GENERAL INFORMATION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 380, 22 July 1911, Page 6

GENERAL INFORMATION.

+ ! There are no paupers in Servia. There is work for everybody who needs it. The bees of Brazil hang their honeycombs at the end of the slenderest twig, at the very summit of a tree, to be beyond the reach of monkeys. Haunchbacks are very numerous in Spain, much more so than in any other part of the world. About seven per cent, of the population are thus deformed. Madagascar is the home of the largest of the spider species. This is the dog spider, the body of which weighs nearly a pound, and each of its eight legs is about as long and thick as an ordinary lead pencil. A Berlin physician is of the opinion that the piano should never be used by a child under sixteen years of age. Out of 1,000 girls who played before the age of twelve, he found GOO cases of nervous diseases. A London physician declares that in many cases appendicitis results from bad teeth. He asserts that people with good teeth rarely have it. To encourage cleanliness and care of the teeth, he recommends a daily toothbrush drill in the schools. The excellence of the Japanese as sailors is accounted for by the fact that most of Japan's coasting vessels are small, but there are a great many of them. Almost any man taken from a fishing village has had enough experience to enable him to become en efficient sailor in a short time. Organ-grinders in Verviere, Belgium mast keep their instruments in tune. Every morning they are required to go before the police superintendant and play their instruments. The organs which chance to be out of tune must be set in order before a licence to play on the streets will be granted.

The possibilities of the motor-cars in warfare have certainly been overlooked by the military authorities,; although the great mass of "citizens on foot" have known them for a lontj time. It is true England and Germany have built a number of armoured motor-cars carrying rapid-fire guns, but they would appear almost harmless beside the plain, every-day article, when properly applied. The ancients set much store by their war chariots, some of which were provided with great scythes, sharp as razors, which projected on cither side of the chariot, When a battery of these led a charge they literally mowed down the enemy by hundreds before the drivers and horses could he slain. Will the military motor bt applied similarly some day ?