MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2669, 10 May 1905, Page 62

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— One of last season's novelties in fruit iras the apple-pear, a combination fruit which, it is said, will become very popular.

It was obtained by grafting a pear branch

into an apple stump. The fruit produced has the peel of an apple and the bell shape

of a, pear. The fruit possesses the combined flavours of the apple and pear.

-=- To cool a hot room hang a large towel, Jwell soaked in water, in the middle. The temperature will go down several degrees almost immediately. -•-The value of prison labour in English

convict establishments was worth £244,518

Cor the past year, the average earnings of each prisoner being £9 18s 6d, which is fen increase upon the previous 12 months. It is the most successful year ever experienced in the annals of prison, work, and • has been achieved without entering into

Undue competition with private traders. — The senses do not fall asleep simul- ' Jfcaneously. The eyelids are first affected, »nd shut out sight; next follows the sense ;of " taste, then smelling, hearing, and touch, the last being the lightest sleeper and most easily awakened. _— It is not so very Jong ago that copper ' .iras used in Sweden as' the chief medium of exchange, and at. times merchants had to take wheelbarrows with them when they twent -to receive payments of large sums. ■ " — Outside the Polar regions there remains

■unexplored, it is estimated, about one"fiftieth of the land surface of the globe. •Fifteen years ago .the unknown portions ■were about one-eighth of the earth's total. — The Hamburger Nachrichten' supplies a -list of the_publio monuments devoted to jfche m9mory~of Bismarck. At the present tooment 194 are completed, while 48 are in course of construction. The kingdom of ,J3a3©ny leads with 42 and 12 more to come. Nor are these monuments confined to Ger-

many ; there are • two in the African colonies, one in the Bismarck Archipelago in the South Seas, and one in Bohemia. — The number of public lamps lighted nightly in England and Wales is somewhere about 300,000. — Under the Austrian poor law every man 60 years old is entitled to a pension equal to one-third the amount per day ■which he has earned during his working 1 days. — Rifle bullets are now photographed in their course by means ofc the electric spark. The camera is taken into a dark room, which the bullet is caused to traverse. As

at passes the camera it is made to interrupt »n electric circuit, and produces a spark which' illuminates it for an instant and enables the impression to be taken. —In some Russian cafes fish are kept

•live in tanks.

A guest at one of these

houses selects his fish from the pool of •rater, -and waits until ifc can be dressed andcooked especially for. him. ' . — A novel method of advertising has-been •dopted .by a firm of 'bootmakers at Ballaiat, Victoria. A -.boot is attached by a Etring to the end of a long rod, which' projects* from the firm's premises across >the footpath. At irregular intervals the string is cut, and the spectator , who secures the boot can obtain it® fellow free of -charge

inside the' shop. ' — Trees which grow on the northern side uf a hill make more durable timl»er than

tbose which grow on the southern side. —In India elephants over 12 and up to 45 years of age are deemed the best to purchase; they will generally york well Until they are 80 years old 1 . — Lancashire is the next richest county to London. It is rated at £24,000,000, •gainst London's £43,500,000. — White frost is the ordinary, frozen dew ior hoar frost. Black frost occurs when the cold is so intense as to freeze vegeta-

tion and cause it to turn black without the formation, of hoar frost. — The Year* Boot of the German Universities, just published, makes it clear that Berlin University is the most numerouslyAttended seat of learning in the world. It contains 777+ matriculated and 1330 non>D«triculeted students. All the States

of Germany and every country in Europe, from Norway to Sicily, frqm. Ireland to Russia, are Tepresented in its class rooms. — Marken, in the Zuyder' Zee, is one of the "most curious islands in the world. ■Horses and trees are unknown. The island

produces one crop — hay — and of this the women manage the growing and harvesting. ~~ — Hindoo children are remarkable for

their precocity. Many of them are skilful .■workmen at an age when European chiltlren are .learning the alphabet. ' A boy of seven may be a skilful wood=earver, while yome of the handsomest fugs are woven by children not yet in their teens. — Travellers- in Eastern Siberia often

carry soups in sacks. The soupß are frozen solid, and kept for an indefinite time. Milk also is frozen, and .sold by the pound. J>C — Ban-pan, an official^paper of China, is ihe oldest journal in the world, dating back to 911. It became a weekly in 1361, a tJaily in 1800, and is now a tri-daily. The .regular issue is 8000 copies. The morning

edition is printed on yellow paper and is confined to trade interests ; the noon issue is white and wholly official ; while that at flight is printed on black paper, and its contents are. miscellaneous. — Children born in winter are said to be not so tall as those born in spring or summer. The extremities grow rapidly up to the sixteenth year, then there is __ slow growth -until the thirtieth year. The legs chiefly grow between the tenth and seventeenth year. Comparing the general result, ifc appears that there are six periods of growth. The first extends up to the sixth or eighth year, and is one of very rapid growth'; the second period, from 11 to 1+ years, growth is slow; th,a third period, from 16 to 17; the fourth period shows a slow growth up to the age of 30 for height, up to 50 for chest girth; the fifth growth is one of rest, from 30 to 50 years; the sixth period is characterised by ji . decrease in all dimensions of the body. , .'A very amusing scene was witnessed *he other day in Broad street, London. A -hoy (a member of a cadet corps) was show-"-ing hie bugle to a companion and giving "exhibitions how lie could play it. To prove -3iis assertion he sounded a call, "Stables." 'As the notes rang out, a horse attached ■fco a royal mail van that was standing near immediately laid down and refused to move. *The driver, an old soldier, guessing the cause, asked the lad if he could sound the ■*'Beveille," and being answered in tho affirmative, requested him to do so. As the first bars came ringing out as clear as a bell, the horse at once jumped up, and Sroceeded along as though nothing had appened