The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-10-10
Compiled fbr TMm AnxkMsAw HaAvrxr.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

Oa' o. ". AACuAtusou un0S that ths cat resists suHocation three timesN as lon, the dog on the average, and in one ins,a,.. nine times as long.
 II Dr. Hook, German naturalist. find.
 that the eastern hemisphere affords a6o pla,,. and B animals useful to man, while the w..,
 ern world only contributes g plants and :.
 animals.
 The Patagonians, including both se,..
 have an average stature of five feet ten ineh.,
 according to MT. H. Hale, who cons;d...
 that the adoption of equestrian habits b,.
 shortened the legs of the people two ipcb.,
 In two centuries, their former height ayer,..
 ing six feet
 Evidence of the prevalence of cannibal.
 ism among the prehistoric inhabitants of po,.
 tugal has been discovered on the Pepich.
 peninsula, where also has been found sL,,,
 on which some early surgeon appears to bav.
 used his stone implements in the delicate o,
 erasion of trepanning.
 A new alloy called platinoid, expec,.a
 to prove very useful in the arts, is said ID h.
 practically untarnishable and hardly disan
 guisnaoie from silver. Its composition i.
 essentially that of German siiver-whicb is q,
 alloy of 100 parts of copper, to of tin and 40 of nickel-with the addition of one or two n., cent. of tungsten.
 On certain beaches are found sand, which on being set in motion produce ne. culiar musical sound. The character;s,;c, of the grains are being studied by Prof. Bo ton ot Hartford who has found the "snpin. sands " In many localities in this country and has been supplied by the Smithson,an institution with a variety of specimens from the Sandwich Islands. Germany and otb,, places.
 Copper. Plating Corpses.-A French chemist proposes coating the bodies of th. dead with a skin of copper, which is readi,v enected by the well known process of cleo, tro-plating. A second plating of gold or sil. yer could be added if desired. The treat. ment permanently preserves the corpses rom chemical change, and has already been applied to several human subjects and to many animals.
 An Electric Plant.-If a German ar. count is to be believed the plant world has Its living electrical generators as we'll as the animal Kingdom. 1t is stated that on break. ing stem of the Phytolacca electrica the nand receives shock like that given by an iqduction coil, and that the magnetic needle IS affected to distance of twenty feet. This energy of the plant is greatest at two D. m., and almost disappears at nightfan.
 
 Some Effects of Forest Removal Among the results of the destruction of the torest' and the drainage of the land, pr. R. ' n. Reed finds the following: More wind, greater dampness, increased rainfall, more dust, more frequent showers, more sudden changes of the temperature and moisture. ! quicker transmission of water to the great basins, and diminution of the common sup. ply of springs and wells. decrease of ma. | iarial diseases follows these changes, with an increase of typhoid fever, catarrh, deafness and chropic lung troubles. The spread of zymotlc and contagious diseases is favored by | the increase of wind and dust.
 The New Star.-The remarkable eighth magnitude star in the great nebula of An, dromeda, whose sudden appearance has just been announced by pr. Harwig, of Stras- burg, seems to have one exact counterpart in astronomical history. On May aI, 18sq, Au- wers discovered bright star-certainly visi, bic three days before-in the nebula So Mes sier' In this case the new star grew rapidly fainter and had vanished by June 10, no trace of it having sisce been seen. These mysterious and startling phenouacna have an ! especial interest from their possible bearing on Lapiace's theory that suns and planets have been slowly formed by the condensation of nebular matter.
 Bringing the Dead to Life.-Some facts mentioned by pr. Richardson, the English physiologist, suggest the possibility of re- storing persons to life after actual death. Bs combining artificial circulation with artificial respiration, dog was restored to life sixty nve minutes after having been killed by an overdose of chloroform. the heart having be- come perfectly still and cold; and frogs poisoned by nitrate of amyl were restored ater nine days of apparent death, signs of putrefactve change having appeared in one case. quite startling effect is produced by peroxide of hydrogen in terminating the blood and restoring heat to a really dead body. These observations, in the opinion of MT. W. Masteau Williams. justify the con ciusion that a drowned or suffecated man is not hopelessly dead so long as the bodily or gans remain uninjured by violence or dis ease, and the blood remains sufficiently liquid to be set in motion arti6cially and supplied with little oxygen to start the chemical of life.
 The Strength of Gales.-Before a com mittee of the English parliament Mr. B, Baker lately expressed the belief that ordi- nary anemometers greatly exaggerated the force of wind-storms, and that no such pres- sure as 6s pounds per square foot can be ex- srted by the wind over any considerable sur