MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2389, 14 December 1899, Page 48

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— One-third_ of the population of the world apeak the Chinese language. —In England the ratio of insane to population is 3.3 per 1000, in Egypt it is only about 0.05 per 1000.— Lancet. — The United Kingdom has more women than any cpuntry in the world in proportion to its population. Among them no fewer than 616,000 are set down as dressmakers — an occupation which may be reasonably claimed as an industry. Iv the French capital the marrying of wealthy American, girls to certain Paris noblemen has become a business. A syndicate was formed not long since of three titled Frenchmen, who were to keep all other admirers from a certain vrealthy American girl, and the winner was to pay the two who lost 100,000 francs. — The largest insect known" is the elephant beetle of Venezuela.' It sometimes attains a. weight of gib. — The Japanese are said to have discovered that a few seconds previous to an earthquake the magnet temporarily loses its power, and they have ingeniously constructed a light frame supporting a horseshoe • magnet, beneath which is a cup of bell-metal. The armature is attached to a weight, so that upon .the magnet becoming paralysed, the weight drops, and, striking the cup, gives the alarm. Everyone in the house then seeks the open air for safety. j — The silk industry of China, employs, it is estimated, from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 people. ■ —It is stated, on the authority of those who have undergone the experience, that people buried in an avalanche hear distinctly every word uttered by those who are seeking for them, while their most strenuous shouts fail to penetrate even a few feet of snow.

— There are various kinds of tea which, though not fraudulent manufactures, are not made of the real leaf. In Mauritius they make tea of the leaves of an orchid. In Peru they drink mate, a tea made from a native specie 3of holly. The Abyssinians make a tea from the leaves of the Catha edulis, which has such "stimulating qualities that even a leaf or two of it chewed has all the reviving effects of "the cup that cheers." — The present school list at Eton affords an interesting forecast of the rising generation. In includes 1013 names, 87 of which belong either to peers or sons of peers, and one''is that of a prince of the blood royal ; £he latter being Prince Arthur of Connaught. Princa Arthur studies German in lieu of Greek, and has already earned the distinction of winning tne headmaster's prize for proficiency in French. Among others who are destined for the military profession are the sons of Lord Rosebery, Lord Harewood, Lord Shrewsbury, and Lord Ranfurly. —In Ireland a^elt made of woman's hair is sometimes placed about a child (o keep harm away. Garlic, salt, bread and steak are put into thd cradle of a new-born babe in Holland. Roumanian mothers tie red ribbons, round the ankles of their children to bring "good luck."

— Oriental dislike of the cable tramway •ystem is manifested in a vigorous style, Sines the introduction of cable cars into Corea several children have been run over •and killed in Seoul. A mob of several hundred persons burned one car and smashed another. The Japanese and European engineers narrowly escaped death. The ignorant people attributed the drought, which has continued for some time, to the construction of the electric railways. —W. and T. Avery (Limited), of Birmingham, have been entrusted with an order for the construction of a weighbridge, which is one of the largest ever built. The main knife edges are of exceptional length, and the levers are arranged to swing freely in steel rookers suspended from the framework. The steelyard is constructed to weigh without the use of loose weights, and is fitted with concealed adjustment, and will indicate any weight placed upon the bridge by 71b divisions up to 100 tons.

— The annual expenditure in England and Wales on funerals probably exceeds £6,000,000.

. _ — The use of a separate comb in hair-cut- . ting is made unnecessary by a new imp 1"ment, which has a comb formed on the siuo , of one of the blades of j \\q scissors, '• Hh the teeth graduated in length, to bung . ends of the hairs between ) blades for dating. — Men exposed to i..j rigours of the Alaskan winter do not wear moustaches. They wear full beards to protect the throat and face, but keep the upper lips shaven. The moisture from the breath congeals so quickly that a mousiache becomes embedded in a solid cake of ice, aud the face is frozen in a short time.

— Willow and poplar corks are now used for champagne bottles by some wine producers.

— Prescott, the capital of Arizona, boasts that its streets are paved with gold. The granite used for pavement contains 16s worth of gold and lOcl worth of silver to every ton, 30 that in time, when less expensive methods of reducing ore are used, it is just possible that it will pay the city to mine its pavement. —It has been calculated that, assuming the heart to beat 69 times a minute at ordinary heart pressure, the blood courses through the veins at the rate of 207 yds in a minute, or seven mile 3an hour, 168 miles a day, and 61,320 miles a year. If a man 84 years of age could have had one single blood corpuscle floating in his blood all his life, it would have travelled in that time 5,150,000 miles. — There seems to be no place in American lociety for the negro, or for anyone with a tinge of negro blood in his veins. Peculiarly painful is the position of the "white negroes." Association with the pure-blooded blacks is distasteful to them, while companionihip or, equality with the whites is denied them j they are outcasts by their own choice from the blacks, outcasts by the horror and repulsion felt for them from the whites. — Nineteenth Century. — The Kaffir is succumbing to the advance of civilisation. Some time ago he organised a native agricultural show, which was highly successful ; now he has set up a church of his own, and called it the Ethiopian Church, nnd has virtually taken himself out of tho hands of his former spiritual masters. In another lirection he shows still further signs of advancement. He has realised the utility of bridges, aud has made an offer to the Cape Government that if it will construct a bridge over a river at a place indicated he will supply £1000 of the cost. — The origin of the phr-^e, a "man of *tra-\r," is given thus : It used'to be customary for a number of worthless fellows to loiter ".bout, the law courts, to become false witnesses or sureties for any who would buy their services. Their badge was a straw in their shoes. Being utterly penniless and without principle, a "man of straw" became proverbial, riio French have a similar phrase, "Homms do paille," and the allusion is to i dummy figure, stuffed with straw, like a oarecrow-, set up to represent a real man.

— 'A bad woman is a very bad woman. A -bad man has. usually some stump, of a conscience left, and feels in 'it occasional aches and twinges which he refers automatically to the amputated organ. But a woman has none. Her wickedness comes from her with cheerfulness and comfort. The man is a strong swimmer in evil ; but to woman it becomes her element, her habitation. — Academy.

— The human rac6 does not seem ever to have varied much in stature. The individual exceptions only prove the rule. Giantology was once generally believed in, but the remains of large animals discovered from time to time, and asserted to have belonged to prehistoric giants, having been proved by modern science to have been the bones of elephants, rhinoceroses, mastodons, whales, etc., ha-ve long ago disabused credulity on the subject.

_ — Even yellow fever finds apologies. Curious stories of the good it incidentally did come from sufferers who passed through the recent epidemic in the Southern States of America. - One confirmed dyspeptic avers that now he can eat anything; a man who had suffered 20 years with asthma says he is wholly free from that distressing malady; and these and others declare that, if yellow fever attacks a person who" has a chronic disease, that disease goes away when the fever goes. It seems- fit and proper, too, that the more terrible malady should expel the less dangerous 'one ; but since it is likely that the patient may die while this process is going on, it is probable that yellov/ fever will never become a popular cure for dyspepsia and asthma.