14 APPENDIX 



THE PORTLAND SOCIETY OF NATURAL 

 HISTORY. 



We beg to call attention to the following appeal of this most unfortu- 

 nate society, and to urge the friends of science to give what aid they can as 

 promptly as possible, for every dollar received at this trying time will be 

 more encouraging to the society than larger sums hereafter. 



AN APPEAL TO THE FRIENDS OF SCIENCE. 



" For the second time, the Portland Society of Natural History has been visited 

 by a destructive calamity. Its new hall, with the furniture and all its collections, 

 have again been destroyed by fire. 



The origin of this Society must be referred to the organization of the Maine In- 

 stitute in 1836. Though at first struggling with poverty, it was able to secure large 

 collections in Natural History, and a valuable library of scientific books. These 

 were, by the favor of the Government, placed in the Custom House, a spacious hall 

 in that professedly fire-proof structure being assigned to the Society's use. In 1854, 

 the burning of this edifice destroyed every species of property belonging to the Soci- 

 ety. Not a vestige of its museum or library was left to serve as a memorial of the 

 past. 



But the spirit of the Society was not dead. A few individuals by their persever- 

 ing labors raised a new cabinet from the ashes of the old. The State granted one 

 half-township of land ; subscriptions were set on foot ; contributions flowed steadily 

 in ; and at last the Society was housed in a noble building, which six months ago it 

 had lifted so far out of debt that it could begin to call this its own. It had a splen- 

 did hall of exhibition, fine lecture room and laboratory; while the collections made 

 by some of the most faithful servants of science, or contributed from the East and 

 West, adorned ite walls. Publications of high scientific value had been issued from 

 its press. A special Curator had just been regularly engaged, a repair fund gathered, 

 courses of free lectures begun, new members were crowding to its ranks, all the signs 

 of vitality and growth were large, when, in the terrible fire that left, in twelve hours 

 only a desert where the commercial centre of Portland was, everything once more 

 vanished like a dream. The building was isolated, fire-proof apparently, and in the 

 judgment of all safe from harm, until the sweep of that awful tide of flame, which 

 no masonry could withstand, closed in ruin over the cherished results of years of 

 toil. 



By this loss, the Society is again stripped of its all. Its insurance proved nearly 

 worthless. Its mortgage debt will absorb the value of the land, the charred ruins 

 and its remaining funds. The library and the fine picture of Humboldt, the splen- 

 did gift of the poet Longfellow, alone are saved. In the destitution, which these 

 remnants of former wealth make more painful to consider, the Society is compelled 

 to Implore the aid of the friends of science everywhere to enable it to continue its 

 work. 



Brethren ! whom God has spared the double affliction with which He has visited 

 lis, will you grant us your help? Our first need is a home a building that we may 

 re-consecrate to science. We can repair all other losses better than that. Our city 

 Is impoverished our own selves involved in grief and loss and if aid does not 

 come from you, we know not where to turn. Will you give us the hand of sympa- 

 thy the open hand of benevolence,' that we may again have a " local habitation 

 and a name," and go on prosperously in the joyful work of studying and interpret- 

 ing the book of Nature? 



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