UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
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Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1902 [PAGE 28]

Caption: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1902
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1901]

PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

9

With the removal of the Station equipment to Meredosia in April, 1899, similar work was undertaken there and has been carried on since that time with certain interruptions for work outside the Station field. Extensive trips have been made by a wagon party equipped for aquatic work of streams, under the charge of Mr. Thomas Large, ichthyologist of the State Laboratory. One such party is now in the field in the western and southern part of. the State. A large number of collections have also been made by high school principals and science teachers in various parts of the State arid sent to the State Laboratory in aid of this ichthyologieal survey. Sets of collecting apparatus and materials for the preservation of fishes were prepared at the Laboratory and offered for use, by correspondence, to those whom we thought likely to be interested and helpful in this work, with the inducement of a named series of the specimens collected to be returned to the local public school. This proposition has been enthusiastically accepted, and the plan has worked admirably in every way. A beginning in the preparation of illustrations for the ichthyologieal report was made this summer, Miss Hart, the artist of the State Laboratory, spending a considerable part of the season at Meredosia, where the aquarium was established with a continuous flow of water to keep fishes alive, and from these colored drawings were made under the constant supervision of Mr. Large, accurate in technical detail, and true to life in color and general appearance. A reproduction of these exquisite drawings by a method in keepins: with their quality will call for a special appropriation of some thousands of dollars, but will give us a more finished series of plates of American freshwater fishes than has yet been published. It is my purpose to illustrate every species by such a plate, with black and white figures additional to exhibit technical characters. The so-called plankton work of the survey has also been steadily prosecuted under the immediate direction of Dr. Kofoid. Upon his appointment last August to the department of zoology in the University of California, I secured for him a leave of absence until Januarv 1, to enable him to complete an analysis, tabulation, and discussion of the results of this work, accumulated during the last five years, and to prepare manuscript for publication. This is by far the largest and most valuable body of work on the minute plant and animal life of a river system which has ever been brought together, and the publication of this paper will contribute in a very notable way to the progress of knowledge in this department. Work on aquatic insects has been more or less systematically pursued by Mr. Hart, and a paper jointly prepared by himself, Mr. C. G. Adams, formerly a laboratory assistant, and Prof. J. Gr. Needham, now of Lake Forest University, is in my hands for publication. As several years have elapsed since the last distribution of natural history specimens to public schools, during which many thousand of named duplicates have been accumulated, I began last winter preparations for another distribution of surplus material, and sent to 20 schools a first installment of such collections. This installment consisted of marine and fresh-water specimens in alcohol and formalin, the marine material being that derived from the Exposition aquarium at the close of the Columbian Exposition, and the fresh-water specimens being accumulated in the course of our regular work. Several months' work of one assistant was devoted to this distribution and preparations for a much larger distribution of insects and other dried specimens. This work will be finished during the present winter. The publications of the State Laboratory during the last two years comprise nine bulletin articles, containing 238 pages and illustrated by six plates. These ardclee are purely technical, valuable to students of their subjects, but of comparatively little immediate educational utility. The ichthyologieal report on the other hand, will be prepared with a view to presenting an exhaustive statement of our knowledge concerning the species of fishes of the State from the standpoint of the ichthyologist, but also all the facts and inferences concerning our native fishes of interest to the fisherman, the science teacher,, the amateur student, and the ordinary intelligent citizen. The rapidly growing interest in nature study, and the urgent and increasing call tor materials available to the science teacher lead me to believe that