The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-11-23
COMPILED Fon fm AKxAxsAw TmAvnER
 SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

The oldest medical work, an Egyptian papyrus dating from one thouand i've hundred years e more before Christ, and containing prescriptions then old, hes been translated by George Eberx ths German novelist
 Mr. c. R. Williams has pointed out an example of what evolutionists might term reverzion to the fossil type of toed horses Suetonus having recorded that "C9mr made use offs remarkable horse, with feet almost human, and hoofs divided in the man.
 ner of toes."
 SaOcharin enough to take the place of i've
 thousand tons of beet sugar has now been made in Germany. Though not food and condemned as in- furious by eminent medical men, 1t Is used in the preparation of fruits and the production of sweet
 liquors. France, Italy and Portugal already pro-
 pose imposing tax on 1t.
 The latest report states that twenty -one obser-
 vatories are now engaged In the international un- dertaking of photogaphing the entire heavens.
 Each observatory will have to take about seven
 hundred photographs in the zone assigned to 1t, and 1t is hoped to finish the work in three or four years
 A remarkable specimen of amber from an un-
 known locality in southern Mexico meAsures four
 by three by two inches, Is perfectly transparent, and is said to be even more beautiful than the opalescent green amber of Sicily. The natives who bring this amber to the coast report that In
 the interior 1t Is plentiful to be used for mak ing fires.
 ORGANISMS OF THE SoIL.-It is now regarded as a settled question that the nitrogen the atmosphere Is xed in the soil for the of vegetation by the action of microbes and that soil Is destitute of these germs. 1t is suggested that the greater de-
 velopment of the microbes by farm-yard manures may explain the apparent superiority of such fer
 tilizen over artificial manures theoretically as good.
 COMBINATION UNDER ELECTRIC INFLUENcE-In experiments by MT. H. N Warren, pads of cotton
 were saturated with . dilute saline solution and sown over the surface with common mustard seed, then placed upon platinum plates connected with fonP mt N4rw. over the positive plate became distinctly visible in less than twenty -four hours, and the growth was more than an inch and of an intensely green color at the end of the week The germination over the
 negative plate scarcely commenced iD the week, and
 was almost white. On reversing the current, the green plants withered, and the others hourished for time and then also faded. The bleaching is
 believed to have been due to the liberation of cho- rine and not to the direct action of the current. DURABILITY OF CoLoRs.-A study of the actio of light water -colors has been made by Dr. Rus sell and Capt Abney. They find that blue light has the greatest effects green less, and red rays the minimum influence Dampness hastens
 fading, but heat does not appear to affect it. and all pigments are permanent in 6 vacuum. Mineral colors far morestable than vegetable Of thirty
 nine single colors examined, twelve were not acted upon by light, riz,: Yellow ochre, Indian red, Venetian rcd, burnt sienna, chrome yellow, lemon yellow, raw sienna, terra verte, chromium oxide, Prussian blue, cobalt, French blue, and ultramarine ssh-all except Prussian blue being purely mineral pigments. Permanent mixtures were Raw sienna and Venetian red, raw sienna and Antwerp blue, cobalt and Indian red Carmine, crimson and scar let lake, Payne's gray and Naples yellow were the most fugitive of the colors examined. COMPRESSED AIR PowER.-As the result of de- tailed investigations, Prof. A. B. ". Kennedy, K. R. S., reports that the compressed air transmis sion system in Paris is now being conducted on . large commercial scale in such fashion that small motor four miles from the central station in- dicate in four round numbers ten horse power for twenty indicated horse power at the station itself allowing for coke used to heat the air for twenty five indicated horse power If the air be not heated at all. Larger motors may work somewhat more, and smaller motors somewhat less, economically. The present compressing engines at the central