rr eat ii el en OAK ST. HDSF | CENTRAL CIRCULATION BOOKSTACKS The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its renewal or its return to the library trom which it was borrowed on or before the Latest Date stamped below. You may be charged a minimum fee of $75.00 for each lost book. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result In dismissal from the University. TO RENEW CALL TELEPHONE CENTER, 333-8400 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN FEB 0 1996 NOV 2 0 tog5 When renewing by phone, write new due date below previous due date, L162 THE ILLINOIS STATE LABORATORY NATURAL HISTORY, a ee CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION, JULY, 1878. ——_—_———_ - = —_ —__-—— SPRINGFIELD: = REGISTER PRINTING Ho ue ILLINOIS STATE LABORATORY OF NATURAL HISTORY. NORMAL, ILL ——————- > oe ----—_ _____ CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION, an JULY, 1878. ——————————__ o_o ———_ Shine IELD: S 9 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/circularofinformOOilli THE ILLINOIS STATE LABORATORY OF NATURAL HISTORY. Prof. S. A. Forbes, Curator of the Laboratory, by vote of the Board, read his annual report, as follows: To the State Board of Feducation: This is an institution whose chief objects are the prosecution and aid of original work on the natural history of the State, (preference ““being given to subjects having special educational or economical _value,) the publication of the results of such work for the informa- tion of the people, the training and instruction of teachers of bot- any and zoology for the public schools, and the supply of the nec- - essary scientific material to these schools, to the State Museum, and to the State educational institutions. It affords a place to which any specialist or scientific student may come, with the assurance that he will find everything necessary for special study or original work on the natural history of Illinois, to which any teacher may come for preparation to teach these subjects intelligently, and upon which the officers of any school may draw for material to illustrate the scientific work of their school. Its operations are guided by the conviction that the spread of the . knowledge and discipline of science among the people is essential to their highest prosperity; that this is a matter of public rather than of personal concern, and that it must be provided for by public rather than by private measures. To encourage the spontaneous and gratuitous labors of our sci- ‘entific men, to assist them at least to the extent of supplying them iA er with such facilities for work as are beyond the reach of individuals, and to furnish them a means of adding the results of their labors to the common stock of human knowledge, is obviously sound public ~ policy. Without this class of workers, devoted to science for its Own sake, no solid and valuable progress in science is possible, 4 From them comes the initiative, the incitement. They are the root of the tree by which the raw elements of the natura® world have been in all ‘ages drawn together and made ready for the nourish- ment of the organism. It is also of great importance to the public welfare that the meth- ods of work and habits of thought by which the achievements of modern science have been made, should be brought to bear as far as possible upon the daily life of all. For this, trained and intelli- gent teachers of science are necessary, able to comprehend the work of specialists, and to assiniilate and adapt it to the needs of the com- munity at large,—able also to translate the spirit and methods of science into the work of the school, and through the school into the pursuits of business and labor. But a practical knowledge of nature cannot be imparted by books or by word of mouth alone. The distinctive discipline of science can only be got by the immediate exercise of the mind upon ob- jects and upon ideas directly derived from objects. Materials for study, and named cabinets as the standards of reference, are the sine gua non of work worth doing. To incite and reward natural history work, nothing has been found more effective than skeleton cabinets of representative species, which can afterwards be filled up by the collections of teachers and pupils. The cost of these is slight, the value very great. An easily accessible medium of mutual ex- changes,—a center of authority to which difficult questions can be referred for solution, are also indispensable to success. The pressing needs of these three classes, specialists in science, the teachers and the pupils of the public schools, it is the principal function of the State Laboratory to supply. It is also evident that the large collections needed by the State Museum, and in the work of the great State educational institutions can be made more rapidly and much more economically by one tho- roughly equipped central laboratory than by the separate institutions themselves, since one set of apparatus, materials and men can thus do the work which would otherwise require several. It is not intend- ed to take from those institutions any work of special educational value, but to do for them in the least expensive way what each cannot do separately without considerable special outlay. 