WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 546, 1 March 1913, Page 7

WORLD-WIDE NOTES.

PUT PLANTS OUTDOORS AT NIGHT. In a recent. paper, Dr. Robert H. M. Dawbarn tells why it is considcrsd best not to keep flowers or growing plants in a sick room at night. Flowers give off moisture taken up from the soil, hence air becomes somewhat humid if many—particularly growing plants—are kept in the room.. Flowers, having a method of breathing, they use up the oxygen as tiuman beings dQ, and in exchange give off carbonic dioxide as waste matter. The action of sunlight upon the stems, leaves and all green parts of flowers is to store carbonic dioxide within the plants and release oxygen. Thus, in daylight, there is a fair balance between the carbonic dioxide and the oxygen given and taken, leaving neither good nor ill results. But during the entire night the plant continues to breathe, and until the return of daylight the oxygen is used, just like an additional person breathing in the room, thus leaving less oxygen for the use of the invalid. Therefore the standing order to remove all plants and flowers at night ie based upon the facts of plant pkysiology and is right.

MAN'S ORIGIN: WHEN WAS IT ?

Man's origin is being assigned greater and greater antiquity. Reviewing the remar' le discoveries of the last ten yeaf.- u Western Europe Prof. McCurdy '" .» vs tfcu *. it is .being gradually prr <i that thx. niman rac» is as old ' »ay of the tai ~ss apes, and pro oly had the san. ancestors. The L Mest undisputed nu.'" implements date from the upp«»' Miocene period of eology; tv> oldest human bone, the , v ot H~ *o heidelbergensis, from nca» ""** beginning of the Quaternary. 1 .mitive man* therefore, must have lived in Western Europe during the entire Glacial period, and developed into Homo primigenius, low in stature and robust, with short, stout arms and legs,—much like the Eskimo of today. A more intellectual race, hably from the east, appeared ir *0 Upper Quaternary, or at least >H) years ago. This people, Horn* ~lgnacensis, sculptured and frescoe.. * walls of the caverns, and their own implements, a nd their descendants, who must have flourished more than 10,000 years ago, introduced the rudiments of writing. The negroid people probably came into Western Europe soon after Homo aurignacensis. Prof. Klaatsch finds Homo primignacensis to resemble more nearly the chimpanzee of Asia.

AERO WIRELESS OPERATED OVER WIDE RADIUS.

M. Henry Farman has successfally used s wireless telegraph apparatus from an aeroplane over a radius of six miles. This feat was accomplished in France after many experiments. Farman believes he will eventually be able to extend the radius to sixty miles. The military possibilities of this accomplishment are almost limitless. An aero scout equipped wi.h wireless could furnish information that would be invaluable. Even with a radius of six miles his message could be relayed by the ordinary field wireless equipment a distance of at least 30 miles to the commanding general, who would thus be enabled 'o plan his movements with accurate nformation of the enemy's position a day in advance.

Trouble has an extraordinary effect in altering the values of life. Noone within its charmed or, ought we to say, its accursed circle, is any longer overshadowed by comparison with those outside. It is a world — an ephemeral,, but a new, world —in vvhich the last may be first and ths irst last. Again, for all those who aave an intense interest in human nature, and who are not particularly dnd-hearted, trouble has an attraction. In trouble they think they see their acquaintances as they really =ire. Often they are mistaken here, rhsy see some traits they would not lave sr.en under ordinary circum-t-nnces, and they see their friends vithout their affectations ; but that is all that can be said for certain. •sot a few people who have self-com-nrnd enough for ordinary life lost t m trouble ; but when they have ost it, they are less themselves in ny real sense than they were before. k perfectly trustworthy dog will snap when in pain, »sd no dog is safe a bile in a trap. He will bite his deliverer by instinct. To give him a had name because he has yielded to r.'ermastering temptation is quite ibsurd. There is no infallible 'test' f character. To look at the other ide of the matter, the devouring fire ;f trouble instantly destroys all that s visible above ground, so to speak, >f certain inferior elements in charac!?r, but it does not root them out.

*o one is a snob in trouble, very aw people are flippant, very few are naughty,, the minor ambitions disappear.—"Spectator."