The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-05-22
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

only speak Welsh In the middle of last
century, too, Erse, the native language of
Ireland, was the common tongue of about
100000 people, and to-day the number of
Irish who speak Irish lis only estimated
at 50, 1872. Forty thousand people in the
Highlands speak Gaelic and nothing else.
Manx is spoken in the Isle of Man, where
laws are proclaimed in both English and
Manx, and in the Channel islands, with
population approaching 100000, the conn
mon language spoken is French.
Consul Hughes of Coburg says that
Prof. Pictet of Geneva, is reported to
have devised plan by which oxygen can
be produced on a commercial scale and
at a cost that will greatly increase its
use By this method air is admitted into
a condenser, the condenser being cooled
by liquid air. The low temperature causes
the oxygen to separate by gravity from
the nitrogen of the air. 1t is then drawn
off from the bottom of the condenser, and
the nitrogen from the top, while any
carbonic acid present made liquid by the
low temperature, is drawn into tubes. AS
a 500-horse power engine will make 100000
feet of oxygen a day, it seems that the
process is not expensive.
The geodetic commission of Switzer-
land has undertaken an exact leveling OF
the whole country by the most scientific
methods The work has been going on for
many years, and from time to time atlas
sheets are published which give the gem
eral topography of a region accomDanied
by a list of the points whose attitudes
have been accurately determined and by
comparisons with previous work of the
same sort. Each point determined is fully
described so that, in it's turn, it may
serve as a da tum point for more detailed
work, and all the points are referred to
one origin-namely to a monument in
Geneva whose altitude above the sea has
been fixed.
"A greyhound is not always brave, and
one thing he is particularly afraid of is
an animal respected by no one-an animal
that sinks along in a cowardly manner
and about which no writer has as yet
found anything to admire, says a writer
in the PittSburg Dispatch. Why this is |
do not know, for the animal of which 1
speak seems to me harmless denizen
of the great Western hills and valleys,
never doing any real wrong and adding
much to the wild picturesqueness of the
country. 1 mean the coyote. And yet of
the coyote, the poor, unloved, cowardly
coyote, the greyhound is afraid He will
| run down a rabbit, seize him by the throat
and with jerk break his neck and then
carry him to his master. But let a coyote
come in sight and the greyhound loses
his courage. AS long as the coyote keeps
running the hound will run after him, but
as soon as the coyote stops short and
faces about, they greyhound turns and
runs away as fast as he can. A coyote
never does more serious harm than to
prowl about the village streets at night in
the winter in search of meat. which some
unwary househeeper may have left out
side. At the slightest growl he turns and
fees.
According to a dispatch from London,
the scheme for an electric express rail-
way between Manchester and Liverpool.
on which trains will run at a speed of
upward of a hundred miles an hour has
| received Parliamentary sanction. Last
year the Select Committee of the House
of Commons threw out the bill, which
was opposed by a strong combination of
the three existing railway lines between
the two cities. However the promoters
again applied to Parliament, and the pre-
amble of the bill has been passed by the
committee which has considered the evil
dence placed before 1t. The proposed sys-
tenn is that of MIR. Behr. who has sue
cessfully constructed and operates a
Brussels suburban line on which is MAIN
tanned speed of ninety miles without
undue vibration and without a particu-
larly high voltage of electricity. To Sc
cure safety the mono-rail system is adopt
ed. the weight of the train being borne
upon a single rail, supported on tresties.
the train being kept from rocking by
means of side rails, which act as guides.
The whole distance between Manchester
and Liverpool is 10 be accomplished in
twenty minutes without a stop by trains
of only two carriages, each provided with
its own motor, running at ten minute in
tervals. Should the bill pass its subse-
quent stages during the Parliamentary
session the action of the committee will
have momentous consequences in rail-
way evolution. probably causing nothing
less than a revolution in the present sys-
tenn of railway travel.
The question should ambidexterity be
encouraged is answered in the negative
by a writer in the American Journal Of
Insanity, and upon the ground that.
while coarse movements may be perform
ed nearly as well by one-half of the body
as by the other. accurate and expert
movements REQUIRE a higher organization
of one-half of the brain than the other
Hence the more expert hand should be
consciously still more and more special
lied; making the ordinarily quiescent
half of the brain assume control tends
ii Is said, to impairment of mental pro-
cesses as well as inferiority Of physiologie
speed and dexterity. All of which we
deny, says American Medicine. both fact
and theory being untrue The writer has
doubtless been misled by observation of
the function of speech, which is single
and In execution requires the control of
single center. We have but one voice
but we have two hands which I'm many
cases at different instants may be put in
action with the same dexterity. Many sur
geous can operate equally well with eth
er hand; many artists paint with either
hand, and we have seen men who could
write as well with the one hand as with
the other The critic OF ambidexterity
may reply that this is impossible with
synchronous movements. forgetting that
in the musician. and especially In the
pianist and organist there is the most
marvellous experiences of both hands exc
cutting most complicated and entirely diff
fcrent functions. and at the same instant
The arguments against ambidexterity ap-
pear not only inconciusive but are square
" contradicted by facts. Surely also they
are against a desirable freedom OF the
mind. Without the musicians ambidex-
terity life would be deprived OF much
charm We should encourage divided at
tention," and that large power OF the
mind over the body shown In the syn
\ shronous control Of multiform activities.