MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3831, 16 August 1927, Page 35

MULTUM IN PARVO.

Extreme heat is more fatal to human life than extreme cold. Eighty-five per cent, of (he people who are lame are affected on the left .-ide. — The Tibetians call Mount Everest by a name that means *’ the place so high that even a bird goes blind there.” —A Nottinghamshire (England) man who started work 96 years ago at a penny a day has just retired at 103. — The Paris police have forbidden tha use of the word ” Boche ’’ in kincmas. The word “ German ’’ is alwavs io bo used. — Tame snakes are used in Morocco to clear houses of rats and mice. The sight, of a snake seems to terrify the pests. —On very wet days as many as SCO lost umbrellas are taken to the Lost Property Uliiee of the London Metropolitan Police. —-The largest building stones ever used are found, not in Egypt, hut. at Baalbec, in Syria. They measure 60ft long and 20ft square.

— Beer has a history which goes back to 5600 8.C.. and tlie earliest brewers were faced with the difficulty of producing a beverage free from cloudiness. — Pink pearls are scarce, and are found only off the Bahama Islands. — The total number of Jews in the world is estimated to be over 11,000,000. — Clouds travel at immense heights. " Mare’s-tails,” for instance, are found 30,000 ft up. — Five hundred pedigree chickens a day old and 10-00 eggs went by air from Croydon io Paris recently. — The doll is probably the most antique of toys. It has been found inside the graves of children of ancient Romo. — The May Fair Hotel. London, is fitted with a British-made electric dish-washer, capable of handling ECOO plates an hour. — There were £6O.GCO worth of horsewhips sold in the United States last year, in spite of cars. -—A seam of coal recently discovered in a London street is said to be 20,000 years old. — The false teeth required annually by the people of Great Britain number 20,059,006. One person out of every two has false teeth at 50. -—Tobacco consumption is still increasing in Great Britain. In January to June. 1924, the quantity was 75,£05.7631b. Last vear. for tho same period, it had increased to 78.421,1521 b. — The crocodile requires 81 seconds in which to turn round. — Over 6000 tons of coul arc required to take a big liner from Liverpool or Southampton to New York. — The widow of a man who made clothes for Abraham Lincoln has just celebrated her 100th birthday. —A worm’s body consists of over 100 segments, which are furnished with tiny bristles, enabling it to wriggle along. —At a training school in Belfast, Ireland. the other day a boy fell into a large pot from which he was ladling porridge. — The crypt of a church in Gray’s Inn road. London, is let as a fruit store. Before that it was a book store and a wine cellar. — Hundreds of qualified scientists in Great Britain, holding honours degrees, are in receipt of salaries which are less than the average wages of the dustmen. — The first Budget news was transmitted to Australia by the wireless beam in 30 seconds. The time taken from addresser to addressee was one minute. —A pigeon, it is said, can upon occasion outstrip the fastest express train, hut its average flight is only at the rate of about 34 miles an hour. — Wireless licenses tn England ntnr»> bored nt the end of Fo'iriiarv 2.235,60% This shows an increase of 329.600 in on® year. Blind listeners-in have received 440'3 free licenses. —A camel carries the load of two oxen, and can do 40 miles a day for a fortnight on end with a load of 4C / ' , lb. They ar® fit to work at five years old. — Rosewood is not the wood cf any kind of rose tree. It is obtained chiefly from various Brazilian trees. The name is duo to the faint smell of roses when the wood is freshly cut. — Sunrays striking through goldfish bowls placed too near the window are now stated to has» been the cause of fires on more than one ova-ion. The bowl acts as a burning-glass. — Collars fray and shirts shrink owing to the presence cf unknown bacteria. X scientist who has put forward this no-.v theory states that the bacteria are more active in colder weather. — Half-yearly medical examinations for business girls are recommended by an English lady doctor, who claims that only by this precaution can working women maintain a high standard of health. — Dogs may not roam about alone in Birmingham, England, after dark. This is reckoned from one hour after sunset until one hour- before sunrise. The aim of this by-law is to prevent dogs barking anti howling at night. — Blocks of flats, nine storeys high, thus making them the loftiest dwellings in London. are to be built by the L.C.C. in North London. Three thousand people will have to be moved to admit of the change, but ultimately there will lie room for 5000 on the site.

— Boilers, tai' chimneys, and the use of pit ponies are all to be cut out by electricity in a new pit in Warwickshire, England, where the pit shaft is also to be sunk by means of electricity.

— Tea was introduced to Natal from India, and rubber trees were taken from South America to the East through the instrumentality of Kew Gardens, London’s gieat botanical park. — The river Trent (England) has been restocked with 56'00 roach and perch, taken from the Birmingham Corporation’s reservoirs, and conveyed to Nottingham in basket-shaped tanks by motor car. — Only one complete team of horses came safely through the war. In 1914they, went overseas with a battery of artillery. Their last task was to draw Hie gun-carriage at the funeral of ihe Unknown Warrior,., and they are now pensioned off.

. — Drinking glasses called tumblers derive their peculiar name from the fact that they are successors cf little round silver bowls, so perfectly balanced that, whichever way they were tipped about on the table, they tumbled into position again, and there remained with the rim

The following appeared in our second pd ition of last week.