BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 213 



represent approximately the proportionate size of the sun and the earth, and their dis- 

 tance from each other relative to size. The proportionate scale of the models and their 

 distance apart is about a foot to three millions of miles, or about one inch to two hundred 

 and fifty thousand miles. 



A vote was passed, that the President appoint at leisure a committee of three to con- 

 sider the desirability of abolishing the Committees in the departments, and of devising a 

 different plan for organizing the Council, and to propose the necessary change in the Con- 

 stitution and By-Laws for this purpose. The President subsequently appointed as this 

 committee, S. II. Scudder, Dr. B. Joy Jeffries, and Edward Burgess. 



THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION OF THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOCIETY; APRIL 28. 



The anniversary day was pleasant and all things conspired to render the occasion inter- 

 esting and joyous. The spacious platform which had been erected across the north portion 

 of the main hall was occupied by the President, the speakers, the officers of the Society 

 and a large number of ladies and gentlemen. A large audience, composed of members of 

 the Society and very many prominent men and women of the city and State, filled the floor 

 of the hall and such portions of the galleries as were convenient to use. Amongst the dis- 

 tinguished persons present, were His Excellency Governor Long, President Eliot of Har- 

 vard University, Prof. Asa Gray, the illustrious botanist, Alexander Agassiz, Director of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Count Louis Francois de Pourtales, Dr. Samuel Eliot, 

 Superintendent of the Public Schools, Miss Lucre tia Crocker, Supervisor of the Public 

 Schools, Dr. D. Humphreys Storer, Judge G. W. Warren, Prof. F. W. Putnam, Rev. Robert 

 C. Waterston and Mrs. Waterston, Hon. Josiah Quincy, Prof. E. S. Morse, Colonel Theo- 

 dore Lyman, Dr. J. C. White, Mr. Justin Winsor, Librarian at Harvard University, and'Mr. 

 John Cummings. 



At half past three, the time of commencement, the President, Thomas T. Bouve', after 

 calling the assembly to order, began his address as follows : 



Members of the Society, my Associates in its service, my Companions for many years in 

 its labors, its trials and its achievements : I congratulate you. I think we have reason 

 to congratulate each other that we come here surrounded by a host of sympathizing 

 friends ; and ladies and gentlemen, whose names we have not the honor of having recorded 

 on our rolls as members, as a representative of the Society, I bid you a hearty welcome 

 here to commemorate its formation and to rejoice in its success. 



With these very few words of greeting, for the time will admit of no more, I proceed at 

 once to present what I have prepared for the occasion. It is an account of the doings of 

 those who took an active part, before the Society was formed, in interesting the public in 

 natural history. I do this because their labors have not been duly appreciated, and because 

 the lessons which their experience is designed to teach certainly require that we should 

 take time to do it. What I hold in my hand is intended as an introductory chapter in the 

 history of the Society of Natural History on which 1 am engaged, a memorial volume 

 to be issued this year. 



The President then proceeded to present the early steps taken to inculcate a love for the 

 study of nature in this community, particularly dwelling upon the formation of the Lin- 



