The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-17

organization Will, cooperate Win
committees in other American and
English cities.
The Society of Picturemakers Upon
the Human Skin has presented a petit
ton to many French deputies request
ing them to pass a law making it
obligatory upon parents to have the
names and surnames and the dates of
birth tattooed upon all children over
six months old. These eccentric gent
uses call themselves artists and de-
mand protection. In their petition they
claim that the engraving of the name
and address upon children would serve
as an excellent means of identifca-
ton.
"A story of the adventures of two
barrels of French cognac sent by Pres
ident Felix Faure to a Russian regi-
ment appeared recently in Paris
newspaper. The first barrel arrived
empty land the official explanation Civ
en- to the French ambassador was that
the Russian climate had caused the
contents to evaporate. The second
was dispatched with extraordinary pre-
cautions, every station master being
required to see that the barrel was
intact, and the inspector and sentries
in charge of it were perfectly sober.
This one arrived full it is true; but
when the grateful regiment essayed to
drink it the contents were found to be
nothing but colored water.
John Won Shifferdecker of ST. Louis
is, according to the statement of ply
sieians, one of the first men known
to science as being afflicted with
margeism, an afftlctio1 which causes
an action of the stomach and Jaws
corresponding to the Eliminating of
cattle and sheep. Since early child
hood his food has returned to his
mouth after being swallowed to be
masticated and swallowed again. In
every respect his peculiar practice is
similar to the act of cattle commonly
known as chewing the, cud." Physi-
clans state that a similar case in Ger
many is the only other case reported
in medical annals. Shifferdecker's case
was only recently brought to the no.
tice of physicians and is attracting
considerable attention among the med
zeal fraternity.
An entire Berlin family named
Schneider, consisting of two brothers
and two sisters, with their maid-serv-
ant, have been conveyed to the mu-
nicipal lunatic asylum, all five of them
laboring under the hallucination that
their house is about to be robbed, and
that the laying of electric wires in the
house and the street is device of
wicked men to get at their money.
All their belongings they had packed
in sealed parcels, which they had de-
posted with trusty friends. One of
the brothers was in the habit of ly-
ing in wait on the stairs with a drawn
cavalry sabre for robbers, and yester-
day he nearly killed an unfortunate
man whom he regarded as a burglar.
Medical men are perplexed to account
for the fact that the entire family anu
their servant are afflicted with this
mania.
Any one who has ever watched a
heavy bird rise from the ground has
doubtless noticed that it runs along the
ground for few feet before 1t rises;
the bird must acquire some fnomen-
tun before its wings can lift it's heavy
body into the air. The natives in
certain parts of the Andes understand
this fact very we'll and by means of
it catch the great Andean Vultures,
the condors. A small space is shut in
with high fence and left open at the
top. Then a lamb or a piece of car
rion is placed on the ground inside.
Presently a vulture sees the bait and
swoops down upon it, but when once
he finds he has aEghted on the ground
inside he cannot get out, for he has
no running space in which to acquire
the momentum that is necessary be-
fore his wings can lift him.
There is a popular belief in this
country that American railroads are
much superior to those in England,
both in equipment and in administr-
per's Weekly, takes exception to this
opinion and makes some interesting
assertions to prove it's fallacy. The
equipment of the American railroads,
says Mr.. Brooks, is far behind that of
the English lines. In England there are
ninety-eight locomotives for every 100
miles of railroad and in America TWEEN
ty; 3O7 passenger vehicles per 100 miles
in England and eighteen in America:
3,161 freight cars per 100 miles in Eng
land and only 719 in America. The
smallest villages are provided with
well-built, comfortable stations and
generally with asphalt platforms. and
comparison of the casualty statistics
of England and the United States
shows an immense percentage in favor
of the English management.
"A gentleman who has Travelled ex-
clusfvely in all parts of the world and
who has recently returned from Gau-
temala, describes a curious species of
fish, the Pacilla dorri, which he found
in the boiling lake of Amatitian. It
passes Its days literally 'in continual
hot water" So hot is the water of this
lake, 1T is said, that to thrust ones
hand into 1T means scalded fingers.
Ebullition is. however, somewhat tenn
pered, as the really boiling water rises
to the surface, leaving a temperature
Of IS degrees centigrade at the level
where the fish are warm for cold
FLOODED creatures like fish. Frank
auckland states in one OF his works
that the naturalist, Broussonet, found
by experiment that some fresh water
Ash would live for several days in
water 80 hot that human being could
not keep his hand in II for minute
De Saussure, the Swiss scientist. dis
covered cells in the hot springs Of Alix,
the temperature OF which averages 113
degrees Fahrenheit. Humboldt also
saw living flsh thrown up from a vol
Can0 IN South America.