36' KANSAS ACADEMY OP SCIENCE. 



special work is to tear the dead carcass to pieces and liberate the ele- 

 ments of which it is composed, so that they may again become in- 

 dustrial activities in the laboratory of nature. 



In the animal and vegetable kingdoms we can witness the ceaseless 

 activity of oxygen in building up while there is life, and its destruc- 

 tive force in tearing to pieces when life has ceased. But in the so- 

 called mineral kingdom the processes are so slow, to our finite 

 observation, that they are not so apparent. Yet oxygen is at work 

 upon the dead rocks, and, in the language of the poet, "the ceaseless 

 tooth of time" is constantly at work tearing the dead rocks to pieces 

 and liberating their elements for renewed activity. 



I want to take the liberty of availing myself of the opportunity in 

 this gathering of active educational workers to ask them to give more 

 attention to the teaching and study of mineralogy in our schools than 

 they have been in the practice of doing. 



The world is waking up to a better comprehension of the vast and 

 useful field of mineralogy. How intimately it concerns all the neces- 

 sities of man. Chemistry is wholly dependent upon it. It would 

 have no material to work upon without it. Medicine is dependent 

 upon it for all its remedies to heal the sick. All the industries that 

 mark the progress of man and help him to a better enjoyment of life 

 are dependent upon the materials of this useful kingdom. 



The industries are to-day taxing the best skill of the chemist to 

 study out new combinations of mineral elements to meet their grow- 

 ing wants. The mineral industry of this country is giving active and 

 profitable employment to about one one-hundredth of the entire 

 jjopulation of the country, counting men, women, and children. Its 

 product is nearly equal in money value to all the other products of the 

 fields. It is calling for the best educated skill to meet its growing 

 wants. Its rewards for intelligent and skilful labor equal any line of 

 industrial work giving employment to man. 



The subject is constantly widening. Students of sciences are only 

 beginning to comprehend its far-reaching possibilities. "Nearer, my 

 Grod, to Thee" is a sweet song, but nowhere in nature do we get 

 nearer to the creator of all things than in the study of mineralogy, 

 with its wonderful variety of forms, and its gems of infinite beauty, 



A new field is opening to it. The necessity of minerals to the ex- 

 istence of life are set forth in a paper, "The Predominant Rule of 

 Mineral Substances in Biological Phenomena," by M. Herrera, in 

 Revue Scientifique. He says : 



"Science made a great step when she succeeded in obtaining imi- 

 tations of protoplasm, wh6se structure has once been looked upon as 

 an almost supernatural phenomenon. But the progress was still 

 greater when she succeeded in preparing perfect imitations of or- 



