MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3274, 13 December 1916, Page 49

MULTUM IN PARVO

Small songbirds are the most vigorous breathers of all. Maintenance of prisons in England costs £466,000 a year. * The common hen lays about 500 to 600 eggs in 10 years. Farthings, are legal tender for any amount up to sixpence. There could bo no form of animal or vegetable life without water. Many lives have been lost as the result of forest fires in Northern Ontario. Water contracts until it is reduced to 40deg, and .then expands till it freezes. Most of Amsterdam is built on piles, tho town hall standing on no fewer than 13,000. A house well built of first-class brick will outlast one constructed of granite. —lt is estimated that tho damage done by rats in England amounts to about £15,000,000 yearly. —An old Japanese prophecy says: "When men fly like birds, 10 great_ kings will go to war against one another." - —The grand-daughter of an English peer is relieving the wife of a Tiverton tobacconist, whoso husband has joined up, by serving in tho shop. Dorando, hero of the Olympic Marathon of 1903, is now driving a motor lorry in the Italian transport service. —• One of the oldest inns in Sussex, the Tiger, at Lindfield, has passed to the ownership of the local churchmen. The intention is to turn it into a church house, possibly a clergy house. On a man of average stature tho pressure of the atmosphere is about 15 tons, but, being equalised, it is not felt. A memorial to Captain Scott, an argosy in stone on a pedestal, was unveiled at Capetown by Mr Mcrriman recently. Grey horses are the longest lived. Creams nro decidedly delicate, and arc seriously affected by very warm weather. Offices have now been opened in German towns and villages at which a medal or an iron watchchain is given to every person who deposits jewellery to a certain value, the jewellery to bo used as " cover " for the Reichsbank notes. Women barbers are very common in Northern France. . and in one village an old lady of 70 plies her calling with razor and scissors. She has a large clientele of British soldiers, who prefer her gentle touch to that of a man. American scientists studying tho source of infection of infantile paralysis have, ac-

cording to Renter, indicated a line of investigation that may prove the rat-flea to bo the real carrier of the disease.

—ln the course of a preliminary test, direct wireless communication has been effected between the wireless station at San Francisco and the Japanese Government plant at Ochiishi. A man charged at Bow street with being drunk told the magistrate that" for 30 years he had been in the habit of drinking methylated spirit, which he much preferred to whisky.

The possibility of photographing objects several miles distant with a moving picture camera has been investigated by the United States Bureau of Standards, with successful results. A camera of great focal length was employed. —ln Rome and other Italian cities ladies are adopting the habit of going hatloss, as a war economy. The example has been set by many aristocratic ladies, who take walks and automobile drives, and even make social calls bareheaded Those who have travelled or resided in the German Empire are acquainted with the huge earthenware beer-pots, all of which are fitted with pewter lids. When a German accidentally forgets to close the lid clown after drinking, those who may be with him can claim drinks round as a penalty by placing their own pots over the uncovered mug. The Imperial German War Bureau for Metals has just requisitioned for military purposes the pewter lids of every beerpot in the German Empire. According to Swiss reports from the German press, the German .Finance Minister intends to send all gold currency upon which he can lay hands to the melting pot before January 1, and to have new coins struck to replace the old. Then the present gold coinage will be declared illegal, and not to be accepted as currency. The pbiect of this drastic measure is to compel Germans who are supposed to have hoarded gold to bring it without delay to the Reichsbank.

—-The rapid elimination of tho horse from tho streets of New York is shown by official records just issued. Nearly seventenths of all vehicular traffic, not including street cars and motor cycles, is self-pro-pelled. On Fifth avenue, at Forty-second street, 91a per cent, of the traffic last month consisted of motor vehicles, and only 8£ per cent, was horse-drawn.

Chestnuts are being carefully gathered :n Germany this year, and arc so much in demand that a maximum price has been fixed for them. They have been found to yield an excellent edible oil, which can bo used as a substitute for olive oil, which has ceased to be obtainable since Italy's declaration of war on Germany. Cigarette-smoking in England dates back to 1844. The great impetus to their increased use was caused by tho Crimean war of 1854-56, when numbers of naval and military officers adopted this method of smokiner from tho inhabitants of Russia, Turkey, Malta, Levant, and other parts of Europe.

Out in California a centrifugal blower, driven by an electric motor, is beinjr used in the shelling of almonds. Formerly the nuts could bo ; shelled by hand only with the greatest difficulty. At the present time the almonds are fed into the suction eido of the fan. where they are picked up by the runner and hurled against the fan easting, following which they arc blown out of the discharge pipe into a box, already shelled.

The Great Western railway, as part of its "safety" movement for the prevention of accidents, to its employees, has issued a token which it is hoped will remind railway servants to think before taking action. The token, which is of brass and the size of a penny, bears the words. "In every action nsk yourself, 'ls it safe?' This will disclose unseen dangers, inspire forethought, induce care, and prevent accidents. On the reverse side of the token is the inscription, "A charm against accidents: 'ls it safe?'" The farthing has been current as an English coin from the time of King John when it was composed of silver, value aboitt 4d, and not until the Stuart period was it coined in "opner. There have been farthings that h; • yielded to theii lucky possessor an enormous profit. ["heso were Queen Am '<■■. farthings, wl i h fetched £1 each, and in cae.es where ih> emblematic design of "Peace in a Oar" as engraved on them realised upwards of £5.

Sunflowers, now planted everywhere in Germany by school children along the roadsides, for tho sako of the oil extracted from the seeds, are Badly neglected, except aesthetically, in thriftless England. Their economio valuo is better appreciated In America and Russia, where every part of these handsomo herbs is utilised. Apart from tho oil, hardly inferior to tho produce of tho olive, the seeds are made into bread, oc eaten au naturel, and both seeds and leaves are given to stock, while the stalks furnish fine fuel. However, wo do occasionally and unconsciously make use of these meritorious plants in the guise of Jerusalem artichokes, which havo no connection either with Jerusalem or artichokes, but are a kind of sunflower. Tho name "Jerusalem" is a corruption of tho Italian " girasole," derived from a fancy that tho flowers keep turning to the sun.