EDITORIAL NOTES. 
They will be ‘found very interesting to all 
and very valuable to many of our citizens, 
and we bespeak for him a liberal patronage. 
Though Prof. Nipher has made these sur- 
veys at his own personal expense so far, it is 
believed that by proper effort on the part of 
intelligent citizens of the State the Legis- 
lature may be induced to make the necessary 
appropriation to finish this important work, 
which will require about three years longer. 
WE learn from the Catalogue of officers and 
students of Washburn College, Topeka, Kan- 
sas, for 1880-1, that there are 132 students 
of all grades, that the faculty is fully and 
comprehensively organized, that the curricu- 
lum of study is arranged with a view toa 
broad and liberal culture, in aid of which 
there is a choice library, a well equipped 
laboratory and cabinets of minerals, an assay- 
ing department, and very complete outfit of 
meteorological instruments. The college is 
not conducted in the interest of any religious 
denomination, but has for its object the pro- 
motion of the highest and best culture— 
mental, moral, social and religious. 
WE are indebted to Mr. E. E. Richardson, 
assistant Secretary, for a copy of the tenth 
annual live stock report of the Kansas City 
Stock Yards, by which it appears that the 
increase in the number of cattle handled in 
the ten years is from about 121,000 to over 
244,000; in hogs from about 41,000 to more 
than 676,000; in sheep from about 4,500 to 
nearly 51,000, and in horses from less than 
goo to over 14,000. 
WE present herewith a table showing the 
degree of cold here on the coldest day of each 
January since 1875: 
Jan. 7A.M. 2P. M. IOP. M. 
1875 9 —18° 9° or 
1876 10 11° 20° 20° 
1877 16 -12° 5° 4° 
1878 6 of 18° 12° 
1879 3 ~14° os fe 
1880 30 23° gl? 25° 
1881 9 -7° 4° 2° 
647 
THE Kansas City Electrical Society, re- 
cently organized, is a valuable acquisition to 
the list of scientific and social organizations 
of the city. The objects for which the soci- 
ety was formed are for the practical and the 
theoretical study of electricity, the examina- 
tion and study of electrical apparatus and 
appliances. The following officers have 
been elected for the first year: 
President, W. H. Woodring; Vice-Presi- 
dent, T. F. Clohesey ; Secretary, J. J. Burns; 
Treasurer, G. M. Myers; Executive Commit- 
tee, Messrs. W. H. Woodring, J. J. Burns, 
Dr. Joshua Thorne, M. D. Wood and W. C. 
Stewart. 
Capt. Howgate writes, Jan. 22d: ‘<The 
outlook for the continuance of work in the 
direction of Lady Franklin Bay this year is 
quite encouraging. Dr. Rae writes me that 
there is a prospect of English arctic work via 
Franz Joseph Land, but it will not be done 
before 1882. All the European countries 
interested in Arctic maiters are awaiting the 
result of our labors here. If we succeed, 
there will be no lack of foreign followers.” 
ITEMS FROM THE PERIODICALS. 
It is wonderful how rapidly, though almost 
imperceptibly, a man who takes the leading 
periodicals of the country can build upa 
large and valuable library. Being crowded 
for space in our book shelves lately we were 
almost surprised to find so many volumes of 
Harper's Monthly, North American Review and 
Atlantic, all of which we have been receiving 
almost continuously for more than twenty-five 
years, except the latter, which has not been 
published quite so long. In these volumes 
can be found an epitome of all that has 
transpired in the literature, art, biography 
and science of the world during all that pe- 
riod, as well as reproductions of what has 
occurred in the past in these departments. 
A man in any avocation requiring constant 
reference to the labors of others, for instance 
an editor, could better afford to lose all the 
rest of his library than such volumesas these 
and a few other similarly comprehensive pe- 
riodicals. 
