MULTUM IN PARVO,

Otago Witness, Issue 2494, 1 January 1902, Page 58

MULTUM IN PARVO,

—In the 20 odd palaces of the German Emperor some 3500 servants are employed, about 2000 of these being women. A hug© income is, of course, required for keeping up establishments on this scale, and the Emperor's total expenditure is estimated at tome £5000 a day. — Honolulu dwellings have a curious feature in the provision made for lighting the exterior as well as the interior. Electric lamps are set in the masonry of the walls, thereby throwing a reflection both inside and on the lawns, where the residents spend most of their nights. — Voices made to order are the latest thing in surgery. Actual operations ha\e demonstrated that the larynx, or vocal box, can be successfully removed, and the patient may not only survive the shock, but recover. In order to restore speech to the patient an artificial larynx and eocal cords are provided. The voice artificially is incapable of inflection, but, although it is a monotone, tie patient is perfectly able to carry on a conversation. —In a process of making gas patented in ihe U.S.A. it is stated that the invention relates to the manufacture of gas from steam and hydro carbons, and more particularly 10 a process in which the production of a fixed gas in insured. The process consists in forming hydrogen gas ; injecting the hydrogen thus formed together with a hydro-carbon oil into a highly-heated retort, thereby forming carburetted hydrogen gas, and at the same time subjecting the gas to a series of successive contractions and expansions while highly heated, thereby forming a fixed illuminating gas. —It is a curious fact that there are certain kinds of noises which attract snakes. For instance, the whirr of ilie mowing machine, instead of scaring theEe reptiles, as ■night be supposed, seems both to allure and «nrage them, and they almost invariably dart towards it, rearing themselves in front of the machine, which, of course, promptly chops off their heads. In six monthfe as many as 120 cobras alone have thus been slaughtered on a grass farm in India. — Horses always point one ear forward when they sleep. Exactly why this is done no human being can tell, but the probability is that the practice is a relic of the time when they were wild and obliged to be on their guard even when asleep. Cattle, on >the other hand, are apparently indifferent as to the position of their ears while sleeping, but, no matter what position they are in, both are always pointed alike. — There are about 700,000 houses in London, which on cold days consume 40,000 tons of coal, emitting 480 tone of sulphur. —It is a painful revelation to learn, on the strength of a" Local Government Board oreturn, that during 1900 there were no fewer than 53 cases in which coroners' juries returned verdicts of " Death from starvation " an the various districts within the City of iLondon. ■ — A house built of buttons Is the iatest thing in architecture, aiul a certain French 'anußical celebrity is building it. The walls, the ceilings, the doors, the exterior, and the interior are all oramented with buttons «f every description, from the veiy origin of their invention up to those of the present day. Those dating from the lftwer Greek Empire are of the most curious manufacture, ■but every country has been ransacked, and Borne very* curious specimens are reported to have been brought to light. — A German fire-brigade inspector recently published the statement that burning oils and fats can be extinguished mor^ effectively and easily by heaping a quantity of chopped straw upon them than by any other means. This seemingly paradoxical method was tried recently at a conflagration that broke out in a large oil warehoube, and was attended with success. — There is in the world only one lady policeman. Miss Helen Wilder did not become a member of the police force of the city of Honolulu in order to gain a living. 'Her father is one of th 6 great sugar kings of ■the Pacific and worth se\eral millions. It ■was her love for children and animals that prompted this pretty young girl (bhp is now only 24) to seek the appointment. She is a mounted officer, weais on her soft felt hat the silver star which is the badge of her calling, and carries a revolver — In a tin> inland called Minikoi, off the ■odthern coast of India, a most peculiar state of society exi-ts, for woman is lord of all she surveys. The wife is the recognised head of thp house. She owns it md everything in it, while anything that her I>ubbanci, who works very hard, can earn goee co increase her wealth. Her husband belongs to her, too, and when she marries him she gives him her name instead if taking hi». — - Thirty years ago a mechanic of Crewe bought for £500 a publichouse in that town It has just been sold to a brewery company for £16.000. — The Moors are nneterate coffeerinnloers, and a medical writer states that their sight begins to fail at the age of 40 or 45, and many are blind at 50. The number of blind in the streets of Fez is impressive, and excessive vree of coffee is always given as the cause. — Electricity is invading every domain. There is, at Kingston-on Thames, affording to the Engineer, a laundry wholly worked by electricity. Ventilation and drying are accomplished by electrically-dmen fani, and even the irons are heated by an electric current. — The Baluchi-tan (Asia) railway is an example of rapid construction. Ninety-five miles were completed in about wo months, and the last 20 miles were made at the rate of three miles and a-quarter per day. The gradients were about one in 2000 on a dry, barren, treeless, houseless plain, rising all the way. The desert was absolutely smooth and plain. — When a dog baiks at night in Japan the owner is arrested and sentenced to work for a year for the neighbours v, hofe Uunibers may have been disturbed. —M. O. Lpighton, health inspector of Montclair, N.J., declares that he has found S>acteria to be quite abundant in clay that lias been used and re-used for modelling in echoole. An attempt to sterilise the clay showed that the only efficient way of accomplishing this was by the use of feuperheated steam under a pressure of 15 to 20 pounds for 45 minutes. The species of bacteria identified were those which occur in pus formations. Sterile clay was then inoculated Iwith the bacilli of typhoid, diphtheria, and tuberculosis. A study of the clay showed jthe typhoid germ to be alive after 32 days, knd the diphtheria and tubercle to be still A live in 18 days. — Austria is the only empire in the world VMch has never had colonies or e\en transmarine possessions.

