selves to the task of supplying them, as far as could be 

 done by their individual and combined exertions. For 

 these purposes they have formed an association, and 

 applied themselves to collect specimens of geology and 

 mineralogy, and other objects of natural history, and, 

 for the short period of its existence, the efforts of the 

 Institution have been eminently successful. They have 

 entered into correspondence with other learned societies, 

 and have been encouraged to proceed by their appro- 

 bation, and have profited by their generous coopera- 

 tion. They have invited the assistance of their fellow- 

 citizens in the most distant States and Territories, and 

 hope, by their aid, to collect documents and facts illus- 

 trative of the early history of our country, specimens of 

 its geology and of its mineral and vegetable produc- 

 tions, and, if not to preserve the animals and plants them- 

 selves, which are passing away before the progress of 

 settlement and cultivation, at least to perpetuate their 

 forms, and the memory of their existence. They hope 

 to be able to illustrate these subjects and others con- 

 nected with them by a series of gratuitous lectures, 

 and entertain a confident expectation that numbers, 

 whose duties compel them annually to assemble here, 

 will view with interest collections of the natural produc- 

 tions of America, drawn from every State and Terri- 

 tory in the Union, and, becoming sensible of their utility, 

 will contribute on their return to swell their amount, 

 and to spread throughout the country a taste for literary 

 and scientific pursuits. 



The Institution for the Promotion of Science and the 

 Useful Arts, will, as its name indicates, embrace every 

 branch of knowledge ; and its members, believing such 



