MULTUM IN PAVYO.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 2321, 25 August 1898, Page 48

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— A gentleman who has recently spent a month in Samoa reports that the house in which Robert Louis Stevenson passed the lasu years of his life is going rapidly to rum. According to "Lounger" in the New York Oritic it is at present uninhabited, and is likely to be so for the rest of its days, though it is reported that Mrs Stevenson talks of going back there. — Sea birds frequently spend weeks at sea, and are believed to quench their thirst partly from the falling rains, and partly from the fat and oil which they devour ravenously when opportunity puts it in their way. They have been observed flocking towards a storm-cloud about to burst from all parts of the compass, and drinking in the water as it descends from the skies. — The postal service in India extends as lar north ac Kolghur, a village of the Himalayas. Beyond this point a letter sent by a native runner, who carries tho missive for days in the split end of a stick, and delivers it at the end of the journey as clean as when he received it. These runners are so honest that money is entrusted to them, which they will carry for days, along wild mountain tracks, where they could never be traced, and then deliver it into the right hands. . The rarest bird in existence is a certain kind of pheasant in Annam. For many years its existence was known only by the fact that its longest and most splendid plume was in much request by mandarins for their headgear. A single skin is worth £80, and the living bird would be priceless, but it soon dies m captivity. . — The thickness of armour on modern warships is truly astonishing. The side armour of a first-class battleship uually varies from 36iin thick at the top of the belt to 9£m at the bottom. The gun turrets are often protected by armour from 15in to lTin thick. The armour on the deck of the vessel is about 2|in to 4in thick. — All the funerals in Pans are conducted by a single syndicate, which has a, licensed monopoly of the business. There is a regular tariff of rates, a first-class funeral coptmg £400, and the cheap or ninth class 1,1. —■A recent traveller thus describes the praying wheel of Thibet: " A barrel 8m long holds 1400 thin leaves, on each side of which tho prayer is printed, say, 10 times. This gives 23,000 prayers, all of which are put to the worshipper's credit in the world to come if, with a touch of liis finger, he makes the barrel revolve once." —It is easier to crush the hardest stone known than steel. Corundum was chosen for the stone in a recent experiment. A weight of 6 tons smashod the corundum, but 42 tons were required to crush the steel. With a loud explosion the steel flew into powder, and eparks are said to have bored minute holes m the crushing machine. — Evidences of the prehistoric peoples who Inhabited the valleys of the Gila and the salt livers in America are continually coming to light, revealing the fact that iv these valleys dwelt a prosperous people numbering probably not less than 3,000,000. — The invention of Mr Holden, locomotive engineer of the Great Eastern Railway, for vtsmg oil fuel, is to be tried in the navy- I' ne torpedo boat destroyer Surly is having steel substituted for her copper tubes, and while the work is in hand the two after boilers are to be adapted for oil fuel, and will be tried in comparison with the two forward boilers, which are to consume coal.

— Forty tons of rust have been taken out cf the Menai iron tubular bridge at one cleaning. — All over the world some 59 languages a,re represented by newspapers. Many are printed in two or three languages, English in such cases being generally one. The newpapers in Austria show a greater variety in this respect tlian those of any other country, including in the list German, Italian, French, Mag-yar or Hungarian, Greek, Latin, Polish, Servian, Slavic, and Hebrew. — 'Night blindness is a peculiar affection of the eye in which the patient sees very well during the day, but becomes blind as night approaches. It is mostly met with in warm climates, and usually gives way to mild treatment.

—In Nice, France, there is a society called "The Friends of Trees." The forests and mountains being completely devastated and denuded in the Maritime Alps by the axe of the peasant, a price is given to landowners who plant trees on vacant spots, and an annual Alpine fete gives a donation of £20 to the society or individual who plants the largest number.

— A London specialist says the most expensive drug is called physostigmiue, an ounce of which would cost nearly £200,000. It is prepared from the Calabar bean, and is used in diseases of the eye.

— A patent authority cays that not more than one invention in 110 is of any practical use. ~

— A professional beggar of Hongkoae; 'nas just built a fine three-storey tea house i'it3<«ltj the south gate of the city. As the only 1 !l <-pc storey building in or about Hongkong, it is an object of great pride to the natives, whose charity helped so largely in its erection.

— Mr Gladstone some time ago invented Jin excellent tiling for the library — half screea, half bookcase. It is described as holding " tl-e maximum of books in the minimum of space. ' It is made of light wood, enamelled white, lias shelves in front for holding 400 books, i-nd the back is covered with tapestry like an ordinary screen. It is easily movable and »\ould bo found exceedingly useful in limited quarters.

— The oil of the rattlesnake is said to be remarkably good for rheumatism and neuralgia. — A measure which has passed the Norwegian Government prohibits the pale of tobacco in towns to persons under the age of 16. In country districts tobacco may be sold to juniors provided with a- written order signed by some person known to the seller. — The Emperor of China has to fast 64 days m each year for the sake of religion. — Waterloo, lowa, has a church for which one huge glacial lx>ulder furnisl-ed practically all the material. The huge stone before being Masted was 28ft high, 30ft wide, and 20ft thick. It was •estimated to weigh 5,125,0001b. — The match of the future is to be made of paper, it is said, instead of wood. — Signallers', trantport men, pioneers, tailors, bootnii2:crs, servants, waiters, etc., are known in the army under the title of "regimental loaferd." Tbese men are, as a rule, among the busiest men in the regiment, and, therefore, the appellation is, to say the least, unmerited.

