128 [Dec- 



also in entire accordance with the views of the earlier members of the Society, 

 among them ?.^r. Maclure, who was decidedly in favor "of making the Library a 

 Reading Room, with all possilde facilities for those persons who wish to consult 

 the books." I quote from the excellent report of the Library committee pre- 

 sented in 1836. These facilities are now certainly all that can be desired, and we 

 may even hope that the restriction will be extended by an act of the So- 

 ciety, to all the hooks contained in the Library, no exceptions being made as at 

 present. 



Among the many valuable additions this year, may be mentioned the follow- 

 ing: D'Orbigny's Palaeontologie Frangaise, nearly complete, from Dr. Morton; 

 Blainville's Osteographie as far as published; Demidoff's Voyage dans la Russie 

 Meridionale; Paxton's Magazine of Botany, Vols. 1 to 17; Memoirs of the Royal 

 Society of Lille, 26 vols.; Commentationes Soc. Reg. Sci. Gottingensis, 32 vols.; 

 Comptes Rendus, vols. 1 to 23, (completing the series in the Library ;) Aiinales 

 des Sciences Nat., 3d series, 20 vols.; Miscellanea curiosa, Ephemerides, Acta 

 Physico-medica,and Nova Acta Acad. Casar, Leopold-Carol mre Nat.Curiosorum, 

 about 80 vols.; Commercium Litterarium, 15 vols.; Transactions of several Berlin 

 Societies, 39 vols.; Annales Acad. Rheno-Trajectinae, 25 vols.; Memoires, An- 

 nales, Nouv. Annales, et Archives du Museum d"Hist. Nat. de Paris, 21 vols, 

 (completing the Academy's series ;) Commentarii de R 'bus, 44 vols.; Diction- 

 naire des Sci. Nat. 75 vols.; Trans, of Royal Irish Academy, vols. 1 to 13; of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, vols. 1 to 10 ; Journal of the Ro)-al Geographical Society, 

 vols. 1 to 19; Brewster's Edinburgh Journal of Science, and Brande'sdo. 32 vols.; 

 Diet, classique d'Hist. nat. 17 vols.; Shaw's General Zoology, 14 vols.; for all of 

 which we are indebted to the untiring liberality of Dr. Wilson. 



Mr. Edward Wilson, of Pembrokeshire, Wales, the brother of our esteemed 

 fellow-member, has been a large contributor to the Library during the pre- 

 sent year. He has also been instrumental in creating an interest in the Library with 

 other friends of our institution abroad, and among them a number of naturalists and 

 men of science, from whom we have already derived numerous highly acceptable 

 contributions. 



Through exchanges with Societies, we continue to receive considerable acces- 

 sions to the Journal department. To the " Ecole des Mines," of Paris, we are 

 particularly indebted this year, for eighteen volumes of the Journal and Annales des 

 Mines. Our series of that valuable periodical is now complete, with the excep- 

 tion of three or four volumes. The exchange list, however, is not yet as desira- 

 ble as we hope it will be, when our relations with foreign scientific bodies are 

 more extended, and placed upon a better and more permanent footing than at 

 present. 



The extraordinary rapidity with which the Library of our favored institution 

 has advanced of late years, has astonished and gratified all connected with 

 it. In the last annual report it was stated that, in consequence of its great 

 increase, it had become necessary to extend the accommodations for books into 

 the adjoining room, and that arrangements were then being made for that pur- 

 pose. The alterations were soon afterwards completed, and the apartment has 

 been fitted up in a tasteful and commodious manner. The cases on ihe floor con- 

 tain the various Transactions, Journals, and similar works, and those on the gal- 

 lery are entirely occupied with the Dictionaries of Arts and Sciences, and the 

 valuable collection of works on Antiquities and the Fine Arts. 



