BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 29 



o'clock, for visits from the public, and that the members of the Legislature be invited to 

 examine it at those times. 



By the advice of the Council, an alteration was made in the By-laws by which each 

 Curator should have his particular department allotted him at the time of his election ; 

 he to have the privilege of selecting from among the members of the Society a person to 

 assist him in arranging and labelling the specimens. 



The Annual Address was delivered this year by Dr. Chas. T. Jackson, and was a very 

 interesting and lucid discourse upon the various influences of the study of Natural 

 History oi Man, both in an individual and a social capacity. 



At the election of officers the following changes were made : Dr. Augustus A. Gould 

 was chosen Recording Secretary in place of Dr. Martin Gay ; Dr. Jeffries Wyman, 

 Cabinet Keeper, in place of Dr. Thos. M. Brewer. 



The Curators were for the first time elected for special departments ; the following were 

 chosen : 



Dr. N. B. Shurtleff, for Comparative Anatomy ; Dr. Thos. M. Brewer, Birds ; Dr. D. 

 Humphreys Storer, Reptiles and Fish ; Dr. Thaddeus W. Harris, Insects ; Mr. J. E. Tesch- 

 emacher, Botany ; Dr. Chas. T. Jackson, Mineralogy and Geology, State Collection ; 

 Dr. Martin Gay, Mineralogy and Geology, Society's Collection. 



1839. In January, 1839, the Legislature was formally invited to visit the collection 

 during the hours when it was open to the public. 



Since occupying the hall in Tremont street, the library of the Society had been 

 placed in cases much needed for portions of the cabinet, and the librarian having made 

 a proposition to receive it into his room in Tremont Row, where the books could 

 be kept together, and where access could be had to them at all times, and at all 

 hours of every day ; it was voted to accept the offer of the librarian, and that unoccupied 

 cases in the attic over the hall be made use of by him for the reception of the books 

 in his room. 



The necessity for more room for the increasing collection had become so great, 

 that many claims were at once presented by the curators of several departments for 

 the space about to be vacated by removal of the library, and it became necessary 

 to appoint a committee with power to assign it as they thought expedient. 



At the Annual Meeting this year, the Treasurer reported receipts amounting to 

 $1337.18, and payments $1167.51, leaving on hand $169.67, with debts outstanding 

 to the amount of $1001.96. 



The Report on the Cabinet stated that out of one hundred and twenty species of 

 Massachusetts Fishes ninety were in the collection, and of the Reptiles every described 

 species ; all in good condition. The Annual Address was delivered by Rev. John L. Rus- 

 sell, on the pursuit and delight of the Study of Nature. 



At the election the changes made in the officers were as follows : Dr. Jeffries Wyman, 

 chosen Recording Secretary, in place of Dr. Augustus A. Gould ; Mr. John James 

 Dixwell, Treasurer, in place of Mr. Ezra Weston ; Dr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., Cabinet Keeper 

 in place of Dr. Jeffries Wyman ; Dr. Jeffries Wyman, Curator of Mammals, in place of 

 Dr. Winslow Lewis; Mr. Thomas J. Whittemore, Curator of Mollusks (office not previously 

 filled). 



