GENERAL INFORMATION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 17, Issue 60, 31 July 1906, Page 7

GENERAL INFORMATION.

j A passenger locomotive needs aJ bout 120 gallons of oil-each year to keep it in running order. The Escurial, Spain's Royal palace, : contains a cathedral-, a monastery, two colleges, three chapter-houses, three libraries, and neaily 3,000 apartments in addition. Men and women of to-day are, on an average, nearly two inches taller than their ancestors, which increase is doubtless due to the growth of athletics. •From 800,000 to 1,000,000 persons go to the public baths of Tokio daily I and there are tens of thousands of j private baths besides. That is a good showing for a city with a population of less than 2,000,000. London turns out 100, and Paris 1, 000, glass eyes a week, the price ' ranging from two guineas to half a ' guinea or less. Celluloid has, of late : been used to advantage, as it is said to be unaffected by the tears of the eye, and is easily manipulated and coloured. Hamilton, Lanarkshire, can boast of a Masonic Lodge dating bacK to the seventeenth century, and having written records from 1732. Further/ it possesses funds sufficient to justify the building of an £B,OOO temple with stained glass windows and all appropriate luxuries. European bankers are agitating the question ofadopting the tlnun. mark as a means of identification on cheques and other commercial paper.. It is declared that by this means ■ will be impossible for the holder of ;. cheque to obtain money unless he can match the thumb print on its margin. Would you know how marvellousij complicated and delicato is the mechanism of the brain, on whose integrity and continued sound working ail the" life of consciousness depends ? Why, then, believe me, there is something almost incredible about, this. All the stars in the universe, so far as modern astronomy can reveal them are few in number compared with the nervous .Lmienls concerned in the working of a single brain ! And as to the' ddicacy Of this wonderful piece of apparatus, one observer claims that the passage of a cloud over the sun will change the rhythm in breathing and pulse-rate of a sleeping child ; and if we expose the brain its whole bulk can be seen to swell when a lamp is approached ,to the patient's eyes. The incredible delicacy of some of the senses can be accounted for only as it is due to the delicacy in structure of the brain.

An American woman, writing on the subject of occupations for" women, informs us that in the United States there are female coachdrivers and grooms attached to private families. Female barbers are also common, and dentists are popular. Wonren physicians, too, are recognised as necessary for the treatment of women's and children's diseases. Then there are numbers of women among the clergy, mostly, belonging to the Unitarian, Seventh Day Adventists, and Congregational Churches, not to mention the Christian Scientists, with Mrs. Eddy at their head. In large cities, she adds, there are two lines of business which women have developed decided aptitude in recent years. As detectives and advertising agents they have proved most successful. But Australian experience shows that in other lines women are coming to the front, arid there is no saying where they will stop. The law courts have been invaded, and if women have not yet secured seats in Parliament, it is not for want of trying. ._ 1485..-.-