The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-25
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Y
! serva9iOn. This is a cock with no signs
of spurs upon the tarsi, but with couple
/ of Well-developed spurs upon the head on
either side OF the comb, giving the crea-
ture the appearance of being horned.
| These mock spurs are not attached TO the
skull, whatever they may originally have
| been, but are loose. Instances are on rec
ord of spurs being grated on to combs,
but, so far. no similar case is known to
have occurred in nature.
The French government, having been
unsuccessful in it's endeavors to purchase
the chateau of Bagatelle, in the Bots &c
Boulogne, at what it considers TO be
! reasonable price for use in connection with
The entertainment of the royal and i'm
perial personages who are expected to
visit Paris during the exhibition of 1900,
has decided to devote 10 that purpose the
so-called pavilion de Flore, which is the
only part of the palace of the Tuileries
that escaped destruction by the In
surgents during the commune of 1871.
The pavilion de Flore is very handsome
| building. with a high roof and chimneys,
and looks onto the Seine. During The
days of the empire it was used almost ex-
| clusively by the Empress Eugenie who
| had her apartments there. There is plenty
| of room both for the royal and imperial
| visitors and their suites. But consic-
| cradle amount of money will have TO be
| devoted to adapting the interior arrange
| ments to modern requirements. Just al
| present the pavilion de Flore is being oc-
cupied by the minister of the colonies and
| by the officials of his department.
Investigations recently made for the
British Medical Journal by two leading
scientists on the household filtration of
water for domestic use have just been
do
| ments the experts tested practically all
! the filferng media and better known fiji
| ters as to their power of arresting cholera
| and typhoid bacilli when present in water
| These experiments show that the only
! efficient media for filtration are forms of
| porcelain and different compressed silici-
| GUS earths and natural porous stones, and
| that carbon in its various forms, either
alone or compounded with silicious or
manganiferous material whether in
blocks, powdered, or granular asbestos in
different forms, spongy iron, compressed
| celulose, etc. are all unreliable, and in
most cases worse than useless. The best
results were obtained with some of the
pressure filters, made of porcelain, com
pressed siiicious earth, ETC., which are ar
ranged for fitting on the taps in use in
most houses, and several of these on the
market not only give practically sterile
water, but filter sufficiently rapidly to
make them of practical utility for every
day use.
The first railroad running to a port on
the Arctic sea is the continuation of the
Vologdo Railway, in Russia which is now
finished to the port of Archangel, on the
southeastern corner of the White sea, and
at the mouth of the River DVina. This
new line, which was opened some weeks
ago, is nearly 400 miles in length. The
Vologda -Archangel Railway passes for
| the most part through deserted or sparse
| ly populated regions, or across "tundras
| and marshes, which are sometimes fifty
| feet in depth. The whole nature of the
| country through which the new line passes
| was unfavorable to its construction
Marshes and patches of bog and swamp
had to be filled in; the newly made en-
| bankments were continually giving way,
| and had again to be built up until the
necessary stability had been obtained Six
| iron bridges and numerous bridges of wood
were required. The wooden bridges are
built upon piles driven in some cases to
| a great depth beneath the surface. The
new line is of military as well as COM
mercial importance, for it must play a
| leading part in the opening of the north
| ern provinces of Russia. 1t will furnish
| an outlet, for instance, for the deposits
| of petroleum which exist in Northern
Russia, but have not been worked on ac-
count of the lack of transportation.
Some interesting experiments have re-
Gently been carried out in France by NJ.
Pagnoul on the much-debated question of
the value of nitrogen in the form of nj
| trates, as compared with that in sulphate
of ammonia, on different crops. The ex-
| periments with beets, clover and oats
were made in large pots, sterlized sand
being used as soil; the results obtained
showed the suphate of ammonia to be
distinctly superior to the nitrate of soda.
| The yield of the crops in all cases was
nearly double when the same equivalent
of nitrogen was added in the form of
sulphate of ammonia as compared with
| the nitrate of soda. NJ. Pagnoul concluded
from his experiments that nitrogen ap-
| piled in the form of sulphate of ammo
MIA was directly assimiated by the plant.
and more rapidly taken up than the nj
| trate. Under the conditions of the experi
ments there is no doubt that this was the
case and it is very probable that the
same results might be obtained in many
| cases IN actual practice and in field ex-
periments, but these results are known to
be very largely modified by the compost
| ton and physical condition of the soil.
and before they can be accepted as uni
versally true generally they would have
=
iments under varying conditions. as quite
as good results have been obtained with
nitrates as with ammonia salts.
Approaching the fact that the
high chalk cliffs of Eng
land are no protection against
the sea, the Dutch engineers did not at
tempt to place an artificial vertical wall
against the wave and the storm tides. hui
coaXed the sea to deposit its sands on the
shore and so build it up, rather than throw
them inland and then, hungry for more
eat into the shore, says the. Engineering
Magazine. They believed it best to sat
isfy its appetite, but induced il to TOW with
the sands which its own f1ood-currenrs
| and waves bring from other shores and
from the offing depths. The sand thus de-
posted blows in the gales over the in
land country. The engineers induced it
to stop and build a barrier for then
against the sea. One of the heaviest bikes
along the coast was bunt by the winds
themselves. The sand formed between the
jetties becomes dry in sunny weather. ard
the surface is blown ashore when the wind