Morning journal and courier., 1885-01-12

| tioned to their degree of impurity. Acting upon this fact NM. Proust and Fauvel have | been cultlVatlng various river waters in gela-
 tine, and afterward, by the use of micro
 scope constructed for the purpose have suc-
 ceeded in counting the number of micro scopic organisms in each centimetre of the
 fluid. The water of the Vanne, which is
 cohsidersd good, contained II ,OOO bacteria
 The Seine water was found to contain | 24S,0 ,0O0 of the organisms, thus justifying the | serious complaints made against it. The l results arrived at by the microscope are in exact accord with those obtained by the l ordinary complicated and expensive chemi- l cal analyses.
 England is agitated over the recent sen tence of hanging pronounced upon Elizabeth Gibbons, convicted of the murder of her husband at U1bridge The man was killed by revolver when his wife was with him, and the case, as presented to the jury, was that 1t necessarily must be either suicide or murder. With these alternatives only the jury decided that it was murder. It is not till the woman IS convicted and sentenced that the public mind suddenly wakes up to the fact that at least a third possibility should have been presented, to wit, that the man might have been threatening the woman with the revolver, that she might have at tempted to seize it, and that in the conse- quent scuffie and struggle the weapon might have exploded in his own hand and killed
 him.
 In paper recently read before the Shang-
 hai branch of the Royal Asiatic society Dr.
 McGowan affirms the claims of the Chinese
 to be the originators of gunpowder and fire
 arms. This claim was examined in elab-
 crate paper some years ago by the late MT
 Mayors and decided by him in the negative.
 Dr. McGowan admits that gunpowder as now
 used is a European discovery. Anterior to
 it's granulation by Schwartz it was crude
 compound, of little use in propelling mis-
 siles. This, says the writer, is the article
 first used in China. The incendiary materi-
 als stated by Greek historian to have been
 employed by the Hindus against Alexander's
 army are stated to have been merely the
 naphthous or petroleum mixtures of the an
 eient Boreans and in early times used by the
 Chinese. The F'stinkpots" so much used by
 Chinese pirates is Cambodian invention
 Dr. McGowan states also that early as
 the twelfth or thirteenth century the Chinese attempted submarine warfare, contriving rude torpedoes for that purpose In the year
 1000 an inventor exhibited to the then Elm peror of China "a fire gun and fire bomb' He says that while the Chinese discovered the explosive nitre, sulphur and charcoal in combination, they were laggards in its appli- cation from inability to perfect its manufac- ture; so, in the use of firearms, failing to prosecute experiment, they are found behind in the matter of scientific gunnery.
 A notable feature of the message which 1 Governor Jarvis sends to the North Carolina legislature is his reference to the relations of the two races. It seems that in 1879 the 1 colored people of North Carolina organized l a State Industrial association, for the encour- agement of thrift and industry among the colored people, especially in agricultural and l mechanical pursuits. This association has l held State fairs each year, which, the Cover nor says, have been very creditable to the | association, as well means of improve ment among the colored people, and there l fore beneficial to the State. The officers of 1 the association desire to hold an exhibition | next fall which shall be open to the colored I people not only of North Carolipa, but of | other States, and they have asked him to | an appropriation of s1 ,000 from 1 the State treasury to aid them in the work. | Governor Jarvis not only indorses this re- l quest, but he goes further, declaring that he considers the enterprise so praiseworthy that l he recommends the appropriation of $2, ,000- twice as much as the colored men asked The | Governor naturally passes on to some general remarks about the colored people of the | State, cheerfully bearing testimony to the | fact that, with rare exceptions, they have been orderly, law-abiding citizens during his term of office, that he has always been re- ceived by them with the greatest deference and respect, and has had the cordial support of the better element of them in the admins ration of the law.