8 Kansas Academy of Science. 



secretary's report. 

 The secretary is pleased to chronicle another year of progress for the 

 Academy. We are now fairly entered on the era of annual volumes of our 

 Transactions, and our colleagues will have the encouragement of publishing 

 at an early date whatever contributions they may make to scientific discov- 

 ery. We can do this because it is of mutual convenience to the state printer 

 and to the Academy, and no one will object so long as this plan does not in- 

 crease the expense to the state. A certain annual appropriation is now ad- 

 mitted as reasonable, and with the growth of the state and its institutions, 

 the Academy may expect to share recognition according to its merit. It is 

 of course expected that in biennial years the legislative printing will take 

 the precedence in the state printing-office, and in order to have early publi- 

 cation in such years, our Transactions must be in hands of the printer be- 

 fore the legislative rush begins. Past experience shows that delays are 

 most likely to come from^neglect of members to get their papers ready for 

 the press ; and to secure the results now aimed at, the papers ought after 

 being read at the annual meeting, to be placed at once in the hands of the 

 secretary for publication. The time may come when our Transactions will 

 be issued as quarterly bulletins and so save a considerable item of expense 

 on their distribution by mail. Following the custom of past years, the sec- 

 retary issued an announcement in the summer of the coming annual meet- 

 ing, and this is sent to all members and to others who may be stimulated to 

 joining in our work. 



THE MUSEUM. 



Care of the museum is part of the secretary's duty. The ability and 

 good fortune of my predecessor. Doctor Grimsley, enabled him to lay the 

 foundation of a very useful economic museum for our state. This must be 

 enlarged and improved till we can show the forms and distribution of our 

 mineral wealth. As this museum had its inception in the St. Louis Expo- 

 sition, so the coming Kansas semicentenial ought tp bring it to perfection. 

 It will be for the Academy to guide in this development, and there is 

 no way in which we may expect] more cordial cooperation or in which we 

 may be more useful to the state. This is one of the ways in which we may 

 show ourselves worthy of being a ' ' coordinate branch of the State Board of 

 Agriculture. ' ' 



THE library. 



The growth of our library is an illustration of the comity and univer- 

 sality of science. In this realm there are no state lines, no political divisions. 

 Our fellow workers, whether in Australia, St. Petersburg, or Peru, are ready 

 to share with us in their discussions and to rejoice in our discoveries. So 

 from the beginning of our history we have found other scientific bodies, all 

 over the world, ready to exchange with us their publications, even when our 

 members were few and our Transactions only filled a small [pamphlet. In 

 these exchanges we have been conscious of getting the better end of the 

 trade, and our older sister societies have shown their sympathy in being 

 willing to accept our productions and wait for us to grow to something bet- 

 ter. We have grown, and our late volumes make a respectable showing as 

 compared with others of their class. Reprints of the first seven volumes 

 enable us to exchange completejsets of the first twenty volumes, and we can, 

 with some assurance, offer these for the valuable works coming to us from 

 other societies. 



