4 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



design of the Journal was for a lime perverted, remains to slnnv. 



As a record of tiie Proceedings of the Society, the Joirnai, 

 is, in the early volumes, not reliable. Let us glanie at this a mo- 

 ment and see. In the fust numljer of the fir.>t volume we find a 

 list of the officers from the organization of the Society, covering 

 two pages; and then a history of the Society from its organization 

 in 1870 to February 1878, occupies eight ]xiges. In the second 

 number less than four pages are devoted to the Proceedings for 

 April, May and June. In the third number the Proceedings for 

 three months fill one page, while in the fourth number only two 

 pages are given up to them. What fills the other 175 pages of the 

 volume? They are taken up with articles, the most of which were 

 never read before the Society, and the first knowledge of the exist- 

 ence of which the members received through the Journal. With 

 the other volumes, down to the close of Volume VII, it was nearly 

 the same. Sometimes two pages, sometimes four, seldom more, 

 and sometimes none at all were devoted to the Proceedings for the 

 three months preceding the issue. I'he articles which filled the 

 pages were prepared "for" the Journal, but were not "read be- 

 fore" the Society. The close of Volume VII, however, saw a 

 change introduced, and since then no paper has been ])ublished 

 which has not either been read before the Society in full, by ab- 

 stract or by title. The last three volumes of the Journal may, 

 therefore, be regarded as being really a record of the Proceedings. 



Another part of the original programme of the Journal was 

 more fully carried out. This was the illustration of new species 

 described. Plates were most profusely furnished, and since the 

 first volume, which had six, none have appeared with less than 

 four, except Volume X, which had but two. The majority of these 

 plates are lithographs. Adding all U]), we find in the ten volumes 

 eighty full-page plates. What, now, was the character of these? 

 They indicate the work which the Journal has been most con- 

 cerned with. Of the total number of eighty no less than 

 sixty-three were devoted to fossils ; eight illustrated plants; seven, 

 anthropology; one, birds, and one, animals. The sixty-three 

 plates represent many new species of fossils, though in some cases 

 old species are figured or the new ones are shown in several ways. 



A very large number of the articles are concerned with the 

 Natural History of Cincinnati and its vicinity, and by a careful 

 study of the pages of the Journal it would be possible to get an 

 excellent idea of the jjlants, beetles, butterflies, birds, mammals, 



