The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-15
.e@tslss fsv IA ArAs.se~ 7rsseke-.
 SCIENTIFIC MIscRLLANy.

Ce1tilss fev IA ArAe.sx~ Tre~ekex.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
 Aesonautics-inciuding experiments in
 balloon sseerins-~iil have q place at the
 Worlds fair in London in 1883.
 During the next 7so years, it has been computed. there can be only oae total eclipse Of the sxn-that of Aug. ra. Iooe--which can be seen in England.
 For the forty 6fih time in bis life, Dr.
 Paiisa of Vienna, has discovered a small planet, increasing to a.s the total number of those tiny worlds known 10 belong to our solar system.
 In Switzerland, the minnow reaches an altitude of about 7.ooo feet above sea-ievel. according to Mons. V. Fatlo, and the millesb thumb enc of 7.soo feet The perch stops as 6.soo feet, and no others pass above .6oo feet, although the carp. teneh, rudd and chue have been successfully introduced as $500 to 56oo feet.
 Dr Klein. appointed by the govern meni of India to investigate the cholera quess,cn, has satisfied himself .ha, she minute organisms, or . microbes, ,n discovered by Dr. Koch are not the cause of cholera. He has shown the strength of his conviction by s~sliowing some of the microbes-and no evil resat followed.
 From recent researches it appears that ehlorophyl, :he remarkable substance to which the vegetable world owes the color of ns foliage, is made up of two eoioring- mate !, green and a yellow the relative proportions being 100 of the former to one of the latter. Both have been lately ob- sained in the crystalline state.
 Some of the dwarf race of men re- ported by several travellers as dveIleys in equatorial Africa are now at the Royal Aquarium, London. 10 which anthropoiogisss are invited for studying this remarkable peo- pie The tailess of the twarfs is only four feet and a half Tn height. and he professes to be giant among his own people.
 A Frenchman has devised a process of giving 10 felt slight coating of plumbago or metal. by which the appearance of bnrnished steel, copper. bronze or silver may De imi- tated. The product is likely to prove very useful when applied to stage properties, as. besides being inexpensive, il does not mate riaily increase the weight Of articles treated with il.
 Chameleon Hair.-The hair of young girl. who died al the age of fifteen in an in- sane asylum of Hamburg, is reported to have shown alterations of color coinciding with periodical changes in the patients mental and physical condition. Besides epileptic hts, I, was noticed that she experienced while in the asylum, quite regular alteruations of and calmness, each of about a weeks duration: and that the color of her hair xas red during each period of agitation, while II became blonde in her quiet intervals, complete change of tint taking place in two pr three days.
 Great EArthwormS-Mr. F. E. Beddard 'taies that earth~orms two feet in length have been found ia the British isles. and various species as large or larger are known o exis, in South Americs, western Africa, Aust aha and New Zealand The largest species known, however, inhAsifs south Africa Forty years ago a specimen vas de- 'cribed which measured six feet two inches n iength, but il seems to have been nearly orgotten until the other day when q gigantic ,reaiure of the same species, neaY.y five feet ong and half an inch in diameter, was sent o the Lordon Geological gardens from Cape Colony.
 Artificial Ball-Lightning.-Oae of the most remarkable ef electrical manifestations : that known .s sioSa:ar or ball lightning, which is so rare that physicists have had itiie opportunity of studying il. A similar 'henonenop. however, has been produced in he laboratory on small scale. I, has been ;aused accidently oe various occasions, and, n having piece of apparatus destroyed by me of the discharges, Mons. Piante, the well experiments in which successful imitation fl ball lightning has evidently been obtained. With a powerful current from seeondarS 'ztteries he has produced ia an air con lenser, formed of two moistened pads of liter paper placed near together. small in Andesceni giooule. lasting some minutes, nd moving slowly in a most curious and rratie path Whea a condenser was used D which the insulating material vas eboni,e
 sound was emitted like that of a tooshed 'hesl rapidly rotated against a piece of ard-board
 Heat and Light and vegetatino.-Dr. sellriegA has found that il is very important Q p.ans-deveiopment that the time of seed 0rnaing and the season of greatest heat and xht should be eoineident. He has illus rated this by experiments in which he sovsd Ariey, under other~ ise identical csndi,.ons. a April aiss, May as,h, June ash, August nd, and September isi; the frst crop be- oming ripe in ss days, the second prema- heiy ripe in g days lshe maximum heat and sht happening too early in the planss rovtAl the shird ripening imperfecsly in rso ays, she fourth in 900. and the last m aso e-s. From this n appears that the produc- veness of country depends not SO much