The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-09
ITEMS of INTEREST.

dragged.
II am short one Norwegian girl,
hair light. eyes blue, destined Horton,
Mont" This was the message sent by
the st. Paul agent of the Northern Pa
cific Express Company to the agent
at Chicago, because he had a bill of
lading for the parcel and no girl. Teck-
la Hanson, the little woman express
package. had Travelled as a parcel from
her native country as far as Chicago,
and she had been lost on the rebilling.
The girl was found however, she hav-
ing left the car unobserve, and return
ed of her own accord.
Nowhere is the woman doctor more
in evidence than in Russia. Among
the wild and scattered population of
this immense country there is an in
exhaustible field for women as doctors
and teachers, and 1t is the knowledge
of this fact which has disarmed the
opposition to their going through uni
versities. In 1897 Russia had 997 wom-
en- doctors, and the number constant
ly increases. In this profession Rus
sian women have made distinguished
name. They have enormous practices
in the great towns, and are largely en-
ployed by the municipalities.
In this hot weather it is quite re-
freshing to hear about the polar
bath" which became an institution
last winter in all the principal towns
of Norway and Sweden, says the
Washington Post. 1t was started
few years ago by the Viking Bathing
Club of Christiania. The vikings
got up at dawn and went out to the
ice covered bay of Christiania. They
broke holes in the ice with axes to
make a swimming bath, plunged in,
and had a vigorous swim for two or
three minutes Emerging, they rolled
on the ice, and then rubbed each other
down with hard towels. This exam
pie has been followed all over Norway
and Sweden by men and boys. Scan
dinavian physicians say that the ''po-
lar BATH" if taken regularly, renders
the body immune to all winter all
ments
During the past 100 years the eight
popes of that period have restricted
themselves to the three names, Plus,
Leo and Gregory. If the new pontiff
had elected to be styled Urban, Boni-
face, Benedict, Adrain, Marcellus, In
nocent, Sixtus or some other of the
historic names in the annals of the
papacy his choice would have been
welcomed by lovers of a little variety.
Now, however, there is a real Plus
X, instead of the imaginary one drawn
by Hall Game in "The Eternal City"
Fourteen popes took the title of Glenn
ent. The last of the Clementine pom
tiffs, who reigned from 1863 to liza,
earned the unique nickname of the
protestant pope by suppressing the
Jesuits in every land. Numerically
John has been the most popular title
with the popes, twenty-three of them
choosing it. No pope has been or ever
will be presumptuous enough to call
himself Peter IL, but there have been
five Pauls.
From the Hartford Times: Accord
ing to the Medical News the deaths
from plague in India are increasing
enormously. The figures quoted are
as follows: Deaths from plague in
1897, Sc, 900; in 1898, 11S,000; in 1899, 1885,,
000 in 1900, SO, 000 in 1901, 274,000; in
1902, SIT 900. For the first three months
of the present year the deaths were
S91, 000 1t is hardly necessary to in
quire what effect the serum treat
ment has had on the mortality, be-
cause it has not been, and could not
be applied in a great majority of the
cases. Where it has been used the re-
suits have been, at least, encouraging,
but, although we have not the figures
at hand, it seems safe to say that the
percentage of cases in which it was
used during these seven years was too
small to make an appreciate change
in the great totals reported. The vast
ness of the area affected, the habits
of the native population, and other
causes combine to make preventive
treatment or even remedial treatment
practically impossible in most cases,
when the disease is we'll spread over
the country. India is nearly half as
large as the United States, and the pc
culiarities of the country and people
make it many times more difficult to
check an epidemic.
The people of every American city
are extravagant. They buy too much
food and waste enough to support all
the poor of the community. In the
past half century the great body of our
people have had no strong inducement
to learn and practice close economy,
especially such as is characteristic of
the immigrants from Germany. To
save on food, even to a large amount,
would not be, necessarily, to fall below
plane of generous living. Wherever
the kitchen is ruled chiefly by hired
servants waste is to be expected. 1t
would be unreasonable to suppose that
servants who are not tied to a family
by affection and long service, but who
to prevent waste. Perhaps it is not
easy for mistress with positive ideas
about economy in the kitchen to keep
the average servant. The woman who
has many exacting social or other du-
ties can hardly give to her household
the attention required for economical
living. A dense population promotes
domestic economy Where people are
crowded together there are means of
making the most of foods Thus in
the compact and therefore, the poorer
sections of a great city hucksters save
parts of vegetables which would be
wholly rejected as unfit for food in the
sections inhabited by the well-to-do
and sell them at low prices. In such
neighborhoods the people are we'll fed
at small expense.
The idea that has prevailed up to
very recent date that organic life
does not exist at great depths in the
ocean has been exploded by late sci
entific investigation, says the Chicago
Inter Ocean AS a matter of fact. the
pressure of water is so great that or
binary articles of wood are COMPRESS
ed to half their original size if low
cred to depth of 5000 feet. If a hui
man being were suddenly exposed to
the pressure of water at that depth he
would be compressed to the thinness
of paper A diver at the depth of TO- 900
feet would have weight upon him equal
to several hundreds of the greatest
and heaviest locomotives There are
depressions very much deeper. how
ever, and soundings have been made