Fascinating Facts ~Page 4~

China: In "Tales from Early Histories," the Chinese historian Ssu-ma relates that the Yin dynasty king, Chou-hsin (1122-1154 B.C.) used the following mixtures as aphrodisiacs: The Hunting Lion---the paws of bears simmered over a slow fire, and flavored with the horn of a rhinoceros and distilled human urine. Celestial Thunder---the tongues of a hundred peacocks spiced with chili powder from the western provinces and flavored with the sperm of pubescent boys. Three-Day Glory---soy beans mixed with fresh ginseng, the penis of an ox, and dried human placenta.

Birds: A bird sees everything at once in total focus. Whereas the human eye is globular and must adjust to varying distances, the bird's eye is flat and can take in everything at once in a single glance.

Art & Artists: Indian-miniature painters of the Kangra school used brushes so fine that they were sometimes made of a single hair. A painter of Indian miniatures would often apprentice for ten years before he was allowed to pick up a brush. The colors used by this school of artist were made of such strange substances as crushed beetles, ground lapis lazuli, and blood.

Medicine: In ancient China, doctors were paid when their patients were kept well, not when they were sick. Believing that it was the doctor's job to prevent disease, Chinese doctors often paid the patient if the patient lost his health. Further, if a patient died, a special lantern was hung outside the doctor's house. At each death another lantern was added. Too many of these lanterns were certain to ensure a slow trade.

Money: Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia.

Travel & Transportation: In 1928 E. Romer of Germany crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Lisbon, Portugal, to the West Indies in a kayak. The trip took him fifty-eight days.

Laws: Until 1893, lynching was legal in the United States. The first antilynching law was passed in Georgia, U.S.A., but it only made the violation punishable by four years in prison.

Royalty: The longest indoor corridor in the world is the Grande Galerie in the Louvre, built in 1607 by Henry IV of France. On rainy days the King would clear the entire passageway, move trees, rocks and grass turf inside, and stage a fox hunt with his entire court down the middle of the corridor.

War & Weapons: In 1221, the famous Mongol soldier Genghis Khan killed 1, 748,000 people at Nishapur in one hour.

Psychology: There is no one who does not dream. Those who claim to have no dreams, laboratory tests have determined, simply forget their dreams more easily than others.

Communications: The "Boston Nation," a newspaper published in Ohio, U.S.A., during the mid-nineteenth century, had pages 7 1/2 feet long and 5 1/2 feet wide. It required two people to hold the paper in proper reading position.

Religion: Tibetan monks and Inca priests both practiced a brain operation called "trepanation," in which a small hole was drilled through the skull of a living person, right between the eyes. Its purpose was to stimulate the pineal gland and thereby induce a mystical state of consciousness. The operation is occasionally still practiced today.

Diamonds: Of all the ore dug in diamond mines, only one carat in every 23 tons proves to be a diamond.

Diseases: In 1971, at Memorial Hospital in New York City, U.S.A., a woman weighing less than 100 pounds ran a fever of 114 degrees---and survived without brain damage or physiological aftereffects.

Automobiles: The high roofs of London taxicabs were originally designed to keep gentlemen from knocking off their top hats as they entered and left the vehicles.

Medicine: The jaws of African fire ants are used as sutures for wounds in Kenya, Uganda and parts of South Africa. After an operation is performed, an ant is allowed to bit into the two flaps of skin along the line of the incision. The ant's body is then twisted off, leaving the head with its mandibles locked into the skin like a stitch. A number of these miniature "stitches" are placed along a wound. During the healing process, they closely resemble modern surgical stitching.

People: Casanova, the greatest adventurer and lover of his time, ended his life as a librarian. From 1785 to 1798 he lived in Bohemia, semiretired, working as librarian for Count von Waldstein in the Chateau de Dux. He died quietly at the job.

The Sea: Tidal waves move faster than any wheeled vehicle on earth. On the open seas they sometimes approach speeds of more than 500 nautical miles per hour.

Food and Diet: In the Middle Ages, chicken soup was believed to be an aphrodisiac.

Royalty: Louis XIV had forty personal wigmakers and almost 1,000 wigs.

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