MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3413, 13 August 1919, Page 51

MULTUM IN PARVO

One pound of sheep's wool is capable of producing one yard of cloth. Nearly 200 half-quartern loaves are yielded by a sack of corn. Eighty -five per cent, of the peorne who are lame are affected on the left side. During a winter 100,000 tons of soot falls, upon London from its chimneys. —'More than 1,000,000 sacks of coal per week are needed to keep London supplied. Over 40 cer cent, of the houses at Bilston (Staffs) are let at rents ranging from 2s 6d to 4s 6d weekly. Passenger train traffic receipts in 1918 on the controlled railways in Great Britain exceeded those for 1916 by nearly £15,000,000. Capetown (South Africa) has the mosb cosmopolitan population of any city in the world, almost every nationality being represented. Millions of Hindus live, marry, and rear families on an income which rarely ' exceeds a couple of shillings a week. They never eat meat, and need little clothing. Advancing years are the glory of Chinese, and it is said to be polite to suppose your Chinese guest to be much older than his or her stated age. Actors and bankers are excluded from competitions at literary examinations. Every other man in China can compete, and the successful candidates are often probable mandarins. Telegraph wires will last-for 40 years near_ the seashore. In the manufacturing districts the same wires last only 10 years, and sometimes less. An elephant is possessed of such a delicate sense of. smefl that it is abl.-s to detect the presence of a human beir>g at a distance of 1000 yards. Left an orphan at the ago of two months, Emma Scragg was taken to New port (Salop) Workhouse. * She passed her whole life in that institution, and died recently at the age of 79. Riding-horses, "demobilised," fetched an average of £3l, mules, £33, and heavy ~ draught horses £lO2 each at recent army remount sales. Elicit stills to the number of 414- were discovered in the Excise year ending March, 1918. All, except two in Scotland, were in Ireland. Taxation before the war in Great Britain, France, and Germany was, per head; in the proportion of 73, 80, and 40 respectively. Merchant shipping sunk by the Germans is officially estimated at: Great Britain, 2197 vessels; France. 238; Italy, 230; United States, 80; Japan, 29. In tonnage, the British losses were 7,638,020. —Mr Robert Jones, Menai Bridge, who has retired, has been an auxiliary postman for 48 years, and has walked 175,200 miles in the course of his duties. Dolphin street, Sheffield, is justly proud of its war record. The thoroughfare only boasts 48 houses, and 56 of its men residents have served the colours; seven have been killed or died of wounds, whilst 24 have been, wounded. —At a recent shorthand test Mr Herman J. Stich, a reporter, wrote under most rigorous rules at the rate of 300 words a minute for five consecutive minutes, and then presented a manuscript containing only two immaterial errors. Not counting lanes and cart-tracks, there are about 150,000 miles of roads in Great Britain. These have cost £BOO a mile to construct, and their maintenance means an expenditure of £18,000,000 yearly. After the aeroplane telephone, which enables pilots to speak to one another while flying through the air at considerable distances apart, we are to have the train telephone, by which it will be possible to telephone to and from moving trains. Captain Martin van Buren, 74, worldfamous as a giant, died at his home in Seville, Ohio, recently. Van Buren, who toured the world with a circus, was 7ft 4in high, and weighed 3601 b. He was married twice, his first wife being over Bft high. The Royal Crown of Rumania is made of bronze, the metal having once done service in the shape of cannon. Samples from 62 war-tested guns, each of which was captured from some enemy, are included in the make-up of this Royal insignia. Which name is most common in the House of Commons? Most people would probably suggest Jones, but the present favourite is Wilson, of which there arc eight representatives. There are seven members who rejoice in the name of WilSix Dayieses and six Murrays follow in numerical order; and then four Hopes, four Thomases, four Wards, and four Youngs. The Smiths and Browns aro each only three strong, and the Robinsons two. After the wonders that have been worked during the war for soldiers who have suffered from disfigurements, plastio surgeons are beginning now to turn their attention to civilian patients with ugly noses, _ projecting ears, and hare lips. The most interesting discovery they have made is that nobody in the future need suffer from baldness. By grafting a piece of skin from some part of the iiead where the hair is still growing on to the bald patch a new and luxuriant hirsute covering is assured. After reaching a certain height flying men suffer considerably from air-sickness It is now suggested that Nature has provided a remedy for this, for in the Cordilleras Mountains of South America grow two herbs which instantlv abate mountain sickness, vertigo, and breathlessness. They are known as cha-cha-ooma and polea-pix-pita. and grow as leafless, iuicy shoots on a dwarf tree. The shoots are full of a hot aromatic water with a peppery flavour. Scientifically developed, it is possible that an > alkaloid may be extracted from them which will enable men to climb to heights undreamt of. Music as a preventive of influenza and other diseases is strongly urged by Dr Henry Coward, the _ Sheffield choir-trainer. "I have in my choirs every week in the winter over 1600 adults," he says. "According to the current statistics, we should have had a great many deaths. Yet we had only two, and I attribute our immunity to a great extent to the music, first because of the health-giving effect of the breathing in singing, and secondly (and perhaps most lating, and inspiring effect of musio alone. Influenza affected the schools because the children were too young to sing much. But the master of a big school in, the slums of Sheffield, in which there is a ldt of singing, told me that the epidemio did not make any difference in the average attendance. If vou have more singing you will have less disease."