lO 



after eight years in the office, having Norwood's seven year's collections 

 to build upon and an especial appropriation of $21,000 for printing, etc., 

 as well as his own fourteen years' experience. This does not detract 

 from the credit of Worthen but implies that Norwood was expected to 

 make bricks without straw. Creditable work of that kind requires both 

 time and money. 



There is something of the irony of fate in other features of the 

 change. The originators of the survey could not sufficiently empha- 

 size the importance of having a survey which should be as they termed 

 it, "practical." The geologist was to be a man of "practical skill," his 

 reports were to be "purely economical," "strictly t f an economical 

 character," etc. As it happened Norwood wrote more often on palaeon- 

 tology than upon anything else and Worthen's work was more than 

 half palaeontological in quality and three-quarters so in scientific im- 

 portance. The same is true of other curators. This was natural be- 

 cause at that time palaeontology offered the most attractive field for 

 original work and it would have required a very high legislative fence 

 to keep the workers out. 



During the early years of Worthen's incumbency the museum re- 

 mained in the arsenal. It was then moved to a room in the Masonic 

 Hall. Concerning this Worthen says:* "These specimens, now com- 

 prising the largest and most valuable State cabinet in the west, are 

 kept in a rented room * * * Permit me * * * to call your at- 

 tention to the importance of securing a suitable fire-proof building for 

 the reception and display of the specimens." 



In spite of this suggestion the museum remained in that room and 

 a fire did partly destroy the building. How much damage was done to 

 the specimens it has not been possible for the writer to ascertain. But 

 in 187s Worthen writes :f "The large collection of geological speci- 

 mens accumulated by the Survey, remains in the condition it was left 

 by the fire in the Masonic Hall building, where it was formerly kept, 

 no proper place having as yet been provided for its 

 reception * * * " 



From 1863 to 1870 Worthen in carrying out the provision of the law 

 of 185 1 J requiring the distribution of typical collections of duplicates 

 among educational institutions of the State, sent specimens to Prairie 

 City Academy, Rockford Female Seminary, Monmouth College, Nor- 

 mal, Lombard, Wesleyan and Northwestern Universities. Letters to 

 these institutions inquiring about the collections yielded information to 

 the writer from Northwestern University only. The collection sent 

 there, entered upon the record books of that institution September 

 8-15, 1871, by Prof. Oliver Marcy in characteristically accurate man- 

 ner, consisted of 348 fossils and 52 rocks. If like materials were sent 

 to all seven institutions the number would be 2800 specimens. Worthen 

 found the work too large a drain upon his time.§ 



By the adoption of a new State Constitution in 1872 the appropria- 



* Geo. Sur. of 111., Vol. I, 1866, p. VII. 

 tGeol. Survey of 111., Vol. VI, p. IV. 

 t Section 4. 

 § Vol. I, p. XII. 



