67 
therefore am constrained by reason of these public duties to decline the 
invitation to be present at the meeting of the Academy of Science. I want 
to say, however, just one word to the members of the Academy, and that 
is a word of congratulation on the work which has been accomplished by 
the Indiana Academy of Science in the quarter of a century which has 
passed. 
I do not believe that any state association in the country of a sim- 
ilar character has accomplished so much, nor has brought together a band 
of men more devoted to research, more single in purpose and more enthu- 
siastic in the pursuit of scientific truth. Many of the members of the Asso- 
ciation have from time to time gone out into other parts of the country to 
pursue their work in other States. Not one of them, I believe, has lost 
his Jove for the Academy ner parted with his devotion to its cause and 
welfare. 
I have been reading lately some of the early history of Indiana in its 
political and literary development. I should like to suggest that some mem- 
ber of the Society, before the data are scattered and while it is still pos- 
sible to derive from the mouths of living witnesses important facts, should 
write the history of early scientific education in Indiana, beginning with 
the work of the Owens at New Harmony, almost a hundred years ago, and 
bringing it up to the era of the establishment of the new science, say about 
to 1875, or 1880. To write the work of scientific research of Indiana in 
the last twenty-five years would be too much of an undertaking for any 
one man, but the greatest interest would attach to a history of the scien- 
tific development of Indiana from the time of its beginning, or a little after, 
up to the date which I have mentioned above. I feel sure that there are 
enthusiastic and industrious members of the Society who would undertake 
to do this, either by collaboration or by helping some one who would vol- 
untarily assume the burden of the work. Scientific men of Indiana whose 
experience goes back of 1875 might contribute personal recollections of 
scientific development which would prove of intense interest. The scien- 
tific work of the early colleges of Indiana is worth the most careful study 
and would make interesting chapters in the history of those days when 
the study of science was not considered to be a requisite for a liberal edu- 
cation as it is at the present time. The story of the work of such men as 
Rk. T. Brown, EB. T. Cox, Dr. Levette, John Coburn, and others of that class 
would make most interesting contributions to a work of this description. 
At the present time when there is so much interest in the early political 
and literary history of the State it seems to me the scientific history should 
not be neglected. 
I had hoped to present and read some paper of a scientific character 
at the meeting, but as this is not to be, I should like to present in lieu 
thereof this suggestion, which I hope will be given due consideration, be- 
cause if it can be carried out it will be historical as well as a scientific 
