The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

ought, says the School journal, TO De
made part of the elementary school
| course in physiology and hygiene. So
| much depends upon cleanliness and
| health of the mouth and the teeth that
/ the reasonableness of this proposition
/ will be at once recognized. The decay
of the temporary teeth may work last
/ ing injury. Digestion is frequently i'm
/ paired by imperfect mastication, due
to defective molars. The presence Of
microbes bred in particles of food left
between the teeth is often the source
of serious stomach troubles. Nervous
| difficulties of various kinds can be
traced to neglect of the teeth, and the
| inference that the development of seri-
Gus lung diseases has resulted from a
neglected mouth is by no means far
! fetched.
Prof. w. o. Atwater says: 1.-THE
theory is advanced from time to time
that one or two meals day are pref
| cradle to the three commonly served
| in this country. If the same amount
of food is to be eaten, it is hard to see
the advantage of two very hearty meals
over three ordinary ones. The best
! physiological evidence implies that
moderate quantities of food taken at
moderate intervals are more easily and
completely digested by ordinary peo
pie than larger quantities taken at long
| intervals. If the food ordinarily taken
is considered excessive, and the aim is
| simply to reduce the amount, it would
seem more rational to make all the
meals lighter than to leave out one.
The very fact that the custom of eating
number of meals has so long been al
most universal indicates that it must
| have some advantages which instinct,
| based upon experience, approves and
! justifies.' -
"A certain rare metal, to which the
name of radium has been given, fig
ured in an interesting paper recently
| read before the Academy of Medicine
| IN Paris by M. JaVoil, says the London
| Chronicle. Its properties recall to mind
the fact that the relations of certain
metals and other objects of light-pro-
| duction are matters still demanding
much investigation. For it appears
that radium possesses the power of
giving forth light waves of a kind al
| lied to those we are familiar with in
| the case of Roentgen's discovery,
X-rays, in fact. Most interesting is the
observation of another investigator,
| NJ. Giessel, who showed that certain
| compounds of radium give rise to light
| rays which can reach the eye through a
metal screen. Also,i it is stated that SIM
liar sensations are experienced when
| glass tube containing chloride of RAJ
| dunn is merely held against the tenn
pie. 1t seems as if the rays, penetrat-
ing the skull, lighted up the eyes reti-
ma. From these facts to experiments
| on the blind was an easy stage 1t is
found that If the retina Chat is, the
eyes nervous network is in a healthy
condition, light sensation is expert
enced. 1t would be too much at pres
ent even to predict the possibility of
practEral results accruing from such
| experiments, but that science may one
day be able ito pour light on the eye
balls of the blind is by no means an
unlikely result of further knowledge
regarding electrical and other waves
Lord Pauncefote's death will
probably revive discussion of the
origin of his surname, says the New
York Post. His own notion was that
1t was an Anglicized version of the old
French Pense-fort, which is retained
In the family motto with a very slight
change. Some confederation of this
theory may be found in the fact that.
centuries ago, the family name was
spelled "Pauncefort'-the "r' being
still kept in the spelling used by one
modern branch of the same stock.
Some critics, however, insist that this
is forced inference like that which
attributes the source of the name
Arundel to hirondelle, the French
for swallow" because this bird APP
pears on the arms of the English
town of Arundel it happens, however
that the river Arun flows by the town,
and "dell' or dale" means the de-
preston or valley through which the
stream takes its course. In like man
ner, some one has traced the name
of the Onslow family to it's motto,
"Festina lente," meaning literally
hasten slowly; but the better judg-
ment seems to be that this name takes
its termination from the word "low,"
meaning hill" so that Onslow would
simply be On's Hill, Winslow would
resolve itself into Wins Hill, Thur
low into Thor Hill, and so on. We
must leave this question for the heral-
die experts to quarrel over.
Like most other arts and crafts.
says the Gentleman's Magazine, bell
founding was for some centuries al
most exclusively confined to the
monks. ST. Dunstan was a skillful
workman, and was said by Ingulphus
to have given bells to the Western
churches. Later on, when a regular
trade had been established, some bell
founders wandered from place to place;
but the majority settled in large
towns, principally London, Gloucester
Salisbury, Norwich, Bury ST. Ed
munds and Colchester. 1t was long a
fixed idea that silver mixed with the
bell metal improved the tone; but
this is now considered incorrect The
Acton Nightingale" and Silver BelP'
two singularly sweet bells at ST
Johns College, Cambridge-are said to
have a mixture of silver; but if, true
this is not believed by competent au-
thorities to be the cause of their beau
tiful tone. This idea led to the story
of the monk Tandio concealing the sill
yer given him by Charlemagne and
casting the bell in the Monastery of
st. Paul of inferior metal, whereupon
he was struck by the clapper and
killed. In the nineth century bells were
made in France of iron; they have
been cast in steel, and the tone has
been found nearly equal in fineness to
that of bell metal, but, having less vi
bration. was deficient in length; and
| thick glass bells have been made which
give a beautiful sound, but are too
brittle to long Withstand the strokes
of the clapper.
The driving of the great Simplon
tunnel through the Alps is affording
some interesting data on the subject
of subterranean temperature, says the
Scientific American. The work has
progressed in the north heading over
$1,000 feet, and in the south heading
over 1900 feet. Temperature observa-