The Savannah morning news., 1902-06-28
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Some years ago, during one of it's
Egyptian campaigns, the British army
was suddenly startled by total
eclipse of the sun for which the troops
were not prepared. To prevent the
possibility of another such surprise,
which might have had grave conse-
quences, the British War Office de-
cided 10 have an almanac regularly
produced for the army's guidance.
Such an almanac has been published
regularly since that time.
Among the most interesting of the
exhibits at the recent meeting of the
Royal Society were the manuscripts OF
the late Prof. j. Couch Adams, relating
to the discovery of Neptune. Adams de-
terTnined in 1871, while still an under
graduate in his second year, to attack
the problem, and in 1876 the planet was
discovered. The earliest, though nee
essarily the least perfect of the papers,
is perhaps the most interesting. In 1t
the orbit and mass of the unknown
planet that was disturbing Uranus are
calculated. and the final result set
down in Adams handwriting at the
end of September. 1S43, three years be-
fore the planet was observed with the
telescope" and two years before Lever
rier had taken the matter in hand.
Adams died in 1892.
1t is frequently asserted that the
white fisheries of Scotland are declin-
ing through everlasting. The report
of the Fishery Board for 1901 does not
seem to support this contention. The
returns last year showed a large i'm
provement both in quantities and val
ues. Larger boats are now employed
and the fishing is farther from shore
than 1t used to be. In regard to the
herring fishery, the board reports that
''in no period in the history of the in
dustry have the fishermen, particular
ly those of the. East Coast, been more
prosperous than during the last few
years" The erratic migrations of the
herring shoals are as mysterious as
ever Last year the Shetland waters
We're favored, and the catch was the
biggest on record for any single dis
trict.
A new 1000 barrel per day sugar re-
finery will be completed shortly. 1t is
located on the Hudson river short
distance south of Yonkers. The fea-
ture of the new refinery is that it will
be operated under a patented process,
which eliminates bone dust as puri-
fer and very materially reduces the
cost of building refineries. The new
process is to mix the sugar or sugar
solution with defeating or cleansing
composition produced by the action of
sulphuric acid upon bodies such as re-
sins, resin oil, essential oils, fats, fatty
oils and fatty acids in such proportions
that there are no injurious effects upon
the sugar from the sulphurie acid. Sui
phonated bodies such as sulphonic acid
or auIphonic-acid bodies are produced
which have greater affinity or absorb
ent properties for the earthly or me-
tallic salts and for the invert sugar and
caramel ordinarily found associated
with sugar or sugar bearing bodies
than has the sugar itself. Subsequent
ly the sugar is easily separated from
the defeating or cleansing composition
containing the absorbed impurities.
What is known to the natives of
Southeastern Missouri as cork-wood or
cork-tr is found there in moderate
quantities. The specific gravity of the
wood is .207, while that of the roots is
as low as Isl. AS cork itself is .240,
the wood is even lighter than that ma
terial. The structure of the wood of
the cork-wood varies little from that
of other broad-leaf trees. Several in
teresting variations, though, may be
observed about it, and one of these is
that around the pith there is a sheaf
of cells which contain a sort of yellow
resin. The bark is thin and smooth
and overgrown with moss. The wood
is the same color all the way through
without heartwood. There are med
ullary rays running through the wood
and there are also annual rings by
which the age of tree can usually be
told, but neither rays nor rings can
be made out without a microscope. So
exceeding slow is the growth of the
tree that it is almost impossible to
count the fine rings. How long it takes
for one of the trees to attain its maxi
imum diameter of five inches would be
interesting to know, but no one so far
has found this out. The tree is of
course of no commercial value, as it is
too small and its range too limited.
The London medical papers are
studying the vital statistics of the
South African war; which are now
practically complete. According TO the
calculations of the Hospital, 5,776 OH
GERS and men were killed in action, and /
2,019 died of the wounds which they
received. The deaths from disease
amounted to 1922. and It is said that
these figures, large as they are, can,-
pare favorably with those of prcce,Iing
wars. One noticeable fact is the very
high proportion of officers killed AMI
wounded, and another the high death
rate, from disease, among privatcs. In
action. one officer was killed to every
10. Is men, and one officer was wounded
to every 11.34 men. But of those who
died from disease, only one in every
1876 men was an officer. This IS part
~ accounted for. doubtless, by the
recklessness with which the ''Tommies"
drank polluted water. The number of |
invalids sent home during the war was
about 10000, and of these more than
5000 died or left the service. The vast
majority, of course. We're restored to |
health. To prove that the war, after
all, was not a big one, The Hospital
quotes the figures of the LATHE of
Gravelotte, in which the victorious
Germans had 1913 officers and 1900 men
killed and nearly $4,000 wounded.
The finding of the petrified BODY of
man on Padre Island, on the south
eastern coast of Texas, twenty-three
miles from Corpus Christi is the SUBJ
Ject of an article in the st. Globe
Democrat. According to the statement
OF the finders, who were on Padre ISL
and searching for supposed buried
treasure, the body was discovered
while they were digging in the sands.
Dr. Spohr of Texas said in regard to
the discovery: When l first learned
OF the discovery of this petrified man
1 gave little serious consideration to
matter, as l recalled the Cardiff giant
hoaX When l finally decided to ex-
anime the body, | made up my mind
10 take no chances. l have applied