5 HISTORY. The institution had its origin in the transfer to the State of the museum of the IIllinois State Natural History Society, made in 1871. This museum had been established at Normal, in rooms of the Normal University offered to the society by the State Board of Edu- cation, and it was therefore directed that the transfer be made to this board, “for the use and benefit of the State.””. The title of the institu- tion was changed to “The Illinois Museum of Natural History,” and its purposes were declared by a resolution of the Board to be “the prosecution of a natural history survey of the State, the encourage- ment and aid of original research and the diffusion of scientific knowledge and habits of thought among the people.” The rooms being furnished as a museum, full of exhibition cases crowded with material, it was impossible to provide properly for work even by the curators of the collections, and much less by specialists pursuing original investigations or students desiring a general knowledge of biology. The embarrassments arising from want of room and other accom- modations sufficient to provide at once for general laboratory work and study, and for the public exhibition of natural history almateri finally became so great as virtually to put a stop to fur- ther progress in either direction. It was consequently proposed to establish in rooms of ample size in the new State house at Spring- field, a general exhibit of the natural history of the State in con- nection with the collections of the State Geological Survey, leaving to the institution at Normal the work of a biological laboratory, and an act was passed by the last General Assembly giving effect to this plan. By sections 8 and 9 of the act it was directed that the Illinois Museum of Natural History at Normal be converted into a State Laboratory of Natural History, at which, under the direction of the curator thereof, the collection, preservation and deter- mination of all zoological and botanical material for said State Museum should be done. It was made a part of the duty of said curator to provide, as soon as possible, a series of specimens illustrat- ing the zoology and botany of the State, to deposit them from time to time in the museum established by the act, and to furnish, as far as practicable, all zoological and botanical material needed by 6 the State educational institutions for the proper performance of their work. It was also directed that one set of the duplicate zoological and botanical specimens then on hand in the Illinois Museum of Natural History, at Normal, which were not needed to illustrate the natural history work of the State Normal University, should be deposited, as soon as practicable, in the museum establish- ed by the act. At the next meeting of the State Board of Education, directions were given for the necessary refurnishing and reorganization of the rooms and collections, the title of the Museum was changed to the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural History, and sufficient appropriations were made. to carry out the directions of the law in a liberal way. About two-thirds of the room was cleared of cases, those remaining were adapted to the systematic arrangement of specimens without reference to their display, and the space vacated was filled with the work tables and large cases of drawers to be hereafter described. Further details of the changes made will be found under their appropriate heads. LOCATION. The Laboratory occupies a room 98 feet long by 32 feet wide, on the third floor of the State Normal University, at Normal, IIli- nois. Fifteen feet of one end of this room is cut off by a half parti- tion for a library and office. An abundance of light is given by sixteen windows, and the room is. heated by steam, and thoroughly ventilated. FURNITURE. The west side of the room is occupied by wall-cases, the upper part of which contain 596 square feet of shelving, for alcoholic specimens, enclosed behind glass doors; the lower part 432 draw- ers, giving 750 square feet of surface, one-half dust-tight and pro vided with glass covers, for insects; the other open, for herbarium specimens. . Opposite these are to high alcove cases, one-half of which are left without shelving, for skeletons and mounted groups, while the other, half, intended for duplicates, contains 965 square feet o shelving, 7 In the south half of the middle of the room are three twelve-foot cases, containing 440 drawers, closing dust-tight, affording 1,050 square feet of surface, and locked by fifteen locks. These drawers are of various depths, from one and a half to seven inches, but so constructed as to be entirely interchangeable, any drawer fitting anywhere in