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Kansas University Weekly.
conditions in the west, listened half incredulously to the statements of the western men. It was stated that in some points, though not in all, the scientific work of these western schools was on a par with those of the east. The discussion drifted around and around this point and then drifted away, as is the wont of such discussions.
The question raised is a fair one. To answer it we shall take an average western State University and examine into its scientific achievements and equipment. Kansas state university is a typical and fairly representative western institution. It is a well-rounded, symmetrically developed school, yet relatively strong on the scientific side. In the space at our disposal we shall not be able to touch upon every department and phase of scientific work, but must content ourselves with a cursory view of its most salient features. When we have measured the altitude of the highest peaks of a mountain range, we can readily estimate the height of the intervening peaks and thus get an adequate conception of the elevation of the range as a whole.
Two factors must always enter into any estimate of the scientific work of a university, the attainments and scientific spirit of its instructors and the material equipment in the way of laboratories, museums and apparatus with which they must do their work. These are varying factors, as we shall see later. In point of material equipment which money can buy Kansas University must yield the palm to the wealthier institutions of the east; but in point of attainment and enthusiasm of her faculty she suffers less in the comparison.
The Natural History building, Snow Hall is crowded from the basement floor to the rafters in the garret with materials for scientific research. The collection is especially strong in Vertebrate Paleontology. In this large collection are to be found some of the rarest fossils in the world, bird, beast and fish, all carefully mounted so that they can be inspected and minutely studied Almost every year expeditions composed of instructors and students bring back from the greatest collecting fields of the world new forms
and types of extinct animal life. Dr. Williston who is surrounded by an able corps of assistants is an acknowledged authority in this line of work, unflagging in his industry and untiring in his devotion to the interest of the students. In this particular department of scientific work Kansas State University is clearly superior to anything in the west and the acknowledged peer of any institution in the east.
Another strong feature of the museum in Snow Hall is the collection of North American mammals. This collection contains specimens of both the skin and the skeleton of almost every mammal known in North America. The skins are mounted with the greatest care and grouped so artistically that the beholder hardly believes that they are motionless. The mounted skeletons are exceedingly valuable for the study of comparative anatomy. Prof. Dyche has recently added valuable specimens from the Arctic regions and is now in Alaska collecting for the museum. The collection of birds is second only to that of the mammals. Every detail of the work of mounting these specimens is done in Snow Hall and the student has the opportunity to learn the whole process from the mysteries of the tan vat to the planning of a group of Polar bears. Prof. Dyche's exhibition at the world's Columbian Exposition was a revelation to naturalists and it was conceded that nowhere had the taxidermic art reached a higher development than in the University of Kansas.
The work in Geology centers about the State Geological Survey which the University is authorized to undertake. During the winter months extended courses of lectures are delivered touching every phase of Geology, physical historical, dynamical, and economic. In the laboratories are studied rocks, minerals, crystals, ores, fossils and soils. During the summer months the Director, Prof. Haworth, directs and personally conducts parties of students and others in the field work of the survey. In due time every township in the state of Kansas will have been examined and its natural resources