18 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



instead of telegraphic help, waiting in case of a miss at a meet- 

 ing station thirty minutes and then proceeding with the under- 

 standing that the track would be clear to the next station. 

 The man who wrote the contracts for the Western Union Tele- 

 graph Company with the railroads for the use of the wires by 

 the latter was for twenty years a trustee of this University 

 (beginning in 1867), and but for an accident might have still 

 been living, so recent was that contract. 



Populations have increased, wealth has multiplied again and 

 again, business has grown beyond the wildest imagination of 

 the earlier day, living conditions have wonderfully improved, 

 our material inheritance has become much better known, op- 

 portunities are better used, and we may well believe better 

 human lives are lived — all because of the revelations and addi- 

 tions made by men and women like yourselves, people whose 

 activities have been and are generously devoted to the common 

 good. 



The printed program I hold in my hand shows an amazing 

 array of subjects to which your attention is to be given. It 

 may well be that something said or done during this meeting 

 will be noteworthy for all time, something from which dates 

 will begin, something epoch making. Whether this shall be 

 so or not, the spirit of your work leads in such direction and 

 the State Academy of Science engenders and fosters such dis- 

 coveries and improvements. 



I have now, Mr. President, only to repeat that the Univer- 

 sity of Illinois heartily welcomes the members of the Academy 

 to this place, to our twin cities, to the campus and all that is 

 thereon. And it is hoped that this meeting will be so pleasant 

 and so successful that you will all want soon to come again. 



LIFE AND WORK OF JOHN ULRIC NEF 

 Julius Stieglitz, University of Chicago 



On August 13 the Academy suffered the loss of one of its 

 most eminent members through the death, in the prime of his 

 life, of John Ulric Nef, head of the department of chemistry 

 of the University of Chicago. Professor Nefs life was 

 marked by its simplicity, the simplicity which is characteristic 

 of real greatness — it stood for but a few things — but each was 



