Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1904 — CHOICE MISCELLANY [ARTICLE]

CHOICE MISCELLANY

Radium and Blindness. Radium rays will not at present furnish a cure for blindness, reports Professor Greeff of Berlin in a published account of an official Investigation of the optical properties of radium. This research was largely undertaken as the result of a paper by Professor London of SL Petersburg, In which he claimed that, there was hope for the blind in radium. According to Professor Greeff, the rays given off by a fluorescent surface excited by radium rays are simply those Of ordinary light and as such cannot affect a blind eye. The actual radium rays, however, are sent out in all directions, -penetrating all structures. and the effect, a sort of sea green radiance, is the same, whether the radium is held in front of the eye or at the side of the head. It, has,been asserted that fluoroseence actually occurs In tiie eye and that rays of ordinary light are accordingly emitted, but this view Is opposed by Professor Greeff, and the fact is cited that radium rays do not bleach the visual purple of the retina. He also states that when the function of the rods and cones, which transmit visual concepts from the retina to the nerve centers is destroyed the eye Is unable to provide for the sensation of sight—Harper’s Weekly.

A Reindeer Express. The capacity of the reindeer for team work Is remarkable. His hoofs are very broad and do not penetrate the snow crusts. His average weight is about 400 pounds. He will swiftly draw a sled carrying 600 pounds and with this load can cover thirty, fifty and even ninety miles a day. The reindeer teams now carry the malls from Kotzebue to Point Barrow, a distance of 650 miles,

the most northerly post route in the world. No food Is carried for the deer. At the end of his Journey or at any stopping place he Is turned loose and at once breaks through the show to the white moss which serves as food. It costs nothing to feed him. As the white settlements increase in the mineral bearing parts of Alaska and in many places remote from railway and steamboat transportation, the reindeer express will be one of the most Important factors In territorial life.—Dr. Sheldon Jackson in Southern Workman.

Gaelic Movement In Ireland.

The Gaelic movement has met a severe cheek in Ireland. John McDonagh Mahony is the justice of the peace for Cahereiveen and is an enthusiastic Gaellcist. Mr. Mahony Insists upon signing his name to warrants and other documents “in characters which are alleged to be those of the Irish language” and persists in the practice, although he has been authoritatively Informed by the lord chancellor of Ireland that it is illegal. The justice of Cahereiveen insists that his signature is his usual one and disputes the lord chancellor's law, and there the matter resLs, except that he is enjoined from sitting on the magisterial bench until he gives assurance that he will “sign magisterial documents In English."

Derelicts of the Pacific.

It is a curious fact that many vessels In the Pacific abandoned by their officers and crews as in a sinking condition have drifted about the seas for months. The latest ease of this kind Is the ship Benjamin Sewall. She was dismasted last October In the Formosan strait, and the crew took to the boats. They swore that they saw the ship sink, but this was evidently an optical illusion, as she has been seen recently and Is now one of those derelicts more dangerous to shipping than sunken reef or passing vessel in a fog. —San Francisco Chronicle.

Who Owns the Railways f

It Is estimated that only about $85,000,000, which is approximately 5 per cent of the annual income of our railways, goes to foreign Investors. There are not far from 1,000,000 owners of railway stocks and bonds. Of the remaining 95 per cent, $1,684,447,408, 40 per cent is divided among the owners of the stocks and bonds and 60 per cent among 1,180,315 employees. Counting the families supported by the holders of securities and employees, over 10,000,000 people share In the railroad earning*.—Success.