PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Ladies and Gentlemen of the Worcester 

 Natural History Society: 



With the close of another year, it is 

 proper that I should give to you a brief 

 statement concerning the work of the So- 

 ciety, its present needs and its promise of 

 futui-e usefulness. 



For a description of the class work, the 

 collections, donations, and the general 

 routine work of the Society, you are re- 

 ferred to the report of the Custodian, and 

 a satisfactory statement of finances will be 

 given in full in the report of the Treas- 

 urer, while the Superintendent of the Mu- 

 seum will state to you, far better than I 

 can do, the condition of the Museum and 

 some of its needs. 



The past year, although not marked by 

 any unusual effort, has been one of gen- 

 eral success. The work has been carried 

 on quietly, but with industrious fidelity, 

 and the results have been, upon the whole, 

 satisfactory. We can look forward to an- 

 other year with the hope and belief that 

 the interests of the Society will not suffer, 

 and that we shall be able to effect better 

 results in the future than have been pos- 

 sible in the past. 



Our hope is that the Society may not 

 only go on with its work, but that it may 

 progress, and that the requirements for 

 this may not long be withheld. Accom- 

 plishing all that the Society does in pro- 

 moting the taste for a study at once re- 

 fining and elevating in its tendencies and 

 influences, it feels that its efforts should 

 not be allowed to become fruitless through 

 want of means to further its educational 

 work without constant fear of financial 

 embarrassment. Of the aspirations of the 

 Society for the future, I am sure they are 

 such as will commend themselves to all 

 who recognize that progress is duty. We 

 wish to meet the mcreasing call for in- 



struction in the history of nature from 

 this rapidly-growing community, and from 

 all such as must depend mainly upon home 

 instruction, that is, upon instruction re- 

 ceived from without the regular channels 

 of education. 



With this purpose in view, we desire 

 an enlarged and properly-equipped labo- 

 ratory, and such other facilities as may be 

 required. Our hopes and aspirations can 

 not be realized without more extensive ac- 

 commodations. We greatly need an en- 

 larged museum building, with cabinets for 

 our collections; a well-equipped laboratory 

 for students who may be engaged in orig- 

 inal research in any department of natural 

 history; larger class-rooms for the accom- 

 modations of our pupils; and a hall for 

 lectures. In fact, we need a building 

 which shall best serve all the purposes 

 and designs of our Society, which is by 

 no means the case with our present ac- 

 commodations. 



We ask little or nothing for specimens 

 illustrative of natural history. In a form- 

 er communication I have stated to you 

 my conviction that it is unwise for a 

 society whose purpose is the study of 

 natural history to undertake the forma- 

 tion of a museum of any pretension unless 

 it is endowed with ample means for the 

 constant care and preservation of its col- 

 lection by thoroughly competent and well- 

 paid curators and custodians. Besides, I 

 believe that any considerable attempt to 

 furnish a museum with extensive collec- 

 tions of specimens and elaborate arrange- 

 ments for their care, would so distract the 

 attention of the Society and divert its 

 means and energies that little or no real 

 study of natural history would ever again 

 be attempted, and our museum become a 

 meagre show-room, rather than a school 

 devoted to the study of natural history. 



