16 



have the care of all the collections. This sum is large, but 

 we live in a time of enlarged liberality, and may hope to col- 

 lect it. With the increased accommodations and means of 

 usefulness which this sum would give us, with our present 

 fund unembarrassed and devoted to our Library and Journal, 

 and with an active body of naturalists industriously occupied 

 in illustrating the natural history of the country, we might 

 hope soon to return to the community, in value though not 

 in kind, some equivalent for the aid received from it. 



As a token of the past and a pledge of the future zeal of 

 our members, as well as of their ability to sustain the institution 

 when once placed upon an independent footing, it may be 

 stated that, according to an estimate recently made by the 

 treasurer, the amount contributed to it, in money, books, and 

 other articles of value, since its foundation, is not less than 

 $30,000. This has been given almost entirely by its own 

 members, and mostly in small sums by men of small means, 

 excepting, however, the noble bequest of Mr. Ambrose Cour- 

 tis, one of our early members, on whose memory the Society 

 must always look with gratitude as our munificent helper 

 at a period of our existence when even small sums were trea- 

 sures. 



I close my remarks, already perhaps too much extended, 

 with the recommendation that such an effort as I have sug- 

 gested, should be now made. We may fail in it, but if we 

 do, we nevertheless shall have done our duty both to the Soci- 

 ety and as citizens, and shall have made a worthy exertion to 

 give to our city a new claim to respect, by elevating the natu- 

 ral sciences to the same estimation here which they enjoy in 

 enlightened communities of the old world. 



