The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-11-05

TOPICS OF THE DAY.


TOPICS OF THE DAY.
The English language consists O
about $4,000 words; of these about
23.ooO, or nearly 1ve-cighths. are o,
Anglo-Saxon origin. The majority Of
the rest. in what proportion we can.
not say. are Latin and Greek; LS\in
however, has the larger share. =.
In commanding the proposition tc
change the date of the national
thanksgiving to October IL, the day
on which Columbus first sighted the
outlying islets of the New World, the
Toronto Globe asks why Canada should
not join with the people of the United
States.
The great cathedral of St. Peter at
Moscow, built to commemorate the re-
lease of that city from the French in
vasion, is now almost completed, and
it is said that its vast cupolas rival in
coloring with the gold and scarlet of
the sun. They are five in number,
and no less than nine hundred pounds
of gold were used in overlaying them,
The doors of the temple cost $4,000,
and upon the marble floors were ex-
pended $l,500,000 Ten thousand
worshipers can be comfortable, if their
souls will let them, within this $l2.-
100000 temple.
Cocoanut celluloSe is a new SUBJ
stance, and if it possesses the quality
claimed for it, England may go back
to her wooden walls with safety and
beat up her self-destructive rams fer
old iron The patentees claim that
ship cannot be sunk by shot or shell
if only she had taken the precaution
of coming into the fight with this pc
culiar tissue us a great coat. When
shot, no matter what its dimensions,
strikes the side of frigate the carpen-
ter and his mates need not jump to
cram in the old-time plugs, for the
cellulose Immediately closes, and
drop of water will not enter.
The science of criminal man will
receive especial attention at the An
thropological Congress which is short
ly to be held at Rome, and a curious
feature of the meeting will be an ex-
hibition illustrating this subject
Here the student will find a collection
of 700 classified skulls of criminals,
with the photographs of 5000 convicts
and the brains of more than $50 Wax
masks of large number of criminal
celebrities will also be shown. To
these will be added many specimens of
the litersry and mechanical work of
criminals;a a record of physical and
moral observations on 500 criminals
and on 800 ordinary men; graphic
maps of crime in Europe with refer
ence to climate, food, institutions, sui
eide, etc.; and tables of the stature of
criminals in relation to the length of
the arms, and of crime in towns CON-
pared with that in the country.
The investigation of thunder storms
is becoming more and more specially
with scientific men. France has made
an important study of them for a
number of years. Bavaria and Bel
9ium have more recently taken them
up, and in our own country, as well as
elsewhere, considerable has been I'M
dertaken in this direction. In re-
cent report by Lancaster, on the
famous storm of 1879 in Belgium, the
conclusions previously announced |
there are confirmed, namely, that
storms occur only i'll the
southeast quadrant of the barometric
or great cyclonic storms
that frequently sweep across temper
ate latitudes. But there still remains
to be found the actual mechanism of
thunder storms, concerning which so
many opinions have been put forth.
1t is thought that the matter will
probably remain in doubt until settled
by the same kind of investigation that
the inward spiral path
Of cyclonic winds-synort:c charts for
. stormy afternoon, with hourly or
even half-hourly intervals, and stations
only mile or two apart, would prob
ably settle the question beyond dis
pute.
The Bulletin of the Geographical
Society of Marseilles estimates the
,otal number of Jews in the world at
1877, ,602; that is 5,407, ,6O2 in Europe,
245,000 in Asia, 413,000 in Africa,
100000 in America, and $1,000 in
oceanica The European Jews are
as follows: 1,643,70S in
Austria Hungary. 56l,6l2 in Ger
many, $4,000 in Great Britain, 5000
n Belgium, 3,946 in Denmark, 1900
n Spain, 10000 in France, 1852 in
Greece, 1873 in Switzerland, S,693 in
Sc. .2S9 in Italy, 600 in Lux
'mburg, 200 in Portugal, 260,000 in
aoumania, 2,552, l45 in Russia. 3.492
n Servia, 5000 in Sweden and Nor
way. and 10000 in European Turkey.
There are about 10000 in the Asiatic
provinces of Turkey, $1,000 in Persia.