MULTUM IN PARVO.
— If you take a crown piece as representing the surface of the planet, half a crown will represent the surface of the whole sea, a shilling the surface of the Pacific, and a threepenny piece the surface of the Atlantic. — There are 11 cities in the world with a population of ov9r 1,000,000. They are London, Paris, Berlin, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pekin, Vienna, Tokio, Canton, and St. Petersburg. — Eight thousand carrier pig-eons are kept for use in the German army. — A peculiar industry of Kern County, California, is the collection and shipment of horned toads. They are sold to the Chinese, who use thorn for medicinal purposes. They are considered especially valuable in the treatment of rheumatism. —It is stated that 1,000,000 bonnets were sold in London dtiring one week recently. — Every Spaniard is liable to be called to military service on attaining 20 years of age. The two biggest fire engines in the world aro j in Liverpool ; they can throw 1000 gallons of water a minute, and a jet 140 ft high. — Serving in the British Army at the present time are 578 commissioned officers who joined as privates. Of British .birds the cuckoo lays the smallest egg in proportion to its size — Most of the writing paper used in France, Spain, and Italy is made in Britain. . — Among flowers the chrysanthemum is &aid to live the longest after being cut. • — A Turkish turban of the largest size contains 20 yards of the finest and softest muslin. — The speed of the fastest Atlantic steamer is now greater than that of the express trains on Italian railways. — It has been estimated by competent authorities that 4000 stags are annually killed in i Scotland. — England has about 150 packs of foxhounds, and about 1500 horses are kept specially for fox-hunting. — The tinder box and flint are by no means to be accounted things of the past. Their manufacture is still carried on in the village of Brandon, on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk, a large demand for this primitive form of lighting being created by hot, damp climates, where matches cannot possibly be kept. — Out of every million persons 1200 die from gout. — The Ist Life Guards have in their possession the trumpet which sounded the charge at Waterloo for the regiments of the Household Cavalry, comprising the Life Guards, the Blues, and the King's Dragoon Guards. — Glow worms are much more brilliant when a storm is coming than at other seasons. Like many other mysteries of Nature, this curious circumstance has never been explained. — A viscount possesses a ring giveft to an ancestor of his by Richard I. It is a silver ring, set with the tooth, of a flab
— Every 1001b of good barley gives tho j brewer 801b of malt. — The new torpedo net defence which is now to be used on all British warships weighs 17^cwt and has 16,000 wire meshes. Each net is 25ft wide and 28ft deep. —An American has invented a highly exI plosivo shell which may be fired_ from ordi- I nary cannon, the inner shell containing the explosive being protected from concussion at the rear by a vacuum cell. A firing pin is placed in the point of the outer shell to slide inward | and explode the shell as soon as it strikes. — At the recent battle of Atbara a number of Italian rifles were captured from the dervishes by the Egyptians. The Italians lost them to the Abyssinians in 1887, and the Abyssinians in turn to the dervishes in 1889. i — It is said that the oldest person living j whose age has been proven is Bruno Cqtrim, born in Africa, and now living in Rio de Janeiro. He is 150 years old. A coachman in Moscow has lived for 140 years. — During the most peaceful years the world lias 3,700,000 soldiers, whoso pay, equipments, food, and clothing cost the world's taxpayers nearly £1,500,000 a day. — Japan intends sending to the Paris Exhibition a huge house, hexagonal in shape, and composed entirely of porcelain. It measures several yards in circumference, and its weight will not be less than 70 tons. From the artistic point of view, according to the several models already finished, it will be exquisite. It is estimated that the cost of making it will be about £2000. — The height of the mountains in the moon has been measured. One has an altitude of 36,000 ft, and several are upwards of 30,000 ft in height. — The Sultan holds the word " assassination"" in the greatest horror. When M. Carnot, the President of the French Republic, was assassinated, every paper or despatch containing the news was confiscated. Few persons outside of the foreign embassies knew the truth, and the papers printed in Constantinople were only allowed to state that " President Carnot had been accidentally killed." — The New York police, 7500 men, are to have new uniforms, and each one will require for his two uniforms and overcoat 78 buttons. This means 585,000 buttons, or four tons of