EDITORIAL NOES: 
193 
DIC OuRUUAIL, INOS, 
DuRING a brief visit to Chicago we availed 
ourself of a long-standing invitation to visit 
the University and especially Dearborn Ob- 
servatory, where we found Professor Hughes 
and Mr, S. W. Burnham, the former teacher 
of Natural Science, and the latter so well 
known among astronomers as the discoverer 
of a great number of double stars. 
The University of Chicago is a handsome 
building, with ample grounds, well arranged 
and equipped for educational purposes and 
possessed of a. faculty of finely educated and 
liberal minded men who are doing excellent 
work in their respective departments. 
The observatory is a model structure and 
has the good fortune to own one of the largest 
telescopes in the world, one originally con- 
structed for the State of Mississippi, which, 
Owing to the outbreak of the late war was 
unable to take it. Mr. Burnham has the use 
of this instrument and is pushing his observa- 
tions and studies with great zeal and indus- 
try. 
He paid a handsome compliment to Profes- 
sor Pritchett of Glasgow, Mo., and was en- 
thusiastic in his praises of the atmosphere of 
our western or central region for astronomi- 
cal purposes. 
THE STEAMER Dessouk, with the obelisk on 
board, which was presented to the city of New 
York by the Egyptian Government, sailed 
from Alexandria June 12th, and from Gibral- 
tar, June 26th, for the United States. 
THE HEAT of the past few days has been 
quite universal. 
At Albany, at seven o’clock on the 26th ult. 
the thermometer recorded 79 degrees in the 
shade. At Washington it recorded 80, and at 
New Orleans, where one would; naturally ex. 
pect the temperature to be excessively warm, 
it registered but 77 degrees in the shade. At 
Duluth it was 60, at Philadelphia it reached 
71, and at San Francisco it only mounted 
among the fifties, while the city and bay were 
veiled by a fog. At St. Louis it was 75°, at 
Yankton 78°, at Chicago 77° and at Kansas 
City 70°. 
THE Lancet says it would be difficult to 
point toa more probable source of infection 
in the search for causes of disease in private 
families than the houses where the practical 
work of dress-making is performed. It re- 
commends, therefore, the erection of public 
work-rooms, well-arranged and under proper 
supervision, to which the poor might bring 
their work and finish it in cleanliness, comfort 
and peace. 
THE SIGNAL Service Department at Wash 
ington has established a central meteorolog. 
ical station at Washburne College, near To- 
peka, with auxiliary stations in each county 
in Kansas. The instruments are in place and 
the observations begin July rst. Professor J. 
Lovewell will have charge of the work. 
THE QUESTION of dispelling or illuminating 
fogs requires the attention of physicists and 
meteorologists at once. The number of ter- 
rible accidents occuring lately from collisions 
in fog-banks {1s discreditable to modern sci- 
ence. 
DIPHTHERIA is raging with fearful fatality 
in Russia. Out of 46,136 persons attacked 
18,698 deaths ensued. 
A REPORT upon the paper carbon horseshoe 
lamp constructed by Mr. Edison, prepared 
and contributed to Van Nostrand’s Lngineer- 
