The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-06-27
Compiled for THE ARKASsAw TRAvxLxn.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

The phenomenon of red hail, the col. oring matter being different throughout some Of the stones, and others being white. was lately observed in the English county of Down.
 An intern ational congress of botany and horticulture will meet at Antwerp fror August to 10. Questions of great conner cial as well as scientific importance will be discussed.
 Glass and paper have a great future. Tuning forks and griAdstones, rails and sleePers, are now made from the former. houses, furniture and clothing, car-wheels and boats are among the applications of the latter. The British experiments to test the rel. ative merits of oil, gas and electrct fo, lighthouse illumination have resulted in de. monstratine the superiority of electricityo all other lights, even, as has been gerer ly doubted, in dense fogs.
 The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will open on August z6,h, at Ann Arhor. Mich, continuing ore week. The British Associations meeting will be held at Aber. oeen, Scotland, commencing September eth.
 It has been found that compressed teak may be made to serve some of the pur. poses for which boxwood, which is rapidly incoming scarce, IS now used powerful hydraulic press for compressng teak for loom shuttles has just been made in Man. chester, England.
 Remains ot gigantic birds lately discov. cred in the Thames valley show, according to MT. G. E. T. Newton of the London Zo ologieal Society, that England was one in- habitsd by birds as large as the famous Moa, of New Zealand, or much larger than the os. triches now existing.
 Of at least a dozen fishes having cleo. tIic organs the electric eel of South America IS the most powerful. It reaches a length of six feet, and is provided with pair of bat. l teries. containing some hundred minute nerve E supplied cells, which exhibit the same phe- nomena as artificial batteries.
 l An audible demonstration of the earth's magnetic induction has been given by Dr. | Schaper. A series of telephones were placed upon one circuit ard telephone or simple magnet was then repeatedly turned end for end, so that its north and south poles were uppermost alternately. At each reversal a crack was heard, resulting from the earth's induction on the reversed magnet.
 MT. John Mcguire has informed the < Royal Astronomical Society that in the pe- riod from A. D. a79 to I724 the sun has been totally eclipsed in every spot in the British Isles except small place on the coast of Ire land. Twice, in 87s and in I7I5. London came within the narrow path of totality. Twice also did the moons shadow fall on Dublin and five times on Edinburgh.
 Germs taking Root in the Lungs.-"In the ordinary healthy lung" says pr. Curtis, "perhaps even in persons who have a con. sumptive heredity, the germ which causes the breakdown of the lung may not be able N to make an impression: but if the physical integrity is destroyed by poor food, or any facilitating influence, or by cold, then the germ is able to get in its work, aud to multi. ply and produce it's kind, and fill the lungs with tubercles.n
 The al Rsthetic effect of rapid breath ing-like that of inhaling nitrous oxde-is as cribed by pr. Bonwill to the influence of the surplus of oxygen thus forced upon the lungs In variety of cases remarkable insensibility to pain, without apprecable loss of con sciousness, has been produced, in one in stance boy of eleven, after breathing rapidly about minute, having had four permanent, molars removed, the operation being painless and lasting twenty seconds.
 Another Metal.-Increasing knowledge of simple substances existing only in very minute quantities bids fair to eventually ex. tend our list of the elements making up the universe considerably beyond the 6s or 7o thus far cataiogued by chemists. A newly discovered rare element is "Norwegium, found by pr. T. Dahll in nickel ore from kragere, Norway. It is malleable metal of white color slightly tinged with brown, hardness about equal to that of copper, specific gravity Of ++4r, and a melting point of 63o degrees Fahrenheit. It appears 10 differ in physical properties and chemical re- N action from every other known metal.
 Fauna of Central Asia.-In a work soon to appear in London, Rev. pr. Henry Lansdell proposes to make generally acces sible what is known of the animal and vege table life of Russian Turkistan. The ani mals of Turkistan, he finds to embrace over So species of mammals nearly 400 species oi birds, with an additional a7 frequenting the Pamir; g species of reptiles probably more than 50 species of fishes; e3 species of mo- lusks 50 species of crus,aceans; 146 species of spiders; probably 1000 species of beetles several hundred species of hymenopteroui insects, including 36 of ants several hundrea F species of butterflies and moths; over 6 species of dragon-fies and other neuropter- ous insects 70 species of locusts, cricket; and other orthopterous creatures 47 specie; of intestinal worms, and an unknown numbe,W