856 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



all others had failed, he solved the true 

 meaning of Smithson's bequest in a way of 

 which the world has recognized the correct- 

 ness, and Mr. S. S. Cox how he had labored 

 to give that meaning effect; and General 

 Sherman bore testimony to Professor Hen- 

 ry's personal qualities as a scientific teacher 

 and guide ; while the Hon. Hannibal Ham- 

 lin demonstrated the satisfactory manner in 

 which he had managed the financial and 

 material interests of the institution, and 

 the excellent condition in which he left it. 

 To these minutes are added a memorial dis- 

 course by Samuel B. Dodd, and reminis- 

 cences by Professor Cameron, at Princeton 

 College ; the discourse of President Welling, 

 of Columbian University, before the Philo- 

 sophical Society of Washington ; the dis- 

 course hy William B. Taylor before the 

 same body on " The Scientific Work of Jo- 

 seph Henry," full and elaborate enough to 

 make a volume by itself ; and addresses by 

 Professor J. Lovering, Professor Simon 

 Newcomb, and Professor A. M. Mayer, be- 

 fore the American Academy of Aits and 

 Sciences, the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences, and the American Association, re- 

 spectively. The special subject of the last 

 address is " Henry as a Discoverer," The 

 recognition of the simplicity, gentleness, and 

 strict integrity of Professor Henry's char- 

 acter is a distinct feature in all of the ad- 

 dresses. 



Anniversary Memoirs of the Boston So- 

 ciety OF Natural History. Published 

 in Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniver- 

 sary of the Society's Foundation, 1830- 

 1880. Boston: Published by the Society. 

 Pp. 635, with 44 Plates. Price, $10. 



The Boston Society of Natural History, 

 having completed its fiftieth year in 1880, 

 celebrated the event by a jubilee meeting 

 on the 28th of April, and by the publica- 

 tion of this noble volume, containing the 

 history of the Society and a number of spe- 

 cial scientific papers. The book is a worthy 

 memorial of the work of one of the oldest 

 and most active of American scientific so- 

 cieties, and docs justice to the part which 

 that body has taken in the promotion of sci- 

 entific research and the extension of scien- 

 tific knowledge in the United States. The 

 history of the Society is given from year to 



year, and by periods of ten years each, with 

 a minuteness of detail which records every 

 gift of specimens, every trouble from the 

 ravages of insects in the museum, and even 

 such matters as the passage of a resolution 

 forbidding smoking in the room things 

 which may seem superficially of little in- 

 terest, but which are instructive enough to 

 justify their place, for they show how the 

 life of the Society was maintained, what 

 mistakes it made, and what difficulties it 

 had to encounter. These features and ac- 

 cidents are such as are common to all simi- 

 lar societies, and this frank setting of them 

 forth, as lessons of experience by which 

 other bodies may be guided to the wisest 

 management, is a good work. The present 

 Society was preceded by the Linnaean Soci- 

 ety of New England, which was founded in 

 1814, and was the first organized effort to 

 excite the interest of the American public 

 in natural science. It had a successful and 

 prosperous career for several years, but 

 finally died out because it depended entirely 

 upon the voluntary effort of men whose 

 time was already wholly occupied with their 

 own business for its maintenance and the 

 care of its collections. The museum a fine 

 one for the period was given to Harvard 

 College, which promised to provide a build- 

 ing for it and did not, and consequently it 

 was nearly all lost. The Boston Society of 

 Natural History was founded in 1830, on the 

 same plan as the Linnaean Society, and by the 

 same leading men, and would probably have 

 met the same fate, but that it came into the 

 possession of a fund sufficient to put it on 

 a firm footing and enable it to employ spe- 

 cial curators for its collections. Its early 

 history is an epitome of the earlier develop- 

 ment of scientific thought in this country, 

 and, in its later history, it has kept pace 

 with the broadest expansion of that thought. 

 Its contributions to knowledge, as related 

 in the yearly records, appear important and 

 valuable when regarded in detail, and give, 

 when summed up, occasion for satisfaction 

 that we have had such a body laboring so 

 long and so industriously to lead the public 

 to higher objects of study, and that its vigor 

 is still waxing. Not the least important of 

 the works of the Society has been the insti- 

 tution of the practical scientific lectures to 

 teachers, with object-illustrations, for the 



