424 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



of the value of good specimens. Many of bis specimens are now pre- 

 served at the Agricultural College, and among his shells are many which 

 are of more than ordinary value from having served as types of new 

 species, or as specimens from type localities, or as part or all of the 

 material which has helped to clear up mistakes and misconceptions about 

 species and their distribution." Mr. Walker speaks of his having done a 

 great work in conchology. His catalogue, which contained a list of one 

 hundred and sixty-one species, was by far the most complete published 

 up to that time. ''He described two new species — Planorhis truncatus 

 and Vnio leprosus. The former is one of the few species which are, so far 

 as known, peculiar to Michigan, and is a very beautiful and distinct form; 

 while the latter, although now considered as synonymous with another 

 species, ha^ peculiarities which in the then slight knowledge of the 

 variability of the species was a justification of his position. He was 

 also the discoverer of two other forms which were named after him by 

 one of our most eminent conchologists — viz., Cnmpeloma Milesii (Lea) and 

 Gidoftash. Milesii (Lea)." Mr. Walker believes that " in general, it can 

 be truthfully stated that Dr. Miles did more to develop the general 

 natural history of that State (Michigan) than any other man either before 

 or since he completed his work as State Geologist." 



As professor of zoology and animal physiology, Dr. Miles is described 

 by one of his students, who afterward became a professor in the College 

 and then its president, as having been thoroughly interested in the sub- 

 jects he taught, and shown that interest in his work and in his treat- 

 ment of his students. He labored as faithfullv and industriouslv with 

 the class of five to which President Clute belonged as if it "had numbered 

 as many score." He supplemented the meager equipment of his depart- 

 ment from his more extensive private apparatus and collections, which 

 were freely used for class work; and, when there was need, he had the 

 skill to prepare new pieces of apparatus. "He was on the alert for every 

 chance for illustration which occasion offered; an animal slaughtered for 

 the tables gave him an opportunity to lecture on its viscera; a walk over 

 the drift-covered fields found many specimens of rock, which he taught 

 us to distinguish; the mud and the sand banks along the river showed how 

 in the periods of the dim past were formed fossil footprints and ripples; 

 the woods and swamps and lakes gave many useful living specimens, 

 some of which became the material for the improvised dissecting room; 

 the crayon in his hand produced on board or paper the chart of geologic 

 ages, the table of classification, or the drawing of the part of an animal 

 under discussion." 



Prof K. C. Kedzie came to the College a little later, in 1863, when Dr. 

 Miles had been for two years a professor, and found him then the au- 

 thority "for professors and students alike on beasts, birds, and reptiles, 

 on the stones of the field, and insects of the air," thorough, scholarly, and 

 enthusiastic, and therefore very popular with his classes. 



The projection of agricultural colleges under the Agricultural College 

 Land Grant Act of 1862 stimulated a demand for teachers of scientific 

 agriculture, and it was found that they were rare. Of old school 

 students of science there was no lack — able men, as President Clute well 

 says, who were familiar with their little laboratories and with the old 

 theories and methods, but who did not possess the new vision of evolution 



