A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY IN INDIANA. Il7 



Owen just before his death he had promised that one feature of the report 

 would be chapters by himself on Agricultural Chemistry and on milk sickness, 

 particularly the connection of the latter with peculiar geological formations. 

 As Richard Owen states in his prefatory letter, these two papers as expected 

 from his pen "might have greatly promoted the health of our population and 

 increased the wealth derivable from our soil, through the useful practical 

 suggestions designed to be conveyed." Especially of interest would have been 

 the chapter on milk sickness, a strange and most fatal disease which has 

 baffled the skill of the leading phj^sieians of the country, both as to cause and 

 cure. While much more prevalent in the days of a half century and more ago 

 it yet occurs occasionally in the State, several deaths having resulted from 

 it in the summer of 1916. 



The first part of the Owen report, as published, begins with a preliminary 

 chapter on the principles of geology, followed by a description of the character 

 and sequence of each of the great rock formations Avhich comprise or underlie 

 the surface of the State. Beginning with the oldest of these, the Lower 

 Silurian, it ne.xt takes up each in order, treating separately each county whose 

 area mainly belongs to that formation. Of each it gives the main facts re- 

 garding its soils and mineral resources, such as ])uilding stone, clays, coal, 

 mineral waters, etc., paying especial attention to the character of the soil 

 derived from each kind of underlying rock and giving lists of fossils of each 

 of the principal formations. It also mentions the principal crops grown, the 

 prevailing kinds of timber, and the most prevalent diseases of each county. 

 In fact, it is the only report yet published which, in a single volume, attempts 

 to cover the entire State by counties in the manner described. Many of the 

 counties are treated very briefly, a number of them not having been visited by 

 either of the Owens, the data given having been obtained from other persons. 

 While much valuable information of a general nature is given, there is in this 

 part of the book not much original matter, and it impresses one as being more 

 of a gazetteer than a scientific work on geology. 



Richard Owen appears to have been more of a naturalist than a field 

 geologist, as we find in the report many passages like the following : "On the 

 Mississinewa. a tributary of the W^ abash, we found, close to the residence of 

 Godfrey, a son of a Miami chief, whose tribe left these fine lands only eighteen 

 years since, bluffs in which the rocks have been weathered and water washed 

 into fantastic pillars and natural cornices, which might serve to inspire the 

 genius of a Michael Angelo with some new architectural design, to rival his 

 St. Peter's at Rome. These bluffs or pillars, are here about 25 feet high, 

 while nearer the ford they rise to 40 and 50 feet above low water. The bed of 

 this interesting stream was, during our visit at this locality, full of confervae 

 (simple jointed water weeds) and had more crawfish, dashing with their 

 peculiar, quick backward movement from under the rocks into the sunshine, 

 than I ever before saw in one stream. Various species of Unio, Cyclas, 

 Paludina (chiefly dead) and Melania were also common; the latter leaving 

 a track in the sand resembling that of a worm. Besides these, numerous 



