38 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
ical and mineral resources of the State, and the exposition of 
these in an educational museum which, properly supported 
and developed, cannot fail to be of great public utility. 
At the last meeting of the Academy, Professor Wager 
brought to our notice the crying need of taking steps—too 
long neglected—for preserving for our own use and for the 
use of those who are to follow us, some of the gifts of Nature 
to a State which is too rich in other endowments to have ap- 
praised its prairie and forest, bluff and watercourse, bird and 
wild flower, at their true value as inalienable from coming 
generations. A possible national dune park, State reserves, 
and limited tracts owned or controlled by such organizations 
as the Chicago Chapter of the Wild Flower Preservation So- 
ciety, are among the fruits of well directed effort in this direc- 
tion. Thus far the Academy has been able to give encourage- 
ment and approval only: other States have active organizations 
for the purpose. Is it too much to hope that Illinois will do 
likewise, and to believe that in conjunction with the Academy 
of Science a conservation association will work most effec- 
tively? 
I see in the continuation and enlargement of such affilia- 
tions, one of the great possibilities open to us. That less close 
and general contact among our members may be possible as 
their numbers at a meeting increase and the program of ne- 
cessity breaks into sections that meet concurrently, is an evil 
necessarily attending growth and affiliation: but this is of 
far less consequence than the good resulting from such organi- 
zation. The plainest lesson of biology is that success and ef- 
fectiveness lie in the partition of activity between structurally 
adequate units; and the aggregation of these into correlated 
organs and bodies and associations, sharing through special- 
ization the common labor, and unifying it through co-operation. 
When the Council made preliminary plans for this meeting, 
a wish was expressed to disprove any belief that might be 
shaping itself that a successful meeting is to be looked for only 
when it is held at the Capital or in one of the university centers. 
Notwithstanding inherent transportation difficulties, you have 
justified the belief of your officers that a gathering of this kind 
may be held with profit wherever the spirit of scholarship ex- 
ists. The Academy is indebted to the colleges of Galesburg 
