The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-07-09
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Gut liAC ndNOi taste VI NdhiiP1AOA. II
is what is called a myriapod, and has
its habitat in moist, undisturbed for
ests. Most myriapods secrete prussic or
hydrocyanio acid as a means of defense.
but this one seems to have the camphor
fluid for that purpose.
Steps are being taken to introduce
butterflies, the object being merely aes-
thetie. 1t is thought that they will add
an element of beauty to the outdoor life
of he city. Tropical and other foreign
species are to be secured. In London it.
self there are not more than half dozen
species of butterflies. though about forty
may be found within a radius of ten
miles
An experiment was lately made at
one of the geological gardens to see what
effect catnip would have on the wild ami
mails. The tigers. and the puma would
not touch 1T, but the lions, the ionesses
and the leopard went fairly wild over it.
The stately old lion played with it, SMELL
ed it and licked it, just as if he were a
domestic cat, and the leopard picked it
up in her paw, took long shifts at it and
rolled over it in perfect delight.
Charles Frederick Holder, the Califor-
mia naturalist, comes to the defense of
the prairie "outcast in gray" In some
parts of California the jack-rabbit and
the ground-squirrel are pests that the
farmer would try in vain to keep down,
were it not from the aid he gets from the
coyote, their most effective enemy. MIR.
Holder says that the coyote is hardly so
much wolf as wild dog. He mentions
the singular fact that domestic dogs will
kill male coyote, but will seldom attack
a female.
1t is well known that many insects
bear a close resemblance to leaves, twigs
and other things, and there is no doubt
that this is for their protection against,
or their concealment from, their enemies.
One of the most remarkable cases of this
kind was recently made known to the
chronological Society of London. 1t is
that of a spider that lives in the rocks
near Cannes. A certain kind of moths
inhabit the rocks also, and their cases
are. to be found all about. 1t was no.
tced that the spider, when at rest look
ed exactly like one of the moth-cases.
"A New South Wales astronomer, de-
scribing the recent annual meeting of the
New South Wales branch of the British
Astronomical Association, gives the fol-
lowing somewhat confused, but evidently
original astronomical toast, with which
prominent politician responded to "The
Ladies'" at the evening banquet: 1.-The
moon in her inconsequentiality may disap-
pear from the heavens; the stars may
burn out and become blind-stone blind;
the sun may be shattered into fragments
and fall toward the earth, but woman,
lovely woman, will remain with u.s."
The Kansas City Journal is in receipt
of the following letter from a Kansas
reader: Dear Mr.. Editor: With as much
delicacy as the occasion will permit l
desire to make an inquiry about some
thing of deep concern to the men of Kan
sas. 1 observe that Mrs. Sibbits, state
organizer of the Kansas w. C. T. u,
declares her purpose of organizing an
army to match against the hosts of rum
and says that we will cut off our hair.
put on our husbands clothes and with
blazing muskets go forth etc. Now,
what l wish 10 know is what the hus-
bands of Kansas are going to do when
this army of women puts on their clothes?
To be sure, with the mercury lowering
around the 100 mark it is not a question
of physical discomfort, and the husbands
cannot complain much on this score, but
what are they going to do with public
sentiment, to which some attention must
be paid? A fine condition of affairs it
is that Mrs. Sibbits would leave behind
when she marched off against the demon
rum with our wives in our clothes. Has
she thought of the natural indignation
that would possess the community when
it found the husbands circulating around
with their clothes gone to war? Or does
she think that the husbands of Kansas
have more clothes than one?'
Prof. Nernst, the inventor of the
Nernst incandescent lamp, and R. Won
Lieben have recently devised a new sys-
TEN for recording and reproducing the
human voice. 1t is based on the use of
the alteration of polariza ton capacity and
surface resistance of the metal used as
an electrode in an electrolytic bath.
small, thin copper disc is rotated rapidly,
and against its edge Is pressed a thin
wedge of wood, soaked in an electrolyte.
The secondary currents from the Undue
ticn coil of microphone transmitter are
caused to pass through this contact and
leave a record on the edge of the disc
through the varying amounts OF chem
ical change produced. telephone reeeiv-
e. is now attached in place of the micro
phone, battery being included in the
circuit, and on again rotating the disc
reproduction of the sound is obtained.
The electrolytic solution is potassium zin-
cate; the copper edge of the disc form
ing the cathode, and the wedge standing
in bath of the solution into which a
zinc anode dips. Another Photographic
system has recently been patented by
Herr RUNNER. There is as yet. however,
little information obtainable regarding it.
Ii is said that its record is made by reg
istering on a Photographic film, the vari-
atoms produced in a sensitive flame by
the sound vibrations of the voice.
During an address before the National
Academy of Science, describing the re-
markable results which he and his asso-
ciates have achieved during the last
twenty years in studying the infra-red
end of the spectrum. Prof. S. p. Lang
ley recounted ONE of those happy acct
dents which are so rare in the scientist
hfe as to seem almost miraculous when
they do occur: One day. In 1881. nearly
twenty years ago, near the summit of
Mount Whitney. in the Sierra Nevada,
at an altitude of 1900 feet, he was
working on the spectrum, using re-
Gently devised and very sensitive instr-u-
meut, the bolometer. He was following
the record, noticing the gradual de-
crease of heat, as the indicator moved
away from the visible portion the fa-
miliar colored bands which the ordinary
prism formsl, until the apparent end Of
the spectrum was reached. beyond which
the most prolonged researches had up to
that time shown nothing. BY some hap
81 Thought he pushed the indicator be-
yond this apparent end. In the still air