46 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



laws of immunity from disease, heredity of cancer, as 

 well as of heredity in general have been, or are still being, 

 worked out on them. The investment in equipment and 

 salaries for such investigation amount to millions of dol- 

 lars every year. Preserves of our native flora and fauna 

 are more important than museums of dead animals. To 

 quote a recent writer on water culture: ^We urge that 

 water areas, adequate to our future needs for study and 

 experiment, be set apart and forever kept free from 

 the depredations of the exploiter and of the engineer. ' 



''The nation has preserved certain areas as national 

 parks, national monuments, national forests, etc., for the 

 use of the nation as a whole. The states have reserved 

 some similar areas. The humblest citizen has a right to 

 the recreation values of the bodies of water near his 

 home, and his children should be able to wade in a nearby 

 stream and pick up stones without danger to health. 

 The day is past, even in America, when population is so 

 small and resources so great that these general interests 

 can be sacrificed for the profit of a small group of 

 citizens." — V. E. Shelford. 



LITEEATUEE 



When one reads such poems as Bryant's "Prairies," 

 he wonders how future generations are to interpret his 

 works. 



* ' These are the Gardens of the Desert, these 

 The unshorn fields, boundless and beautiful. 

 For which the speech of England has no name — 

 The Prairies. I behold them for the first. 

 And my heart swells, while the dilated sight 

 Takes in the encircling vastness. 

 The hand that built the firmament hath heaved 

 And smoothed these verdant swells, and sown 



their slopes 

 With herbage, planted them with island 



groves. 

 And hedged them round with forests. Fitting 



floor 

 For this magnificent temple of the sky. ' ' 



— Bryant. 



