JOHN CASPER BRANNER 
265 
still related to geology. Yet his masterly presentation on the 
“Training of a Geologist” stands today as one of the American 
classics. Who ever stated the prerequisites of a successful geo¬ 
logical career more truly and concisely than he in his presidential 
address before the Indiana Academy of Science thirty years ago. 
“The general academic training of a geologist during the first 
two or three years of his college course is not essentially different 
from that of any other man of culture. I am not disposed to 
side with those who think that if a man is to be a specialist the 
sooner he begins his specialty the better. In a general way this 
proposition is correct, but in making such an admission it must 
be distinctly understood that all things which tend to broaden 
a man’s scholarship form essential parts of his specialty. That a 
man should have a knowledge of history, philosophy, social science, 
and of literature in general goes without saying. But as bearing 
directly upon his professional career he should understand of the 
languages, at least the Latin, French, and German. In mathe’- 
matics he should have the general instruction required by civil 
and mining engineers, and should give special attention to as¬ 
tronomy and geodesy. In chemistry the more thorough his train¬ 
ing the better; and beside the usual work required of students of 
chemistry, in which especial attention should be given to inorganic 
chemistry, he should be a skilled mineralogist and should be well 
acquainted with metallurgical processes. In physics the student 
should give attention to optics, especially as employed in the con¬ 
struction of mathematical instruments; to hydraulics and hydro¬ 
statics, to dynamics and to hypsometry. 
“Besides having a broad general culture, a geologist must be 
par excellence a geologist, and besides being a mere geologist he 
ought to know more about some particular branch of geology than 
any one else. The material progress of our times is due largely 
to the division of labor which enables each individual to perfect 
his skill. Progress in science is due in no small degree to a similar 
division in scientific work. Though I cannot dispense with a 
knowledge of chemistry, specialization by a neighbor who devotes 
himself to chemistry relieves me of the necessity of devoting a 
large part of my time to chemistry; the devotion of another to 
physics gives me my time for geologic work proper, which, with¬ 
out the specialist in physics I should be obliged to devote to phys- 
