MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3756, 9 March 1926, Page 57

MULTUM IN PARVO.

When Athens was in her zenith, the Grecian foot was the most perfectly formed and exactly proportioned of that of any of the human race. Carcases of mutton to the number of 3,500,000 can be stored in London nowadays. Forty years ago there was accommodation for only about 500. —Mr Seymour Hicks, the well-known actor, has not eaten breakfast for years. He finds that a good lunch and a good supper are sufficient to keep him fit. Thirty sovereigns in bags were found in a furniture removal van in England, and no one has claimed them. The Lena, of Northern Siberia, is the straightest river in the world. It runs for nearly 800 miles with hardly a curve.

are not allowed to be out beyond a certain hour on the night preceding a match. The hour varies between 9.30 and 10 p.m.

The King of Spain is the only monarch who does not sign his name to documents and edicts. His signature is simply “Yo, cl Itey”—“l, the King.” Land bigger in area than England and Ireland combined lias been given free to settlers by the Canadian Government.

466,000 telephones. New subscribers are being enrolled at the rate of about 900 per week. —Of the ‘Big Bertha” type of gun, which was used to bombard Paris in the Great War, seven were made, but only three were actually fired. One meal a day is claimed by some experts as the ideal method. They state that our digestive systems need at least 16 hours’ rest out of the 24. The reason that Greece has rivulets where rivers once flowed is found in the absence of forests, for a wooded country is almost invariably a wet country.

The frigate bird of the tropics has a spread of wing of 10ft to 12ft, can travel 100 miles an hour, and is said to be able to remain on the wing for a week at a time. —“Willow wood used in making cricket bats is of two kinds,” says a veteran batmaker. “The male wood wears well, but the female wood has better driving power.”

Saxon daggers and other relics, discovered at Luton, England, in the making of roads, have been identified by the British Museum authorities as over 1400 years old. Within the next 10 years the motor cars in England are expected by Sir Henry P. Maybury, Director-General of Roads, to increase till there will be one car to every 20 of the population, Our brains are capable, if properly trained, of retaining any number of different vocabularies, although some persons have a greater iacility for acquiring foreign languages than others. Shop assistants in London can attend free lessons in the art of selling. Those living outside the metropolis may also study on payment of £ll 5s a year in fees.

The world’s smallest theatre is to be found near the Covent Garden Opera House, London. The Opera House seats 1952 people. Its neighbour accommodates an audience of 90. Afternoon tea in the office cannot always be regarded merely as a luxury. Where the buildings have central heating, this makes the air there so dry that tea becomes a necessity. —Dr Nansen, the famous Arctic explorer, was elected Lord Rector of St. Andrew’s University, defeating Mr John Galsworthy, the novelist, by 216 votes to 160

The broken champagne bottle which was used at the christening of H.M.S. Victoria in ISB7 was presented to Lord Jellicoe on his visit to Newcastle.

The standard yard, which is pieserved with the greatest care among the standards, w'as made it 1760. It is a brass rod, with pins of gold marking the measure.

During the Canadian election campaign a platform gave way under a Liberal speaker, and he was, of course, immediately accused of “standing on a poor platform.” Antwerp claims to have printed the first of the w'orld’s newspapers in 1605. The paper was published by Abraham Verhoven, and antedated the first English paper by 17 years.

Two hundred years ago John Wesley preached his first sermon in the little Oxfordshire village of Southleigb, and the second centenary lias just been celebrated in the village church.

Blind ex-soldiers who have been through St. Dunstan’s are working as sales manager, correspondence manager, chartered accounts it, coal merchant, barrister, and hotel proprietor. cheating insurance companies, is more frequent than is generally supposed, and in the great majority of instances the fraudulent cases are put forward by aliens.

Swans have become so numerous on the Hythe Canal, cut as part of a defence scheme against an invasion by Napoleon, that they are being netted and sent to other places. Whenever relaying of track becomes necessary on the L.M.B. Railway, a thick layer of felt will bo placed between the chairs and the sleepers to reduce vibration and noise. Spain is raising a fund to buy from a descendant of Columbus the heirlooms of (he great seaman, and his original correspondence. The price asked for these treasures is £34,000. Public-houses were first closed altogether on Sunday mornings in Great Britain, in the autumn of 1848, in consequence of an Act of Parliament, which received the Royal assent on August 14, 1-848 «- Tine white bread aud milk puddings are not so healthy a diet ns wholemeal bread, coarse oatmeal, salad- ‘vesh fruits, and green vegetables, a.-cording to Professor B. Collinpwood, of the London University.