The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-24
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

The Munich Medicinische Eitschrlft
has an article by Dr. L. R. Mueller
head physician of the clinic at Err
langen, reporting a remarkable case
of a family of ruminators. The father
of the family died in the clinic of can
Ger of the stomach. His two sons di-
Cest food like COWS. The young men
say that after quarter of an hour
the food returns to the mouth and is
rechewed After drinking water or
beer the Eliminating stops. Dr. Mueller
believes the case shows all the symp-
toms of atavism.
Some five years ago M. LIE Bon an
nounced that when light fell on one
side of certain bodies-a thin metal
plate, for. instance-the other, unillum-
mated side of the plate gave out non
luminous radiations which were later
shown to be identical with cathode
rays and which are now believed to be
made up of elements of atoms carry
ing an electric charge. The radiatlons
are analogous to the X-rays and to the
rays of radium and traverse thin Plates
of metal freely and discharge
electrified bodies in their path. SINH
lar effluvia are produced in great
number of chemical reactions, and the
phenomenon is, in fact, one of the most
common in nature.
The question whether Characters
tics that have been acquired by an an
imal during it's lifetime are or can
be transmitted to its offspring is one
that divides two schools of naturallSts.
Weisman maintaining the negative. As
the controversy is of ancient date and
not yet settled, its solution cannot be
simple. Have facts like the following
a bearing on the question? There was
at one time a race of dogs that chased
their prey and did not point at ii, as
settlers and other breeds now do. Some
one or more of these dogs took to
pointing at game. The trick was use
full to some man or men, who encour-
aged it. The acquired habit of these
particular dogs has certainly been
transmitted by inheritance to the point
ers and settlers of to-day There is
probably some fallacy or some miscon-
ception of the question in the forego-
ing statement, which, on it's face,
would seem decisive of the matter at
issue.
"A 'shandygaff statesman This
seems to be the last name attached to
that best abused ministers of all times
and in all governments, the Irish sec
retary," says the London Chronicle
Most people who have played cricket
on a, village green have drunk shan
dygaff, that compound of ginger beer
in the days when ginger beer was
ginger beer-and ale. What it's deri-
walton can be has puzzled the stu
dents of Notes and Queries for the
last forty years. One derivation that
is absolutely impossible is that given
in Hotten's Slang Dictionary: Per-
haps-mark the much virtue in, that
word 'perhaps'-can de Goff,- the IA
vorite mixture of one Golf, a black
smith, Who was Golf, and where did
he blacksmith, and why did he drink
blood? But possibly some reader may
enlighten the world on the derivation
of word which has been raised to the
dignity of a political epithet."
Pearls are now far more precious
than diamonds, says the Boston Trans
cript. During the last thirty years
they are said to have increased in val
ue 1000 per cent, and many women
wear their treasures day and night,
hiding them under their high gowns
during the day, as pearls are said to
keep their color better when worn next
to the skin. The Duchess of MARI
borough's pearls have supplied much
copy" suffice it to say that many
of them are worth more than a thou
sand pounds apiece, and that they
once belonged to Marie Antoinette and
Victoria. Lady Marlborough has sew
eral rows of pearls the size of wal
nuts, which must be of immense val
ue; Lady de Grey has one row of
pearls, said to be worth 425 900; Lady
Rothschild has two rows of huge, per-
fectly shaped pearls, and Mrs. "Solly"
Joel has a string of pearls valued at
100000, which belonged to the late
Princess Mary. Duchess of Teck. Black
pearls are an exotic jewel, with a
price in proportion.
1t is now considered to be fairly
we'll demonstrated that the rings of
Saturn are formed by discrete parti-
cles or small masses of solid matter,
each of which circles round the planet
as tiny satellite Independently of it's
associates, or, in other words, that
these rings are simply flat and rela-
lively thin clouds of what may be
called meteoric dust. The proof of this
view of them, which was first serious
ly advocated by Clarke Maxwell some
forty years ago, is partly mathemati-
cal, but rests more particularly on
the discovery made with the spectre
scope by the late Prof. J. E. Keller
that the inner margins of the two
bright rings revolve more rapidly than
their outer margins, whereas, if the
rings were solid and rigid, the reverse
should be the case, and on the addi-
tional fact, recently brought out by
the spectroscope that the rings, I'M
like the planet itself, are without an
atmosphere. Some seventy years ago
an attempt was made by BesseI to de-
termine the mass (weight) of these
rings from consideration of the in
fiuence of their attraction on the orbit
of the satellite Titan. BesseI con-
cluded that their mass was about Ills,
the mass of Saturn being taken as
the unit. Recently Prof. Asaph Hall
has made a more careful and COM
plete study of this problem, and finds,
as the result of his calculations, that
the mass of the rings is but 1902.
That is to say, the planet, according
to this calculation, is over 1000 times
as heavy as it's rings, despite the great
show which they make in a telescope.
hives tiga lions of the intelligence of
the lower animals are always of deep
Interest. says the New York Sun. We
seem to gain some insight into our own
natures in this way. DR.. Forel. the
celebrated neurologist, has paused
from his researches on the disease
of the human brain to study the nerv-
Gus system and the sensation of ants
and bees. His book has Just been
printed at Paris. Some of his results
are summarized in what follows DR..
Forel concludes, with Muller, that the
vision of insects is in mosaic" That
is, an insect perceives an object like
a mosaic-as if it were made UP of