EDITORIAL NOTES. 



453 



Why should we work when Nature's heart is still ? 



Why should we strive when Nature bids us rest ? 

 We let her influence sweet our being fill, 



Hushed as a child upon the mother's breast. 



— From Good Company. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



The public meetings of the Winter session 

 of the Kansas City Academy of Science will 

 commence on the evening of the last Tuesday 

 of this month, at which time an address will 

 be delivered by Ermine Case, Jr., Esq., upon 

 the subject of " The South Kensington Mu- 

 seum." As Mr. Case spent a great deal of 

 his time, while in London, during 1880-1, 

 examining this magnificent museum, his ac- 

 count of its treasures will doubtless be of 

 unusual interest. Other exercises will follow, 

 and hereafter during the winter, the meet- 

 ings of the Academy will be held regulai-ly 

 each month. 



The post mortem examination of the 

 body of President Garfield clearly demon- 

 strates the following points : 1st, That the 

 diagnosis of the course and final location of 

 the bullet was erroneous. 2nd, That elec- 

 tricity cannot be relied upon as a means of 

 detecting and indicating the presence of lead 

 in the human body. 3rd, That a much more 

 ready and direct method of finding the course 

 of the ball would have been to make the 

 incisions from the seat of injury, and trace 

 it thence, than by means of the ordinary in- 

 cisions over the chest and abdomen. 4th, 

 That, notwithstanding the septic condition 

 existing, the wound was not necessarily fatal 

 except for the injury to the splenic artery, 

 producing an aneurism of that vessel, the 

 rupture of which was the immediate cause of 

 death. 5th, That the course of the ball, 

 passing as it did almost directly across the 

 body behind and within less than an inch of 

 the liver and stomach, perforating the spine 



between and within half an inch, respectively, 

 of the spinal cord and the great blood ves- 

 sels of the body, and finally lodging and be- 

 coming harmlessly encysted in the soft tissues 

 beyond, was a most marvelous example of 

 the workings of chance, and a complete ex- 

 oneration of the attending physicians from 

 any charge of lack of skill and knowledge, 

 either medical or surgical. 



Mr. W. W. Alexander, of this city, has 

 recently purchased for his own use an astro- 

 nomical telescope of the very best quality ; 

 manufactured by Messrs. Alvan Clark & Son, 

 of Cambridgeport, Mass., whose reputation 

 as manufacturing opticians is a good guaranty 

 of its fine quality. It is an achromatic re- 

 fractor with object-glass of 6.3 inches diam- 

 eter, and 7 feet focus, brass tube rack and 

 pinion adjustment for focalizing, with six 

 astronomical eye-pieces for direct viewing . 

 also diagonals for zenith observations, first 

 surface prismatic eye-piece for observing the 

 sun. The defining power of the object-glass 

 is so perfect that it will separate double stars 

 0.6^^ apart, the atmosphere being in a good 

 condition ; and show stars of the 13th magni- 

 tude. The cost when mounted will be about 

 ^1,500, and will be paid by Mr. Alexander 

 alone. It will be mounted in the eastern part 

 of the city, and used to search for comets, 

 minor planets, sun spots, etc., to watch and 

 study the physical constitution of all heavenly 

 bodies. This is an acquisition creditable to 

 our city, but especially so to Mr. Alexander, 

 who is in moderate circumstances and almost 

 entirely self taught. 



