Varieties.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 350, 22 January 1903, Page 2

Varieties.

THE TEST phenomena at&; as fmgm various as the dlffereijpdaser'and changing every hbnjri It is"iw- : poßßtble to draw, the'lijie between soundness and unsoundness of mind. Eccentricity ao strongly marks the conduct of some individuals that actions natural to them, would be marks of insanity in others. The best and easiest test to decide the question in any individual case is to inquire whether there has been any strongly marked change of character or departure from the ordinary habits of thinking, feeling, and * acting without any adequate external cause. In short, a man.should' be' compared' with himself, and not with others, to decide whether he is insane or not, If there has been no departure from his .ordinary conduct and character he may very safely be I declared sane; if there has been a marked change in these respects such a judgment would hardly be declared safe,

WILD LIFE AND THE SENSES. Dr. Nausea, in describing hia dramatic meeting with Jickson on Franz-Josef's Land mentions the manner in which his sharpened senses discovered a fragment of the soap whioh the civilised European had used in his morning ablutions. 'lt is really true,' he says, ' that I could smell that 80%p as plainly as if it had been a strong perfume. Johansen noted the same thing when he came up. As I approached Jackson's hut I thought I could f-mell everything it contained and give a sort of inventory of its stores without entering. In a day er two this acuteness wore off, and we became quite normal in that as well as in ether respects. But I wonder if a man were to live wild'for a few years if his sense of smell would not become, quite aa keen as that of an animal P' NEARLY ELEVEN FEET HIGH. Dame Nature has apparently outdone herself in Edward Beaupre, the young French-Canadian giant, who bids fair to outrival the fabled one-eyed giant Polyphemus, of Homer's time, while he overtops by several feet modern competitors. Beaupre, therefore, CDpys the proud distinction of being the tallest man on eartlh. He is thirty years old, tips the scales at 587 pounds, and stands ten feet eleven inches high. . Each of his trousers legs can contain the figures of two ordinary persons, and there is sufficient cloth in one of hia suits to outfit ten average men. The massive framework "of each of his outstretched arms will bear the weight of three athlet tii A man five feet ten inches by his aide appears a real pigmy. One of the peculiarities about Beaupre is that his father and mother were of ordinary sizs. From youth he has been a great gymnast, and has given much time to athletic sports. '

THE INFLUENCE OF FLOWERS. Dr. Ruggero Montelucci j haa investigated the influence of flowers on human beings, and his conclusions are placed before us. They are: 1. That flowers not only constitute one of the best and most delicate medicaments of the excitant order, but that, for many individuals at least, they .have established a claim to be classed with those of restorative ox reinvigorating media which contribute to tbe opportune, if temporary, rehabilition of the organism. .-. 2. Thac flowetß have, a distinct and potent function as purifiers of the air ; that they are true and 'inexhaustible sources of disinfection, probably more active than the ordinary antiseptic substances ; and that they operate with greater effect than may be supposed in counterbalancing tbe' miasmata and the evil exhalations in general which are the inevitable concomitants, of Nature's evolution. Of special interest are D:. Montelucei's illustrations, from experiments with flowers, of the law that every pleasurable impression produces a greater fulness ?n the arterial pulsations ms. a greater depth in the inspirations, that is to say, the chest movements by which the air is; admitted to" the lunge :f