The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-09
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

three prizes of s1.25O, $3.50 and $500 for
the three best types of wind-pressure
gauge. There are certain technical
conditions which must be fulfilled.
The atmospheric pressure upon the
surface of an ordinary man is 80. 400
pounds, or over fourteen and one-haIf
tons. The ordinary rise and fall of
the barometer increases or decreases
this pressure by $500 pounds.
The power plant of the Canadian
Niagara Power Company will consist of
10000 horsepower units, generating 49,
900 volts directly at the dynamOs. This
is the highest voltage ever delivered
by electric generators in commercial
operation.
Dwarf plants are reported by a
German chemist by a process altogeth-
er different from that of the Japanese.
A secret fluid is injected near the root,
the effect being to stop growth, al
though the plant continues unchanged
and flowers are produced as usual.
"A plant has been found in the
norther part of Paraguay whose leaves
contain a sweet substance. Small
pieces will have the same effect as a
AciI lump VI sugar II QIOPpC0 AllbO q
cup of tea or coffee. The stuff is not
the same as sugar, though, because it
is much stronger and cannot be fer
mented. The director of the Agronom-
ical Institute at Asuncion believes that
it's chemical nature is different from
anything else now known. The herb is
rather common one, and the Germans
in that part of the world are about to
make elaborate experiments in culti-
inc fla ia Sain
to contain no deleterious substance,
but possible the matter has not been
investigated sufficiently. Fifteen or
twenty years ago Prof. Ira Remsen,
now president of Johns Hopkins Uni
Versity devised a method of manu-
featuring out of coal tar substance
300 times as sweet as cane sugar. He
named it ''saccharin." Its use has
been recommended for victims of GER
tain diseases who are forbidden to
take sugar. Nevertheless, for some
mysterious reason, there has been a
disposition in Germany to prohibit by
law the introduction of saccharin into
beer. Possibly the explanation of this
procedure is political, not scientific.
Whether the Paraguay plant botan-
ically known as Eupatorium rebaudia-
rum, will eventually prove a disap-
pointment time alone can tell.
The first rude shock to the prevail
ing ideas concerning the atmosphere
was given in IVA, when Priestley dis
covered in it the very active element
oxygen, says write in Lippincotts.
Two years later he added to this the
passive element, nitrogen, and the two
main constituents of the invisible air
became captives of science. To these
new elements the old ideas chung for a
time. Oxygen was named by its dis
coverer dephlogisticated air. 1t lacked
phlogiston, the fancied fire element,
and sought it with eager appetite in
whatever it touched. Nitrogen was
called phlogisticated air. 1t was be-
lieved to be saturated with phlogiston
and therefore fatal to flame. While
oxygen combined briskly with almost
all the elements, nitrogen refused to
combine al all except under great prov
ocation Though intimately mingled in
the atmosphere, these elements were
as unlike in character as two sub
stances well could be. No long time
passed before a third substance was
found in the atmosphere, this time
not chemical element, but the COM
pound gas, carbonic acid. While not
great in quantity, it proved to be indis-
pensable in quality, since all the world
OF living things is dependent upon it
for existence. Inimical as it is, when
IN large quantity, to animal life, with
cut it there could be no life at all.
and the earth would be a dead and
barren expanse. For the plant world
gains from this gas its foundation ele-
ment of carbon, and is thus enabled to
lay up those stores of food upon
which the animal world depends.
The question whether the size Of
the head is correlated with intellectual
attainment has been discussed for years
In scientific circles, but very little has
come out of the discussion proving the
case either one way or the other, says
the New Orleans Picayune. The mat
ter seems to have been again opened
by a certain Prof Pearson. who has
oeen making series of elaborate
measurements of KNOWLEDGE boxes" of
number of undergraduates of Cam
prldge University whose careers were
known. The result of these measure
ments and subsequent studies seem to
prove that the size and shape of a
man S brain pan has nothing to do
with the breadth of his intellect; that
a man with a small head is lust as Ii
able to carry off the honors of his year
as one blessed with a Uranium of di
mansions out of the ordinary run.
ments carried through the schools gave
similar results, while third series of
researches of wider range resulted in
the conclusion that a very brilliant
man may have head slightly larger
imam the average, but that the in
crease is SO small it cannot form anv
element in our judgment of ability. In,
cldentally, Prof. Pearson points out
that If the workingman have a smaller
head on the average than the profess
slonal man, this is rather due to the
better nutrition of the latter. The
Chlnaman is noted for the size of his
nrain, yet he Is not in popular opinion
blessed with greater portion of GEN
Jus than the average Westerner. The
researches of Prof. Pearson would tend
10 prove that popular opinion is some
times not very far out of the line or
truth, but they do not furnish anv
ground for man with a small cram
lum cultivating case Of megalocA-
phaly, which, in common slang mar
lance. may be translated 'swelIed
head" ON
Inc conversation around a cluh
table says the Philadelphia Record
drltted to the subject of magazine
poetry have often wondered said
one OF the group, and 1 dare saw most
magazine readers have wondered with
me- just how the fellows who write
verses are paid. Ara they paid at the
rate OF so much a line, Just as anv
otner manufactured product is mr.