Editorial. 313 



have installed miniature electric lights in this model, but owing to 

 the verj' diminutive size of the lights which it is necessary to employ, 

 we discover that they require very frequently to be replaced, as they 

 speedily "burn out." We sometimes wish that the cost of radium 

 might soon be so reduced as to make possible the permanent illumina- 

 tion of such objects without the necessity of daily repairs — or that 

 Professor Langley's experiments upon the lantern-flies of the tropics, 

 which, he averred, produce "the cheapest form of light," may be con- 

 tinued by some genius in such a way that the time may come when our 

 present clumsy system of electric illumination may be superseded 

 by something better and more economical. Wonderful as have been 

 the strides made within the last century in providing means of interior 

 illumination, the physicist can see vistas opening in the future which 

 remain to be filled with achievements. 



The work of an editor is often thankless and involves a great 

 amount of intense and wearisome application to minute details. It 

 nevertheless has its compensations, and recently the receipt of a 

 letter from Hon. Hugh M. Smith, the United States Commissioner 

 of Fisheries, in which he congratulates the editor of the Annals and 

 Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, and goes so far as to say, " It is a 

 pleasure to realize that high-class work of this kind is being done," 

 has served to carry a measure of cheer into " the gloom of the 

 sanctum." 



The official exhibit of the Persian government, which was on dis- 

 play at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, has just been installed in the 

 Carnegie Museum, and will remain here during the last days of 

 April and the month of May. We owe the loaning of this exhibit to 

 the kindness of the Persian Commissioner General, Mirza Ali Kuli 

 Khan. The exhibit consists of tapestries, brocades, velvets, em- 

 broideries, miniatures, illuminated books and manuscripts, pottery- 

 ware, enamels, lacquer, and jewelry. It contains multitudes of 

 objects dating far back into the past, every one of which has a history 

 and a significance which makes it intensely interesting. One con- 

 spicuous piece of tapestry was intended as a covering for the throne, 

 and was so used. It is said to have taken the labors of one hundred 

 women for ten years to produce this wonderful piece of needlework. 



