21 



ciety had anything approximating what we would now call a 

 scientific education, and few of them were what we would 

 now call professional scientists or teachers of science, and yet 

 they were evidently the pick of the State in scientific ability, en- 

 thusiasm and activity. Among its more efficient members, be- 

 sides Powell, Vasey, Worthen and Thomas, already mentioned, 

 were Benjamin D. Walsh, the first state entomologist; M. S. 

 Bebb, well known for his work on the willows of the United 

 States ; Dr. Oliver Everett, of Dixon ; James Shaw, of Mt. 

 Carroll, and Dr. Henry M. Bannister, the last two assistants 

 on the Geological Survey ; Dr. J. W. Velie, a life-long 

 ornithologist, still living in Michigan; and Dr. Frederick Bren- 

 del, of Peoria, author of many botanical papers, and also still 

 with us, one of the very few survivors of the early membership, 

 I must not omit, even in this briefest mention, the name of Pro- 

 fessor J, B. Turner, of Jacksonville, first president of the so- 

 ciety, famous in the history of the state universities because of 

 his leadership m the pioneer movement for an industrial educa- 

 tion of college grade; nor l^i. Edmund Andrews, of Chicago, 

 who became one of the leading surgeons of that city; nor New- 

 ton Bateman, state superintendent of public instruction, who 

 lent to the society the prestige of his great name — a most 

 potent educational influence in that day. 



You will wish, I am sure, to know something of the subjects 

 in which the more prominent members were interested, and 

 on which they wrote their papers for the society programs, 

 and I will mention a few of them, taken at random. By Dr. 

 Brendel: "Forests and Forest Trees of Illinois," "The Trees 

 and Shrubs of Illinois," "The Oaks of Illinois," "Meteorology 

 in connection with Botanical Investigations," "Additions to 

 Robert Kennicott's Flora of Illinois." By Dr. Everett: "The 

 Geology of a Section of the Rock River Valley." By A. M. 



