The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-27
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

! England Is using the khaki-colored
cloth for military uniforms in semi-trop-
ical countries, and this country wants it,
100, but, while ID is an easy matter to fix
the color in cotton cloth by boiling, no
| way has yet been found for fixing it in
wooden. A fortune is waiting for the man
that invents the needed process. A good
| dye for uniforms must stand what is call
| ed the three S" test-sun, soap and
| sweat.
1t has long been known that eucalpy-
tus trees. if planted in malarial dis
trict, will remove the miasm from the
air and drive away the disease. A physi-
clan who has lived for p years in Tas-
mania, or Van Diemans Land, as it used
to be called, now bears testimony to the
value OF the trees as preventive of con-
sumption and bronchitis. These diseases,
ne says, are almost unknown in Tasmania,
where the trees abound, their odor filling
the air.
TIL superintendent of the Midland
Railway in England, advocates the use
OF electric power on all trunk lines of
Great Britain. Taking his line between
London and Bedford, a distance of fifty
miles, as basis of comparison he says
that saving of nearly two cents per
train-mile would be made by the use of
L
trains of Great Britain were run by cleo
tricity there would be a saving, he says,
of fully S,OO0000,OOO tons of coal year.
A remarkable story of the runaway
flight of two kites comes from the Royal
Aeronautical Observa tory at Berlin. Five
were sent up together, and had reached
a hight of more than two miles, when
two of them broke away from their COM
pdniOnS and went sailing off hafora tho
WIND, dragging a wire that touched the
ground and trailed along two miles be-
hind them. This trailing wire furnished
the necessary resistance to keep them
properly against the wind. They jour-
neyed on their lonely way for a whole
night, and when they came down they
We're 100 miles from their starting
point.
DR.. Mcnamara, in a lecture recently
delivered before the Royal College of
surgeons in London, supplemented the
Darwinian theory of mans descent from
the ape by explaining why the latter can
not talk 1t has been proved, he said,
that man and the anthropoid ape come
from the same stock, but the ape cannot
talk because lacks the nerve-center
that in man controls the faculty of
speech. The anterior lobes of the apes
brain, containing the part that controls
speech, are defective, because the skull
Is ossified, during the animals first year,
into rigid closed case that keeps the
brain from expanding. The skull of man
does not consolidate until the adult age
has been reached, SO that the anterior
lobes and speech nerve-centres can go on
developing until the twentieth year.
"A German scientist, having examined
the contents of the stomachs of over 5000
crows, has determined the character of
the crow diet and found how largely this
is made up of farm and garden products
Wheat rye, oats and barley were present
in per cents ranging from to 8, together
with varying quantities of fruit and gar
den vegetables. Crows fed on exclusive
vegetable diet died within a short time,
showing that they absolutely require ami
mai food, which normally constitutes
about 80 per cent of their food. The ami
mails eaten included mice, insects, rabbits.
pheasants, small birds, frogs, snails and
earth worms. The insects and other an
imals destroyed were for the most part
injuries ones either, for agriculture or
forestry, and hence the author considers
the crows to be beneficial birds. Various
methods were tried TO prevent damage to
crops by these birds, by treating seeds
with such substances as assafoetida and
kerosene, without success.
The Cumberland Realty Company of
New York has a curious case on ITS
hands. The company purchased a build
ing which was 20 be demolished to make
way for new structure. All the tenants
| moved out. save Col Winfield Scott Pros
key, who claims that his lease holds to
october next Workmen began to wreck
! the building, but Col. Proskey secured
from the court an injunction to prevent
1t, and he now holds the fort. Under the
terms of the permanent injunction, the
Colonel declares, he must be supplied with
gas, water and elevator service, and all
of these. he says, have been promised to
him by the company. The elevator is
| expected to be returned to service at
once. This Will be a welcome relief 10
| the Colonel, as he admits that the exer-
else of swarming up and down at twenty
foot ladder in the face of difficulties is
not the pleasantest task in the world.
Nelson's famous old Victory has at
tanned a new dignity. says the London
Daily NAH. For many years she was sim
ply carefully preserved relic of Trafal-
| gar. Then she was given sort of gen.
| eral utility function, doing duty as port
admiraPs flagship, naval police court and
! show ship. For some time past she has
| again borne the dignity of properly
commissioned snip ana mas housed a sig
nal class; but now the Victory is to be
made the depot for all signal ratings in
| her division. That means, that she will
| be the headquarters for naval signal in
struction at Portsmouth, just as the Yer
| non is for torpedo work and the Excel
| lent for gunnery. There is a peculiar
appropriateness in thus utilizing as a
| school for training the important art of
| naval signalling the ship from whose stout
masts flew the most famous battle sig
nal ever made. Despite her new dignity,
| the Victory will remain open to visitors.
| but instead of wandering all over the ship
| they will have to confine themselves to
| inspecting the Nelson relics in the new
museum on her upper deck, diving into
! the gloomy cockpit to see the spot where
| the great Admiral died and walking along
| the quarterback to see the little brass
tablet which marks the place where he
fell. Presumably, too, the marine guides
famous formula will remain unchanged. It
runs: Here is where Nelson was killed
| (pointing at the quarterback tablet.
Follow me down the ladder and I'll show
you the place where he died"
Some interesting details concerning the
new go guns which are to be mounted in
the Langdon and Citadel batteries at Do
yer have been furnished by the London