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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS.—MAIN BUILDING.
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS.
A grant of seventy-two sections of the public land was made by the Congress of the United States, approved January 29, 1861, for the purpose of founding and supporting a University in the State of Kansas. The State accepted this trust, and in 1864 located the institution thus in part endowed at Lawrence. The first students were received two years later, in September, 1866, 105 being enrolled. The Faculty at the beginning consisted of three men, Eliial J. Rice, D.H. Robinson, and F.H. Snow. The enrollment of students the present year is 483, the number of professors and instructors given in the catalogue just issued is thirty-one. These numbers indicate a growth sufficiently gratifying; yet an examination of the successive catalogues will reveal changes in the courses of study and in the methods of instruction still more remarkable. Four full collegiate courses are presented, besides two special and two technical courses. At the close of the Sophomore year the student is allowed a very liberal choice of optional studies leading through the Junior and Senior years, to the Bachelor's degree. In addition to these courses in the Collegiate Department proper, there have been established a School of Law, a School of Pharmacy and a School of Music. The educational and professional advantages offered by the University are singularly thorough and varied. A brief detailed statement of these different departments is herewith presented.
The Department of Natural History, F. H. Snow and L. L. Dyche, Profs.
This department of the University includes the branches of Botany, Zoology and Geology, together with Comparative eAnatomy, Human Physiology and Meteorology.
The instruction in Botany comprises a course in the elements of the science, required of all students in the Freshman class; a course of Structural Botany in the Sophomore year, intended for students of the General and Latin Scientific courses; and an optional course in Histological Botany, open to all members of the Junior and Senior classes. The method of instruction requires a judicious combination of text-book with laboratory and field practice.
Students in this way acquire an actual, personal knowledge of plants. The department is furnished with thirty dissecting microscopes and fifteen compound microscopes of the best manufacture. An herbarium containing upwards of 4,000 species of North American plants, is a valuable aid to botanical study.
A similar method of instruction has been adopted for the other branches of Natural History. The study of Zoology is facilitated by extensive collections, representing all the sub-divisions of the animal kingdom. Among these may be conspicuously mentioned the beautiful series of birds and mammals, chiefly collected and mounted by Prof. L. L. Dyche, and the extensive collections of insects prepared by Prof. F. H. Snow. The latter include about 12,000 species and upwards of 50,000 specimens, and constitute, with one exception (the Harvard University collection), the largest entomological cabinet possessed by an American university.
Students in Geology have access to a very complete and carefully arranged collection of rocks and fossils, representing all the great formations from the Silurian to the Quaternary. These collections are especially rich in Kansas material. The series of fossil plants from the Dakota rocks of Ellsworth County, chiefly collected by Mr.E.P.West, is the most extensive exhibit in the world in this line of fossils. It contains the types of more than one hundred species new to science, which will soon be published in a new volume on the Cretaceous Flora by the U.S. Geological Survey. This material affords the student a rare opportunity for tracing the relationships of the vegetation of the present time to the ancestral forms of the Cretaceous forests. Another marked feature of the geological cabinets is the representation of vertebrate fossils from Western Kansas. These include fishes, saurians, rhinoceroses, camels, three-toed horses, and many other rare and interesting types. The entire geological collection more than half fills a hall 86 feet long by 36 feet wide.
tions made by the students themselves.
The instruction in Physiology and Comparative Anatomy is conducted by means of lectures and laboratory practice, illustrated by manikins, charts and skeletons, and by dissec-
The student in Meteorology is made acquainted, by text-book, lecture and instrument with the general facts of the science, and is referred to their special application to the climate of Kansas. The subject of Kansas rainfall receives prominent attention, and the student at the close of the study is qualified to take a complete set of weather observations.
The entire work of this department is conducted in a beautiful, capacious building, erected by the State of Kansas by an appropriation of $50,000, and dedicated to the service of Natural History. The plan of this building is original and unique, and is believed to represent the best possible arrangement of museum halls, laboratories and lecture rooms.
Department of Chemistry and Mineralogy, E. H. S. Baily and E. C. Franklin. Profs.
A term's work is given in the Freshman year to the study of chemical elements and their compounds with experimental work and laboratory practice. A half term follows in the Sophomore year in qualitative analysis with lectures and laboratory work. The first of these subjects is required of all collegiate students; the second of all scientific students. The mastery of these more elementary topics prepares the way for the optional courses, thirteen of which are offered the student. A combination of these under the rules for the selection of optionals forms with a few topics chosen from other departments what is called a Course in Applied Chemistry. This course, limited to the Junior and Senior years, comprises the following:
Quantitative Analysis, three terms: Physics, two terms; Natural History; Organic Chemistry; Toxicology; Mineralogy; Geology; Philosophy; German; Assaying; and Chemical Physics.
