Notes From Various Sources.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7921, 29 September 1904, Page 3

Notes From Various Sources.

The roof garden, impoi-tcd from America a few yeara ago, is spreading rapidly throughout England. In London, big, smoky London, usually the last to adopt a new idea until it.has been tested by provincial cities, there are many roof gardens.

The last fad of New' York's Four Hun3red is the craze of the yellow dog,.the American ladiea adopting the English ■fashion of carrying dogs about with them which, to be fashionable, should be yellow in colour and of small proportions.

Some day, says Mr James Douglas, we shall have professors of forgetfulness—learned beings who will teach the arc of forgetting to those who are suffering from a good memory. The ideal man of the future will be aa epicure of moods, who will organise life into a gentle series of. delicately evanescent delights.punctuated by oblivion.

• One of the mightiest amongst the trees of the world, the " Grizzly Giant," of Calif ornia; whicli stands on the Sierra Nevada, has been found to bo in a tottering condition. This is not to be wondered at, when it is stated that the tree is over 4000 years old. It is 224 feet high, 105 feet in girth and 33- feet in diameter. At present it is 18§ feefc out of the perpendicular.

The ohief of the police of Krottendorf, in Saxony, Herr Sohramm, has murdered the town clerk, Dietze, with an axe and absconded with found in the latter's safe. He then took refuge in' the hills and turned highwayman. Subsequentfy he attacked a landed proprietor called Suess and forced him to give up his valuables.

A terrible epidemic is now afflicting the babies of New Torlc. In the tenement districts infants are dying by hundreds. For the week ending 28rd July there were 279 more deaths from intestinal diseases than in the, corresponding period of the previous year. The doctors are apparently powerless, The exceptional severity of last winter, and the consequent lowering of the vitality of the children, is partly responsible for the epidemic.

Mr George. Massee, in an article on fungi, observes that before the discovery of lucifer matches, a large hoof shaped fungus (Polyporus fomentarius), growing on the trunks of trees, was used throughout Northern Europe for making amadou or tinder. The thick,'brown, woody flesh, of the same fungus,, cut into, slices and beaten until it assumes bhe appearance of. felt, is used at the present day in Germany for the manufacture of best protectors, caps,purses, bedroom slippers and various other articles. * ' .. . ■

Herr Leo Ledermann, a GermaD, has invented an appliance which teaches swimming, and it is an absolute safe guard against drowning. The apparatus only weighs 21b, is easily adjusted, containa a compartment to hold food in case of prolonged exposure on the water, and is so constructed that, even when Ptruck by a bullet, ita life-caving properties are not impaired. The marvellous apparatus has been successfully submitted to the severest possible tests in Russia.

• In Germany there is hardly any possible pond or pool which is not used for a fish pond of one kind or another. The most curious, though least appatising instance, says the " Country Gentleman," is one into which the "properly cleansed sewage effluent of Berlin is emptied.. The Commissioners of Sewers, or whatever body answers to that; oflice m Berlin, held a banquet and boldly ate some of thesetrout as an advertisement toall'and sundry of the thoroughness of their chemical treatment of the effluent ■

A wine firm of Schiltenheim, in Ger-. many, has just constructed a barrel with a capacity of 43,800 gallons, and intends to celebrate the happy occasion by giv'ng a banquet in the interior. The guests will, it is stated, enter through the-bung hole, " which is large enough to admit the passage of a moderately stout man." It remains to be seen whether the moderately stout man referred to will be able to make his exit in the same manner at the conclusion of the meal, which is to be on the most lavish scale.

'Tia pleasant to cum from superstition to knowledge, if only to learn how little we actually know. Lord Avebury the other day, addressing the Salborne So cioty, observed that there was not a single plant which they could say they knew, and Professor Boulger, commenting on this observation, remarked that if there was one plant which might be supposed to have been studied Bince Darwin's work appeared it would be the primrose, and it was certain there was a great meny points in the life hißtory of the common primrose that we 'do not yet mow, and what Is true of one of the best trodden fields of Nature is true of every part of the domain.

France is not so rich in coal mines as Britain is, but she is much better off in regard to water power available for the production of electricity and the working of machinery. There are in France 49,000 waterfalls of non-navigable streams, and from these 46,000 works derive power, amounting in the aggregate to 500,000 horse power. On navigable streams only 1500 works are situated, obtaining from them 86,000 horse power. In this country, especially in Wales, water power installations could be obtained in some places by damning mountain streams, in the way in which Birmingham has formed artificial lakes for the purpose of water supply.