The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-01-21
Complied for The ArkGRsdW IrGceIer. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

Archeologists have traced the we'd ding ring to the earliest times. It has been made of gold, silver, copper, brass, iron, tin, pewter, lead, bone and wood.
 Nose trimming is now performed without leaving scar or deformity. The removal of little surplus tissue from the end of long nose effects a wonderful change in facial expression.
 The Island of Molakai, Hawaiian reserve for lepers, has received 2,500 victims of this disease during the last fifteen years, and contains constant population of 700 to 800 lepers, with an annual death rate of 150.
 "What would one not give" asked Lubbock, !" for science primer of the next century? for, to paraphrase a well-known saying, even the boy at the blow will then know more of science than the wisest of philosophers do now"
 A remarkable engineering feat has been successfully accomplished at Co., kak, India, where the 750 horse power of three turbines is transmitted by rope gearing 739 feet away, the first 300 feet being up the face of per- pendicular cliff.
 A society has been formed in Mar seilles to develop the trade in frozen fish, which are now imported into France and Switzerland from various parts of the Mediterranean and Atlantic. A machine evaporating sulphurous acid maintains temperature of about zero, in which, as experiments has shown, fish can be kept for seven or eight months without alteration.
 In experiments during the past year, celluloid has proven an excel lent sheathing for ships, in place of copper, over which it has some ad- vantages. Another new application of valuable material is the use of the lately cheapened aluminium for dental plates, which are better than rubber, and cheaper and stronger than gold.
 COLOR AND NERVES. - Curious effects are known to be often pro- duced by colors on persons and animals. The sight of an obnoxious color may in- duce an attack of mysteries, nausea, or a headache, or it may cause violent fit of ill-temper. The offending color is sometimes blue, sometime yellow, but oftener red or scarlet. Scientific attention is being directed to these phenomena.
 NETHERLANDS LAST. = The large birds, like the other large animals, are steadily going, and all may soon dis appear from the earth. It is believed that the Lammergeyer, or alpine vul- ture, has just become completely ex- tinct in Switzerland, solitary female specimen, which has dwelt on the Biotschhorn during the last twenty five years, having at last fallen vic- tim to poison.
 A PECULIAR ACID. - An East h. dian plant, known to botanists as Gyn,nema SylceStye, was not long ago found to possess the property of tenn porarily destroying all sense of sweet and bitter tastes, so that after the leaves have been chewed, the taste of sugar or quinine is that of sand or chalk. MT. David Hooper, chemist of India, has extracted the active principle which constitutes about six per cent of the weight of the dried leaves, and has the same influence as the leaves upon the nerves of taste. This remarkable new product has been named gymnemic acid.
 A ZooLoGICAL ENIGMA.-The aXo- lotl, an amphibian which forms part of the food supply of Mexico, is a very singular creature. 1t grows to length of about foot, and has four legs, a newt-like tail surmounted by | lungs and gills. While it seems to be more fish than reptile, some natur- alists have supposed it to be the larva or tadpole of gigantic Batrachian that has never been seen in the adult | state. An English observer, who has found the animal capable of living en- tirely in water or entirely on land, has had live specimen ill dry place during the autumn, and believes that it is gradually losing it's gills and be- coming otherwise more terrestrial in character.
 INDUSTRIAL GEoLoGY.-The geolog- ical formations of country, according | to NJ. Louis Navez, have considerable effect in limiting mans free action, and | determining the location and occupa- tions of communities. Two Belgian examples are given. The Geer valley is characterized by an abundance of lime in the soil, which gives great strength, suppleness and whiteness to straw there grown, and has thus originated the extensive straw plating industry of the district. The valley of the Lys, on the other hand, is notably free from calcareous rocks, making