When we eat anything, it passes into the throat after we have chewed it, and instead of just dropping down into our stomachs, there is a nine or ten inch series of rings in our throats, that takes the food, passing or squeezing it from one set of muscle rings to the other. These muscle rings are capable of working both up and down. If something is eaten which causes vomiting, the muscles work the other way and force the matter from the stomach. When one is frightened a sort of a hollow feeling comes into the stomach and the muscles of the throat work upward, pressing against the windpipe and causing one to feel as if there was a lump there. How are We Able to Hear Through Speaking-Tubes? We know that when we speak, the sound waves that we set in motion are carried in every direction. Now when we speak into a tube, the sound waves cannot travel in all directions, but must follow the tube, and so we can hear through a tube at a greater distance than we can when speaking in the usual way. The use of a megaphone or speaking trumpet for conveying the sound of the voice to a distance is based on the same principle. Why do We Always Shake Hands with Our Right Hand? The custom of shaking hands with the right hand has come down to us from the time when everyone carried a sword or knife. In those days when one met a stranger it was customary, as an indication of friendly intention, to hold out the right hand to show that it did not hold a sword or knife ready for attack. The Story in a Billiard Table[24] The origin of billiards is lost in antiquity. Who invented the game and the early processes of its evolution remain mysteries. The first known reference to the game with any traditional or historical accuracy occurs in Abbe McGeoghegan’s “History of Ireland.” Cathire More, a sub-king who ruled over Leinster, died A. D. 148. The Abbe, quoting from King Cathire’s will, says, “To Drimoth I bequeath fifty billiard balls of brass with the cues of the same material.” As early as the fifteenth century we have much evidence of the universality of the game all over southern Europe. It was certainly known in France in the time of Louis IX, who died nine years before Columbus discovered America. Shakespeare, in Anthony and Cleopatra (Act II, Scene 5), makes the latter say, “Let us to billiards.” Cotton’s “Compleat Gamster” published in 1674, refers to billiards as “This most gentle, cleanly and ingenious game.” He states that it was first played in France, but later gives Spain as its birthplace. That the game was well known in England, and in fact in all Europe, is revealed when Cotton says, “For the excellency of the recreation, it is much approved of and played by most nations of Europe, especially England, there being few towns of note therein which hath not a public billiard table; neither are they wanting in many noble and private families in the country.”