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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 174. 



logical. Its scientific and practical value 

 are not questioned, but it is at least an open 

 question whether a return to the more 

 comprehensive plan of the original pro- 

 moters of the survey is not desirable, and 

 whether there is any reason to suppose that 

 at the present time there are under the 

 earth in Michigan things about which it is 

 more important for us to know than it is to 

 know about those in our waters and in our 

 forests. 



The practice of other States may be ex- 

 pected to throw some light on this question. 

 Our neighboring State of Ohio has pub- 

 lished, as part of its voluminous report of 

 the Geological Survey, a large volume on the 

 zoology of the State, in which the honored 

 and lamented Chief of the Survey, Dr. J. S. 

 Newberry, takes occasion to speak at some 

 length of the educational and practical 

 value of this part of the work, and Indiana, 

 in its survey by counties, has made large 

 provision for the study of the plant-life of 

 the State, with the object, among other things 

 of preserving, for future generations, a per- 

 manent record of the flora as it now exists. 



New York State many years ago made 

 appropriations for the natural history side 

 of its survey, and has continued this liberal 

 policy to the present time, and the recent 

 reports of the Geological Survey of New 

 Jersey give large space to the report of the 

 botanist, while Pennsylvania has recently 

 organized a comprehensive survey of its 

 forest resources, and States farther south 

 have set an example which we may well 

 consider. The work of the Alabama Biolog- 

 ical Survey conies to us as an example, with 

 the ripe fruits of the long and well-directed 

 activity of that rare scientific genius. Dr. 

 Charles Mohr, and with a corps of younger 

 men eagerly pushing forward into fields 

 that still in Michigan wait our explora- 

 tions. Can it be that the atmosphere of 

 the Gulf is more invigorating to workers in 

 science than that of the Lakes ? 



But in some of the newer States of the 

 West we find a still fuller realization of the 

 broad views and more comprehensive plans 

 that, partly in the light of experience and 

 partly as the result of a growing conviction 

 of the inter- dependence of all organic 

 science, have been embodied in the practi- 

 cal workings of the State Surveys. In 

 Minnesota the Survey was organized as late 

 as 1872. It was named — and the name is 

 significant — The Geological and Natural 

 History Survey of Minnesota, and was 

 placed under the direction of the Board of 

 Regents of the University. ' ' The Survey 

 is comprehensive in its scope. The fields 

 of investigation named in the original act 

 are geology, botany, zoology and meteor- 

 ology."* * * * '^^^ results of the inves- 

 tigations already made include so many 

 bulletins, scientific papers and reports that 

 an enumeration would occupy too much 

 time, but they stand as witness to the 

 liberality and breadth of view with which 

 this Survey has been conceived and so far 

 carried out, and we may congratulate the 

 people of our vigorous sister State on " the 

 steadiness of purpose that has held the 

 Geological and Natural History Survey of 

 Minnesota to its work." 



It is perhaps unnecessary to go further, 

 although other examples are not wanting 

 of the fact that States characterized by gen- 

 erous and enlightened views have provided, 

 and are now providing, means for Surveys 

 not limited by the bounds of a single 

 science, in which plant and animal life are 

 recognized as being quite as worthy of study 

 as the mineral wealth of the State. 



Unfortunately, this is not true of our own 

 State. Former papers before this Academy 

 have not failed to emphasize the patent fact 

 that Michigan, so far from being a leader 

 among the States in organized biological 

 work, conducted by the State, is far behind 



*Hall, C. "W. The University of Minnesota, an 

 Historical Sketch. Minneapolis, 1896. 



