Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 February 1896 — MOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

MOTES AND COMMENTS.

A German scientist proclaims that “the chewing of cloves will kill all the microbes that happen to get into a man’s mouth." What does it profit a young man. however, to kill his character and his mierolies at the same time? Captain James in a recent address at the Royal United Service Institute in Ixindon declared that modern military development would inevitably shorten the period of war. Moreover, he asserted, while at the aetuaUpoint of battle the destruction of life would be vaifily increased, the aggregate loss of then in an entire war would lie really reduced by the improved means of treating the w?undcd. An investigator has discovered that there an* 238 lawyers in Congress, 41 farmers, 27 editors. 28 manufacturers, 1 railroad manager. 2 steamboat owners. 14 teachers and college professors, 25 bankers. 20 merchants, 1 housebuilder. 3 clergymen, 7 who say they are -“engaged in business,” 8 doctors, 1 architect. 1 music teacher, 1 owner of oil wells, 5 miners. 2 insurance agents. 1 theater manager. 1 manufacturer of ice. 3 civil engineers, 9 lumbermen, 2 owners of stone quarries, 2 real estate agents. 1 pharmacist and 1 ■teainboat captain. It lias been calculated that if the world keeps on developing as at present .torses. cattle anti sheep will oecome extinct and man will be differentiated into two distinct animals, an i upper world of “feeble prettiness” ami 1 a most repulsive subterranean race reduced to mere mechanical industry, i In die course of a few millions of years the motion of the earth on its axis, which is supposed to be growing slower every year on account of the friction of the tides, will have ceased entirely an the earth will present a constant face to the sun.

The Atlanta Constitution call atten-. tlon to Hie valuable advertising that has ! been given to the South by the Exposi- i tion. “Twenty-five governors,” it i says, "twenty-four State press associ.i- j tious, the chambers of commerce of per- 1 haps forty leading cities, hundreds cf mayors, scores of senators and eon- ' gressmen. the President and his cabi- | net, the Now England Manufacturers* ' Association, the bankers of the coun- i try, the National Farmers’ Convention ‘ and dozens of other big organizations have come and gone, and in every quarter of the Union they have sung the praises of the Exposition and of the South.” Uncle Sam puts photography to a unique use in the far off seal islands. These he has photographed annually. | The views, taken in sections, are afterward fitted together in Washington, where, by means of a strong glass, the seals are counted. Thus a sort, of cen- i sus is taken, and the increase or de- | crease of the beards approximated. It ; will be a good day, in the opinion of the ' Pathfinder, when our decennial ceil-| sus enumerator comes to our door. ! armed witli a kodak, instead of voluminous schedules of irrelevant questions, and says, simply, "One button does it all.” The United States Fish Commission Ship Albatross, has just returned to San Francisco, after a cruise of sevpn months in far northern waters. During this time she has been engaged in deep sea fishing, and has made many important finds of new fishes. One specimen totally unlike anything yet described in the books; was taken at a depth of 1700 fathoms, or nearly two miles. It was physically constructed so as to stand he enormous weight of water at this great depth, a weight that Mould crush to death any ordinary fish. When drawn to the surface its stomach had been forced out of its mouth, and both eyes were popped out of their sockets. It was unable to live in the shallower depths.

A curious case of prolongation of life i comes from Piedmont, Cal. Pneu- ; monia had attacked a man and closed I up so much of his lungs that he could • not inhale enough air to sustain life, i Oxygen, of course, was the element | that was wanted, and the physician in charge procured a number of receivers full of this gas and administered some of it to the patient every fifteen minutes. For a week the man not only : kept alive but showed marked improvement. But suddenly paralysis set in, resulting in death. About 3,200 gallons of oxygen was given within the week. Small quantities of the life-giv-ing gas have been frequently administered. This case tends to show that its use in large quantities would be beneficial in some cases. According to a Los Angeles (Cal.) paper, a number of Los Angeles men have received a concession from the Mexican Government of the Island of Tiburon, in the Gulf of. California. A company of 300 men is being organized under the command of I. H. Polk. Each man is to receive $250 and a hundred acres of land, after the island is conquered. The money for the expedition is being put up by Colonel Bradbury, who inherited a million or so a few years ago. There are only about 100 male Indians on the island, but they are said to be such valiant fighters that the Mexican Government despaired of subduing them, and has offered the island to Bradbury and his companions, if they would undertake the work. It is the intention of the Tiburon Conquest Company, as the new corporation is called, to establish a republic of its own and have, the United States establish a protectorate. It is stated that Mexico has consented to this. One of the objects of tne company is to establish a groat resort, and lines of steamers wil’ be put oii from both Yuma and Guavamas. There are surviving and upon the United States pensions rolls twelve widows and daughters of Revolutionary soldiers, while the war of 1812 is represented by twenty-one survivors and 3,820 widows. There are 12,586 survivors of the Mexican war. There are In the United Sattes eighteen pension agencies. There are residing abroad 3,481 persons who draw pensions to the extent of $605,000, 1,737 of these living in Canada, 664 in Great Britain. 573 in Germany. The names, ages and residence of widows of Revolutionary soldiers surviving are as follows: Lovey Aldrich, aged ninety-five, Los Angeles. Cal.; Nancy Cloud, eightytwo, Chum, Va.; Susannah Chadwick. ' eighty. Emporium. Pa.: Esther S..Da-|-mon, eighty-one, Plymouth Union, Vt.: I,

Sarah c. 11 uihurt, seventy-seven. Chap ham Valley, Pa.; Nancy Jones, eightyone. Jonesboro, Tenn.: Rebecca Mayo, elghty-two. Newbern, Vt.: Patty Richardson. ninety-four, East Bethel, Vt.; Mary Snead, seventy-nine, Parksley. Va.: Ann M. Slaughter, efghty-five. Mitchell's Station, Va.; Asenath Turner, ninety. Manchester, N. Y.; Nancy Weatherman, eighty-five, Lineback, Tenn. Instruction in regard to the laws of health and the effect of stimulants on the human system is now obligatory in many of the states of the Union. In view of this fact, a petition was recently sent to the trustees of the American University, at Washington, asking tliat there might Is- ' rented in it a department for such original investigation. study and instruction as would furnish to the country the needed teachers of teachers in the new and almost universally mandatory branch of public school instruction above refereed to. The Board of Trustees of the American University complied witli this request on certain renditions, aurt appointed a committee, viz.: Bishop John F. Hurst. LED.; the Rev. Chas. 11. Payne, LL.D.; and Vice ChanceUor Samuel 1,. Beiler. Ph. D„ to meet the Board of Counsel of the Temperance Educational Association to arrange all details. At a meetings just held in New York it was agreed thaft upon the payment to the treasurer of the American University of the sum of $250,000. or such lesser sum as should be deemed by the Board of Trustees sufficient for the beginning of th work of said school, there should be inaugurated a department of tlie university to be called ‘•The College of Scientific Temperance,” which shall be a college of investigation and instruction in physioi°".V, hygiene and pathology, with special reference to the nature of alcohol and kindred substances, together with their effects upon mankind.