8 BULLETIN OF THE LABORATORIES 



In the catalogue of 1854 appears the first announcement of an 

 Agricultural Department, which deserves mention here as indicating 

 good intentions in the direction of scientific work, although such inten- 

 tions were never carried into effect. The announcement was as follows: 

 " The Trustees have resolved to establish an Agricultural Department, 

 in which the best facilities for obtaining a knowledge of the science of 

 agriculture shall be afforded, consisting of lectures, experiments and 

 general instruction in those sciences which have a more direct relation 

 to this important branch of industry ; embracing a period of fifteen 

 weeks, during the second term of each year. Instruction in this de- 

 partment will H< * * afford the sons of farmers, and others, an 

 opportunity to spend the winter months in listening to lectures from 

 scientific professors and practical agriculturists, who will be employed 

 to give instruction in Agricultural Chemistry, embracing the nature of 

 the soil in this state, and its adaptation to the different productions of 

 this latitude, and the best means by which the different kinds of soil 

 may be enriched ; in Practical Mechanics, embracing the structure of 

 buildings, fences and farming tools, with referenence to durability, util- 

 ity and economy; In Geology, embracing the mineral resources of the 

 State ; in Agricultural Jurisprudence, embracing the laws relating to 

 deeds of conveyance, trade and agricultural pursuits ; in Animal and 

 Vegetable Physiology, embracing the kind of animals adapted to the 

 climate, the best methods of rearing them, the diseases to which they 

 are subject, their comparative expense and the means of their improve- 

 ment, and the culture of the different kinds of grain and fruit." 



From the period just considered to the year 1870 no new scien- 

 tific studies were added to the curriculum, and during a portion of 

 the time Botany disappeared. In the enlargement of the Faculty 

 which followed the completion of a new endowment fund, in 

 1867, no Professor or Instructor in science was added, the small 

 amount of scientific work provided for in the curriculum still remain- 

 ing in the hands of the occupants of other chairs. In the catalogue 

 of 1870, however, appears the name of Lewis E. Hicks as Professor 

 of the Natural Sciences and it is only from this date that Denison can 

 fairly be said to have comprised a Scientific Department of study. This 

 addition affected immediately the Classical as well as the Scientific 

 Course. Besides the Chemistry, Geology and Mineralogy, and Anat- 

 omy, Physiology and Hygiene of former years. Classical students were 

 now required to take " Natural History" and Vegetable Physiology in 



