The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

AAGMS VI INTEREST,"
The island of the Cyclops. which is
| situated off the coast of Sicily, near
| Acicastello. has just been presented to
1 the University of Catania in Sicily by
its owner the Marquis Of Gravina Al
/ though the island IS only mile in cir
/ eumterence, its central point is over 81
/ feet above the level of the sea, and from
| a scientific point of view the island is of
great importance. The University of
Catania had long wished to get posses
sion Of the Island for neurological re-
/ search, and to establish an aquarium and
a piscicultural institute.
One of the funniest inventions of this
/ inventive age is a machine invented by
/ a farmer out in Madison county, Ken
/ lucky, Tor catching flies off the backs of
cattle. This fy-catcher is described as a
| sort of covered pen. or passageway.
| through which the animal must walk 10
| secure relief from flies. A few feet from
| the entrance is cupola or dome, made
| OF glass, IN the roof of the passageway,
| and this, on the f1y-trap principle, catches
/ the flies, and it is done in this way: The
| animal walks through the machine, and
| Just as ii passes under the dome a set of
/ brushes sweeps off the flies, which are
/ caught in the dome trap The inventor
mas found that the animals soon learn
| the value OF the machine for when the
! mes begin TO poster them they Immediately
walk through the machine. And that is
the 1unny part of it.
| given
ruined city lying in ancient Coele-Syria,
forty-ive miles northwest of Damascus,
| says the st. Louis Republic There Is
! nothing particularly remarkable about a
4 ruined city being found in the locality
| mentioned. but the size of the blocks If
| stone used by the ancient builders of this
/ particular city is something that has puZ-
! zled the modern engineers since the day
| when Baalbac was first made the Mecca
| of the Oriental traveller. There are inn
4 mense stones on every side of the visitor
TO TINS ancient pile of ruins, but the three
| most remarkable blOcks-Said to be the
/ largest ever used in the construction of a
! b1ilding-are in a wall back of the tenn
pie Of Baal. These immense stones are re
| sDectvely o. 60 and 81 feet in length and
each IS u feet in thickness, but the most
| wonderful thing in connection with them
! IS the fact thai they are at a place in the
How these immense blocks of granite
| were ever raised to such a hight is a
! question that has never yet been an
| swered.
| Western enterprise has just been illus
trated by man out in Lincoln county,
Colorado, says the New York Times. He
is the president of a district school board.
! as well as the father of two presumably
| interesting children. Apparently there
are no other children of school age in the
| district; at any rate there are no others
4 now seeking the benefits of an education
! there, and the president of the board has
| taken advantage of this fact to establish
| IIle seat OF learning IN his own pdTlOr.
| mere the lonely two receive instruction
| daily, and their father has Just turned in
| to the county bill of $24 for rent and fuel
The county superintendent of education
| VINO by the way, is woman, and there
| fore unable to see the amusing side of this
arrangement-has brought to bear upon
| the case statute which threatens with a
! heaVy line and long imprisonment any
| public officer who profits by a contract
/ winch he makes in his official capacity
| Ihe results are likely to be serious for the
| mOnODOlISf ri &c
| he did not earn forgiveness by making his
scheme really perfect, as he would have
! done II he mad appointed his wife teacher
itor. jan
In one of the old London banks a box
was recently found containing money and
/ Valuables which had not been opened or
called for in $50 years, and which now re-
| MAINS without claimant, saws the New
1ork tribune incidents of like sort are
! NOT lntrequent in banking history, though
Ihere IS no other recorded instance of a
| package held in trust remaining so long
uheHamln Some years ago the Mer-
chants National Bank of Baltimore dis
| covered box containing $4,000 in bonds,
| OF the pennsylvania railroad, the owner
snip of which could not at first he traced
| The coupons for the precedine. iifteen
years were still attached 1t was finally
! discovered that the bonds belonged to the
| HagerStown (Md) Bank, and had been de-
postted as collateral The president of
the Hagerstown Bank died; the cashier,
! was superseded, and the institution lost
| ali traces of the tranSa ction. The disaD-
pearance of the securities. however. al
ways remained an unpleasant mystery
unul IT was thus happily cleared up. In
| one OF the private banking houses of
| frankfort during the first half of the
| century, box containing large sum in
money and securities was deposited for
| Saie-keeping and, when called for a few
| GAYS a1terward could not be found. The
banker had himself received it, and. as
ne supposed, put it in a place of security
fnFTaa h.
| that ne went home and shot himself The
next gay the Treasure turned up safe and
SOUND, the receptacle. having in moment
| an ODD corner and overlooked.
-"Antivenine," remedy of the serum
class, invented by a doctor named Cal
mette has been subjected to the severest
practical tests in India, and is regarded
| in that serpent-ridden land as one of the
ages most valuable discoveries saws the
| New York Times. AS an instance of its
| power, an English medical journal tells
or Hindu boy who, while drawing water
| from well near Meerut. trod on and was
bitten by kraft" (Bungarus coerulus).
the serpent whose bite is considered more
| dangerous than that of any other snake
| IN India except the cobra. Two men who
were with the boy picked him up and
| carried him at once to the quarters of Sur
geon Major Rennie. That official says:
| mot more than three minutes ELAPSED
| from the time he was bitten to the time /
| bite, with its two deep fang punctures and
| the crescentic row of small teeth marks,
! was plainly visible on the inner side of
| the right foot. l at once injected 8 cent?
| meters of Calmette's antivenine serum into
| the simultaneous cellular tissue of the
| abdomen. At the same time the wound was
| treated with hypodermic solution of per-
manganate of potash. The patient was
| placed under observation and never had
a bad symptom He is now running about
| we'll. In two of the West Indian Islands,
| Martinique and st. Lucia, there is a snake
| called the fer de lance" Tourists are Of
| ten told that its bite is always fatal but
| as a matter of act the immediate appli-
| cation of remedies known to the local
physicians will prevent death. Still, the
| reptile is a sufficiently dangerous one to
| make the wilder parts of these beautiful
| islands almost impenetrable. and under
| the present treatment the wounds 1t in
| fiicts leave horrible scars. 1t would seem
| judicious for the West Indians to import
| the new "antvenine' at once.
Sir Henry Nance, in speaking of the
varied experiences which are specially in
cident to the life of a submarine telegraph
engineer, says that natural phenomena
are occasionally witnessed in the Persian