236 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 



LIBRARIAN'S REPORT. 



The Librarian, H. A. Pilsbry, having removed lo Philadelphia, the 

 report on the library was presented by W. H. Pratt, acting Librarian. 

 (Abstract.) 



The register shows an accession, during the year, of 1958 publica- 

 tions, embracing the usual range of home and foreign exchanges and 

 public documents, and including a great many valuable and some very 

 rare works. 



The Library Committee, during the past year, has adopted a plan 

 for a card catalogue of subjects, and has it well started, so that this 

 important work, which will more than double the availability and value 

 of the library, can be carried on as time and circumstances will permit. 

 Members were urged to aid in this work. More shelf room is also im- 

 peratively needed, and large numbers of pamphlets and serials should 

 be bound as soon as practicable. 



PUBLICATION COMMITTEE'S REPORT.— Abstract. 



Completion of Volume IV., of 1,500 copies; distributed 702. 

 Receipts, $1,258.78; expenditures, $1,227.18. 



Volume V., now in process'of publication, will contain as frontispiece 

 the portrait of the late Prof. D. S. Sheldon. 



Mrs. M. L. D. Putnam, Chairman. 



PRESIDENT'S ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



By C. E. Putnam. 

 Ladies and Gentlemen: 



In the history of a society, as in the life of an individual, these re- 

 curring anniversaries subserve an excellent purpose. Upon occasions 

 like the present we break away from the bonds of routine, and, stand- 

 ing, as it were, on the mount of observation, we look back over our 

 traveled pathway, note our failures, estimate our progress, and thus 

 enter with renewed zeal and more intelligent purpose upon the accom- 

 plishment of our great work. In an honest review of the past there is 

 promise of a hopeful future. 



It will be my purpose, in this brief address, to estimate the mission 

 and influence of the Academy, and to offer some considerations tend- 

 ing to establish its proper position among the educational institutions 

 of the city and state. If, in the discussion upon which I am about to 

 enter, I should give expression to some propositions which may conflict 

 with established opinions, it will, of course, be understood that the 

 writer is alone responsible. 



Preliminary to the special discussion I have in contemplation, I will 

 briefly review some of the principal incidents of the past year. Notable 

 among these was the completion and distribution of Volume IV. of the 

 Proceedings of the Academy. This publication has been very gen- 

 erally sent in exchange to scientists and scientific societies in this 

 country and Europe, and has been everywhere received with especial 



