ot 
Animal diseases have been investigated with varying degrees of suc- 
cess, and studies made of food for various forms of live stock. 
In the geological work of the year in Indiana, the influence of the 
new scientific spirit abroad in our midst is especially manifest. Besides 
the report on birds already referred to, we find in the volume for 1897, 
recently distributed, a timely revision of Indiana paleontology, and fur- 
ther prosecution of county geological surveys. On the economic side, the 
clay industries have been well and exhaustively set forth, while the con- 
flicting interests of oil and gas production have received able attention. 
It will be found eventually that the fearless conservation of our gas de- 
posits will have paid a thousandfold the expense to the State of our 
geological department. It is refreshing, too, and characteristic of the 
true scientific spirit, to note how the truth and the whole truth is told 
of our disappearing gas supply. No permanent prosperity founded on 
deceit and misrepresentation can come to our commonwealth. Rigorous, 
unadulterated scientific truth is, however, a sure basis for wealth, honor, 
morality and happiness. 
Naturally flowing out of gas belt indications comes the work of this 
year—a prospectus of which is given in the volume of 1897. 
A thorough investigation and report upon the vast coal deposits of the 
State is at this time especially opportune. As this investigation has al- 
ready shown deposits equal to all demands upon it for two hundred years 
to come, the result of the work can only be to establish us in a confident 
reliance upon the industrial future of Indiana. 
This review would not be at all complete without some notices of a 
general character. In sociological matters the State is making splendid 
progress. Along this line there is only time to mention the new patho- 
logical laboratory at the Hospital for the Insane, the establishment of the 
Indiana Reformatory at Jeffersonville, leading to the rational treatment of 
criminals, the introduction of the Bertillon measurements in four of our 
cities, and the increased activity in our Board of State Charities. Sani- 
tation in our centers of population, in our public schools and homes and 
public buildings, is receiving great attention. The agitation for pure food 
will probably soon lead to advanced legislation on this important sub- 
ject. 
Edueationally, nothing perhaps has occurred comparable to the wide- 
spread influence resulting from the general dissemination throughout the 
