KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



students were deeply grieved at his- departure, and presented him with a 

 valuable watch, which he always carried — an ever-loving reminder of the 

 mutual affection between students and professor. 



The last years of his life he spent chiefly in making collections for Prof. 

 Marsh, of Yale College, and thus brought before the scientific world many 

 new and rare discoveries in palaeontology. 



On Friday evening, Nov. 21, 1879, Prof. Mudge sat at home with his wife, 

 reading the fifth act of Shakspeare's "King Lear" — the wail over the dead 

 Cordelia — when, feeling a pressure in his head, he stepped out of the door 

 to walk in the cool air. A few moments afterward his wife heard a groan, 

 and hastened to his side, but found him unconscious from a stroke of apo- 

 plexy. A physician was hastily summoned, but, by a painless transit. Pro- 

 fessor Mudge almost immediately passed to his reward. 



On Sunday, November 23d, all Manhattan came to look upon his loved 

 form. Scientific friends from various portions of the State and Missouri 

 came to pay warm tributes of praise to the deceased scientist. To his bearers 

 were added four of his scientific friends, Professors Snow, Popenoe and Par- 

 ker, and Mr. Joseph Savage, all of whom have been intimately associated 

 with Prof. Mudge in his scientific pursuits. The day was beautiful, and the 

 scene, as the immense procession wound its slow and sad way up Cemetery 

 Hill, will not soon be forgotten. And, as the sprigs of evergreen were thrown 

 lovingly into his open grave, we looked forward to the time when he will 

 possess that blessed immortality of which this is a beautiful emblem. 



In the summer vacation of 1867, the writer first became personally ac- 

 quainted with Prof. Mudge. Called to Lincoln College in April of that year, 

 the writer set himself at work to organize a State Scientific Association. For 

 three months he tried to enlist the people of Topeka in such an organization, 

 without the least success. He then wrote to Prof. Mudge, who thought the 

 time had not yet come in the State for such an enterprise. During the ium- 

 mer vacation, the writer, by special invitation, spent three royal weeks with 

 Prof. Mudge, at his home in Manhattan; and during this visit was matured 

 the plan for organizing the Kansas Natural History Society, which afterward 

 grew into the Kansas Academy of Science. Of this organization Prof. 

 Mudge was elected the first President, and was again President at the time 

 of his death. During these twelve years, he was unwearied in his labors, 

 always cherishing plans for the development of the Academy, whose success 

 formed one of the most joyous experiences of his life. His papers are the 

 results of his own observations and experiments, and are real and substan- 

 tial contributions to knowledge. While professor at the Kansas Agricul- 

 tural College, he spent his summer vacations in making collections on the 

 Plains, to enlarge his cabinet — the richest and best in the West; and he 

 would often enrich the private collections of his scientific friends with boxes 

 of specimens. By mutual agreement. Prof. Frank H. Snow, of the State 

 University, and Prof. Mudge had divided scientific work between themselves. 



