TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14835, 28 November 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

If anybody here wonders Royal why people at Home paid Presents, between £2000 and £3000 to see the wedding presents given to Prince Arthur of Connaught and his bride, he (or she) would understand why on reading the lists of the presents in the English papers, and bearing in mind the interest that Royal weddings have for the British public. The speculation of fortunate young couples in humbler stations as to what they are to do with a dozen toast racks, four or five ealad bowls, two or three sets of ca&e-knives, and halfia-dozen fish slices, must be nothing to the happy bewilderment of a Royal couple surrounded, as tho Prince and Princess were, with presents so numerous that the list filled four columns of "The Times" (mostly in email type), and so valuable that the total estimate of their worth was £300,000. Prince Arthur's presents ranged from a golf bag and a caee of pipes, and several prize dogs, to the gift of the Emperor of Japan, a gold lace cabinet in an oak case, the wonderful hand decorative work on which took a hundred years to complete. Not for him the worry of tho man who mislays or loses his cigarette case, or in dressing in the morning finds that he has sent his sleeve-links to the waeh, for among the present are twenty cigarette cases and eleven pairs of sleeve-links. Seventeen clocks should help to keep him punctual, and fourteen inkstands will relentlessly remind him of unanswered correspondence. In the long list there are interesting flashes, of originality. Prince and Princess Henry of Prussia gave a red enamel bell-push set with pearls and a moonstone, and must have despatched it feeling happily sure that no one elae would have thought of the same thing. There are many books. The Prime Minister, who always gives books for wedding presents, sent a, set of Charlotte Bronte, and a glance down the list reveals sets of Shakespeare, Scott, Meredith, and George Eliot. It is sad to think that rnanr of the teasets may never hold tea, many of the spoons never rattle on plate or saucer, and many of the hundreds of other things, beautiful and valuable, may have to be content with an occasional look and word of admiration. '

Housewives from time to Shining time are astonished and Birds, alarmed to ~nd a joint of

moat shining in the dark with a ghostly luminosity. The bacterial phospheresenco that produces this uncanny light is not peculiar to meat. A writer in "Knowledge" deals with a similar condition in birds. The writer mentions that in Cambridge, in ISGG, "moving lights" were observed, which were obviouely to be attributed to luminous birds, though their cause was not divined at the time. In 1907 more frequent apparitions aroused the attention of naturalists. Sir 3>igby Piggott noted some in Norfolk and Cambridge, and in the Vosgcs and the Pyrenees similar oases were observed. In one instance the branches of the tree en which the bird perched were visible in a pale yellow glow. Two theories, says the writer, have been given of this unusual luminosity which is usually confined to the breast of the bird. The bird may come in contact with phosporescent wood, and so pick up luminescent bacteria, or else tho phenomenon may be due to a sudden growth of luminous fangi peculiar to feathers. The latter explanation is thought more plausible by the writer, who adduces the argument that in the contact theory it wonld seem that the wings and head, rather than, the breast, would be likely to touch the phosphorescent wood. Yet is is from the breast that most of the light appeare to proceed. Apparently this is because the feathers are finer and thicker on that part, and as the bird cannot thoroughly clean itself, it will retain germs and dust gathered in flight. A peculiar increase of light during night is attributed to the chemical action of the air. The luminosity of birds is not altogether new to science.Pliny describes such birds as existing in tho Hercynian forest, and similar tales and met with in the Middle Ages. In 1555 Gessner published in Latin a book of luminous animals and plants. In 1641, at Montpelier, in France, during a short period of famine, many fowls were brought to market, several of them displaying an unmistakable phosphorescence. A cock was killed which (according to Conde) "shone on all parts of his body with a remarkably strong light." The same year, at Montebello, says the same author, there was a hen which "shone like a ball of white fire." A contemporary author observed ingenuously: "It is a pity that tho cock did -not meet the hen; for we might then have obtained a breed of incandescent fowJe. ,, -