The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-02-10
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

One species only is known. and that is
not common.
Prof. Davis of Harvard University
has recently discussed the TRANSFORMED
ton of water waves as they run in to-
ward shore lines of different forms
with especial reference to the refrac-
ton of waves on headlands and III
bays. and to the formation of surf
Waves break as surf, he concludes, not
so much on account of q retardation
of the base OF the waves by its friction
on the bottom, as is often assumed, as
on account of the absence of water IN
front of the advancing mass.
AT the Shanghai Police Court re-
Gently curious object was handed up
to the bench for inspection. 1t was
contained in a square yellow box, and
resembled nothing more than a piece
of black wax. 1t weighed about two
ounces, and the policeman in charge OF
the case explained to the court that it
was a Chinese medical compound of
monkeys toe-nails boiled down and
hardened by being buried underground
for number of years. 1t had been
stolen from a native apothecary's shop
in Marking Road. Monkeys toe-nails,
it appears, are a well known remedy
among the Chinese for stomach
trouble
From a return lately laid before
the Reichstag, says the United Ser
vice Gazette, it apears that last year
1s45.S46 young men became nominally
available for service in the forces of
the German Empire. From this num-
Der, however. large deductions had to
be made-135.168 men had emigrated
without leave, and 1888 were absent
without leave from other. causes; 573,-
199 were sent back for a year; 25,175
had entered the army and 1909 the
navy as volunteers; 81, lie were de-
tailed for Ersatz Reserve, others were
found medically unfit, others were dis
qualified for other causes, so that An
ally only 222.667 were drafted into the
army and 6,1S4 into the navy.
Recent observations on the gases
of the blood during a balloon ascension
show: First, that the faculty OF fix
ing oxygen possessed by the haemogob-
lin of the blood is not diminished as the
atmospheric pressure diminishes but
on the contrary, increased lat least at
the attitudes attained); second, up to
$500 metres the carbonic acid gas con-
tanned in the blood does not follow the
law of solution of gases-~on the Their
hand, it follows the inverse Of this law:
third, the nitrgen contained in the blood
does follow the law of solution, and es-
capes from the blood in proprtion as
the atmospheric pressure is lowered;
fourth. the total quantity of gas in the
blood increases with the altitude; fifth,
the quantity of oxygen and of carbon
ic acid in he blood increases with the
altitude.
Prof Hugo Seeliger of Munich re-
marks that the observed fact that "new
stars" are nearly all situated in, or very
close to, the Milky Way agrees with all
that We know of the construction of
the heavens. We may admit priori
that the frequency of the occurrence
of new stars is directly proportional
to the stellar density of the different
regions especially if this frequency re-
suits from collisions between cosmic
masses, as there is good reaon to be-
lieve. His calculations founded upon
such hypothesis show that three
fourths of the new stars ought to ap-
pear in the neighborhood of tie Milky
Way and the observed situations of the
fifteen new stars which have appeared
during the past three centuries agree
with the calculation.
The Harper county (Kansas) man
who sued his neighbors for $1,000 dam
ages got no better than a hung jury.
The neighbors had ridden him on a rail
and ducked him in a horse pond be-
cause he spoke disrepectfully of Presi-
dent Mckinley. AT the trial it was
brought out that what the man said
was this: Mckinley Is not id bit
better than | be, and ne can afford to
take the chances of being killed half a
dozen times over at the salary he gifts"
This was said before tn President died,
and not much attention was paid TO 1t
at the time. But after the President
died the neighbors got to thinking over
it, and with much thinking, got mad
der ana madder, and at last they met
in body and rode the man on a raj!
and ducked him in the pond.
Prof. w. Prinz of Brussels has
lately pointed out some of the ways
in which the stereoscope can be made
useful to meteorologists and astrono-
mers. Surgery already profits by
adapting this instrument to radio
graphs. by X-rays, showing the differ
ent organs of the body in their true
relations in solid space. The meteorolo-
gist can use it for the study of clouds.
OF lightning flashes and the like. The
astronomer can employ stereoscopic
photogra phs of star groups for the de-
lection of changes of place and stellar
spectra can be studied by this means
to advantage. Prof. Wolf at Heidelberg
employs the stereoscopic principle in
the search for stars with a mea surable
parallax, for new nebulae, comets and
asteroids, and generally in researches
demanding the comparison of two pho
tographic plates. Moon photographs
also are admirably studied in this way.
M. Lebcdew of Moscow has exper-
mentally demonstrated that the
pressure of light agrees with the theo-
retical determination Of Clerk Maxwell.
MaxwelIs theory declares that the
combined effects of the electrostatic
and electrokinetic tensions give as a
resultant a pressure in the direction of
the propagation of the wave. He an
nounced that the concentrated rays of
an electric lamp falling on a metallic
disk delicRtely suspended in a vacuum
might produce an appreciable mechan-
ical effect. The radiometer of Crookes
Ia device which arose from this sug-
gestion, though it's motion is chiefly
due to heat. NJ. Lebedew has elimi-
mated the effect of heat and measured
the effect OF the light from an arc
lamp and finds, in this very delicate ex-
pertinent. results that agree within 10
per cent. OF Maxwelrs theoretical
amounts They show that the pressure
is directly proportional to the energy
OF the light and entirely Independent OF
its color.
Snow is generally regarded as an
unmitigated nuisance in big cities, says