The Academy of Natural Sciences 33 



the use of the society the Annales de Chymie and the Annales des 

 Arts et de Commerce. Mr. Shinn is commissioned to procure for 

 account of the society the Archives of Useful Knowledge of Dr. 

 Mease and the Medical Museum of Drs. Mitchell and Miller. 

 Agreed to procure the Repertory of Arts from London." Davy's 

 London Institution Lectures, Nicholson's Journal, Murray's, 

 Thompson's and Davy's Chemistrys and Tilloch's Magazine were 

 suggested as desirable. It is interesting to see how largely the first 

 members were concerned with physics and chemistry, subjects which 

 for years have received little or no attention in the Academy. 



The growth of the library was slow until 1816 when the newly 

 elected President, William Maclure, began his donations which, in 

 1819, had reached nearly 1,500 volumes. A portion of his library 

 was transferred from New Harmony in 1834. 



A catalogue of the library was published in the Journal for 

 1817 to 1824 when there seems to have been in the possession of the 

 society 1,675 volumes embracing 672 titles. Another catalogue pub- 

 lished in 1836 gives the number of volumes at 6,890 of which 5,232 

 are credited to Mr. Maclure. In 1841 the collection had increased 

 to 7,000. In May, 1845, Dr. Thomas B. Wilson presented Owen's 

 History of British Fossil Mammalia and Birds and from that 

 date until his death in 1865, more than ten thousand volumes were 

 given by him. His brother, Edward Wilson, presented 4,184 rare 

 volumes and pamphlets of the last century, and a valuable selection 

 from Dr. Wilson's library was received after his death from 

 another brother, Rathmel Wilson. Dr. Wilson bequeathed to the 

 Academy $10,000, the interest to be used for the continuance of 

 his subscriptions and as a contribution toward the salary of the 

 Librarian. A small amount had been received from the sale to the 

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania of a collection of historical 

 documents given by Mr. Maclure, and a little was secured from 

 time to time by subscription or from the sale of duplicates, etc., but 

 no permanent endowment was available until 1875 when Isaiah V. 

 Williamson gave $25,000 in ground rents, the interest to be expended 

 for the purchase of books. 



The John Warner Library of about 1,045 volumes and 1,200 

 pamphlets, mostly on mathematics, was received in 1892 and the 

 library of Dr. James Aitken Meigs consisting of 5,089 volumes was 

 bequeathed to the Academy by his father, together with $20,000, in 

 1895. 



