The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-05-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ITEMS OH INTEREST.
In France there are 100000 smokers
and of every fifteen there are eight who
smoke a pipe, five who smoke cigars and
only two who use cigarettes. Still, they
use more than S09.0O00CO cigarettes a year,
or enough to go around me world 500 times
if they were placed end 20 end in a line
In the greenhouse of W. W. Hendrix,
on Park street. says the Bowling Green
CKy) Times, can be seen a most curious
and rare plant, the only one of its kind
ever in this city, and few, if any, of our
people have ever seen or even read of such
a plant, or rather a tree. 1t is tomato
tree" now years old, and six or eight
feet high, with trunk several inches in cir
conference. The top spreads as other
trees and has large leaves, something sim
liar to the catal9a. This peculiar tree
grows in the open air in summer, but needs
protection in winter The fruit is of a
rich, orange color, and is said TO be or a
delicious flavor, making most enJoyable
dish served with cream and sugar. The
tree is now in bloom.
An interesting discovery was made re-
Gently at Hampton court in the course OF
the excavations for drainage pipe. Be
tween the ratings of the private gardens
the foundations of the old water gate Or
water gallery built by Henry VIII have
been cut through. The walls or piers
are of immense thickness, being no less
that twenty-five feet wide, and they are
made of the hardest chalk faced with
stone. The opening through which the
state barges passed is clearly discernible
On these massive foundations, which were
built in the river, formerly rose pic
tuesque palace of several stories. 1t was
famous for being the place in which Queen
Elizabeth was kept as a prisoner OF state
by her sister. 1t was finally demolished
by William III on account of its obstruct-
ing the view from the windows of the
palace.
The latest Harvard observatory circu-
lar says that tho faint object found on pho
tographic plates recently near Saturn is
probably a satellite of the latter, al
though there is a small possibility that it
may be much more distant planet 1t is
not an asteroid. The finder, Prof w. II.
Pickering. has name it Phoebe" The lat
est computations Indicate that it mas
diameter of 200 miles. If the orbit of the
satellite is circular, the period of its rev
olution about the planet is either 400 or
1900 days-sixteen and a half months, or
the time required by Jupiter to go once
around the sun. The photographs in which
the Phoebe appears were taken in the
Southern Hemisphere on Aug. 16, II and IS
last year. The batch for a month later,
now overdue at Cambridge, will doubtless
show the satellite in new places, and thus
assist in more exact estimates of its orbit
and period.
The temperance of spotted fever in
Philadelphia will raise again the old ques-
ton of the diseases origin, says the Phila-
delphia Press. Opinions have been freely
expressed of late, but in no section of the
country has the controversy waxed so
warm as in Kentucky, where it was natur-
ally in proportion with the spread of the
fever. DR.. John f. Cashin of Louisville,
has made a careful study of the disease
and has come TO the conclusion that the
germs do not generally arise from decaying
vegetation He says: "Decomposing saw
dust might generate maiarial germs, but
at this season of the year, or perhaps at
any other season, there could be no posi-
bility of a spread of spotted fever from
this cause. Sporadic cases of spotted fever
are occurring all the time, and OCCASION
ally the disease develops into an epidemic
apparently without cause" The germs of
the disease-of which in one small phial
tnere couIu De Kept enough to kill all
Philadelphia-are very delicate, like those
of most deadly maladies, and the bacteri-
ologist is forced to renew every few DAYS
the preparation of beef tea in which thew
are kept. '
One of The most interesting nbasas con-
hected with sleep, says Harper's Magazine
IS that in which a determination. formed
over hight, thai we should wake at a GER
DnfC frtr
In certain instances with which I am ac-
quainted the idea acts perfectly. in otbers
1t acts occasionally, and In other cases
again, it fails completely The explanation
OF TINS habit depends on what one NAV
term dominant idea," or an idee fixe
as the French term it. There is something
akin in this waking notion to the ''doroi
nant idea" with which a hypnotist NAV
impress his facile subject. If we substi-
tute for the hypnotist the individual him
self, or mayhap the idea of the friend who
has been impressing upon him the neces
slty for sounding the reveille at a given
hour in the morning, we can discern the
rationale of the action with a fair degree
OF clearness. The dominant idea in th+.
shape of the necessity for awakng at
certain time is impressed on the brain and
1t is probably transmitted 10 those auto
matte OF lower centers which rule our me-
chahlcal acts, which are responsible for
the visions of the night, and which are
capable of carrying out, either in the en-
tire absence of consciousness or in the
exercise of a sub-consciousness condition.
many complex actions. Through the hours
of sleep the dominant idea remains i'm
pressed on these lower centers. The head
of the business sleeps on, while the night
Waterman is awake and so, prompt to
the time, or shortly before or after it, the
desired result is attained, and the slum-
bering brain is awakened to the full meas
ure of its activity.
1T seems a shame, says Harper's Ba-
Ear, to connect thoughts of poison with,
for instance, such delicate and lovely
things as that baby of the flowers, the
snow-drop, as the narcissus with its de-
licious breath, as the hyacinth and the
Jonquil. But one is obliged to see TO ii
that the children do not put the bulbs
of these flowers into their mouths The