MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3399, 7 May 1919, Page 47

MULTUM IN PARVO

Tho six golf clubs controlling the Open Championship have unanimously decided that there do no Open Championship in 1919.

Congratulations from all parts of the world showered upon Madame Patti recently, when the great singer celebrated her seventy-sixth birthday. —Of the 5,477,444 tons of mercantile ships launched in Allied and neutral countries last year, the tonnage launched in tho United'States was 3,033,000. The city was bombarded for 44 days by " Big Bertha," and 303 shells which fell on Paris killed 256 and wounded 620 persons.

Tho first Jewish Labour Congress, held lately in New York, opposed a Jewish Republic in Palestine, favouring equal rights for all in Palestine.

Wool was considered unclean by the Ancient Egyptians, and the wrappings of the mummies, which were of linen, wore so "well during the thousands of years in the tombs that the Arabs of to-day can use them.

.Forty pictures, painted by British artists during their imprisonment at Ruhleben, were purchased recently by the Crown Princess of Sweden at the Ruhleben Exhi bition, in the Central Hall, Westminster. Corsets have been worn since the earliest age 3 The mummy of an Egyptian princess which had been entombed for 2000 years before the Christian era was recently found encased in a laced article similar to a pair of corsets. The village of Cadeleigh, Devon, has lost its "mayor" by the death of John Warren, at the age of 79. In years gone by Warren used to be driven round the village on November 9_ in a wheelbarrow, wearing a plough chain round his neck, and at the end of the ride he made his mayoral speech. The purchase of Whistler's full-length portrait of lady Meux in " Pink and Grey" by Messrs Duveen for £40,000, announced by wireless from New York, shows a prompt resumption of the pre-war exodus of Whistlers from England to the United States, and a redoubled pre-war scale of values.

Old shoes in France are bought up in quantities by rag-dealers and sold to factories, where the shoes are taken apart and submitted to long manipulations which turn them into paste. From this paste the material is transformed into an imitation leather -which is used for the manufacture of wallpapers, trunk covers, and similar articles.

A Braintree undertaker, on his return from a funeral, found in his hearse the dead body of a fox, which had been i strangled in the chains of the tressels on which the coffin had rested. The fox, which had been chased by the Essex hounds, evidently dashed into the hearse while the funeral was taking place, and got its head entangled in the tressel chains. The recent. Army Order permitting mounted officers to retain their charges under certain conditions when returning to civil life will doubtless be welcome, for there is frequently a deep attachment on the part of the soldier to his steed. Wellington cared for his famous charger, CopenIjagen, ridden by him at Waterloo, until its death in 1835, when he caused a fine tombstone to be erected to its memory at Strathfieldsaye. General Lee ordered his favourite oharger, Nellie Grey, killed at the battle of Winchester, to be given a military funeral—probably the only war horse to be so honoured.

A wonderful tree, named the "tree of sorrow," is found in ancient Persia. It is so called because it only blooms at night. When the first star appears in the sky the first flower opens, and, as the evening advances, more and more buds burst into bloom, until the lovely tree appears to be one vast flower. It has a delicate fragrance not unlike the scent of the evening primrose. As the dawn approaches and the stars grow dim the flowers begin to fade, until, by the time the sun is up, not a bloom is to be seen. During the hours of light the tree appears to be withering, as if it had been injured in some manner, but in reality it is simply regaining strength in order to put forth new blossoms on the following night. Many wonderful operations have been performed at the Edmonton General Military Hospital, which has been a special surgical centre for wounded soldiers _ requiring prolonged treatment. A specialty of the hospital's work is the treatment of fractured femur by a new method, in which bandages are not required. An experiment is now being tried to replace a broken bridge of the human nose with a sparrow's breast-bone. A patient who had a piece of bone protruding into the surface of his brain becamo so morose and ill-tempered that even tho nursing staff avoided him as much as possible. The bone was removed by an "Operation, and afterwards the man became tho most cheerful patient in the hospital, singing and whistling all day long. —Mr W. W. Cbrbett's recent attempt to discover the best British violin reminds one of a similar test that took place some years ago. Dr Henry Watson wished to test tho virtues of a valuable old Strad. A violinist played selections on two instruments—the Strad and a violin which he had picked up for three shillings. The Strad won by one vote! Violins made by Stradivari are rarely worth less than £IOOO. One recently realised £3OOO and a 'cello £4OOO. Yet Antonio Stradivari sold his fiddles for about £4 each! An old Strad, liko an old coin, always fires our imagination. Sometimes they do represent a fortune, but, unfortunately, there are so many spurious instruments about that many a person is doomed to disappointment. In which they again resemble many old coins. —lt has been discovered that cases of people who have been exposed to the fear of being torpedoed arc suffering from symptoms suggestive of shell-shock. Dr Clunet. in a communication to the Neurological Society of Paris, has described the mental effects observed when on board a ship which was torpedoed. After the first excitement following the attack it was obsorved that several passengers discharged guns into the air or into the sea. In other words, the sustained nervous energy found relief in letting loose the immense energy concentrated in explosives. Similarly, it was well known at the front that a long day of waiting in tho tranches was productive of moro cases of shell-shock than a day of active engagement with the enemy. Next there were a few oar-os of suicide among tho passengers. TTipss p.vssongers were, on tho whole ctilin enough, oven on the liferafts. It was only when thoy were on the rescuing ship that psvehoneurole phenomena began to develop, including mutism, spasmodic weeping, laughter, tremors, spasmodic movements of tho limbs, ©to.