30 



reflected much upon the possibility of a remedy for 

 them. I saw at once that adequate private or public 

 libraries could not be had in the country on account of 

 their great expense ; and that, if they existed, very 

 few, in an agricultural community, could spare the 

 time which would be requisite to consult them, to any 

 profit, on matters of practical natural history, in the 

 present diffused and scattered condition of the materi- 

 als of that science. I also perceived that the new dis- 

 coveries in the natural sciences were promulgated 

 through so great a variety of publications, as to render 

 it utterly impossible for a person engaged in the culti- 

 vation of natural history in the country to keep himself 

 informed of the progress of discovery in any particular 

 branch of the science. 



Under these circumstances, the best remedy for the 

 evils I have mentioned, which presented itself to my 

 imind, was the formation of a national natural history 

 society, of which all the societies of natural history in 

 Xhe country should be auxiliaries. An important part 

 -of the business of this society should be the publication 

 .of full and accurate manuals of the different depart- 

 ments of natural history, in which all the materials of 

 ieach should be posted up and arranged in their proper 

 order ; and, after that, the preparation and publication, 

 from time to time, of journals of the progress of science 

 in its several departments, compiled from the papers 

 and doings of the auxiliary societies, and other authen- 

 tic sources. Manifold, as it appeared to me, would be 

 the advantages of such a plan. It would enable the 

 smaller societies, which have not the means of publish- 

 ing their proceedings, to make known to the world all 

 the valuable results of their labors. It would bring 



