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 L162 
 
THE 
 
 ILLINOIS STATE LABORATORY 
 
 ATURAL History 
 
 NORMAL ILL 
 
 CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION, 
 
 JULY,iS7S. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD: 
 Statk Register Printing Hoisk. 
 
 1S7S. 
 
THE 
 
 ILLINOIS STATE LABORATORY 
 
 OF 
 
 R 
 
 rn 
 
 NORMAL ILL 
 
 CIRCULAR OF INFORMATION. 
 
 JULY, 1S78. 
 
 SPRINGFIELD: 
 State Register Printing House. 
 
 1S78. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/circularofinformOOilli 
 
5ion 
 
 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 f/ie State Board of Education : 
 
 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 
 
 Rvalue,) the publication of the results of such work for the informa- 
 
 ~ tion of the people, the training and instruction of teachers of bot- 
 
 j any and zoology for the public schools, and the supply of the nec- 
 
 i essary scientific material to these schools, to the State Museum, 
 
 ^ and to the State educational institutions. It affords a place to which 
 
 X any specialist or scientific student may come, with the assurance 
 
 .^ that he will find everything necessary for special study or original 
 
 T-^ work on the natural history of Illinois, to which any teacher mav 
 
 4 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 ot science among the people is essential 
 ■*• to their highest prosperity; that this is a matter of public rather 
 
 ^>j^than of personal concern, and that it must be provided for by public 
 
 >^ I'ather than by private measures. 
 
 To encourage the spontaneous and gratuitous labors of our sci- 
 
 oJ entific men, to assist them at least to the extent of supplying them 
 
 d with such facilities for work as are beyond the reach of individuals, 
 
 O and to furnish them a means of adding the results of their labors to 
 
 i the common stock of human knowledge, is obviously sound public 
 
 rJpolicy. Without this class of workers, devoted to science for its 
 
 own sake, no solid and valuable progress in science is possible. 
 
From them comes the initiative, the incitement. They are the root 
 of the tree by which the raw elements of the natural 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 assim'ilate 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 qua non of work worth doing. To incite and reward natural 
 history work, nothing has been found more effective than skeleton 
 cabinet^ 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. 
 
HISTORY. 
 
 The institution had its ori<i^in in the transfer to the State of the 
 museum of the IlUinois State Natural History Society, made in 
 1S71. 
 
 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 nistitu. 
 tion was changed to "The Illinois Museum of Natural History," and 
 its purposes were declared bv 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 hlst(jry 
 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 erlucational 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 sufHcient 
 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 9S feet long by 32 feet wide, 
 on the third floor of the State Normal University, at Normal, Illi- 
 nois. Fifteen feet of one end of this room is cut ofT by a half parti- 
 tion for a library and ofl"lce. An abundance of light is given bv 
 sixteen windows, and the room is heated by steam, and thoroughly 
 ventilated. 
 
 FURNITURE. 
 
 The west side of the room is occupied bv wall-cases, the upper 
 part of which contain 596 square feet of shelving, tor alcoholic 
 specimens, enclosed behind glass doors; the lower part 433 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 10 high alcove cases, one-half of which are 
 left without shelving, for skeletons and mounted groups, while the 
 other halt, intended for duplicates, contains 96^ square feet o 
 shelviu"". 
 
In the soiitli half of the middle of the room are three twelve-foot 
 cases, containing 440 drawers, closing dust-tight, aflording 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 tiie case. Between these cases are iive tables for work 
 in botany and conchology. 
 
 The remainder of the room is occupied by an aquarium table 
 (with sink and lunning water) 1 2 feet by three, two microscope 
 tables, each six feet by three, one low, for 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 various icinds 
 in each 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 iS to SSo 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. 
 George V asey while here, arid to his munificent generosity since 
 his transfer to the National Department of Agriculture, and thanks 
 to the like qualities of Mr. John Wolf, of Canton, 111., 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. Vasey, 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: 
 
TABLE OF ILLINOIS SPECIES IN LABORATORY. 
 
 P'erns 
 
 Mosses 
 
 Liverworts.. . 
 
 Lichens 
 
 Fungi 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 Animals: 
 
 Mammals. 
 Birds 
 
 Reptiles: 
 
 Turtles 
 
 Lizards 
 
 Serpents. . . . 
 Amphibians. 
 
 Fishes 
 
 Mollusks 
 
 Insects : — 
 
 Mymenoptera 
 Lepidoptera . . 
 
 Diptera 
 
 Coleoptera. . . . 
 Hemiptera. . . . 
 Orthoptera . . . 
 Neuroptera. . . 
 Myriapoda. . . . 
 Arachnida. . . . 
 
 ^^ r- « 
 
 Plants: — 
 
 Pha-noganis. 
 Cryptogams: — 
 
 1,37''' 
 
 36 
 170 
 
 48 
 217 
 
 H 
 
 310 
 
 13 
 6 
 
 47 
 29 
 
 159 
 
 e c 
 
 1.367 
 
 31 
 no 
 
 41 
 
 175 
 
 148 
 8 
 
 34 
 279 
 
 12 
 
 4 
 26 
 
 S 
 1 40 
 176 
 
 17s 
 ^60 
 
 700 
 160 
 SO 
 30 
 17 
 75 
 
 recapitulation. 
 
