166 Nat Science at the IJniv. Minn. — N. H. WinchelL 
theological training schools for the novitiate of the Christian 
ministry. In these schools the natural sciences have had a hard 
struggle to reach that recognition which their work and their 
disciplinary qualities justly demand. It is not so with those so- 
called “western institutions 1 ' that have sprung up spontaneously 
under the behest and guidance of the people in their corporate 
capacity. 
Historical .—When the University of Minnesota was estab¬ 
lished it was first a territorial institution which had an existence 
on paper, and a Board of Regents that soon involved it in debt 
for buildings for which it had no use. On the adoption of the 
state constitution and the revival of the endowment it was re- 
sucitated and opened under better auspices. After a few years 
given to “preparatory 11 instruction the higher departments were 
-organized. The report of the Regents for that year, (1869) 
shows that eighty students were then in the “agricultural and 
scientific 11 course of study, twenty-one in the “German scientific 11 
course, and fifty-six in the “Latin scientific 11 course. There 
were at the same time twenty-one in the “classical 11 course, and 
thirty-three in the “Latin and German 11 course. This shows 
that even in the preparatory years scientific instruction had be¬ 
come firmly established, and that in the zeal with which it was 
entered upon by the students it had a large preponderance of 
their voluntary choice. 
The same year Col. W. W. Folwell, a professor in Kenyon 
college, Ohio, was elected president. A classical scholar, Mr. 
Folwell still had imbibed enough of the spirit of the age from 
his practical engineering experience in the army to appreciate 
the value of science in a college curriculum. The newly elect¬ 
ed faculty embraced E. H. Twining, professor of Chemistry and 
Natural Science, and Arthur Beardsley, a recent graduate of 
the Troy Polytechnic School. Gen. A. D. Robertson was pro¬ 
fessor of Agriculture. In these earty days a “geological 
museum 11 was planned for, and a local Minnesota Natural His¬ 
tory Society was organized, as one of the voluntary institutions 
of the University, an agent for conserving and extending the 
scientific interests of the institution and of the city, if not of 
the state. When, the following year, the plan of organization 
of the University, as outlined by president Folwell, was adopted 
by the Regents, it was found that scientific work in the Uni- 
