The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-12-16
TIMELY TOPICS.

TIMELY TOPICS.
The Palma Christie plant. o being
extensively planted in parts of South
Carolina as a substitute for cotton, is as
easily cultivated as corn, requires no par
ticular care in handling the seed, and
yields a large profit. The climate of
Lower South Carolina is all that could
be desired, and on the sea islands the
plant attains remarkable growth without
labor or attention.
The supreme court of Indiana has just
decided that a man whose mill was fired
by the negligence of a railroad company
may recover full damages therefor from
the company, although he may have been
paid for his loss by a. insurance com
pany. The court held that a contrary
decision would give the wrongdocr the
benefit of IN insurance on which others
had paid the premiums.
Professor V. G. Riley, the we'll known
entomologist, has presented to the Ma
tional museum his collection of insects,
which contains over 20, 600 species, and
more than 115, 900 mounted specimens,
beside additional unmountcd material.
A large number of books and pamphlets
accompany this gift, which is considered
one of the most valuable ever received
by the government.
The expression "galvanizing a corpse
has ceased to be exclusively m%etaphori-
cal. NJ. Kergovaty, a %Frenchman, has
discovered a method of preserving bodies
by giving them a metal coating. We
may, according to our means, become
silver plated, nickel plated, or galvan
lied with zinc or copper. The process
has been thus far tested successfully on
eleven human bodies and more than one
hundred times on the carcasses Of AMI
mails.
The cave out of which General Israel
Putnam dragged the wo:f is seldom
visited, because it is in a stony, noun
famous forest in a remote corner of Con-
necticut. A picnic party this summer
made the tedious trip, which involved
several miles of rough walking. There
arc pictures in primers of Putnam enter
ing the cav erect, with a blazing torch
held above his head. The hole is really
so small that it can only be explored on
hands and knees, and an adult cannot
turn round in it. The length is 800
feet, and tradition says that he followed
the beast to the farther end, shot him
between the eyes by their own glow,
and was drawn out with him by means
of a rope.
A young man in Chicago, last sum-
mer, suddenly found that one side of his
face was ailing. An hour or two after
ward his right eye refused to close: and
the paralysis of the whole facial region
was complete. He went to the doctor
and found that parsonage treating thret
other young men for exactly the SAINT
affection. The right eye remained open
four weeks. The sense of taste wa
greatly weakened. The main nerve,
which had been shut off by a decrease
in the oriicc of the skull, was finally
ioosed, and no chronic effect beyond a
slight optical weakness followed in any
of the four. 1t would be interesting to
know, adds the Current, whether or not
tobacco had aught to do with these re-
markable cases.
In some recent scientific experiments
on the effects of cold, two frogs were
frozen solid in a temperature of about
twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and kept in
that condition half an hour. On thaw-
ing slowly they recovered perfectly, but
it was found that longer periods of ex-
posurc invariably killed the animals.
The experiment was tried of freezing
Dramatically sealed meat, so as to kill
| it's bacterial organisms, and thus render
it incapable of putrefying. 1t was found,
however. that so low q temperture as
eighty degrees below zero would not
destroy the vitality of micro organisms.
It was thus made clear that the attempts
to preserve meat for a long time by a
momentary freezing of it must be aban-
doned.
The ladies of Japan show not less
readiness to adopt Western ideas and
usages than the Japanese of the other
sex. The bellies of Yeddo order dresses
from Paris; and the progress of imita-
ton has gone so far. as to make a knowl-
edge Of the fashionable dances of Eu-
rope an indispensable feature in the ed
ucation of every japanese lady who
respects herself. A riding school is
about to be opened in Yokohama ex-
clusively for the use of native ladies, and
it promises to be largely patronized.
The japanese government is about to
take a step which will have the effect of
bringing the more solid branches of
Western education within reach of the
female subjects of the mikado. A mum.
Der of young women are about to be
sent to Europe to receive q thorough
training in the essential branches of fe-
male education as it is understood there,
with a view to their subsequent employ
ment as teachers in their own country
when qualified.
A French periodical lately gave some
remarkable statistics concerning savings
banks. Fifteen European States, with a
,.,,1o@;o, of 400 mn nm :, ;,,1,l,1