 Ph:enogams i ,367 
 
 Cryptogam's 513 
 
 Total plants 
 
 Vertebrates 513 
 
 Invertebrates 1,^57 
 
 Total animals 
 
 2 Grand total of Illinois species 
 
 1,880 
 
 2,170 
 
 4,050 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 A considerable amount of marine material, nearly all in alcohol, 
 amounting, as nearly as it can be estimated, to 3,000 specimens, a good 
 collection ol western birds, mammals and plants, and 1 100 species 
 of fossils and minerals, complete the general features of the collec- 
 sion. 
 
 For the general student, the following exhibit of the families of 
 of animals represented will be of interest: 
 
 TABLE OF FAMILIES OF ANIMALS REPRESENTED IN 
 THE LABORATORY COLLECTION. 
 
 CLASSES. 
 
 c 
 
 
 Skins and 
 other dried 
 specimens. 
 
 6 
 
 u 
 
 8 = 
 
 
 '4 
 3 
 
 23 
 48 
 
 10 
 
 Birds 
 
 
 Amphibians 
 
 s 
 
 Reptiles. . . . . 
 
 
 16 
 
 Fishes 
 
 4 
 
 7 
 26 
 
 122 
 
 So 
 
 Mollusks 
 
 -<- 
 61 
 
 45 
 
 r, 
 
 Insects . . 
 
 
 Myriapods 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 4> 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 Sponges 
 
 
 5 
 3«H 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 211 
 
 29S 
 
 A characteristic of tlie collections is indicated by the fact that all 
 the material is prepared and arranged for study. Everything i.s 
 preserved entire in alcohol where this method of preparation will 
 serve. The birds are in the form of skins, in drawers,. Nearly all 
 of these specimens are named, labeled, catalogued, arranged and in- 
 dexed. The catalogues are on cards, and show the position of each 
 specimen in the cases, and give references to specific descriptions in 
 the library. 
 
 LIURARV. 
 
 Although the library of natinal liistory is too small to allow of 
 oiiginal work in more than two or three classes, it has been care- 
 fully selected, volume by volume, with reference to the collections, 
 and answers therefore most of the purposes of the ordinary student. 
 
11 
 
 It contains 475 hound volumes and 34=5 pamphlets, containing de- 
 scriptions of ahoiit nine-tenths of the genera and species of Illinois 
 plants and animals in the collections. 
 
 All the hooks and papers containing zoological matter are in- 
 dexed upon cards as one volume, according to the following gen- 
 eral jilan : 
 
 Whenever matter of any value occurs relating to any species or 
 other group of animals, reference to this matter is made upon a card 
 hearing the name of the family to which the given group helongs 
 according to certain standard authors. This reference gives, in 
 compact form, a description of the paper, and cites to the work, 
 volume and page on which it is to he found. The cards bearing 
 these family names are then arranged alphabetically, in drawers 
 made to contain them. In special cases the genera of a family are 
 entered similarly on separate cards, but of another color. By the 
 use of these indices everything in the library bearing upon any 
 group of animals can be brought together with readiness and dis- 
 patch. This plan of indexing will soon be extended to the botan- 
 ical literature also. 
 
 The most pressing need of the institution at present is a better 
 library, without w4iich many opportunities for work must be unim- 
 proved. 
 
 PUBLICATIONS OF THE LABORATORY. 
 
 In October, 1S76, was commenced the publication of a series of 
 papers embodying the results of new work on the natural history 
 of the State. These it was determined to issue in the form of irreg- 
 ular bulletins, to be open to all naturalists working on the local 
 fauna and flora. 
 
 The first of these bulletins Vv'as issued in December, 1S76, and the 
 second in June, 1S7S. Fourteen papers in all have been published 
 to date, of which the following six were prepared at the Labora- 
 tory, and are based upon its collections : 
 
 List of Illinois Crustacea, by S. A. Forbes; (mentions, with its 
 appendix, 25 species, of which 12 are described as new, and 2 arc 
 redescribed, and gives one plate with 31 figures.) A key to the 
 species of the preceding paper, by S. A. Forbes. A Partial Cata- 
 logue of the Fishes of Illinois, by E. W. Nelson, 1876, (156 species, 
 of which 9 are dcsciibetl as new.) A Catalogue of the Fishes of 
 
12 
 
 Illinois, by IJ. S. Jordan, 187S, (177 species, of which 9 are new.) 
 The Food of Illinois Fishes, b^ S. A. Forbes, (giving the details of 
 food, determined by examining the stomachs of 149 specimens, be- 
 longing to 54 species), and on the Crustacea Eaten by Fishes, bv 
 S. A. Forbes (12 species, 6 new to the State). The remaining eight 
 include important papers on Orthoptera and Plant Lice, by Prof 
 Cyrus Thomas; on Parasitic Fungi, by Prof. T. J. Burrill; on the 
 Mosses, Liverworts and Lichens of Illinois, by John Wolf and Elihu 
 Hall; and on the distinguishing characters of leafless trees (The. 
 Tree in Winter), by Dr. F. Brendel. The papers by Dr. Brendel 
 and Prof. Burrill were profusely illustrated. 
 
