32 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



Some statements have been made in the notices of the Annual Meetings, of the 

 Treasurer's reports showing excess of expenditure over receipts, and the fact of an accu- 

 mulating debt which threatened seriously the welfare of the Society, notwithstanding the 

 annual subsidy of $300 received from the State, and which was granted for five years. 

 The Treasurer's Report for the year ending May, 1840, will show the financial condition 

 of the Society, at the end of the ten years of its existence. 



Its receipts for the year were as follows : 



From the previous treasurer $150 00 



Dividend on one share Granite Bank stock 



Annual and last grant from the State ... . 



Annual assessments and entrance fees ....... 504 00 



Borrowed from the Courtis Fund in order to pay off indebtedness of 



the Society , 800 00 



$1,772 00 



Payments as follows : 



Notes held against the Society and interest $767 17 



Rent and taxes due for rooms prior to the past year .... 271 96 

 Amounts due incurred prior to year . . . . . . . 51 25 



Whole debt paid .... 1,090 38 



Books added to library $25 72 



Rent and taxes of Society's apartments 280 51 



Printing and advertising 32 77 



Miscellaneous expenses of cabinet 10 00 



Current expenses of the cabinet 89 42 



Entomological cabinet 50 00 



Care and attendance on the room, fuel, &c 90 47 



Expense altering shell-cabinet 63 00 



Commissions collecting fees, &c. ........ 27 05 



668 94 



$1,759 32 

 Cash balance in treasury 12 68 



$1,772 00 



This account has been given in full, in order to exhibit more clearly the economy exer- 

 cised in managing the affairs of the Society, necessary if the Society was to be saved from 

 the burden of a debt that could not be borne, yet destructive afterwards to portions of the 

 collection of very great value, from that want of expenditure requisite to the proper care 

 and preservation of perishable objects. 



The Society had struggled with debt during the greater part of its existence, and was 

 for the first time free from its harrassing claims. This, however, was only brought about 

 by borrowing from the fund which it desired to hold sacred for special purposes ; that 

 received from the heirs of Ambrose S. Courtis, $10,000. The claim that "we had now 

 shown to the world that a Society of Natural History could be supported in Boston," 

 having the amis and objects of the one existing, and relying on voluntary labor and 



