256 Kansas Academy of Science. 



There seems to be a wise forethought and lawful purpose in all 

 of nature's work. She has crystallized all the common and many 

 of the rare minerals into beautiful forms and adorned them with 

 attractive colors, and many of them with a luster of finish that 

 rivals the lapidary's art, evidently to attract our attention and get 

 us interested in them. An acquaintance with their beauties of 

 form and color naturally leads us to want to know something of 

 their composition and useful properties, and this want invites to 

 the study of the chemistry of mineralogy, which opens up more of 

 the useful secrets of nature's work, for man's necessities, health, 

 and comfort, than any other department of natural science. 



The field of the practical uses to which mineral atoms can be 

 applied is so broad, it so intimately concerns all our material wants, 

 that it furnishes infinite employment for human pursuit. The 

 mining and fabrication into useful and ornamental forms and com- 

 positions of all the metals — of gold, silver, iron, aluminum, zinc, 

 lead — the varieties of useful rocks, the alkalies and clays, give em- 

 ployment to the most varied talents. A little reflection will im- 

 press the student with the useful fields this study opens. 



All the elements made known by chemistry are found in min- 

 erals, for the mineral kingdom is the source of whatever living be- 

 ings — plants and animals — contain or use. 



"The chemist cannot make anything ; he only supplies the fa- 

 vorable conditions for the action of the laws that absolutely govern 

 every atom of matter." 



Having shown that mineralogy deals with all the elements that 

 make up this earth and all that there is on it, and, in all probabil- 

 ity, all matter of every kind throughout space, its usefulness can- 

 not be questioned. 



The writer has been surprised at the lack of interest manifested 

 in this particular department of natural science in our collegiate 

 institutions. Fossil geology, or paleontology, seems most to inter- 

 est them. Perhaps they have become so accustomed to devote 

 study to dead languages and dead things that they do not appre- 

 ciate the vitality of the living present and the prospective activity 

 of the coming future. 



The writer's attention was particularly attracted recently, upon 

 the receipt of a circular from the University of Chicago, to a list of 

 professors under the head of "department of geology," This list 

 enumerated seven different subdivisions of this department, with 

 a special professor at the head of each. These subdivisions were: 

 " Head prof essor of geology," "professor of geographic geology," 



