The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-06
DUR COLLEGES AND SCHOOLS
Annual Meeting of the Scientific Society
of the State University.
Dratorical Contest of the Earlham Juniors
and Wabash Preparatory Department.
Graduating Exercises of High Schools.
THE STATE UNIVERSITY.
Abe Annual Meeting of the Scientific Society
-work Done for the Year.

-Work Done for the Year.
Special to the Indianapolis Journal
BLOOMINGTON, June GA large assembly Of
students and citizens, including the board Of
trustees. attended the annual public meeting of
the Scientific Society of the State University,
Thursday afternoon and evening. Robert New
land. of the sophomore class, read a paper on
American Pike and Pickerel;" Carl FL. Eigen-
man, sophomore, gave the common folk view OF
the Faust Legend" as he had heard it in his ma
tive German town, AMI which has little in COM
mon with the Faust Of Marlowe and Goethe; Miss
Viola Stuckey, the leading lady student Of
mathematics, read u paper on Analytical Geom-
stry and It's Application, as Developed by Des
Cartes;' David K. Goss gave an abstract of Pro-
fessor Brooks (of Johns Hopkins) views on hered-
ity. showing in detail the relations Of the sexes,
both physiologically and psychologically, stating
the reasons in nature why the man is variable and
progressive, and the woman is permanent and
conservative. The paper contains food for re-
Fiction for those believing the sexes stand on
the same physical and mental level.
The acting president, Ernest p. Bicknell, de-
tailed the results of the year on the part of the
teachers and students in original scientific work.
AACAC = wv pApOAo VI AA0i. shS
Limits of Stability of Nebulous Planets and
Temporary Stars. published in the reports of
the American Philosophic Society; fourteen
papers contributed to the government reports by
President Jordan, aggregating 400 pages, and
including the part relating to soft-rayed fishes,
in Cassina's New Standard National History"
and also q new and revised edition of his MAN
ual of the Vertebrates of the Eastern
States" a standard class-book in all
American colleges; three papers by Jor-
dan and Gilbert; seven papers, 300 pages,
by President Jordan and Joseph Swain. on
Southern fishes, proceedings United States Mu-
scum reports; four by Jordan and Seth f. Meek,
the latter a post graduate student; four papers,
so pages, on new species fishes from Kansas and
Indiana, by Professor Gilbert, now of the Uni
versity of CINCINNATI; a review of the American
species of toad fishes, by Edward A. Hall, of the
sophmore class. published in the proceedings of
the Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadel-
phia. Edward Hall will be remembered Dy
readers Of the Journal as the student from Ran
tout, who was drowned in Salt creek. May %,
while on a botanical excursion. There are also
papers by Meek and Hall, by Meek and Goss, by
Meek and Hoffman, by Willis Blatchley, by
Bicknell and Dresslar, by Fordyce. and by Eigen-
man, relating to various genera and families of
fishes, and published either in the national re-
ports, or in those of the Philadelphia Academy,
the total amounting 10 nearly 1000 pages of let
ter press, and proving that university students.
0HCA wink "a ~ ia lR4 0O SOO0 oAtNA18
and productive work in the natural sciences.
Aside from the report of scientific publications
of the year, the new feature of the annual meet
ing was the address of the newly elected profess
sor of geology, John c. Bronner. Prof. Bronner
Is a native of Tennessee, and a graduate of Cor
nell University. In 1874 he went as assistant
g~eologist 70 Prof. Chas. Frederick Hartt, who
was at the head of the Imperial Geological Sur
vey of Brazil, and had, for four years. charge of
the field work, ~resigning in 1880, after the UNI
timely death of Prof Hartt In 1882 Bronner
was commissioned botanist in Brazil; in 1882
special agent of the Department of Agriculture
to visit Brazil for the third time to make a study
of the insects injurious to the cotton and orange.
Since that time he has been Typographical geolo-
gistf for Pennsylvania of the anthracite coal re-
gion. He has travelled in all parts of Brazil, and
the geology Of that region. Prof.
Bronner's long experience with varied
peoples and races, makes him much more
a man of affairs and of the world than the aver
age college professor. He is a man of fine
physique and appearance, and has been most
cordially received by the students, the faculty
and the board of trustees. As the only professor
purely of geology in our colleges he will be
dcubiy welcomed-by the State at large, and the
colleges as we'll.
His lecture on Thursday evening was de-
voted mainly to economic geology, drawing
many practical illustrations from his work on
the Pennsylvania coal survey. showing at the
blackboard in a very graphic manner the method
of locating a coal area, determining the dip Of the
coal beds, and consequently the proper place to
locate the shaft and ''breakers"-a plant
costing from $50, 900 to $500, 900, and which
is money thrown away when built
in the wrong place. The hard coal occurs in
great waves of strata crests and hollows-
''synclinals" and 'anticlinals," to the geologist.
The dip and strike must be known and the shaft
and machinery located over the trough OF these
great land-waves, so that when the coal layers
are reached the miners may work up hill both
ways from the shaft, and the coal run on wheels
by gravity to the shaft mouth. The geologist
had saved the miners vast sums by prop
erly locating these crests and troughs of the
the coal1ayers, when to the uneducated eye
there were no external indications to guide them.
Prof. Bronner showed a familiarity with all
that pertains to economic and practical geology,
which stamps him as a solid acqui-
sition to those interested in. the mineral
resources of Indiana. He intends visiting our
great limestone and coal areas during the sum
mer, and, with Prof. Jordan, will continue the
work of lecturing at Institutes and county-seats,
making the acquaintance of the people and
giving them some idea of the scope and purpose
Of a practical g~eologist
The scientific meeting, on the whole. showed
more solid work than on any previous year.
Geology will be brought into prominence here
after. The board contemplates adding a
physical laboratory the coming year, with Prof.
j. p. Naylor, of the Indianapolis High-school, as
teacher in charge. Prof. Navlor has been con
sidered, because of his great skill in making
philosophical apparatus for quantitative
physical experiments of the most difficult
nature in molecular physics, and also because of
his devotion to and success with the modern
laboratory methods. The board are determined
to bring the work in physics TO the high plane
attainedi in chemistry under Professor Won Nuys
and his assistant, S. b.. Wylie.
The present faithful and eminent professor
Of natural philosophy has taught continuously in
the university for forty-eight years, and now is
teaching the sons of the students of half a CEN
fury ago. To him is dedicated the new Wylie
Hall, and no man connected with the university
or with any other Indiana institution is held in
greater love and esteem. Professor. Kirkwood,
the genial astronomer and mathematician, will
teach the astronomical class the coming year.
It is a rare and a beautiful sight to see
these men-Richard Owen, Daniel Kirkwood,
Theophilus Wyi.s and Elisha Ballantine-g eol-
ogist. astronomer, physicist and philologist-