The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-07-28
COmptled Jor The ArkonsaW TrGuelsr. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

A thrifty Scotch chemist proposes to dispose of corpses by putting their various materials to profitable use. A Glasgow inventor forms conven- tent fuel by mixing coal dust with a paste of water, ground-rice waste and silicate of soda, and then holding into blocks.
 Russian soldiers have lately suffered from night blindness (hemeralopia), an affection generally due to lack of proper food. An epidemic of this dis ease at time when bread was the chief diet has been known to disappear on return to animal food.
 Creoline, kind of tar obtained by dry distillation of bituminous coal, is recommended by Dr. Neudorfer. of Vienna, as the most trustworthy, con- venient and harmless, as we'll as the cheapest of antiseptic dressings for erysipelas, tumors, wounds, etc.
 An immense terrestrial globe, on the scale of one-millionth, will be fea- ture of the Paris exposition of 1889. It will be about forty feet in diame- ter and will give important spaces in their actual relative size. Paris, for example, will cover about sixth of square inch.
 A new method of preserving the colors of pressed flowers comes from Germany. It consists in dusting sali- cylic acid upon the fresh petals, or pressing the flowers between sheets of plotting paper impregnated with so- lution of the acid in fourteen times it's volume of alcohol. Red colors are particularly we'll preserved.
 A NEW MUSICAL INsTRUMENr.-To furnish the music of the harp, with out requiring the skill of the harpist. has been the object of NJ. Dietz. of Brussels, in designing the claviharp. The instrument is provided with keyboard, upon which any pianist may play, but the strings are mecban- ically plucked as by the fingers of the harpist instead of being struck by hammers. The strings are of metal. with an insulated covering to give the tone of catgut.
 CANNIBALs IN THE MIDST OF CIvIL1- ZATIoN.-A queer nook of Brazil was explored by an Englishman, MT. John Stearns, two years ago, and has inst been described by him. It is in the valley of the Rio Doce, and seems to have been neglected by settlers on &C., count of the unnavigable character of the stream. Though within 25O miles of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the na- t1ves are naked and cannibals with no religion. The district contains much valuable rosewood.
 A "whistling language" Of the in- habitants of Gomero Island is de- scribed by Lieutenant Quedenfeldt. or the German army, as ordinary speech translated into articulate whistlipg. each syllable having it's own appro- priate tone. It is unknown in the other islands of the Canary group. and, as it may be heard mile away. it Is supposed 10 have been adopted to enable the people to talk across the many deep unbridged ravines separat- ing their homes on this island.
 LIGHT IN THE DARK CoNT1NENr- In tracing the gradual opening up of the African continent, during the last hundred years, Dr. Supan finds that the days of pioneer exploration are not yet over. A few patches of the surface have been surveyed with some care, of others we have a general Knowledge, and in others lines of travel have been run through, but there are still great regions-as in parts of the long travelled Sahara even-that are an absolute blank to civilized man. A MARTIAL CATACLYsM.-Presen ing the greatest analogy with our earth of any of the planets, Mars is naturally an object of great interest at the times of it's nearest approach. During the past few months its sur- face has been carefully studied by Perrotin, of Nice, and others, and if their observations are correct. it an- pears that our planetary neighbor has been the scene of changes, since two years ago, with which the inundations in China were quite insignificant. The equatorial land known as Sybia, cov- ering an area larger than France, has been submerged, the entire district now presenting the appearance of & sea. A new canal has become visible north of this place, and another new canal traverses the white snow-cap of the north pole.
 A MILLION YEARs.-To the human understanding the vast sketches of time involved in geological history are utterly incomprehensible. It is not easy, indeed, to form an idea of what period even million of years IS, through Croll tells us how a strik- ing impression of such lapse may be conveyed to mind. Stretch piece of paper eighty-thre feet four inches long around the walls of room some