Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

2 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

./-,F_-, FACTS AND FANCIES."

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,F FACTS AND FANCIES." TWENTIETH CENTURY FACTS. The twentieth century will have twenty-four leap years, the greatest number possible. February will have five Sundays three times-1920, 1948, and 1976. The earliest possible date on which Easter can occur is March 12th. The last time it occurred on that date was 1818. The latest date that Easter can occur is April 25th. It will occur but one time in the coming century on that date—1943. The middle day of the century will be January 1st, 1951. There will be three hundred and eighty eclipses during the coming century. A MAN'S FOOD. Even as water is transmuted by being converted into steam, and its expansive power utilised in the performance of work, so the food consumed by the individual is transmuted into vital energy; and as the skilful machinist finds it the truest economy to select the best of fuel, so as to receive the best results in the form of quality and increased quantity of work, so will the individual find it immeasurably to his advantage to select his food with a due regard to its nutritive value and its quality. Man does not require as much food as is generally supposed, but it should be judiciously selected. CHINESE DOCTORS. There are very many doctors in China, and their profession is not a sinecure, for if a patient has medicines from a medical man he not only wants a quantity but expects it to change his condition immediately, and it is nothing uncommon to have three or four different doctors in the course of twenty- four hours. The medical men, knowing this, try and give them some red hot compound, that can be felt at once. The superstition that pervades every class is one of the many things that tend materially to keep China from advancing rapidly. Every shop has its joss, and the proprietor seeks its advice before deciding any momentous question. And he abides by its decision. THROUGH A PANE IN THE STOMACH. A Canadian hunter, through an accident, got a wound in the front of his stoma-h. Through this opening Dr. Beaumont watchert many months the process of digestion. On giving an ordinary meal with a moderate amount of clrink, he could see a multitude of glands in the stomach throwing out little (hops of white fluid-the gastric, juice-and a slow moving of the stomach from left to right. After observing this process for an hour he gave the man a tumbler of water to drink. In about five minutes he saw the dots of white fluid begin to cease and the movement of the stomach from left to right to cease; gradually the tumbler of water was swept up by the absorbents. and then, and not till then, the white drops of gastric juice again poured out. DEATH VALLEY ONCE A LAKR. In support of the view that, Death Valley in California was formerly the bed of a lake is" the discovery of traces of an ancient water-line running alonsr the flanks of the rnclosinsr mountains at a height of 600ft. The bottom of the valley is 200ft. below sea-level. The winds trom the Pacific cross four ranges of mountains before reaching the valley. and Iw that time they have been drained of their last drop of moisture. It is said that "no spot on earth surpasses Death Valley in aridity or Tophet- like heat." The lake that once filled it is believed to have been fed by a river which has now also vanished. The borax deposits of Death Valley are commercially important, but labour is all but impossible in a place where to be without water for a single hour in summer means death. VFEDWG THE NAVY. Among the curiosities of life at sea, states the Tloxpiial, are the arrangements for the meals of the sailors on board her Majesty's ships. Early in the morning the sailors get what one may call an official feed, again at noon, and finally another at half-past four p.m. From the half-past four o'clock tea-meal till early morning all is over, and anything which the "handy man may wish or require he must provide for himself from the canteen out of his "savings"—that is. the money that iie receives in lieu of such portions of his ration as he does not choose to draw. Now. in old days, when much of a sailor's work had to be done in spurts at odd moments, and when Jack Tar was constantly oscillat- irg between times of great exertion and of absolute idleness, there might, be much to be said for allow- ing a very considerable proportion of the diet to be taken at any time when opportunity might occur. A modern ship of war, however, is like a mill full of machinery, and things go on with much more regularity. EUROPEAN RAILWAYS. Most European railways carry three classes of passengers, and those of Prussia and Saxony carry four. In Wurtemberg you can buy a ticket good for fifteen days which is a general pass over the rail- ways of that kingdom. A third-class ticket of this kind costs about a sovereign, which makes travelling very cheap indeed, for with it a passenger can travel as often