894 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 678 



gist, still living in Michigan ; and Dr. Fred- 

 erick Brendel, of Peoria, author of many 

 botanical papers, and also still with ns, one 

 of the very few survivors of the early mem- 

 bership. I must not omit, even in this 

 briefest mention, the name of Professor J. 

 B. Turner, of Jacksonville, first president 

 of the society, famous in the history of the 

 state universities because of his leadership 

 in the pioneer movement for an industrial 

 education of college grade; nor Dr. Ed- 

 mund Andrews, of Chicago, who became 

 one of the leading surgeons of that city; 

 nor Newton Bateman, state superintendent 

 of public instruction, who lent to the so- 

 ciety the prestige of his great name— a 

 most potent educational influence in that' 

 day. 



You will wish, I am sure, to know some- 

 thing of the subjects in which the more 

 prominent members were interested, and 

 on which they wrote their papers for the 

 society programs, and I will mention a few 

 of them, taken at random. By Dr. Bren- 

 del: "Forests and Forest Trees of Illi- 

 nois, " " The Trees and Shrubs of Illinois, ' ' 

 "The Oaks of Illinois," "Meteorology in 

 connection with Botanical Investigations," 

 "Additions to Robert Kennicott's Flora of 

 Illinois." By Dr. Everett: "The Geology 

 of a Section of Rock River Valley." By 

 A. M. Gow, of Dixon: "Natural History 

 in Schools." By R. H. Holder, of Bloom- 

 ington : " A Catalogue of the Birds of Illi- 

 nois." By James Shaw: "The Great Tor- 

 nado of 1860." By Dr. Thomas: "Insects 

 of Illinois, with Catalogue of Coleoptera," 

 "Mammals of Illinois." These latter 

 papers;, it scarcely need be said, were ex- 

 tremely slight sketches of their subjects. 

 By Dr. Vasey : ' ' Additions to the Flora of 

 Illinois," "The Pernicious "Weeds of Illi- 

 nois, " " The Range of Arborescent Vegeta- 

 tion. ' ' By Dr. Walsh : ' ' Insects Injurious 

 to Vegetation in Illinois," "The Army- 

 worm and its Insect Foes," "Insect Life 



in its Relation to Agriculture." By Mr. 

 Wilbur: "The Mastodon giganteus, its Re- 

 mains in Illinois." Most of these papers 

 were published in the Transactions of the 

 State Agricultural Society, some of them 

 also in the Prairie Farmer, of Chicago, 

 those being virtually the only avenues of 

 publication open to students of science in 

 Illinois in that day. 



The society operated through an elab- 

 orate organization of special committees of 

 its members, one for each division of the 

 natural history of the state, each committee 

 composed, of course, of unpaid volunteers 

 who were made responsible for the accumu- 

 lation and preparation of material for their 

 several departments of the museum, and 

 for contributions on their respective divi- 

 sions of its natural history. This survey 

 work was extremely irregular in amount 

 and unequal in value, and its results were 

 never organized by the society into a work- 

 ing collection. The curator was an in- 

 structor in the normal school, and seems to 

 have received no pay from the society ; but 

 the general commissioner was supposed to 

 give his entire time to its service. His sal- 

 ary was evidently uncertain in amount, and 

 dependent largely on his success in securing 

 entrance fees from new members. Finan- 

 cial complications arose— disputes as to 

 ownership of property, difSculties in the 

 payment of debts incurred, refusals to turn 

 over to the treasurer the funds claimed by 

 the society — and these, with other confus- 

 ing and discouraging conditions, led to the 

 withdrawal by members of gifts and de- 

 posits of specimens and a falling off in the 

 active membership. The society finally 

 collapsed chiefly because of its financial 

 disabilities. Since it could neither pay 

 adequately its general commissioner or its 

 curator, nor organize its collections or pub- 

 lish its papers from its own resources, it 

 turned to the state for aid, and found itself 

 ultimately obliged to accept the condition 



