BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 43 



It had been for some time apparent that the accommodations afforded by the Hall oj 

 the Society were entirely inadequate for the proper care and arrangement of the increas- 

 ing collections. 



At the Annual Meeting in May, several of the Curators complained bitterly of this, and 

 it became manifest to all that some measures should be adopted towards obtaining more 

 room to meet this requirement. The Curator of Ornithology stated that less than one 

 third of the specimens in his department were mounted, for the want of room to place 

 them in, that the cases in which the unmounted specimens were placed were so accessible 

 to moths and other destructive insects that the collection had suffered considerably, and 

 there was consequently not much encouragement for him or others to make exertion 

 for its increase, until assured that the labor would not be thrown away. Others of the 

 Curators expressed themselves in like manner. 



In the President's review of the doings of the Society during the past year, he likewise 

 remarked upon the necessity for more room, saying that the time had now come when the 

 crowded state of the collections and limited accommodations for meetings made it neces- 

 sary to take earnest measures for the erection of a suitable building for the Society. 



The present is a propitious time, he said, to commence an energetic movement for the 

 accomplishment of this great object. 



The members all feeling the necessity for decisive-action, it was 



Voted : That in the opinion of this Society, the time has now arrived when a strenuous 

 effort should be made to raise sufficient funds to ensure the prosperity and permanence of 

 the institution. 



Voted : That a Committee be appointed to act personally or through others, to be selec- 

 ted by them, to solicit subscriptions for the purpose of erecting a building for the use of 

 this Society. 



Drs. Amos Binney, Jr., C. T. Jackson, D. H. Storer, and A. A. Gould, were elected to 

 compose this Committee. 



The Curators' Reports did not mention generally the extent to which the collections 

 had increased. That of the Treasurer showed, independently of the Courtis fund, an 

 excess of expenditure over the income of $ 142.88, which added to excess of former 

 years, $327.22, made an amount of debt due to the Courtis fund of $470.10. 



The income from the Courtis fund showed a balance of cash on hand of $421.88, with 

 $470.10 due from the General Fund. The understanding that the income from this fund 

 should be equally divided between the Library, Publication expenses and the Cabinet, had 

 not been complied with, in fact it seldom if ever was ; the general expenses of the 

 Society being too great to admit of such compliance. The publications, moreover, fre- 

 quently required too much to allow the others a fair share. During this year they had 

 over $300 of the $618.66 received, whilst the Library had obtained only $28.55, and the 

 Cabinet nothing. 



Among the pleasant events of the year just closed, may be mentioned two of consid- 

 erable importance ; one was the bequest of $2000 from a gentleman then recently de- 

 ceased, John Parker, Esq., a merchant of the city, and the other a donation of more than 

 fifty volumes to the Library by Dr. Francis Boott of London. 



