MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2604, 10 February 1904, Page 58

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— Scientists have discovered that a woman's perception of colour is considerably greater than that of a man. On the other hand, m€<n have, as a rule, a much keener sense of smell. A woman's non-colour-blindness is undoubtedly largely due to her education, while she may also have some innate faculty to aid her in that direction. From girl■hood, however, a woman im her feminine love for dress and attention to its details is trained to distinguish not only colours Ibu't shades. As a result few women, are really colour blind, though many have less power of perceiving some one or two colours than they have of others.

— The men who spend their lives- in dredging amongst the mud of the Thames find many very curious things, and some of uihem show a most marked degree of intelligence in discerning when they have X&ked up articles of antiquarian interest, for -they have been partly trained to this iby collectors who have .given them a retainer. Near the mouth of the Thames very common finds are the quaintly shaped clay pipes that were used by the vast numbers of sailors who came to Chatham and other ports during the Napoleonic wars. Professor Hay Lankester lias quite a collecucxi of ancient human skulls that have been profpided with dredgers alone, and other eminent mem of science employ these men.

— The most remarkable burglar-proof safe in the world has just been placed im a bank in Newburg, Indiana, U.S.A. At night the safe is lowered by cables into an impregnable metallic-lined sub-vault of masonry and concrete. After reaching the Tjottom it is fastened down by massive steel lugs operated by a triple time-lock. Until these lugs are released automatically, at a desired time, no human agency can raise the safe, and to break in through the mass of stone and concrete, which measures 3 1H •by 10ft by 16ft, with dynamite would wrecK •the building without making the safe available.

— Many animals possess more than two eyes -which do not act together. A leech, for example, has ten eye 9on the top of its head which do not work in concert, and a kind of marine worm 'has two eyes on the head and a row down each side of the Jbody. Some lizards have an extra eye «n the top of the head which does not act •with the other two. A bee or wasp has two large compound eyes, which possibly 'help each other amd are used for near vision, and also three little simple eyes on the top of the head which are employed for seeing things a long way off. — One of the largest and probably the heaviest meteorite yet found upon the earth has recently been excavated by Professor H. A. Ward at a place called Ramchito, Bear Bacubirito, in the province of Sinaloa, Mexico. This mass of meteoritic iron :'s more than 13ft long, 6ft wide, and sft thick, and' its weight is estimated to be about 50 tons. The great meteorite which. Lieutenant Peary took from Anighito, Greenland, to the United States a few years «go is believed to weigh nearly 50 tons ; and next" to these two, the three heaviest "fallen stare" known to science are those from Chupaderos, Mexico, 16 tons ; San Gregoria, Mexico 11 tons ; amd Bemdego, Brazil, five tons. Mexico can lay claim to more large meteorites than any other country. — There has just been disposed of at an art sale in London one of the very rare examples of porcelain known as "growing crockery," this fetching 50 guineas. Upon the surface of some articles of crockery there grow out, during the course of long years, certain fibrous crystals that ri*o higher and higher with time, and that force upwards the glazing of the crockery. This chemical manifestation — caused by the- clay containing alumina amd magnesia, that is acted upon by sulphuric acid in the glazing — is of the rarest kind, and some years ago a beautiful old teapot that was cold by a lady in Woburn place, and that was one mass of growing crystals, fetched »everal hundreds of pounds. The example just sold had belonged to a very poor person. — There is no duty hated so much by policemen in general, and by the London policeman im particular, as that of assisting County Court and other bailiffs when they expect a breach of the peace. The strictest orders are given to the police in this regard never actively to assist in any way except as a last resort, and gladly do they remain inactive when the goods of poor folk are toeing removed. It is complained by the police that the very worst class of bailiff only too often, make a pretext of calling in. the police in order to intimidate people ■upon whose goods very harsh distraint is •being levied. A toast at a recent police dinner ended with the phrase, ''Amd may we never be called up to assist bailiffs." — Among the staircases the world over, none, it is safe to say, is so long, or difficult of ascent as "Jacob's Ladder. This remarkable flight contains more than 700 steps, all rising with the same lift ia the came direction. The steps rise at an angle of exactly 45deg. "Jacob's Ladder" ascends a particularly eteep hill at St. Helena. The steps are, naturally, the mo«t direct route to the summit of the hill, and, despite their groat length, are traversed daily by hundreds of wayfarers. There are said to be many persons who, from long practice, are able to ascend the steep stairway at a rapid pace without once stopping foi breath.

—At the congress of applied chemistry held in Berlin, Simoneon, of Chnstiania, described v method of utilising sawdust in the production of alcohol, which the County Brewers' Gazette prints. About two tc«s of sawdust are boiled -with sulphuric acid for three hours, the liquid matter being then, extracted by pressure, neutralised, left to stand for 18 hours to cool and ,-larify, and then fermented for four or five days. The resulting alcohol is afterwards distilled and rectified, and, making ample allowances for loss in the latter operation, the yield of epirit is said to be about nine and a-hau quarts per ewt of sawdust. ■ - Only 900 persons in 1,000,000, according to a medical authority, die from old age, while 1200 succumb to gout, 18,400 to measles, 27,000 to apoplexy, 7500 to eumption, 48,000 to scarlet fever, 25,000 to whooping-cough, 30,000 to typhoid' , and typhus, and 7000 to rheumatism. The averages vary according to locality, but these are considered pretty accurate as regards the population df the globe as a whole — Over one-half of th© trees struck by lightning are poplars. From this fact .scientists conclude that the poplar has come value as a conductor of rghtmng. Therefore agriculturists a.re advised to plant these ffees in the vicinity of their faim buildings.

