5 



world ; for he who would add to the stock of knowledge in any 

 department of science needs to be acquainted with what is known 

 already in it, or he may find himself laboring to discover what 

 has been ascertained. A museum and library, chemical apparatus 

 and microscopes, constitute the machinery necessary to facilitate 

 and guide his labors. Such a museum and library and laboratory, 

 in such condition as to be utilized by the naturalists, require 

 large space, and this demand for space increases with the progress 

 of our knowledge. 



The Academy now possesses more than 6000 minerals ; 700 rocks ; 

 65,000 fossils; 70,000 species of plants; 1000 species of zoo- 

 phytes ; 2000 species of crustaceans ; 500 species of myriapods 

 and arachnidans ; 25,000 species of insects ; 20,000 species of 

 shell-bearing mollusks ; 2000 species of fishes ; 800 species of rep- 

 tiles ; 31,000 birds, with the nests of 200, and the eggs of 1500 

 species; 1000 mammals and nearly 900 skeletons and pieces of os- 

 teology. Most of the species are represented by four or five speci- 

 mens, so that, including the archaeological and ethnological cabi- 

 nets, space is required now for the arrangement of not less than 

 400,000 objects, besides the library of more than 22,500 volumes. 



Besides space enough in otir workshop to appropriately arrange 

 this vast number of implements, room is desired for a separate 

 and distinct arrangement of all objects necessaiy to illustrate the 

 natural history of the State of Pennsylvania, as well as a suitable 

 room in which lectures on the natural sciences may be delivered. 



To set up this great museum and library, laboratory and lecture 

 room, we have a plot of ground, measuring little more than an 

 acre, for which we are indebted to the liberality of members of 

 the society and individual citizens. No substantial encourage- 

 ment has been }^et received from the government of this city, nor 

 from that of the State of Pennsylvania. 



In this respect, the policy of some of the State Legislatures is 

 more encouraging. Massachusetts has given liberal aid to the 

 Boston Society of Natural History ; to the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology, at Cambridge; and to the Institute of Technology. 

 New York maintains a museum of natural history, at Albany, by 

 annual appropriations, and has given eighteen acres of land, valued 

 at four millions of dollars, and five hundred thousand dollars be- 

 sides, to establish a natural history museum at Central Park, in 

 the city of New York. 



