The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-03
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

are cdIAeSAiy hoping II Will meet the re-
qulrements, believing that the outcome
would be the establishment of a British
naval station at st. Johns.
Switzerland. though she spends only
$4,000 yearly on her army, can turn out
10000 trained men in two days in case of
need, and has a reserv of 10000 more and
Landsturm of 10000 The army maneu-
vers this year viii. be held in the noun
taIns of the Engadine.
France has just ratified a convention
with the Shah of Persia by which. in re-
turn for a large money payment, she OBJ
tains the monopoly of archaeological eXca-
VatlonS in Persia. j. de Morgan, late di
rector of excavations in Egypt has been
appointed TO superintend the Persian in
vestigations.
Col. W. H. Benyaurd of the United
States engineering corps, claims to have
invented a method of Kidding the rivers
in Florida of the water hyacinths. The
colonel will submit the plan to the war
department, and if it shall prove practi-
cable the experiment will undoubtedly be
made at once.
"A curious deed was recorded recently
in New Brunswick, N. J. The deed gives
to Charles Banks the privilege of allow
on the property of Mrs. Sarah Edwards
to the extent of four inches, and binds
the heirs of Mrs Edwards for the same
encroachment. The consideration named
is $40.
The state capitol of Texas is the larg-
est state building in the United States
and the seventh in size among the build
ings of the world. 1t is a vast Greek
cross of red Texas granite with a central
rotunda covered by a dome 81 feet high.
1t was begun in 1881 and finished in 1883,
having cost about $3,5000OJ. 1t was paid
for with 100000 acres of public land deed
ed to the capitalists who executed the
work.
The Bath, Me, Independent is told by
man who has become a slave to the to-
bacco habit that. although he can't leave
off smoking without going nearly crazy.
he has found that by chewing dried hops
and swallowing the juice he can get along
comfortably by using much less tobacco.
He carrles in his pocket a package of
prepared hops. and, breaking off a small
pinch" of them, moistens them before
chewing, in some water.
Almost one-quarter of the pictures at
the royal academy in London this year are
portraits. Rather less than 200 of these are
in oils, about the same number are in
water colors, as are in sculture and the
rest in either drawings or engravings. It
is supposed that the reason of this great
display of portraiture is TO be found IN
the condition of the market, for there is
at present time but little demand for pic
lures of any other kind.
Hiding behind tree will be useless in
the next war, according to surgeon who
has been taking notes in Cuba. The bull
let from Mauser rife goes through a
large tree with ease. 1t seems to be true
that the bullet often passes through the
human body without disabling the COM
blatant the wound of exit not exceeding
| in size that of entrance. The older fire.
! arms of the Cubans are said to be far
| more destructive than the modern rifles
| of the Spanish troops.
| "A grewsome publication is 1.-THE Diary
of Resurrectionist," a genuine docu-
| ment now printed for the first time in
| London. The diary was kept by Joseph
| Naples, a member of the principal gang
| that supplied the London hospital with
| subjects from November, 1911, to Deem
| Der, 1872. 1t tells what they did night by
night, where they went. what luck they
had, to whom they sold the bodies, and
| what profits they made. The original is
| in the Royal College of Surgeons
Several authors of the sixteenth cen
fury mentioned the existence of a man
who, having lost his eyesight, could see
through his nose, says the Philadelphia
| Record. The story, much doubted at the
| time and pronounced fabulous by physi-
| cians is nevertheless true if the resea rch-
| es of r. Douliot prove correct. 1t seems
| that the victim had lost his right eye ear
| y in life, and later on while climbing on
a cherry tree fell upon fence, the pickets
| horribly mutilating the left eye, the cheek
and the nose. The surgeon called in con-
| sidered the eye entirely destroyed sewed
up the wound and it healed in time, form
| ing a large scar where the eye had been.
| A year later the man, then considered
| stone blind, laid in the grass, when he sur
| prised himself by discovering that he could
| perceive through the cavity of the nose
the sky and the color of the flowers on the
| meadow around him. From that time on
he practiced for five or six years TO see
| with his nose, which TO him became prac-
| tically the organ of vision. He gradually
| became more proficient in seeing in this
! way and could see everything beneath him
| while he remained quite insensible to the
| light from above The condition of this
man can be explained scientifically AL
| though the lens of the eye had been torn
from its socket by the fall, the optic men,
| brane and the nerves at the rear of the
| cavity of the eye had retained some of the
| seeing power. When the eye had healed
together a small hole in the bone over the
nose must have formed which acted as a
| lens in the same way as pnhole can be
used to take Photographic picture. This
| also proves that the retina of the eye acts
| like a camera obscura where the objects
llfrom the outside become visible when the
| rays of light arrive there after passing
| through . small opening.
The results of an investigation regard
ing the camphor tree are announced in a
bulletin of the agricultural department
just issued. 1t says that for most of its
| secondary purposes the camphOr tree may
| well be cultivated wherever it can be
made to live. But for the distllaton of
| camphor gum and oil, with a commercial
view, and for the production of wood for
| cabinet purposes, 1t must be grown under
the most favorable conditions. The mini
| mum winter temperature should not be
| below 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The soil
| should be sandy well drained and irriga-
| ted, unless there are abundant rains, and
| plenty of food rich in nitrogen is required
| for rapid growth. The consumption OF
camphor in this country, as measured by
1 tho TrnpOrfa ftol1e ba bnpf1 degrpa sing tlIr.