REPORTS ON THE CONDITION AND PROGRESS 



DAVENPORT 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, 



DURING THE YEAR 1878: 



Being the Proceedings of the Annual JVIeetino-, 

 Held Wednesday, January 1st, 1879. 



January 1st, 1879.— Annual Meeting* 

 Dr. R. J. Farquliarson, President, in the chair. 

 Twent}^ members present. 

 The reports of the officers and standing committees were pre 



seiited and read. 



Annual Address of the President. 



Ladies and Gentlemen: — Another j^ear, the eleventh, has been 

 added to the short life of our Academy, and though not yet in its teens, 

 it may, thanks to a marvelous growth, be said to have already reached 

 the stage of adolescence. We earnestly hope that it may escape the 

 short-lived fate of many precocious individuals and institutions, and we 

 must strive hard to give it such a continuous, steady growth, that it may 

 not be said of it hereafter, " that like the pigeon, it was biggest in the 

 squab state." What is needed, in my opinion, to avoid either a prema- 

 ture death or a period of comparative stagnation, is an infusion of j'oung 

 blood in the shape of workers— earnest, energetic workers— to take the 

 place of those whose advancing years and increasing infirmities may 

 soon unfit them for the task. To the younger men of the Academy I 

 would especially commend the study of ]Siatural History, not as a means 

 to command riches or fame, though a fair proportion of the latter is thus 

 attainable, but as the best source of that happiness for which all men 

 strive ; for I can truthfully say of this study, that the only truly happy 

 men I have ever known were naturalists, men removed from and appa^ 

 rently above the petty cares and vexations of this world. 



[Reports, D. a. N. S., 1878.] 1 [Jan.jlST'J.] 