as he likes, stop where he likes, or travel continuously if he likes, within the fifteen- day limit. In Switzerland, where the main lines of travel have recently come into the hands of the Government, a similar pass is issued. A passenger desiring any of these tickets has to have his photo- graph affixed to it to identify him and prevent transfer. A fifteen-day ticket, third-class, costs something over a guinea, but it will take you practically all over Switzerland. Baden has mileage tickets, covering 1,000 kilometres, a trifle dearer, third-class. They are good for any members of a family or firm, and the rato by them comes to about, a halfpenny a mile. WIIALF.UONE. The substance commonly known Ps "whalebone" has been inappropriately named, inasmuch as it has no one property of bone proper. Its correct name is baleen, and it is found in triangular plates arranged round the upper jaws of Arctic and allied whales. As many as eight hundred plates have some- times been obtained from one whale. They are placed across each other at regular distances, forming a fringed filter which retains all the food taken with the sea-water into the mouth. lJaleen does not require much preparation for use: it is scraped, and after boiling for ten or twelve hours becomes suffi- ciently soft to be cut into strips for the market. The properties which render "whalebone" so valuable a commodity are its toughness, lightness, and flexi- bility, and power of standing high temperatures without change. In early days, when it was much cheaper, baleen was used for the framework of umbrellas, but, both on the score of expense and bulk, steel wire was substituted, since the parts of the old frames were so clumsy as to resemble the spokes of a wheel. Early in the 19th century the price of whalebone was as low at i225 per ton"; but in August, 1892, dry whalebone a year old fetched as much as i22,925 a ton. 1: MYSTESIKS OF CHINESE NAMES. The mysterious names appearing in the Ctmram despatches become familiar enough when translated. Thus, Tung means east; si, west: nan, south; pes, north; while tsin, or king, stands for capital or metropolis, as in Pekin (northern capital) and Nankin (southern capital). Tien means heaven, so en Tsin signifies heavenly metropolis. Hoorkiang means river, so Pei Bo is north river; SiKiang, west river. Che means saven; Che Kiang is seven rivers. Shan is mountain, and Shan Tung, east mountain,. and Shan Si, west mountain. Pai is white, and Par Shan, white mountain. Hai is sea, and kwan stands- for gate. Hai Kwan (the maritime customs) is gate' of the sea, and Shan Hai Kwan, mountain and sea. gate. Shang is a city Shanghai, city by the sea. Hoang is yellow; Hoang Ho, yellow river, and Hoang Hai, yellow sea. Yang means ocean, and Tse, son; hence the Yangtse River is the son of the ocean, and Tien Tse, son of heaven (the Empercr). Ku or kow is a mouth or pass, and Ta. big or great, so Taku means big mouth (of Pei Ho), while Nan Kow stands for south pass (from Mongolia). Hu is a lake; ling, a hill; hsiang, a village hsien, a tax district. Fu is a prefecture tai, a governor; tao, a circuit.or group of administra- tive departments so tao-si is a governor of a circuit, and fu-tai is a governor of a prefecture. Chao or kiao is a bridge; li, a Chinese mile; pa, eight, and thus l'a-li-kiao is the eight-mile bridge. Cho or chow is a depot or stopping place; hence Tungchow, eastern depot (of Pekin). Shen is a province, and Sliell-s. is the western province. Yamen is a police- station or official residence, and Hui, a secret society or club. Ts'ing means pure or clear, so Ts'ing- kiang is clear river, while Ta Ts'ing means great pure (name of present dynasty), and, Kwo being a kingdom or empire, Ta-Ts'ing Kwo signifies the empire of the great pure (China). Ta Mei Ka is the name applied by the Chinese to the United States, and means great America. SOME CURIOUS FACTS. The muscles of the human jaw exert a force of 5341b. The quantity of pure water which blood con- tains in its natural state is very great; it amounts to almost seven-eighths. Kiel estimates the surface of the lungs at one hundred and fifty square feet. or ten times that of the body. The blood is a fifth the weight of the body. A man is taller in the morning than at night to the extent of half an inch or more, owing to tht) relaxation of the cartilages. There is iron enough in the blood of forty-two men to make a ploughshare of twenty-four pounds oc thereabouts. The human brain is the twenty-eighth part of the body, but in the horse the brain is Dot more than the four-hundredth. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has now decided to despatch an important, expedition to the Congo Free Stat. next month to make inquiries regarding- the sleeping sickness, and its relation to other scourges ill the tropics. An aeronaut was killed on Sunday at Liege through his balloon colliding with a lightning con- ductor and partially collapsing. Two passengers iu the cn- had remarkable escapes.

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