EEPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



Since the Annual Meeting of "Slay 13, 1896, the Academy 

 has lost bv death seventeen members : — four Resident Fellows, 

 Thomas Tracy Bouv^, Francis James Child, Benjamin Apthorp 

 Gould, and Francis Amasa Walker ; five Associate Fellows, 

 George Brown Goode, Atticus Green Ha3'good, Matthew Carey 

 Lea, Henry Newell Martin, and Hubert Anson Newton ; and 

 nine Foreign Honorary Members, Heinrich Ernst Beyrich, 

 Ernst Curtius, Eniil Heinrich Du-Bois Reymond, Hugo Glyden, 

 Friedrich August Kekule, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Jules 

 Simon, James Joseph Sylvester, and Karl Weierstrass. 



FRANCIS JAMES CHILD. 



Francis James Child was born in Boston, on the 1st of February, 

 1825. His fatlier was a sailmaker, one of that class of intelligent and 

 independent mechanics wliich has had a large share in determining the 

 character of our democratic community, as of old the same class had in 

 Athens and in Florence. The boy was the youngest of five brothers and 

 sisters. He was sent to the public schools. His unusual capacities Avere 

 early displayed. He stood first in his classes, and was a favorite with his 

 schoolfellows. At the English High School he won all the prizes, and 

 having by chance attracted the attention of our venerable fellow citizen, 

 Mr. Epes S. Dixwell, then the Master of the Latin School, his father was 

 induced, at Mr. Dixwell's suggestion, to allow him to proceed to the Latin 

 School, that he might continue his studies and be prepared for entrance 

 to college. He speedily caught up with the boys who had already made 

 progress in the study of Greek and Latin, and soon took the first place 

 here, as he had done in the schools which he had previously attended. 

 The sweetness of his disposition, the pleasant mingling in his nature of 

 gav spirits and serious purpose, his high principles, his unaffected modesty 

 won the affection of his teachers and of his comrades. His superiority in 



