December, 1S43.] 337 



The accessions to the Library have exceeded those of the year previous. 

 They consist of one Folio; eleven works in quarto form, including the 

 Memoirs and Transactions of learned Societies ; sixty-five octavos and 

 duodecimos, including Journals, Annals, Bulletins, &c; and seventy-two 

 productions in pamphlet form, or in numbers, consisting of Reports, Pro- 

 ceedings of Societies, addresses, discourses, memoirs, &c. To these are 

 to be added several manuscripts, charts and engraved copper plates. Of 

 the whole number contributed, twenty-nine have been derived from Socie- 

 ties, k sixty-three from Members, and the remainder, amounting to sixty- 

 seven, from correspondents, authors, editors, &c. 



The papers read before the Society, and published in its Proceedings 

 between the 1st of January and 1st of November of the present year, aie 

 four in number. The first is by Mr. William Gambel, of this city, and 

 contains descriptions of some new and rare birds of the Rocky Mountains 

 and California, the tour of which he has recently made. The second is 

 from the Messrs. Baird, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and describes two new 

 species of Tyrannula, from Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. The third by 

 Mr. Haldeman, is entitled a "Catalogue of the Carabideous Coleoptera of 

 South Eastern Pennsylvania, and descriptions of new North American 

 species of Coleoptera :" and the fourth paper entitled " Descriptions of a new 

 genus, and of twenty -nine new Miocene, and one Eocene fossil shells of 

 the United States," is contributed by Mr. T. A. Conrad. 



The publication of the Proceedings has been regularly continued during 

 the year. It has now attained sufficient bulk to authorise the Committee 

 to bring the first volume to a close with the coming number. On the first 

 of November last, two years and seven months had elapsed since the first 

 number was commenced, and in that period 311 pages of matter selected 

 from the minutes of the meeting have been issued, or an average of about 

 120 pages annually. As every care is taken in the style and execution of 

 this periodical, to render it worthy of the Institution whence it emanates, 

 and a considerable expenditure is therefore incurred, it is proposed to give 

 here a condensed summary of the contents of the present volume, as far as 

 published, in order that some idea may be formed of its merits and utility. 



Its first and most obvious advantage is in being a medium for commu- 

 nicating to the scientific public discoveries and observations at short 

 intervals of time, and thus often enabling the claim to priority to be 

 securely established. There have been, with this view, offered to the So- 

 ciety, and printed either entire or in part in its Proceedings, during the 

 period above mentioned, upwards of thirty original papers on scientific 

 subjects, the titles and authors of which are as follows: 



By Dr. S. G. Morton, two papers, viz., " Descriptions of several new 

 fossil shells from the cretaceous deposits of the United States," and "De- 

 scriptions of two new species of fossils from the lower cretaceous strata of 

 New Jersey." By Mr. T. A. Conrad, three papers; "Descriptions of 

 three new species of Unio from the rivers of the United States ;" " De- 

 scriptions of twenty-six new species of fossil shells from the medial ter- 

 tiary of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland," and " Descriptions of a new genus, 

 and of twenty-nine new Miocene, and one Eocene, fossil shells of the 

 United States." By Professor Johnson, two papers; "An examination 

 and analysis of coal from Arauco, Chili;" and " On the relation between 

 the coal of South Wales and some Pennsylvania Anthracites." By Mr. 

 Phillips, three papers; "Descriptions of two new American species of 



