566 
surveys of the different States has come up 
frequently, but I am not sure that we are 
ready for any definite plans. It would 
ssem that cooperation along some lines at 
lsast would lead to most valuable results, 
but how to adjust these so differently organ- 
ized surveys is much more difficult than 
picking out the problems. I am inclined 
to believe that we shall have to go over our 
fields independently at first and look to- 
ward cooperation later on. In the mean- 
time suggestions and discussions and re- 
flection should not be set aside altogether. 
H. F. NAcHTRIEB. 
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. 
Ir is to be regretted that Professor Forbes 
is necessarily absent from this meeting, 
since he only can adequately discuss mat- 
ters connected with the Natural History 
Survey of the State of Illinois. It is to his 
energy and foresight that the Illinois State 
Laboratory of Natural History, which is 
charged with its accomplishment, owes its 
origin, some twenty-five years ago, and it 
is to his oversight and direction that its 
success is due. 
The conditions affecting the biological 
survey of Illinois differ materially in sev- 
eral particulars from those existing in Min- 
nesotaand Wisconsin. Illinois has no State 
geologist nor State geological survey, so 
that from its beginning the biological sur- 
vey has been free from some of the diffi- 
culties experienced in a few of the neighbor- 
ing States. 
In 1877 the Legislature established what 
is known as the Illinois State Historical 
Library and Natural History Museum, at 
Springfield, and the Illinois State Labora- 
tory of Natural History, at Normal, Illi- 
nois, with Professor S. A. Forbes as its 
director. The State Laboratory was estab- 
lished with several functions to perform. 
The law provided that by it the museum at 
Springfield should be supplied with mate- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 328. 
rial illustrating the fauna of the State; that 
educational institutions and high schools 
should be supplied with material for in- 
structional purposes; and besides these 
educational activities, a State survey of the 
animals and cryptogamic plants was to be 
carried on ; and, finally, certain studies of an 
economic character were to be made with 
reference to the food of fishes and of birds. 
In 1883 the director was made State Ento- 
mologist, and for a number of years subse- 
quently there was no sharp division between 
those operations of the State Laboratory 
carried on in connection with economic 
entomology and those for which the insti- 
tution was originally established. In 1885 
the State Laboratory was moved to Urbana 
in consequence of the appointment of its 
director to the chair of zoology in the Uni- 
versity of Illinois. From 1883 to 1893 the 
Natural History Survey work was some- 
what intermittent in character, but with the 
establishment of the Biological Station on 
the Illinois river, the work has been carried 
on continuously along the lines originally 
intended. The appropriations have in most 
cases been reasonably liberal, and have 
gradually increased from $3,000 per annum 
to nearly $10,000, aside from the appro- 
priations for economic entomology. At no 
time has the State Laboratory had the back- 
ing of any scientific society or of any other 
association in any way helpful in securing 
legislative appropriations. It has at all 
times stood strictly on its merits and the 
value of the work accomplished, and its con- 
tinual growth is due to the confidence which 
members of the Legislature have felt in the 
integrity of the director as a man, and in his 
energy and ability as a scientist. 
The laws under which the State Labora- 
tory was founded and has been supported 
seem to emphasize the educational part of 
its duties rather than the scientific and eco- 
nomic features. Professor Forbes’s working 
definition of ‘survey’ involves more than a 