— Our troops in the Soudan, now preparing for their final rush to Khartoum, are obliged to make extensive use of the heliograph for signalling purposes The heliograph is especially suitable for sunny climes, |is it us merely a small circular mirror, so mounted that it can bo made by a motion of the finger to flash tho sun's rays to a given point in the di&tance. The well-known Mor.sc code of dots and dashes is generally u&ed, a short flash representing the dot and a lons* one tho dash.

— The oldest British regiment dates back to 1660. The oldest Austrian regiment is paid to have been raised in 1618, tho oldest Russian regiment in 1700. The old French army boasted of regiments raised in 1556. These were disbanded at the time of the revolution but were again brought together by Napoleon, being finally dispersed on his downfall by the Bourbons.

— "Hunger stones" have been seen in the Rhine this winter. They appear only when tho water is very low, and the date of their appearance is then cut into them. They are believed to forbode a year of bad crops. — The armament of some of our modern first-class battleships is capable of "discharging in two minutes over 30,0001b of metal, not including tho discharge from the small machine guns. This is at the rate of about seven tons a minute. The four big guns of tho new battleship Goliath are capable of filing 14,6001b in two minutes, the aggregate muzzle energy being equal to lifting a battleship of 14,900 tons 35ft, or lifting 523,320 tons lft. — Tho Persians in 516 B.C. invented a transparent glass varnish, which they laid over sculptured rocks to prevent them from weathering. This coating has lasted to our day, while the rocks beneath are honeycombed.

— In the German army dogs are trained to attack foreign soldiers bythe following method. Some German soldiers, dressed in the uniforms worn by foreign soldiers maltreat and tease the dogs, whereas the soldiers dressed in the German uniform caress and pet them, so that they speedily evince a very marked dislike to strange uniforms, and . always treat the wearers as foes.

— France pays in pensions every year 70,000,000 francs, of which 35,000,000 are subtracted from the salaries of officials.

—It has been calculated that a gold coin passes from one person to another 2,000,000,000 times beforo the stamp or impression upon it becomes obliterated by friction, while a silver coin changes about 3,250,000,000 times before it becomes entirely effaced.

—In the leading navies of the world the cost of building typical ironclads per ton is as follows: — United Kingdom, £60; United States, £78; France and Germany, £87 to £90.

— Board of Trade returns show that the average wages of a cook aged between 30 ajid 3b are : In London, £23 ; provinces, £22 ; Scotland, £21; and Ireland, £18. Those aged 40 and upwards averaged, in London, £28. Housemaids of 30 to 35 years receive £20 in London and the provinces; £19 in Scotland, and £15 in Ireland. Over the age of 40 the Ln-idon average was £25.

— Human beings have six muscles to each eye, that they may move it on eitl'er side ; but horses, cows, sheep, and other quadrupeds, which liabitually incline their heads to the earth in search of food, have a muscle by which their eyelids are suspended and supported, and which we do not need.

— Singultu ly enough, cast iron, which most people would imagine less durable than sfttel, improves greaxly in strength under constant shocks. While guns tried a month after casting burst at the seventieth and eightieth discharge, other guns which had been in use for six years failed to burst after 2000 and 3000 discharges, and cast iron bars after being subjected to shocks frequently gain 100 per cent, in strength.

— The bottom of the Pacific, between Hawaii and California, is said to be so level that a railroad could be laid 500 miles without grading anywhere. This fact was discovered by the United States surveying vessel engaged in making soundings with the view of laying a cable.

— An eccentric Scotchman has fashioned a picture entirely of cancelled postage stamps. It is a representation of an ocean steamer at sea, and is said to be a really good design. Its maker claims that he spent 13 months in doing the picture, and that he used over 10,000 stamps before the work was completed. His only tools were a pair of small scissors, a pair of dividers, a ticket punch, and a gum brush.

— The most magnificent tomb in the world is deemed to be the palace Temple of Karnark, occupying a space of nine acres, or twice that of St. Peter's at Rome. The temple space is a poet's dream of gigantic columns, beautiful courts, and wondrous avenues of sphinxes. — The other day a debate occurred in English in the Provincial Legislature of Quebec, and it was such a novelty that the Canadian popere are commenting upon it. The laws permit bi-lingual discussion, and 20 years ago the members of this body often spoke in the Queen's tongue. But for a long time the practice of using French has been steadily growing, and to-day it is exceedingly rare for a speaker to employ English words in the course of his utterances.

■ — There are said to be 400,000 cats in London, of which half are "unattached," and live largely on refuse. In' one district near a very large and famous brewery the sporting cats go regularly, as soon as the brewery gates are open, to hunt rats in the brewery stores. — The minimum height in the Mikado's army is a fraction of an inch over sft, that in the Italian army sft lin. As the height of individuals in Japan does not often exceed sft 4in for males, it follows that there is wonderful uniformity observable in the physique of the Japanese troops, and this fact operates beneficially in long marches, very few falling out of the ranks. What one can do all can do.

— The oldest married couple in the world are without doubt Mr and Mrs Jaoob Hiller, who are both Canadians by birth. They were married in 1810. Mr Hillei is well on towards his 109 th year, while his faithful spouse has just celebrated the 106 th anniversary of her birth.