Tl^e I^at-upalisi 
K. B. Trouslot. Editor. 
Assisted by E- T. Keiin, David H. Todd and 
Sid. J. Hare. 
The Aciideiiiy of Science, 
Publishers ,iiul Proprietors, 
Kansas Git^, - - Missouri. 
Vii 8 page '24 coluiiin MoiU lily Journal, de- 
voted to all brandies of 
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Official Organ of the 
Ke-organized 1889 
OFFICERS FOR 1890. 
I'ROF. EDWIN WALTERS, President. 
E. BUTTS, Vice President. 
R. B. TROUSLOT, Recording Secretary. 
DAVID H. TODD, Corresponding Sec'j. 
EDWARD T. KEIiM, Treasurer. 
FREDERICK McINTOSH, Librarian. 
SIDNEY HARE. Curator. 
Entered at the Kansas City, Missouri, Post 
ollice,'for transmission through the mails at 
second class rates. 
Kansas City, October, 1S90. 
The spirit of tlie age, Democracy, 
shows iself nowhere more vividly in con. 
trust with the past than in the universal 
culture and education of the mass of peo- 
l)le regardless of the artificial divisions 
into which some would still classify man- 
kind. 
Schools, colleges, books, papers, socie- 
ties for the study of general and special 
subjects abound to such an extent that the 
poorest need go to but small trouble to se- 
cure the essential advantages in the pur- 
suit of knowledge which wealth may 
command. 
Kansas City's Public School System 
more nearly rej^resents the ambition of 
the city than any other outward evidence 
of its life — unsurpassed in this respect by 
any other city of equal growth, its spirit 
is progressive and liberal, vying with the 
oldest American cities in this American 
institution. 
Our Public Library has grown from a 
modest beginuing a few years ago to be- 
come an institution which commands re- 
spect for its general arrangement and sys- 
tem, as well as the great use made of the 
limited facilities afforded it. 
The Art School, just about to enter 
upon its fourth year, shows in its lusty 
growth that notwithstanding the com- 
mercialisms essential to so new a city as 
ours that it has fomid appreciation and 
support. If necessary we could cite 
more such instances, but these are suffl- 
cient to raise the question whether Kan- 
sas City is not now ready to make use of 
an Academy of Science. We believe it is. 
For the past two years a niunber of in- 
terested gentlemen have been meeting for 
the purpose of discussing scientific sub- 
jects, and while the number attending 
has been small, the interest has never 
flagged. 
This society has now over 1,000 vol- 
lunes — the gift of Prof. Wm. Ferrell, and 
a number of other books— the nucleus of a 
library, stored at present for want of a 
better resting place. 
The exhibition in the West Central 
wing of the Exhibition Building shows 
what can be done in the way of a scien- 
tific collection made with but little trou- 
ble. Some accommodation, however, 
should be aft'orded for a library, and for 
the collections of scientific objects, which, 
at present, this society cannot accept for 
want of a suitable place to arrange and 
display them. 
Should such quarters be provided, they 
would be used for the meetings of the so- 
cietj', which at present cannot be largely 
attended for want of accommodations. 
Our city is constantly becoitiing better 
known in the east and west for the inter- 
est taken in the thorough study of nat- 
ural sciences by those now interested in 
this society as well as others. 
A suggestion made by a correspondent 
of the Star is a good one; it is for a build- 
ing that will be self-supporting from the 
rents of store rooms on tlie first fioor and 
oflices on the second — the third and fourth 
fioors to be devoted to such institutions as 
are in their nature not self-supporting, 
while at the same time desirable elements 
in the life of our city, such as the Scien- 
tific Society, for one. 
The desirability of such an institution 
is not open to dispute. 
We have stated the case as concisely as 
possible. The matter rests with the citi- 
zens who are looking around for means 
to make our city a desirable place in 
which to live. Already a move has been 
made towards giving this society a home 
— but more help is needed. The active 
members of the Academy are in earnest, 
and they hope to hear from any who feel 
the force of these remarks. The time is 
ripe to crystallize this scientific movement 
and give it the means for wider work. 
Is the man here? 
Only 10,000 copies of The Naturaust 
issued this month and not a very good 
month for The Naturalist either. 
Visit the exhibit of the Academy of Sci- 
ence at the Inter-State Fair. 
Between the Ural and Okhotsk seas 
there is a spot half as large as the state of 
Michigan, which is frozen ground to the 
depth of ninety-four feet. That is, it has 
never thawed out since the world was 
created, and probably never will. 
The man who, in the dim morning of 
societj', made a flint knife, had a hard 
labor to execute works of skill. The man 
who, succeeding hiiu^ had a Sheffield blade 
could do perhaps 1,000 operations which 
the flint knife could not accomplish. — 
Cardinal Manning. 
Geo. L. English & Co., of Philadel- 
phia and New York City, notified us sev- 
eral weeks since that they had forwarded 
a cloth bound copy of their i^rice list and 
catalogue. To-day it reached us via Val- 
paraiso, Ind., and Kansas City, Kansas, 
the postuian claimind 12 cts. for his trou- 
ble. 
Mr John M. Bkumbugh, of Concordia, 
representing the state fisli commission, is 
distributing fish through the waters of the 
Missouri in this vicinity. The fish com- 
mission is doing a flourishing business 
this season and all the streams of any 
importance in the state are being stocked 
with young fishes. There will be rare 
sport and some rich dinners as the result 
of this season's work of the fish hatchery. 
A WONDERFUL landscape on exhibition 
in Paris is execwted in European and for- 
eign insects. Every desired tone is sup- 
plied by 45,000 coleoptera in the fore- 
ground and 4,000 varieties of the insect 
tribe for the remainder of the picture. 
The work required four years of the ar. 
tist's time. 
What's the matter of arresting him for 
cruelty to animals '? 
Since Jacob Pfecht, of the Erie Motor 
Car Co., of Erie Pa., has discovei-ed a 
process of personal insulation, is it not 
quite probable that there will be no more 
electrocutions ? 
The other day Mr. Pfecht fortified him. 
self and received a charge of over 500 
volts with no serious results. If this is a 
fact, linemen can hereafter work without 
fear of being fried alive in mid air, to the 
horror of a helpless crowd. 
On the bank of the Skunk river, in the 
neighborhood of Richland, a few days 
ago, L. J. Bales found the tooth of a pre. 
historic animal of mammoth dimensions 
There was a large cavity in the molar and 
it was filled with coal in such a maimer as 
to show that it had formed there from 
vegetable matter, thus indicating that the 
animal had lived at a very remote time 
from the present. The Richland Clarion 
says that the banks of "Skunk river are 
prolific in these prehistoric relics of an 
age that is so remote that it is hard to 
conceive the vast number of yeass that 
have elapsed since they lived." 
