In the Smoke Room.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XXII, 30 May 1896, Page 626

In the Smoke Room.

IN this most restless age fatigue is one of the great evils against which we have to contend. During the past few mouths interesting experiments have been made upon the exact nature of the poison which is engendered by excess of brain work or physical exertion. Professors Maggiori, Mosso, and Wedeusky maintain that if the blood of a greatly fatigued animal be injected into another animal which is fresh and unfatigued, the phenomenon of fatigue will be produced. Professor Wedensky goes even further, and as the result of chemical analysis, states that the poison engendered by excessive fatigue is exactly similar to the ancient vegetable poison known as curare. This was the deadly poison used by Indians in time of war for dipping their arrow points. Both poisons are said to be of the most virulent nature. If this poison is created more rapidly, as is sometimes the case, than the blood can manage to carry it away, the effect on the general physical condition is extremely serious.

Surely one of the strangest applications of science to sports is that made by a certain hunter in India (says a writer in Chums), who calls in the aid of the electric light to enable him to make sure of his aim. It has been found almost impossible during the daytime to draw tigers into the open near thickly-settled parts of India. At night, however, this is easily accomplished by placing a carcase in some convenient place, near which the hunter may lie in ambush. But after the tiger has scented the blood of the dead animal, and has begun to tear the carcase, it is difficult for the hunter to take aim in the darkness. Accordingly, an electric light is hung right above the carcase, and connected with the sportsman's rifle. As he approaches the tiger, he takes as good aim as possible; and when he considers himself sufficiently near to make sure of a kill, he presses the button that turns on the light. Its appearance so startles the tiger that he remains motionless for a few seconds.

‘ At Raglan Castle,’ said Mr Ganthony, the ventriloquist, ‘ I gave an entertainment in the open air, and throwing my voice up into the ivy-covered ruins, said, ‘ What are you doing there ?’ To my amazement, a voice answered, ‘ I climbed up ’ere this morning just to see the folk and ’ear the music ; I won’t do no harm.’ ‘ Very well, stay there, and don’t let anyone see you, do you hear?’ The reply came, ‘Yes, muster, I ’ear.’ This got me thunders of applause. I made up my mind to risk it, so I bowed, and the boy never showed himself. One of the most curious of pleasure railways is that built through the palace of the Sultan of Morocco at a cost of loo.ooodols. Comfortably smoking in an electric car, His Highness takes several trips a day over this miniature road.

M. Fischer, a French physician, maintains that the present system of making up beds so that the head of the sleeper is much higher than the feet, is altogether wrong and productive of insomnia and all kinds of evil, and that the proper position for abso’ute repose is to have the head on the same level with the feet. He even goes further than this and advocates so placing pillows that your feet may be higher than your head. Mr C. E. Linner, of the Illinois State Weather Service, finds evidence in police records that crime increases with increase in temperature, with decrease in rainfall, and to a greater degree with both causes. There is also a slight apparent increase in clear as compared with cloudy weather. On the other hand, crime seems to diminish with increase in the severity of the cold in winter, with excess of rainfall in summer, and especially during seasons that are both rainy and cold. A northeast wind is less conducive to crime than a south-west wind.

A curious story is told of Dr. Pasteur. He was eating cherries with his daughter and her family, and carefully washing each cherry in a glass of water by his side, and wiping it before putting it into his mouth, which little vagary, he said, was to prevent him from swallowing microbes. A few minutes later the doctor was observed, in a fit of absent-mindedness, to carefully lift the glass to his lips and drain it. Yet he lived to tell the tale which was a source of amusement to those present.

Gold in a Coal Minh.—ln the Transvaal,coal occurs in the Karoo formation at varying depths from the surface to 100 ft ; the largest of the coal measures has 40ft of workable coal, the others up to 22ft in thickness. The coal contains as much as 15 per cent, of ash, which curiously enough contains about 9dwt of gold per ton of coal. The production of the three principal mines in 1894 was 501,422 tons. The labour employed consisted of 124 whites and 2,005 natives. The evaporative efficiency of the coal varies from 43 to 81 per cent, of that of British coal.

A Motor-Car Club has been formed as a limited iability company, to be managed by honorary officials

only, and to consist of shareholders and members who do not look for dividends, the sole object of the club being to further the interests of the whole motorcarriage movement, to secure the removal of legal impediments, and to encourage exhibitions. The first International Motor-Carriage Exhibition was to be held at the Imperial Institute this month. Within the walls of Buckingham Palace, constructed on the ‘ strong room ’ principle, is a room known as the * Queen's Secret Library,’ and in this are stored documents and private letters, which, were they sent forth to the world, would doubtless set the whole universe talking. From the very commencement of her reign her Majesty has assiduously stored away in nice order all family and other important papers, her only assistant in this duty being a secretary, who entered her service within fourteen years of her accession to the throne, and who still retains his place, though he himself has had no access to nine-tenths of the papers which are docketed, the Queen alone retaining the keys of the safes and cabinets in which her * secret library ’ is contained. Only the other day Her Majesty added to the list of her papers a batch of letters of the most private and confidential kind, addressed by the late Prince Consort to his brother, the Duke Ernest of Coburg, and it is a wellascertained fact that she has, when possible, acquired every scrap written by her late Consort to his most private friends. It is said by those who are qualified to surmise that the ‘ Queen’s secret library ’ not only tells of Royal marriages, births, and deaths, but that it is virtually the private history of Europe during t he past fifty years.