The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-02-09
Compiled for TIE Arkansae Traveller.
SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

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causes, and the evil Is growing. The first year
death rate was 1879 per cent in ls40-4i, and is
% per cent
Transparent paper for supporting the sensitive
films used for Photographic negatives has not been
entirely satisfactory. For several years thin
celluloid plates have been tried, and Mr.. John
Carbut states that during the past year these have
been made perfect light weight substitute for
plates of glass.
Sore Threats may be prevented, according TO
Mr. ii. v knaggs, by the continuous wearing of
from ten to twenty threads of Berlin wool. These
should be kept round the neck except during
ablutions, and left of gradually by removing one
thread daily. The remedy is supposed TO act upon
the ring of skin a slight counter irritant.
India rubber is being tried for paving streets in
several German towns. The first pavement of the
kind was laid by HERE Busse, of Linde, the
Goethe bridge, in Hanover, in 1897 The material
Is claimed to combine the elasticity of rubber with
the resistance of stone and to be perfectly noisees
unaffected by heat or cold, and less slippery than
asphalte.
STATE WEATHER BUREAUs.-The establishment
of weather service in each state, to cooperate
with the national service, is urged by Prot r T.
Nipher. Such organizations could better study
local climate and could thoroughly distribute the
predictions required by local industries. In 1898
the telephone will become public property, when
every farm may be put in communication with the
county seat at small expense, and may receive
weather intelligence promptly Prof Nipher
believes that this will be done, and that il can best
be done through plans worked out by state
directors.
y WALL OF FLms-Among fly pests, the sand
flies of the Egyptian deserts described by
late writer taking the palm. This observer
passed Fort Tel Kebir on the day after the battle
there in 1882, and asserts that he was compelled
to force his way through wall of flies which was
| mile long, ten Yards high and forty yards wide
with "the flies so thickly massed that they might
be said to be riding one on top of the other and
brushing each other side by side" The black wall
covered the line of dead Egyptians. The sound
was deafening and heavy pressure felt as the
terrified pony was with the greatest difficulty
made TO struggle through the mass
EXTINCTION or PLANTs.-A committee of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science
has reported eighty five flowers that have become
completely or practically extinct in Scotland
The white water lily curiously found to have
been nearly exterminated in the lochs about
Dumries by the ravages of single individual,
who has now been warned off the estates. A plant
which existed only in one locality in the country,
the bog OF Methven, was undoubtedly destroyed
by flock of black gulls which settled in the bog
and devoured thing in the shape of vegetation
Another plant, growing in shingle the bay of
Nigg, was completely exterminated by the use of
the single tor concrete piers and q grass which
was confined to q patch near Moray Firth was
destroyed by the overturning OF q tree. The dis
appearance of plants has been largely due to the
injudiciousness of bOtanists
| TIE GREAT FOSSIL MAMMALs-Some of the
largest mammals known to have existed on the
earth ranked by La Nature in the order of their
size follows: /. Dinotherium giodnte,nn of the
upper miocene of Attica. From the size of tibia
or shin bone that has been found il is estimated
Chat this animal must have attained height of
IA feet at the shoulders and Is feet at the top of
the head. p ElephaS antiquus of the quaternary
of the environs of Paris. A humerus of this
animal indicates that ii must have reached Is feet
at the shoulders and 144 at the head. g. Elephas
meridiOnGlis of the upper plOcene of Durfort. The
| Ia ol-ala4 Of
known is one of this animal in the Paris Museum
1t q feet in height at the shoulder bones Is 81
at the top of the head and 2l feet in length from
the end of the tusKs to the back of the pevs.