The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.


The banana is said to be the most pro-
life of all food products, being thirty-four
times more productive than potatoes and
l23 times more than wheat.
When a marriage takes place in China
the wedding party enter the temple end
light a quantity of fireworks, including
number of crackers. This is supposed to
wake the great joss from his sleep. The
priest repeats the service at express speed,
the bride and bridegroom take two little
glasses of wine and are then declared Inan
and wife.
Here is an advertisement from an old
copy of an English provincial journal:
Wanted for a sober family, a man of
light weight, who fears the Lord and can
drive pair of horses. He must OCCASION
ally wait a table, join the household
prayer, look after the horses and read a
chapter of the Bible. He must, God will
ing, arise at o'clock in the morning, and
obey his master and mistress in all Jaw
full commands; If he can dress hair, sing
psalms and play at cribbage, the more
agreeable. Wages, 10 guineas year"
A feat accomplished by DR.. Macpherson
who was attached to the force led against
King Mwanga in the last Uganda cam
| paign, is entitled to honorable recognition
/ <
and the men, though only slightly wound
ed by such, inevitably died Macpherson
set himself to discover an antidote to the
! poison in which the arrows had been dip
ped, and was led to try injections of
strychnine. This treatment was attend
| cd with entire success, not a man being
! thereafter lost from mere poisoning. DR..
! Macpherson, 1t is said, invariably succeeds
! in bringing the wounded men round in
| about a couple of hours.
Experiments are being made with dou-
BILE stacks for locomotives both in this
country and England. In the American en-
| gineS the division is made with the OBJ
! ject of securing an equal distribution of
| draught between the center and outer
| fiues, while in the British locomotives the
smoke-box is divided into two separate
| chambers by a horizontal plate, so as TO
| get an increased draught for the lower
| flues. Figures obtained from recent tests
! show a considerable saving in coal over
| the use of the single stack, and it is prob
| able that further and more extensive ex-
! periments in this direction will be carried
| on.
Prof. E. D. Preston, of the United
States Coast and Geodetic Servey, now
declares that the earth is not a sphere,
! but that it is shaped like a spinning top
| with the peg toward the South Pole, Gays
| u w dSllAlSlOA ulSJdlCn " Tic NEW IOlh
! World. Mother Earth has assumed
! new form, from the scientific point of
! view. OF course the Terrestrial body has
not really altered its shape, but an exact
| understanding as to its figure has been
| obtained by scientists. Lest it be sup
| posed that the idea is mere theory unsup-
! ported by substantial facts, it should be
| explained that the basis of 1t lies in GER
| tain measurements of the earths surface
and in various pendulum observations
made within the last dozen years.
Investigations in the line of physlolog
ical psychology show that in the case of
the vast majority the brain attains its
| maximum weight by the age of fifteen and
| examination Of sections of the spinal cord
| have shown that between the time of birth
| and the age of fifteen there has been 100
| per cent. increase in the number of devel-
oped nerve cells, while an increase of only
| 4.6 per cent. has been shown after fifteen;
the brain also shows, with advancing age,
| a decline in actual weight and in the num-
| Der of connective fibres which afford the
| physical substrata for thinking and for as
ISOLATION Roughly expressed nerve cells
| are said to be plastic in inverse proportion
| to their ages. Further, nerve cells have
! been shown to decrease in volume some so
| per cent. as a result of fatfguing exercise.
| Exercise, however, of every sensory and
| motor brain tract is very beneficial when
not carried beyond the proper point such
exercise putting the nerve cell in the best
| possible condition for assimilating more
| nutriment and developing more fully; in
| action In any tract tends to an undeveloped
spot and to atrophy.
Official tests of the eyeslght of Balti-
| more school children-tests ordinarily used
| by oculists-to the number of ,O67 show
some interesting and suggestive results.
| More than 5000 pupils were
| 10 r. dol IN
as to make school work unsafe, while SO
| per cent. of the children were found not to
| be in the enjoyment of normal vision Gu
riously enough, this percentage of defec-
tive eye-sight steadily decreased with the
| age of the pupils. The percentage of nor
NAL vision was found to be as follows in
the different grades. First grade, 3d. sec
ond, Il; third, II, fourth, 49, fifth, 4S; sixth
As; seventh, 81; eighth, Sc. No explanation
is offered for this Improvement in eyesight
! with age and the use of the eyes under
| school conditions. 1t was found, however
| that many blaCkboards and maps in the
schools were not placed in the proper light
| and the report of the OculistS recommends
yearly examinations hereafter of the pu-
! pills eyesight; also the adoption of a uni
form system of adjustable seats and desks
adapted to the nights of the children.
Permit me to call attention to the dele
terious effect of the electic light on trees.
says a writer in Meehan's Monthly. In
front of my house all the trees that are
within fifty or sixty feet of the big arc
lights lose their leaves and show many
dead branches. One tree within fifteen
feet of one of these lights is nearly dead
GL is a maple. A tall elm about thirty
feet away as fast losing the leaves from
the long pendent branches-and a butter
nut in front of my window is fast going
the same way. To test this point I have
! taken walks of bout twenty miles in
| tent through the city streets, with the
same result visible everywhere, so I am
convinced the electric light is hurtful TO
most trees. They can't sleep with those
big, glazing electric eyes shining from s
p. m. to 8 a. m. or Whereabouts. be-
| lIeve there is also a chemical action from
these lights. The trees cannot live in
almost eternal day-they, like human or
animal life of any kind, want rest. 1t is
only near these lights the decay Is so