KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
At a recent meeting the Directors of Wash- 
ington University created a new chair of Dy- 
namic Engineering. It will include, with 
what was formerly known as mechanical en- 
gineering, the application of electricity to 
the arts. The Secretary of the Navy has de- 
tailed Assistant-Engineer Wm. H. Alderdice 
to fill this chair. 
Gen'l a. a. Humphreys, late Chief Engi- 
neer of the United States Army, died sudden- 
ly on the 27th of December of heart-disease. 
He was not only distinguished in the line of 
his profession but was a'so a valued member 
of several of the most prominent scientific 
societies of this country and Europe. 
Prof. Romyn Hitchcock, the eminent 
microscopist of Washington City, pleasantly 
writes: "lam always pleased to get the 
Kansas City Review, which I esteem very 
highly. There is always much good and in- 
structive reading in it. I have not seen the 
January number yet, I hope you will at once 
send it." 
Mr. Wm. F. E. Gurley, of Danville, 111., 
has published a preliminary notice of certain 
new fossils in the carboniferous deposits of 
West, If carried out on the plan proposed 
it will be a very valuable work. We notice 
among others, descriptions of new species 
named Bellerophon Harrodi, Bellerophon textili- 
formisy also Discites Todannus, all collected at 
Kansas City by Mr. David H. Todd, of this 
city. All western palaeontologists should en. 
courage Mr. Gurley in this work which will 
be continued from time to time and publish- 
ed in additional bulletins. 
In addition to Prof. Sternberg's palasonto- 
logical labors in the West, of which he has 
so often given proof in the columns of the 
Reviev^^, he has had his eyes open in a utili- 
tarian direction also, the result being the 
discovery of a bed of very fine silica, which 
he is now using in the manufacture of a scour- 
ing soap for silver, steel, tinware, etc., at 
Lawrence, Kansas. Samples that we have 
seen and used give very satisfactory results. 
Mr. J. O. Broadhead, brother of Prof. G 
C. Broadhead, of Pleasant Hill, Mo., wrote 
him, upon reading his article in the Novem- 
ber Revievit, that General Cass told him at 
his residence, in Detroit, in 1864, " That he 
made the expedition from St. Louis to De- 
troit the whole way in boats, up the Illinois 
River and across from its head waters, through 
the lakes and swamps, to Lake Michigan." 
Through some oversight on the part of 
our reporter, credit was erroneously given to 
Prof. E. S. H. Bailey for the authorship of 
a paper upon "The Distribution of Saccha- 
rine Substance in the Stem of the Sotghum 
Vulgate," read before the Kansas Academy 
of Science, It should have been given to 
Prof. G. H. Failyer, of the Agricultural Col- 
lege at Manhattan, Kas., who has devoted 
much of his time to this subject and who has 
written a very complete report upon it for 
the last Quarterly Report of the State Board 
of Agriculture of that State. 
We acknowledge the receipt of a compli- 
mentary admission ticket from H. H. Warner, 
of Rochester, N. Y., to his observatory, 
which is in charge of Prof. Lewis Smith. 
We are promised for the next number of 
the Review an article on archseology from 
the pen of Dr. Stephen Bowers, who has re- 
moved to San Buena Ventura, California, 
and is publishing the Ventura Free Press, 
Also an article bas d on some pendulum 
experiments in Australia, China, and Japan, 
by Prof. H. S. Pritchett, of the Washington 
University, St. Louis. 
Also an article on Crinoids by Prof. D. A, 
Bassett, formerly of Crawfordville, Indiana, 
now of Colton, California. 
Prof, O. C. Marsh, President of the Na- 
tional Academy of Sciences has sent a report 
to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
signed by several of the most eminent chem- 
ists of the country, to the effect that glucose 
as at present manufactured is of exceptional 
purity and uniformity of composition, con- 
taining no injurious substance and is in no 
way inferior to cane sugar in healthfulness. 
