GRAINS OF KNOWLEDGE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 18763, 30 December 1930, Page 3

GRAINS OF KNOWLEDGE.

The “Side-saddle flower” is the Sarracenia purpurea, a perennial bogloving pitcher plant, which grows from Florida to New Foundland. The flower is shaped like a pillion. It is generally supposed that “ninepence” in the phrase, “As right as ninepence,” should be “ninepins.” At that game, in fairness to both players, the pins must always be set with great accuracy.

Judging by their computed area of square miles, the following islands are larger than Great Britain: Papua or New Guinea, Borneo, Sumatra, Greenland, and Madagascar. New Zealand consists of two islands, besides several smaller ones.

The custom of sailors having their ears pierced probably arose from superstition (and no men are more superstitious than sailors) that wearing earrings was a remedy for weak eyes. Montfaucon suggests that earrings were worn by men as amulets. The word “nett” is a commercial adaptation of “neat,” derived from a Latin word meaning shining, clear.

"Nett” means clear, pure, genuine, unadulterated. Hence, nett means clear produce, to acquire as a neat or clean advantage or profit, clear of all deductions or discount. The term "Bohemians” was first applied by the French to Gypsies, who, they supposed, were the expelled Hussites of Bohemia. It was next applied to the wandering, irregular, but resolute votaries of literature and art, and the place of their resort. The tail of a bird is a very important auxiliary in flight, during which it is expanded to act as a rudder. During the flight of long-legged birds their legs are stretched out behind. They answer the same purposes as does the tail in birds having short legs, which in flight are carried close to the body. The immense power of the pectoral muscles in birds can hardly be calculated, but we know that when they are compared with the same muscles in man it is as twenty to one in their favour. In man the pectoral muscles are but a seventieth part of the mass of muscles.

Of trees proper the eucalyptus is the fastest grower. It grows 24ft in three months, and attains an enormous height and circumference. The fastest growing tree in England is the olack Italian poplar. It has been known to grow 30ft or 40ft in height in seven years. All the poplars and willows grow with great rapidity. The intensity of sleep varies during the time it lasts. It increases rapidly during the first few hours; decreases sometimes rapidly, sometimes slowly, during the next two or three hours, and then, very slowly, until the time of wakening. As a rule, the deeper the sleep the longer it lasts. When the first great display of the Crystal Palace fountains was made on 18th June, 1856, in the presence of Queen Victoria and 20,000 spectators, there were 11,788 jets playing at once —some of them 250 ft in height, and 120,000 gallons of water were going through per minute. The title of “Reverend” has been given to the clergy since the middle of the seventeenth century. In Tamworth parish register the minister is first styled “Reverend” in 1657, occasionally afterwards, but regularly so after 1727. The title first appears in the registry of “All Hallows,” Barking, in 1732.

Genuine ormolu was made by grinding a fine quantity of brass to an impalpable powder, with which the surface of objects was covered. It is now only a fine description of brass, made by chemical processes to resemble the colour of gold. It contains 75 per cent, of copper and 5 per cent, of zinc. Sometimes the colour is heightened by means of a gold lacquer.

The oldest London hospital is St. Bartholomew’s. It was founded in the year 1123 by Rahere. The hospital and its revenues came into the possession of Henry VIII., who in 1544 refounded it by Royal Charter, and in 1547 granted it a fresh Charter, restoring back most of its revenues. It then contained 100 beds. The hospital escaped the fire of 1666, and it was rebuilt in 1729. Authorities have differed considerably as to the weight of blood contained in the human body. The general opinion seems to be that the blood contained in the human body is onefifth of the body’s weight. It is exceedingly difficult to estimate the amount of the blood on account of the extreme facility with which substances pass outwards and inwards between the minutest vessels and the tissues, and the impossibility of completely emptying the cascular system. There have been, several explanations why Mohametans consider dogs unclean. According to one tradition

Mahomet, following the Jewish law, denounced them as unclean, and ordered all save hunting dogs to be destroyed. According to another tradition, Mahomet said that when a dog drinks from a vessel it must be washed seven times, and that the first cleansing must be with earth. A simple method of breaking glass to any required form is to make a small notch by means of a file on the edge of a piece of glass, make the end of a rod of iron of about the size of the stem of a tobacco-pipe red-hot in the fire, apply the hot iron to the notch, and draw it slowly along the surface of the glass in the direction desired. A crack will follow the direction of the iron. Experiments have proved that the rate per second at which bodies acquire velocity in falling through the air is 32ft. If a ball be allowed to fall from a tower, it is moving at the rate of 32ft per second at the end of the first second after it has dropped from the hand; at the end of the next second with a velocity of 64ft, and at the end of the third second at the rate of 96ft per second. The idea of “cutting off with a shilling” arose from the practice of the Romans, who were wont to set aside testaments as being “inofficiosa,” deficient in natural duty, if they disinherited or totally passed by any of the Aiiidren of the testator without mention. If any legacy was left, however small, it was proof that the testator had not lost his reason or his memory, which was otherwise presumed.