34 Kansas Academy of Scieyice. 



of the retiring president, Doctor Thompson spoke very ear- 

 nestly in favor of such a survey. At the seventeenth meeting 

 Dr. R. J. Brown chose for the subject of the president's ad- 

 dress, "Is a Geological Survey of the State a Necessity?" 

 Doctor Brown corresponded with officials in each state where 

 such a survey had been made or was in progress, and thus 

 accumulated a formidable array of evidence in favor of such a 

 survey. Without going further into details, it is sufficient to 

 say that after many years of urging and educational work on 

 the part of the Academy an adequate geological survey of the 

 state was ordered, and the dearest ideal of the Academy 

 triumphed. 



But before the survey was ordered, and during its progress, 

 our Transactions are exceedingly rich in papers on geology in 

 its every phase. The first paper read before the Society was 

 a geological paper by Professor Mudge, and at each succeeding 

 meeting up to and including the twelfth, which was the last 

 meeting previous to his death, he read from one to four papers 

 on geological subjects, or twenty-four papers in all. One of 

 these was a list of Kansas minerals, the beginning of a cata- 

 logue. Professor Mudge's record is also unique in that during 

 his entire membership he was either president or vice president 

 continuously, and did not miss a meeting. At the fifth meet- 

 ing Wm. H. Saunders presented his first paper on the analysis 

 of coal and limestones, and followed this with other papers on 

 analysis of coals and clays, thus giving a very practical bear- 

 ing to the work. Throughout our forty-seven years of exist- 

 ence geological papers have formed an important part of our 

 programs. It is difficult to pass over this part of our work 

 without extended notice of the work of such men as Williston, 

 Hay, Haworth, Cragin, Prosser, Grimsley, Beede, Gould, 

 Wooster, and many others. Our Transactions contain care- 

 fully prepared lists of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils, 

 fossil plants and leaves, lists of minerals, with many valuable 

 papers on every branch of the subject, both economic and 

 scientific. 



At the third meeting Prof. J. H. Carruth read a paper on 

 the plants of Kansas, in which he dwelt largely upon species 

 common in the western states that were not found here at all. 

 At the fourth and fifth meetings he presented papers in which a 

 beginning was made in the identification of Kansas species. 



