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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



general expenses are largely provided for 

 from the bequests of Edward B. Phillips and 

 Robert Treat Paine. The Henry Draper 

 Memorial, established by Mrs. Draper, fur- 

 nishes the means of studying the spectra and 

 other physical properties of the stars. The 

 observing station near Arequipa, Peru, 8,050 

 feet above the sea, was established under the 

 bequest of Uriah A. Boy den. By maintain- 

 ing a station south of the equator, work at 

 Cambridge may be extended to the southern 

 stars ; and all important researches there are, 

 therefore, now made to include stars in all 

 parts of the sky, from the north to the south 

 pole. Miss C. W. Bruce, of New York, has 

 provided the means for a photographic tele- 

 scope, which will be mounted first in Cam- 

 bridge, and later in Peru. In meteorological 

 work the observatory is associated with the 

 Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, the 

 New England Meteorological Society, and the 

 New England Weather Bureau, and provides 

 for the publication in its annals of the results 

 obtained by the observers of these associated 

 stations. Meteorological stations connected 

 with the observatory at Arequipa, Peru, are 

 situated on Mount Chachani, 16,650 feet, and 

 on El Misti, 19,200 feet, above the sea. Sev- 

 eral large prisms have been procured for 

 photographing the spectra of the stars. 



Women in Postal and Railway Serv- 

 ice. According to the Journal des Econo- 

 mistes, France was the first country to admit 

 women to places in the postal administration, 

 and their engagement has proved so satisfac- 

 tory that the authorities are inclined to pre- 

 fer them to men wherever it is possible. In 

 the United Kingdom, deducting the letter 

 carriers, 25'2 per cent of the persons em- 

 ployed in the post offices are women. In 

 Switzerland women are eligible equally with 

 men for vacancies in the postal and railway 

 departments. Many women are engaged in 

 the telegraph and telephone departments, and 

 the railways employ them in various capaci- 

 ties. In Holland only eight classes of em- 

 ployment in the administration of posts and 

 telegraphs are open to women. The railways 

 employ seven hundred and twenty women. 

 In Italy a few women are occupied in the 

 postal and telegraph offices. In Spain nearly 

 all the positions in the telephone offices are 

 held by women, and their work in the tele- 



graph offices has been so satisfactory that 

 the Government has decided to have more of 

 it. In Sweden more women than men are 

 found in the telegraph offices, and single 

 women are admitted to all departments of 

 the post-office service, except that of letter 

 carriers. Women have the same salaries and 

 equal positions in the telegraph and post 

 offices of Norway and Denmark as men, and 

 in Denmark may become " station masters " 

 on the railway, while they also figure as 

 shorthand writers in the Parliament. We 

 find them also in public offices, on the most 

 liberal terms that have been made, in Fin- 

 land and Iceland. They occupy many posi- 

 tions in Germany, Austria, Roumania, Russia, 

 and in the British colonies. The Republic of 

 Brazil admits women to all the Government 

 departments ; the United States of Colombia 

 has provided a class in telegraphy for them ; 

 and in Chili, besides filling places in the 

 postal and telegraph departments, they mo- 

 nopolize the function of conductors on the 

 tramways. 



The Russian Village. While the dissolu- 

 tion of the community of laud in western 

 Europe is of comparatively recent date, in 

 Russia, as Mr. Isaac A. Hourwich shows in 

 his Columbia College study of the Economics 

 of a Russian Village, the process of evolu- 

 tion has been less rapid, and this primeval 

 institution has been preserved till to-day. 

 There is not, however, found there within 

 historical times that tribal communism which 

 Mr. Lewis H. Morgan met with among North 

 American Indians. The Russian village 

 community of historical times consists of a 

 number of large families, often, yet not ne- 

 cessarily, of common ancestry, who possess 

 the soil in common, but cultivate it by 

 households. The ancient communal co-oper- 

 ation reappears sporadically, on various spe- 

 cial occasions, in the form of the potnoch (or 

 help). Some householder invites his neigh- 

 bors to help him in a certain work (just as 

 in the times of our early settlements) to 

 mow his meadow lot, to reap his field, to cut 

 down wood for a new house he has under- 

 taken to build, etc. This is regarded as a 

 reception tendered by the family to its neigh- 

 bors, and different kinds of refreshments are 

 prepared for the occasion, which constitute 

 the only remuneration for the work done by 



