The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-05-25

The sun Ia near its minimum of activity. Inisss
M. Schmoll noted 100 days without spots.
Thousands of persons I'm Asia and some parts OF
America subsist upon the seeds of various species
Of water lilies
"Petragit" La q new German explosive from
molasses 1t IL said TO be three times as powerful
a. nitro lycerine.
M. Cornu believes that the light of shooting
stars cannot be due to combustion or heat 90 sup
posed, but In phenomenon Of static electricity
developed by simple friction.
Vanadium In said 10 cost $4,000 per pound:
chromium, $1,000; lithium, the highest of the
metals, $1,000; rhodium, $4,000, and iridium, the
heaviest substance known, 81 200.
A complete list of the fora of Newfoundland and
Labrador, In preparation by Rev. A. G. Waghorne,
Will contain about 900 species of Towering plants,
about fifty ferns, and over $50 moses and hchens.
The remarkable statement IL made by Herr Otto
+. Ehers that In his ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro
last summer he met with traces Of elephants, buff
faoes and anteopes at height of about Is 900 feet
where also he found the last traces of vegetation
A mechanician of Danzig has constructed hand
fog horn that may be heard ten miles. With q
| second horn of lower pitch to mark the divisions
between letters, whole sentences can be clearly
transmitted by the Morse or other code Of signals
In DIR. b. w. Richardson's lethar chamber. I'm
London, 100000 homeless dogs have been put to
death painlessly, with five affected with rabies. A
lethal muzzle for dogs has been constructed to be
used in the streets by the police and also similar
muzzle for horses.
In experiments by Drs. Straus and Dubarry, OF
Paris, the bacillus OF Charlton was found living In
water after l3l days, where 1t formed spores; that
of typhoid fever, after eighty -one days and that
of Asiatic cholera, after thirty mine days Even
this duration OF life in these germs Is probably not
| the maximum.
AN IMPORTANT FooD.-The value of dried pota-
toes article of food Is urged by Dr. Jacoy NJ
Shmulevitch. Among the advantages claimed IL
that 1t keeps much better than the fresh potatoes
and being far lighter and less bulky Ia more readily
transported Before cooking, the dried potato IL
macerated in water for ten or twelve hours.
THE SEA-SERPENr-An English naturalist, Mr.
A. III. Swinton has collected and analysed over one
hundred notices-ancient and modern, true and
Misunderstanding to the great sea-serpent He In
thus forced to the conclusion that the creature In
"a venerable sailors yarn derived from ocular
impression, WHILE quite apart from all other con-
siderations, 1t Ii mainly impossible that species Of
air breathing serpent should lie at the bottom Of
| the ocean and be 80 seldom seem" He finds that
the enormously long tentacular arm of the giant
sqids or calamars- distinguished from the better
known cutie fish by their cylindrical bodies
have given rise to story of the great serpent
LIGHT AND MAGNETIsM-Early In the century
ex permenters tried to magnetic iron and steel by
the action of light but such thing has since come
TO be regarded as impossible. Prof. Shelford Bid
well thinks, however, that some evidence Of the
action of radiation upon the magnetism Of iron
should be found, and he Ii seeking 1t. A soft iron
rod magnetized and then demagnetized Ia known to
have undergone some mysterious change of struct-
ure, making 1t peculiarly susceptible to magnetic
influences in one direction. It appears also TO DO
remarkably sensitive to illumination, and in Mr.
Bidwell's preliminary researches the magnetometer
has seemed to indicate that the effects may be net
entirely due to heat, but partially to the light
rays. -