VARIETIES.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 921, 7 June 1877, Page 3

VARIETIES.

A paper, having for its subject the size of the brain in the dog, was read by Mr R. Garner before the British Association, in Section D, at Glasgow, and bronght out (says the Athenaeum) some interesting facts. Mr Garner has found, from measurements of brain capacity, and from the casts of the interiors of skulls, that the size of the brain in the dog does not correspond very closely with the size of the animal. No dog has so large a brain as the wolf, nor one so small aa the jackal. The brain of a Newfoundland dog is very little larger than that of a terrier. Professor Macalister, of Dublin, gave an account of the brain of Master Magrath, the celebrated greyhound. He had weighed the brain of many others, but Magrath's was the heaviest of all, and the convolutions were much more complex. He has found that the brains of dogs vary in the complexits r of their convolutions as much as those of human beings.

A Bank Manager's Salary, People sometimes grumble at what they call the large salaries which are paid to Ministers of State. What would they say to £30,000 a year to a bank manager ? I happen to know that the head manager of Coutts' Bank receives this sum, and the two assistant managers £IO,OOO a year each. I admit that these are big figures, but then Coutts' is not an ordinary bank. Many of the crowned heads of Europe keep an account there, and the manager has, as a matter of conrse, to mix in the most aristocratic society. I believe the managers of the other principal London banks receive salaries varying from £SOOO to £IOOO a year. Yet the Prime Minister's salary is only £sooo.— London correspondent.

Statistics of Human Life.—The total number of human beings on earth is now computed, in round numbers, at 1,000,000,000 They speak 3064 tongues, in which upwards of 1100 religions are preached. The average duration of life is 33£ years. One-fourth of those born die before the seventh, and onehalf before the seventeenth year. Out of 100 persons, only six reach the age of 60 and upwards. Out of the 1,000,000,000 living persons 33,000,000 die annually, 91,000 daily, 3730 every hour, 60 every minute, and. consequently, one every second. The loss is, however, balanced by the gain in new births. Marriages are in proportion to single life (bachelors and spinsters) as 100 : 75. Both births and deaths are more frequent in the night than in the day. One-fourth of men are capable of bearing arms, but not one in a thousand is by nature inclined for the profession.

On the Rolling Deep.—A Detroit boy, after finishing the last chapter of a book called "The Pleasures of the Deep,"pleaded with father to let him ship on board a schooner. The old man smiled a grim smile, took the case under consideration, and in a few days the boy was on the rolling deep, having shipped as a greenhorn on a vessel in the lumber trade. He sailed to Saginaw, came down and crossed to Toledo, and the next day he appeared in Detroit, lame and stiff, his throat sore, one eye nearly shut, and a feeling of humbleness running all through him. " What! Back again ?" cried the old i nan, as the boy entered the house. The aggregate shore-line on the Pacific is 12,734 miles, "Yes, father ; I want to saw all the wood for winter, bring in all the coal, clean out the cellar and paint the barn, and you needn't give me but two meals a day." "Don't you like sailing?" "Father, you don't realise anything about it. The captain sailed right along on Sunday, the same as any other day, and I believe he swore even harder. He wouldn't give me an umbrella when it rained ; he made me sit up 'most all night, and two or three times he called me up at midnight, and made me haiil on ropes and drag old sails around. There wasn't a single night when all of us got off to bed at nine o'clock, and there wasn't a day that he didn't boss lis around and break in on us every time we got to reading anything good. I like land, father, and I wish you owned a farm !"

As poor insane George the 111. was one day breakfasting at Kew, the great scarcity of beef which was then prevailing in England, became the subject of conversation. " Why do not people plant more beef ?" asked the King. Upon being told that beef could not be raised from seed, he seemed still incredulous, and took some bits of steak, aud went into the garden and planted them. The next morning he went out to see if they had sprouted, and found some snails. Thinking they were oxen, he was heard calling out, "Here they are ! Here they are, Charlotte, horns and all !'■'