The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-02-02
,C0weslfd fer TAe .4vksxsGv TyaSe!ey SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

1882 IS that of Fabritius, who makes II s23 years.
 MT. II. o. Forbes, an English anthro- biologist who has travelled in the Ear Indies, reports the existence of a race of red-haired people with blue eyes in the interior of the island of Timor.
 Recent accurate dwellings confirm the conclusions advanced by Mons. Bourda. lon Tn 1864, that the average level of the Mediterranean IS about twenty-eight inches lower than that of the Atlantic.
 The Swedish frigate Vanadis has started on scientific cruise round the world. having among it's passensengers King Oscars second son and government commissioner who is to collect materials for starting a national museum of ethnog- raPhy in Stockholm.
 Ii is probably not generally known Ina, rain or dew from the vapor produced by the evaporation of sea or salt-lake water invariably contains salt, although Dr. Pe'zholdt, of the university at Dorpa,. Russia, states that chemists have long been aware of the fact
 Prof. 5. F. Thompson has shown Ina: if electricity be regarded as self-repulslve medium. a surplus in one place and deficit in another would give rise to mo- ton between them-that IS. to attraction. He extends the hypothesis until he iaiers that either the ether is electricity. or the ether IS eleetrihed-the former conclusion being the more probable
 Liquehed carbonio acid is coming into use in Europe for variety of purposes It IS conveyed from the place of manutac- ture in strong wrought-iron cylinders ft- ted with brass screw valves. To keep the acid in its liquid form these storage tanks have to endure pressure of as much as thirty-six atmospheres, or more than 500 pounds to the square inch.
 pr. Beau, a French physician, has ob- served that the hnger-nails grow a, the rate of one-thirtieth of an inch a week. while the toe-nails increase in length only one-fourth as fast He finds iha, he growth of the thumb-nail equals its own length every twenty weeks, but the nail of the great toe IS replaced completely only once in ninety-six weeks.
 Russian writers have lately drawn a,- tention to the existence of various pois- onous species Of fish in the Japanese seas. hN NoA-A6 Ot 0kC-SiECQ OlI or slS flesh of one of them, known as the Fuku. IS said to be almost instantly followed by death. Many fatalities are cause by .his fish among the lower classes of Japanese. who ca, il, at the risk of being poisoned. on account of certain marvellous proper ties which they believe il to possess
 A number of weeks ago observers of the Pons- Brooks comet found tha, the plane of its orbit would be crossed by the earth on December sixth. and Mir. Chan dler, of the Harvard observatory, pre- dicted that when the earth arrived a, tha, place meteors would be seen moving in the comets orbit The prophecy was fulfilled by the discovery. on the nigh, of December sixth. of dozen or mere me- teors radiating from the calculated poin. m space.
 Much evidence has been brough. for ward during the last few months to prove that copper and its salts exert a protective influence against cholera, a d that work CTS Tn the metal are exempt from this and other diseases. This fact has led Mons. Bochefontaine to poin, out to the French Academy of Sciences that nine cases of cholera occurred in IS3o. with fatal results. among the eoppersmitks of Nilledien, where the whole atmosphere may be said 10 be saturated with copper. Smallpox. typhoid fever and charbon have also found victims Tn the same com munity.
 From his own observations Doctor Lawson Taii concludes tha, congeni.al deafness is not known to occur IT any animal but the cat, although .,s existence has been suspected in ; white mouse, and that no cats bu, those entirely white arc ever deaf. 4, one time Darwin had the impression that white cats with blue eyes were invariably deaf. but he at,er- ward found this view to be an error Doc- tor Tait gives another interesting resui, of his observations. which IS ,ha. every kind of white animal kep, by him as pc, has been the subject of epilepsy He considers this association Of color with the disease 10 be suggestive when we are told that epilepsy IS unknown among ne groes.
 In d commune alton to the RoyaI so- ciety of London. General S,raehey has considered certain remarkable barome,- nc distur bances which were recorded near the close of August a, various widely
 
 10 trace them to a common origin in air waves produced by the grea, volcanic eruption a, krakatoa, in the straits oi Sunda. Such waves would move in all directions from the place where thev were caused, and from the data at hand he estimates that these waves traveled rom east 10 west ai the average ra.e of e7+ miles per hour. and from west 70 eas, at -oo miles each hour. He nnds \ probable that great wave moving from east 70 west travelled more than S,- eoo miles before It's extinction. making the complete circui, of the earth three and one-iourtR times. The sea-waves resulting from this volcanic outburst were proPasaied to distant parts Of the gleb. al rates reported as varying from s-s miles to 4So miles an hour.
 The surgeons of the medical colleges who countenance grave robbing. would