Semi-Centennial Volume. 53 



From ancient times to later periods a mass of bitter and nauseous 

 substances were found and stored in the medical armory, used in the 

 battle against disease. Now the time was ripe for the pharmaceutical 

 chemist who devoted his energies to the problem of active principles 

 (such as alkaloids, glucosides, resins, etc.) from these simple bitter 

 substances, thus finding out their chemical composition and the relation 

 these had as antagonists to disease. We have then, as a result, the 

 principles well known as quinine, morphine, atropine, aconitine, strych- 

 nine, digitalline, cocaine, codein and a host of others, and these have 

 been (with cooperative work with physicians) classified with reference 

 to their disease antagonistic properties. So that now we are entering 

 upon the domain of rational therapeutics, and pharmaceutical chemistry 

 has come to its own as a distinct science, while medical practice has all 

 it can do to attend to its specialized field, which, like pharmacy, is 

 rapidly becoming divided into groups of specialists that promises for 

 the future greater and greater efficiency. 



University of Kansas, Lawrence, 



The Progress of Science Since the Foundation of the Kansas 

 Academy of Science. 



Samfel W. Williston. 



It was fifty years ago last autumn that, as a lad, I came under the 

 instruction of the late Prof. B. F. Mudge of the Kansas Agricultural 

 College. Bred as a lawyer in Linn, Mass., his early love for science led 

 him into the study of chemistry, mineralogy and geology. Serving for 

 a while as chemist in an oil refinery in Kentucky, his staunch New Eng- 

 land training sent him, like so many others in those days, to Kansas, the 

 border land of freedom, where, after a brief service as state geologist, 

 he was made professor in the new Agricultural College. 



It was his lectures on geology in Manhattan that inspired in me, a 

 boy — inspired is the right word — the love for science that has lasted 

 throughout my life. For ten years I was more or less under his guidance 

 and influence, in the school room and in the field. My debt to him has 

 never been, can never be repaid. He taught me all of science that was 

 then taught in highest institution of learning in Kansas — natural 

 philosophy as it was then called, chemistry, geology, botany, mineralogy, 

 zoology, veterinary science, surveying and mathematics; and for a while 

 even he was my instructor in Latin. A beloved teacher, a noble and up- 

 right man, he loved science for science's sake, without regard for per- 

 sonal emolument. He was the real founder of this Academy; nay more, 

 the founder of science in the young state of Kansas, and as such his name 

 will never be forgotten in its annals. 



I recall vividly the beginnings of this Academy and the part that he 

 took in its foundation. I wonder if there are others who do? And I 

 recall the talk he gave his pupils about it and what he hoped for its 

 future. I would that I could tell him how grandly his hopes have been 

 fulfilled. The Academy has had an honorable past; may its future stil) 

 be as bright as he foresaw. 



