The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-30
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

at the rate OF 10000 TO 10000 words an
hour. A Vienna newspaper describes
a dispatch which it received by this
process. This consisted of a strip of
stiff parchment, like paper, bearing
230 words. There was an ordinary dash
between the words. which were easily
read. The message occupied fifteen sec
onds in transmission.
1t is highly probable that certain
microbes through an alteration of their
environment may undergo a metamor-
phosis evolving another type or species,
exhibiting different powers and habits.
Thus the harmless bacillus coli of our
digestive system is believed by some
authorities to be capable of developing
into the typhoid microbe, and at least
we know the latter's disease-producing
properties are accumulated by its as
sociation with the former. In nature
an interesting illustration is given OF
An analogous case. There is a disease
of bees called ''foul brood" and this
was ascertained to be due to the work
of the bacillus alvei. From Liege
comes the news that this germ Is only
the B. mesentericus vulgaris masquer-
aiding under another guise. This last Is
ordinarily harmless. The potato bacil-
lus thus shifted to new surroundings
develops foul brood in bees.
"A German writer points out that
too little study has been given to the
sense organs of fishes. Fish have no
external ear and many people believe
them to be without hearing. They have
very keen hearing, however, though
their ear is simpler in form than that
of most of the other Yertebrates. The
eye has a very large lens and is with
out proper eyelids. Some fish can see
as far as 200 feet through the water.
The nose is we'll developed, but 1t is
probable that the scent" of fishes is
very feeble, if not entirely wanting,
Certainly the function must be very
different from what it is in land ami
mails, in which it has gaseous odors
to deal with. The taste is very keen
in fishes and is located mostly in
the solf parts of the mouth, the tom
que not being sensitive. Fishes are al
so very tender to the touch in all parts
of the body, but especially around the
head.
in recent experiments, made by DR..
Trowbridge, the spectrum of hydrogen
was examined at high temperatures
without any chemical action taking
place, the hydrogen not being burned.
In these researches the gases were first
found that these could not withstand
the severe stresses and high tempera-
lures to which they were subjected.
The glass tubes were then replaced by
tubes made by an English inventor of
quartz, which had been found quite
satisfactory. They withstood white
heat. Although these tubes are made
with the oxyhydrogen flame, they can
be made more easily and more salts
factorily in the electric furnace. Here
electricity is not only necessary Tor
conducting the experiment, as it en-
ables the investigator to obtain con-
ditions which could not otherwise be
reached, but is also useful in preparing
the apparatus necessary for the work.
The decision of the directors of
the London and Northwestern Rail-
way that beginning with the first of
the year. employees of the road will be
retired when they reach the age limit
of 65 years, is causing some comment
in London of a sarcastic and unfavor-
able tenor. 1t is pointed out that
many of the directors themselves are
far beyond the age limit they have
imposed for the employees. The i'm
position of this limit comes, too, just
at a time when the shareholders or
the road were, through regularly
constituted committee, complaining to
the board that its methods were in
some respects unwise and unsound,
the inferential suggestion being that
the board needed some new and young
blood This report of the shareholders
committee invited the board to con-
slider some of the methods of Amer
lean railroads as applicable to the
problem, and the boards answer was
a practical refusal to do anything or
the kind.
Local marble dealers are taking
keen interest in an enterprise, which
had it's origin in Denmark, for repro
ducing the pictures of dead persons on
their tombstones says the Philadelphia
Inquirer. They say that it is very
probable that the movement will
spread to America in a short time. The
picture on-the-tombStone craze started
among the Danes as a result of the
use of artificial marble. A Danish
master builder succeeded in producing
a stone of such delicate tints that it
was impossible to distinguish it from
the natural product. The imitation of
the more expensive species was found
to cost far less than the natural, and
is made in any form desired-columns,
plain or fluted, and capitals-as readily
as fiat slabs. The durability is said
| TO be as great as that OF the genuine
marble. 1t was also found that it was
| possible to reproduce, by carving,
| picture of the deceased person, in the
| imitation marble, much easier and far
| cheaper than the work could be done
| with the genuine article.
That famous restaurant the Mai
son Doree has closed it's doors for
ever, says an exchange. 1t was al
| most the last of the renowned houses
| of entertainment that formed one of
| the most distinctive features of Paris
| ian life during the greater portion of
| the first half of last century 1t was
| long one of the chosen resorts of all
| that was famous and elegant, not
merely in the French capital, but in
] Europe. The pHoprietors of these
houses. which were impossible for all
| but wealthy customers, grew rich, and
| it is because times have changed, and
| it is no longer customary to dine so
! luxuriously that the Maison Doree has
| had to put up the shutters The diner
who now spends 20 francs upon his
| dinner. and considers himself rather
| extravagant, would, in the days of the
| Second Empire, have paid 100, and
| thought he was hero. 1t was not
| for nothing that the neighboring Cafe
Richie was socalled. That was the
/ name of its owner, and when the Mai
son Doree belonged to NJ Hardy, the
wits used to say that one must be tres
\ richie pour diner chez Hardy, ct tres
hari pur diner chez Richie.
AT present there are four districts
in Turkey in which any one who so