758 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [DeC. , 



1810, if none since published; Davies' Elements of Chemistry; 

 Tilloch's Magazine from the beginning of 1810; best comparative 

 statement of the experiments relative to the oxymuriatic acid." 



These are the brief records concerning the library in the earliest 

 minutes of the Academy. It will be seen that they all relate to 

 intentions for the future, except in the one case where the Secre- 

 tary " makes homage" or presents The Bureau, a periodical for 

 which he had recently subscribed, and of this, curiously enough, 

 no record is to be found in the earliest published catalogue of the 

 library. The list of desiderata indicates how largely the first 

 members were concerned with physics and chemistry, subjects 

 which now receive little or no attention in the Academy. 



The growth of the library was slow until 1816, when Mr. 

 William Maclure, who was elected President the following year, 

 began his liberal donations, which in 1819 had reached nearly 

 1,500 volumes. A contemporary notice of the Academy says: 

 " The valfte of these acquisitions was enhanced by the fact that 

 they were possessed by no other institution on this side of the 

 Atlantic. The Academy, therefore, derived from this source a 

 prosperity and prominence which, under other circumstances, must 

 have been extremely slow and uncertain; while science at the 

 same time received an impulse which has never faltered and which 

 has been subsequently imparted to every section of our country." 

 Mr. Maclure transferred his library at New Harmony to the 

 Academy in 1834. Dr. Pickering, then Librarian, the following 

 year superintended the conveyance of the collection, embracing 

 2,259 volumes on science, literature and art, to the Academy. 



A catalogue of the library was begun in the first issue of the 

 Journal in 1817, and was completed in the fourth volume, pub- 

 lished in 1824. The collection then seems to have consisted of 

 1,675 volumes, embracing 672 titles. 



Another catalogue, published in 1836, gives the number of vol- 

 umes then in the library, excluding a collection of historical 

 documents, at 6,890, of which no less than 5,232' are thankfully 

 credited to Mr. Maclure. The classification was practically that 

 which is still maintained, but the collection embraced hundreds of 

 volumes on finance, law, morals, literature, religion, amusements, 

 military art and other subjects not at all pertinent to the Academy, 

 and which have long since been disposed of by sale or exchange. 



