Ninth Annual Meeting. 



Yet there is a quiet, luxuriant beauty to our landscapes of extended prairie, wooded 

 streams and bluffs, that may partially replace the lack of mountain scenery. 



It has been suggested by Prof. F. H. Snow, that the general dryness of the atmosphere 

 in Kansas may prove favorable to brain-workers. It is a well-known fact that one is 

 languid, and persistent work is repugnant to him, when the air is more tlian usually 

 humid. The amount of ozone is greater here than in Michigan, and possibly in other 

 States, as shown by Prof. Kedzie's paper on Ozone, in this Academy. Quite probably, this 

 element will prove conducive to a great mental activity. Those familiar with the history 

 of literature, will remember that when men are settling a country there is little cliance 

 for pure mental products. With other things, their minds are absorbed in organizing, 

 building, shaping. Thought is like carbon : to crystalize into the diamond it needs time, 

 and the most favorable of surrounding influences. Yet the very fusion of so many diverse 

 characteristics of blood, locality and nationality, may yet place Kansas mental products 

 in an enviable place. Give us time, and Kansas may be the Athens of America. 



The attention paid to the machinery of mental development here is praiseworthy. 

 School-houses and colleges have sprung up on every side, and newspapers have multi- 

 plied. Of the latter, in 1874, there were more than one hundred and fifty. No doubt, 

 any one familiar with Eastern education is grieved at the lack of thoroughness in our 

 public schools. As the students are passed up into the colleges, this lack is often pain- 

 fully apparent. Why? Does the climate beget habits of mental laziness? Possibly, 

 however, it is owing to the lack of time for the crystalization of the system. We must 

 not be deceived by the number of schools and colleges: the work accomplished in them 

 is the true test of mental capabilities. There is lack, too, in the number of students 

 attending the various colleges of the State. As near as I can reach number, in eleven 

 State and denominational colleges in 1874, there were, including preparatory and col- 

 legiate departments, only about fourteen hundred students, by far the greater number of 

 these in the lower grades of preparatory. It is found difficult to induce students to take 

 extended classical or scientific drill. In closing this paper, I am glad to quote the 

 opinion on this subject of a teacher known to you all. Dr. Marvin: "I had almost 

 reached the conclusion that in Kansas we had struck the golden mean. The students 

 with whom I had to do in Allegheny College were better drilled in the elements of 

 education than most who come to us here. Our students certainly show a mental vigor, 

 as a body, equal to any with whom I have met, in an experience of twenty-nine years of 

 seminary and college labor. The students, as I knew them in Keeseville Academy, 

 Clinton county. New York, were quite as lively at ball, especially foot-ball, but not better 

 in algebra. This is as I seem to see them in 1839. I doubt whether we yet have age 

 and solidity enough in society here, to determine scientifically the merits and demerits 

 of our climate or brain ability." 



Baldwin City, Kansas, November, 1876. 



BISON LATIFRONS IN KANSAS. 



BY B. F. MUDGE. 



In his monograph on the American bison, Prof. J. A. Allen has given a description of 

 two species of extinct buffalo, viz. : B. latifrons and B. antiquus. Of these, the former is 

 the largest, the rarest, and the most remarkable. No entire or half skeleton exists, and 

 it has been found in four only of the United States. Even single bones are rare. It 

 therefore becomes of interest to preserve every fragment of this gigantic animal. A few 



