CCXXXVlll 



As it is well known to members. No. i of vol. i. is out of print. This 

 number is frequently called for to complete sets of our Transactions, and 

 it is very desirable that it should be reprinted as soon as practicable. 



Our foreign exchanges are carried on for the most part, as heretofore, 

 through the Smithsonian Institution. 



The receipts and expenditures of the Corresponding Secretary for the 

 year 1876 have been as follows : 



Receipts $89 77 



Expenditures 68 79 



Balance in hand $20 98 



The detailed account is herewith submitted, showing that of this amount 

 received, $55.35 was derived from the sale of the Transactions, and $30 

 was drawn from the Treasurer. The expenditures were entirely for 

 freight, postage, and stationery. 



At my request, the Librarian has kindly undertaken to furnish me with 

 a memorandum of any volumes, or parts of volumes, that are wanting to 

 complete full sets of the several series of publications which our library 

 contains. It is probable that the few missing numbers may be easily 

 supplied. Respectfully submitted. 



Jan. ist, 1877. NATHANIEL HOLMES, Corr. Secy. 



The Treasurer's report showed that the annual collection had 

 amounted to $664.cxd, and the amount now in the treasury is- 

 $159.71. The amount yet due, from members is $418.00. 



The Chairman of the Library Committee reported that 600- 

 books and pamphlets had been received during the year, of which 

 417 are foreign exchanges. He strongly recommended that some 

 steps be taken to secure rooms which would serve as a place of 

 meeting, and in which the collections and library can be suitably 

 arranged. 



The Academy then listened to the following address by Presi- 

 dent Riley : 



G'entlemen and Fellow-Members of the Academy : — In accord- 

 ance with a long-established custom, in retiring from the position with 

 which you honored me a year ago, I take advantage of the occasion to cast 

 a summary glance at the more important achievements that have marked 

 the past twelve months in our field of mutual labor. In surveying this 

 field from a general or international standpoint, one is overwhelmed with 

 a sense of its vastness ; and where, in almost every special department, 

 one or more good-sized volumes are annually published to chronicle the 

 titles or to give the merest abstracts of papers published, and the briefest 

 digests of work accomplished, it is manifestly impossible, in a brief ad- 

 dress, to give any adequate idea of the world's progress in science during 

 a single year — even were any one man competent to do so. 



