BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 17 



placing it where it was thought it would be of great service to students in Natural 

 History. 



The resvilt of the application which was made to obtain for the Society whatever might 

 be left of value may be given in the few words taken from the record of the Annual 

 Meeting of the Society in May, 1832, which are as follows : " In the course of the year, 

 an order was obtained from the President of Harvard College for the surrender of such 

 articles as might remain of the old Linnaean Society, in pursuance of which a quantity of 

 refuse matter was sent to the Society's room, but nothing of any considerable value was 

 obtained." 



Early action was taken to render the monthly meetings interesting, first, by referring 

 specimens presented to such Curators as were the most interested in the department 

 to which they belonged, to report upon at the next meeting. This added much interest 

 to the proceedings, and led to better attendance. At that time, so little was known of 

 many of the objects now familiar to all in the collections of natural history, that many 

 which would now be received without remark, because of their well known character, 

 excited not only much interest, but considerable discussion. It was at a time when a 

 convoluted mass of chalcedony might have been seen in the Boston Museum, labelled 

 petrified kidney, when at the store of a dealer in curiosities, within a stone's throw of the 

 hall of the Society, fossil corals were exposed for sale as petrified flagroot, when Ammonites 

 upon being discovered in the rocks were heralded in the papers as coiled snakes, 

 sometimes mentioned as being as large as cart-wheels, and exciting wonder in proportion 

 to their size. The writer well remembers receiving notice of a remarkable " petrified 

 bug " in a museum at New Orleans, and upon its being procured and sent to him, 

 finding it to be an excellent specimen of a Trilobite, originally, no doubt from the Trenton 

 limestone of New York. 



Soon after the organization of the Society a room was hired for its use in the 

 Athenaeum building in Pearl street. Here its collections were deposited and here the 

 meetings, after the first two, were held until more suitable accommodations were obtained 

 three years afterwards. The early meetings took place in the evening, but subsequently 

 for several years in the afternoon, sometimes at 3 and sometimes at 3^ o'clock. 

 They were held once a month until August, 1833, but after this time twice a month. 



In January, 1831, measures were taken to procure an act of incorporation for the 

 Society, and in the same month, in view of the great lack of books on Natural History, it 

 was Voted — That this Society considers a library of works essential to its success ; and 

 funds were appropriated to purchase the best elementary books m the different branches 

 of natural history. 



A Committee of the Council was also appointed at this time to apply to the Governor and 

 his Council requesting that the gentleman making a Geological Survey of the State might 

 furnish the Society with a suite of geological specimens. No further reference is made to 

 this matter, and the request does not appear to have been fiivorably considered, as no such 

 collection ever became the property of the Society. The State Collection itself, was, how- 

 ever, deposited for several years in the Society's rooms. 



A singular provision to obtain information was made in February, 1831, bj^ a vote 

 passed, which was in substance as follows : 



