xvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE CENTENARY MEETING. 



N. Rhoads to British Columbia, the Colorado River, and Ecuador; Donald- 

 son Smith to Somaliland and Lake Rudolph; and Francis E. Bond to Vene- 

 zuela, from all of which we have received rich returns. 



The publications of the Academy had early a world-wide reputation. For 

 many years they furnished the only adequate means through which American 

 scientists reached the naturalists of the world. Contributions of papers came 

 from ail parts of America. To-day our various publications are exchanged with 

 all the nations of the civilized world. It may be interesting to state here the 

 fact that when the famous Pacific railroad surveys were made, the United 

 States government published descriptions of all the new species it obtained 

 in the Proceedings of the Academy. 



Passing rapidly over the more important departments of our museum, we 

 find among mammals a number of the specimens obtained by Townsend in the 

 far West, made known to science in the Journal by our correspondents Audubon 

 and Bachman; the Harrison Allen collection of bats, the Rhoads collection of 

 North American mammals, and the splendid collection of anthropoid apes pre- 

 sented by Dr. Thomas Biddle. 



The collection of birds will ever stand as a memorial to two of our members : 

 Thomas B. Wilson and John Cassin. To Dr. Wilson's liberality we owe the 

 acquirement of the famous Rivoli collection, the Gould collection, and many 

 others. His entire gift, comprising some 25,000 specimens, was regarded in 

 1857 as the finest collection in the world. Cassin spent his life in the study of 

 this material and his researches published in the Proceedings made the 

 Academy famous as an ornithological center the world over, while he himself 

 stood preeminent among the ornithologists of America. 



The part that the Academy played in the development of ornithology in 

 America may be appreciated by the mere mention of those who worked within 

 its walls or published the results of their researches in the Proceedings: Nuttall, 

 Bonaparte, Townsend, Gambel, Heerman, Harris, and Woodhouse, among our 

 members, and Baird, Lawrence, and Coues, among our correspondents. 



In our vast series of reptiles, we find the material collected and studied by 

 Hallowell, Cope, and Brown names inseparable from the history of herpetology 

 in America. 



In the study of fishes at the Academy the names of Bonaparte and Cope, 

 already mentioned in other connections, stand forth prominently and their 

 collections are still carefully preserved. Charles LeSueur, one of our earliest 

 members, also attained fame as an ichthyologist, while of late years several of 

 those who studied at the Academy have become famous in the service of the 

 Unites States Fish Commission notably, the late John Adam Ryder. 



The Academy has from its foundation taken a prominent part in the study of 

 the mollusca and has accumulated a collection probably second to none. A 

 series of investigators, eminent in their special field, have made the society one of 

 the world centers in this department of science. 



