192 Wisconsin Academy of i^icisnces. Aris^ and Letters. 



Annual Members. — Prof. R. Irving, E. M., Prof, of Geology in the University' of 

 Wisconsin; Maj. W. J. Nicodemus, U. S. A., Prof, of Military and Civil Engineering in 

 the University of Wisconsin; Daniel S. Dnrrie, Esq., Librarian of the Stafe Historical 

 Society, Madison, Wis.; Hon. J. A. Bate, Chippewa Falls, Wis.; Prof. F. W. Woodward, 

 £au Claire, Wis.; Oliver Arey, Prcst. State Normal School, Whitewater, Wis. 



The following papers were then read and discussed: 



2. On the Geology of the region about Devil's Lake, Sauk 

 county, Wisconsin; being a report of observations made at the 

 request of the Academy. By Prof. James H, Eaton, of Beloit 

 College. 



[Published in full in the Transactions, p. 124.] 



3. On the Relations between Social and Moral Science. By 

 Rev. Charles Caverno, of Lake Mills. 



The leading ideas were these: 



Wliatevs'r relates to the development and improvement of individual man or society 

 will fall under the purview of Social Science. Let Moral Science be taken to be that 

 which concerns itself with the sphere of right and wrong, with obligation, with the sense 

 of ought in reference to human actions. It is the object of this paper to show the mutual 

 dependence of these two sciences. 



First, the dependence of Social upon Moral Science. To show men the better way, and 

 induce them to walk in it, these are the great end of Social Science. To eflect tliis last, 

 there is no leverage upon humanity like the sense of right. When a new social princi- 

 ple is discovered and its value ascertained, then will come the question of its enforce- 

 ment in society. But the chances are that it will not fall into place in society with its 

 mere enunciation. It will have privilege and prejudice and custom, perhaps appetite 

 and passion, to combat. To overcome these, it will have to establish itself in the forum 

 of the right, with the conviction once firmly established that a thing onght to lie done, 

 it holds men irresistibly to it until it is done. There is no such might of enforcement in 

 any other department of man's nature. It will be well for this new Social Science if in 

 does not discard this fundamental truth and seek to attain its objects on the basis of and 

 of the great fallacies which have led European reformers into such pitiful failures in the 

 past. 



If, now, we tiirn to the other side of the subject we shall find the dependence of Moral 

 upon Social Science no less certain and considerable. The ought in many a subject is 

 struggling up to the horizon, but cannot yet be seen. All the conditions upon which it 

 depends are not mastered and systematized. What ought to be done will depend in 

 many cases upon the etfect which courses of action will have. Moral Science, in strict- 

 ness, is 1)0 investigator or experimenter. It comes in with the power of moral obliga- 

 tion on the known and determined. Not so of Social Science. Society, in its advance- 

 ment, is constantly brought in contact with questions in which the eflect of any proposed 

 method of action is problematical. The race has hitherto had scarcely any otiier way of 

 solving such questions than by blundering in actual experiment through all possible 

 evil colirses to that one, whichni the end, has shown itself to be good and right. Social 

 Science proposes to take up such questions to see if it be not possible to avoid <nuch of 

 this sad experience by trying these questions beforehand, in tribunal? removed as far as 

 possible from human "prejtidice and party feeling, by the light of the already accumulated 

 stock of human experience, by actual present investigatioii and experiment, and before 

 the prophetic power of sound'philosophy. When such investigations shall have been 

 had, if the conclusions arrived at by Social Science may not be considered as established 

 in the forum of right absolutely, this will be established— that it will be right to experi- 

 ment in a direction so indicated rather than in another. 



And when, after due examination had of all the'elements that pertain to a matter. Social 

 Science shall have reached an ultimate judgment, let it hacd it over to Moral Science to 

 be enforced by the binding power of moral obligation. 



Adjourned to 2 o'clock P- M. 



Third Session. 



The Academy met pursuant to adjournment. The President 

 in the chair. 



Reading and discussion of papers resumed. 



4. The Mammalia of Wisconsin. By Dr. P. R. Hoy, of Racine. 



The Doctor said that the Elk existed in Wisconsin in 1863, but is now probably extinct 

 The moose still exists in numbers. The last bufl'alo was killed in 183-2. The antelope 

 was once in Wisconsin-at the time of Hennepin's voyage. The musk-ox, the mastodon 

 and the mammoth once existed here. The panther will soon disappear. It will be a 



