NEWS AND NOTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 22 June 1901, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

Tho fever of stock speculation in New York has given rise (says a correspondent on May 2) to a new and startling fad. Stockbrokers and others suffering from tho prevalent excitement recently discovered that oxygen is good for the nerves, and the news spread unt 1 tho ovygen fad invaded fashionable society. Oxygen parlies now threaten to become the rage. Tho gas is supplied in tanks, and the guests, lounging in comfortable chairs, inhale it through long tubes, like turks smoking, and enjoy the sensation of tho blood tingling in their finger tips, and the feeling of mental exhilaration. Tho idea is said to have originated from Jules Verne’s story, “Dr Ox’s Experiment." Doctors ridicule it, and say that in many cases serious consequences may follow. According to the “ Popular Science News,” Professor George F. Wright, recently returned from travels in Asia, says it has hitherto been supposed that the children of Israel crossed the lied Sea at Suez, but it has been found difficult to reconcile this supposition with the fact that 1,000,000 persons crossed the sea in a single night, which would nccestate a very wide division of the waters. Ho says:—“My explorations north of Suez have convinced me and those to whom I have talked that the point of crossing was 20 miles north of Suez, because at that point the conditions are all fulfilled. The waters at that time were about 4ft in depth there, and tho mountains are in the west, just as related, and as east wind would have swept bare a place at least five miles wide.” The mishaps which befell the German battleship Frederick 111 when she went aground in the North Sea will raise grave doubts as to the expediency of carrying liquid fuel in double-bottoms. What happened was that the inrush of water carried up the oil into the stokeholds, where it took fire in the most alarming manner. According to a correspondent in the German fleet it was touch and go with the Frederick 111 for some minntes but everyone on board, from Prince Henry downwards, behaved with great coolness and bravery. So far as we know (writes the London Daily Graphic) this is the first accident of the kind; but it is obviously one which might recur in battle, when injury to the hull had caused heavy leakage. In the British service, partly because of the difficulty of burning oil without making black smoke, partly because we have no large supply of it available in British territory, oil fuel has been frowned upon ; but in Italy, Germany,- France, and Russia all new ships are built to use it in connection with coal It will be interesting to see if these Powers re-consider the matter.