The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-03-07
Compiled for THE ARKASsAw TRAvKLrn.
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY

SSAGN AEA@ MASCEbLANX.
 It is estimated that Great Britain's coa.
 supply will be exhausted in about ros year, the present increase in the rate of con. sumption continues.
 According to Sir James Remnant, leeu. ards have, in Ceylon at least, . strange fancv for the flesh of small pox victims, the specisc odor of the disease seeming to strongly al. ! tract them.
 Measurements of the red corpuscles of the blood in fourteen different races of men
 have shown the average diameter to be T. -32a4 of an inch, the maximum diameter be- ing i-a777, and the minimum I-4ooo.
 A bronze axe with the handle attached probably the first specimen known to have been discoyered-has just been found in
 Brittany by French antiquary. The tool has cutting edge on one end and a kind of hammer cap on the other.
 A crocus (C. Speciosus) of a remark. able rapidity of growth has been described 10 the botanists of the Royal Horticultural Society of London. When carefully watched. its flower stalks can almost be seen to grow as they have been known to increase in length from four to six inches in a single night.
 Short-sightedness, according to a re- cent paper by MT. R. B. Carter, F. R. c. S. has come into existence within historic time and into prevalence almost within living memory, while if now affects at least ten per cent of England's population. It is essen, tially defect-bordering on disease-of civ- ilization.
 From the records of observations made at thirteen Prussian stations since Is73. Prof. Muttrich has determined that forests exercise a positive influence on the temperature of the air; that they lessen the daily variations of temperature, and more in summer than in winter; and that the tempering effect of the leafy forest Is in summer greater than that of the pine forest, while in winter the pine for est has more influence than the disfoliaged forest.
 Earthquakes at Different Seasons.- The current notion that more earthquakes occur in winter than in summer receives some support from the following table, which shows the total number of sh ocks re- corded at the met eorogical observatory of the ten years ending December 10, 1884: January, 53; February, so; March, 73 April, 4S; May, ST; June, 40; July, 36; August, a7; September, IS; October, 47; November, ST; December, Go. The average per month for the ten years is 45 that for the six winter months, October to March, is 56; and for the six summer months, 35
 Science Births.-Astronomy, the oldest of the sciences, is said to have originated at Babylon in observations made about aaa4 B. C.; il was much advanced in Chaldea under Nabonassar; and it was known to the Chinese about HOO B. C., if not many cen turies before. Geology. the science of the China long before the christian era, and it occupied the attention of Aristotle, Theo- phrastus, Pliny, Avicenna and the Arabian writers. The Egyptians and Chinese claim an early acquaintance with chemistry, whose first facts were revealed by the experiments of the alchemists, but it did not become science until the seventeenth century. Botany and zoology were founded by Aristotle, about $50 B. C.
 Northern Limit of Corn Growth On the northeast shores of Asia, corn cannot be cultivated at so degrees north latitude, although in the interior it natures as far north as 6a degrees. On the eastern shores 0fA he norfb ( ;,. l.. 50 degrees, and on the western shores it reaches about 57 degrees, while in the in- termediaie country it is known to go as far as o5 degrees. The fact that it thrves far ther north in the interior of continents than On the shores is thought by Nj. Buysman 10 be due not alone to the cooling influence of ice -accumulations on the coasts but to de- pend largely on the greater amount of sum light received in the dry regions far from the oceans. In Norway corn grows in latitude 70 degrees, the climate being not only warmed by proximity to the gulf stream but the skies being very clear as well. Even in the most northern regions, where the shade is very low, vegetation may grow in sheltered spots exposed to the sun, and luxuriant scurvy grass has been found on Walden island beyond So degrees north lati. tude.
 Air and Sea as Earth h-Shakers. occurrence of earthquakes and hurricanes in Spain and its neighberhood has led Mir. R. A. Proctor to make some in- calculations. A change of half an inch in the barometer over an area of 100000 square miles-about equal to that of the British Isles with the contained seas-would mean variation of some 42, 6oo million tons in the weight of the air resting on that sur face; one foot of extra tide extending out ward ten miles would give an extra weight of 75o million tons on coast 100 miles long. Greater variations of baromeirie pressure occur, over much larger areas; and tides reach several feet beyond their usual limits, on much greater lengths of coast. "t take it, then" Mir. Procter con-