December. 1958 



Avars: Publications and Public Rklations 



205 



F"orbes (1888:7) described in detail the 

 publications that were being issued under 

 his direction : 



Our regular publications run in four series, 

 two from the Laboratory and two from the 

 Office of the State Entomologist, — the former 

 comprising the State zoological report and the 

 bulletins of the State Laboratory of Natural 

 History, and the latter the biennial entomolog- 

 ical report and the bulletins of the entomolog- 

 ical office. 



During the past two years we have finished 

 the printing of the first volume on the zoology 

 of the State, — containing five hundred and 

 twenty pages of text and forty-six plates, — 

 devoted to the ornithology of Illinois as far as 

 the water birds. This is a reprint of the vol- 

 ume, the first edition having been entirely de- 

 stroved in the burning of the office of the State 

 Printer last February. 



PUBLICATIONS SERIES 



The words "Volume I, Series I," at the 

 top of the title page of the only Trans- 

 actions published by the Illinois Natural 

 History Society under its own name are 

 evidence that the members looked for- 

 ward hopefully to continued publication. 

 The date at the bottom of the page, 1861, 

 and a glance at American history give 

 testimony to the role the Civil ^Var 

 played in the Society's annals. In 18M 

 Charles Hovey, first secretary of the So- 

 ciety and head of Illinois State Normal 

 University, marched off to war as Colonel 

 of the Schoolmaster's Regiment, taking 

 with him most of the men of the student 

 body and some of the facultv (Marshall 

 1956:75-6). Xo one knows how many 

 potential scientists died at Fort Donelson 

 and in other engagements, or how much 

 brain power from Illinois centers of learn- 

 ing was siphoned from the science of peace 

 into the science of war. 



Two years after the Civil War was 

 over, biological science in Illinois re- 

 sumed its march, but the Natural His- 

 tory Society limped badly. It never re- 

 covered from the effects of the conflict. 

 However, in voting an appropriation to 

 the Natural Historv Society and estab- 

 lishing the State Entomologist's Office 

 and the Illinois Industrial University, the 

 Illinois General Assembly (1867) gave 

 substantial evidence that the people of the 

 state wanted to continue the educational 

 movement that founders of the Society 

 had helped to start. 



Walsh's first and only report as State 

 Entomologist was followed by the re- 

 ports of his successors: 4 by William Le 

 Baron, 6 by Cyrus Thomas, and 18 by 

 F'orbes. Le Baron (1871) named his first 

 report the first report of the State Ento- 

 mologist. The reports were discontinued 

 when the State Entomologist's Office was 

 merged with the Illinois State Labora- 

 tory of Natural History in 1917. 



In 1876, about 4 years after his appoint- 

 ment as Curator of the Illinois Museum 

 of Natural History, Forbes issued the 

 first number of a technical series that has 

 come down through the years as the Btd- 

 hiin. It has been known successively as 

 the Bulletin of the Illinois Museum of 

 Natural History, 1876; Bulletin of the 

 State Laboratory of Natural History, 

 1877 to the end of June, 1917: Bulletin 

 of the Illinois State Natural History Sur- 

 vey, July. 1917, to early 1932; and Illinois 

 Natural History Survey Bulletin, late 

 1932 to the present. Throughout its ex- 

 istence the Bulletin has reported the re- 

 sults of mature, original research. Most 

 of the articles have been slanted toward 

 technical workers in the biological sci- 

 ences. 



Of wider interest are numbers of the 

 circular series. The emphasis in this sc- 

 ries is on "how-to-do" — for example, how 

 to control diseases or insect pests of shade 

 trees. Directions in the circulars are 

 based on the best available information 

 and usually only to a limited extent on 

 original research by the writers. The lan- 

 guage of the circular series is less tech- 

 nical than that of the Bulletin. 



The complete history of the circulars 

 is not known. "We have also issued sev- 

 eral entomological circulars not of any 

 series," Forbes (1888:7) wrote 70 years 

 ago. The modern circular series dates 

 from 1918 and a 6-page unnumbered pub- 

 lication titled "The More Important In- 

 secticides and Repellents," by W. P. 

 Flint. Between 1918 and 1930. 13 other 

 circulars (3 unnumbered and 10 num- 

 bered) were issued by the economic ento- 

 mologists, 4 by the foresters, and 1 by the 

 botanist on the stafif. Each circular was 

 issued as a product of the section repre- 

 sented by its author. In 1934 the circu- 

 lar series was reorganized and the early 

 circulars were numbered or renumbered. 



