Jan., 1910.] .4 Natural History Survey Needed in Ohio. 
263 
SOME REASONS WHY A NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY 
IS NEEDED IN OHIO. 
The bill to be presented to the General Assembly providing for 
a Natural History Survey specifies in part the purposes of such a 
.Survey, but some notes concerning the scope of such work, the 
reasons why it is needed and the extent to which such work is in 
progress in adjacent states may be desirable. 
It will be generally recognized that the plant and animal life 
in a region such as Ohio must undergo marked changes as the 
result of the settlement and cultivation of the state, and some 
reflection upon the character of these changes must make it 
apparent that the record of the kinds of animals and plants that 
exist and that may be disappearing is desirable. Such forms 
have a distinct place in nature and the conditions under which 
they can flourish must be such as to affect other organisms of the 
same nature, and the recognition of these conditions may have the 
greatest importance in reference to the introduction of crops or of 
animals for economic purposes. Aside from this consideration, 
however, a knowledge of what has actually been in existence in 
the state has distinct scientific importance, and such knowledge 
may at any time be found to have a most important bearing on 
some questions vital to human interests. We know for instance, 
that the life of many of our streams is being greatly depleted 
cither as a result of the contamination of water from the refuse of 
factories or other sources, or to other conditions less evident, and 
the disappearance of these forms of life in streams and lakes has a 
most important bearing upon the possibilities of growth for fishes 
and some other forms which have distinct importance to mankind. 
A careful survey and record, therefore, of what forms are now 
found in our streams, and comparison, so far as previous records 
makes it possible, with what has been present in the past, and 
careful future records as to the changes which may occur in the 
aquatic life of the state, will have a value that may be beyond 
estimate. 
Aside from this economic feature, however, we may particularly 
consider the value that such a knowledge has in the educational 
work in every school in the state, and hence to the future citizens 
of the state. Without such knowledge teachers must depend 
upon statements made regarding the animal life of other localities, 
and even where this applies very closely to the conditions in our 
own state, the difficulty of securing the works in which such 
records are to be found makes it practically out of the question 
for the majority of teachers to take advantage of them. If all the 
teachers of Ohio could be furnished with definite information con- 
cerning the kinds of animals, birds, insects and plants that are 
