MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2527, 20 August 1902, Page 58

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The firefc officer to receive the coveted {Victoria Cross was Bear-admiral Charles Davis Lucas, who resides in "West Kensingion. He won the Cross on June 21, 1854, •during the Crimea war, when a midshipman ion board H.M.JS. Hecla. A live shell struck |)is vessel, but before it could explode young Irucaa coolly took It up in his arms, ran So the side of the ship, and threw it overboard.

— Birds oannofc open the foot when the leg is bent, that is the reason they do not fall off their perohes when asleep. If you twitch a hen walking, you will notioe that it closes its toes as it raises the foot, and opens them when it touches the ground. — . Cumberland seems to be one of the ■chief egg-producing counties of England. Every week during the season of three months it dispatches a quarter of a million •ggs to Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, BradJford, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, ;nrhilst retaining sufficient for its own consumption. —It is said that the dolphin can, in an emergency, travel at a speed of considerably over 20 miles an hour, whilst for a short distance the salmon can outstrip every other fish with ease, doing about 25 miles an hour. About the fastest of tho smaller fishes iB the Spanish mackerel. As a rule those fishes which live by hunting others are the first an the matter of speed. —An eel has two separate hearts. One

beats at 60, the other 160, times a minute. — The biggest wine-cooler is at Windsor, and belongs to the King. It was made for George Iv, and two men can sit in it

with ease. —In Germany one man in 213 goes to a university, in Scotland one in 520, in the United States one in 2000, and in England one in 5000. —No British Sovereign has vetoed a Parliamentary bill during the last 185 years. —In Siheria, if a man is dissatisfied with th© most trifling acts of his wife, he tears a cap or veil from her face, and that constitutes a divorce. — The ropes in a first-class man-of-war <Dost" about £3000. —It is said that there is never an odd number of rows on an ear of corn. — One of the most serious details of tho (Martinique eruption is the prevision of disaster which almost all the animals in the island eeem to have had. Cattle became so uneasy that they could hardly be managed, dogs howled continually, and Bhowed every symptom, of fear ; the snakes left the vicinity of the volcano, where they tobound ; and even the birds ceased to Bing, and left the trees on the mountain side. A.H this was in April, weeks before the 'outbreak. — The colossal equestrian statue at Rome ©£ King Victor Emmanuel II is now nearang completion. The statue is about 33ft in height from the level on which tho horse »tands to the crown of tho King'B head. £The feathers in his helmet are about sft lextra. There will be space for one or two persons to get into the head, and for four or five in the head of the horse. —In very dry atmosphere* the durability of wood is almost incredible. Pieces of •wood, wooden caskets, and other articles have been taken from Egyptian catacombs of an antiquity said to antedate the Christian era by 2000 or 3000 years. — Among the peasants of Southern Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, a curious malady has been noticed by physicians, which is caused hy eating beans. One of the most remarkable effects of the malady is a species of intoxication resembling that produced by 'alcoholic drink. In some cases persons prodisposed to the malady are seized with the symptoms of intoxication if they pass a • field where tho bean plant is in flower, the odour alone sufficing to aftect them. — A German invention in fire apparatus lias recently been tried with success. It (consists of a telescope ladder, capable of being extended to a length of 85ft, and worked by means of compreesed air. The ladder is» attached to a heavy truck carrying an air-tank. The ladder can be directed. «t a particular window or other place in a burning building that it is desirable to reach. 'A fireman lashed to the end of the ladder fs ehot up with it, and rescued persons need not clamber down, as the ladder can be quickly lowered with them on it. —At the Paris >|ont-de-Piete is an Em-

Jjire clock) pawned in 1835 for £6, an old silver lid pawned 70 year 3 ago, and a bit of lac© pawned 75 years ago for half a sovoreign. For "all these things the contract has been Religiously renewed every year by somebody. But the odde«t of these oddities is a comirion old umbrella in green gingham, in value perhaps worth half a crown to a fconnoisaeur., The pledge for this has been steadily renewed for 63 years. — Under an insurance law enacted in Gertnany several years ago 30,000,000 people receive in return for a nominal sum freo modi-

feal attendance. The theory was that sufferpig humanity would receive cheap and effective relief from its bodily ills, but in practice there are many drawbacks. The doctors tired by the State hold that they are ex- * jpected to do too much for the pay they get. In order to keep down expenses ?ome doctors are inclined to impress upon the patients that nothing is the matter with them. — The curious custom of marriage by (proxy still exists in Holland. A Dutch gentleman residing in Batavia was recently united by proxy to a young lady residing with her parents at Amsterdam, and, inponsruous as it geems to our ideas, the {bridegroom's sister represented him and took the young lady in his name "for better or worse." It seems that tho younnj man was tired of waiting for his love any longer. fcut found that she would not be married Unless her mother was present. Her parents "Would not fro to Batavia and he could nnt \go home. A compromise was happily po? sible, as they were- both Put'-h subjects, !>y the lady being married with her relations Around her, and she has now sai'cil for iTava. — Arcordinor to M. Corrpin. animals, hke rersons. suffer from crises of the nerves. Fear of motor cars, etc, produces treinblircr land "false paralysis in horses. Ffar of punishment or excessive joy acts injuriously isn <Jog 3 A bitch mentioned by M Leptnay iiad a nervous attack on meeting her miV itress after separation during holidays. The ■tory of the Scotch dog whirh was rcpripianded for a fault by its master, tho min'.<? ♦er, just before he wont on a iournev, r-nd tsemintrly took it «o much to heart that it died during hi< absenoe, is supported by a C3se given by M. Arnc?i, of tlie Vetcrinaiy School, Milan. A ilog of 11 years, .r.telli|rent and affortionato, to^k convulsion': on receiving a stem reprimand from its master, and every time the master came 1 on>o after Trprd" 1 it had a similar a f tnck. The former Joy of the animal on seeing its ma l =t?r v a° •hanged into fufferma.