46 Notice of British Naturalists. 
vancement of Science may be said to be but the carrying out of 
this principle on a grander and more enlightened scale.* 
In this country much has been done both in forming scientific 
and popular museums and societies. It must, however, be al- 
lowed that few of our societies are efficient, and too many exist 
only in name; but the Philosophical Society, the Academy of 
Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia; the Lyceum of Natural His- 
tory, of New York ; similar institutions in Baltimore and Charles- 
ton ; the American Academy, and the Natural History Society, of 
ston ; the Institute, of Albany ; the young Natural History So- 
cieties of Salem} and Yale College; and a still more youthful 
Society in Harvard University, evince that all are not asleep, or in 
astate of suspended animation. Several of these institutions have 
valuable collections, most of which are rapidly increasing. Among 
the most distinguished, are those of the Academy of Sciences and 
the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia; of the Lyceum of New 
York, and the Natural History Society, of Boston. 
Among our popular Museums are several of great merit in our 
principal cities, at the head of which is deservedly placed the fine 
museum of the late venerable Peale—with its colonies in other 
cities,—and several others, in all our larger towns. 
Our living Naturalists are numerous. Audubon, Nuttall, Hat- 
lan, Morton, and Torrey are not without coadjutors, and it would 
require a long catalogue to enumerate them all. The early pub- 
lication of Wilson’s Ornithology, with its continuation in later 
ears, and of Holbrook’s Herpetology, still going on, affords sul- 
ficient proof that this country is alive to the claims of Natural His- 
tory. 
The next great writer upon British Zoélogy is Tuomas PeN- 
nant. We should wish to depict Pennant’s character as that of 
aaa 
* Among the earlier collections formed in England, the Wyckliffe Museum may 
be particularly noticed as one much celebrated in its day. It was formed and ow? 
ed by Marmaduke Tunstall, an independent gentleman, of old family, at Wickliffe, 
in Yorkshire. He was the friend and correspondent of the greatest naturalists of 
the day. To this collection the writers of those times owe much ; and from unique 
specimens contained in it, Edwards, Brown, Pennant, Latham, and Bewick, illus- 
trated their works. At his death it was sold ; and having passed through the hands 
of Mr. Alian, of Darlington, in the county of Durham, it became in 1822 the founda- 
tion of the excellent collection in Newcastle upon Tyne, where it still remalm ; 
t The East India Museum of Salem is an unique and most interesting collection ’ 
and the Chinese Museum at Philadelphia, although having little relation to sciences 
is rich beyond all example, in illustrations of China. 
