604 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



conspicuous in this connection may be mentioned William 

 M'Clure and Thomas B. Wilson. To the latter gentleman is 

 due very much of the present extent of its library and mu- 

 seum. 



The new establishment is to be built on a lot at the corner 

 of Nineteenth and Race streets, fronting 288 feet on the 

 former and 198 on the latter. A wing on Race Street will 

 be first erected, to cost $125,000. The expense of the entire 

 building, it is expected, will amount to $500,000, and it is 

 hoped that sufficient funds will be contributed by the liberal- 

 minded citizens of Philadelphia to complete the entire struct- 

 ure in a comparatively short sj^ace of time. 



The present building, at the corner of Broad and Sansom 

 streets, has long been inadequate to the accommodation of 

 the collections of the academy ; and although these are al- 

 ready sufficient to fill the wing of the new building first to 

 be erected, the specimens will be displayed to better advan- 

 tage than before. Another wing will probably be begun by 

 the time the first is completed. According to statements 

 made on the occasion referred to, the academy now possesses 

 more than 6000 minerals, TOO rocks, 65,000 fossils, 70,000 

 species of plants, 1000 species of zoophytes, 2000 species of 

 crustaceans, 500 species of myriapods and arachnidians, 25,000 

 species of insects, 20,000 species of shell-bearing mollusks, 

 2000 species of fishes, 800 species of reptiles, 21,000 birds, 

 with the nests of 200 and the eggs of 1500 species, 1000 

 mammals, and nearly 900 skeletons and pieces of osteology. 

 Most of the species are represented by four or five specimens, 

 so that, including the archasological and ethnological cabin- 

 ets, space is required now for the arrangement of not less 

 than 400,000 objects, as well as for the accommodation of a 

 library of more than 22,500 volumes. Philadelphia Ledger^ 

 October 31,1872. 



WASHINGTON MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF 



SCIENCES. 



The annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences 

 was convened, on the 16th of April last, at the Smithsonian 

 Institution in Washington. The existence of this body was 

 authorized by an act of Congress passed in 1863 ; and it was 

 originally limited to fifty members, designed to represent the 



