132 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



fate not left to accident. Stimpson was the man for the post and 

 was selected. The institution was thriving, with a large mem 

 bership, an excellent collection, and the nucleus of a library. In 

 June, 1866, the building and nearly all its contents became a prey 

 to fire. But the trustees had suitably insured the collection and, 

 with the growing prosperity of the Society, due largely to Stimp- 

 son's social tact and attractive personality, the Academy purchased 

 ground, put up a fire-proof building, and rose like a Phoenix with 

 new vigor from the ashes. 



Here Stimpson assembled as in a sure harbor the manuscripts, 

 collections, engravings, and drawings of a lifetime. 



He had the finest and most complete collection of East Amer 

 ican invertebrates which had ever been brought together, with a 

 vast amount of illustrative material from Europe, the Arctic re 

 gions, and other parts of the world. Books and specimens which 

 he did not own were freely lent to him by the Smithsonian and 

 by Eastern naturalists, for was he not a scientific missionary, a 

 biological bishop, in partibus infidelium, in the land where the 

 almighty dollar reigned supreme? And more important still, the 

 Academy was fire-proof. 



A manual of marine invertebrates of the coast from Maine to 

 Georgia was in preparation for the Smithsonian Institution ; there 

 was already much manuscript and many beautiful engravings. 



All the Smithsonian shell-fish in alcohol were there ; Pourtales 

 sent his unspeakable treasures newly ravished from the depths of 

 ocean. On every hand a wealth of material, a host of indulgent 

 friends and correspondents, a prospect of good work for science, 

 education, patriotism. 



On the 8th of October, 1871, a small fire broke out in South 

 Chicago, which was not extinguished. In forty-eight hours the 

 Queen City of the Northwest was practically in ashes. 



Trie temple of religion, the refuge of the sick and destitute, 

 the palace of the millionaire, the shanty of the day-laborer, the 



