The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-05-05
cO1sptIed for The Ark0as0O Tf0UsEer. SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.


 tiny electric lamp for lighting up the cavities of teeth during the process ot filling.
 In the experience of Dr. J. J. Chis- olm, of Baltimore, accidents from the use of chloroform and other anesthet- ics have been invariably averted by instantly hanging the patient up by the heels on the stoppage of the pulse.
 An Indian elephant lately acquired st Central Park, New York, is nine feet high though quite young, and bids fair to outgrow Jumbo. It daily consumes about two and one-halt trusses of hay and POO pounds of veg etables, washed down with 80 gallons of water.
 The latest artificial rubies of Messrs. Frenzy and Verneuil, the French chemil IS, appear to be identical with the natL4s. stone in composition and properties. They consist solely of al- umina colored with a little chro- mium, have beautiful tint, are very hard, and are found to agree with the native ruby in crystalline form and
 
 A curious monstrosity of Vienna is girl who, though born February 15, 1871, has lived only in the cradle. She has sound constitution, but has never outgrown the physical or mental stature of suckling. She utters only inarticulate sounds, has all her teeth but never masticates, often sleeps two days and two nights at & time, and has never risen.
 THE ToNGUE's INDICATIONS. - A furred tongue is not necessarily an alarming symptom. According to & late lecture by Dr. Howship Dickin- son, the tongue not only changes it's aspect and condition with often in- considerable deviations from ordinary health, but it presents many differ ences within this state in different persons, and in the same persons at different times. To some persons it is normal to have clean tongue, and to others equally normal to have a coated one, so that it is impossible to fix any degree or limit of coating as 6 necessary accompaniment of perfect health.
 A SCIENTIFIC PARADox.-With a sheet-iron disc mounted on an axis SO as to be spun like top, G. c. Manet, French electrician, produces an ap- parent reversal of 8 familiar law of physics. When at rest or slowly TO- tating, the disc is attracted by a horseshoe magnet brought near, but when revolving rapidly it is repelled if the magnet is presented to it's flat surface. This curious phenomenon of repulsion is supposed to be due to the induced currents set up by the mo- tion of the iron in the magnetic field, and does not appear until the rapidity of the revolution gives currents of sufficient power to more than coun- terbalance the magnets attraction.
 SNOW WARMED LAND.-Mr. W. M. Williams finds the beneflcence of snow fully manifested in such a cli- mate as that of Siberia, where a tenn perature of seventy to eighty degrees below zero-or thirty to forty de- grees below the freezing point of mercury-was recorded last October. The snow, coming early in the season and being an almost absolute non-con- ductor of heat, serves az an effective clothing for the soil, which is thus protected from so low & minimum temperature as it occasionally reaches in England win the air at fifteen or twenty degrees over naked ground, Hence the paradox of Siberian vege- tation, which is so luxuriant in the summer, when the heat of the long days is very intense.
 OvERwoRKED MUscLEs.-The affec- tion known as writer's cramp is not confined to users of the pen, but ap- pers in telegraphers and others who make continual use of one set of mus cles. These cramps have been vari- ously supposed to result from a dis eased condition of brain, spinal cord or nerves, and were long regarded as incurable. During several years past, however, Wolff has been applying gymnastics combined with massage to the muscles affected, and has suc- ceeded in curing more than half of the many cases treated. His process is neither difficult nor tedious, being simply regular movements of the ling srs or other parts, with rubbing or gentle striking of the muscles, con- tinued not more than an hour a day for several weeks.
 THEORIES OF ORIGIN. - There are three possible views concerning the origin of organic forms whether in- dividual or specific, states Prof. Jos- eph Le Conte. Taking the individual, the first of the theories is that of the pious child who thinks that he was made very much as he himself makes his dirt-pies; the second is that of the street-gamin, or of Topsy, who says, GI was not made at all 0rowad .v