PRKFACK. V 



the use of the Academy, on condition that the Bureau should also be allowed to 

 make use of them in its publications, was a principal inducement to the early pub- 

 lication of this volume. 



In the same line of research, Mr. C. E. Harrison has a paper entitled "A Report 

 of Mound Explorations near Pine Creek, Muscatine County, Iowa," and Dr. 

 C. H. Preston another, entitled "Mound Explorations near Joslyn, Rock Island 

 County, Illinois." The excellent "Biographical Sketch of the late Dr. Rol^ert 

 James Farquharson," by Dr. W. D. Middleton, will be read with interest by the 

 many friends and admirers of our deceased associate. The tine phototype portrait 

 of Dr. Farquharson, which forms the frontispiece to the volume, was furnished with 

 the assistance of the Scott County Medical Society, aided by a generous contribu- 

 tion from J. D. Campbell, Esq., of New York. 



A revised edition of a paper entitled "Elephant Pipes and Inscribed Tablets in 

 the Museum of the Academy of Sciences, Davenport, Iowa," by Charles E. Putnam, 

 together with selections from the correspondence connected therewith, Is included 

 in an appendix to this volume. This paper was originally prepared and distributed 

 as a separate publication, for the purpose of vindicating the genuineness of the relics 

 in question, the integrity of the discoverer, and the good faith of the members of 

 the Academy. The occasion which made it necessary was an article by Henry 

 W. Henshaw, in the Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, entitled 

 "Animal Carvings from Mounds in the Mississippi Valley," wherein an unjustifia- 

 ble assault is made upon the authenticity of the elephant pipes and inscribed :ablets, 

 and in connection with their discovery Rev. Mr. Gass is plainly charged with the 

 perpetration of a fraud. These ruthless accusations had the endorsement of Maior 

 J. W. Powell, Director of the Bureau, and, being embodied in the ponderous re- 

 port of that department, were thus secured a permanent place in scientific literature. 

 As this Government publication was destined to pass into the hands of investigators 

 who would have no data by which they could detect the many blunders and mis- 

 statements in Mr. Henshaw's paper, it was calculated to do the Davenport Acad- 

 emy great injury; and hence, as a partial protection against this injustice, it was 

 deemed advisable to include the "Vindication" prepared by Mr. Putnam among the 

 permanent publications of the Academy. 



The publication of Volume V. of the Proceedings has already been commenced. 

 No less than four valuable scientific papers are now in the hands of the printers, 

 and these will be issued and distributed as part of the volume. Among these 

 papers, Prof. W. H. Barris, of Griswold College, contributes a review of a pam- 

 phlet on the "Geology of Scott County, Iowa, and Rock Island County, Illinois," 

 by Mr. A. S. Tiffany. This review, while it is entirely impersonal, is a searching 

 criticism, from a scientific stand-point, of the publication in question, and it will be 

 fomid a valuable contribution to the geological history of this vicinity. 



