The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-08
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

most people in this country to know that
Bengal pig iron is being sold on equal
terms with MiddlesboTough iron in Sgd
ney and in Melbourne, in Honk Kong
ana in Shanghai, says the Iron and Coal
Trades Review. of London. Yet such is
the case, and it is said that the Bengal
iron is much liked and has come to stay
To the Bengal Iron and Steel Company
Limited belongs the credit of such enter
prise. The company is of English origin
The photographng of clouds has re-
Gently become a recognized branch of
practical met eorology. 1t also affords
beautiful pictures for the collections of
amateur photographers. The French as
tronomer Antoniadi of the Juvisi obser-
vatory. who has had much experience in
cloud photogra ply, says that all kinds of
cameras, large and small, mounted and
unmounted, can be employed for the pur-
pose; but considerable practice is required
to determine the proper time of exposure.
In order to quench the blue of the sky
and bring out the contrast between the
clouds and their background, yellow
screens preferably composed of thin cells
containing a chemical solution, are en-
ployed. Exposures vary from a small
fraction up to one-third of d second.
One of the most beautiful legends re-
lating to the stars says the Youths Com
panion, is that of "the lost Pleid." It
would appear that in ancient times ordi-
nary eyes saw distinctly seven stars in
the group of the Pleiades, although now
only six are visible. The lost Pleiad has
been subject not only for poets, but for
astronomers who have frequently dis
cussed the question whether such a star
ever really existed Recently he question
has been revived. and the English astron-
omer, w r. Lynn, after declaring that
there can scarcely be a doubt that In for
mer times seven stars were clearly visible
in the Pleiedes. quotes epprovingly the
suggestion of Prof. Pickering that the
faint star known as Pleione is the lost
Pleiad This opinion is based OH the pc
culiar appearance of the spectrum of
Pleione. which indicates that it may be
an irregularly variable star.
aluminium is, at the present price the
cheapest metal in the market, with the
exception of iron, zinc and lead, says the
London Electrical Review. This metal
is now extensively used in the place of
copper, brass, tin, and in some cases
even iron, especially when the reduction
of dead weight is question of great i'm
portance, Aluminium is also beginning
to be very largely used in connection with
electricity. as electrical conductors of this
metal, giving the same conductance as
copper, weight only half as much and
cost less. 1t is impossible to forsee the
ultimate extent of the use to which this
metal can be put, but the progress made
in aluminium during late years justifies
the most sanguine expectations Twenty
years ago the total output in the world
did not exceed four or five tons, and it's
aIn re
ago its price was reduced to about e.. 900
per ton, and the output increased to about
thirty tons per annum; now the price Is
from about f130 to flo per ton, and the
output during the last twelve months is
reckoned at 5000 tons.
An astronomical fact, now as former
ly causing no little perplexity to some,
says the New York Sun, is that the suns
motion-which unquestionably and indis-
putably is extremely quick-does not
change the relative position of the solar
system to the fixed stars and the con-
stellations more than it actually does, and
there are some who. on this account, are
inclined to doubt the actual motion of
the sun in space. The Investigations of
astronomers have nevertheless establish
ed one thing certain, namely, that the
sun moves through space at great speed
estimated by some scientists at 16
miles a second-carrying all the planets,
satellites and other cosmical bodies along
with it; but the motion of the vast lum-
mary, while affecting, of course, the real
motion of the planets in space, does not
in even the slightest degree affect the
relative motion Of sun and planets. Even
under the supposition of so great a rate
as 10 miles in one second, this relative
position of the sun to the fixed stars
would, astronomers declare be hardly
porceptible in a century, on account of
the almost inconceivable distance of the
latter-the conclusion being, therefore,
that many thousands of years must pass
before the suns proper motion in space
can change the confguration of the star
groups.
One of the interesting points brought
before the congress of medicine at Paris
was new method discovered by DR..
Ladislas Deutsch, of Budapest, by which
the origin of blood spots may be recog-
nized; this will no doubt be OF great value
IN legal decisions. Recent experiments
have shown that If cells of a definite ma
ture, such as the red globules of blood
are introduced into the organism of an
animal the serum of this animal acquires
the property of destroying these specific
OiSHicitSt becoming lnuS nenOlytlc, ac-
cording to the term used. This solvent
power is specific, and the author pro-
poses to take advantage of it in the medl-
co-legal diagnosis of blood spots. This
diagnosis has been one of the most diff
cult problems; the globules of mammals
could be separated from those of birds
but owing to the small variation in size
those of the different mammals could
scarcely be separated With the use of
hemolypc serums the diagnosis now be-
comes quite easy. 1t is only necessary
to take up the stains with salt water
e per cent? and add few drops of the
different serums. The serum which dis
solves the most rapidly the globuIes in
question, that is, in a few minutes, in
dicates exactly the origin of the globules
1t is only necessary to be provided with
the serums for most of the common ami
mails and for human globules, and with
dozen or more serums it is easy to deter
mine in most cases the origin of the
blood spots.
These physiological statistics are CIV
Ell by Harvey Sutherland in Ainslee's
Magazine: 1t may be interesting TO know
that one perspires more on the right side
OF the body than on the left and that
the skin of the palm of the hand eXcretes
four and a half times as much proper
tionately 10 the surface as the skin of
tho back. The pores in the ridges of the
palm number as many as 5000 to the
square inch. They are scarcest on the
back, where there are only 400 to the
square inch. These pores are not simple