The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-10-03
Compiled for TIE AzKAxsxw TRAvxrxn.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

l London is to b ave an internat;o.., cookery and food exhibition in Deeembe, .. this year.
 It has been discovered that heaps .. unripe rice sooA undergo a process of c. mentation which Is said to give the p,,;. delicious flavor.
 By carefully conducted experimeps MT. ]. C. Arthur has demonstrated tha, h.. teria are the direct cause of the d;s..,. known as pear blight Sap from an a:rec,.s tree invariably produced the disease xh.. inoculated into healthy tree. Valuable as is the microscope to v. rious sciences. its use alone does no, n-o. eriy constitute distinct science. This s,., has been at length recognized by the Ams,s can Association for the Advancemer, =, Scier ce, which. at its recent Ann Arbor m.., inh' abolished its section on microscopy.
 In the Mark Museum, at Dantzio i, now piece of amber for which fr.zoo h,. been refused. It weighs eight pounds .,a is probably the largest piece in the wo,s
 
 tains piece, once owned by Frederick ,h. Great, weighing thirteen pounds, but i, ba. gaps and cavities.
 The recent experiments on the Brtsh coast to test the relative merits of oil Do, and electricity for Ii ghtheuses, have respl,.a Tn the decision of the committee that oil i, the most suitable and economical illuminan, for ordinary necessities, and that electr;c,v offers the greatest advantages when yey powerful light is needed.
 A French physiologist, Dr.Regnard i. endeavoring to study marine animals und.. their natural conditions, an apparatus d.- signed by Cailletet enabling him to watch ,b. creatures in water under any pressure up to that ot 65o atmospheres, which correspond, with that Of the sea at the greatest depths A, which dredgings have been made-abou four miles.
 An Error Corrected.-At recent meet. ing of the French Academy of Sciences, Gel iaoon corrected popular belief by remark. ing that the presence of masses of metal in building does not add to the risk of beipo struck by lightning, provided the metal is no, connected with the ground by a good cleo. tric conductor. Tn case the building is struck however. combustibles near the metal are liable to be set on fire.
 Lengths of Heat Waves.-Tne lum;. nous rays of the solar spectrum have wave. lengths ranging between the narrow limits of 'oooo oI4 and .ooo,o25 of an inch. Below these are dark heat rays of somewhat greater wave. length, but Prof S. P. Langley finds good reassn for believing that the heat radiated by the soil has wave-length twenty times as great as that of the lowest visible line in the solar spectrum, and that there are probably wave-lengths of something more than one two-thousandth of an inch. These results are of much interest and importance, as show. ing that all heat is not of the same quality as that of the sun.
 Our Pitcher Plants.--The North Amer. ican pitcher plants, states Mir. w. Watson, of Kew, number only seven species. There are SIX species of Sarracenia, all characterized by the same trumpet shaped leaves, growing Tn tufts, and in several species attaining | length Of yard; and the seventh kind of pitcher plant is the Darlingtonia Californica, the top of which is curved over, forming | sort of hood, and having rather small aper, ture at each side. While the Sarracenias al. | lure and finally destroy insects in their ritch. CTS, botanists do not yet know whether the entrapped insects furnish nourishment to the plants, although it has been proven that ani. nal food is not essential to the plants, exis. tence
 Aluminium Alloys.-From recent ir. vestiga,ions it appears that aluminium greatly increases the strength of metals alloyed with It. With cheapened method of making such alloys by means of a new electric furnace, Messrs. E. Fl. and A. H. Cowles and C. F. Mabery have added aluminium to cooper in the proportion of two or tn rec per cent. and obtained product which is stronger than brass and would serve as an excellent sub. stitute for that metal. With five per cent of aluminium an alloy was produced having a tensile strength equivalent to strain of 6s. GOO pounds to the square inch. The addition oftwo or three per cent. of aluminium doubled the strength of common brass and oompo- sition of copper, nickel, zinc and small per centage of aluminium withstood a strain Of Io5.ooo pounds to the square inch, and has been named "Hercules metal.n Though very abundant, forming the base of common clay, aluminium, either pure or in alloys has been obtainable only by expensive processes
 A Work of Prehistoric Braziliaus-The remarkable Brazilian hill of Pacoval has been fully described for the first time by Lad islaus Netto in a publication of the Natural Museum of Rio Ianerio. This hill entirely built by some ancient race of men, stands on the margin of a lake in the island of Marajo, and, although reduced by erosion and weath- ering to a fifth or sixth of its original size, is still about 1000 feet long. Boo wide an 70 high. In its outlines, those of gigantic Jabud turtle, it shows analogies with the mound. huilders in 4hs. Aississ;..s>; As=i- .-..;sa