While it is not claimed that the prosecution of these studies will make an accomplished analytical chemist, the student will make a good start in this direction. The foundation of this work is Quantitative Analysis, with special reference to accurate methods for the determination of the more abundant elements. The student, as he becomes more skillful, is taught to make complete analyses of minerals, waters, ores of iron, zinc, lead, copper &c. He is also taught the modern commercial methods for the analysis of milk, butter, sugar and alcoholic liquors. Considerable attention is also paid to the more accurate volumetric methods. By the study of Chemical Physics the student becomes familiar with the modern theories and methods for calculating results. Organic Chemistry discusses the constitution of the more complex bodies, and the methods of building them up from simpler bodies. Mineralogy is taught through the aid of blow pipe analysis. The effort is made to cultivate familiarity with the appearance and characteristics of the most important minerals so that they may be readily recognized. In the course in Assaying, while particular attention is paid to the fine assay of gold and silver ores, the methods for the volumetric determination of bullion are taught as well as some methods for the assay of coal and of ores of lead, iron, mercury and copper. In Toxicology the most approved methods for the detection of poisons are studied and this is supplemented by practical work in the laboratory upon the separation and identification of poisons in the presence of organic matter. The laboratory facilities are excellent. The rooms are large and well lighted, and ample room is provided for individual work. Each student is supplied with the apparatus required for his work and is expected to pay only for that which is broken or destroyed. A complete record of all experiments and analyses must be furnished to the instructor in charge.
Department of Civil Engineering. F. O. Marvin and E. C. Murphy, Profs.
The course in Civil Engineering was the first of the special courses to be established. The work has grown in importance and expanded in scope, keeping pace with the continual improvement going on in the University as a whole. Its aim is not that of a purely industrial school, nor does it seek to turn out tradesmen; but rather to develop a sound basis, on which the student may build, by a thorough study of the principles of science which underlie engineering operations. While engineering in founded on exact science, it is by no means exact itself, but consists of a constantly varying application of principles to practical problems; and this can be successfully done only through the exercise of good judgment on the part of those who are to furnish the solutions. Good judgment comes in most cases through close observation and personal experience in actual work, but to be right, it must be formed on a knowledge of good theory. The University then cannot send out skilled engineers, but she can and does graduate those who may become such, and who have a profession—not a trade.
Within the last twenty-five years the field of engineering has widened rapidly, so that now there is no other profession that demands so broad a scientific culture as that of the engineer. In recent modifications of the course of study, an effort has been made to meet the demand, resulting from this expansion, so far as it could be done consistently, taking into account the student's time and the thoroughness of his work. None but a phenomenal student could compass in four years the whole range of subjects which may come up in his practice.
The course as it now stands carries the pure mathematics through the calculus; it includes botany, chemistry, a year of physics, descriptive and practical astronomy, mineralogy, geology and enough of French and
German to enable the student to read fairly at sight; in draughting considerable skill is given by practical problems, while the theory of drawing is studied in descriptive geometry, shades and shadows, and perspective; under surveying comes the subjects of government land surveys, trigonometric surveys, geodesy, railroad work, levelling and topography; analytical mechanics, hydro-mechanics and resistance of materials form the basis for studies in construction, such as roofs, bridges, retaining walls, foundations, reservoirs, etc.; while municipal engineering is treated under the heads of streets and pavements, water supply and sewerage; the forms of specifications and the laws governing contracts are also discussed.
Considerable practical work is done at various points in the course. Classes have run railroad lines, surveyed land, measured base lines, established city grades, planned sewerage systems, measured the flow of the Kansas river, etc., and students have acquired sufficient familiarity with instruments and field methods to enable them immediately to fill subordinate positions with credit.
As far as instruments and apparatus are concerned, the department will be much better off the coming year than ever before, as it expects to add, besides levels, transits, etc., from makers not now represented here, a theodolite for triangulation work, a precise level, a current meter, a cement tester, and several minor appliances, with possibly a 50,000-lb testing machine. The engineering students are to be congratulated on these prospective new aids. They will make the department more efficient still.
Department of Mathematics. E. Miller and Olin Tempin. Profs.
The regular undergraduate study of students in mathematics embraces the following subjects: (a) the theory of equations; (b) solid geometry; (c) trigonometry; (d) analytical geometry; (e) differential and integral calculus; (f) method of least squares; (g) determinants; (h) quaternions. Candidates for honors, post graduate students, and competent undergraduates will take up subjects in advanced study and research that will be changed from year to year, according to circumstances. The university library has quite a good collection of mathematics by French writers, to which will soon be added some by German authors. It is expected that many of these books will be read in the original by graduate students.
Special assistance and encouragement will be given to those who have the requisite taste and ability for undertaking and following out original investigations whenever it seems advisable to do so by the instructors. Students will also be assisted in the selection of subjects which in their bands promise to be fruitful of results. But in no case will a student receive help when he has the ability to help himself, nor will he be allowed to retain his position in the pursuance of advanced work when
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