MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3278, 10 January 1917, Page 47

MULTUM IN PARVO

According to a recent estimate the war destruction of property in Belgium and Franco amounts to £565,000,000, and in Russia to £120,000,000. Horseflesh, onco the cheapest and most popular food of tho poorer classes in Vienna-costing loss than 3d per lb—now sells at 2s. In Berlin tho price is even higher—half a crown. thick will support cavalry, s:a will support an 84-pounder cannon. 10in thick will support a multitude, and lßin thick will support a railroad train, —An Italian medical journal says if a drop of ether is instilled into tho conjunctival sac of ono eye, if lifo is present there wall bo a reddening of the surface of the eye, providing that the circulation is intact, otherwise there is no result. Known to tho publio as "Methylene Blue" and to tho constabulary as "Detective Powder," this, preparation has on moro than ono occasion been tho means of tracking criminals. Tho most minute quantity of powder on tho hands will leave a vivid bluo stain which nothing will remove, and which takes a considerable timo to disappear. The telescope which is now being fixed in the new Canadian Dominion observatory on Little Saamitch Hill, six miles outside Victoria, 8.C., is tho largest in tho world. Tho lens-72in—was cast in Belgium, and only "escaped" from that country tnreo days before the Germans entered it. About 13,500,000 separate works have been printed since the fifteenth century. Some 155,000 books, pamphlets, and maga zines are published throughout the world every year. —lt is calculated that the cost of a modern /Zeppelin b somewhere (in tho region of £IOO,OOO, and that it demands an expenditure of anything up to £IO,OOO to send one to England and take it back to its lair. As each vessel demands the constant services of several hundreds of trained men to handle it, as well as a costly engineering staff and factory equipment, the total cost of Germany's Zeppelin bilJ must run into millions of pounds. A current of three or four miles an hour in tho outer portions of tho Panama Canal seems to result under certain conditions from a difference in water density. At tho lower ends of the Miraflores and Gatun locks, when the water has been brought down in the lower chamber to the level of that in tho approach, the water in the chamber is more than half fresh, and this causes an inward flow against the outward passing vessel. . —On the door of ono of the wards m the East Leeds War Hospital there is. the following list of questions which visitors are requested not to ask the patients: "Aro you wounded? Did it hurt? Whicn hurt most—going in or coming out? Howdid you know you were wounded? Did the shell hit you? Did you seo any Germans? Do you want to go back? How many did you kill? What aro tho Tanks like? Well-seasoned hard maple is among the latest woods proposed for smokers pipes The so-called French briar, the root of tho white heath (Erica arborea), of Southern Europe, is rapidly disappearing and such substitutes as tho mountain laurel and the rhododendron have been already used Tho maple seems to have been chosen from a number of common woods tried. The maple pipe is said to colour equal to tho best meerschaum; it absorbs all juices like clay without having the unpleasant taste of clay. It is never bitter, and it is not liable to burn except when smoked in a strong draft or wind. According to a member of one of the largest women's clubs in London, wo shall shortly see women smoking pipes m public, for manv ladies, it is said, already _ smoke small pipes in the seclusion of their own homes. Towards tho close of the sixteenth century a large number of English women indulged freolv in pipe-smoking. During tho seventeenth century the fashion auated sonic what, probably owing to the introduction of snuff. I asked a leading tobacconist whether he could confirm the allegation. He replied that there is a growing demand among women for mild cigars. This, in his opinion, was a sure step towards pipesmoking. —An American locomotive of the decapod type has broken European records for hauling a heavily-loaded freight train. The feat was accomplished on the Nikolaief division 'jf the Russian Southern railway, where the locomotive hauled a train 28C0ft long, with a load of 4421 tons. The experiment was conducted by Professor Lomenosof, a member of tho engineering board of tho Russian Ministry of Ways of Communication. A Russian engine was tried against the American, but tho latter clearly proved its superiority. The greatness of New York city is not visually appreciated until represented in figures The city has 33,000 factories, with 2.000.000,000d0l of capital, turning out annually products valued at 3.000.000.0C0d01, and employing 810,000 persons receiving 540,000.000d'0l " annually in salaries and wages. One-tenth of the manufactures of the United States aro made in New York city. A new building is erected every 50 minutes; as a port it receives and sends out 27.000.000 tons of freight annually; it lias a foreign commerce amounting to 2,772.000.000d01. Testing a road before it is laid seems to be ratlin- Hibernian than scientific, and yet the difficulty has been solved in tho Road Board laboratory. The material to bo tested is laid down on a concrete foundation, and over it in a circular path is run a machine consisting of n. frame with eight wheels, each 39in in diameter, and having a Sin tyro width. Each is driven by its own motor, and is usuallv loaded up to 4701 b per inch of tvre width. The tested surface can be cither wet or dry. and can be kept at any desired temperature. The results show the maximum of wear nnrl tear, for material'' which have passed the test invariably stand nn and last better than the laboratory figures would indicate.

\W havo had to revise entirely in this war the powers of endurance of a battalion. Twenty-five pt>v cent, losses were considered to be enough to shake a battalion. 35 per cent, to render it unless for further effort. But think of a battalion originally 1000 strong stick in c: it out: with four officers and 300 men! That has been by no means an uncommon experience with us. Pnpcrb is the only word to describe it. Why they aro so pood nobody has yet been able to explain to me. They come from tho plough, from, the dr.sk, from the mine, and tho factory, yet they are all aliko in their indomitable powers of endurance and pluck. If you see an inferior battalion you may know that the officers aro inferior; tho men aro always the same.

—No doubt Greek officers, who are very badly paid as compared with our own standard, console themselves with tho knowledge that they aro probably as well off in the army as they would be in any other profession. For salaries in Greece are all ridiculously low as gauged by our own. The highest judges, for example, do not get much moro than £2OO a year, while many of their less exalted brothers have to make ouch meet on about half that sum —with the prospect of a full pension after 35 years' service. Describing tho supply organisation behind the .French front, Mr J. A. Spender, in tho Westminster Gazette, says the railhead supply stations and the lines that lead to them aro vory often entirely new constructions for tho purpose of the war. Scoros of miles of new railway may bo built for one operation, and the rapidity with which this work, is carried out is ono of tho marvels of the war. Lines which woula tako a year or two yearn to build in time of peace aro built in a month or two months in timo of war. A whole new railway, 80 kilometres in length, and d.vub'ctracked, was laid at Verdun in 10 weeks. I walked along it for half a mile, ana it was as firm and solid as any other permanent way. Cocoanuts generally grow at the edge of seas or rivers, and many of the nuts, «>s they become ripe, fall into the wafer. Tho nuts aro covered with a thick husk, which has a waterproof covering, so that they will float. As they float, writes a naturalist, tho three eyes, which are all at one end of the nut, aro always on top. Once in tho water Nature goes to work. From one of the eyes there comes a shoot that sends forth broad loaves that act as sails. Tho wind catches these sails and wafts tho cocoanut on a journey that may be many miles long. As it sails tho other two eyes send out roots, which at first grow among tho fibres of the woody husk. In time tho cocoanut is swept on another shore, perhaps on another island. Tho roots embed themselves in tho soft earth, the sail becomes the trunk, and very shortly a thrifty cocoanut palm is growing where none grew before.