—In the jungle of Sumatra large spiders are found. Some of the larger specimens measure Bin across the back and have 17in of leg spread. — Probably the only regular midnight regatta is that which takes place annually on the AKter, Hamburg's great lake, early in September, under the auspices of the Hamburg Yacht Club. Every year "at midnight, as the clock is striking the hour," the competitors are started for the chief event in seven or eight divisions, according to their respective ratings, a prize being awarded for the winner of each division. On the conclusion of the regatta the competitors, who average about 60 in number, assemble for breakfast at the Fuhrbaus, on the Uhlenhorst, and the proceedings terminate about 5 a.m. — Mahogany-hunting is precarious work. In Central and South America the mahogany trees do not grow in group* ; much less are there whole forests of them. They are scattered, usually concealed* in thickets. It requires skill and experience to find them. To fell a tree Involve-* the «orlo of two men for a whole day. On account of a thick thorny growth near the base of the tree a scaffold is erected around it, and above this, at a height of from 10ft to 15ft. the tree is cut, so that the beet part is really lost. The felled tree i« then freed of branches and hauled on a rough waggon by oxen to the nearest river, where rafts are made and floated down. — Servia is in trouble now .tith an epidemic of marriages. The cause is the system of marriage banks founded as an encouragement to thrift, but which have proved to have quite the opposite effect. The young men and maidens of Ser\ia begin paying in to these institutions at an early age on the promise of a premium on marriage. Immediately a small sum I. as been accumulated the desire for marriage grows o\rrwhelming, with the result that the fir-t offer is snapped up. 11l consequence, prematurely early and unhappy marriage* are general. The matter has now reached «uch lengths that it is seriously troubling the Government, and the advisability of abolishing these banks, which are held to be the loot of the evil, is being debated. — Not long since an extraordinary quantity of honey was taken out of the roof of Buggatc Church, in the East Riding, Yorkshire. How thifc came about is explained by the rector*- daughter, Mi<-s Jollpj, who indulges in bee-keeping as a hobby. It seems that >-ome two or three summers ago a swarm was seen tp leaw* one of thp. hives. They eventually disappeared under the church roof. Three attempts were made to fasten them in. twice with mortar, which they broke away, and the third time with cement, when they found au exit into the interior. Eventually the stock wa^ becoming so strong that it was deemed neco-ary to starve them out. When the slates were removed, under the lath and plaster was «oen the brood chamber, which curiously resembled the interior of a bar-frame; hive, as the combs were built in straight lines one behind another, attached to a lath and long piece of piaster, and were handed down like ordinary frames. On the other side of a partition was found the store : beautiful white combs, filled with white clover honey. One comb was nearly 2ft long and about 6m. deep. Close upon a hundredweight of honey was taken out, in addition to a number of empty combs. The honey was eventually sold at a vei-y good vrice, the proceeds being devoted to the fund for church expenses.