278 TRANS ACTIOXS OF THE [jUNE 7, 



The Secretary, Prof. H. L. Fairchild, stated that the 

 number of subscriptions ah-eady received for the '* History of 

 the Society" justified its publication. The character^ phm, 

 style, and illustrations of the book were described. 



The following Memorial notices were read by Prof. D. S. 

 Martin. 



The Committee appointed to prepare a minute respecting the 

 death of Mr. Thomas Bland, submit the following report: 



|>Xv. Stomas Sland, 



In the death of our eminent and accomplished associate, Mr. 

 Bland, the Academy has met with an irreparable loss. Though 

 during the later years of his life he was very rarely present at 

 our meetings, owing to his feeble health and his Brooklyn resi- 

 dence, and was therefore little known to the recent members of 

 the Society, yet his interest in it was unabated, and his valuable 

 work as a contributor to the Annals continued until but a short 

 time since. In the earlier, or rather the middle period of the 

 Society's history, he was one of its most active supporters and 

 attendants, and for many j'ears he was at the head of its Publi- 

 cation Committee. As my predecessor in that oflSce, I was 

 brought much into relation with him, and owe to his kindness 

 and his experience much that I highly prize. 



Thomas Bland was born in England in 1809; he had reached, 

 therefore, the well-advanced age of seventy-six, when he died in 

 August last. He was the son of a physician of the same name, 

 and of a mother whose taste for science, and collections in 

 natural history, early gave him that direction of mind which 

 bore rich fruit in the scientific studies of his maturer years. He 

 was educated at the " Charter House School," in London, and 

 had for one of his classmates the celebrated novelist Thackeray. 

 At first, he studied law; but in 1843 he went to the "West Indies, 

 and remained for eight years, chiefly in Barbadoes and Jamaica, 

 engaged in business, and studying and collecting in natural his- 

 tory. He there formed the acquaintance of the accomplished 

 and lamented Prof. C. B. Adams, of Middlebury College, Ver- 

 mont, an acquaintance that became a firm and strong friendship 



