MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2430, 10 October 1900, Page 56

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— A German doctor finds thai in only one case out of 15 are botii eyes in good condition. r — Ceylon is the home of the largest spider in the world. This v.-eb-spinning monster lives in the most mountainout^iislricts of that rugged island, and places his net, measuring 'from sft to 10ft in diameter, across the chasms and fissures in rocks. ' — One authority on botany estimates that over 50,000 species of plants ore now known and classified.

— June has been the most fatal of all months to British Governments. On June 7, 1885, Mr Gladstone's second Ministry was defeated ; on June 8, 1866, the next Ministry of Mv Gladstone leceived it& death-blow on the defeat of the Home Rule Bill ; in June, 1£92, )Lord Salisbury's second Administration decided to face the general election which resulted in its overthrow ; and on June 21, 1695, jLord Rosebery's Ministry was defeated by a majority of seven on a cordite vote.

— The average working life of a London omnibiT3 horee is five year? ; tl.at of a tram horse is only four. He is the same sort of Jiorse ; he comes to work at the same age ; he costs about the same ; ond he works the same few hours; but co much greater is his effort that it costs Is a week more to feed him, and he is worked out in four-fifths of the lime.

— Ifc will surprise many to be reminded thai, four ornamental volumes were presented to tho Queen in 1874 containing addresses and .thanks from all the principal towns oi i ranee. This was to mark the gratitude of Frenchmen for the relief given to Jb'rance by Great Britain after the war of 1870. The volumes concain jsome million signatures, and inscribed upon the covers are the words: ' BriianniEe Grata Gallia!"

— The proportions of the human figure are six times the lengch of the right foot. Th© face, from the highest point of the forehead, whero the hair begins, to the end of Uie chin, is one-tenth of the whole btature. 'Ihe hand, 'from the w:i,fc to the end of the middle ringer, is also one- tenth oi the total height. 3?rom tho crawn to the nape of the neck is onetwelfth of the stature.

— The German Emriercr now receives nearly £2,000,000 annually," and r.sbs lor moie. It costs him more than half his income to maintain the 24 Koyal palaces throughout fche Empire. His mother, the Dowager-Empress, has £100,000 for pin-money, and his wife, the Empress, £50,000. Then he has to pay the wages oi* 1500 "lackeys'" and 2000 female servants, besides supporting his brother and others of his family. 1 — A bride of 98 will probably be accorded the unquestioned privilege of being the oldest in the world. She is Mrs Samuel Lecker, a 'citizen of the United States, and in spite of !hev years has awakened the tenderesl senlimenta in the heart of a youth of 75, who has just wooed and won her. She is evidently no disbeliever in marriage, for she was first led ■J~> the altar in 1E32, and when her husband 'died and she was 63, she took a second helpmate, who departed this life a year ago, having •reached the mature age of 89. Her third and 'lasi marriage was the result of love at first eight.

— The park at Welbeck Abbey, the seat of ( the Duke of Portland, has been a park from .time immemorial, of which fact some of the lold oaks are the best proof. The Greendale '■oak, as it is called, must be 600 years old ; it ."used to be 33ft in giith at the bottom, and its (branches used to cover a space of 2700 square yards. Other famous trees are the (Duke's Walkingstick, the Two Porters — so called because there is a gate between" them — and a clump of gigantic siDecimens called the Seven Sisters. The park is ten miles in circumference, and contains 4-1 lodges, all goodly houses, built of Streetley stone. i — Stockport boasts the largest Sunday BCiiool in the world, nearly 5000 children being on the roll of the institution. The re)cent annual procession was a gigantic affair, old scholars traveling long distances to iom an the "walk." One of these old scholars is Mr Thomas W. Weathered, of Brooklyn, ILLS. A. He is now in his eighty-first year, and h&a for 35 years in succession made the voyage across the Atlantic for the purpose of taking [part in the procession. Mr Weathered rode pin one of the carriages at the head of the projcession with Lieutenant-colonei S. "W. Wiikiii-s-on, senior trustee of the school. In another '"carriage was the acting mayor of the borough ;<Mr Alderman Giles Atherton), and in another ! JVlr Charles Crossley and Miss Hannah'Burtin- ! ishaw, who have served continuously as teachers for more than 50 years. ' — The carrier-pigeon, when travelling, mover fesdd. If the distance be long, it flies on without stopping to .take nutriment, jind at last arrives thin, exhausted, and almost .•dying. Jf «orn be presented to it, it refuses rio eat, contenting itself with drinking a little water, and then sleeping. Two or three 'hours later it begins to eat with great moderation, and sleeps again immediately afterwards, if its flight has been very .prolonged the pijpon will proceed 'in this manner for 48 hours ipefore recovering its normal mode of feeding. <t — In the presence of Sir John Ardagh. chief 'of the Intelligence department, the .side of one of the Eifl mountains in Carnarvonshire •was removed by blasting. ¥ive tons of powwere used, and a drift of 50 Et was drilled in the solid rock of .the TJanaelhaiarn granite quarries belonging to Mr George Farren. The wxplosion was followed by an upheaval of the gallery, and the huge side of the mountain iwas seen to crash down into the adjoining abyss. In this way 62,400 tons ot solid rock were dislodged, and the blast was pronounced a. distinct success. A similar explosion in another gallery succeeded in removing 70,000 tons of gianite.

— The death has just taken place at Hill's Hill Cottage, Norlhwich, of Mr William Simrock, at the advanced age of 95 years. In Ibcptember last ho performed an extraordinary ■^cat by climbing to the top of AYitton Church /iower, and assisted in placing in position «i .View flagstaff, on which he subsequently hoisLed the Union Jack. -He was born on September 16, 1804- , at Liverpool. At Nortlrwich for ovei 70 years he carried on the business of a Ihip-rigger on his own account. He had a disliinct recollection of important national events jjdiich happened at the beginning of the cen,lury.'

— The yearly expenses of the Sultan have 6>een estimated at no less a sum than six milliions sterling. Of this a million and a-half alone h spent on the clothing of the women, ,tind £80,000 on the Sultan's own wardrobe. Nearly another miJlion and a-half is swallowed up by presents, a million goes for pocketVnoney, and still another million for the table. • tfc seems incredible that fo much money can "possibly be spent in n year by one man, hutwhen it is remembered that some 1500 people live within the palace walls — live luxuriously, flnd dress expensively — at the co?>t of the Civil Lipt, it appears a. little more comprehensible.