From 1858 to 1958 



HARLOW B . x\l 1 L L S 



THE inid-point of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury in the United States was marked 

 by ferment, by excitement, by great 

 ideas. River traffic was at a peak ; rail- 

 roads had been built and were being ex- 

 tended. New areas were becoming more 

 easily accessible to settlers. The point 

 of departure to the exciting and mysteri- 

 ous Far West was on the Mississippi 

 River, and two things happened just 

 before 1850 which focused attention 

 on that vast and largely unexplored area 

 — the movement of the Mormons from 

 Nauvoo, Illinois, on the banks of the 

 Mississippi, to the Great Salt Lake, and 

 the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 

 California. 



The United States tried its muscles in 

 the Mexican W'^ar in its first inter- 

 national conflict since its last test with 

 England, and it ended Mexican domi- 

 nance in California with the assistance 

 of the Bear Flag Revolution. 



Politically the young country was go- 

 ing through the series of events which 

 ultimately led to the Civil War. On 

 August 27, 1858, the most important of 

 the Lincoln-Douglas debates, according 

 to the estimate of some historians, took 

 place at Freeport, Illinois. This debate 

 is said to have won for Judge Douglas 

 the Senatorship in his contest with Lin- 

 coln, but at the same time it lost the 

 Presidency for the Judge in a later con- 

 test with the same adversary. 



At the debate, there was a boy of four- 

 teen who wormed his way to the front 

 of the crowd and gained some renown 

 b\- vocally taking issue with Douglas at 

 one point in this historically climactic 

 discussion. The youngster was consider- 

 ably chagrined by reproof from those 

 around him, but perhaps he was caught 

 by the character of that meeting, for it is 

 reported bv George W. Smith (1927: 

 410) that' 



There was much confusion — some real dis- 

 order. ... It appears from the reports that 

 orators, reception committees, invited guests, 

 and newspaper reporters all engaged in a 



hand-to-hand conflict for seats and in some 

 cases for standing room. 



This boy who had the courage to chal- 

 lenge Judge Douglas was Stephen Alfred 

 Forbes, later to be the person most re- 

 sponsible for the development of the 

 Illinois State Natural History Survey, 

 the centennial of which this number of 

 the Bulletin commemorates. 



Not only was this point in history one 

 of swift movement and of critical impor- 

 tance in the politics and development of 

 the country; it also brought science into 

 clearer focus. Many scientific societies 

 were organized. Darwin's Origin of Spe- 

 cies appeared in 1859. Scientists were 

 just beginning to play with the idea that 

 their field was not a mental toy, that it 

 could be put to practical use ; and some 

 scientists were announcing that they were 

 interested in the practical application and 

 popularization of their knowledge, much 

 to the distress of most of their colleagues. 



As an illustration, there is a rather long 

 apology which Walsh (1868/^:9) felt con- 

 strained to include in his First Annual 

 Report of the Acting State Entomologist. 

 Apparently this comment was written for 

 the eyes of Walsh's scientific confreres ; 

 in part it says: 



In a Memoir intended for publication in 

 the Proceedings of some grave Scientific So- 

 ciety, it would, of course, be highly indecorous 

 to break the dreary monotony of scientific 

 hair-splitting by a single remark, which had 

 the slightest tendency towards exciting that 

 convulsive movement of the midriff, which 

 the vulgar herd of mankind call "laughter." 

 . . . Four hundred years ago Martin Luther 

 said, that "he could see no reason why the 

 Devil should run away with all the good 

 tunes." I can see no reason, in the year 1867, 

 why the pestilent yellow-covered literature 

 of the day should monopolize all the wit 

 and humor. If there is one thing which I 

 have at heart more than another, it is to 

 popularize Science — to bring her down from 

 the awkward high stilts on which she is or- 

 dinarily paraded before the world — to show 

 how sweet and attractive she is when the 

 frozen crust, in which she is usually en- 

 veloped, is thawed away by the warm breath 

 of Nature — ... If I merely succeed in en- 

 ticing away a single young woman from her 



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