BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 165 



against licensing " Jourdain's Museum of Anatomy " so called, on the ground of its ten- 

 dency to offend decency and jDublic morality, whilst subserving no good purpose. 



It being understood that persons were in the habit of entering the building during 

 the evening hours for other purposes than that of working upon the collections, the Coun- 

 cil voted in March : That after the closing of the building, no person shall be allowed to pass 

 into it, except through the apartments of the Janitor. 



Some alterations were proposed and adopted in the Constitution and By-laws at this 

 time, the most important of which was the addition to the latter of a section, providing 

 that whenever any existing or anticipated vacancy in the list of officers was to be filled by 

 election, a nominating committee should be appointed by the Society at a stated meeting to 

 bring in at a subsequent meeting one or more nominations of persons to fill such vacancy. 

 And providing also that no person should be elected to any office until his nomination had 

 been under consideration by the Society at least two weeks. 



In April of this year, Mr. S. H. Scudder spoke of the great importance of a re-survey 

 of the State of Massachusetts, topographical, geological and biological. It was the first in 

 the Union to provide for a survey, but while almost all the principal States had now 

 finished or begun a second one, no steps had been taken by Massachusetts in this direc- 

 tion. The original svirvey was wonderfully well done, yet incomplete, and the advance of 

 scientific knowledge since rendered a re-survey very desirable. The American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences had taken the matter into consideration and had appointed a committee 

 to memorialize the Legislature on the subject. 



Prof. Niles, Mr. John Cummings and the President all addressed the meeting in favor of 

 the project, and finally it was voted on motion of Mr. Putnam : That the President ap- 

 point a committee including himself to petition the Legislature for a re-survey of the State. 

 Messrs. Niles, Cummings, Putnam, Jeffries, Hyatt, and Morse with the President, were 

 accordingly made this committee. 



In the following May Mr. S. H. Scudder reported that the subject of a re-survey of the 

 State had duly come before the Legislature and had been referred to the Committee on 

 Education with every prospect of a favorable report. He also referred to the question of 

 a public park now agitated, thinking that the idea of the establishment of a zoological 

 garden should be considered by the Society in connection with it. 



The annual meeting was held on May 6th, Vice-President R. C. Greenleaf in the Chair. 



The report of the Treasurer showed that the expenditures of the Society had exceeded 

 its receipts $1874.12. Among the former, however, was included the sum of $1754.22 

 paid for insurance of property for five years. The alterations and improvements in the 

 building indispensable for the safety of the collections, and to bring them into jjroper rela- 

 tion to each other, had cost $3423.81. 



The report of the Custodian, Mr. Hyatt, who had retm-ned home and resumed the 

 duties of his office, after appropriately referring to the decease of Prof Agassiz, gives a 

 summary of the work of the year, from which the following is presented. 



Mr. Hyatt's visit to Europe afforded an opportunity to fill out the Palaeontological col- 

 lection. A fair collection of species from Western Europe was needed in order that we 

 should be able to compare them in a general way with their synchronous representatives 

 in North America. To meet this want Mr. John Cummings generously furnished the 



