xl PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. 



Dr. Nolan: 



Gentlemen: I can say metaphorically as well as literally that I am not yet 

 too full for utterance, but I am reminded of a friend who has undergone so 

 many surgical operations that she declares she has nothing left but lungs and 

 recollections. I have, however, in addition, a tongue, and as long as the lungs 

 continue to supply the motor force, I am willing to talk in the interest of the 

 Academy. 



I have been dealing earlier in the proceedings somewhat extensively in 

 "recollections" but were I not surrounded by friends, I should feel tonight as 

 a stranger in a strange land. The Academy moved into this building in 1876, 

 when I had for fourteen years been administering the affairs of the Library 

 and the Publication Office to the best of my ability and with little or no assist- 

 ance. Many of you remember the aspect of this old hall, austere, not to say 

 dingy, in which the work was continued until the completion of the stack building, 

 and we are startlingly conscious tonight of how it has been transformed by the 

 energy of the President. In the northeast corner was the little room in which I sat 

 and worked for more than thirty-six years. Its only attraction was the view it af- 

 forded of the beautiful trees in Logan Square. Directly to the west, separated by 

 an alcove, was the even darker and gloomier room inhabited by my beloved pre- 

 ceptor, Joseph Leidy, of whom you have heard so much tonight. There he did 

 much of the work which has rendered this society illustrious, always ready, no 

 matter what his engrossment, to give his time for the assistance of others. Ar- 

 ranged around the hall were equally small and gloomy study rooms, every one 

 teeming with recollections of men who have been efficient in promoting the 

 credit of the Academy. These were placed, as far as possible, at the service of 

 visiting naturalists as well as resident students, and in one of them the genial 

 Elliott Coues from time to time did much work in ornithological bibliography. 

 He told me on one occasion that it was the most satisfactory room in which he 

 had ever worked "for if I had a good fishing-pole I could draw to my table 

 every book I need without getting up." A little beyond, Heilprin, for a time, 

 discharged the duties of Executive Curator, and the last room on the north side 

 was for some months inhabited by the venerable Titian R. Peale, a contemporary 

 of the founders. 



Recollections become more vivid as I go on, regardless of the lovely lights 

 and plants and draperies and evidences of good cheer that everywhere delight 

 our senses tonight. There to the right of where I now stand Tryon was en- 

 sconsed for years, engaged on his epoch-making work in conchology, and just 

 beyond Henry C. McCook elaborated the results of his fine field-work among the 

 ants and spiders. The other rooms were occupied from time to time by equally 

 illustrious men. It was to the door directly opposite mine that the good angel 

 of a distinguished arctic explorer directed his steps when he succeeded in enlisting 

 the Corresponding Secretary's interest in his plans. Had he turned to the right 

 instead of to the left he would have met with but scant encouragement. 



