PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 69 



Twelve years of his life were wasted at New Harmony, and 

 in 1837, a ^ ter tne death of Say, he returned to France, carrying 

 his collections and drawings to the Natural History Museum at 

 Havre, of which he became Curator. His period of productive 

 ness was limited to the six years of his residence in Philadelphia. 

 But for their sacrifice to the socialistic ideas of Owen, Say and 

 Lesueur would doubtless be counted among the most distin 

 guished of our naturalists, and the course of American zoolog 

 ical research would have been entirely different. 



The Rev. Daniel H. Barnes [b. 1785, d. 1828], of New York, 

 a graduate of Union College and a Baptist preacher, was one of 

 Say's earliest disciples, and from 1823 he published papers on 

 conchology, beginning with an elaborate study of the fresh-water 

 mussels. This group was taken up in 1827 by Dr. Isaac Lea, 

 and discussed from year to year in his well-known series of 

 beautifully illustrated monographs. 



Mr. Barnes published, also, papers on the u Classification of the 

 Chitonidae," on " Batrachian Animals and Doubtful Reptiles," 

 and on " Magnetic Polarity." 



The officers of the Navy had already begun their contributions 

 to natural history which have been so serviceable in later years. 

 One of the earliest contributions by Barnes was a description of 

 five species of Chiton collected in Peru by Capt. C. S. Ridgely, 

 of the " Constellation." 



In this period (1828-}-) was begun the publication of Audu- 

 bon's folio volumes of illustrations of North American birds 

 a most extraordinary work, of which Cuvier enthusiastically ex 

 claimed : " C'est le plus magnifique monument que FArt ait en 

 core eleve a la Nature." 



Wilson was the Wordsworth of American naturalists, but Au- 

 dubon was their Rubens. With pen as well as with brush he 

 delineated those wonderful pictures which have been the delight 

 of the world. 



