EDITORIAL NOTES. 
317 
DRO AE. N@©m rs: 
THE first meeting of the fall and winter 
session of the Kansas City Academy of 
Science, will be held at its rooms on Tuesday 
evening, September 28th, and on the last 
Tuesday of each month thereafter, until the 
mext summer vacation. 
THE rainstorm of Sunday, Aug. 15. would 
have passed for a very respectable ‘cloud- 
burst ”’ or *‘ water spout” if it had occurred 
in the Rocky Mountains. Between 3:15 and 
4:50 p. m. two inches of water fell, as ob- 
served by Mr. Kenmuir; which, if it had 
fallen upon precipitous mountain sides, 
would have filled any ordinary valley or 
‘cafion in a brief space of time, and to adepth 
that would have done a great deal of damage. 
THERE was frost in the interior river 
counties of New York on Aug. 15th. At 
Stamford, Delaware county, ice formed. 
The temperature there at 6 a, m. was thirty- 
two degrees. A dispatch from Rondout says 
tender vegetation was killed by the frost on 
that night. The growing crops of corn and 
buckwheat are somewhat injured. A stage 
driver reported light snow in Stony Cleave, 
Ulster county. At the same time the mer- 
cury here and in this vicinity stood at 80° at 7 
a.m., 93° at 2p. m. and 75° at Io p. m. 
A soclETY has been formed in England 
with the object of making systematic exca- 
vations in ancient Egypt. Many learned 
Egyptologists have promised it their sup- 
port. Miss Edwards proposes to deliver a 
series of lectures, in this country, for the 
purpose of procuring funds for the enter- 
prise. 
PROFESSOR Von Geert, already distin- 
guished for his scientific explorations in 
Peru and other countries of South America, 
left Panama June t1oth, for Guatemala, 
where he proposes to study the botany of 
| 
that country, and to make collections of new 
specimens, which he hopes to find in the 
northeast part of that Republic, which is, as 
yet, scarcely known from a practical stand- 
point. 
ON the evening of August 12th at about 9 
o’clock we witnessed a very fine auroral dis- 
play, which was also observed throughout 
the northern and eastern States. 
WE are indebted to Dr. John Rae, of Lon- 
don, England, for a copy of hissketch of the 
life and labors of the great Arctic navigator, 
Nordenskjold. We have read nothing so in- 
teresting and complete, and hope to give it 
to our readers at an early date. 
THE number of meteors observed here in 
the nights of August Ioth and 11th, was 
quite as large as usual, in some parts of the 
heavens numbering five or six to the minute 
for several hours on both nights. 
ITEMS FROM THE PERIODICALS. 
PROMINENT among the articles in the 
London Monthly Journal of Science, is a series 
of letters by Dr. C. K. Akin, pointing out 
the proper course for the Royal Society and 
other scientific associations to pursue, to 
render their work more effective and valuable ; 
on the changes needed in the system of 
teaching at the British Universities to cause 
them to become more successful in fostering 
and advancing the growth of science in Eng- 
land; and on the kind of scientific literature, 
periodic and nonperiodic, that is required to 
place before the students of science the re- 
sults of experiments by their leaders and 
teachers. I1t also contains an article on The 
Constitution of the Earth, by Robert Ward, 
a Defense of Vivisection and a continuation 
of Prof, Tyndall’s Lecture on Water and Air, 
etc. 
