The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-26
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
"A boy aged II complains that he awak-


ened one morning to find he was blind,
says the Dental Record Previously, and
on going to bed the night before there
was nothing wrong with his eyes The
pupils We're dilated fixed, not influenced
by light; could not tell light from dark
ness. The suddenness of the attack point
ed to functional disturbances. Several
causes were looked for. bur examination
Of the mouth showed crowding and wedg
ing of the teeth together. Two permanent
and four temporary molar teeth were ex-
tracted. The same night he could distin-
guish light from dark and next day could
make out Objects and in a few days sight
was restored" He had no other treat
ment.
The year 1000 seems by common con-
sent to be considered the darkest moment
in the night of the middle ages, says an
exchange. The idea prevailing in the
church that the day of judgment was to
take place 1000 years after the birth of
our Lord was everywhere preached to the
people, and in many places the terror rose
to the pitch of suspending all activity
The cross was now adorned with the fig
ure of Christ, expressing as wildly as
possible, the agony of the passion, and a
gloomy view of the Christian mysteries
prevailed The only traffic that continued
brisk was one in relics and amulets which
about and vended for money, a trade
which continues yet.
Some one-the man who worried about
the end of the world, probably-wants to
know what we will do for gold when all
the gold fields are exhausted? 1t is not
worth while taking the trouble to answer
the question, but the presentation of it re-
calls the curious prediction of the Ameri-
can physician, DR.. Farrar. The learned
gentleman said that 800 years from now
we would delve in the earth for our gold,
but it would then all be contained in the
artificial teeth of dead people. DR.. Far
rar claimed that the needs of modern
dentistry would exhaust the supply of
gold in the time stated. According to his
estimates, half a ton of the yellow metal
was used annually in dentistry in the
United States alone.
"A great many people do not know that
Moses, the prophet, suffered so badly
that Aaron, his brother, did most of the
talking for him. 1t may also be balm to
some people who stammer to know that
Aesop, Virgil and Demos themes were like
wise afflicted. DemotheneS is said to have
cured himself by learning to talk with a
pebble in his mouth. Mrs. Inchbold, the
famous English actress, was another who
triumphed over difficulty of speech. More
than one of the French kings have been
stammerers, as were also Claudius Mich
ael II, Emperor of the East; Mahomet-el-
RAISER, King of Spain; Eric, King of Swe-
den; Admiral Annebant Tartaglia, the
Italian engineer; Boissy dAnglas, the
painter David, the critic Hoffman, Camille
| Desmoulcris and host of others.
1t is only within comparatively short
time that the existence of an organ proper
ly termed a brain in the lowest order of
animals has been recognized, says the
| Philadelphia Press OF course, very far
down in the scale of creation one finds
hardly more than system of nerve and
ganglia, with nothing especially recogniza-
! Bile as representing a brain. But even a
clam may be said to have a sort of brain,
though il is extremely small; it can be
| dissected and properly identified as the
thinking center or principal ganglion of
the creature. This principal nerve bunch
or ganglion has direct control over the So
called foot of the clam. When it comes
to the higher mollusks, argonaut and other
! cephalopods, il is found that they possess
quite large and well-developed brains.
1t is said that somewhere in the cen
ter of the Colorado desert there stands
the wreck of an old Spanish galleon,
which the only living man who ever saw
! it declares is loaded with gold. The man
]
vicinity and out of curiosity made a jour
! ney into the desert. He penetrated a part
! which had never been visited before. He
! found the vessel half buried in nearly
white sand. On returning he had some
! difficulty in finding his way back to civil
| zation, and therein, it is claimed lies the
! reason why he has never been able TO
reach the mysterious vessel since. It is
| believed the vessel was one which sailed
! into the California Gulf long years ago,
/ when 1t extended as far as the Colorado
! desert, and was then lost in the ocean of
sand.
The Lancet states that a surgeon in
the United States navy reports, as the re-
| suit of an examination in Japan the find
ing in that country, among 200 soldiers
some IS per cent. who were red blind
and 0.S33 per cent. who were green bind
| among 1913 boys / per cent. were red
blind, and among 20 girls, GA per cent.
! OF 596 men in Kioto 5.45 per cent showed
defective color sense. Dr. Fielde of Swa-
! tow, China, examined 1900 Chinese of both
sexes using Thompson well-known wool
tests; among 600 men were nineteen who
were color blind, but among 800 women
| only one. 1t seems, therefore, that the
! percentage of color blindness among Chi
namen is about per cent, and consequent
/ ly does not vary greatly from that in Eu-
/
Fielde that fully half the number who
were tested in blue and green, and, ac-
cording to this investigator, many of that
race is quite blind to the perception of
| violet colors.
As is well known, a frequent source of
"unaccountable" fires turns out to be, in
reality, the spontaneous ignition of vari-
Gus materials more or less saturated with
oils or fats, says the New York Sun. The
| following is considered a reliable list of
! common materials of the class which,
! when containing oil matters, will, under
! favorable conditions, oftentimes ignite ma
| turally: Waste, tow, rags, sawdust, shaw
| ings, cotton and wooden cloth, roofing felt,
! and in fact, all porous combustible bodies
! containing any oily or resinous substance
| having an affinity for oxygen. All vegeta-
! bic and animal oils have more or less af-
finity for oxygen, while those produced
! from the distillation of petroleum and
shale are practically Enacted upon by the
elemAnts, but the oils which oxidize in
| the air most rapidly are the vegetable oils,
such as linseed, hempseed, poppy oil, etc.
Briefly, by far the most frequent source