— Wallpaper can now be hung by machinery. The device consists of a rod on which a roll of paper is plaoed and a paste reservoir with a feeder.

— The empire of Morocco is the most important State without a newspaper. — Cmc of the largest forests in the world, situated between the Urals and the Okhotsk Sea, stands on ice. — Some insects that have to pass several years in the preparatory stages only live a few hours after they have attained perfection.

— A kiss on the lips is considered by a woman in Finland to be the gro-atest insult a man, including her own husband, can offer her.

— When Mauritius was ceded to Great Britain in 1810 there wa; a gigantic tatle in a court at the artillery barracks at Port Louis which is still there, although almost blind. It weighs 3301b, and strmds 2ft high when walking. Its shell is Bift long, and it can carry two men on its back with ease.

— The citizens of Altenburg, Germany, have erected a monument in honour of "-kat," which is a German variation of whist. The monument consists of a column painted with diamonds, hearts, spades, and clubs, and on the top are two pigs'— symbols of luck— and a fountain throwing up a jet of water.

—An interesting example of the lact that it is never too late to karn has recently occurred in Belguim. At the State School of Horticulture at Vilvorde, one of the pupils, named Pierre Germain, is 69 years of age, and that age implies, iv his case at least, no disability i= shown by the fact that he has received his diploma, havimg passed the "final" with flying colours.

— Herring and other fish have sought death by rushing ashore in myriads, regiments of ants by deliberately walking into streams, swarms of rats by migrating in the face, of their deadly foes, and oven butterflies by flying in imm«i : e clouds straight out to sea. It would be interesting to discovei the cause of tlvs apparent wholesale and deliberate self destruction.

— The diocese of Kiwatin, in Rupert's Land, is one of magnificent distance-. Bishop Lofthouse once walked 200 miks to fetch a doctor for his wife. Many of the Indians walk 25 miles to church, and the Bishop has baptised scores of babies who had been carried 150 mile-s on their mothers' backs over hard-frozew snow. At night the family would sleep, wrapped in thoii deorskins, on branches laid upon the snow.

— The strangest village in the world is undoubtedly the little hamlet of Jatte, near Culoz, in France, not far from the Italian frontier, whore dwell ab/>ut 200 deformed men, women, and children, who in Paris go by the name of "Culs-de-Jatte." They are deprived of the use of their legs and thighs, these being withered and stunted, and push themselves along 1 in primitive wooden carts with wooden wheels, which they propel by means of a flatiron shaped block of wood in either hand.

—To keep the 30,000 odd miles of telegraph line in order in Great Britain and provide for the proper despatch and delivery of the millions of messages that pass over them every moiith entails in expenditure of about £2,250,000 a year, and of this total more than £1,500,000 goes in paying the salaries and wages of the immense staff of engineer-, skilled operators, and messengers, and of those who direct their operations and keep the accounts straight. —In Europe there is only one species of wild sheep. It is known as the moufflcm, and it inhabits the mountains of Corsica andi Sardinia, where moufflon-stalking h a favourite autumn pastime. In Coi-siea, however, this sheep is almost extinct. In summer and winter this animal's coat is of a ruddy-brown hue, excepting the under parts, which are lighter, and the back and flanks, which are marked with a white "saddle," but in winter the brown becomes darker.

— Probably the heaviest fine for smuggling that has been inflicted in amy country during recent years has just been imposed by the fiscal tribunal of Graz. Four persons were involved — a merchant of Trieste cad three cafe waiters. In the aggregate the fines amounted to £5200, and there were, in addition, sentences of imprisonment varying from a few months to two years. The men had for some- years carried on an extcaisive traffic in contraband foreign cigarettes, which one of them imported.

— Americans declare that the p.utomatic bed is a British invention, but the fact is that the machine is in use only in the land of the dollar. The machine is a little over 6ft in height. Drop a coin in the slot, and there falls down into a horizontal position a leather-covered couch provided with a comfortable rug. The tired traveller who misses his train and has_ to wait an hour or so can by mean? of this machine take a, comfortable nap. When he gets off the couch it rises automatically imto place again, and can only be brought down again by the insertion of a fresh coin.

— Some officers- of the British Army now wear armour. As a general rule the mail is inclosed in leather casing, which is 'evtm inside the tunic so as to bo invisible unless the garment is picked to pieces. And the same with the helmets — a similar device is fixed as lining, ec as to give additional protection in case of meed. Some officers are not abovo wearing mail vests underneath their tunics and perfectly obvious to their comrades, who would be only too glad to don one themselves when in the middle of hostilities. The majority of the makers' customers are officers, because the suits are naturally very expensive. — The bed on which Napoleon died at St. Helena is being offered for sale in Paris. The bedstead is made of bra=s, and was given by the Emperor to the Comte de Montholon, who was with him at St Helena. It is now the property of the Comtesse de Montholon, who is the last representative of the family, and as she is very old and has no one to leave it to, she is willing to sell it. The Comte-ae alsc has in her possession a dinner-service which belonged to Napoleon. The price a«ked for the bedstead js £50,000, arad it will ment probably be. secured by one of the American collectors of Napoleonic relics.

Grateful Schoolmasteh.— W. R. Wyatt, Esq., public schools, Sandringham, N.S.W , says: "After suffering some time 1 of a very bad attack of -jysentery, I was induced T>y a local chemist to try Chamberlain's Colic, Cholera, and Diarrhcea Remedy. It only took one dose to relieve, and after a few more doses were taken I was completely cured. It is a pleasure to certify to such a .splendid mcdiciao." Tor sale by all dealers.