Numbers: The anaesthetist

Today is the 14th of March.

Fourteen is the cabbalistic number of change and transformation, the number of days it takes the moon to change from new to full or from full to new.

It is also:

The number of seconds it took Napoleon's surgeon, Baron Dominique Larrey, to amputate a leg;

The length in inches of an average okapi's tongue;

The number of impulse decisions taken by the average US shopper on each visit to a supermarket;

The wattage of the human brain when thinking hard;

The number of days an ant can survive underwater;

The percentage of the world's onions grown in China and the world's sheep in Australia;

The weight in ounces of the largest recorded hen's egg.

Competition: More "26 L of the A" (Letters of the Alphabet) teasers, with three Chambers Dictionary prizes to be awarded to solvers:

1 B E M

4 M M (F R B R B)

9 D Q (L J G)

16 S A N B K

25 P N L T a H

Entries to: Pastimes, the Independent, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL, to arrive by 26 March.