brass. — The guns of the dynamite gun vessel Vesuvius are 54ft long, and are made of thin cast iron. She carries 30 torpedoes, or dynamite shells. The firing reservoir contains 210 cubic feet of air, at 10001b pressure, and the storage reservoir, 420 cubic feet, at) 20001b pressure. This compressed air is the means by which the dynamite shells are discharged. All well-trained Spanish women are taught to handle the sword from their earliest years, and as a result they are noted for their admirable figures and easy walk. — The restoration of the spire and turrets of the tower of Salisbury Cathedral was completed not long back. The stones, as they were removed, were numbered, and every stone which could be used again was restored to its proper place, new stones having been introduced only in cases in which the original stones were crushed or broken. The work of restoration occupied two years; and the amount of the contract was £15,000. — Death from tuberculosis occurs in all countries, and no climate seems to have any effect upon it. It has been estimated that at least one-eleventh of the whole population of islands die of consumption alone. The mortality from the disease in the whole population of Europe is, according to Professor Leyden, not less than 1,000,000 every year. In France one out of every six deaths is caused by it. — Within, five years the number of foreigners in France has decreased by 74,000. It is now 1,027.000. — Moscow Cathedral, next to St. Peter's at Rome, is the costliest cathedral in the world. On the exterior of the building alone 9001b of gold was used. Of its 13 bells the largest weighs half as much again as " Great Paul," in London ; and the doors of the cathedral, of which the largest weighs 13 tons, cost £62,000. — The best French is taught in the neighbourhood of Orleans and Tours, just as the purest German can be acquired in or near Hanover. — The Sultan possesses no crown, coronation Doing unknown in Turkey. — Something like 1000 machines are employed in the production of the British army rifle. — A rifle ball may be fired through a pane of glass, making a hole the size of the ball, without cracking the glass. If the glass be suspended by a thread it will make no difference, and the thread will not even vibrate. — Some of the singers in the choir of St. Peter's, Rome, are little boys of eight or nine years old. At the age of 17, unless their voices have gone before, they leave the choir. — William Carver, aged 25 years, who had the distinction of being the smallest man in the world died at Clayton recently. He was 28in high, and used to travel in shows with his mother, who weighed 21st 61b. — In India tho average duration of life of the natives is 24 years, as against 44 in Britain. — In India the rhododendron grows to a height of 30ft. Marigolds in North Africa reach a height of 4 or 5 feet. — Hongkong is both a city and an island. It is about 29 square miles in area, separated from the mainland of. China by a narrow stream, and was ceded to Great Britain in 1861 as indemnity for what is known as " the opium war." — Ship rats have survived the era of steam and steel, and only recently throve so successfully in a big ironclad that they made H.M.S. Colossus almost uninhabitable. House rats have learnt how_ to cope with gas fittings, lead pipes, brick drains, and cement floors ; '' sewer rats " have^nado themselves a name coeval with modern urban sanitation, and others are now learning to live in " cold stores" and eat chilled meat and game in an atmosphere where breath turns into snow. — Spectator. — Fire will frighten almost any creature, but it has no terrors for the driver ant, which will dash at a glowing coal, fix its jaws in the burning mass, and shrivel up in the heat. — Soldiers' wives who are ' ' on the strength " of a regiment find employment in doing the men's washing, which is shared amongst them. Before he can marry " with leave " a soldier must have at least two good conduct badges, have served seven years, and saved £5 in the regimental bank. — A church in Seidlitz, in Bohemia, contains a chandelier made of human bones. — Acetylene gas furnishes lamp black of a vory superior quality. Its use for this purpose has been patented in France. — The average number of horses killed in Spanish bull fights every year exceeds 5000, While from 1000 to 1200 bulls are sacrificed. — It is possible for any Chinaman, or even a Chinese woman, to become a deity by paytag for tlie honour. — The most magnificent work of architecture is the Taj Mahal, in Agra, Hindustan. It is octagonal in form, of pure white marble, inlaid with every sort of precious stone. The work took 22,000 men 20 years to complete, and though there were free gifts and the labour was free, the cost was £3,200,000. — It is estimated that since the Christian era began over 4,000,000,000 human beings have perished in war* v ..
