The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-08-23
,ssekS Tv m Asi~sssD ztesaxsv.
 scIRNrIFIc MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY. ! Prominent American scient;sss are urv.
 ing the formation of an insernas;cnal
 scientific association, which shaIl meet a,
 intervals to discuss the worlds problems. The first minor planet, or astssoid, was
 discovered January I, iSoi-she first day
 of the present century-and the ,,7th
 was first observed June ?, 1884. Of
 these e37 little worlds, forty-swo were dis
 covered by Dr. Palisa, of Vienna. and the
 same number by Prot. Peters, the Amer
 ican astronomer.
 From the character of the enormous
 icebergs of the southern henisphere-
 some of which have been described as
 being hundreds of feet high and miles in
 extent-Mr. R. A. Proctor concludes that no Antarctic continenf can exist, as the most favorable place for the development of such icebe,gs would be sea dotted with islands.
 To give us better knowledge of the phenomena of atmospheric electricity,
 MT. John Trowbridge recommends that the government in connection with the signal-sevice, establish . number of electrical stations throughout the south and west, where thunder storms and tor- nadoes are So frequent. In certain regions the tendency of thunder-xtorms being to follow definite paths, daily thun- der-storm maps might be issued, show ing the probable path of approaching electrical disturbances.
 Mackerel and Cholera.-Of supposed risk attending the use of mackerel, Prof Huxley says: "It is perfectly true tha, mackerel, like ali other 6sh, are more or less infected by parasites, one of which, small thread-worm, is often SO abund. ant as to be conspicuous when the fish is opened. But l: is not true that there is any reason to believe that this thread vo-m would be injurious to a man even if he swallowed i, uncooked and alive. and to speak of is as a possible cause of cholera is sheer nonsense"
 In a communication to the Physio- logical society of Berlin, Dr. Falk stated, as result of his researches on drowning, that when rabbits are suddenly plunged into water having temperature of forty or ferty-hve degrees Fahrenheit, cramp ct the expiratory muscles occurs, and respiration ceases. The methods of re- storing the apparently dead having no relation 10 the effect of cutaneous ssim- uiation upon respiration; cold water dashed upon the chest acts upon the heart alone; on the nape of the neck it scts upon the lower brain.
 Success of Yellow Fever Vaccination. Most satisfactory results are claimed by Dr. Eomingos Freire of Rio de Janeiro, for his experiments in inoculating persons with yellow fever virus in an attenuased form. Up to recent date he had ap- piled his system of inoculation to 4,o persons, among whom six deaths oc- cured during subsequent quite severe yellow fever epidemic. The mortality among persons who had not beep treated with protective inoculation was, accord ing to his account, about fifteen times as great.
 A Tree Upon a Tree.-A curious bo- 'anieal specimen is growing in . park at Sondershausen, Germany, in the shape of fir tree which bears on one of its main branches what appears to be a second uee-cone-sAaped, and not less than twenty-five feet in height, and about three feet in diameter. The main tree is over one hundred feet high, with trunk some ten feet in circumference. It is supposed that a wound made in the branch by squirrel or an insect has caused bud to develop which has pro- duaed the secondary tree.
 Hydrophobia Must Go.-Unbroken success is reported still as the result of Fasseur's experiments with the virus of hydroPhobia- Thus far 6fy-seven dogs have been the subject of investigations. Nineteen of them were rabid, and by these thirty weight healthy animals were bitten under uniform conditions. One half of the thirty-eight had been previ- ously inoculaied or vaccinated" with virus the other half had not. Without single exception, the latter died with unmissakable signs of hydro phooia- The oshers are yet alive and apparently as well as ever, but win be watched for year by veterinary surgeons, to see whether the inoculation prevents the development of hydrophobia per-