BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 117 



At the meeting of Nov. 2d, Mr. Thos. T. Bouve was elected Vice-President of the Soci- 

 ety, to fill the vacancy made by the death of Dr. Gould. 



A Section of Entomology was formed at the meeting of Nov. 28th. Members of the Soci- 

 ety only to be members of the section, the President of the Society to be ex-officio President 

 of the section, and the Recording Secretary of the Society Recording Secretary of the 

 section. The meetings to be held on the evening of the 4th Wednesday of each month. 



1867. In January of this year, Palaentology, which had been combined with Geology, 

 was raised to a separate department, and Thomas T. Bouve was made its Curator. Wm. 

 T. Brigham was chosen Curator of Geology. 



Early in this year the Society was the recipient of a munificent bequest from Miss Sarah 

 P. Pratt. This lady had long been interested in the study of conchology, and had made a 

 large collection of shells obtained from every quarter of the globe, many of them beino- of 

 rare species. The whole cabinet, consisting of more than 4000 specimens, was Ijequeathed 

 to the Society, together with her library and works on conchology, and the sum of $10,000 

 to be held as a fund for the increase and maintenance of the department devoted to that 

 science. 



As Avitli individuals, so with institutions, events often succeed each other of the most 

 diverse character, those of a joyful foUoAving such as are painfid, and the reverse. Not a 

 week had elapsed after the announcement of the bequest above-mentioned, when news was 

 received of the death of one of the great benefactors of the Society, Dr. Henry Bryant. 

 At a meeting held on the 20th of February, after some remarks by Mr. Bouve expressive 

 of the feeling that pervaded and saddened all hearts, a committee consisting of Drs. S. L. 

 Abbot and J. C. White, and J. E. Cabot, Esq., was appointed to prepare a notice of the 

 professional and scientific life of the deceased. 



In behalf of this committee. Dr. S. L. Abbot subsequently read before the Society a very 

 full and discriminating notice of Dr. Bryant, which appeared in Vol. XI of the published 

 Proceedings, and from which the following brief abstract is given. 



Dr. Henry Bryant was born in Boston, May 12, 1820. He entered Harvard University 

 in 1836, graduated in 1840, then studied medicine in the Tremont Medical School, from 

 which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1843. He afterwards studied in 

 Paris and subsequently joined the French army in Africa as a volunteer suro-eon, in which 

 capacity he served during the winter campagn of 1846. He returned home in 1847 and 

 commenced the practice of his profession. His Jiealth failing him he was oblio-ed to o-ive 

 up practice, and he ever after devoted himself to the study of Ornithology, which had always 

 been a favorite pursuit with him. The precarious state of his health compelled him to 

 take a great deal of outdoor exercise, and his active, energetic temperament led him often to 

 the most distant parts of the country for the purpose of collecting specimens of Orni- 

 thology. He had a singular power of endurance, and invalid as he was, a most stoical 

 indiflerence to considerations of personal comfort on these expeditions, whicli sometimes 

 lasted for months, many of them being out of the country among the West India Islands. 



On the outbreak of the civil war, he offered himself as a candidate for the position of 

 assistant surgeon in the regular army, and after a very severe examination was accepted 

 but subsequently was appointed surgeon of the 20th regiment Massachusetts Volunteers' 

 being promoted to be brigade surgeon, in September, 1861. He was afterwards Med- 



