The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-10-04
s@rszsS fsv 7k ArAssssv 7rsseiw.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.
 Three causes are found by Mons. Du- rand fer spontaneous combustion in col lieriss-:ss oxidation of iron pyrises in the coal, friction from slipping, and heat of air currents.
 A MT. Twyman, of Winchester, Eng land, records that the planting of single grain of wheat has yielded g ears con- taining 500 grains The three best ears had respectively io4, Io3 and roI grains.
 From the report of smallpox hos pital near London ii appears that an un- vaccinated child runs 2 risk of death from small-pox more than six times as great as the child who has undergone the harmless operation necessary to protect him from that disease.
 An English observer has declared thai full one bushel of grain per acre has been destroyed by small birds alone in his country. He has estimated that if the number of small birds were reduced one half the annual saving to the country would amount to more than s Soo 900.
 The forest land in European Russia is rapidly decreasing, threatening loss of wood supply and serious change of climate. Its area IS now estimated at 5 per cent. of the total area of the country, while that of Austria is % per cent, of Germany e6. France Io, Italy IS, and Turkey Ii per cent.
 Prof c. F. Wright infers ,ha, the Nj. agara river has worn the whole of the gorge from Queenstown to the falls. with perhaps some little help from pre- glacial erosion above the whirlpool. The rate of erosion, calculated at about three feet year, would make the time required not ever Io. 900 or F ,ooo years.
 Prof Young states that recent re- searches show it to be extremely doubtful whether any portion of the moons sur face ever reaches temperature as high as 100 degrees F :, although Lord Rosse estimated that some parts must rise to 500 degrees during the lunar day of a whole month and fall to 100 degvees be- low zero at night.
 English Rain Watchers.-A quarter of century ago Mir. C. T. Symons insti- tuted the first general series of rainfall observations ever made in England. He has since then gradually extended his system, and there are now nearly 1000 observers, DO less than 2,4,3 stations having furnished perfect records of the rainfall Last year. Valuable in many ways as this work may be to the English people, the observers have not only rem dered their services without compensa- ton but have also borne most of the ex- pense of making known the results of their observations.
 A Death of Ease-The evident pain inflicted by clumsy hanging and the ghastly fact that persons have shown signs Of consciousness for an appreciable time after beheading have led humani- tarians to consider other modes of exe- cutting criminals. rrussic acid and cleo tricity are among the agents which have been proposed, but the latest and per haps most promising suggestion is that of an English writer, who would place the convict in suitable cell and at the proper moment cover him with a flow of acid gas, by which means a calm and speedy death would be en- sured.
 Money Vegetation.-It seems odd to think of well-6lled purse as a plant field, but such it appears to be. A short time since Paul Reinsch discovered sev- eral kinds of minute plants-incIuding two algae which had before been un- known-growing upon coins after having been long enough in circulation to re- ceive thin incrustations of organic matter. A Hungarian bo,anist, Jules Schaar- schimdi, has more recently been exam- ming paper money, and has found the grow.hs upon even the clean est specimens. He has detected seven species, including-although they arc two new alsae described by Reinsch.
 Salmon Travels.-Researches by Swed- sh and Finnish savants furnish evidence hat salmon are in the habi. of making journeys across the Baltic quitting the rivers of northern Sweden md Finland in the autumn for visit to he shores of northern Germany during he winter, and returning to their haunss D the spring. In Germany and Norway .fiorts have been made to learn some hing of the migration of salmon through