The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-06-18
TIMELY TOPICS.

A patent has been issued to Miss Har-
riet G. Hosmer by the United States
patent office for her process Of making
artificial marble, regarding which so
much has been said. The claims set
forth that limestone, or other like SUBJ
stance including alabaster stone, may be
given the appearance and uniform hard
ness throughout of natural marble in its
various colors by the application of moist
heat OF heat in the form of steam, in
combination with a bath Of alum and
water, or with various baths composed
ofvarious chemicals and coloring matter.
In an article on External Parasites "
the Rural Mev Yorker gives this curious
information: "Thcre are three species
of lice that disturb the peace and quiet
of the human family. The head louise
is the most common. It is said that in
olden times it was thought no disgrace,
but fashionable and desirable, to harbor
and nourish the crawling pigmies of the
head; now they are only common among
such people as neglect personal neatness.
The most cleanly person may be so un-
fortunate as to possess specimens not
pinned in an chronological cabinet, but
he will soon Danish them according to
the fashion well understood in all civ
ilized society,""
At the annual meeting of the Pennsyl-
vania State Medical Society, which
opened at Chester, a report was received
from DR.. P. D. Keyser, surgeon of the
Wills Hospital of Philadelphia, detail
ing the results of an examination as to
color blindness of train men employed on
railroads converglng in Philadelphia.
He found that of those examined three
and one-half per cent. mistook colors one
for the other, their defects being of such
character as to make them really incapa-
BILE and unsafe to fill the positions they
occupy. Then there were eight and one
half per cent. additional who, although
able to distinguish colors, were unable
to tell the shades If colors, thus making
twelve per cent. of those examined who
were not quick and sharp in noticing
and distinguishing colors and shades.
The annual summary of births, deaths
and causes of death in the large cities in
England for 1878 furnishes some interest
ing statistics with reference to London.
Its population exceeds $500, 900, and, if
the suburbs are included, 4,50O,OOO. It
almost equals that of Paris, Berlin and
Vienna. and with its suburbs it equals
the population of the capitals of France,
Prussia. Austria ard Russia. The area
of the city is l22 square miles, and the
density of population 90. 1892 people to the
square mile; the proximity of the popu-
lation IL .O4 yards from each other. With
the above density, the mortality should
be 35.2 per 1000, but from 1874 to ls79it
has been reduced as low as 22.8. The
registered deaths are 83, 1896, and the births
being l29, 1874, they exceed the former by
$3.50.
We have been apt to consider China
rs heather country, and such it is from
the Christian standpoint, but it is far
from an ignorant land. 1t has. without
doubt, according to Barnes Educational
Monthly, over O0,0O0,OO0 of people, of
which vast number there is scarcely one
who cannot read and write. 1t has 1000
colleges, and their libraries outnumber
ours ten to one. There are in that land
of pig-tailed Mongols 1900, 900 highly
educated men. while there isthardly Il
woman who is educated of all the vast
number of its people, and not one who is
thought to have soul. Education is
principally discipline of the memory,
and their schools are based upon an en-
tirely different idea from ours. A live
Yankee schoolmaster would find little
in China, even though he
understood the Chinese language and
literature perfectly.
They have cheerful way of doing
things in Russia Whenever anybody
is sarrested there. the fact is kept secret,
aud everybody who calls at the house of
the arrested person is also put under
arrest. Recently physician in good
practice at St. Petersburg was arrested,
and it so happened that at the time he
was captured child was taken i'll in
family which he was in the habit of at-
tending. During the night the child's
illness became so alarming that the father
went to fetch the doctor; but, on
arriving at the door, he was seized by
the police and carried off in spite of his
protests. The mother waited an hour
or more, and finding that her husband
did not return, went herself to the
physicians house, where she, too, was
arrested. Meanwhile the child remained
alone in the house, and on the following
morning it was dead.
The prospects for large wheat crop
in the United States are very good, if we
may believe the special reports from
tllirty-four States given in New York
paper. A late Chicago paper also has
an encourag ging word on this subject:
Fears were entertained few weeks
since that the drought would seriously
affect the growing wheat crop, but these
fears have been dissipated by the general
rain of Friday and Saturday nights, and
the fine growing weather now promised.
Reports from all parts of the country
show that the acreage Of wheat sown is
larger by at least ten per cent. than last
year, when the largest crop ever gath
cred in this country was grown. With
favorable weather henceforward it is
reasonably certain that this years crop
will reach $50, 900, 900 bushels. The corn
planting season promises to be most ia
vorable in the West. Everything con-