if our friends do not see, in the cases, all the objects which 

 they have given, it is because there is no room for their exhi- 

 bition. They are deposited out of sight, but nothing that is 

 useful or valuable, is lost or neglected. The Society looks, 

 confidently, for a day of restoration, when the numerous ob- 

 jects, hid in boxes, drawers, and barrels, may be brought into 

 view, and exhibited in a manner worthy of their donors and 

 of science. 



At the last annual meeting, I took occasion to call the at- 

 tention of the Society to the inadequacy of our accommoda- 

 tions in this hall. I alluded to the crowded state of the cases 

 and drawers, to the great number of interesting objects kept 

 out of sight, to the inconvenience of access to them, and the 

 impossibility of bestowing upon them the attention requisite 

 for their preservation. 1 spoke of our inability to exhibit 

 objects in the manner most useful to students, and of the loss 

 occasioned to the Society by the retention of valuable objects 

 by persons who would willingly present them to us, if we 

 could dispose of them in a suitable style. I lamented the 

 necessity of removing the Library to another building, and of 

 holding our meetings elsewhere. I suggested that all experi- 

 ence had shown that such collections cannot be kept in good 

 order without the constant services of a competent and faith- 

 ful taxidermist, and I asserted the opinion that, if the Society 

 would sustain itself, it must, at some propitious moment, make 

 a serious and united effort to obtain funds sufficient to pro- 

 cure a building large enough for all its wants, both immediate 

 and prospective, and such an increase of income as would 

 insure its future support. The mode of acquiring these which 

 I had in view was, of course, by an appeal to the liberality of 

 a community ever proverbially ready to sustain useful public 

 institutions, and it seemed to me that there were only two 

 conditions necessary to insure success in such an effort ; the 

 one ; such a prosperous state of the productive industry of the 

 country as would justify liberal men in being liberal, and the 



