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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 6899, 10 February 1894, Page 3

Some publicans have been fined at Ealing, England, for selling " sodu water " m which there was no soda. For the defence it was stated that soda water was merely water charged with carbonic acid gas. Man, as we all know, is tending slowly, but inevitably, to a toothless and hairless condition. He is also (says the Globe) if we are to place credence m the statements of a paper recently read at the French Academy of Sciences, gradually undergoing other serious^ modifications. His little toe is disappearing ; its average size has decreased materially m the last two centuries, while the nerves and joints controlling it are slowly becoming useless. YVhat we should like to know, however, is this— are our feet as well as our little toes becoming smaller ? The seriousness of this question may be estimated from the fact that our bodies — judged by the unanswerable test of medieval armour— are undoubtedly bigger than those of our remote forefathers. And if, while our bodies grow bigger our feet grow smaller, pedestrianism m the dim future will obviously become a difficult matter, and the need for wings will be euhanced by the altered relations between the parts of the frame. It was just the other way with the ancient Picts, whose feet were so large that it was impossible to fell them on the field of battle. Their figures, m fact, resembled a capital L, and the kilt was a physical necessity. Was it not of a Pict that the story is related how a foe presented him with a 'pair of breeches, and then slew him as he was endeavoring ■^^■■Mlf Ilium rtirai> l%ia kaod 9