The Savannah morning news., 1901-07-25
ITEMS of INTEREST.

llOIl 1tU 10 lou WORDS.
Twelve full grown coffee trees
have been imported from Coatapec,
Mexico, by a commission house here
Tor exhibition at the Pan American
snow at Buffalo, says a New York
dispatch. They average about six
feet in hight, and are considered fine
specimens. The leaves resemble
greatly those of a peach tree, and
here and there green oblong coffee
berries varying from one to three
quarters of an inch in length grow in
clusters on the branches about mid
way between the trunk and the end
OF the limb. When ripe these berries
turn to. dull red, and the bean in
side is then ready to be cured. Coffee
trees begin to bear in the third sea-
son, and remain fruited for about six
years. These transplanted trees are
four years old, and the greatest care
has to be given them. After the ex-
position closes the trees will be
brought back to the city and an effort
will be made to grow them in a hot
house. If it is successful, it will be
the first time on record.
After observing the frequency with
which small articles of food, of all
sorts and in all conditions are wrap
ped in bits of newspaper, in the Lon
don shops patronized by the poor, the
Lancet decided that it would be of
considerable interest to know whether
there were any poisonous substances
in the paper or ink which might be
absorbed by such edibles as butter,
not boiled ham, hot peas pudding, ice
cream and the like. The result of it's
laboratory Investigations has been en-
tirely negative. 1--WE have examined, -
it says, the penny newspapers and
the halfpenny newspapers, the white
newspapers and the colored newspa-
pers, but in no case could we find
even traces of substances that are
regarded as injurious. The green
Westminster Gazette, the pink Even
ing News, Star Globe and Sun were
alike found to contain only innocent
colorlngs in infinite-simal quantities"
1t is certainly something to be thank
full for that the colored press is not
physically, as we'll as morally, poi
sonous.
Amy one who has ever watched a
surgical operation knows that a very
considerable portion of the operators
time is spent in sewing up the wound
AS surgery has advanced operations
have increased, not only in frequency,
but in size, and an incision of twelve
inches is not uncommon. In order to
shorten the very considerable time
necessary for closing these large
wounds by hand sewing, DIR. Paul
Michel, a French physician has in
vented a machine which he calls la
pince revolver a agrafes, and which is
really a hand riveter, or sewing ma
chine for the human skin. The little
nickel rivets or tie bands are placed
in the machine, forty or fifty at a time.
The edges of the wound are drawn to-
gether, the jaws of the machine placed
over the cut and pressed together, and
each pressure places a rivet in the
wound. Twenty or thirty of these can
be put on in a minute, and the rivet-
ing is said to cause little pain. The
rivets are SO made that they can be
removed from the wound with no dis
turbance of the healing process.
In commenting on the fact, brought
| out by the last British census report,
that there are 100000 more women
than men in England. the Lancet says:
| THE remedy for such developments of
particular kinds of population is, of
| course, not in the province of medicine.
! We are, in fact, as a profession en-
gagged in what sometimes appears to
be the paradoxical pursuit of preserv-
ing human beings, whether nit or I'M
| mt, whether their survival is really for
| the benefit of the nation which owns
| them, or the reverse. What is to be
| done, then, for this female plethora
Physical science offers no resource, for,
| in spite of the sanguine recommends
lions of certain continental physicians,
we believe medicine is not yet in a
| position to offer even the most pa
| triotic mothers a son, when the at
| present incontrovertible course of ma
J ture has determined on a daughter.
| The production of women rather than
| of men is not to be limited by any
means at our disposal English wo-
men, happily, have never been want
| ing in the courage and enterprise of
their race, and doubtless in our grow
| ing colonies will be found the natural
| home of many females whom it would
| be ungraciouS to characterize as super
| fluous in Great Britain" According to
| the United States census of 1890, there
were 1 ,513, SO more males than females
| in this country.
"A cable from Paris says: In or
| der that scientists may study the psy-
| chical faculties of the brute creation
an institute has been founded for that
| purpose, and a circus has been built at
Vincennes with an arena thirteen
yards in diameter. An animal is
| placed in the arena. together with
| some puzzle. Four hundred spectators
are seated around to judge the extent
| to which the animal acts reasonably
| in an attempt to solve the problem.
| The first experiment was with a lion.
| Meat was brought in and placed in a
box, the lid of which was closed.
| Would he open the lid or smash the
box? The psychologists watched anx-
] iously as the lion carefully examined
the box. Then when he lifted the lid
with his teeth and extracted the meat
| they applauded enthusiastically and
! unanimously voted that he was "act-
ing reasonably" The next experiment
was with a monkey. Some nuts were
placed in a closed box with a mirror
on the inside. Jack" not only ate
! the nuts, which was undoubtedly rea-
sonable, but according to the report,
''he used the mirror to make his tot
let, and has now become so coquettish
of his new acquisition that he spends
| much of his time looking at his own
reflection" This. too. il was voted
unanimously. was acting with "rea-
SON"
"A new method OF collecting Stats
tics, and, incidentally. of advertising
has been devised by Mr.. Harmsworth,
the proprietor of the London Daily
Mail. This newspaper is Offering for
sale a low-priced edition of the Ency-
| clopedia Britannica. The London