116 NOTES ON THE CONDITION OF ZOOLOGY 



son, Emerton and a host of others, have from time to 

 time addressed the citizens of this county on almost every 

 conceivable topic within the domain of natural science, 

 while papers and memoirs from their pens have enriched 

 the pages of your publications. 



No better evidence can be adduced of its county char- 

 acter than the fact that its members are by no means con- 

 fined to Salem, but are found scattered throughout the 

 county, and the further fact that this important anniver- 

 sary is being celebrated not in its halls at Salem, but here 

 in this beautiful town of Topsfield. 



In further evidence of the fact that it is a county 

 society, it has especially aimed at forming a collection 

 of the animals and plants of Essex County, and through 

 the devotion of Putnam, Cooke, Richard H. Wheatland, 

 Robinson, Sears, Emerton, and many others, it has 

 brought together a local collection of the first importance 

 in this country. It can be said, without fear of contra- 

 diction, that in no other society in America can so complete 

 and exhaustive a local collection of animals and plants be 

 found, as has been brought together by this society. A 

 general review of this nature will not permit us to point 

 out the numerous species new to science or forms new to 

 the state which have been added by these assiduous efforts. 



Let us glance at the first volume published by the so- 

 ciety nearly fifty years ago, and catch a glimpse of the 

 poverty of resources with which these early pioneers he- 

 roically set out in their task. In this volume was pub- 

 lished a catalogue of books, the working tools of a naturalist. 

 A few of our lunch baskets might have held the entire 

 library, and this collection consisted of a few volumes of 

 the transactions of the Philadelphia Academy, and the 

 opening numbers, with pages freshly cut, of one or two 

 other societies, containing the germs of American zoology 



