20G Notices and Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 



discouragements. The Academy was for some time located in a very disad- 

 vantageous situation, and may even be said to have struggled for an existence. 

 Books and collections of natural objects, those indispensable parts of such 

 an establishment, accumulated but slowly ; and money, that primum mobile 

 of human achievements, was sparingly at the disposal of an embryo institu- 

 tion. At this juncture the Academy found a truly munificent friend in Mj 

 William Maclure, in whose contributions the present valuable collections 

 may be said to have mainly originated. It is but justice, however, to 

 observe, that from the commencement of the society, its members have 

 been characterized by untiring zeal and industry ; and that their unostenta- 

 tious but effectual exertions in the cause of science were the great incentives 

 to Mr Maclure's subsequent liberality. 



The Academy was instituted in 1817, about which time the publication 

 of the " Joiumal of -the Academy" was commenced. From that period its 

 permanence and prosperity may be dated. Its locality, though not the 

 most desirable, was respectable, and, in some respects, convenient ; and 

 its collections of books and specimens augmented rapidly. It was soon 

 found necessary to provide more extensive accommodations than those 

 hitherto enjoyed, and, in the spring of 1825, the Academy purchased the 

 spacious building they now occupy, and they have spared no expense in adapt- 

 ing it to their purposes. 



To render the collection of the Academy extensively useful, and to diffuse 

 the love of science in every class of the community, the Academy, about 

 two years since, passed a law, rendering its museum accessible to the public ; 

 and it is now open to the gratuitous admission of citizens and strangers on 

 the afternoons of Tuesdays and Saturdays throughout the year.* 



The meetings are held every Tuesday evening. They are open to 

 strangers, excepting the last meeting of each month, which is reserved for 

 the private affairs of the institution. The present number of resident 

 members is about sixty. The list of correspondents is much more numerous, 

 and embraces a large proportion of the eminent scientific men in all parts of 

 the M^orld. 



The " Journal of the Academy " is chiefly confined to brief and technical 

 statements of discoveries in natiu*al history, and is widely circulated in 

 America and Europe. It is replete with important details in every branch 

 of natural science, and probably contains a greater body of facts in reference 

 to the natural history of America than any other work. Five octavo 

 volumes have already been published, and the sixth is nearly completed. It 

 is published when a sufficient number of original papers are accumulated, 

 without reference to any precise interval. 



" Such," concludes the author, after giving a general survey of the 

 present state of the museum, " is the present situation of the Academy 

 of Natiu"al Sciences ; and while we feel an honest pride in recording the 

 success of a favourite institution, our gratification is much enhanced by 

 observing the collateral exertions which are making in almost every section 

 of the Union to extend the boundaries of scientific information. The 

 American Philosophical Society, perhaps the oldest of our scientific and 

 literary institutions, acting on the broad basis of * promoting useful know- 

 ledge,' has done, and is still doing, a laudable share in the accomplishment 

 of that great design, in which is included every branch of natural history. 

 The New York Lyceum, established with similar views to the Academy, is 

 not behind the latter in the talents and industry of its members, nor perhaps 

 in the degree of its success. Its * Annals,^ published on the same plan 

 with the Academy's Journal, are indispensable to the student of American 



* A paragraph proper for the perusal of sereral influential persons connected with 

 the Edinburgh College Museum. —Ed. 



