The Academy of Natural Sciences 35 



number about 130,000 specimens, 12,000 being mammals, 60,000 

 birds, 20,000 reptiles and 40,000 fishes. The insects are estimated 

 at nearly 400,000 specimens and the shells at a million and one-half. 

 There are in the cases 50,000 specimens of fossils, 30,000 minerals, 

 20,000 pieces of archaeological material and over 600,000 prepara- 

 tions of dried plants. Nearly all the departments are now in the 

 care of specialists and the collections are growing at a rapid rate, 

 many of the study collections being equal or superior to those of 

 any other institution in America. 



PUBLICATIONS 



No one act of the society contributed so much to its pros- 

 perity as the publication of the Journal, commenced in 1817 and 

 continued at irregular intervals for a period of twenty-five years. 

 The series consists of eight octavo volumes, illustrated by litho- 

 graphic and engraved plates, and contains contributions from 

 nearly all the active naturalists of the period, who had, indeed, 

 scarcely any other avenue of publicity for the details of their 

 original investigations. The second series of the Journal, in 

 quarto, was begun in December, 1847, and is still continued. 

 Thirteen volumes have been completed. It contains papers re- 

 quiring more elaborate illustration than can be supplied in the 

 octavo form, and the plates throughout the series are of a high 

 artistic excellence. The numbers, as issued, are exchanged with 

 societies which publish Journals or Transactions of equal dignity. 



The publication of the Proceedings was commenced in March, 

 1841, the sixtieth volume being now completed. Like the earlier 

 Journal, it supplied a need which was then more urgent, as the 

 workers were more numerous than formerly, of a vehicle of com- 

 munication with the scientific world. Continuous memoirs and the 

 proceedings of the meetings, including verbal communications 

 and comments made on them, form the contents. Volumes 

 iii to vii, inclusive, of the American Journal of Conchology, were 

 published by the Conchological Section, under the editorship of 

 Geo. W. Tryon, Jr., who had prepared volumes i and ii as a private 

 enterprise. The Manual of Conchology, also begun by Mr. Tryon, 

 was bequeathed by him to the Conchological Section of the Academy, 

 and was published under the direction of Dr. Henry A. Pilsbry 

 until 1904, when, on the dissolution of the Section, it was continued 

 by Dr. Pilsbry as one of the Academy's publications. Since the 



