Official Or^'Au of the Kansas City Academy of Science. 
VOL. V. KANSAS CITY, MO., MAY, 1891. NO. f) 
Read before the Kansas City 
Academy of Science. 
Drawing for 
riioto-Reprotl action. 
By Rogkr Cunningham. 
Mr. President and Gentlemen: — 
T frequently Imp- 
pens to the stu- 
dent of' nature 
and her phenom- 
ena that he wish- 
es to present 
along with the 
written record 
of his observa- 
tions, such pic- 
torial illustrations as will make his 
meaning? clear, or will convey to others 
an accurate understanding of the forms, 
markings and structure of the things ob- 
served. In a majority of cases, it is safe 
to say, that a careful drawing even on a 
small scale, will convey more real mean- 
ing and instruction to the party instruct- 
ed than pages of technically correct de- 
scription. Especially is this the case 
when you address your description to the 
untechnical public in a journal of popu- 
larized science. And this want makes 
itself felt in every conceivable branch 
of scientific research. The engineer has 
to use diagrams, so, too, the optician, the 
astronomer, the architect, and the sur- 
geon, while the geologist, ethnologist, 
archfeologist, zoologist, each in turn re- 
quires pictures without number, to make 
his long story short. 
Up to a comparatively recent date 
there was only one way to secure pic- 
torial illustration of such work, and that 
was by making drawings, or by having 
them made on wood, to be rendered into 
woodcuts by professional engraver.s. 
How unsatisfactory this was and how in- 
adequate to the varied needs of the scien- 
tific worker, can be easily shown by a 
cursory glance over the pages of any 
scientific publication of ten or more years 
ago and even later, — turning afterward, 
for contrast, to the richly illustrated 
papers of any of the technical journals 
of to-day . AVood engraving, while ab- 
solutely unsurpassable, up to date, for 
the purpose of artistic illustration, is too 
slow and too expensive for the purpose 
of technical illustration and the engi aver 
is too remote from the author. 
The scientific reporter on nature's dai- 
