The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-15
Complied for TRs ATk0,ss9sg TFGUeLer. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

proven less successful than was hoped, as the roots gradually undergo ab- sorption, causing the teeth to loosen and fall out after a year or two.
 French physicians are reporting great success with the prompt inter- nal use of an antiseptics in cases of typhoid fever. After disinfection of the intestines, according to this method, the disease runs 8 short course.
 Small globules of porcelain are now manufactured in Munich to take the place of ordinary lead shot for ciean- ing wine and medicine bottles. Their hard, rough surfaces adapts them for quickly removing dirt and grease, and they are not acted upon by acids or alkalies.
 Prof. Pickering, of the Harvard col lege observatory, regards the so-called canals of Mars as areas of vegetation possibly immense cultivated tracts. The canals are usually some 30 to 150 miles broad by 2,000 or 5000 miles long, and most of them appear in par allel pairs.
 After experiments on the relative merits of castor oil and of olive oil as lubricants, the Italian Admiralty has ordered that the exposed parts of ships' machinery be fabricated exclu- sively with castor oil, and that min- eral oils be used for cylinder and sim- liar fabrication.
 A SAND- YIELDING TREE.-The Bra gillian pottery tree (Moqutzea uti7is) contains so large an amount of silica that the bark is much used for pot tery- making. The ashes of the bark are mixed with clay in varying pro- portion, producing superior and very durable ware. The fresh bark cuts like soft sandstone.
 Prot. Ormond Stone states that only four cases have been found in which the known motions of the principal bodies of the solar system cannot be fully explained by Newton's law of gravity. The unexplained discord- ances are the motion of the perihe- lion of Mercury, and the accelerations of the mean motions of the moon and of Encke's and Winnecke's comets.
 A NEW TELEGRAPH FOR MARINERS. A novel spectro- -telegraphic apparatus has been constructed by Dr. Paul Ia Cour, Danish physicist. It pro- jects steady vertical spectrum, on which, with special telescope, red and blue dots and lines are seen to ap- pear and disappear. These are Morse signals, produced by the breaking of the spectrum by the opening and shutting of little slits, displaying the colored dots and lines. This is ef- fected by an electrical arrangement having lettered and numbered keys.
 ARTIFICIAL EMERALDs.-The meth- cd by which Messrs. Hautefeuille and Percy have succeeded in producing very beautiful crystals of emerald has been described to the French Acad- emy of Sciences. Silica, alumina, and glucina (with traces of oxide of chromium) were fused with acid moly bdate of lithia, temperature of from 600 to 700 degrees being main- tained for fifteen days. Crystals about one twenty fifth of an inch in diame- ter, with the mineralogical and phys ical characteristics of the natural em- erald, were obtained.
 AN ELECTRIC CURRENT METER.-A very simple method of measuring an electric-current, depending upon its heating power, has been devised by Prof. George Forbes. The current is passed through coil of fine wire, which becomes heated and causes a column of hot air to rise. This stream of air routes a little wheel provided with inclined vanes, and the number of revolutions, which are pro- portional to the amount of electricity used, are registered by gear wheels, as in an ordinary gas-meter. The heat ing and the rate of the consequent movements of the register wheel vary, of course, with the strength of cur rent.
 MONUMENTS OF AN UNKNOWN RACE. -Unhewn stone monuments are among the most interesting relics of prehistoric man found in France and other portions of Europe, the ancient province of Brittany being especially rich in them. The builders, MT. Thomas Wilson states, are supposed to have come from more or less re- mote east during the polished stone age, bringing knowledge of agricul- ture, some ideas of government, and religion, with less of art than the in- habitants of the country before them possessed. They buried their dead, and left the magnificent monuments over them which, to the number of more than 6 300 in France and more than l,600 in Brittany, are now being carefully restored and preserved by the French government. Some of these monuments are made up of many immense stones, while others arc re-