University of Arkansas Fayetteville - Razorback Yearbook (Fayetteville, AR)

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Jk0oof of S tfieraf (Ztvfe j 1 1 E School of Liberal Arts, including as it does the Humanities, the Moderns, Mathematics and History, is an historic one—until quite recently it comprised the principal features of a finished education and formed the basis for the scholarly types of the so-called “old school.” ’Tis this School of Arts that g Jjggg| marks the distinguishing characteristic between the Training School and the College. It is this then that makes us what we are, lacking only the name of, University of Arkansas. The School of Liberal Arts, or rather some of its branches, are just now convalescing from an almost fatal attack of vicious legislation. We are glad to say that recuperation has now thoroughly set in and a speedy recovery may safely be chronicled. The wide and extensive learning to be acquired, the broad culture, refinement and mental discipline to be derived from a pursuit of such studies as I have mentioned above, go far to prove and attest the wisdom and prudence of many who make the choice. They stand as fundamental requirements of a liberal education, as Demeter, Poseidon, Apollo, and Athena stood as repre¬ sentatives of Earth, Water, Fire and Air in the physical world, according to the conceptions of ancient mythology. Under the wise and prudent guidance of gifted and learned teachers, the stu¬ dents drink afresh from that fountain of knowledge at which the Blind Bard of the Ancients must have taken hearty draughts and then sung his songs of Troy tuned to such music that even the gods consent to give ear. They wander again with Virgil’s .Eneas from his ill-fated home to distant abodes on Italia’s far off shores. They sit enchanted by the fiery eloquence of Demos¬ thenes as he thunders forth his bold Phillipics. They hear again those melli fluous words and smooth flowing sentences of Cicero when he flatters Caius Julius Ciesar. They feel the fiery blood in their veins as they read the exciting scenes of the French Revolution, or this warlike spirit is quenched by stories of German discoveries and additions to the great store-house of knowledge, making it quite evident that “ Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war.” They understand as never before the course of the stars and worlds in space worked out to a mathematical nicety and wander through the intricacies of the Spiral of Archimedes. From history they learn that for generations, aye, even for ages, men have done these same things in which they are now engaged, and it teaches them that in its repetition we are forced to exclaim with the wise man: “There is nothing new under the sun.” ' j ! - 18

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Jktenftfic ©eparfmenfe LTHOUGH science teaching is still in the adoles¬ cent period in the University as in the State and in the south, it has made a long step forward in efficiency and into public favor. The gain in the number of students within the year past is about fifty per cent. The improvement in the char¬ acter of students who take some branch of science as a major study is still greater than the numerical increase. The Science Club organized at the beginning of the year has met regularly twice a month and the interest in these meetings has been well maintained and there is no sign of failure. The youngest de¬ partment in the University lias made notable advancement with¬ in the single year of its autonomy, and under the management of Prof. Purdue, large additions have been made to its reference library. Plaster of Paris casts of the State of Arkansas and the peninsula of San Francisco have been added to the equipment for instruction, and the students are at work on a cast of the Tennessee highlands. The department is now furnished with a well equipped mineralogical laboratory. Prof. Purdue has given a very successful course of lectures on Physical Geography to the teachers of the Fort Smith public schools. The department of Biology has been fully occupied with the usual routine work, which has increased to such an extent that a further division of the work is one of the most urgent of the many pressing needs of the University. The most important result of its activity during the year, aside from the publication of a Revision of the Truxalinae of the United States by Professor McNeill and several scientific papers by his students, has been the work in embryology. Some of the results of this work, as serial section microphotographs and stereopticon slides prepared by the students, are to be presented to the public at a final meeting of the Science Club. It is pro¬ posed by the departments of Biology and Geology to begin a Natural History Survey of the State at the close of the present session. This work is to be undertaken by the instructors and a small number of advanced students and prosecuted vigorously during the summer vacations. It is hoped to present the result of these studies in a serial publication The oldest department for scientific instruction in the Uni¬ versity is that of Chemistry and Physics. Dr. Menke’s old time zeal and popularity have not waned. In equipment and general efficiency this department will not suffer when compared with institutions of the same size and rank in any part of the country. Prof. Bentley in addition to his class work manages to find time for a considerable amount of original investigation. He is at the time of this writing, studying the effect of nitric acid on tribrom acetanilide. The results, which are important and cor¬ rective to much of what has recently been observed, are to be published as soon as finished. Where the scientific spirit, which is love of truth, is most cultivated, progress toward a higher civilization is most evident; and where it is not found, learning is but the thinly disguised scholasticism of the middle ages. Here’s to Science! May her friends be multiplied until there are no other pebbles on the beach. 20