The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-01
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

pieces, to be coined after q new pattern,
and the workmen are working night and
day to complete his order
M. BONNER has been trying the effect
Of Rontgen rays on the growth of seeds,
especially bindweed seed, while preserv-
ing the grains from the influence of heat
and the electricity. He finds that the
growth of the plant is remarkably quick
ened by the rays. His experiments were
brought before the Academic des Sciences.
-Romanes showed that seeds could be
kept a year or more In a vacuum without
detriment to them, and it has also Deen
found that when sealed in vacuum tubes
they do not exhale nitrogen or carbonic
acid. Prof. Dewar and Mr.. Horace Brown
of England have demonstrated that seeds
can be submitted to a temperature as low
as that of liquid air $50 degrees below
Zero Centgrade), for 100 hours without
impairing~ their power of termination.
Recently, while excavatlng some land
for the construction of the municipal sew
age outfall works at Stockport, Cheshire,
England, a gigantic fossilized oak, with
two branches complete, and computed to
weigh over forty tons, was unearthed. 1t
is quite a unique specimen, being larger
than any oak at present growing in Eng
land, and its solidity and beauty of color
and grain are alike remarkable. Prof.
Boyd Dawkins of Owens College, consjd-
ers it cannot be less than 10000 years old.
"A curious ancient method of auction
ing lands has just been observed at Old
Bellingbroke, England, a village near the
Lincolnshire coast The company assem-
bled at the village inn, and a tallow can
die was then placed on the table and a pin
- -
wick. light was applied to the wick,
and biddings began and were briskly con-
tinued until the tallow was burnt to the
pin and the latter dropped. The last bid
der before this occurred was declared the
purchaser.
Perhaps it is owing to Lord Kelvin's
paper at Toronto, in which he showed
that the existing fuel of the world would
only last 500 years, that the Canadian
government has changed its policy with
regard to the timber of Manitoba and the
Northwest. The heavier belts are to be
Withdrawn from settlement, and young
trees 10 be saved for the future. Guard
ians will be appointed to take care of
| the reserves, especially in the Turtle and
Moose mountain regions. Fires and the
cutting of young trees by settlers will be
| prevented as far as possible. Roads are
| also TO be made through the reserves be-
I tween the lakes.
The Japanese baby is christened thirty
days after it is born. 1t is presented in
the temple, upon which occasion the father
| gives the priest three names written on as
| many pieces of paper. These the priest
| throws in the air, and the one that first
reaches the ground is the one the child is
| thereafter known by. This is not the
only name given it. AS a matter of fact
| the japanese are the most generously
named people in the world. On attaining
| majority name is given, and another if
| a certain rank is attained. Even death
| does not end the business, for even after
a japanese is laid in the grave a new name
is given, which is inscribed upon the tomb.
The Chinese were weavers nearly 5000
years ago Joseph's famous coat was
made camel's hair. Under the old Mo-
| sale law the Hebrews We're moi allowed to
wear garments of mixed linen or wool. 1t
| is said the American Indians made cotton
| garments before the coming Of Europeans.
| Calico came originally from Calieut, In
dia. Broadc!oth originally got its name
from it's width. There are more than go
600 varieties of wooden goods known. Per-
sons with incomes less than 100 pounds a
year were forbidden to wear furs in Eng
land in the fourteenth century. An Amer
! lean society organized for the encoura ge-
ment of wool production in 1865 forbade
| the eating of mutton or lamb The Sar-
aces introduced cotton cloth into Eu-
rope in A, d, 500
"A mile and a half north of the city Of
Salisbury, England, is the site of the old
Roman town of Sorbisdunum-now known
as "Old Sarum. Before the Romans it
was the center of a considerable popula-
ton, as it was also during the Latin occu-
patton. Councils ecclesiastical and civil
| were held there, and the town was the
seat of bishopric. After the removal of
the cathedral to New Sarum or Salisbury
in the thirteenth century the old town site
was rapidly depopulated, not a single IN
habited house in the entire district This
fact led to some peculiar complications I'M
der the famous parliamentary reform act
of 1881. Under its provisions Old Sarqm
was entitled to two members. notwith-
standing the fact that it was entirely de-
void of inhabitants, or anything to denote
the presence of humanity excepting a few
lonely sheep walks traversing number
of mounds, trenches and embankmenfs,
marking the sites of the old Roman city.
"A correspondent of Nature recently
noted this singular fact in connection with
strychnia. Some wheat, which had been
| poisoned by soaking IN a solution OF Strycn
nine, and which was intended for
killing sparrows after having been kept
| for some time in cardboard boxes was
found 10 have become infested with wee
wills On examination it was found that the
| boxes We're full of weevils and their excre-
ment, and the wheat was more than half
| eaten. Strychnine was found to be present
in the wheat, and in apparently still larg-
er proportion in the excrement~ of the Wee
| wills so that ii had evidently passed
through the digestive apparatus unchang-
| ed. When so little as from half TO three
fourths of a grain of the alkaloid is suf-
| ficient to kill a strong man, the difference
between the role played by the alkaloid
| becomes very striking. 1t has been found
| that the weevil Authonumus, druparum
can feed with impuhty on kernels contain
! ing hydrocyanic acid, while the same acid
administered TO caterDillars of Deiopeia
pulchella caused them quickly to die, al
though they were quite unaffected by the
poisonous principle of the Calabar bean,
| known as eserine.
in a recent article by Mr.. r. L. Po-
cock in the BIOLOGIST on THE Strdula-