The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-02-16
lCewtiltd for Ti< Ariarsosg Tyar<s,r
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

uety 10 the general opinion, underground telegraph lines are not more infiuenoed by earth currents than are erial lines.
 Of the 10000 bronze articles which have been found among the remains n, the Swiss lake-dwellers about 3o Der cen, are nngs, Y per cent bracelets. . Der cent. knives, per cent needles, O |. per cent hammers. and o2 per cent. fouia.
 Observations made during five months
 ot last year, by German physicists, indi-
 cate that the heat given out by the sun is
 diminished by the presence of spots on
 the solar disk. Much further research
 will be necessary, however, before any
 valid conclusion can be reached concern
 ing the effect of sun-spots upon solar temperature
 From freshly-fallen snow. the poe,'s symbol of absolute purity. a Swiss m;cro- seopist, Hoegel, has obtained living in- fusoria and algae, bacill and micrococci. mites, diatoms, and great numbers of fungi spores; also flores of wood. mouse hairs, pieces of butterfly wings, skin 0, the larvr of insects, cotton flares. pieces of grass, epiderrEis. pollen-grainA. rye and potato flour, grains of quartz. minute pieces of roofing-,iles, and bits O; iron and coal.
 Letters to the Royal Geographica! so- elety. of London, state that MT. W. W. Graham, with two Swiss guides, has sue ceeded in climbing Mount kab.u. ir the Himalayas. This peak has an altitude of ,+.oi, feet, and its summit is claimed to be much higher than any other land yet reached by man. The mountaineers report that neither in this nor in the sev- eral other mountain ascents made by them Tn the same region did they expe- nence the slightest inconvenience from rarehed air
 Photography has made great progress since the days of Daguerre, and there are few objects of which photographs cannot now be made. Minute filaments. far too small to be seen with the naked eye. have been photographed with a photom.cro- graphic camera. Under the illumination of spark from Leyden Jars, a picture has also been obtained of the. vibrating point in the diaphram of a telephone while person was speaking at Il. al though the work must have been done n one twenty-four-thousandth part of second.
 The Paris Academy of Sciences has re- eeived the report of the French scientists who recently visited Cape Horn and ex- plored the southern islands ofthe Fueeian archipelago. The expedition enooutered only tlve mammals-a fox, an. otter. two rodents, and the domestic dog. Forty species of birds were seen. and a oonsid- eraole number of insects; but neither frogs nor serpents were discovered on any of the islands visited. Shell-hsh. in- eluding many edible kinds, abounded on the shores.
 Mons. Ogata, a French plysiologist. has made some remarkable experiments. showing that the process of digestion may be quite satisfactorily accomplished in animals without the aid of the stomach. Nearly the whole of the stomach was re- moved from dog. the free edges ot the alimentary tube being then sewed toge,h- CT. The dog completely recovered from the operation. and remained in perieci health, with good digestive powers. an- til killed six years af,erward. lr other experiments upon dogs 1t was found ;ha, aloumlnous substances were as speedily and completely digested by the faid of the intestine below the stomach as by the secretions of both stomach and intestine together, but other foods were less readi- ly digcsted in the intestine
 It has occurred 10 Sir John Lubbock to inquire whether the lower animals may not be taught some language or code of signals by which they may communicate their ideas to us. As a preliminary eN- perment he decided to try upon dogs some such system as that followed with deaf-mntes. He accordingly procured some pieces ot cardboard, each bearing a plainly printed word, such as !" Food" " Bone, Out" etc., and has attempted to teach dogs to express their wants by means of these cards. With two terrier puppies no satisfactory results were ob- tained. A black poodle, however. has learned to bring the card with Food y on It when wanting something to eat. and he almost invariably selects the proper card when l, is placed with several plain ones. He also appears to distinguish be- tween the card marked Food and ,he card marked "Out' Sir Iohn hopes 10 carry his experiment. further. and invites others 10 study their pets in the manner indicated.
 Disease-organisms appear to be capa- ole of undergoing considerable changes when reproduced under varying eaviroa- nent. The view IS quite generally ac- ,epted that the ~eli-kno~n COW poA. or faccinia. IS smallpox attenua,ed Tn some unknown manner by its passage through ,atsie. By passing the bacillus of he destructive reuget of pigs through a 'eries of rabbits Mons pasteaur has re- ,ently succeeded in getting a similar a; of that virus, which will give ''gs mrld form of the disease and wi.l ender them secure from further attacks n any degree. He has also found ina, when the "rouget bacillus Is passed trough senes of pigeons i,s viruleace $ increased, so th al pigs inocula;ed with he virus of the last of the pigeons have most intense form of the disease. Pas CUTS famous inoculasions oi domestic animals with anthrax. or splenic fever. lave been made with disease virus a,,eo- ! k-