PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSES. 25 
sounding of trumpets. Its members have come up to the annual meeting with 
modest papers, in which some fresh discovery, some careful observation or some 
summary of results has been made known to our little circle. Our meetings 
over, each has returned to his own peculiar field of labor, encouraged to make 
further investigation, as his limited opportunities permitted. The work has 
been for its own sake, without any hope of pecuniary reward, and always at 
financial loss to our members, who were aware that the delay in publishing ovr 
proceedings has resulted in the loss even of that credit which belongs to every 
scientific investigator, growing out of priority of publication. 
For the purpose of instructing our younger members, and such of the publi: 
as may be here present, I have ventured upon a short review of the work of the 
Academy in the past, with some suggestions for the future, which it seems to me 
grow out of our present conditions. 
The objects of our association are briefly stated in our simple constitution t» 
be ‘‘to increase and diffuse knowledge in the various departments of science.’’ 
A steady regard for these objects characterized the founders of the Academy, 
and has guided our members in all their efforts. Love and enthusiasm for their 
favorite pursuits have been the impelling forces, and so our state has been ex- 
plored; the character of her varied resources— plant, animal, or mineral— have 
been studied; her rocks have been examined, her geological horizons have been 
determined, and the records of these matters, whether they appear in our own 
publications or elsewhere, have been made by members of this Academy. 
In the Kansas Journal of Education for March, 1868, appeared a letter 
written by Rey. Jno. D. Parker, calling attention to the benefits to be derived 
from an organization of the naturalists of the state. In July of the same year he 
issued in the same journal a call for the first meeting of those interested in the 
natural sciences. To this call seventeen names were appended, many of which 
are honored in our associations: John Fraser, D. H. Robinson, B. F. Mudge, J. 
A. Banfield, J. S. Hougham, Jno. D. Parker, R. A. Barker, D. Brockway, J. R. 
Swallow, G. F. Chapin, J. H. Carruth, R. D. Parker, Jeff. Robinson, Peter Mc- 
Viear, F. H. Snow, J. S. Whitman, and Richard Cordley. 
Some of these people never became members of the organization, but the ma- 
jority did. Of these, some have passed over into the ‘‘unknown country,’’ some 
are nearing the boundary line which marks the transition from this world, while 
a few, with energy and enthusiasm unabated, are still filling their places among us. 
John D. Parker, who prepared the call, was then professor of natural history 
in Lincoln College (now Washburn). The first meeting was held in his claes- 
room at the college, September 1, 1868. An organization was effected under the 
name of the Kansas Natural History Society. Its first officers were: Prof. B. F. 
Mudge, President; J. S. Whitman, Vice-President ; John D. Parker, Secretary ; 
Frank H. Snow, Treasurer; John A. Banfield, Curator. 
The second meeting of the society was held in the Presbyterian church, To- 
peka, September 7, 1869. Papers were read by Professor Mudge and Edward 
Cave, and a public lecture on the mound-builders was delivered by John D. Par- 
ker. The officers of the previous year were reélected. It was largely owing to 
the efforts of Professors Mudge and Parker that the society was kept alive in 
those early days. Nobody, comparatively, in the new state seems to have had 
any time for science. ; 
The third annual meeting was held in the university building at Lawrence, 
September 5 and 6, 1870. Papers were read by Carruth, Snow, Mudge, Parker, 
and Saunders, and public lectures were given by John Fraser and John H. Bar- 
rows. Fraser was elected President and served in that capacity for three 
