The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-25
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

cred like the precious metal, to which il
| bears a striking resemblance when pol
| ished. The cost of manufacture is about
"a cents pound.
"A new telephone, invented by Pierre
German, an inspector of telegraphs in
Paris, is attracting much attention in
| France. From the little that can be
| cleaned from the first experiments made,
1t would seem that the telephone was ca
| pable of reproducing sounds with great
| ly increased phonic power, but with a loss
in clearness. In the experiments, the re-
| ceiver having been brought closer 20 the
ear, moi single intelligb.e word could be
| heard; but the greater the distance be-
| tween the receiver and the ear, the clearer
was the sound reproduced. The first de-
| feet, 1t is said, has been remedied. When
| the experiments were made with this In
! strument men and women walking in the
| streets, althoug more than 100 yards dis
| tant from the receiver, would stop and
stare, wondering whence came the voice
of superhuman power which they heard
| above the din of the streets. So powerful
| is this instrument that when used in
| connection with photograph, it is capa-
! bic of emitting audible sound waves to a
| distance of nearly 1900 feet.
! Coal tar has yet another conquest to
record. 1t threatens to supplant the indigo
| trees of india and Java by supplying an
| indigo chemically identified with and in
hnitely purer than that hitherto on the
market. As long ago 1882 a German
! chemist, DR.. A. Won Baeyers, discovered
| several methods of obtaining indigo blue
| from cinnamic acid and bitter almond Oil
which themselves are a product of coal
tar, but all were too costly for commercial
! purposes. Other chemists took up the
work where Baeyers had left it, and after
| nf foiF Il i II
months ago that the Baden aniline and
soda works at Ludwigshafen on the
Rhine, were in a position to supply indigo
| obtained by an Improvement of the pro-
cess discovered by DIR. Baeyers, and at a
| price low enough to compete with natural
! indigo. The raw material for the new
product is naphthaline, a constituent part
| of coal tar, known to the public as an ex-
cellent remedy agaist moths and which,
by series of elaborate operations, is con-
verted into indigo blue.
"A London telegram in the Baltimore
Sun says: DO we age more slowly than
our forefathers did? is a question asked
by DIR. w. Ainslee Hollis, physician at the
Sussex County Hospital, in this weeks
| Lancet, and answered by himself in the
| affirmative. He quotes statistics in sup
port of his argument, and refers to many
cases of famous veterans in Europe who
continue to uphold their early regulations
| for longevity, which, he says, is one of the
most striking features of the present age.
Undoubtedly the improved sanitary condi-
tions in modern times, the gradual educa-
ton of the people in the science of living
and the more mature age at which people
marry nowadays extend the period Of adol-
escence. DIR. Julius Althaus discusses the
question how to prevent old age, and says
the only way is to be careful to appropriate
nd he
has studied and experimental upon for
over forty years. He lays the charge
against doctors of having for too long
neglected electricity in cases of debility
and exhaustion, in which he himself has
often obtained results"
Mrs, NJ. Fleming, recently appointed
curator of astronomical photographer the
hrst woman whose name has ever ap-
peared in the catalogue of Harvard Uni
versity among the officers of that institu-
ton. The Photographic study of the heav-
ems, and especially the photography of
star spectra, has been a notable feature
of the astronomical work of the Harvard
observatory, and the director, E. c.. Pick
ering, has long had the valuable assist
ance of Mrs. Fleming. She has not only
acted as custodian-in-chef of the count
less pictures taken in Cambridge and at
the South American station of Harvard
but she has given to the plates such care
full scrutiny as to enable her to make
many interesting discoveries. She has de-
tected several new stars, merely by finding
peculiar spectra an the photographs, she
has elucidated a law relative to various
stars, and has devoted a great deal of at
tention to what are known to spectroscop-
lists as stars of the fifth type. Mrs. Flenn-
ing has a staff of q dozen women IN her
department of the observatory.
"A Paris cablegram of Saturday says:
NJ. Blanc, who together with his broth
er-in-law, Prince Radziwin, and Roland
Bonaparte, owns the great gambling es-
adjustment at Monte Carlo, has just con-
Guided a several years contract with the
municipality of Ostend for the privilege
of running the gambling establishment on
the Belgian seashore, which has hitherto
been known either as the Casino or as
the Cercle Prive. Some 81 O00,0 900 consti-
tute the net profits of the past season.
and under the circumstances 1t is not as
tonishing that there should have been an
exceedingly keen competition for the priv
ilege of running the gambling table. NJ
Blanc's offer surpassed all others in at
tractiveness, and he has undertaken, in
return for a lease similar to that by
which he holds Monte Carlo, to act as
literally toward Ostend as he has done to-
ward the capital of the Prince of Monaco
That is to say, he will take charge of the
entire expenses of the Ostend municipal
ty, besides devoting large sums to the
construction of public buildings, theaters,
schools, etc. and generally adding to the
prosperity and attractiveness of the
town."
If scientists are to be believed, says a
New York telegram in the Chicago Record.
the telephone is a constant menace to the
public health and the abode of grip
germs. This is what DIR. E. John Kauff-
man of Sc West Thirty-third street said to-
night: More cases of grip have been
coughed and sneezed into the telephone
to be contracted by the next user of the
instrument, than have proceeded from all
other sources combined. There has been
much speculation" he went on, "as to the
causes of the recent epidemic of grip
which has not yet spent its force. To-
gether with one Of the leading bacteriolo-
gists of the CITY, l visited several of the
finest hotels and also a number of the