iV INTRODUCTION. 



the number of contributing members became soon suffi- 

 ciently large, to justify the step of procuring an apart- 

 ment, where the meetings of the Academy could be 

 held ; furnishingj at the same time a place of safe-keep- 

 ing for the collection, which was beginning to acquire 

 both extent and interest. Still there remained many 

 difficulties to contend against. The limited pecuniary 

 means at command, forbade the erection, or purchase, 

 of a suitable edifice to be appropriated exclusively to 

 the uses of the Academy. No building of a public 

 nature could accommodate it ; and the frequent remo- 

 vals thus occasioned, besides doing much damage to 

 the collection, took away from it that character of per- 

 manency, alone capable of rendering it an object of 

 solicitude to the members. At length, however, the 

 collection was removed to a spacious hall, in a public 

 edifice, eligibly situated, where in a short time it 

 increased so as to become worthy the attention of the 

 naturalist. 



The principal accession which the property of the 

 academy received at this period, consisted of a library, 

 composed of standard works of reference, procured in 

 part with a sum of money being the accumulated fund 

 of a pre-existing society, which was thus transferred by 

 its surviving members. The Academy stands indebted 

 for this valuable acquisition to its then president, Robert 

 Gilmor, Esq. who contributed besides, individually, 

 by the donation of several costly and useful works. 

 Other presents were also received from various quar- 

 ters, the whole forming a collection of about eight hun- 

 dred volumes, of the best publications in the different 



