MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3520, 30 August 1921, Page 45

MULTUM IN PARVO

One pound of oil, used in ships’ furnaces, has the same heating effect as 101 b of coal.

A blind man in North London can recognise a tree on iiea-mig the wind blow through its leaves. London’s oldest bridge over the Thames is Waterloo bridge; Blackfriaie bridge dates back only to 1809. Alterations to the features, by what is known us plastic surgery, were performed on women ZOOO years ago. Electric cables which send up signals into the air are suggested as a means of guiding airmen during foggy weather. A sea-going tug towed a huge crippled battleship in the Mediterranean during the war at a rate of six knots an hour. A sow belonging to a farmer at Wootton (Kent) has given birth to a litter of 13 pigs, all of them spws. It is believed to be unique for all pigs in a l.tter to be of one eex. Mountain-climbing affects the temper; front 16,000 ft upwards climbers are apt to get impatient and irritable with one another. Eggs and bread cost one London hospital 11231 and £SOO respectively in 1913-; last year these figures had risen to £lOl3 and £llß9. Tristan da Cunhn, Great Britain, Great Britain’s lonely island possessions in the South Atlantic, 2000 miles west of the Cape of Good Hope, have been without clergyman or schoolmaster since 1909; there are 119 inhabitants. Passengers carried on British railways in 1920 numbered 1,565,834,000, as compared with 1,507,117,000 in 1919. Season ticket holders increased from 903.200 to 1,015,000. In 1913 the number* was 584,000. . Receipts, including Government compensation, were £302,100,000. an increase of £71,700,000. ffhe engine mileage showed an increase of nearly 45,500,000 miles. A new delight will be added to seabathing by an ingenious invention consisting of a bowl-shaped lifebuoy, to which 'S attached a pair of waterproof trousers for the leas. These trousers are provided with fins, which act like the fins of a fish, so that, by moving the legs with an ordinary walking motion, the oerson is propelled forward, and can walk through the sea. The buoy is sufficient, when inflated, to allow as many as 15 people to cling to if, so that a happy group of bathers can be given a ride through the 6ea by the one inside. Air Ministry officials are to make tests with a new collapsible raft that has been designed for use in connection with sea going aircraft. The raft consists of two air-bags and a wooden platform, and when not in use it can be packed along the fuselage of the aeroplane. It weighs only 561 b. Should the necessity arise the air bags can be filled in 30 seconds from two compressed air cylinders which form nart of the apparatus, and the raft as it then stands provides accommodation for four people, keeping them afloat, if necessary, for several horfrsl Lady Burnham, supported by Sir Gilbert Parker, has unveiled a statue to Evangeline, Longfellow's heroine, where once stood the village of Grand Pre, in Nova Scotia, Evangeline’s home (relates the Morning Post). It is the work of the late Philippe Herbert, a French-Canadian sculptor, a direct descendant of those exiled Acadians who had neither locks to their doors nor bars to their windows, of whom the richest was poor and the poorest lived in abundance. Evangeline, a noble bronze figure, now stands on a granite column, and the sweetness of her face and the heroic pose bring to mind the lines. “When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music.” The statue bears the simple inscription, “Plenrant le pays nei'du.” Alas! that history shows the Acadians as traitors to both sides. There is going to be a harvest of triplets and twins. During the next six years babies will arrive by twos, threes, and even fours. The prediction is made by Professor Charles Kirsehoff, who is confident that the influence of certain stars will be felt with an effect as powerful as that which the moon exerts on tides. He explains the coming harvest of babies in plurality as follows:—“The planets Mars and Venus, were in conjunction on January 5. That means increased fecundity of the human race. Moreover, on January 12 Mars passed, through Pisces and came into conjunction with the new moon on January 23. The movements of these- earth-influencing bodies mean but one thing. They constitute what is known as a fruit zodiac. Within the next six years the birth of a single child will be an exception to the rule, just, as the birth of twins and more now is regarded as exceptional. The first crop will arrive here about the first of next month.” The orthodox Turk of the Moslem religion wears no mourning, nor do the Osmanli tribes observe periods of seclusion after the death of a relative. Women friends pay visits of condolence to the harem, but the inmates, after thanking their guests for their formal expression of sympathy and good wishes for their future freedom from bereavement, speak calmly and resignedly of the departed. If a child has died the mother and her relatives even rejoice before their friends. It is considered sinful to mourn over the death of a child. On the other hand, it is considered an act of filial duty to mourn constantly for lost parents, and to pray unceasingly for their forgiveness and acceptance by Allah. On the occasion of the death of a person in good circumstances, gifts are made to the poor from among his or her personal effects, and money is given to the needy in the neighbourhood. Three days after the funeral a large batch of “loukma”—a kind of doughnut—is made, and plates of it are sent lo friends. The poor also receive their share of these funeral cakes. North .Sea fishermen handle 10.000 million fishes of all sorts and sizes, from the giant ray to the tiny whiting, every year. The twin ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, have alone received 900 million herrings in one season. One acre of the North Sea or the English Channel is capable of yielding as great a weight, of food as 100 acres of the best grass land in Sussex. There has been quite a run on fowl farms lately, but when we consider that the cod produces eight, million eggs, the domestic fowl has to take a back seat. It is estimated, however. that, onlv one egg in 10 millions lives to “grow nn.” Salmon produce 1000 eggs for every lib of their weight, and though the canning factories of Western Canada and the Tinted States are working hard all the time to supply the world’s demands, the fish still run up the rivers in hundreds of thousands.