REPORT OF THE SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN. 403 



them are American publications recording the results of practice 

 or experiment under circumstances similar to those surrounding 

 the members of our own Society, and therefore far more yaluable 

 than similar books from European sources. To be of the greatest 

 value the series of these various reports should be perfect and 

 unbroken, and to secure this it is necessary that every report as 

 it comes to hand should be at once placed with those previously 

 received, and at the same time examined to make sure that it is 

 consecutive with them ; but owing to the crowded state of our 

 librar}^ we have in many instances been unable to secure this 

 systematic order, but have been obliged to place the new arrivals 

 wherever room could be found for them. As an indication of the 

 rapid increase of books of this desirable class, I may mention that 

 the record book of Library Accessions (other than those purchased 

 from the Stickney Fund) which was begun in February, 1869, was 

 filled in October, 1882, requiring a period of nearly' sixteen years. 

 Another book of the same size was then procured, which was 

 filled at the end of the last month, a period of a little more than 

 five years, showing that the additions to the library from the 

 sources now under consideration during this second period have 

 averaged fully three times as many as during the first period. 



The removal of the heavy and cumbrous folding doors between 

 the two rooms, and the substitution of a portiere^ has added much 

 to our convenience, when it is desired to use the smaller apartment 

 for the private meeting of a committee, and it has also improved 

 the appearance of the room. Two new bookcases have lately 

 been placed in the library, one of which exhausts all the space in 

 the smaller room, and the other all that on the floor of the larger 

 room, leaving as the only resource in these rooms, the construc- 

 tion of the gallery heretofore planned. The two new bookcases 

 afford a slight but entirely inadequate relief, as they will hold but 

 a very small part of the books which have long required better 

 accommodation, and a part of the space afforded by them was 

 immediately filled hy some of the books comprised in our last 

 importation from Europe, which had to wait until the completion 

 of these bookcases because there was absolutely no room for 

 them elsewhere. It cannot be doubted that it is the purpose of 

 the Society to provide sufficient accommodation for the Library as 

 soon as it sees its way clear to do so, but it should be understood 

 that whenever this is done it will involve an almost entire 

 re-arrangement of all the books, — a work of great magnitude and 



