8 The Academy of Natural Sciences 



Geology and Mineralogy in the University of Nashville, retaining 

 the position until his death August 17, 1850. During his incum- 

 bency he served as State Geologist of Tennessee until the office was 

 abolished in 1849. 



The first Recording Secretary, Dr. Caniillus Macmahon Mann, 

 was born in Ireland. He was "out" in the rebellion of 1798. After 

 a stay in France he sought refuge in the United States, living for a 

 time in Philadelphia, and later edited a paper in Baltimore. The 

 date of his death is uncertain. 



The presence of Thomas Say at a meeting is first recorded on 

 Thursday, April 16, 1812. Henceforth, except when away from the 

 city, he was rarely absent from a session of the society. It may be 

 claimed that the continued existence of the Academy was in great 

 measure due to his devotion and the dignity he was able to give the 

 proceedings by the high character of his scientific work. After the 

 failure of the firm of Speakman and Say he resided for a time in the 

 hall of the Academy, accommodating himself heroically to his ex- 

 ceedingly cramped means. In 1825 he accompanied Mr. Maclure 

 to New Harmony. The communistic experiment in which they 

 were engaged having proved a failure he accompanied Mr. Maclure 

 to Mexico. He remained there for twelve months and was then 

 compelled by business engagements to return to New Harmony 

 where he died October 10, 1834, in his forty-seventh year. Much 

 the greater part of his work was completed before he left Phila- 

 delphia for the West. In his new home, however, his business 

 engagements evidently did not take up all his time for he issued 

 there six numbers of the American Conchology and several papers, 

 including two in the Annals of the Maclurean Lyceum. 



Say was a born naturalist. He troubled himself but little 

 about relationships and classification, confining himself almost 

 entirely to the determination of specific distinctions of which he 

 had an unusually acute perception. His reports of original re- 

 searches were the first to replace the reading of extracts from 

 encyclopaedias or journals, which formed the attraction at the earlier 

 meetings. 3 



About the first of April a small room on the second floor of a 



3 An appreciative biography of Say, by George Ord, is published in 

 connection with The Complete Writings of Thomas Say on the Entomology 

 of North America, edited by John L. Le Conte, M.D. Another by Benjamin 

 Homer Coates was issued under the auspices of the Academy in 1835. 



