ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 15 



their study is worthy of the fostering care and encouragement 

 of the community. But an opinion is not to be inferred, from this, 

 and attributed to the writer, that it is necessary or even proper 

 that every farmer, every artisan, and every physician should be 

 a naturalist. We know that men, ignorant of natural history, 

 successfully cultivate the soil, work at various trades, and prac- 

 tice medicine; but it cannot be denied that those vocations, 

 many of them very lucrative, derive the principles upon which 

 they are based from the studies and investigations of naturalists. 

 One object of such studies is to ascertain and establish principles, 

 and to render them so plain, and simple in application to every- 

 day pursuits, that they may be available to those of least learn- 

 ing and intelligence. It needs no argument to prove that the 

 successful pursuit of such an object is useful and worthy of 

 commendation. The influence of the natural sciences is analo- 

 gous to that of mathematics, which is everywhere regarded as 

 an essential branch of liberal education. Very few of the thou- 

 sands of men who navigate the ocean, build ships, construct 

 steam-engines and various complicated machines, and guide them 

 when in operation, have studied the problems of Euclid, or 

 even heard of the Principia of Newton ; but no one has ever 

 been bold enough to assert, for such reasons, that the science of 

 mathematics is not essential to the art of navigation, to naval 

 architecture, or to the vocations of millwrights, machinists, or 

 engineers. 



A few of our fellow-citizens, aware of the benefits which flow 

 from an accurate and minute knowledge of natural objects, to 

 every class in society, have joined together, in a spirit of bene- 

 volence and liberality, to furnish means for the cultivation of the 

 natural sciences. The result of their efforts, through a period 

 of forty years, is seen in the Library and Museum of this Institu- 

 tion, which are accessible by the public without cost, and without 

 any restrictions other than those necessary to preserve them from 

 injury or loss. Gratuitous tickets of admission to the Museum 

 on Tuesdays and Fridays, may be obtained by applying to any 

 member of the Institution. 



The Hall of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 stands at the north-west corner of Broad and George Streets, on 

 a lot of ground measuring fifty by one hundred and twenty feet. 

 The building is of brick, fire-proof throughout, and unpretending 



