27 



faculty and students of the university, and a microscope display 

 given jointly by the university and the society. 



The program of the following day contained a paper on 

 "Sciences in the Public Schools," by C. W. Rolfe, of the uni- 

 versity; one by Mr. McAdams on "The Great Cahokia Mound 

 of Madison County," of which the writer has just completed 

 a survey; one by Professor Burrill on "Some Vegetable Poi- 

 sons," and one by Mr. Forbes on "The First Food of the White- 

 fish." Professor N. C. Ricker, of the university, read a paper 

 on "The 'Blue Process' of Copying by Photography," just com- 

 ing into use for the duplication of papers and drawings ; James 

 E. .Armstrong, of Champaign, gave an account of the life his- 

 tory of a jellyfish studied by him at Beaufort, N. C. ; Dr. Evans 

 gave a paper on "The Subterranean Waters of the Northwest" 

 — a discussion of the origin of the artesian waters of northern 

 Illinois and southern Wisconsin ; Mr. A. B. Seymour, botanist 

 to the State Laboratory of Natural History, read a paper on 

 "FieFd Work on Parasitic Fungi;" Mr. Cyrus W. Butler, also 

 a state laboratory assistant, gave some zoological notes from 

 the field-book of a naturalist ; J. E. Armstrong presented an 

 abstract of the papers read at a recent meeting of the Uni- 

 versity Natural History Society; and Professor Rolfe read 

 brief papers on "Experiments with Germinating Seeds," and 

 on "The Rings of Wood as indicating the Growth of Trees." 



In 1880 the question of an enlargement of the field of the 

 society to include the physical and mathematical sciences came 

 up for discussion, and was decided negatively, on the ground 

 that the interests represented by physicists, chemists and 

 mathematicians were so separate from those of the naturalists 

 that a common society was not desirable — a conclusion perhaps 

 warranted in view of the kind of naturalists that most of 

 us were. 



