No. 2.] NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. IIT 



donation of sixty specimens of East Indian birds from Major G. 

 E. Bulger, who has previously given many valuable and interest- 

 ing donations of objects of various kinds from that part of the 

 world. The consignment has been shipped by the Scandinavian, 

 and may be expected at an early date. 



The additions to the library are about equal to the average of 

 other years. The most important of them are illustrated mono- 

 graphs on the sponges, hydrozoa, zoophytes, and sessile eyed 

 crustaceans, purchased with a special view to working up the St. 

 Lawrence species. Every year the Society becomes better known 

 and appreciated by kindred associations in Europe and the United 

 States. Did our finances permit, there are few scientific bodies 

 in either of these countries with whom we should not exchange 

 periodicals, reports, &c. For this and for other reasons an amount 

 of correspondence is involved which occupies more and more of 

 my time every year. 



Gentlemen, — the session which is now brought to a close ter- 

 minates the first decade of my association with this Society. I 

 am free to admit that, reviewing the past ten years, the hopes 

 that I once entertained as to the future of this Institution have 

 not been realized. The success or failure of this Society in par- 

 ticular aifords, as it seems to me, a fair criterion of the value 

 which the inhabitants of the city set upon higher education gene- 

 rally. Yet how lamentably small has been the support or aid 

 accorded to the Society by our wealthy citizens. For the last 

 three years it has laboured under such a pressure of pecuniary 

 difiiculties that during that time literally nothing has been spent 

 on either the Museum or Library. The Hall, the Gallery and 

 Museum have never been properly cleaned since the building was 

 erected, and improvements which arc most urgently needed have 

 been found impracticable, and abandoned for want of funds. 

 That some interest is taken in the work which we are engaged 

 in attempting to further, is manifest from the fact that upwards 

 of 1000 persons have visited the Museum during the past twelve 

 months. Were our collections made more worthy of this com- 

 mercial and wealthy metropolis, and the building thrown open 

 freely to the public, it is reasonable to suppose that the number 

 of visitors to the Institution would be very largely increased. I 

 should not have ventured to ofi"er these remarks, especially as 

 similar ones have been dwelt upon in the able address of the 

 Acting President, but that I had a special object in so doing. 



