freight are conveyed to the London markets,- was blockaded for 26 hours because two boats got into the leek at the same and neither one would back out. More than 50 boats were blocked before the canal authorities compelled one of the captains to give in. — Housebreaking and burglary are not the same thing. Breakiug into a house with a view to robbery in daylight is housebreaking ; at night it is burglary.

— On the Highland railway quite recently bwo earls, a coun*es», two Cabiuet Ministers, and an admiral, with their respective families, were third- class passengers in one train.

— The latest thing, in hotel bills of fare is it a ted to be an edible menu card. It is generally made of biscuit, which the guest eats with his cheese.

— The sky is always clear on the coast of Peru, where, although it may be misty occasionally, the blue sky is always visible by day through this whitish veil. Perpetual sunshine, when <he sun is above the horizon, exists, too, in the Sahara, the great desert of Africa, and in the other rainless regions of the carth — such as the high lands of Iran, various tracts of Turkistan and Chins, the desert of Gobi, and alto in Australia, between the southern coloDies and the Gulf of Carpentaria. Should clouds appear in any of these districts the heat of the sun is so intense that they are dispersed almost before they are formed.

— One curious faculty of commanders which -ha«, we think, never been sufficiently illustrated is a certain intuition which leads them 'to divine the character of an opposing general. Thus Hannibal appears to have known exactly how to draw Flamjnius into an ambush. Wellington so accurately measured the capacity of Eoult that on more than one occasion he executed moat perilous macoeurres, implicitly relying on a certain over-caution, which was the chief failing in that most scientific soldier, fif arlborough, too, by playing on the vanity of Charles XII, succeeded in sending him off to bis doom in Russia. — Academjk

— Once upon a time people recommended eugar for long b'fe. Dc Sl&re, a physician of the last century, has recorded the case of a centenarian who used to mix sugar with all his food, and the doctor himself was so convinced of the " balsamic virtue " of this substance that he adopted the practice, and boasted of his health aud strength in his old age.

— Scotch patriotism is one of the most singular products of the age. It is not hostile to England — far from it, though all its great landmarks are associated with the valiant struggle once waged between the two countries. There is no genuine demand in Scotland for Home Rale ; nor, if I kcow anything of the case, will thee ever be. With their head for business the Scotch find the Union far too valuable not to be supported, and it is a thousand pities that tbe Irish do not take a leaf out of their book. But every Scotchman carries in his heart a pride of race, a sentiment nhich marks him off from the Englishman — it is not easy to explain how or why. In all that regards the welfare of the Uoited Kingdom and the empire at large he is as English as the Englishman. — J. F. Nisbet.

— With the aid of the electric furnace minute diamonds can be made, though none large encugh to be employed in jewellery have yet bsen produced. But rubits of large size, and ss fine in colour and appearance as the best natural gems, have been made. A certain method of detecting artificial rubies is by examination with & microscope. The natural gem is always filled with minute cracks, invisible to the naked eye, but perfectly discernible with a high magnifying power. The art ; ficial ruby has no cracks, but, on the other hand, is filled with minu'e bubbles, or gas holes.

— There is at least one place in the United States where a man may be cut in a heavy rain and not get web, even though he has neither macintosh nor umbrella. In the Colorado desert thay have rain storms during which not a sirjgle drop of water touches the earth. The rain can be seen falling from the clouds high above the desert, but when the water reaches the strata of hot, dry air beneath the cloud?, it is entirely absorbed before falling half the distance to the ground. It is a singular sight to witnesi a heavy downpour of rain, not a drop of which touches the ground. These strange rain stouns occur in regions where the shade temperature often ranges as high as 128deg Fahr.

— The present state of things relating to the " tipping " system in P»ris, and in France and Switzerland generally, is a disgrace. You go to a theatre, and ths ouvreuse comes and dtmandß a tip in the ruiddle of the play ; your barber taxes' you, at;d the tip for the cabby ii practically recognised by law. If you left a cafe without giving a tip the waiter would not hesitate to follow yon along the boulevards to remind you of your forgetfulness, and concierge, pos'man, and every errand boy in the Eervice of your.tradeainen demand their tip as right, and ia no sense as a favour. To pre'end that the prices have been fixed on the assumption that a pourboire will be given is ridiculous. You have less for your money in Paris than in any other capital I have ever been to — and I can't remember one capital either in Europe or Asia that I have not been in. The humbug of the whole thing is shown by the f«ct that at several cafes where tbere is, an pichelstra the ptices are increased during the performanceto pay the, musicians— who come round with a collecting box after every selection. — Paris Correspondent of tbe~Referee. . ■ — At one time the lsws of Germany required evecy mechanic, at the expiration of bwterm of apprenticeship, to. traytl/rom place to place for the next succeeding three years. He was not allowed to remain over three mouths in one town, but mufrt keep on like the Wandering Jew. In several of the large places through which he passt d there were inns where he might get a suppr-r, lodging, and breakfast, as well as a ftw pence, to enable him lo continue his journey, all at the State's expeoee. At the end of the allotted three years the wanderer was supposed to have seen something of the world, and was then permitted to. settle down where he liked and work at bis trade ; hence the origin of the word 4I j- urneymau."

— Senator Jones, or Nevada, has experienced some si range chauges of fortune. One year he is a millionaire and the ntxfc year a bankrupt. To-day he baa 100,000dol to his credit, tomorrow he is 50,000d0l poorer than when he was born. He is an inveterate gambler, and alwa} s & " bull." At. one time, 17 years ago, he was worth 5,000,000d01. Bad luck followed, and in two 3 ears he was pcunilefs. During his flufh period he presented his wife with 60,000d0l worth of diamonds. When he became penniless be asked his wife to lend him the diamonds. She did so. He sold them and invested the proceeds in mining stock. The venture was lucky, and bis wealth was soon up in the millions again.

— A very curious occurrence took place recently in Vienna, when a patient in a lunatic ■asylum .delivered a lecture at his own request on the peculiarities of .his mental state. The pifcient, who is a man of first-class, elucation and excsptional mental power*, is liable to what is jknown-as circular imanity — that is to say, he is only affected periodically, and between bis fits he is as sane a man as one could wish to meet. His speech during the ltcture was mosb brilliant, being characterised by exceptional eloquence and cansiderable wit. The lecture lasted an hour, and during that time he contrived to hold his audience without a break. His look and bearing, which were those of a scholar, made it well nigh impossible for his hearers to associate him with insanity in any form.