The Savannah morning news., 1902-04-16
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

M. Armand 0dutleIs III q IcCcht
number of the Compile Rendus, an
nounces a new specific for malaria
much more effective than quinine. He
| has found that sodium methylarseaate
| injected into the blood in minute
amounts is an absolute cure far mala-
/ rial fever Of the worst type. He de-
scribes nine cures by the use OF this
| drug, all of them cases contracted IN
| Africa, of a severe type, which had
been treated unsuccessfully with dui-
nine. NJ. Gautier regards his results as
already sufficiently definite to authorize
the substitution of this drug Tor quiz
nine in pernicious malaria, although
further research xiii be required to de-
termine the best mathed of administer
ing it and the proper dosage.
The Falkland Islands. far off in the
South Atlantic, between the lower end
of South America and Africa, are not
very inviting spots to visit. They are
swept by fierce winds blowing from the
South Pole and carrying all obstruc-
tons before them. For this reason
there are no trees on the island, at
least not what we, who are accustomed
to think of trees as things with hight,
would call trees. The visitor to the
Fallxlands sees, scattered here and
there, singular shaped blocks of what
appear to be weather beaten and moss
covered boulders in various sizes. At
tempt to turn one of these "boulders"
over and you will meet with a sur
prise, because the stone is actually
anchored by roots of great strength
in fact, you will find that you are fool
ing with one of the native trees. NO
! other country in the world has such
peculiar forest growth, and it is said
to be next to impossible to work the
odd shaped block into fuel, because
it is perfectly devoid of grain, and
appears to be nothing but a twisted
mass of woody fibers.
As evidence of the extent to which
the ornamental precedes the useful,
says the ST. Louis Republic, Explorer
| Humboldt noted the fact that lOrinoco
| Indians in fair weather st-Itred about
attired in all the -inary they we're able
to procure, their faces painted gaudily,
their heads decked with feathers, their
whole aim being to s.rike astonishmsnt
| to the beholder and no regard whatever
had they fer comfort. When the weather
| was bad HIm6ul 1t found that the
same men wouli dof their clothing and
carry it abru. to save j. for display
OH sunny days. rhe same traits are
seen to-day in the North American III
dams. little modified by many years Of
Win
part of Pennsylvania avenue, Wash
| ington, running from Second to Sixth
| street is the favorite promenade of Wis
iting Indians. Portions of Second and
| Third streets running off the avenue,
are filled with boarding houses espe-
eially patronized by the redskins and
especially avoided by the whites in
consequence. A number of photograph
ers in the vicinity are the chief at
fractions of this neighborhood for the
aborigines. Nothing so delights them
as to strut gravely from their boarding
houses to these art galleries to sit for
solemn pictures at Uncle Sans ex-
pense, the bill being charged N with
necessaries incidental to visit to the
great father.
Experiments on aviation (bird
flight have recently been reported on
by the Messrs. Wright to the Western
Society of Engineers at a session where
Mr.. Chanute presided. Some of their
conclusions follow: The ratio of the
impulse to the ascensional force for
wing surfaces of the best shape is less
for angles of inclination from degrees
to II degrees than for an angle of 8
degrees. Wings are alone necessary,
and tails, whether vertical or horizon
tai, can be done away with. The
wings can be so arranged that the
body of the experimental may be hor-
izontal, thus avoiding great resist
ances- Other conclusions modify those
deduced by Lilienthal in several i'm
portant respects. The apparatus used
by the MessrS. Wright was composed
of two large parallel planes with
smaller plane a short distance in front
of them, and in such a position that
t. the action of the wind upon it coun-
terbalanced the effect of the displace-
ment of the center of pressure upon
the two principal surfaces. In this
way changes of direction and pressure
Of the wind have little effect and the
whole attention of the experimenter
can be given to the management of the
machine. Alterations in the plane of
the small front surface serve to direct
the flight. The surface of the wings
was about twenty-three square yards.
The experiments are described in Field
ems Magazine for March, 1902.
Mr.. j. Hahn of the Royal Observa-
tory of Edinburgh has proposed a new
and more complete theory of the sun,
briefly as follows: Previous theories of
the periodic changes have taken no ac-
count of the absorbing envelope sur
| rounding the philosophers. If the loss
| of energy by radiation exceed the pro-
| duction of heat due to shrinkage, The
| temperature must fall The level of the
| layer of maximum radiation, i. e., of
| the photosphere, must shift toward the
| center, and consequently the photo
| sphere becomes protected by a greater
thickness of absorbing and rejecting
! matter. After time the increasing re-
| Election may overhead the philosophers
| but the oVerheated material may be re-
| tanned at the level of the photosphere
| by convection currents until the up
| ward tendency becomes so strong as to
| produce an eruption by which thermal
equilibrium is temporarily restored, af-
ter which the cycle is repeated. The
| mathematical expression of the theory
| gives an equation from which a curve
| of sun spots may be computed which
| agrees very closely with the results Of
| observation, while a great period of
solar phenomena is accounted for by
! changes in the intensity of the conyec-
ton currents, the equation showing
that when the spot development is
powerful the rise from minimum to
| maximum will be accelerate ted A remark
| able conclusion from the theory is that
| times of maximum spottedness corre-
spond to times of minimum radiation.
| which would seem to be supported by
the more important recent researches.
| Probably President Tucker of Dart
mouth College was not correctly re-
ported, says the Boston Christian Reg
| lSter, when he was quoted as saving.