Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1907-04-10
ALMA COLLEGE OPENS.
Alma College Opened on Tues.
day Of Last Week After a
Weeks Recess
FOR THE EASTER VACATION.
Prof. p. (. West, Of the Department
ment Of Chemistry Gave the Open
ing Address.

Alma College opened on Tuesday of
last week after weeks recess for the
Easter vacation. Prof. +. T.. West OF
the Department of Chemistry OF Alma
College, gave the opening address with
the subject, Sixty Years lof Science in
America" We give it in part.
A few decades ago, there was born
among the hills and crags of Switzerland
a boy who had an inbred love for nature
and things real. This love. for nature
was still further DEVELOPED by his environ
ment. Medicine seemed to him to be in
as close touch with nature and natures
laws as anything that he could find at
that time and at an early age we find
him student of medicine, first at Heidel-
berg, then Zurich and finally at the
university of Munich where he graduated.
The fortunate thing for this country is
that just sixty years ago this man came
TO America in his search for new field
of labor. 1t was just sixty years ago that
Lewis Rudolph Agassiz, the first real
accepted chair in zoology and geology
at Harvard College now Harvard Uni
versity.
/ desire TO mention few more facts in
regard to the personality OF this man as
have learned them by study of his bio
graphy and as they have been told to me
by one of his pupils under whom had
four years work ! should like to say
first, however, that up to the time that
Agassiz began his work at Harvard there
was nothing offered in natural science
but the hum drum recitation from worth
less textbooks. Students got their les
sons from textbooks. recited from MEM
ory and no more came in contact with
nature than as If no rocks, animals, or
plants existed.
1t is sometimes quite difficult to get
the trne meaning of thing from the
written description of it. For instance,
when Herbert Spencer defines life as
1.-The definite combination of hetero-
geneous changes, both simultaneous and
successive in correspondence with ex-
ternal coexistences and sequences. 1t
may not be just clear 10 all what he
means. but diction in science must of
necessity be such as will express precision
and exactness.
He was man who believed
in thoroughness. He said, "A smat
tering of everything is worth little. I"
He was man with a kind and winning
personality. His students felt that they
must do something for the science inn
personated in the man.
Agassiz was also an enthusiastic be-
lever in natural theology. He believed
more in the element of cause and less in
evolution through lieredity and environ
ment than Darwin. Agassiz founded a
summer school on the island of Penikese
In 1873. He died the following Decem-
Der. AT the opening of this school Agas-
siz requested his students to join with
him in silently asking Gods blessing OH
their work. Whittier has recorded the
incidents III a poem, THE Prayer OF
Agassiz." 1t opens with the following
stanza:
''On the isle of Penikese.
Hinged about by sapphire seas,
Famed by breezes salt and cool,
Stood the master with hisschool."
In brief, such was the man that sixty
years ago introduced the true scientific
methods into America. Up to this time,
little attention was paid to the natural
sciences. The curriculums of the colleges
aud universities were but copies of those
of the old English universities of Oxford
and Cambridge They were arranged
largely to meet the needs of two classes
of men, namely, clergymen and gentle
courses were loaded with philosophy
Greek aud Latin. The old idea was that
everyone should have the same training
regardless of their future work. To-Day
in all walks OF life. We find men with
degrees behind the counter and in tn,
laboratory as much as in the pulpit an,
and the cry that denouinational college.
turn out nothing but preachers and teach
ers. no longer holds true. Scientific mel
are at the head OF all the great mining
and manufacturing industries. In fact
these great industries are but the product
of laboratory experiments. The chemis
finds in the laboratory that hot carboi
will remove oxygen from ore and the re