The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-05
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

w. a. p. Breeze of Linn county, Kan
sas, a local paper evolved the following
| beautiful 90 allegory: LAS the shades of
| night descended he blew ripplingly over
the smooth bosom of the dark river,
across the mystic plains and soughing
woods and into the Jasper walls of Para
dise-a gentle zephyr"
The advisability of using wine as a
portion of the regular rations of farm
horses is being seriously discussed in
France. The experiment of feeding the
animals on a mixture of bran and wine
has been made on one farm and the mat
ter has bee brought to the attention of the
Herault Agricultural Society. A commit
tee representing that body will inquire
into the subject.
1t was announced on April / at a sit
ting of abe Academy of Sciences that M.
Curie, a chemist. had separated a new
gas from rhodium. The gas is intensely
phosphorescent and will glow for months
in the dark. 1t was also announced that
NJ. Naudon, a scientist, had found means
of producing X-rays without electricity
| by exposing a metal plate to the rays of
the violet end of the spectrum.
In letter to a relative, Eric Boyd.
a Kansas soldier who is serving in the
Philippines, has this to say of the can
teen: prom practical experience (for 1
have been where there are no canteens
and also where there is one) l think ii a
good thing, A canteen sells only beer and
lunch, and such articles as cannot be pur-
chased in the commissary. I have noticed
that in places where there is no canteen
a great many of the soldiers drink the ma
tive drinks, which are about as poisonous
as wood alcohol and do a man Just about
as much good. If the temperance people
could visit these islands, anywhere out
side of Manila, they would not want to
do away with the canteen."
"A Paris Hill correspondent of the
Waterville IN. W Times says he has re-
stating that the red-headed woodpecker
has been seen storing up in an old tree
a quantity of acorns, which appears like
the forethought of laying up food. While
it has that appearance, still the nut it.
self is not the food which the species
eats. The writer suggests it may be the
bird secures and stores the acorns in Or
der that when they decay he may feed
on the worms which would naturally
breed in the process-a long headed pro-
cedure certainly. 1t may be true, how
ever. l know of an instance where
gray woodpecker in the spring Of the
year opened several holes with his bill in
the trunk of maple tree, and when the
sap had triekled down the side of the
tree, attracting the flies, he reveled in the
| feast which they furnished him.
1t is scarcely possible that the far
| reaching changes caused in military mat
ters by the experience of the war in
| South Africa will be without effect on the
automobile. Those who have given most
thought to the matter are the most in
sistent in the assertion that the military
| motor car ultimately developed will en-
| tirely revolutionze the whole conduct of
war What the steam engine is to the
| battleship its motors will be to the army
corps of the future Lord Roberts, in his
report on transportation, favors naphtha
motors for traction purposes. Lieut.. Col.
Crompton's experiences in the Transvaal
deal only with transports, but it is pro-
posed to enlist the motor for various other
purposes, including hospital and mail ser
vice, for siege trains, transporting am
munition, base supplies and telegraph sys-
tenn, and in some cases, fast tricycles are
proposed to take the place of bicycles for
staff officers use on lines of communica-
| ton
THE dean and chapter of Westmins
| ter" says Truth of London, ARE entitled
| to claim as 'perquisites' every article
| which is taken into the abbey for the
! purposes of the coronation, and that rev.
| erend body reaped rich harvests in 1921,
1881 and 1888 When the Queen was
| crowned there was a hand-to- hand fight
| after Her Majesty had retired from the
scene, between Lord Conyngham and one
| of the dignitaries, for a magnificent silver
! inkstand which had been in use, and the
| Lord Chamberlain, who was victorious in
| the struggle, hurried out of the abbey
with the inkstand in his arms and rushed
| off in his carriage, accompanied by my
| perquiste.' 1t is probable that on the
| present occasion there will be departure
| from the old precedent under which the
dean and chapter derived so much bene-
| fit; and that is a matter which will have
| to be considered by the Council Commit
! tee when the estimates from the various
departments come to be overhauled."
1t has long been known, says The Edin-
burg Scotsman, that healthy blood acts
| as a germ-killer in a remarkable degree,
| and that to this property may he escribed
| our freedom and safety from the attack
| of many of the microbes of disease which
| gain admittance to our frames. To what
| this disinfectant property of the blood is
| due is an open question. 1t may be due
| in part 20 the action of our white blood
| corpuscles in eating up and devouring the
microbes that may gain admittance to the
| circulation, while other authorities hold
| that the fluid Tor lymph of the blood is
| the real seat of the germ-kilhng powers.
| Recent Investigations have shown that
| on plague germs the blood apparently ex-
! ercises no power, but as regards typhoid
| germs and those of cholera il does possess
| germ-killing properties. This research is
| not concluded, of course, but it may serve
| to show US the reasons why we escape
| so frequently from the cloud of microbes
| by which, in civilized xistence, we are
perpetually beset.
DIR. Colin, of the French Army, has
| published Ola SaIud, January, 1901 the re-
| suits of his Investigations regarding the
| effects which the regulation military step
| of the disciplined soldier produces on his
| health and on his constitution. The reg
uiarity of the military step causes an in
| definite repetition of the shock affecting
| the bones and the brain which is much
more prejudicial than that produced by
| an irregular walk. DR.. Colin attributes
| to the regular and uniform repetition OF
| this shock on the same parts of the body
| much of the pains and diseases peculiar
to the soldier. During the march or a
single day this shock is repeated 10000
times, and the strongest men, who can
walk a long distance without fatigue
when using the ordinary step. yield to
| the tension caused by the military step
after two or three days DR.. Colin pro-
| 4 4. a -.