HERE AND THERE.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13420, 18 March 1914, Page 2

HERE AND THERE.

: : ' ■ • 'MINERS' JtfYSTAGMUS; - ,

Giving evidence before ah Australian Miners' Wages i Board on mystagmus, Dr. John Kerr stated that about 25 per cent, of his practice consisted of persons connected with mining. There was miners' mystagmus which wag very often the symptom of another disease such as from the brain or spinal cord or tho ear. It was three or four years since he was first caUed upon to treat a case of miner's, mystagmus in the district, but it had been more common of late years. Mystagmu& was generally believed to be due to defective illumination, although there was a difference of opinion on the point, some believing it to be due to the position in which a man worked. From his own experience it had been more com-, mon since, the introduction of the Davy lamp into the district. A man suffering from the complaint could not continue working. Tf he did go on working it gave rise to such distressing symptoms..that his work was too painful and everything was dancing before his eyes. It was possible for a man to recover from the complaint, but he did not think he would ever recover from it if he continued at his. occupation of getting coal with a similar lamp. A man who has once had it was very apt to get it again, even when he had recovered by being above ground, if he went back under ground.

A NEW DANGER FOR MOTORISTS

A new danger to motorists is revealed by the experience of a Paris merchant who hired a car and made an excursion with his wife and daughter and two friends to Margency, in the Department of the Euro. On arriving at Puteaux on the return journey the chauffeur stopped tbo car and turned round to receive orders as to the subsequent route., but what was his astonishment to find that all five occupants of the car had fainted. Calling t. policeman to his help, the unconscious motorists were taken-to a neighbouring chemist's shop, where restoratives were administered. The question then arose as to how asphyxiation had been caused, and it was found that deleterious gases had penetrated through chink© in the floor until they had collected in sufficient quantities to overpower the unfortunate travellers. It would seem from this that a certain amount of danger is involved to motorists in travelling with the windows closed.

THE HIGHEST-PAID OFFICE BOY

Phillip-Morris, lad oi' sixteen, claims the distinction that lie is the highestpaid office boy in America (the "Daily Telegraph" says). He is an employee of the Ford Motor-Car Company at Philadelphia, and, under the Ford profit-sharing scheme, which kis just corac into effect, he received just over £6 for a week's wages. Ordinary oiSee boys in the United States, where the cost of living is very high, usually receive a pound a week, but ilio Ford profit-sharing scheme,, or "Ford's philanthroiiy," provides that whero a boy is the sole1 support of a sick and widowed moth]-, he comes tinde/ the pound a day clause. Young Morris has for a year maintained his mother and sister.

GIGANTIC FISH

The year 1913 will long be remembered among salmon anglers as that in which the biggest salmon caught in a Scottish river for 28 years was lauded. The fish, which was caught in the Tweed towards the end of the year, scaled 551b- four .hours after being landed, and is the heaviest taken" from that river since 1886, when one of 57$lb was caught by Mr Pryor from the Duko of Itoxburghe's water. .If the recentjylanded fish had been weighed immediately after capture, it is estimated that the fish would havo attained close upon 571b, for the longer such a fish remains out of the water the lighter it becomes. At all events, the Scottish 55-pounder was the largest rod-killed salmon, of the Tweed since 1886, although it should be pointed out that .a salmon weighing 581b was also, taken in the Alton River, Norway, last year. , Anglers tell many thrilling stories of the struggles they have to land a- 401b or 501b salmon, but it must be tame sport compared with tuna-fishing in America. In F. G. Aflalo's "Book of Fishing Stories" there is a story of 30 boats being towed by a fighting tuna, 9001b in weight. Dr. C. F. Holder, who relates this incident, says he has seen a tuna when struck take 600 ft of line "in a vertical plunge that made it smoke.'; H© has even seen a line ignite, and has known a tuna tow a boat all night 20 or 30 miles.

MECHANICAL CALCULATOR.

A Swedish invonter has designed an apparatus for counting money and sorting the pieces into specified quantities. In the first ptaoc, money oi' various denominations is put into the machine and separated according to value,; those being sent into various tubes. When in.the tubes the coins enn bo taken out in lots of 10, 20, 50, or 100 pieces, at the will of the operator. The app:vratu.s is capable of separating, counting, and dividing in the lots mentioned above 72,000 pieces in an hour. One machine under oiie operator is able to accomplish in one day as much counting as could be done by -50 mest experienced bank cashiers.