BRIEF MENTION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6286, 17 September 1898, Page 4

BRIEF MENTION.

m China ha« the richest deposit of quicksilver in the world. Doctors say that pure alcohol is the best disinfectant for the hands. The manufacture of sugar and salt is carried on by the aid of 2401 inventions. During the last century one hundred lakes in the Tyrol have subsided and disappeared. ; By the year 1900 Japan will have to pay: £5,000,000 a year as interest on its national' debt. : It is estimated that 2,000,000 bicycles have been built in Europe and America up; to date. ; The cultivation of sunflowers ia swaaagyj places effectually checks malarial fever in' those parts. * ; Golf is being played in Canda on snowlinks, and is pronounced to be an excellent, game so played. '■ Chinese athletes say that the brains of j the dnck are the most strengthening food' it is possible to eat. Fifty years ago the population bf Europe: was about 250 millions ; to-day it is con- 1 siderably over 360 millions. ! All the swing bridges across the riverj within the limits of the city of Chicago are worked by means of electricity. Schiller's play, " Maria Stewart," was re-; cently given in Berlin by a company of i deaf mutes to a large audience of deaf per-: sons. An order has been issued in England de-i creeing that in future no soldier will be al- ! lowed to walk arm-in-arm in the street with' a woman. It is estimated that there are no fewer than 70,000,000 Europeans who-wear wooden, shoes. Basswood is ordinarily' employed for sabots, but willow is the best material. • Electro-magnets, capable of picking up «,' load not exceeding five tons, are used by an' Illinois steel company to transfer steel beams' or plates from one part of the shop to' another. . Drury Lane. Theatre has the largest fireproof curtain in the world. It is 42ft byi 30£ ft, made of iron and asbestos, and in case of fire can lower itself automatically in fifteen seconds. : It is reported tha* the formation of a Russian Press Association is projected, with a view of inducing the Government to relax some of the stringent laws against the freedom of the Press. j The largest bread bakery in the world is at Brooklyn, New York. Seventy thousand loaves are daily turned out, requiring 300 barrels of flour. The whole concern employs about 350 persons. A, fashionably-attired woman was seen walking down a London Street witfa a monkey attached to her waist by a chain. The animal was running along the pavement by her side holding on to her skirts. : A magistrate in a West River (China) village, who offered a reward for the capture of a rebel chief, was himself captured by the chief, who poured kerosene oil over h™ and' burnt him up, afterwards slaying his entire family. Four vagrants, heading for Chicago, boarded a train recently, and took passage in a refrigerator car, where they were locked' in. When the train arrived in Chicago v day later the men were found badly chilled 1 and unable to move. The new negro deputy, M. Legitimns, who is on his way to France, is not thej first black legislator who has saij at the! Palais Bourbon. His predecessor was a certain M. Mazulime, who represented thd Guadaloupe at the " Constituante " of 1848- . Something like intelligence is often ex.! hibifced by plants. If, during a dry season,; a bucket of water be placed near a growing pumpkin or melon vine, in the ccnrsei of a few days the vine will turn from its course, and get at least one of its leaved in the water. A new method of preserving meats, from' which much is expected, consists in immer-i sion in a 30 per cent solution of salt throughi' which a continuous curreot of electricity is being passed. The curing is completed in) from ten to twenty hours, when the meat is taken out and dried. Li linguistic attainments the Russians ard far in advance of other nations Theizj leisured and cultured classes appear to have! the faculty of acquiring languages speciaUyj developed, and can for the most part learn! a new language with a fraction of the time 1 and trouble it takes a Briton or any ciher! European. « i Though a rainbow appears to, be 6enxN circular in shape, it is in reality a completai circle ; but we only see one half of the ends because the earth cuts off our view. If we! were poised 'in the air, high above the earth, we could see it all. The circular' shape is due to the fact that the raindrops' are round, and that each drop reflects but one colour to the eyes. For the benefit of future historians there should be recorded the highest price, paid for seats to witness the Jubilee. It is stated! that the family of a well-known banker and millionaire, who occupies a seat in the House of Lords, paid no less a sum than £29,000 for a building opposite St Paul's to view the Jubilee procession. This Bum averages about £100 per seat. The new oxygen treatment for wounds ia regarded by the medical profession as of the greatest value and as a distinct advance in surgery. Not only does it bring about healing in cases that seemed hopeless, buti the new skin is wholly unlike the scat tissue ; it is soft, thick, smooth, fair, loose, warm skin, not lidged or seamed and hardly to be distinguished from healthy, structures. The health of British troops is generally, well looked after, both at home and abroad, especially the former. Every morn* ing the orderly corporal of each barrack-4 room eaters and calls out, "Any sick this morning?" directly after reveille has been sounded, and any man feeling unwell inw mediately say so. They are then examined by the doctor, and if it is only a slight iOn ness are put on light duty. If it is serious^ they are sent to the hospital for treatmentThe " New York World " has been detected by a contemporary stealing news, a trap! having been laid by the "Journal" for the 1 "World," into which the offending journal incontinently fell. On a previous occasion^ when a trap was also hud for Mr PuliteeVd paper by the " Sun," the anagram was madal of the words, " We stole this from the 'Sun.'^; The ruse worked perfectly, and the convey* ance of information which had been going on waa clearly exposed. The "World," how-J ever, does not seem to have profited by the lesson. ; The new " Naval Kriegspiel," invented by! Mr Fred T. Jane, is something more than ' a naval edition of the soldiers war game; since every possible tactical or strategical problem can be tested by it, and every in-i dividual type of ship, gun, armour or pro*| jectile is allowed for. The game is of ri cosmopolitan nature, and care has been taken to secure this in the rules, which hare been revised and approved by the Grand Duka; Alexander, of the Russian Navy; Captain Prince Louis of Battenberg, and Captain j H. I. May. In medieval tomes, asrthose weiltnowwhol ' have read tjhe famous quarrel between the monks of Ely and those of St Albans, the relics of the saints were often the subject matter of pious thefts and devout burglaries.: This same readiness to lay your dishoneetj hands upon the very objects of your devo-' tion still survives in Catholic countries. In ' Prance, a few days ago, the reliquary under the high altar of the church at vezelay( in the Yonne) was rifled, and the fragments which it contained of the bodies of Mary Magdalene and »S{. Bernard were carried off .; That piety and not gain was the motive was made evident by the fact that the thieves ' left behind them the jewelled boxes out of , which they took the relics. In the pre-historic remains found in " the mysterious city of Honduras " — Copan — evi-^ dence has been obtained that this forgotten people were acquainted with dentistry. They were also admirable builders and masons.' They had a custom of adorning the front teeth with gems inlaid in the enamel, and by filling. Although not all of the sets found have been treated in this way, there aid enough to show that the practice was general, at least among the upper classes ; foi all the tombs opened, from their associations with prominent houses, seemed to have belonged to people of rank and fortune. The stone used in the inlaying was a bright green jadeite. A circular cavitvf about onesixteenth of an inch in diameter was drilled in the enamel of each of the two front teeth of the upper row, and inlaid with a little disc of jadeite cut to a perfect fit, and secured .by means of a bright red cement.