228 NATURAL SCIENCE. April, 



there local museums established at Goulburn, Bathurst, Newcastle, 

 West Maitland, and Albury, and affiliated with the Central Museum, 

 but the collections in the Central Museum and in the Technical 

 College have been thoroughly fused, so that the lecturers of the latter 

 are able to draw upon the resources of the well-stocked museum. 

 The specimens of the museum, wherever practicable, are transferred 

 to the class-rooms for longer or shorter periods, and when there are 

 objections to the transference of the specimens, special facilities are 

 granted to students for the examination of them in the Museum 

 itself. The country museums differ from the central one in having a 

 natural history side. They receive, from the Government, mining and 

 geological maps of New South Wales, especially those which refer to 

 their particular district. 



The energy and enthusiasm of the curator, J. H. Maiden, and his 

 assistant, R. T. Baker, are further shown in the publication of a 

 series of hints for the collection and preservation of raw products 

 suitable for technological museums ; these are given at the end of 

 this interesting report, and are also issued as a separate pamphlet. 



The Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History. 



The University and State of Illinois have undertaken an in- 

 vestigation of the natural history of the inland waters of the State. 

 A handsome laboratory has been erected, a competent staff engaged, 

 and a cabin-boat with all necessary appliances stationed on Quiver 

 Lake. Europe has furnished two important precedents, (i) the 

 investigation of the fresh waters of Bohemia by means of a portable 

 zoological station, carried on by Dr. Anton Fritsch for the Bohemian 

 Scientific Land-exploration (Landesdurchforschung), and (2), the 

 biological station at Plon in Holstein, directed by Dr. Zacharias, 

 and maintained by imperial and municipal contributions. Illinois has 

 made a spirited entrance into the same field of inquiry. The most 

 peculiar local features are the great rivers (Mississippi and Illinois), 

 which are subject to extraordinary changes of level, forming by over- 

 flow extensive lakes, which at another time of the year shrink or 

 even disappear. The directors expect, in the first place, to contribute 

 to the scientific knowledge of the fresh waters of the State ; secondly, 

 to encourage economic applications of natural history, with special 

 reference to fish-culture and river-pollution ; lastly, to promote the 

 teaching of natural history in schools and colleges. 



Professor S. A. Forbes, Director of the Laboratory and State 

 Entomologist, remarks on this last head : — " Not many years ago, 

 biological instruction in American colleges was mostly derived from 

 books ; of late, it has been largely obtained in laboratories instead ; 

 but several years' experience of the output of the Zoological College 

 Laboratory has convinced me that the mere bookworm is hardly 

 narrower and more mechanical than the mere laboratory grub. Both 



