4 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



the record of the year just closed^ to make repining need- 

 less. The loss by death of two presidents in quick suc- 

 cession had disordered to some extent, before this year, 

 the normal state of our affairs, and it has been the cher- 

 ished purpose of the Executive Committee for this year 

 to restore to a regular system as speedily and as fully as 

 might be, the running machinery of the Society. -The 

 recent death of William J. Foster removed one of the most 

 esteemed and valued of our volunteer assistants. 



The Historical Collections are now printed and distrib- 

 uted for the year 189(3. The Bulletin is also complete 

 for the year 1895. Both of these volumes lie before you 

 on the table, and will be found to be made up of matter 

 of a quality as valuable as and possibly more readable than 

 those of some preceding years. Large use has been made 

 in both volumes of illustrations, which modern electrical 

 methods produce at a cost within our reach. Our pages 

 have been opened freely to the papers offered by the 

 Local History Class. 



The Lecture courses have been well sustained and well 

 attended. Nine free lectures have been furnished, of a 

 quality which, it will appear on a recital of the list, it 

 would be difficult to better. Professor Goodale of Har- 

 vard opened the course with an illustrated lecture on the 

 Botany of New Zealand. Subway-Commissioner Gargan 

 followed with an illustrated account of the great Boston 

 enterprise. Next came Prof. Arlo Bates of the Institute 

 of Technology on " The Language of Literature," followed 

 by Professor Minot of the Harvard Medical School on the 

 great Russian Naturalist, von Baer. The fifth lecture 

 was from General Curtis Guild, Jr., on the "Sword in 

 Warfare." The sixth was by Rev. E. D. Towle on the 

 Poet Holmes, and the next by Professor Ripley of the 

 Technological School on "Some Peculiar People of South- 



