The Savannah morning news., 1901-03-12
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

All analyst WHO mas Idltty DtSH
turning his attention to tobacco says that
20 per cent. of the total weight of cigars
remains in he ash, says an exchange.
The stump contains four times as much
nicotine as the smoke, and as the average
cigar contains only 1.12 per cent. of nlco-
tine, comparatively little of that alkaioid
ever reaches the mouth. This analyst
found that the only constituents that
could be harmful were carbon monoxide
and an ETHEREAL oil. The former can prob
ably be ruled out The latter, consisting
of pyridine, a phenol, and probably fur
furol, but very difficult of analysis is
highly poisonous. causing symptoms COM
monty associated with tobacco.
Hardly any story about a dog can as
tonish those who really know dogs, but
here is one which will tax the credulity
of many readers, not because the reason
ing involved in more than any intelligent
dog is capable of, but because it is hard
TO believe the dog could find pleasure in
the performance. The story is told by
correspondent of the New York Evening
Post and runs thus: A black cocker
spaniel of my acquaintance has hit upon
a pleasure so novel in canine society that
it deserves recording. A young lady of
the family to which he belongs once
teased him by scuff1ing about the rugs of
her home until she could give an electric
spark of considerable snap and then dis
charging it upon the nose of her pet, the
spaniel. Not long after this abuse the
dog was observed to roll upon the rugs,
entirely of his own accord, and then to
run to the brass bedsteads and obtain a
spark. This he continues 10 do, and his
own observations seem to have taught
him that he must approach metal in or
der to receive the spark. In one room
he runs to the bedstead; in another to the
register, and as he ticks his nose after
the pricking of the spark he never fails
to wag the remains of his tail, and his
face assumes a decided expression of
pleasure.
A few months ago, says La Nature,
Mr.. Fl. Benest, an English geographer.
published an interesting study of streams
of fresh water flowing beneath the sur
face of the sea. Disasters to ocean tele-
graph cables first called attention to this
subject. On several occasions, about
1895, a new and well-made cable between
Cape Verde and Brazil broke. Soundings
were made to discover whether these
breakings were due to the state of the
sea bottom, and it was found that the
place in question was near the submarine
mouth of a subterranean river; the allu
vial material transported by this fresh
water stream encountered the cable and
finally succeeded in breaking it. The fact
is that a river that flows into the lagoons
of Yof, on the coast of Senegal, is finally
lost in the sand. 1t undoubtedly has taken
the invisible course to the sea, and it is
this river that has been discovered in the
deep hollow of more than 1900 meters
(,270 feet that is traversed by the Bra
lillian cable. Also, while the cable was
being repaired at point twentyfour kilo-
meters (fifteen miles) from the shore the
repair ship was surrounded one day by
orange skins, calabashes and bits of cloth
which could not have come from the
mouth of the Senegal river 140 kilometers
ninety miles, distant
IF the beer-drinker has been of hate
threat tened in certain quarters with over
doses of arsenic. it would seem that he
has yet another source of complaint in
the fact that selenium and it's compounds
are apt to figure in the list of adulterants
of his beverage. DR.. Tunnicliffe and
colleague have found selenium in beer,
and they point out that this substance is
derived from the pyrites from which sui
phuric acid is made. The selenium COM
pounds, therefore, pass into the sugar
uSeu Ill DTeNluB, DIS uO6S the arsenic COH-
tanned in the impure acid. Selenium is
an injurious substance, and it is suggest
ed by the investigators named that cases
of poisoning in which the quantity of
arsenic consumed was very small may be
explained on the supposition that the Sc
lenium compounds themselves represent
ed the real cause of the illness. There
are, however, differences in the symptoms,
for DR.. Tunnicliffe and his fellow-investi-
gators tell us that wasting occurs in cases
of chronic poisoning by selenium, while it
is not seen in similar instances in which
arsenic represents the injurious element
Also in animals there is exhibited a GER
tain amount of federation to the action of
arsenic, whereas no such aspect of physi-
logical use and wont is present when sele-
mum is concerned. From which it follows
that in addition to Kidding sulphuric acid
of the one poison chemists will require to
insure its freedom from the other also.
The uses to which platinum is put
are very multifarious. says an exchange
1t is employed to-day in the electric in
candescent lamp as a fine wire for con-
veying the electric current through the
glass walls of the bulb to the light giving
carbon filament within; in telegraph, tel
ephone and other electric apparatus for
pon-corroding contact points; in warfare
in the form of fine wires for exploding tor
pedoes and submarine mines; in pyro-
meters for the measurement of the tenn
perature of blast furnaces and for determ-
lining the fusing point of other metals
in the X-ray tube as leading-in wires and
as source of excitation of the X-rays
and in photography in the production of
platinotypes, noted for the artistic effects
produced and the permanency of prints
attained. These are but a few of the
many applications of this metal and its
salts, says Engineering, but enough are
enumerated to illustrated it's wide and
varied applications. II is of some sig
nihcance that the world depends for about
80 per cent. of its annual supply upon
Russia alone, and were that country TO
fail us the position would be serious.
Happily Russia's output has increased
steadily, and has just about kept pace
with the enhanced demand. For last year
the total was 13.242 pounds, a growth of
more than 100 per cent since 1890 Nearly
the whole of the annual production comes
to the United Kingdom, the German TAX
ings which were in excess of our own in
1884, having gradually fallen since then
to only about 800 pounds a year
BY refusing to do what so many other
towns have done recently-by refusing.
that is, TO ask Mr.. Carnegie to build for
it the library which it's citizens can per-