MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2509, 16 April 1902, Page 58

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The teaching of experience indicates chat accidents are far more likely to occur to the right arm and leg than to the left, further evidence ot this fact is supplied by the makers of artificial limbs; they dispose of many more appendages to the right side of the body than to the other. Statistics show that in 54 eases out of a hundred the left leg is stronger than the right. — One of the wonders of the world i.- to be found in Colorado, where certain mineral beds of the nature of slaty coal occur. These beds, containing millions upon millions of petrified fish, cover hundreds of square miles an the north-western part of the State. They extend a distance of 100 miles in the direction of Green River, and " shelve out " for 100 miles mere towards the interior of the State. In some places, says Science Siftings, these beds — almost a solid mass of perfectly fossilised fish— are from 150 ft to 200 ft in thickness. A point of great interest is the fact that they lie about 3000 ft above *ea level ; to which extent the land is thereby proved to have risen. — Mrs Susannah Pennotk, 21 years old. of Si. Louis, Mo., has just given birth to her third set of twins. Mrs Pennock's mother gave birth to six sets of twins, and bore 2i children altogether One of Mis Pentnock's sisters has borne six pairs of twins, tend another sister four pairs. Thirteen more of her mother's children had three sets of rtTrins each, or a total of 39. making 58 sets of twins, or 116 children in all. Mrs Pennock was born in Sweden. — The flowering mimosa sprays brought from the south of Fiance to Pans in winter are due (says the Globe) to forcing. The method is to cut the branches having flower buds and put them in a \ase full of water, •which is kept in a frame, cave, or cellar at a constant moist heat. — The chuichyard of St. Paul's Cathedral i? surrounded by some 2500 iron railing?, in which there open s=even ornamental gate*. they weigh 200 tons, and wero cast ntacostofod per pound weight, the total cobt 'being just 6d more than £11,202. The iron foundi-y in which they were ca«t was at Brightling, in Essex. —Of every 1000 people in London 310 ore Uitlanders in the feense of having been .born in the provinces, and 26 are foreigners. 4he remaining 634- being London-born. Of the thousand, are Irish. 13 are Scots, eight hail from Yorkshire, and seven from "Lancashire. — William Morrell, of Nottingham, who 4ia3 just entered upon his one hundred and aecond year, made shoes for most of the ifamouc prize-fighters of the early year^, of the last century, and finally entered the {prize-ring himself, becoming a formidable pugilist in his day. In later years he became a member of the first police force of Nottingham, and finally a Methodist preacher. Notwithstanding his great age he remains alert in body and mind and deeply interested in religious affairP. .— A new bath for the easy development of * quantity of negatives simultaneously has i been devised. The dish is made of glass or , glazed earthermv arc. It ha= a rai=ed ridge running along the bottom of deeply corrugated sides. The photographic plates fit in Jie ;orrugatio is ond rest on the bottom ridge 6O that the solution circulates between the plates over the films. — The King of Sweden has offered £500 to the finder of a cradle with a curious history. Sd 1720 a German Prince sent to Queen Ulrica Eleanora of Sweden a cradle of solid gold as a christening present for her ohi'd. The ship containing the present was, driven •by a terrible gale on the shores of the Island of Tjorn, where it bocame a total •wreck. The inhabitants or the island massacred the crew and pillaged the ship, but fthe cradle was saved and now lies buried in '*. lonely part of the island. — Contrivances have been invented and patented for the production of ventriloquial 'sounds on the stage by means of a telephone. The receiver is placed in the mouth 'of a dummy figure, and the voice heard v no; that of the performer immediately beihind the footlights, but that of a person hcfcind the scenes. Ventriloquists have varied I ftheir performances of late by the introduction of stuffed pigs, horses, dogs, and other Animals, which appear to join in the " conversation." In these instance* the telephonic method greatly assists in producing good effects. —An engine-fitter employed at Barrow has. just been notified that he has come into , tlie possession of £6000 under somewhat romantic circumstances. His mother some years ago had a large fortune left to her by Mi unsuccessful suitor in hei early life. She kept this information from her family until recently, when she was taken with a .serious illness. All her children will benefit by the j prevision she ha-s now made. — For some time the landlords of Berlin j Lave had a black-list of undesirable v nanis, i and now/ the tenants havo retaliated by making a black-list of unpleasant landlords. —La nee wood i" said to be the strongest , ,vood known; its ten.-ile itrongth per square inch is 23,0001b— that is to say. that weight is required tJ tear airundci a. picie of it one inch square — A dealer in old china in Loeds had half a dozen old Copenhagen cluna plates in his possession recently, each bearing painted views of Danish castle* He acquainted Queen Alexandra of the fact, with the result that her Majesty, after causing them to be sent for on approval, has purchased them. —At a Sunday school in North Wales a little girl, named M. A. Pntihard, has during the year 1901 committed to memory and repeated 2995 verses fiom Scripture. She is onl> 12 years old, and liad prc\ icm-sly learnt by heart the whole book of Pro\ erbs. Another member of a t hapol in the same tovrn, an old man o\er 80 ycari of age. named John Tavlor. has repe.-tod from memory the wholp of the buok < I I'-jlti.-- — Pierre Decorti is a wonderful man who ioc about 20 years has a«toni*heil ii < i>" pie Ostend. During all that time \\~ ha* simply lived on water dining the 40 days of Lent, while for the rest of the year ho has ••been content with water and bread. The curious thing is that this extraordinary coniduct does not seem to have had any effect on the length of his life. — The King of the Belgians is said to nvn the most expensive motor-car over built. It >s a palace on wheels, and contains a sittingroom, a sleeping chamber, toilet rooms, and servants' quarters. Its reservoh holds 25 gallons of gasoline. The cost of the car was £10.000. — A curious phenomenon hap been reported mi the Pall Mall Gazette. In the mount.' n> near Pontgibaund. in Auvergne, there ii formed in the hottest part of every summer a most singular ice deposit, *fihicli has ao ezietegoe in winter

— An old resident of Stockton has just died at the age of 87. Thirty years ago he was in extremely feeble health, and he ceded a piece of property to a neighbour, who required it for business purpose?, on a promise to pay him £2 a week for the remainder of his then expected brief life. The neighbour who made this costly bargain has long since been dead ; but he left an estate out of which the weekly stipend — a. handsome little sum of over £3000 in the total — has been regularly paid — An interesting custom was observed at the Town Hall, Giiildford, when two domestic i-ervants threw dice to decide which should be the recipient of what is called the " Maid's Money, left by John «How in 1674 for the servant who had been upwards of two years in one situation in the borough, and who should throw the highest number with two dice in competition with another servant Clara Howard and Florence .Ansell, both of whom had been in one service over eight years, competed, and Howaid, who threw sevtn against Ansell's five, was declared the .vinner and presented with a cheque foi 12 guinea*. — The lecent agitation in the philological world for the adoption of Latin as the universal tongue of cultured people is doomed to failure owing to the fact that it is confronted with a physical impossibility. In the first place the \ftcal organs are so entirely dissimilar in different races that a language will change too much for the variou.s people using it to understand cadi other. Again, if we could give the Italian language to the Chinese or Russians it would change so that in a few years we would not recognise it as the same. This disability may be accounted for by the fact that th,e people in the north ppeak with the lips nearly closed, and those living m a mild climate gne free articulation by opening the mouth.