The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Pugh, of Alabama, Is 70, and Mr.. Sher-
man, OF Ohio and Mr.. Hunton, OF Virginia are
each 10 years old There are now several
frisky youngsters in the senate, and the aver
age age of the members is about IS years and
months.
general belief in the divine character
and healing powers of the sacred serpent
is TO be met with ali over Egypt, says the
Contemporary Review. Even the myths
which the old Egyptians associated with the
snake are still prevalent Egyptians Of all
classes still believe that when "a serpent
grows old, wings grow out of its body" and
that there are secpents which kill by darling
names IN the victim fac How old such
| bellefS are in this country need not be re-
! peated to those who have seen the pictures
in the tombs OF the kings at Themes The
! Seref, or flying serpent" and the SNAKE
/ from whose mouth flames issue are among
/ the commOnest Of the figures painted on their
| walls 1t is not, however, as kakodaemon, out
] as Agathodaemon, that che divine serpent
! OF ancient EGYPT Stlu maintains his chief
hold on the belief of the Egyptian people
/ Each house still has It's harI IS, or guardian
| snake commonly known as the harras ell
! bet, the protector of the house" the snake
| Is fed with milk and Gigs, and care IS taken
! not TO do II harm. A servant OF mine, VINO
! was born at helwan, near Cairo, has often
! told me about the guardian snake Of his
| father house. 1t was large one. and used
! 10 come out at night for the sake OF the 1000
that was offered ii and to glide over the bodies
| OF the sleeping family. 1t never did any OF
them any mischief, ''as it was always treated
! WE'LL One day stranger snake made his
| appearance at the door of the house; the har-
raS at once went gainst it, ana after a short
struggle killed the intruder.
1t is the common belief says a writer in
Longmans Magazine, that a surgeon must
possess what is spoken of as an extraordinary
good nerve, and you may perhaps doubt if
| you possess this At the same time you
must bear in mind that in the case of a
| surgeon the GOODNESS, or calmnesS, which is
! so admirable and necessary in an operation,
Ia of ram 1r
! able personal quality but 1t is the simplest
| result of a complete knowledge of what ne is
! doing. 1t is rather the natural outcome of
! MS accurate familiarity OF anatomy, ana his
! daily habit. A trooper would require very
hne nerve to so to masthead, or a sailor TO
| ride an unmanageable horse across country.
! but sailors confidence aloft is due more to
! matter of habit than to any particular
| amount of courage. In saying this, l do
not wish to depreciate the calmness of the
surgeon in the face of difficulties. but
may tell you quite plainly that If you haven
! enough courage to be surgeon 1 should be
very much ashamed OF you, and you would
turn out to be very poor creature, whatever
! occupation you might follow. Still this fact
remains and you may, perhaps, be interested
| to hear that l, who have known many good
| surgeons, have never seen one who has not
| possessed very fine courage. In short, a
very good surgeon is, in my humble opinion,
| very tine Fellow, and when l see (aS 20 See)
| the extraordinary achievements OF modern
| surgery, am'Very proud of belonging 10 "a
| profession which has made life so much more
endurable and prolonged to the human race.
| So, possibly, the great fascination which sur
| gerry no doubt possesses to many, appeals
| more strongly to men Of courage and deter
mination than to those persons of more
| weakly constituted minds, or to those who are
| less vertebrate altogether.
The act of parliament of June, 1924 in
| fixing the weight of the imperial pound,
! stated that cubic inch of distilled water,
weighed in the air by brass weights at a
temperature of go Fahrenheit and barome-
| ter at 81 inches, should equal 253 459 grains.
| The same act, says the St Louis Republic,
! fixed the weight of the standard troy pound
at 5.760 grains and the avoirdupols pounds at
| 1000 such grains troy at the same time the
! gallon was made to equal
| 10 pounds avoirdupois of distilled
water; the capacity Of the imperial gallon
| thus became 277274 cubic inches, represent
ing 1000 grains. A cubic foot of water
was reckoned to weigh 62,321 pounds avoirdu-
pois. The same standard was adopted by the
gas sale act Of 1889. The standard office of
the British board of trade in the fall of
| 1889 announced some important changes
in these long established standards. The
! report stated that the officers of the board
had been experimenting for over ten years.
| or since 1873, trying to ascertain the true
! weight OF cubic inch OF distilled water
| This report also shows that the law Of 1924
was based on weighing experiments that
| were made away back in 1913. The recent
perlments have resulted in new deductions
and cOnclsufOnS. 1t has been found that the
| weights of 1859 the ones still in use in all the
| text books, are in error and that the real
weight OF cubic inch of water is 252 2S6
grains. and not 212 ass grains. This excess of
about one sixth of a grain in the old weights
reduces the true weight Of the imperial gal
Ion nearly AZ grains; or, in other words and
| figures it contains 60 952 grains instead of
10000. In a cubic foot of water we lose 297
grains. The gallon of water OF 10 pounds now
| requires a capacity Of 20 F63 cubic inches,
instead of 277.2T4 inches, and the.
| true pint becomes "a ,693 cubic inches instead
| of "a, $50 cubic inches
question which has often been asked,
says the Boston Globe, but rarely answered
satisfactorily, is, how far one would have to
go around the earth, moving east or west
and supposing no time lost in transition, be-
| fore one would reach the point where to day
| changes into yesterday or tomorrow Evil
| IDENTIFY there must be such point somewhere
for an hour is lost every fifteen degrees one
goes to the east, tn1 an hour gained every
| hfteen degrees one goes to the west. To nut
| the question in another way, suppose it is one
minute past Midnight in Paris on the morn
ing OF Oct J, what day is it at that same mo-
ment at the antlpodes Of Paris? Is it Oct l
or Sept 30? Apparently one can prove that it
is either OF these days by making an nstan-
either to the east or to the west. Going east
at the moment the Paris clocks point to a
minute past midnight, it is approximately
at vienna, 2 o' "pSa5ng of the fl s of5,
day at Sebastopol 3 o'clock at Astrachan. 4
O'Clock at Bokhara, o'clock at Saigon,
!
Island and noon at Fortune Island-Oct at
every point. On the other hand, going west
ward, one finds that it is 10 O'Clock in the
evening of Sept. 30 at the Azores Islands. s
O'Clock in the evening at Baenos Ayres
O'Clock at New York, o'clock at New
Orleans 3:15 at Mexico City o'clock near
the Aleutan Islands, and noon at Fortune
Islands-the date being Sept. 80 in each case,
! Thus one has demonstrated that it is noon of
Oct. and noon Of Sept. 80 at the same Dlacc
and at the same time. This would certainly
be embarrassing to the good peOOle Of
| Fortune Island, and in order to avoid such
complications and relieve weI-rneaning
islanders in the Pacific from mixing up their
Saturdays and Sundays in hopeless fashion,
an art ltrary line separating today from
yesterday or TO morrow has been agreed uron
by the naViga' o s of civilized nations This
line has been drawn to avoid touch
| ing land. No one can be exactly sure of the
| moment OF passing it, but the line runs inst
east of the New Aebrides and thu New Gale.
| DOMAIN groups, and passes near the Marion
Islands and the Caroline Islands Captains
| of vessels, judging by the positions of the
| islands mentioned, can fix the date within n
| few minutes. Vessels sailing from west tn
| east. on passing this imaginary line simpIv
reCeat the day before on their log bocirs
I which consequently show TWO davs rearIna,
| the same date. On the other hand Sims 90
| ing IN the opposite direction skin the fo.m6r-
row and lose a day entirely In tho ttre+
Nnn Co IF.nsa