The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-10
ITEMS OF INTEREST.

120 bell bouys and 1,400 post lights on
western rivers. There are over 10000
nautical miles of ocean, gulf, bay.
sound lake and river shores that are
lighted, not counting the Ohio. Miss
issippi and Missouri rivers. The cost
of lighting and buoying the United
States coast is said to be about ST.
100000 annually, or $3.50 a nautical
mile
An international agreement for the
protection of birds useful to agricul-
ture was concluded in Paris this
spring. The parties to the agreement
are Belgium, France, Greece, Austria,
Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and
Spain, and a few smaller states. All
birds useful to agriculture are to en-
joy unconditional protection, and the
destruction of these birds or of their
nests and eggs is prohibited. Ger
| tain other birds are named as mis-
|. chievous. Sporting rights are protect
ed. Italy, country in which the cap
ture of northwardbound birds is a reg
ular trade. does not appear as of the
treaty signers.
In France, more than anywhere
else. says Popular Mechanics, the
science of economy is carried almost to
a fine art. The common sewer rats of
Paris are raised to clean the flesh from
bones that are to be used in manufac-
lures, but that must not be boiled to
clean them. When full-grown rats are
killed their furs are used for fur trim
mings, their skins for gloves, their
thigh bones for the highest grade of
ivory toothpicks their tendons and
bones are cooked down to make those
beautiful gelatine capsules which our
in
and their teeth are used for tipping
fine burnishers for bookbinders' use.
The suicide rate in European ar
mics far exceeds the rate of the coun-
try to which the army belongs, says the
Medical News. The German army has
suicide rate of $40 per million, the
italian army 400, the Belgin $40, the
English 220, the Enelsh-Indian 4S0, the
Russian 200 the Spanish 140. The
Engish-Indian rate is due to the de-
pressed and suspicionaI states pro-
duced by moist heat. The suicide rate
of the French Army of the Interior fell
from 40 under the empire to 290 under
the republic. The African army of
France has rate of $50 per million,
probably from causes similar to those
affecting the Englsh-Indian army. The
increase of suicide among Americans
in the Philippines is in the same direc-
ton. The United States suicide rate is
double that of the Irish and about one
halt that of the English.
In general the profession in this
country is united in the belief that
ether is a much more satisfactory an
aesthetic than chloroform, says the
Philadelphia Medical Journal A not
inconsiderable number however prefer
chloroform, particularly under especial
circumstances; and some opera tors
who have no well-equipped clinics at
their command tend to use chloroform
when working by artificial light, and
particularly in ill-equipped houses. 1t
is, however, known by most pharmacol-
ogists and by many others that chloro-
form has dangers when used by ar
tif1cial light, but this fact is by no
means generally recognized. Persons
have been killed by the decomposition
of chloroform by gas light 1t has been
attempted to overcome the danger of
the production of this form of poison
ing by placing soda or borax solution
or milk of lime in the operating room;
but these methods have been shown to
be wholly insufficient
The volcanic eruptions, and other
disturbing causes have recently pro-
duced some material changes in the
bed of the ocean off the coast of st.
Vincent. These will necessitate a care
full resurvey to make navigations safe
in that neighborhood, according to DIR.
Jaggar of Harvard University, who
as one of the party of scientists sent
to the West Indies to investigate the
recent volcanic eruptions, has made
a special study of the vicinity of the
ffGA tel Nd he l.
break of La Sofriere and Mont Pelee
there existed solid land is now deep
water, as yet unsounded, which ex-
tends to the base of high cliffs, bare
and vertical, formerly a considerable
distance from the shore. 1t is err
roneous, DR.. Jaggar says, to state that
there has been no change in sound
ings as a. result of the eruptions. Ire
mendous submarine disturbances oe-
CURED, he asserts, and the breaking
of the cables after the first eruption
of May was probably due to land
slides along the bed of the ocean, the
extent of which cannot be determined
The cables in all probability were
snapped asunder under the weight of
enormous masses thrown upon them
from the higher portions of the
oceans bed.
The exact seat in the brain of the
highest intellectual faculties has
formed a moot point in science since
the functions of the organ of mind
began to be investigated with accu-
racy, says the London Chronicle. The
general opinion localizes what we term
mind" in the pre-frontal lobes of the
brain, but by another school of think
ers the hinder lobes have been credited
with performing our highest cerebral
duties. The balance of evidence is
decidedly in favor of the former view,
and recent researches and observations
by DR.. Phelps an American investi-
gator, would appear to assist in
strengthening the opinion that the
most important portion of the brain
is its anterior region. In the course
of the investigations in question some
295 cases of brain injury and disease
were examined. In all save two it
was noted that interference of extern
sive nature with the pre-frontal re-
of the mental faculties. Less severe
injury produced less marked effects
These facts parallel the researches of
other investigators, and they are fur
Their Substantiated by what is observed
in cases of idiocy connected with
want of development of the frontal
Iobes of the brain.
1.-The authorities of Salt Lake City,
alarmed by the spread of scarlet fever,
diphtheria and other contagious dis