HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16513, 25 August 1921, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

LOVE AS AN APPETISER. All emotions which give pleasure act healthily on the heart- aod other organs, and thus the appetite and health improve. Love, hope and happiness all produce these emotions, and, contrary to the accepted motion, th© ardent lover ought to enjoy his meals thoroughly. Despair, grief and fear have quite another effect. They make the action of the heart slower, and enfeeble the nervous and muscular systems. On the other hand, anger causes th© heart to act violently, working upon both physical and mental oowers. Th© muscles for the time being are taut and tense and the secretion of bile is increased. A reaction follows rapidly, when muscles become flabby and a feeling of weakness pervades the body. INSTINCT VERSUS SCIENCE. A party of foresters and surveyors were inspecting some difficult country when a heavy fog settled down on it, and they hopelessly lost their sense of direction. The day was closing in, and, in their anxiety to get back to camp before dark, they swung their compasses and discussed the way out. suggesting various cardinal points a 3 the correct direction. Attached to the party was on aborigine, who, with open mouth and protruding eyeballs, listened to the party’s wisdom. Presently the darkie remarked, “ Well, genelmen, nehber rnind about nor’, sou’, east and west, L bin goin* home.” And he forthwith went. Needless to say, the rest of the party followed him and experienced no difficulty about getting back to camp.—“ Forestry Journal.” GERMAN WOMEN JURORS The position of woman in Germany has improved, but not quite to the extent desired by extreme Feminists, says the Berlin correspondent of the London “Observer.” The question of her admissibility to the office of judge in the criminal courts is interesting with regard to English arguments concerning her possibilities as jury woman. The convention of German jurists has, after a heated debate iu which no feminine voice was heard, decided that there can be no attempt at reform in this matter which would not be fraught with the direst consequences. After a number of leading physicians had given a devastating list of temperamental deficiencies, a resolution was passed proving her inadmissibility either to the office of jurywoman and magistrate. Not even the case of youthful offenders can be regarded as her province. The opinion most calculated to annoy the lady lawyer aspiring to higher posts is that given by a German authority of the old school. -He insists that woman’s sole duty with regard to the law is to educate her children so that they never need oome in conflict with th© powers that be. WHAT IS A GROCER? English courts of law have been occupied recently with the question, What is a grocer? No doubt every boy and girl thinks the answer to the question is easy, but th© magistrates do not find it bo. When some tradesmen at West Ham were summoned for failing to obey the Grocers and Provision Dealers* Closing Order they maintained that they were not grocers. One woman had sold a packet of tea after eight o’clock and declared that she was an oilman. This raised the further question whether oil could be legally sold after hours and while tho magistrate believed she might sell olive oil the prosecuting solicitor doubted it. In any cas© he said it had never been decided whether paraffin could be sold alter eight. The magistrate then explained that though a grocer was originallv a man who sold by the gross, the modem extension of the meaning of the word covered the keeper of a general sxore. He therefor© fined th© tradesmen £1 each, and even a draper who had sold a packet of soap after eight was held to be a grocer in the modem sense, and was fined £2.

CRYSTALLISING BY PRESSURE. A French savant has made a number of experiments on the effects of pressure in crystallising liquids. Different liquids were solidified by subjecting them to great pressure in metal cylinders—for example, chloride of carbon and benzine. By means of thick* glasses let into the sides of the containing vessel, he was able to send a. beam of light through the liquid and watch it during its solidification. He found that th© liquid became obscure during solidification, and transparent again after the crystals were formed. These formed from the circumference towards the centre. Benzine gave ferny-looking crystals. When the* presiure was removed the crystals redissolved, and th© liquid became as it had been before the pressure was applied. Another French physicist made a number of experiments by which he was able to produce branching crystallisations by means of electrolysis. Some of these were very delicate and beautiful fern or moss-like structures, reminding on© of hoar-frost on a window pane. For instance, if a solution of nitrate of silver be spread on a pan© of glass, and electrodes of platinum connected to a voltaic battery of several cells be dipped into the solution, an arborisation will be found to proceed from the negative pole, in the form of a moss or coral of pure silver. The electrodes may be varied in shape, either points or plates being used, with a difference in the figure produced. FEATHERED POLICEMEN. A rival to the famous parrot of the “ Cheshire Cheese ” tavern in Fleet Street, London, is to -be found at a hotel in Hertfordshire, where there is a parrot which lias been trained to whistle in exact imitation of a police whistle. To King George belongs a parrot which on one occasion saved York Cottage from being burgled. Th© Royal Family were at dinner, when suddenly loud cries were heard coming from an upper room where the bird was kept. “Look out!” it screamed. “Look out! Look out! ’ ’ A hurried rush upstairs resulted in the discovery that one of the bedroom windows had been forced open, the burglars having secured access to it by means of a ladder brought from a neighbouring outhouse. On the alarm being raised by the parrot, they promptly bolted. SEA-WATER FOR STREETS Bournemouth once adopted a plan for sprinkling sea-water on the streets and flushing the sewers. For this purpose the water was laid on t-o the town by water-mains and hydrants. The supply did not cost more than od per 1000 gallons, and in th© thirty years, when the debt for the works was reduced, the cost was not more than 3d per 1000 gallons Salt ivater was said to be successful in laying dust, providing a kind of skin holding it down In ordinary weather, according to one authority, a sprinkling of salt water every other day was as good as a sprinkling of fresh water every day Moreover, it was believed to have no prejudicial influe—on health