The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-20
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

A new contribution has been made to the
abundant data which have been collected on
the subject Of the attraction and destruction
of insects by the glare of the electric light by
L. hewitt an electrical engineer who was on
service on a ship OF the British navy during
the last war with Egypt. Mr.. hewitt was de-
slrous of testing the power of the searchlight,
and states that he and friend read news
paper one night as they sat in the garden of
their hotel at Port Said with the greatest
ease, the only illuminant being the light of
protector whose beam had been thrown a dis
lance of "A miles from one of the battleships.
Some of the ships had instructions to follow
the movements of the enemy by the aid of the
searchl1ght, which in every case was more
than two miles from the shore. However, in
spite Of this great distance, it was found that
millions Of winged insects were attracted by
the beam of light and travelled along the
beam until they struck the protector, and fell
into the well at its foot, where they accumu-
lated in seething mass two feet deep. They
had to be cleared out by the free use of a bose
pipe, and the process had to be renewed fire.
quently, and the insects became such a pest
that it was difficult to find man who would
stand by the protector to keep it working
owing to the attacks made upon him.
A correspondent writes as follows to the
Lahore Qndia) Civil and Military Gazette:
with reference to the protective effect of
certain colors against the suns rays. years
ago, on my way to India the second time,
from the effects of the sun, it occurred to me
to try the photographers plan. 1 reasoned
to myself that since no one ever got SunStroke
or sun fever from exposure to a dark source
OF heat or even to one which, though lumin-
Gus, possessed no great degree of chemical
energy, the furnaces in the arsenal for exam
pie, it could not be the heat rays, therefore,
winch injured one, but must be the chemical
ones only. IT, therefore, one threats ones
own body as the photographer treats his
plates, and envelopes ones self in yellow or
n rlr ra6 .rrT,N
and since the photographer lined the inside of
his tents and belongings with yellow, it was
obviously immaterial whether one wore the
yellow inside or out l had my hats and coats
lined with yellow, and with most satisfactory
results, for during five years and even ex-
IRENE exposure never since did the yellow lin
ing fall me; but every time that, either
through carelessnesS or overconfidence for
got the precaution. a very short exposure suf-
feed to send me down with the usual sun
fever. Many friends tried the plan and all
with the same satisfactory results.
In France they are burning diamonds as
sort of scientific amusement, says the Youths
Companion. It is only fair to say, however.
that the real object is not to amuse the ex-
perimenters and the public, but to learn some
thing Of the properties of that marvellous gem
which puzzles the chemist as much as il de
lights the Jeweler. If they have not yet dis
covered much else about it they have, at any
rate, found out Just how many degrees of
heat are required to destroy the glitterinQ
bauble. Some deep colored diamonds burst
into brilliant flame at various temperatureS
between GOO and 720o, while white Brazilian
diamonds, according to the experience of NJ
Henri Moisann, do not begin to burn below
76O' or 770o, and even then they do not become
lncandescent. Cape diamonds have been
found to be even more refractory, and when
heated in current of hydrogen ND to 2O0o
they remained unchanged. Cut stones how
ever, when thus treated sometimes lost their
transparency and brilliancy. Metallic iron
when heated melting int
energetlcally with the diamond and CRYSTALS
OF graphite are deposited as the fused mass
OF IRON and diamond cools. 1t win be remem-
pered that graphite and diamond are two of
the forms in which native carbon occurs II
is true that none of these experiments ap-
pears to give us any hint as to how to make
diamonds, but they tell us interesting things
ABOUT the precious jewel whose secret nature
guards so jealousy, and after al who would
wish That the art of manufacturing diamonds
should ever be discovered?
The very first pages of human history, the
annals of the Egyptians, record the fact that
the progenitors of our race were worshipers
of the dog says a writer in the St. Louis Re
public. Sirius Cthe Barker). the guardian of
the Nile, was one of the principal deitieS in
the country to the south of the Mediterranean
at the time or before the building Of the great
pyramid. This NEUROLOGICAL creature-SiriuS
which was supposed to give warnings
against the periodical foundations of the
Nile, and which finally came to be regarded
as the genius of the river was always figured
as having the body and intelligence of a man
and the head of dog This dog god was pIO-
rifed in all the chief cities of Egypt, and
Cynopolis-''The City of the Dog"-was sub
sequently built in order to more grandIy
honor his canine and godlize virtues From
Egypt dog veneration spread in all di
rections and, after assuming vari
Gus forms, may be distinctly traced into
Greek and Roman religious rites, as well as
those of other nations to the north and east
Long before the So-called fire wOrShirore n al
begun to pay divine honors to their dog god
the Romans and the enlightened ~ Greeks
had instituted sacrifices to their canine del
ties, and were daily and hourly bowling before
huge images OF mongrel ours. to which were
imputed divine attributes. At BABYLON and
Uneven the religious taste was of the same
order, as is proved by the many beautiful
sculptures Of dogs of all sizes that are recr,i
larry brought to light by the excavators
among the ruins of the cities mentioned. II
is related of Vulcan that he made brazen
dog of gigantic for Jupiter which could
eat, run, bark and play; in short a dog ami
mated by all the functions aud qualities of a
living one. Further than this the gigantic
breed of dogs common in Epirus MO
los1a) at the time when Herodotus
wrote were said to be descendants from
the brass automaton fashioned in the forge of
the first great metal artificer Bv the time
Moses appeared as the deliverer of the people
the reputation OF the dog had sadly degener-
ated; this for several reasons chief of which
was that he was an "unclean'' animal nv
reading Deuteronomy xiii, 49, we find that
the feeling against him was such that even
the price" received for the transferral of the
ownership of a dog from one to another was
not to be accepted as an Offering to God How
this was to be determined without pryinp into
peoples private affairs is not stated probably
the nigh priests had right to ask the regular
Sunday contributor, rs this dog money?" and
TO refuse to accept il if the answer was in the
Affirmative. However, we are left in blissful
ignorance as to how a great MANY old-tine
arrfe,1