SIXTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 



thusiastic and hopeful, and the result justified the wisdom of making the efforts at that 

 time. The enthusiasm of two men in their love of nature seems to have been the main 

 Cause of the inception of the enterprise and of the attempt to organize it. 1 refer, of 

 course, to Prof. B. F. Madge and Prof. .). D. Parker, the originators and founders of the 

 Kansas Natural History Society. It is something for the scientific men of the State to 

 he proud of, that a society devoted to scientific investigation and the popularization of 

 science should have been organized thus early in the history of the State; that it has 

 been sustained through all the vicissitudes incident to the career of such a society for 

 sixteen years without missing a single meeting; that it has an honorable record for 

 efficiency and usefulness; and that it has promoted the study and investigation of nature 

 throughout the State. All credit and honor belong to the founders, and it is our pleas- 

 ure to improve every opportunity of rendering them all just honor and the acknowledg- 

 ment of our indebtedness. 



Prof. J. I>. Parker was the principal actor in the origination of the Society, and to 

 him is due its suggestion, inception, and exertions. He writes me: 



••Tlic conception of the Society was original with me. The name, ' Kansas Natural History Society,' 

 I derived ami adopted from the Illinois Natural History Society, of which 1 had ln-eu a member. I 

 moved the resolutions enlarging the scope of the Society and changing the name to ' Kansas Academy 

 of Science.' I enlisted Prof. Mudge as the first recruit in the new movement, after I had visited him 

 and thoroughly discussed the whole subject. I published the first articles in reference to organizing 

 such a society. I wrote out, circulated and published the 'call' for the first meeting. I called the first 

 meeting to order, and nominated Prof. Mudge as chairman, and afterward as President. I helped draft 

 the constitution and by-laws ; acted for the first five years as Secretary ; edited the first report published 

 by the State Board of Agriculture; demanded that Alfred Gray should make it a coordinate branch of 

 the State Hoard of Agriculture, thus preserving the autonomy of the Society; and signed as Secretary 

 the official paper to the Secretary of .State when the Academy became a State organization. 



"I worked on the organization several months, and then wrote to Prof. Mudge about it; but he 

 thought it was too early in the history of the State to organize such a society. Prof. Alex. Winchell had 

 failed to organize an Academy in Michigan, and Prof. Mudge was justly cautious.'' 



But there is one man to whom we are more indebted, perhaps, than to all other causes 

 combined, for all that we have and all that we are ; one who was at once the best, the 

 wisest, the grandest man whose name ever graced the annals of science in Kansas. I 

 refer of course to Professor Benjamin F. Mudge. Any mention of the Academy or of 

 its past work or purposes without naming Professor Mudge, would be, to use a vulgarism, 

 "like the play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out." The name and work of the Academy 

 are inseparable from the name and work of Professor Mudge. Its very existence is due 

 to the affection he had for it and the care he bestowed upon it. It is an honor of which 

 we shall ever feel proud, that our organization should have been the care of such a man ; 

 that he was mindful of it in the days of its weakness; that its prosperity gratified him, 

 and that he considered its welfare before all other societies which were honored by his 

 membership. 



Personally the fullest praise can do scant justice to his many superior qualities of 

 mind and heart; words cannot portray his delightful presence, his genial face, his well- 

 stored mind and his boundless kindness and enthusiasm. But he is gone, and we have 

 left only the memory of his inspiring presence, our undimmed affection, and the ever 

 useful record of his works. And how we miss him at every step; the void is yet pain- 

 fully vacant four years after his untimely death. How we used him in every under- 

 taking to counsel and help us! His loss to the Academy and to science in Kansas can 

 never be estimated. It i< scarcely too much to say that if he had lived that we would 

 have had a geological survey before this; for his extraordinary popularity throughout 

 the State, and the profound respect and regard in which he was held by all classes of 

 intelligent people, would have gone far towards securing that much-desired enterprise. 



1 have collected some reminiscences of our dear friend and benefactor in connection 

 with notes gathered relative to the steps taken toward the organization of the first Natu- 



