The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-05-16
Compiled for THE ARKANsAw TRAvELRR.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

I great future for malt as food. Among other things, he commends lemonade made with malt instead of cane sugar.
 Acting on scientific suggestion that neutral tints are beneficial to the eyesieht. an enterpfising German publisher has just is- sued book printed in dark-blue ink on pale green paper.
 Ten years age, according to Sir Fred erick Abel, the loss of petroleum spirit from leakage and evaporation was as much as eighteen per cent. but it has now been re- duced to eight per cent. in many storehouses. and in Germany the leakage is said to te less than one per cent.
 In the last volume issued by the | Geological Survey of India is an account of fiery eruption from one of the mud volca- noes on Cheduba island. A body of flame GOO feet in circumference is said to have a, one time reached an elevation of 2 400 feet, petroleum being the cause.
 Dr. Phipson advocates, in a German scientific journal, the general use of sugar as a regular article of diet. For forty years he has eaten at least quarter of pound daily, not counting sugar forming substances taken at the same time, and has found it very healthful. Mems condition would be greatly improved if the use of sugar should substi- tate that of alcohol.
 Experiments reported to the Paris | Academy of Sciences prove that the pressure | meet ssary to cause the rupture of blood-yes- sels is very much greater than that to which they are normally subjected. The carotid artery of a dog required from thirty-ive to | hfty-hve times the normal pressure of the blood, and the jugular vein from thirty-two to thirty five times the usual force.
 The forecasts ot the weather bureau of France were verified last year in ninety cases out of every hundred, the percentage having steadily risen from eigh.y-ene in 1881 to eighty-three in 1882 and to eighiy-seyen in 1883. Out of I8o alarm signals sent to the ports, I2S were fully verified, twenty four were fairly correct thirty-seven were incor rect, and only two gales were not fo.eseen.
 A Lively Appetite.-A reputable scien- [ fife authority quotes the statement that by careful estimate, spider ate four times it's weight for breakfast, nearly nine times it's weight for daner, thirteen times it's weight for supper, finishing up an ouncr, and at D. m., when he was released, ran off in search of food. At this rate man of r6o pounds would require the whole of a fat steer for breakfast, another with a half dozen good sheep for dinner, and two bullocks, eight sheep and four hogs for supper, with about four barrels of fresh fish as a lunch before going to his club banquet.
 There's Nothing New.-The dental processes familiar to us are not SO new as may be supposed. Tn the museum of Cor neto, on the coast of Italy, are two curious specimens of artificial teeth found in Etrus- can tombs probably dating 400 or 800 years before our era. The teeth were evidently taken from the mouth of some animal, and had been carefully cut and fastened to neigh boring natural teeth of two young girls by means of small gold rings. The dentists art was also applied to treating natural teeth in various ways, but the fact has hitherto es- capped notice on account ofthe rarity of E,rus- can skeletons.
 A Find at Pompeii.-Ooe house re. gently uncovered at Pompeii appeared to have been undergoing repair at the ,in.e it was overtaken by the terrible volcano storm of November 8 A. D. 7o Painters pots and brushes, and workmen's tools, were scattered around, and spots of whitewash starred wall and floor. Pots and kettles had been bun dled up in corner by themselves, but dinner had not been forgotten. solitary pot stood on the stove. The oven was filled with loaves of bread, and suckling pig was awaiting on brown dish its turn to be baked. But the pig never catered the oven, and the bread re- mained in it eighteen centuries. Monsieur Florelli's museum at Pompeii contains the loaves-twenty -ene in nunber-rather hard and black, but perfectly preserved.
 Animal Exsinction.-The disappear ance of animal life from earth must always be regarded with interest and concern. An prehension is now beginning to be felt that we are now looking upon the final struggle for existence of all the larger mammalia--the elephant the giraffe, the bison, the whale, the seal, and many others-which must soon be extirpated unless protected from being hunted to death. An interesting case of ani- nal extinction is found in Stellers sea-covm (Rhytina Ssellerih lately referred to by Mir. Heary Woodward before the London Geo. logical society. This great animal, which has been vAriously classed with the whales. with walruses and seals, and with elephants. was soothless vegetable feeder, living along the shore in shallow water, and often weigh ing three or four tons. It was seen alive and described in I74I. but in I7so 1t appeared to have become entirely extinct. This creature belonged to the order "Sirenia,n and Mr. Woodward looks upon il as last surviving species of the great group of Sirenians which lived in the tertiary age of geology.