120 NOTES ON THE CONDITION OF ZOOLOGY 



of thirty-eight thousand volumes and invested funds to 

 the amount of fifty thousand dollars. 



While this prosperous growth is due in part to the rich 

 intellectual soil from which it sprang, a very great credit 

 is due to the unselfish and unceasing labors of its one 

 persistent associate, our devoted president, who has been 

 with it from its inception and who as an officer has been 

 intimately connected with it at every stage of its develop- 

 ment. 



It is not a little remarkable that an organization em- 

 bracing, as it has for thirty-five years, an historical as well 

 as a natural history society, should have received from 

 this man impartial solicitude and attention. Voluminous 

 papers and memoirs, historical and biological, have been 

 published in its proceedings. Matters pertaining to both 

 subjects have often come up for discussion at the same 

 meetings, and yet there have been no dissensions nor 

 jealousies between the two branches. No factions have 

 developed. The curse of political methods has never 

 entered its councils. Perhaps it augured well for the so- 

 ciety that its first act of incorporation was signed by 

 educators and statesmen, by Horace Mann, then President 

 of the Senate and Edward Everett, Governor of the 

 Commonwealth . 



Surely such harmony indicates the patience and sagacity 

 with which its work has been guided. Certainly the 

 highest compliment our president could receive is, that 

 during the space of fifty years in which time he has suc- 

 cessively held all the offices to the highest, he has been 

 heartily seconded in every eifort for its welfare. 



With all this vitality and growth, this society is the 

 only one of any age and importance in the country that 

 has never had a home of its own. The Portland Society 

 of Natural History, though twice burned out, has still a 



