26 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
years. Parker was continued in the office of Secretary for four more years. At 
this meeting President Fraser suggested the propriety of broadening the scope 
of the society’s work so as to include every branch of scientific exploration and 
research in the state, and a committee reported favorably on the: proposition. 
As an actual fact, mathematics and archeology had already been given a place 
upon the program of the society. 
The fourth meeting of the society was held in Leavenworth in October, 1871. 
The constitution and by-laws were amended in accordance with the suggestion 
of the previous year, and the name of the society changed to the Kansas Acad- 
emy of Science. A number of valuable papers were read, and public lectures 
given by Professors Snow and Mudge. 
The fifth session of the academy was held at Manhattan in October, 1872. 
About a dozen papers were contributed and Rey. Chas. Reynolds delivered a 
public lecture. The next session of the state legislature incorporated the Acad- 
emy as a state organization by the following enactment: ‘*‘The Academy of Sci- 
ence shall be a coOrdinate department of the State Board of Agriculture, with 
their office in the agricultural rooms, where they shall place and keep for public 
inspection the geological, botanical and other specimens; the same to be under 
the control of the officers of said Academy of Science. An annual report of the 
transactions of said Academy of Science shall be made on or before the 15th day 
of November of each year to the State Board of Agriculture, for publication in the 
annual transactions of said board. This section to be inoperative and void unless 
accepted by said Academy of Science, in writing, signed by the President and at- 
tested by the Secretary thereof.’’ (Laws 1873, ch. 137, § 2.) 
This act of the legislature, passed without any solicitation on the part of the 
Academy, was a recognition of the value of the Academy’s work. No doubt we 
were largely indebted to the efforts of Alfred Gray, then secretary of the State 
Board of Agriculture, for this favorable legislation. 
The Academy at its next meeting, in Lawrence, in 1873, formally accepted the 
provisions of the above act of the legislature, and thus became a codrdinate de- 
partment of the State Board of Agriculture. By this act, also, the Academy be- 
came the custodians of the state museum. Undoubtedly we received far more 
benefit from this association than we conferred. Without it the Academy would 
have remained for years without means for publishing its proceedings, and with- 
out a place of habitation. Yet it may be that, had the legislature of 1873 failed 
to make provision for the Academy as it did, a separate provision would have been 
made soon afterward. Asit is, there are hindrances growing out of our relations 
to the State Board of Agriculture. Codrdinate in name, we have, of necessity, and 
rightly, been subordinate in practice. Our requisitions for printing and supplies 
for years were a drain upon the already narrow resources of the board, and we 
could claim nothing unless it was first approved by the secretary. We have, I may 
say, been very fortunate in coming in contact with secretaries who were friendly 
to the work of the Academy, and who did all in their power to help. I doubt not, 
however, that the board of agriculture would now be glad to be relieved of the 
Academy as an annex, since our work, while not entirely foreign to agriculture, is 
done from a different standpoint and with a different purpose in view. Surely, 
too, the Academy, by reason of the value of its work, and because there is room 
for it as the state-house nears completion, deserves a separate maintenance. It has 
earned the right to stand alone. 
What growth has the Academy made? In numbers, from the half-dozen men 
who founded it, it has increased until its nominal membership is nearly 200. 
The actual working membership is much less, but it has succeeded in arousing 