 These bulletins are supplied free to all Illinois naturalists, and to 
 all other applicants from this State. To those outside the State 
 they are sent in exchange for other publications, or for a stated 
 price. They will be continued at such intervals as the activity of 
 our naturalists may determine. 
 
 ORIGINAL WORK. 
 
 Continuous work is now going forward upon the food of birds, 
 the food of fishes, the copepoda of Illinois, the anatomy of Ophi- 
 saurus, and a list of the lepidoptera of Illinois. Besides the articles 
 published in the bulletins already mentioned, a paper prepared at 
 the Laboratory, on the food of birds, giving the results of the ex- 
 amination of the stomachs of 225 specimens, was printed in the 
 transactions of the State Horticultural Society for 1876. 
 
 DISTRIBUTIONS TO SCHOOLS, ETC. 
 
 From the duplicates of the collection, and also in part from ma- 
 terial bought for the purpose, sets of representative specimens are 
 issued to such public schools as need them in their school work, 
 on condition that assurance is given that the material will be prop- 
 erly cared for. It is also requested that beneficiaries of the Labora- 
 tory shall collect from their separate localities such material as may 
 be made useful in subsequent distributions, and shall send this to 
 the Ivaboratory in exchange for the specimens receivctl. 
 
 The material issued consists largely of alcoholic specimens of 
 marine animals, the purpose being to supply to each school needing 
 it, a small cabinet of the most essential animals which cannot be 
 readily obtained otherwise by the school itself. Since January i, 
 1878, such sets have b^en sent to the schools of Oak Park, Cook 
 
13 
 
 county; Shelby villc, Shelby county; Macomb, McDonouj^h county ; 
 Carrollton, Jersey county, and Kankakee, Kankakee county. The 
 total value of all the material thus supplied to the schools will 
 reach some thousands of dollars. 
 
 Larger collections have been sent to the Southern Illinois Nor 
 nial University, and to the Industrial University at Champaign (the 
 latter paying the first cost of part of the material). 
 
 WORK. FOK THK STATK MUSEUM. 
 
 Beside the supply of the series of duplicates to this institution di- 
 rected by law, large collections of birds, fishes, reptiles, amphiliians, 
 insects, and cryptogamous plants of the State are now being made 
 for this JSluseum, under the management of the Director of the 
 Laboratory. All zoological and botanical material is sent from the 
 Laboratory to the Museum ready for the shelves of the exhibition 
 cases. 
 
 FACILITIES FOR STUDENTS. 
 
 The Laboratory is at all times open to students, who, for a small 
 fee for incidentals, will be allowed to enter for special study of such 
 subjects as each may select. Regular courses in general botany and 
 zoology, and in comparative anatomy, histology and microscopy, 
 are prepared for the especial benefit of teachers and ot medical stu 
 dents who may wish a more liberal and thorough preparation for 
 their professional studies than the ordinary institutions open to them 
 are prepared to furnish. The satisfactory completion of one of 
 these courses, or its e([uivalent in other work, will entitle the stu- 
 dent to a certificate to that ftict. 
 
 SUMMER SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE. 
 
 Vacation classes are organized each year for svstematic field and 
 laboratory work, and have thus far met with good success. They 
 are intended chiefly for teachers and specialists, of which from 
 twenty-five to fifty are convened at each session. 
 
 ^DESIDERATA, 
 
 Those disposed to help forward a work so successfully begun and 
 carried so far towards completion, will be interested to know in 
 which direction their assistance can be made to contribute most to 
 the progress of science in this State. The library lacks nearly all 
 standard European works except the Catalogue of Fishes of the 
 
14 
 
 British Museum, and works on crustacca. It also lacks the Journal 
 of the Philadelphia AcadeiViy, the Tranactions ot the American 
 Philosophical .Society, the publications of the Boston Society, (ex- 
 cept the Boston Journal of Natural History,) the Proceedinsjs of 
 he American Association, and the America! Journal of .Science 
 and Arts. 
 
 The chief gaps in the collections are among mammals, serpents 
 and amphibians, mollusks (in alcohol), diptera, hymenoptera, arach- 
 nidn, mosses and fungi. .Skeletons and skulls of any vertebrates 
 would also be of the greatest value. The distribution of cabinets 
 to schools affords a means of utilizing large numbers of duplicates, 
 even of the commonest species. 
 
 S. A. FORBES. 
 
 The following report and resolution was read by Juilge Caton, 
 as Chairman of the Committee on Natural Science, and on motion 
 was unanimously adopted. 
 
 The Committee on Natural Science and Mattiematics to whom was referred 
 the report of Prof. Forbes, beg leave to report that they have examined said 
 report, and also the iinprovements mentioned therein, and express their entire 
 approvial thereof, and recommend the following resolution: 
 
 Resolved, That the report of Professor Forbes be accepted, and that two 
 thousand copies thereof be printed for distribution. 
 
 S. M. ETTER, 
 
 Secretarv.