The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-31
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

from mat point, show that by administer
ing honey diluted in water to smallpox
patients the pustules of the worst variety
disappear and the fever is Immediately
diminished. The matter attracts much at
tention. The remedy was accidentally
discovered By a young girl who was down
with the disease, who secretly refreshed
herself with honey and water, with as
tonishing curative results, and it was
then tried on soldiers sick with the dis
ease.
Prof. Maspero, the renowned Egyp-
tologist, is authority for the statement
that among the royal mummies unband-
aged in 1866 was one of a young man who
had evidently been embalmed alive. The
body had been tightly bound in three
places and then coated with bitumen,
lime and pounded rosin, and then wound
from head to foot with bandages which
had been soaked in some glutinouS pre-
paration. The agonized expression of the
face and other evidences gave the sclen-
lists their clue. His age was probably
about %. The gold ornaments on his
body indicated that he was of high rank,
and likely the victim of some terrible
tragedy.
lin the menagerie at Central Park, says
the New York Outlook, are two big lions.
Most of the time they lie drowsily on the
bottom of the cage. Recently a gentleman
viewing the animals desired to see them
reused and angry. He took from his
pocket a white handkerchief with a red
border and hirted it in the face of the
lion lying nearest the bars. The lion,
whose eyes were only half open, and who
looked as quiet as a sleepy kitten, sprang
to his feet with a roar that shook the
building, caught the handkerchief from
the gentlemans hand, and tore it into
oh To hot he lnt
endure familiarity The children fled in
terror, and doubtless in the future will
prefer to see the lions sleepy.
"A taxidermist is thus quoted in the
Washington Times: ''Feathered as well
as unfeathered bipeds take to dieting when
a superiority of adipose tissue makes
them uncomfortable. The pokeberry is
the chief weapon with which those know
ing little cratures fight embonpoint. The
larkS and thruSheS are the chief banterS
and they follow the practice just after
breeding time. when it is necessary for
them to be active, in order to secure food
for their young ones. I have watched a
thrush feed for a whole day just after she
had Matched out a nestful of fedgelings,
and during the twelve hours she ate moth
ing but the pokeberry. I do not know
whether or not that part of humanity
which suffers from too much fat took its
tip from the birds, but it is a fact that
many of the anti-fat remedies contain an
extract of pokeberry."
"A simple and easily constructed musl-
cal instrument, says the Scientific Ameri-
can, consists of a number of ordinary
glass bottles filled with certain quantity
of water, the hight of which is varied ac-
cording to the pitch of the note to be OBJ
tanned. After few tentatives it will be
Ill IL.
their octaves, including the sharps and
fats. The tuning of the apparatus, how
ever, requires a good musical ear. The
bottles are suspended by the neck by
means of strings, from two broom han
dies resting upon the backs of two chairs.
In order to produce the sound the bottles
are struck with two rulers, or, better,
two drumsticks. With this arrangement
airs in two parts may be played; and
there may be two performers one playing |
on one side without interfering with the |
performer on the other side. In the hands |
of good musicians this apparatus is very
pleasant to listen to.
Prof. John Milne has informed the
members of the Edinburgh Philosophical
Institution that an earthquake occurring |
in any portion of the earth could be re- |
corded in any other part by means of suit |
able instruments. He showed diagrams of |
earthquakes recorded in England which |
had originated in Japan. The motion came |
from Japan to England in sixteen min
utes, and, therefore, in all probability it |
Travelled through the earth rather than |
around its surface. This high velocity |
with which motion was propagated indi- |
Gated that the earth had higher rightly |
than had hitherto been supposed; in fact, |
the globe transmitted motion more quick |
ly than ball of glass or steel. He sug
gested that there should be placed on the |
earth's surface at intervals of from LOCO /
to 1000 miles instruments for picking up |
the unfelt earthquake motion. The cost of |
these installations would be about $3.50 /
each, and twenty of them would be suffi-
cient. With such an equipment he said /
we might learn more about the interior of |
the earth in three years than we should /
by hundred years of speculation.
Gen. Grodekoff, Russian general who
made name by ride to Herat some years
ago and who now holds a command on the
Amur, gives an interesting account of a
remarkable march of 5000 miles made by
Russian troops says the Baltimore Sun.
rms account appears as an order of the
day in the Invalide Russo. after a
march OF nearly years duration the |
fourth and eighth battalions of the line
OF Eastern Siberia, as well as the second
and fourth batteries of the artillery brig
ade OF Eastern Siberia, arrived in their
new encampments in the Amur district in
the middle of June. These troops march,
ed 1000 versts (say 5000 English miles). of
which 1000 were by land and 5000 by water.
The most trying part of their journey was
that accomplished on RATS between Chita.
Stretensk. and Blagovestchensk or about
,5OO Versts, between the middle of Nav and |
the middle of June. The weather was cold
and rainy, and the rivers were very swol-
en- and their current rapid. To overcome
these difficulties the men had to work
fourteen hours a day. At certain stages
ot the Journey the body of troops cover
ed an extent of twenty versts between the
advanced and rear guards. During the
Whole or the march the losses were only
Two oft1cers and four soldiers dead. two
oincers and twenty men left behind i'm
me hospital along the route. The hat
'enes lost twenty-nine horses"
The use of the term Storage battery"
says a contributor to the New York sun.
conveys a wrong impression to the popu-
ar mind. 1t implies that the electric cur
rent is ponderable substance, like water
which can be gathered up and stored awav
n bulk. This is not true. The onlv An.
Vention which comes near TO nrodnc,ns