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IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
Facts that seem at first to he in no way related to commercial or industrial ac- 
tivities, may be the germs from v/hich will spring some great body of knowl- 
edge of the utmost importance to the well being of mankind. The oft quoted 
example of the twitching of the muscles in the legs of a frog under an elec- 
trical stimulus seemed as far removed as possible from anything that might 
contribute to the accumulation of wealth or the promotion of human comfort, 
and yet that simple fact was the starting point from which have developed the 
marvelous uses and applications of electricity which are of such stupendous 
and daily growing importance in modern human life. The pure science of 
today becomes the basis of the applied science of to-morrow, and enlightened 
states, the world over, realize that money expended for the prosecution and 
encouragement of scientific research, is money well invested. By the substitu- 
tion of definite knowledge for vague uncertainty relative to water supplies, 
coal, lead and zinc ores, oil, gas, Portland cement materials, clays and all other 
natural products, the Survey has saved to the citizens of Iowa, many times 
over, all that the Survey has cost. 
As an aid to public education, helping the people to see and appreciate and 
correctly interpret the geological phenomena which lie all about them, helping 
them to view the world in which they live understandingly, instead of looking 
at it with the vague, dull, comprehensionless mental attitude of the unlearned 
savage, the Iowa Geological Survey has earned its place as an important factor 
in contributing to the general intelligence of this most beautiful, most pros- 
perous, most intelligent state. 
