1880.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHI LAD ELPUr A. 405 



volumes of its Proceedings, tliey imagine that it sadl}' lacks the 

 afflatus of pure science and does nothing to pi'omote research. 

 Their tone implies that the capabilities of the institution, the 

 potentialities of its possessions might be made more useful to 

 truly qualified investigators by reforming the present S3-stem and 

 policy, which are too broadly in the interest of beginners and 

 amateurs in science. They seem to believe that the collections 

 should be placed under the control of expert specialists, with 

 power to loan specimens at their discretion ; that the books of 

 the librarj" should be allowed to circulate freely, and finally, that 

 the society should consist of proficients exclusivel}', or at least 

 include a privileged class of experts. 



Whether the Academy should now permit its extensive museum 

 and librar}', which have cost so much time, labor and mone}' to 

 form, to be diverted from their present ways of usefulness to 

 students generally, and appropriated by skilled investigators, is a 

 question too important to be hastil}"^ decided.^ 



The b3'-law of May, 1876, which provides for the appointment 

 of professors, remains inoperative. No candidate has presented 

 himself during the year. No report ha's been . i-eceived from the 

 Professor of Histolog}^ and Microscopic Technolog}', who was 

 appointed April 16, 1877. 



In conclusion, it may be said that the condition of the Academy 

 has never been better since its foundation than it is at the present 

 time. It is independent of debt, and its income has been so far 

 increased that it is hoped, under a careful administration of its 

 financial afiairs, it will soon be sufficient to meet the usual demands. 



The whole is submitted, 



W. S. W. RUSCHENBERGER. 



^ A society composed exclusively of proficients may be desirable and 

 even essential to the progress of original investigation in Philadelphia. 

 Those who are of this opinion might possibly form such a society at once, 

 and in the course of time acquire all it may need ; and, without coveting 

 or attempting to appropriate its possessions, permit the Academy to exist 

 for the benefit of those proficients who approve of its organization as well 

 as of beginners and amateurs. Some of these might become qualified to 

 be admitted to membership of any society composed exclusively of gener- 

 ally recognized masters in science. 



