516 
KANSAS CITY REVIEW Of SCIENCE. 
the other, leaped an equal height. This was what might be expected of two 
animals similarly constructed. The spring was proportioned to the bulk. In 
experiments on the insects with powerful wings, such as bees, flies, dragon-flies^ 
etc., it was found that the weight they could bear without being forced to descend 
was in most cases equal to their own. In some cases it was more, but the in- 
equality of rate of flight, had it been taken into the reckoning, would have ac- 
counted for this. 
Take two creatures of different bulk but built upon exactly the same plan 
and proportions, say a Brobdignagian and a Lilliputian, and let both show their 
powers in the arena. Suppose the first to weigh a million times more than the 
second. If the giant could raise to his shoulder, some thirty-five feet from the 
ground, a weight twenty thousand pounds, the dwarf can raise to his shoulder, 
not, as might be thought, a fiftieth of a pound, but two full pounds. The dis- 
tance raised would be a hundred times less. In a race the LiUiputian, with a' 
hundred skips a second, will travel an equal distance with the giant, who would 
take but a skip in a second. The leg of the latter weighs a million times the 
most, but has only ten thousand times as many muscle fibers, each a hundred 
times longer than those of the dwarf, who thus takes one hundred skips while 
the giant takes one. The same physical laws apply to all muscles, so that, when 
all the factors are considered, muscles of the same quality have equal power. — 
American Field. 
EDITORIAL NOTES. 
The recent trip to Memphis over the newly 
finished Kansas City, Springfield & Memphis 
Railroad was exceedingly instructive and en- 
tertaining to all who participated in it. That 
portion of the line southeast irom Springfield 
was a terra incognita to nearly all of the party, 
and its mountain scenery, its wealth of tim- 
ber and mineral, its limpid streams, and even 
its cypress swamps and cane-brakes near the 
Mississippi River, were a source of surprise to 
them. 
Memphis itself, historic from the succession 
of its disasters by flood and field, pestilence 
and hard times, is now a proud monument to 
the energy and wisdom of its citizens. Her 
permanently paved streets, admirable system 
of drainage, immense cotton trade, numerous 
and extensive manufactories, radiating lines 
of railroad and crowded levee, all evince a 
solidity and permanencyof growth and condi- 
tion which were as unexpected as they were 
gratifying to the visitors. It is too late to 
give any details this month, but we hope to 
do so in our next issue. 
The hospitality and courtesies of both rail- 
road company and citizens of Memphis were 
boundless, and all who enjoyed them are 
now wondering how the people of this city 
can fittingly return them. 
We expected to publish a full account of 
the proceeding of the Kansas Academy of 
Science at its meeting in November, but did 
not receive the report in time for this number 
of the Review. The meeting was unusually 
well attended by the members and the papers 
read exceptionally good. We hope to give 
some of them in full next month. 
