2l6 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENl ES. 



flower. And may I not add, that whomsoever in future years shall 

 seek to study the Solpugidce, must needs conic back to the early 

 labors, the exact researches of that young entomologist who gave this 

 study his parting breath, his last thought on earth. True it is, the man 

 who adds a new fact to the sum of human knowledge is entitled to a 

 place among the immortals; and it may be our citizens have builded 

 better than they knew, and that this foster-child of their bounty will 

 not only carry the name and fame of their fair city into other lands, 

 but will perpetuate it to distant ages. 



It only remains for me to call your attention to the fact that at no 

 distant day it will be found necessary to complete the present building. 

 It is already needed. The museum is now crowded to overflowing. 

 For want of shelf-room, it is found impossible to properly arrange and 

 classify all the specimens in our collection. The books and pamphlets, 

 too, which have come to the Academy without cost, now crowd its 

 shelves to repletion. The generous citizens of Davenport must finish 

 their good work, and give us more room in the near future. To accom- 

 plish this only requires concert of action. Where many cooperate, the 

 individual burden is light. The anticipation of this completed building 

 has been in the thoughts of earnest workers of the Academy these 

 many years. In this world of ours the ideal precedes the real, and 

 slowly but surely faith works out its problems. The completed build- 

 ing will, therefore, soon be erected, and when that happy hour arrives 

 and our citizens throng its corridors to witness the spectacles it presents, 

 methinks, to the eye of faith, the curtains that separate us from infinity 

 should be put aside, and we be permitted to behold, standing on that 

 other shore, an old man and a youth, with the once closed ear now 

 attuned to the music of the spheres, and the wonted wan cheek now 

 all aglow with the bloom of the celestial hills; and to the ear of faith 

 there should come sounding across the abyss their glad acclaim: "It 

 is finished! It is finished !" 



ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 



President — C. E. Putnam. 



First Vice President — C. E. HARRISON. 



Second Vice-President — J. B. Phelps. 



Treasurer — Major (J. P. McClelland. 



Recording Secretary — Dr. Jennik McCowen. 



Corresponding Secretary — W. H. Pratt. 



Librarian — H. A. PlLSBRY. 



Curator — W. H. Pratt. 



Trustees — ist. Dr. Preston; 2d, James Thompson; 3d, E. P. 

 Lynch ; 41I1, 1 1. C. Fulton. 



