The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-04
ITEMS OF interest,"

-Nansen invented the medeIl the
Fran, making her hull round andpery,
like an eel, with no corners or shsedges
for the ice TO seize upon. She is ttFong-
est vessel ever used in Arctic exiation.
He said that pressure would sly lift !
her on the ice, and so her bottf near
the keel, was made also fiat in az that
she might not capsize while one ice
surface, and her screw and rud. were
also ingeniously protected. The liy ex-
perts who said her design woulCtk save
the Fran from instant destrucii we're
mistaken, for she met these restss ice
pressures, and they merely lifteer out
of her cradle, and she rested safeon the
surface.
The practice of wetting a lepencn
on the tongue before using it In un-
clean habit, to say the least, IA per-
haps also dangerous one. A nan of
fine bearing and elegantly dresl step
ped into the counting house of oof the
papers few days ago to insenn ad-
vertisement. Having no pencbf her
own, she then picked up a pentwhich
was tied with string to a pad ed for
writing. At once she moistened e lead |
with her tongue, and began to we. An |
elderly lady who was standingg, re- |
minded her that the pencil had il been |
used by an old man, ragged andirty, |
greasy and filthy, who also had ctract- |
ed the same habit OF wetting thbencil |
on his tongue every time he pte
word. The Disguised woman flu the
pencil away, and scolded the younnan
behind the counter until he sharped a
brand new one for her use and heft.
The habit is a foolish one. Instel Of
making the pencil write more freelland
easily, it hardens it and makes it irite
blurred and irregular. Newspaper zen
and those who use lead pencils a eeat
deal, never dampen the lead in the meth
or with a sponge. Besides being injri-
Gus to the lead, it is a dangerous haAt.
inasmuch as disease has been known to
be conveyed in that way into the system
An extremely interesting clinical ap
plication has been made by Prof. Bouch
ard with the famous Rontgen rays, say
a Paris letter in the New York Medica
Record. He has shown US a series o
photographic proofs that in their wa!
surpass anything that has yet been dom
with the rays, at least in so far as tn,
practice of medicine is concerned. TIL
proofs of the first series give perfectl,
delineated images of a pleuritie effusiol
at the different stages of it's resorption
In one of them, in which the pleurisy Il
complicated with an inter-current com
plication, the induration at the SUNNI
Of the lung is distinctly and clearly mark
ed. The proofs of the second series hav,
reference to tuberculosis, giving the pho
tographs of the thoracic cages of a mum
Der of patients affected with pulmonar!
tuberculosis. The presence of two cav
ems diagnosed by association and per
cussion is confirmed in a most remarkable
manner, as are also other .esions. Enough
has been said in this brie, note of Prof
Bouchard's valuable and ntw contribution
to science to show from a clinical stand
point what immense services the X-ray.
are destined to render in confirming thu
diagnosis made by auscultation and per
cussion, not only in the cases of pleu
risy, but also in pulmonary tuberculosi!
and pneumonia, more especially in the
stages of Repatriation. We may look fol
still further interesting iesults shortly il
this field, as Prof. Boucbard assures us
that he intends to prosecute his studio.
with the photograph in oiher diseases as
well.
The magnitude of the bog slide in the
Killarney district and widespread ter
ror caused by it are deptted in specia
correspondence to the Chicago Chronicle
which states that the mass of mud com
prised 200 acres in extent, was a mile anC
a. half wide and in parts thirty feet deep
The course taken by the bag EXTENDED
over nine miles. The bodies e the Don
nelly family, which was wiped out by tn,
mass of muck, have not been recovered
yet. About 200 years ago-it was in 1887
Limerick was the scene of a like catas
trophe. There was heard as in the cas-
of this latest landslide, a subterraneal
noise as of thunder, and then the quiv
ering mass swept on like slow novin.
avalanche, carrying with 1t pasture lands
and finally settling on neighboring mea
dow some sixteen feet above its origina
level. Visitors to Lyme Regis or E4
mouth will remember the landslide of I'll
ty-seven years ago between these places
which has left such a picturesque chao
overlooking the sea. Only three years an
nine months ago there was a great slid
at Sandgate by Folkstone, affecting thre
miles of cliff and half Wrecking the town
And the cliff is sliding down every yea
both at Folkstone and Dover, so that
is now proposed to scarp it under the ar
cient and renowned castle. A little owe
seven years ago there was loss of sixty
six lives at Quebec by "a landslide belo
the citadel, and it is scarcely more tina
sixteen years since slip at Nynee Ia
| in the Himalayas cost the lives of thirt
| British officers and seven times as man
natives Ninety wears ago mountain D'
hind the RiSi slipped bodily and engulfe
| over 800 Swiss peasants. In 1893, in
| Himalaya Slip a whole hill fell into
| river in Bengal and formed q. deep lax
| The Kerry disaster is lamentabe enough
| but il is clearly traceable to the wet sun
mer, and perhaps TO touch of the recei
| slight earthquake
The violin consists of three parts, tn
neck, the table and the sounding boar'
says the Detroit Free Press. The string
are tuned in fifths, the compass of the il
strument exceeding three octaves. Til
violin assumed its present shape i'm the b'
| ginning of the seventeenth century. Man
| attempts have been made to improve upo
! the original idea, but it is significant ths
] the oldest Violins are ever regarded as ii
! best. The instruments manufactured b
the Amati. Stradivarius and Gnal
nerius families. of Cremona. al
especially celebrated. StradivariI
or, more properly, Antonio Strs
dwarf. the great violin maker. wa
born in 1919 and died in 1877. Almost III
whole of his life was passed in Cremon'
Italy. where, in his gloomy workshop,
spent his deys and most of his night
| He was in early life a workman in the vi,
| lin factory of Amati. also a famous violi