44 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



One means of obtaining many books much wanted by the Society has not been yet 

 referred to. At the time of the generous donation of the great work of Audubon, by 

 Col. Thos. H. Perkins, there was already a copy in the library which had been acquired 

 through the subscription of a number of the members. After the reception of the last 

 cojiy, the consent of the donors of the first was asked and readily obtained, to its disposal 

 by the Society in exchange for other works. A Committee was therefore appointed by 

 the Council to effect such exchange. Messrs. Little & Brown, who had always manifested 

 a very friendly feeling in behalf of the Society, purchased the woi-k, agreeing to allow 

 |62-5.00, and to deliver in return for it such books as might be ordered from time to 

 time through the Committee. As the works received in exchange were to be such as 

 related to Ornithology only, it was several years before the negotiation was completed ; 

 the Committee for this purpose meanwhile being annually reappointed. 



Mr. John James Dixwell, who had served the Society as its Treasurer for six years, re- 

 signed at this meeting, and a vote was passed expressing sincere regret at his retirement, 

 and thanks for the acceptable manner with which he had filled the ofiice for so long a 

 period. Patrick T. Jackson, Jr., Esq., was chosen to succeed him. The only other change 

 among the officers was that Edward Tuckerman, Esq. succeeded Dr. A. A. Gould as Cu- 

 rator of Conchology. 



The Annual Address was by Prof. Charles Brooks, and was entitled "The history of 

 Philosophical Zoology from the earliest times to the present day." 



In July of this year the Society had again the gratification of serving the cause of 

 Science by a loan of several of its specimens from the collection of the Radiata to 

 Dr. Dana, who was preparing his great work on the Corals of the U. S. Exploring Expe- 

 dition. 



In this year, too, the Society was enabled, by the publication of a report made by Prof. 

 Jeflh'ies Wyman at one of its meetings upon what purported to be the skeleton of a Sea 

 Serpent, to do great service to the community by saving it from continued deception. 

 There had been placed on exhibition in New York some fossil remains, consisting of a 

 great number of vertebrae arranged in such a way as to give them the appearance of 

 having belonged to a single individual. These, with what purported to be the head, 

 measured in length about one hundred and fourteen feet. There were also teeth, ribs 

 and paddles. The character of the remains was not understood by the exhibitor, 

 Dr. Koch, and no obstacle was put in the way of as thorough an examination as could 

 be made without separating the parts which had been, to a greater or less degree, ce- 

 mented together. The name of Hydrarchus SWlmani had been given to this so-called 

 sea-serpent, and its exhibition of course attracted large crowds of visitors. The full descrip- 

 tion of the bones, as read by Dr. Wyman, may be found in the published proceedings 

 of the Society. Suffice it here to state that the vertebrae were shown to belong, not to 

 one individual, but probably to many of different ages, that so far as they could be 

 studied they did not present any of the characters of an ophidian reptile ; and that some 

 at least of what purported to be bones, or portions of the bones of the paddles, were 

 not bones at all, but casts of the cavities of a camerated shell. The teeth Dr. Wyman 

 claimed to be those, not of a reptile, but of a warm blooded mammiferous animal, prob- 

 ably a Cetacean. 



