The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-07
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ITEMS OF INTEREST.
There are many persons perhaps living
within the limits OF Aroostook county.
Maine. who have a faint idea OF its size.
SAYS the Boston Journal II Is truly a
county OF magnificent distances and i'm
meuse forests. Il II nearly as large as the
state OF Massachusetrs, and larger tnan
some OF the kingdoms OF the old world
Its forests are the largest in New Eng
land. and there are places that have
never been visited except by the Indian
ia the United States ArO0stOOk Is second,
one county IN California being little
larger. Only about one-ffth Of the coun-
" 5 under cultivation
Spiders throw on injured legs and re-
generate them. a. do crabs. Fishes ike
wise grow new fms. lizards their tails.
Snails and beetles supply their injured
and lost antennae and tentacles. Pig
cons. according 10 Volt. nave been known
TO regenerate their destroyed cerebrum,
together with its function. Birds renew
lost feathers, fishes their injured scales
and frogs their broken legs. Spailanzani
saw among the salamanders the four legs.
with their ninety-eight bones, besides the
tail, with its vertebrae. reproduced six
times within three months. In others the
lower jaw, with all its muscles, vessels
and teeth, was regenerated- The eye, in
this species, according 10 Blumenbach,
has been known 10 reproduce itself when
the optic nerve escaped injury and a part
Of the membranes Of the eye remained
intact.
Immense crowds are visiting the late
residence Of JEFF Wallis. a prominent
planter. IN the Kiningsworth neighbOr-
/ hood, in Bibb county. twelve miles south
! Of Randolph who died a short while ago
! says the Luzerne (Pa) Journal Mr.. Wal
| lis had dropsy, and before he died strange
| black spots appeared on his body. After
the funeral, when the room IN which he
| died was secured out. black spots were
/ found on the floor under the bed exactly
corresponding TO the spots on the dead
mans body, and no amount Of securing
| would bring them out The strangest thing
/ is that the spots come and go, and move
| from place to place about the floor, and
no matter where the spots stop they can
| not be secured out. If a plank is put
down IN the track of the shadow as 1t
moves across the floor, the shadow does
not show on the plank, but jumps to the
other side, apparently. The phenomenon
| is causing great deal of excitement, and
people from three counties have visited
| the house and viewed II. There is no de-
| nying the facts, and no explanation has
been found for the strange spots.
The ant is supplied, of course, with
| the rudiments of a nervous system, says
an exchange, but it is totally devoid Of a
| cerebrum and, therefore, of an organ of
/
| many Of the psychical powers OF man,
| such as building q place of refuge, pro-
! Viding homes, food, protection against
! enemies making war, holding slaves,
| having caste distinctions, etc. They eX-
/ hibit remarkable sagacity in treating
| their wounded, as do the wounded extra
| ordinary powers of recovering from
| wounds. Latville cut the autennae of an
| ant, whereupon other ants came and COW
| cred the wound with a viscid fluid, secret
| ed in their mouths. Moreover ants
| make use of ambulances in carrying off
| their wounded in battle and were proba-
| bly, the first 10 invent that cOntriyance
| FOR transferring the wounded. That
| some species Of ants rely entirely upon
| slaves for their support is vouched for by
Darwin, and the bee, without a cerebrum
| and possessing nothing comparable to
one but sensory ganglia. is famous for
| IT'S different castles, ranging from its
| queen TO its patient drudges.
The ancients made cake. says an ex-
change, but 1t was not the rich, highly sea
soned and favored CONNECTION which we in
dulge in nowadays. They had plain cakes,
| made with flour and water, some of them
| without suspicion of sweet or flavor.
Some of them were not unlike our plain
| est crackers and were often eaten as we
| eat bread. Wedding cake was an institu-
ton among them, as with US, but the cake
| was plain one and was broken above the
| head OF the bride as she went to her new
| home. This was a special feature of Ro-
| man marriages 200 years ago. The break
ing OF the cake was part of a solemn cere-
mony. All of the cakes of ancient history
are plain and simple. 1t is only as we
| come down to more modern times that we
near of spices and fruits and all of the
| rich and luxurious ingredients in which
| present-day cake-makers delight. In
| queen Elizabeths time spice cakes and
| buns were eaten at weddings. From these
the fashion and fancy grew for all sorts
of elaborate and deliciously unWholesome
| lions IN no q
perpetual struggle for something new and
more unsual to stir into the cake of the
period. Very many persons think cake is
unWholesome. Some sorts of cake may be
but why simple cake with little good
fruit In II should be specially Injurious is
a puzZling question. Cake made with fresh
sweet butter and fresh eggs can scarcely
be a tax on the digestive powers, and nc
other shortening save good butter should
ever be put into cake.
-Gunpowder has steadily developed as
mechanical skill constructed better and
better weapons in which to use it, say a
writer in st. Nicholas, until to-day it has
| reached perfection of manufacture for
| various purposes which allows its effects
| TO be foretold in any weapon, even to the
time it takes a grain TO burn and to the
distance 1t will drive a shot Saltpetre
| sulphur and charcoal are still the only
ingredients of the gunpowder in common
| use, although new gunpowder made OF
different materials is undergoing success.
full experiment. mixture of saltpetre
| and charcoal alone would form an explo.
sive, and sulphur is added chiefly TO make
II plastic or capable of being pressed into
cakes and shapes. All three ingredients
have to be purified by the most careful
chemical skill before they are combined
Then an exact proportion of each has to
be measured out according to the kind
of powder to be made. For the gunpow-
der generally used you would find In every
hundred pounds, If you could separate the
ingredients, seventy-five pounds of salt
petre, fifteen pounds of charcoal and ter
pounds of sulphur; but it would be almost
impossible to separate the ingredients
for they are not merely mixed together
as you might mix pepper and salt, but
they are ground and rolled and stirred
and pressed together by special machines
until they are almost suficiently united
to form single new substance. This
mixture is called "trituration," and the
powder is thus made into the form of bis
fiat cakes. called press-cake, and Their
broken up and screened into grains OF
special sizes or ground 10 the fine powder
used for shotguns and revolvers The
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