120 



The secretary read a communication from Eev. E. C. Bolles, of 

 Portland, Me., accompanying a valuable and highly interesting collec- 

 tion of manuscripts, pamphlets, etc. Mr. B.'s letter was as follows : 



To the Essex Institute : 



While on a lecture tour a few weeks since, I visited a large paper- 

 mill for the purpose of examining the mass of pamphlets, books, and 

 manuscripts, that in such places is continually undergoing " recon- 

 struction." I was just in time ; for the " sorters " had not been many 

 minutes engaged on a bale of papers that proved to be the debris of the 

 study of the late Dr. J. L. Riddell, of New Orleans. It was evident, 

 that some executor, neither literary nor scientific, had bundled off this 

 accumulation at the current price of paper-stock, in clearing out the 

 huge many-pressed room, in which, as I well remember, Dr. Riddell 

 was wont to sit at the Medical Department of the University of Louis- 

 iana, surrounded by the rarest and direst confusion of all things surgi- 

 cal, microscopical, chemical, and often diabolical. From this bale and 

 one discovered afterwards, I rescued many articles of interest and 

 value. I have already transmitted various pamphlets, Dr. R.'s medi- 

 cal diploma, etc., and now I beg to send the accompanying manu- 

 scripts with the following remarks. 



You will find among the pamphlets a " jeu cT esprit " of Dr. Riddell's 

 entitled " Orrin Lindsay and his System of Aerial Navigation with 

 an account of his Voyage around the Moon." The papers are the 

 sketches and preliminary calculations for that amusing essay. They 

 include also the notes for a projected Trip to the Planet Mars, also 

 supposed to have been made by the same mythical Lindsay. They are 

 interesting as showing the great care and labor demanded to express 

 this little story of a lunar excursion in terms of strict scientific accu- 

 racy, to make the whole seem probable in the precision of every num- 

 ber and calculated force, and to leave no chance for the fault-finding 

 of the most accomplished critic, save with the monstrous assumption 

 that gravity may be overcome by a new law of magnetic exclusion. 

 I think you will find the printed essay well worth reading in connec- 

 tion with this unexpected commentary which Dr. Riddell is made to 

 furnish to his own work. 



Such a view behind the scenes gives ns, too, no bad idea of the au- 

 thor. If his private character was marked by a peculiar avarice seldom 

 found among scientific men of so high a grade, yet his natural restless- 

 ness and industry cannot be too much extolled. As all his private 

 letters, literary notes, duplicate publications, and microscopical draw- 

 ings seem to have been included in the collection of which I exam- 

 ined a part, it is probable that but few evidences of his many years of 

 strange but faithful studies remain to interest the thoughts and employ 

 the pen of the antiquarian. E. C. BOLLES. 



A specimen of the Hair-worm (Gordius aquaticus) having been pre- 

 sented, Mr. Putnam gave an account of the habits of the worm, and 

 alluded to the absurd notion that was prevalent, that these worms 

 were developed from horse-hairs which had been some time in water. 



Donations to the Museum and Library were announced. 



Mr. Putnam called attention to the AMERICAN NATURALIST, an Illus- 

 trated Monthly Magazine of Popular Natural History, the first number 



