12 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE TEXAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 
appointment of a man who should be specially adapted in this par- 
ticular line. It was a long time before I got recognition. The place 
was made an adjunct to the chair of mathematics. My idea was to make 
it independent, and that all supervision should be entirely removed. 
Professor Taylor succeeded in getting a special appropriation of $4000 
from the Twenty-third Legislature to equip the school of applied mathe¬ 
matics. The next move is to raise this to a separate Department. Now 
we should have an engineering department second to none in the South. 
Our aim is to raise the dignity of this profession right here in the State 
of Texas. We are now in the midst of a battle. You know that science 
always wins. [Cheers.] The people know a good thing is ’desirable. 
Put the department where good can be done to science in general.” 
Dr. Keiller expressed his good wishes for the department of engineer¬ 
ing, and hoped the battle will be a victory. “We hope to turn out men 
able to superintend great industrial works. I think it a great disad¬ 
vantage to have us of the Medical College separated from the rest of the 
University. It tends to make us more one-sided. We are particularly 
obliged to Dr. Halsted for coming down once a year to Galveston.” 
Professor Taylor: “I have just been told by Dr. Clopton that he was 
approached last fall by a young man who wanted to take a course in 
civil engineering, and he asked Dr. Clopton’s advice as to what univer¬ 
sity he should enter. The doctor recommended the University of Texas, 
but the young man said he would not go there, as civil engineering ap¬ 
peared to be a subordinate branch as given in our catalogue. This em¬ 
phasizes clearly the necessity of making our engineering course prominent 
in our catalogue in order to show what we are actually doing.” 
