The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-20
PROF. JORDAN SELECTED.
lie Succeeds President Moss at the State Uni
versity-lIis Career to Date,

The vexed question as to who should be the
successor of DR.. Lemuel Moss as president of the
indiana State University at Bloomington was
settled yesterday, the trustees deciding with per
feet unanimity to tender the position to Prof.
David S. Jordan. 1t had been anticipated that
owing to the fact that the names Of more than
forty distinguished educators had been pre-
scented to the board, each accompanied by excel
lent recommendations, considerable differ
ence of opinion would prevail among the trustees
as to the merits Of the candidates. The first
ballot, however, resulted in the unanimous cleo
ton of Professor Jordan, which, under the cir
scumstances, is exceedingly complimentary to
that gentleman.
Professor David Starr Jordan, the newly
elected president of the State University, was
born at Gainesville, N. Y, in 1S49. He gradu-
! ated from Cornell University in 1871, with hon
ors, having been for two years laboratory
instructor in analytical botany, the branch in
which he took great interest. He went West,
and for two years was professor of natural sci
ence in the Universalist College at Galesburg.
Ill, coming from there, through the influence of
Prof. j. B. Roberts, to indianapolis as teacher
of natural science in the High-school-succeed-
ing DR.. w. B. Fletcher and DIR. Harvey B.
Wiley in that institution.
DR.. Jordan gave a course of lectures in the
old Indiana Medical College on Comparative
Anatomy of the Vertebrates," the winter
of 1S74-75, and the following autumn
was made professor of natural sciences
in Butler University, which chair he held until
elected to the professorship of natural history in
the State University in the spring of 1880. DR..
Jordan's chief scientific work has been the sys-
tam ofic Gf11Cu apd classification Of fha Month
American fishes. He was directed to this work
in the Penikese School in 1872, by Louis Agassiz,
who highly appreciated his enthusiastic and
original work at Penikese, DR.. Jordan having
made a complete list of the fora and marine
alg9 of the island. Agassiz advised him to turn
his attention to the distribution of animal life
and the causes of it, on the American continent.
Very little original work had ever been done in
this field. and Agassiz characterized it as the
most promising in the world fora young natu-
ralist.
Approaching the necessity for an analytical
manual of vertebrate animals for high school
and college classes, DR.. Jordan Immediately set
about the preparation of such a work,
which, as far as the mammals, birds
and reptiles were concerned, was read
lily compiled from existing literature.
There was, however, almost nothing done in
f~resh-water fishes of the region included in his
book-the eastern part of the United States-and
and it was four years before the material could
be accumulated, studied and classified suffi-
GENTLY for the purposes of a textbook. The
work was brought out by Jansen, McClurg &
Co. in the spring of 1877, and received the IA
vorable concentrations of Profs. Cope, Gill,
Baird, COues and others, aud was soon widely
used as a textbook in most Eastern colleges,
and. with addeuda and revisions, has run
through several editions, and is now the only
manual which stands in the same relation to the
thousand or more backboned animals which it
describes which Gray's Manual of. Botany does
to the plants of the same region.
DR.. Jordan's great work, however, is the
NOv+b Av,oVioon TokE-o1u-- ,rL,oh u,, lno.,olA
out last year by himself and his longtime as
sistant and co-laborer, Prof. Charles Gil
bert, of this city, now professor of
biology in the University of Cincinnati.
This stupendous work was published as "Bulle-
tin No. 16," of the National Museum, in 1882.
and in its thousand pages describes every known
species of fresh-water and marine fishes, includ-
ing over |. 400 species.
DR.. Jordan and Prof. Gilbert have together or
separately published over 200 distinct papers,
mainly in State and government reports,
aggregating over 4, 900 printed pages. and repre-
senting ten years of persistent work, and thou
sands of miles of travel on the coasts and inte-
rior of North America, one or the other of the
authors having been most of that time travelling
and collecting, or studying the museumscollec-
tons in the United States and Europe.
AS a teacher Dr.. Jordan has always been both
popular and successful, attracting to his labora-
tory several young naturalists, and teaching
them to do original work. Among these
have been Professors Gilbert and EVerman.
of Indiana; Chas. Mckay, of Wisconsin,
lost while collecting in Alaska; Edward Nelson,
of Chicago, a wellknown ornithologist, and vari-
Gus others, all of whom have contributed valua-
bic papers to various scientific reports. He has
taken three summer parties on walking, scenic
and scientific excursions through central Europe,
and several parties of college students through
the southern Alleghenies. AS a writer, outside
of scientific subjects, DR.. Jordan is scarcely
known, although his literary tastes and abilities
we're so marked as a Cornell student that various
friends advised him to follow literature as a pro
fession. He is a popular college lecturer, gener-
ally selecting biographical and scientific sub
jects. His essays as a moral reformer of repub-
Gcan politics" have not met with as much sue
cess, being somewhat caustic and radical. An
address he gave in this city, at Plymouth
Church, subjected him to pertinent criticism,
and may have been the cause of his discard
ing a field to which he had given little attention
and which was evidently out of his range.
1t is due to DIR. Jordan to say that he has not
sought the present position, and that his strong
desire was that Professor John Coulter, of
Wabash College, should be elected. DR.. Jordan
was wanted as a professor in Cornell University,
and had also received overtures from the British
Museum, through DR.. Gunther, to devote a year
to the classification of the American fishes of
that museum, which is second to none other in
the world. 1t may be that the board considered
the possibilities of retaining him would be best
met by making him president of the institution.
He is a young man, elected TO a great trust, but
he has never miscarried, andi it will not be doubted
but that, in his election, the hoard have acted
judiciously and in the best interests Of the State
University. 1t is in DR.. Jordan's favor that the
faculty and students stood for him as their first
choice, if he would accept the position. DR..
Jordan already has his name attached to more
genera and species of animals than any man
living, and the honors which he has borne as a
scientist so modestly will no doubt stand him in
hand as president of a school of general learning.
A Conditional Acceptance.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal
BLOOMINGTON, Ind Dec. News of DR..
Jordanhs election 10 the presidency of Indiana