— Elephants in the Indian army are fe<S twice a day. When meal time arrives they are drawn up in line before a row of piles of food. Each animal's breakfast includes 101b of rawrice, done up in five 21b packages. The rice is wrapped in leaves and then tied in grass. At tho command "Attention! " each elephant raises his trunk, and a package is thrown into nis capacious mouth. By this method of feeding not a single grain of rice is wasted. — The mistletoe is found most commonly on the apple, and next on the hawthorn; it is also found on the lime, the sycamore, the willow, the poplar, and the ash; occasionally oq the cherry, and sometimes, though rarely, on pines and firs. — The greatest distance that a shot has been fired is a few rods over 15 miles, which was the range of Krupp's well-known monster 130ton steel gun, firing a shot which weighs over a ton and a-quarter — On the approach of a thunderstorm peasants abroad often make up a very smoky fire in the belief that safety from lightning is thus assured. By some this is deemed a superstition, but a scientist shows that the custom is based on reason, inasmuch as the smoke acts as a good conductor for carrying away tho electricity slowly and safely. He points out that in a thousand cases of damage by lightning 6.3 churches and 8.5 mills have been, struck, whilst the number of factory ohimnsya has only been 0.3. — The most magnificent tomb in the world is deemed to be the palace Temple of Karnak, occupying an area of nine acres, or twice that of St. Peter's at Rome. The temple space ia a poet's dream of gigantic columns, beautiful courts, and wondrous avenues of sphinxes. — The view of London from Greenwich is the most touching and impressive view of its kind that we know. Nowhere else can London and its river be seen together to such advantage, and the majesty of this view has been increased, since Turner painted it by tha spread of the town and the erection of tha Tower Bridge. — Academy. — The largest room in the world is at Sfc^ Petersburg. It is 620 ft long by 150 ft in breadth. It has been used for military displays, and a whole battalion can completely manoeuvre in it. — Fog can be dispersed for some distance in front of ships by a newly-patented mechanism, consisting of a long tube mounted on tha bow of the ship and capable of extension beyond the vessel, a fan blower being used to force air through the tube and blow the fog away. — Neither camels nor elephants can jump. —An Arizona paper asserts that the main tribe of the once savage Apaches, now clustered about San Carlos, has furnished only one serious criminal in the past five years. — Paris and Marseilles are connected by; telegraph lines entirely underground. They are placed in iron pipes and buried 4ft beneath the surface, withtnanholes 3000 ft apart. It cost nearly £1,500,000 to lay the wires. — Animals, like men, have their modes of scientific attack and defence when fighting ia large numbers). Baboons make an advance guard of the stronger males, and behind these come the females, formed into a oircle with, the young in the centre. They are always led by the oldest muscular male, who stamps on the ground, gesticulates and chatters his commands. If he is killed, the next in command invariably takes his place, and so on in strict routine. — While in England Li Hung Chang endeavoured in vain to get Lord Salisbury to assent to an increase of the import duties levied upon British goods entering China. These duties were fixed by the Pekin Convention between England and China in 1860 on the basis of 5_ per cent, ad valorem on all goods entering China and they remain unchanged.. Li JHung Chang argued that as the rate of exchange had fallen by about one-half theseduties should be doubled to make them what they were originally intended to be; but apparently he had no concession to hold out afc the time to Great Britain for her consent. _ — The_ faculty which our sailors acquire of nicknaming persons and things is well-known.. For instance, they term the chaplain on board ship " sky pilot " and " fire escape " ; th& surgeon "sawbones," "pills"; the carpenter "chips," "wood spoiler," "gate maker." Ship's, police are termed " crushers," and marines " jollies," and so on through the whole ship's company. The blue jacket himself is a " flatfoot," or tf shellback" if an elderly man. — Twenty years ago there used to hang on the wall in every American household a picture of the battle between the Kearsage and the Alabama, with _ a legend telling that the Alabama was built in a British yard, manned by British seamen, commanded by British officers, and was sunk in so many minutes and seconds. No mention was made of the facfc that the fight was as one-sided as if it had been fought between a man and a child. Tha truth was that the Kearsage' s armament was. enormously superior to that of the Alabama. — Saturday Review. _— It is certainly a matter for congratulation that just as the stock of quinine-produc-ing trees of South America was giving out the' thoughtful Briton planted them in India, and now their culture is so scientifically conducted that the ague-shaken thousands need have nomore fear 3. The convicts in the gaols are -employed in making the quinine itself into five grain packets, and in one prison more than threo millions and a-half of these packets were produced, last year. — -Asia has produced great generals, who were also great organisers. Ibrahim Pasha, grandson of the Turkish tobacconist, and son of Mehemet Ali, led these very fellaheen against Turks, and so defeated them that theMohammedan world expected him to mount? the throne of the Kalifs; and, indeed, he would have done it but for Lord Palmerston. Hyder Ali, once a private soldier, made an army, which almost deprived us of Southern India. Runjeet Singh, a small official, made an. army, no doubt with the aid of soldiers of fortune, which was within a hair's breadth of defeating us on the Sutlaj, in which case he would have reigned for a time at least as master of India. — Spectator. — Our blue jackets do all their washing, and in addition make and mend their own clothes. Jack buys his own soap, and when washing day comes round he is supplied with freshwater and sets to and scrubs all his dirty clothes clean. This usually takes place soon after " supper," or what we call " tea," his last official meal of the day. When washed, the clothes aro all hung ud on linos above the ship until dry, or placed in drying-rooms for the purpose. — The majority of the people of Sweden still cling to the use of the old-fashioned tallow candle, though electricity has been introduced in the cities. tlnt In a single year one Swedish firm manufactures 21,000,000 candles of all sizes for use in that country almost exclusively. — If a toad's mouth be forced open and held so, the toad will suffocate. This is because he has no ribs, and cannot dilate his chest ; therefore he swallows the air as though it were food, talcing it into the stomach instead of the lungs. — During the last 50 years the size of steamships has been multiplied "twentyf old, the horse-power employed to drive them has been multiplied fortyf old, and the speed with which they traverse the sea has increased threefold.
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Bibliographic details
Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 45
Word Count
2,974MULTUM IN PARVO. Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 45
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