December. 1958 



Bennett: Aquatic Hiology 



165 



ble task to catch 7,000 pounds of bass 

 with commercial fishing gear. This im- 

 portant game species is very much less 

 abundant now than it was when the river 

 was free to spread over its wide flood 

 plain. 



FIRST FIELD LABORATORY 



Forbes was much interested in the Illi- 

 nois River and in 1894 he established a 

 biological station on its shores (Forbes 

 1895fl:39) "for the continuous investiga- 

 tion of the aquatic life of the Illinois river 

 and its dependent waters, near Havana." 



That Forbes (1895«:46-7) had great 

 breadth of vision in biological research is 

 shown by his description of the objectives 

 of the laboratory : 



The general objects of our Station are to 

 provide additional facilities and resources for 

 the natural history survey of the State, now 

 being carried on, under legislative authoriza- 

 tion, by the State Laboratory of Natural His- 

 tory; to contribute largely to a thoroughgoing 

 scientific knowledge of the whole system of 

 life existing in the waters of this State, with 

 a view to economic as well as educational 

 applications, and especially with reference 

 to the improvement of fish culture and to the 

 prevention of a progressive pollution of our 

 streams and lakes ; to occupy a rich and 

 promising field of original biological investi- 

 gation hitherto largely overlooked or neglect- 

 ed, not only in America, but throughout the 

 world ; and to increase the resources of the 

 zoological and botanical departments of the 

 University by providing means and facilities 

 for special lines of both graduate and under- 

 graduate work and study for those taking 

 major courses in these departments. 



The Station differs from most of the small 

 number of similar stations thus far estab- 

 lished in this country from the fact that its 

 main object is investigation instead of in- 

 struction, the latter being a secondary, and 

 at present an incidental object only. It has 

 for its field the entire system of life in the 

 Illinois river and connected lakes and other 

 adjacent waters, and it is my intention to 

 extend the work as rapidly as possible to the 

 Mississippi river system, thus making a 

 beginning on a comprehensive and very 

 thoroughgoing work in the general field of 

 the aquatic life of the Mississippi Valley, 

 in all its relations, scientific and economic. 



The special subject which I have fixed 

 upon as the point of direction towards which 

 all our studies shall tend is the effect on the 

 aquatic plant and animal life of a region 

 produced by the periodical overflow and 

 gradual recession of the waters of great 

 rivers, phenomena of which the Illinois and 

 Mississippi rivers afford excellent and strong- 

 ly marked examples. 



Forbes (1895rt:47) believed that the 

 natural sciences should be studied out of 

 doors and that colleges and universities 

 of his day were not doing well by their 

 students in botany and zoology when they 

 confined them to laboratory studies: 



Not many years ago, biological instruction 

 in American colleges was mostly derived 

 from books. Of late, it has been largely ob- 

 tained from laboratories instead, but several 

 years' experience of the output of the zoologi- 

 cal college laboratory has convinced me that 

 the mere book-worm is hardly narrower and 

 more mechanical than the mere laboratory 

 grub. Both have suffered, and almost equally, 

 from a lack of opportunity to study nature 

 alive. One knows about as much as the other 

 of the real aspect of living nature and of the 

 ways in which living things limit and de- 

 termine each others' activities and characters, 

 or in which all are determined by the in- 

 organic environment. 



It is possible that Forbes' feeling on 

 this point of training may have influenced 

 the University of Illinois to require field 

 courses at a biological station before 

 granting a graduate degree in zoology. 



Havana was selected as the location for 

 the Illinois Biological Station because of 

 its several advantages : Forbes liked the 

 blufts along the eastern shore of the Illi- 

 nois River because at their bases they 

 furnished a clean, hard sand beach suit- 

 able to work from and ideal for camping. 

 Moreover, along these bluffs was an 

 abundance of pure, cold spring water. 



The laboratory consisted of "three 

 well-placed rooms" in the town itself and 

 a "cabin boat" on the Illinois River. 



The office and laboratory rooms were sup- 

 plied with running water and electric light, 

 and liberally provided with the usual equip- 

 ment of a biological laboratory, consisting of 

 compound and dissecting microscopes (Rei- 

 chert and Zeiss), microtomes, biological re- 

 agents to the number of one hundred bottles, 

 water and [paraffin] baths, laboratory glass- 

 ware, tanks for alcohol, a coal stove, a kero- 

 sene stove, laboratory tables for five assist- 

 ants, and a working library of about one 

 hundred and twentv volumes (Forbes 

 1895fl:48). 



The cabin boat was stationed on Quiver 

 Lake north of Havana, about 2.5 miles 

 from town. The boat contained a well- 

 furnished kitchen and sleeping quarters 

 for four men. Most of the rest of the 

 space was taken up by equipment, includ- 

 ing limnological apparatus, seines, collect- 

 ing nets, microscopes, and a small library. 