the case. Between these cases are five tables for work in botany and conchology. The remainder of the room is occupied by an aquarium table (with sink and running water) 12 feet by three, two microscope tables, each six feet by three, one low, tor work while sitting, the other high, for standing work, and eighteen tables four feet by two, arranged in sets of three, one set each for entomology, alcoholic specimens, plaster casting, taxidermy, osteology and dissecting. The high microscope table contains 48 drawers of different depths, affording 98 square feet of surface. The tables are of varions kinds in eacn set, and each is provided with the tools and materials proper to the work for which it is intended. Small tables (with drawers) for the laboratory microscopes, are placed before the windows. The shelf-room in the laboratory consequently amounts to 1561 square feet, and the drawer-room, exclusive of the work-tables, to 1898 square feet. The Library contains the usual book-cases and tables with draw- ers for cards, catalogues, stationery, &c. At the ends of the room are diagram cases and cupboards for tools and materials. Two closets afford storage room for collecting apparatus, packing-boxes, and the like. APPARATUS, TOOLS AND EQUIPAGE. These include a large Smith & Beck’s binocular microscope, with four oculars and seven objectives, ranging from a three-inch glass to a one-thirteenth-inch, and six laboratory microscopes, from Ve- rick, of Paris; with powers from 18 to 880 diameters. The micro- scopes are provided with all the accessories necessary to first-class work in the preparation, mounting and study of specimens. Be- sides these are one large and several small aquaria, breeding cages for insects, guns, seines, dredges, towing nets, a wall tent and com- plete camping equipage, and full collecting apparatus generally, for botanical and zoological field work. COLLECTIONS. The botanical collection, thanks to the indefatigable labors of Dr. GrorGE V AsEy while here, and to his munificent generosity since his transfer to the National Department of Agriculture, and thanks to the like qualities of Mr. Joun Wocr, of Canton, IIl., is unusu- ally rich in Illinois specimens, the collections of named cryptogams being, in the present state of botanical science, especially worthy of notice. The private herbarium of Dr. V AsEy, containing large numbers of duplicates, has nearly all been given to the institution. The collections of birds, fishes, insects and crustaceans are also very | large. The following table will convey a correct general idea of their size and scope: 9 | eg g7 [Rs e |S CLASSES. -| wo 220 |. 65 Nn = PLANTS :— JE Ine an Ora HONCeR Bors Do bile a Mie Rem ce orc Ge oak Oe Galas. cic 1,376| 1,367 CRYPTOGAMS :— LENS ICTS ERS ea PRN TS Us Ox ONS IP CLR RET OE ACI 36 31 NPOSSES SPM Re eect Sahel aiet a din Some lnrchtroenstelensvaie/ ee ciave ests ions 170 110 ER CRUE OLS toy ecosniay ss tetcyaie ie lel orale: als leicisiial dalammrale bore raanaisreicue my atamelrans 45 41 LOREAL G eye Rites) ahereie ase alty s tilAa ahr avaucveley stan ote Shain oreree i sleieve aye esavei 217 175 EURO ISEB a tee Tye arc cesatcne clsvate te Seen ciate eraisla, aneteiel sole eyetatell shay slave! « 148 II SCNT ONS PS cry Spar v1 ci dh Sousa ane Se nd pPahehotatol epee era raterals stadeols 14 ANIMALS :— INRA TITY Sees P.M tore elace hets ovoliis fatale tata te fotige tetera batatebollayatets ral[ esters ee 34 EMIT TS: Sag Baek A Sh PR ERS tnt eee UE ERS S83) ARENA SCR sor tokedst a ote 310 279 REPTILES :— “PTE rd CES eRe ee eicnesercey CRRA ICRC CICIGENCHE Ene ROCIO DIC Rie mein 13 12 [LAE Se Geen OOO Tees © Oe nce COCO cd Goes amp oto cack 6 4 Steirplain Sad Gdae ee seeee Gam Gadiag Guntn cud ond bak cdtce a yoo 47 26 LS GAT OTIOTE OT Rp ntetp Bie QI CIeLG EI EERE CATER CIRCE TINIE ICRC RoI 2 8 Abas Bre Gera va ta eacvan cley- fey step ary stsjsh ope e-sla\cisisle sialaseuctsie ouial(s(os) atcha alors 159 140 INICURIS EE ib Gee Mame Boe. e 4 CORA IAG DO Ope COO sn DlooOoloDC col holmes 176 INSECTS :— IWHLPSaTSS aC EMERG Gad co ab eo goo borddocoodsr otulosab eo acda||joposdc 175 [bie PHG Pika EQ oerebe Deen eO ACS boo OOOO OCU OREO DCODES SSObb iodo 360 ID MPDIXHE NS ESS icBice Daman eetos De bas le basvinp oan aoa Boos oad eden] 100 Woleopeerass |: UUs. CAPAC A SO PON aT Da I ota atsle e 700 EAI DLEE AR. - cry dveitys areayh = fats keyouatlersgsi siblebep=seiScucie (> jamaaysaste apaeks eter salen 160 Onin Chee gedoeononds peels nea 0e cle Donbacscn oeacloy ocr 50 INeubapteran sty. £4. OTHE AUF eR Oe FB. A AVEIPA forow: 30 Wein Tafeto Ee Bsr? BROS Be OAT CIC Kin) SOM OGOO TOT Con ae 25 17 PEGA GRMENL Cl clas Valet Nis) ea aie ee de near abalole’s elahplona cle sjete ick cietel ster cere cilclll ne te/etgs 75 RECAPITULATION. RAE TO ASRS arg sts b}dyepsle> oe forowisig pry wroBoelp scone oes e Flags’ sheKeieinne apie o\5 1,367 Dire tei ani nn st sone Om ads dats Mendes, o one wgi cule oe bi 513 BROCAMMDIATLUSS crettats Woretc