A CENTURY OF GEOLOGY IN INDIANA. 145 



DeDartment to render annually to the Governor a detailed statement, ac- 

 companied with proper vouchers for all moneys expended by him in carry- 

 ing out the provisions of this act: And Provided further, That no greater 

 expenditure of money, or liability therefor, shall be made or incurred by the 

 Chief of said Bureau, or his assistants, than the sum herein appropriated 

 for carrying into effect the provisions of this act. 



Here Avas frugality exemplified to a standstill. For $3,700 per annum for 

 all salaries and expenses, the Chief of that Bureau was expected to carry "" 

 the work now done by the Department of Geology, The Bureau of Statistics 

 and the State Board of Health, for section 3 provided that statistical in- 

 formation relating to social a.nd sanitary conditions, vital statistics, marriage, 

 death, etc., shoiild be collected, tabulated, etc. Cox refused to continue the 

 work and on April 25, 1879, John Collett received his commission as chief of 

 the Department of Statistics and Geology for the official term of two years. 

 Collett at first retained G. M. Levette, who had served through Cox's re- 

 gime, as chief assistant, but, says Collett, on "June 30th, Assistant Levette 

 withdrew, when John T. Campbell was installed in his place as First Assistant 

 with John N. Hurty, Chemical Assistant, and Geo. K. Green, Geological 

 Assistant, on special duty. 



The First Annual Report of the new Department was issued in 1880. It 

 was a volume of 514 pages, devoted almost wholly to statistics, the intro- 

 ductory chapter only being headed : 



"THE STATE OF INDIANA" 



"General Information for Intending Immigrants and Investors of 



Capital — Soil, Products, Stone, Coal and Natural 



AND Commercial Advantages." 



Pages 450 to 496 inclusive Avere under the heading "Vital Statistics and 

 Sanitary Reports," and comprise the first "Report of the Indiana State Health 

 Commission," now the State Board of Health. This report included a brief 

 paper by E. T. Cox entitled "Influence of Geology upon Local Diseases," 

 from which I quote as follows: "I will at this time call attention to a disease 

 ■^hich once prevailed in special localities, and remnants of it may still be found 

 In some parts of the State. I allude to what is commonly called milk sickness. 

 This disease was variously attributed to plants, or the water, or the poisonous 

 exhalations from some mineral substance contained in the soil. The origin 

 9| .this disease could often be traced to circumscribed limits, and this seemed 

 ip,|avor the theory that it was due to one or the other of the above substances. 

 Millie epiployed under the late Dr. D. D. Owen on the geological survey of 

 Kentucky, in 1857, it was made a special point to examine the water chemical- 

 ly.for metallic poisons and other substances, and the mineral character of the 

 land Avhere this disease prevailed among the cattle. The localities in that 

 State and at that time Avere alarmingly numerous, and we were given an 

 abundance of Avork to do in the analysis of water. Though hundreds of 



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