MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3117, 10 December 1913, Page 59

MULTUM IN PARVO.

London consumes 90 tons of salt a day. —ln all races the man’s brain averages 10 per cent, heavier than the brain of the woman. —ln London a motor bus proprietor aas to comply with between 50 and 60 conditions before he can obtain a license to use it for public purposes. —ln order that policemen may take shelter from rain and enow, the Brussels municipality are erecting large zinc umbrellas round street lamp-posts. —St Peter's, Rome, will accommodate 54.000 persons, Milan Cathedral 37,000 persons, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, 25.000 persons. The smallest conscript in France is probably Eugene Espagnol, of Louincs, near Tours. He stands 3ft 7in in his stockings, and turns the scales at 421 b, or just 3st. When lightning strikes a tree it occasionally converts the cap into steam, which explodes and scatters the wood in all direc—No fewer than six golden weddings have just been celebrated in a single day in the village of Ghistclles, near Ostend. —lt is reported that a copious flow of excellent oil has been found at a place 60 miles south of Calgary, m Western Canada. A Sheffield tramcar conductor has been sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour for embezzling a penny received from a passenger. Eleven hundred people sat down >n Chicago to a remarkable banquet. Every item oh the menu had been kept in cold storage for months —in some cases for more than a year. Details of the time and process of refrigeration wore printed against each course on the menu. —After his wife dreamed that treasure would be found near Ferreira’s Bush, South Africa, Andrew van der Merwe, a destitute ' Bloemhof carpenter, searched the spot indicated by her, and discovered a 25-carat diamond valued at £3OO. The Kaiser owns y 0 estates and castles, which produce an annual income of about £650,000. His civil list is in round figures half a million sterling, while a further exceptional capital sum of Crown trust money, amounting to nearly £900,000, is also at his disposal The municipal golf links on the town lands of Pretoria are now. completed, and the municipality claims they are second to non© in South Africa The course is an 18-holc one. and £2700 has already been spent on it, while further improvements are contemplated The links will bo under the charge of an experienced profcssionaL Mns Frederic Courtland Ponficld, wife of the new American Ambassador to Austria, will probably be the largest income tax payer in America. The income from the estate of £14,000,000 left by her father, the late Mr William Weightman,. is £700,000, and the tax at 7 per cent, will amount to £49,000. Two now trains that arc now running on the Great Western railway between Paddington and Windsor are claimed to bo fireproof. The carriages arc built of steel, the only wood being the footboard, and this has been specially treated to make it noninflammable. The flooring is of asbestos.^ Erected about 30 years ago by Sir Edward Watkin as a landmark showing the shore end of the Channel Tunnel works, the steel lighthouse, HOft high, on Abbotscliff. Dover, is at present being demolished. The lighthouse has been locally known for many years as “ Watkin's Folly.” Having been scratched by a cat, a six-year-old boy was stated a£ an inquest at Hampstead (England) to have developed erysipelas and died. During a performance aT the Theatre Royal, Chorley, Gue Hindle, the leading “ turn,” dropped dead on the stage. The curtain was immediately dropped, and the performance concluded. A curious coincidence has occurred at Deal. The throe eons of three aldermen were married within three days, the dates being mutually arranged. The bridegrooms’ fathers were three cx-mayors, and had each been elected chief magistrate for three yearn in succession. They were married by different clergymen, representing the three parish churches of Deal. Miss Ellon Elizabeth Bond. 89. of Arlington road, Twickenham Park (England), left £74,202 gross and £71,773 not. She bequeathed £SOO to the British and Foreign Bible Society, £3OO each to the China Inland Mission, Scripture Gift Mission, Royal Hospital, Richmond, Barbican Mission to the Jews, Mildrnay Mission to tlie Jews, and the Church Missionary Society. —lt is said that calico print works use 40,000,000 dozen eggs per annum, wine clarifiers use 10,000,000 dozen, and photographers and other industries use many millions, and these demands increase more rapidlv than table demands. There is room for the “ back-yarder ” in this groat demand, since “ every little helps.” Three Holland submarines, the first undor-watcr craft sold out of the navy, fetched at a Portsmouth auction £4lO, £360, and £405. Other vessels sold were the battleships Ramillcs, which realised £42,300. and the Royal Sovereign £40.000. The following cruisers wore also disposed of; Mclpomas, for £18,850; Pandora, for £9000; tug Fairly, for £4OO. Emincnts Bess, a Jersey cow at Roy Cross Farm, Houghton County, Michigan, has broken the world's milk record. In one year, under the supervision of the Michigan Agricultural College, she has produced 18,7831 bof milk', yielding 11321 b 9oz of butter. The record for Jersey cows was previously held by Jacoba Irene, with 17,2581 b of niiik'. Experiments have shown that fatigue causes chemical change fn the blood, resulting in the production of a poison resembling the curare poison, which certain savage tribes use for arrows. Arrow poison, however, is of vegetable origin. When the blood of a tired animal is injected into the arteries of a fresh one (says the Family Doctor), the latter exhibits all the symptoms of fatigue. The largest stage in the world is that of the Grand Opera House in Paris. It is 100 ft wide, nearly 200 ft in depth, and 80ft high. The height is measured from the level of the stage to the “ flics.” The stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City, is 101 ft wide, S9ft deep, r.nd 77ft high, and is Believed to bo the largest in the United States. Tramcars are to bo used for conveying goods at night between Liverpool and oth, Lancashire towns The trams will be specially built, and it is proposed to create depots at different points along the route between, say, Liverpool and Manchester, and from these depots to distribute the traffic in adjoining areas by means of motor lorries

A dwarf has just been discovered in Jamaica. Although ho is 26 years of -.ge, and has been living m the Dry Haroour Mountain district since his birth, it was only a few weeks since that the inhabitants became aware of his existence. Force of circumstances compelled him to.go to the nearest town, known as Brown’s Town, when his appearance excited much curiosity. Ho stands only 27in, and weighs under 'solb, although ■ a perfect specimen of humanity. Fie has already received offers from a well-known showman, which have been declined. The report of the Inspector for Scotland under the Inebriates Act for 1911 and 1912 states that the admissions to the institutions during the latter year numbered 157, 123 being to retreats, 12 to certified inebriate reformatories, and 22 to the State Reformatory. The total number of patients dealt with was 252, 167 being patients in retreats and 85 reformatory inmates. The admissions in 1911 numbered 166-Seventy-eight thousand tons of bones and fat, worth over £500,000. are collected each year in London. The demand is greater than the supply, as is shown by the fact that the price of waste bones collected from marine store dealers has gone up £2 per ton in' the last five years, and that vast quantities of foreign bones, tallow, and glue arc at present being brought into the country.