The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-25
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


prize Of $3.50 in gold TO every baby born
this season aboard Of either Of its two
new palatial steamers Northland and
Northwest Five hundred dollars IS the
prize for twins, and 1900 for triplets. The
only condition is that the officers of the
company shall name the babies.
1t is the general opinion that the
Sahara is a barren, uninhabited and unin-
habltable sandy desert, sometimes ira
Versed by caravans which are threatened
with the awful and deadly simOons. This
is a very erroneous idea, says an ex-
change. A French bOtanst, who has just
returned from an extensive exploring trip
through the entire territory of the French
or Algerian sahara states that the Whoie
stretch with very few eXceptiOns) is solid
and fertile soil, and inhabited by a great
many people and animals. In 1894 the Off
cial records show that 5000 go sheep, which
pay over $4,000 revenue to the govern
ment, were living in the Sahara proper.
Taking the value Of these sheep at 81
piece, this represents property OF SO
Ooo.O0. Besides, there are 100000 goats
and 10000 camels. There are a number
OF cases where fruit. pepper, onions and
many other vegetables are grown Many
natives who still cling to nomadic life,
prefer to spend the winter in the Sahara
TO remaining near the shores of the Med
lterranean in the rainy, winter season.
Clement Spelman of Narburgh. record
er of Nottingham, who died in 1879, is inn
INJURED upright inclosed in a pillar in Mar
burgh church, so that the inscription is
directly against his face, says an ex-
change. This must surely be the one soil
tary instance of burial in a pillar, although
there are many other instances of burial
in an upright position. Thomas Cook, who
was a governor of the Bank of England
from 1871 to 1879, and who had formerly
been merchant residing in CONSTANT
nople, died at Stoke Newington. Aug. II,
1852 and by his directions his body vas
carried to Morden College, Blackheath, of
which he was a trustee; IL was then taken
out Of the coffin and buried in a winding
sheet upright in the ground, according TO
the eastern custom. Ben Johnson was
anH
sttion. Possibly this was on account of
the large fee demanded for a full-sized
grave. 1t was for a long time supposed
that the story was invented to account
for the smallness of the graVestone; but
on the grave being opened some years
since the dramatists remains were dis
covered in the attitude indicated by ira
dition. The following quotation from
Hearn's Collection of Antiquarian Dis
courses" shows that an upright position
OF burial was anciently adopted in the
case of captains in the army: For them
above the grounde buryed, l have by ira
dition heard, that when anye notable cap
tayne died. in battle or camps, the souid-
yers used to take his bodye and TO set
tie MN on his feet uprighte, and put his
launce or pike into his hand, and then
ms Fellow souldyers did travel and everye
man bring so much earthe and laye about
him as should cover him, and mount up
TO cover the tope of his pike"
IL the human heart be considered as
pump, says the Electrical Review, it
can be shown that it does 124 foot-tons of
work in "A hours; the work spent by the
muscles in breathing amounts to about
p foot-tons in "a hours If these figures,
which are given in a contemporary, are
correct few interesting, though other
wise useless, deductions from them may
De made. me power of operating the
heart is then equivalent to 3.S9 watts and
that Of the lungs to O66, making a total
OF 400 watts. This amount of power
would develop a light of about two can
dies in an incandescent lamp; a man is,
therefore, continually, day and night, do
of NV
him alive at rate equal to that in
Yep inCandeSCent electric lamp. If the
luminous efficiency (or. better, ineili-
ciency Of the tncandescent lamp is per
cent, this amount of power if converted
into cold light would represent 40 can
dies, which would make every man, wise
or otherwise, a shining light, and would
supply all the light necessary for him to
live without artificial lighting; or in
other words, if he had some organ sim
liar to that in the fire fly, he could, by
eXertng the same power as ii takes to
operate his heart and lungs, surround
himself with a flood of light. As man
power is usually rated as about one
eighth hp, which is equal to 1913 watts,
his efficiency, when fully loaded" con-
sidering only the internal losses, would,
therefore, be about 50 per cent. which
is remarkably high. especially when We
consider that he is supposed to have been
designed many thousand years ago, and
| to have been degenerating ever since.
But this does not take into account that
both heart and lungs will work much
work; the good result is, therefore, only
apparent and not real. Nevertheless,
some men are most efficient when doing
| treadmill work. AS we do not know the
fOot-pOund equivalent to the food which
| he eats, nor the amount, 1t is not posi-
BILE to carry these useless figures any
further. 1t is of interest, however, to
| note in this connection that Prof. Thurs
| ton considers man very efficient ma
chine, by which, we suppose, he means
as a converter of the energy OF food into
| mechanical power.
| -WOrkmen engaged in laying the foun-
! dalton of a large factory at Leeds, Eng
/ land, had occasion to split an immense
section of stone known as milestone grit, "
| says the StLOuiS Republic. The stone was
! a section of perfectly sound and compact
] rock, ClOse-grained and solid. After the
| wedges and hammers had laid it open it
| was found that one-half contained a cast
| of a perfectly round ball, and that the
| other contained the ball itself. This spher-
| ical mass appeared to be of a putty-like,
/ yelowish clay, slightly dried on the out
| side, probably from the eXposUc the
| block of stone had been subjected to after
| being taken from the quarry. One of the
/ workmen, more curious than the others,
| took a trowel and removed the clay ball
| and then cracked IL open to ascertain if
| 1t contained crystals, such balls fire.
| quently do To the surprise of the inves-
| tigator. however, and that of his compan-
| ions, who had not exhibited sufficient GU
| rioSity to make such a critical examina-
/ talon, it was found that the ball contained
a live toad or frog. The creature was tor
/
! the same. After a few moments in the
| fresh air, and being subjected to a refresh
| ing bath from the water jug, the toad be-
| gan to stretch out his legs and initiate his
| body, whereupon ii was found that he was
| almost twice the size of the native Brit
| ish toad. This surprising discovery was
made in the evening, while several gentle
men were standing about watching the
masons at their work. Among these was
| son of Prof. W. A. Williams Young
| Williams called out to the workman who
| had made the discovery that he would give
/ him a sovereign for his prize, the clay cast
| and the stone in which it was found This
price was considered ample, and the ante
| diluvian toad and the home he occupied
| for SO many hundreds of years are now
safely resting on the shelves in the mu-
| scum of the Leeds Geological Institute
| According to the scientists the milestone
grit is the oldest of the secondary rocks,
| and must have been formed many centu-
| ries before the deluge. The only explana-
ton of this strange discovery is that the
toad was rolled up in clay ball and that
( the milestone grit hardened around him
| Thus sealed up, he had lived in torpid
| state for thousands of years.