Feb, 23. 1882] 
NATURE 
389 
given by his formula, but as the formula is clearly inac- 
curate for temperatures above 10° C. it is premature to 
conclude, as he does, that the surface water is super- 
saturated with oxygen. J. Y. BUCHANAN 
(To be continued.) 
THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL 
HISTORY, 1830-1880 
eee Boston Society of Natural History was founded 
in 1830 by a few earnest men, and in 188oit resolved 
to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary by the publication 
of an historical sketch of its origin and life, and of a 
special series of scientific memoirs. This resolution has 
been carried into effect by the issue of a splendid quarto 
volume of over 600 pages and 4o plates, the paper and 
typography of which is worthy of the Boston Press, 
Very interesting is the account given of the early 
struggles and early successes of this now so well-known 
institution. Preceded by the Linnean Society of Boston 
(founded in 1814), which at first made rapid progress and 
then gradually fell away, it was duly constituted in 
May, 1830, with Thomas Nuttall as president. At this 
time, Mr. S. H. Scudder states, there was not in New 
England an institution devoted to the study of natural 
history ; there was not a college, except Yale, where even 
the modern views of geology were taught. The few 
labourers in the field of natural science worked alone, 
without aid or encouragement, and were regarded as 
triflers by a busy public. To go through the records of 
its early days, however briefly, would take up too 1nuch 
of the space at our disposal. 
Once started into existence, the Society found itself 
with the responsibility of a rapidly increasing museum ; 
and the demands upon its pecuniary resources, even 
though an enormous amount of gratuitous service was 
rendered by the members, soon began to be very trouble- 
some. Generous and wealthy members replenished the 
empty treasury, and after its first ten years’ existence 
(1830-40) it found itself, after a hard pinch, just free from 
debt. In 1841 the publication of the ¥ournal of the 
proceedings commenced. Louis Agassiz joined the So- 
ciety in 1847. Dr. Amos Burney, its president, died the 
same year at Rome. In 1848 the members assembled in 
a new house in Mason Street, and the close of a second 
decade (1840-1850) found them just holding their own. 
Already in 1855 it became evident that the new abode 
was becoming all too small for the collections; and now 
it was well for the Society that they found so good 
a friend in John C. Warren, for he largely assisted in 
procuring the means for purchasing the present accom- 
modation, though another ten years (1850-60) passed 
away, and it was not until 1861 that Dr. William 
j. Walker presented the Society with the estate in 
Bulfinch Street, where the Society’s fine museum and 
library now stands. The magnificent donation of 10,000 
dollars from Mr. Jonathan Philips, the products of the 
sale of the house in Mason Street, with many generous 
subscriptions, enabled the Society to think of building on 
the site presented to them by Dr. Walker, but on considera- 
tion they found that they had not more than half the’ 
money amount required. In this emergency Dr. Walker 
came again to their aid, presenting them with a gift of 
20,000 dollars, on condition that a further sum of like 
amount were raised. The year 1864 found the Society in its 
present handsome edifice (the building of which had cost 
80,000 dollars) and trying to solve the problem of how to 
keep up so spacious a mansion on its comparatively small 
resources. With wondrous liberality Dr. Walker once 
more offered a donation of 20,000 dollars, on the condi- 
tion that a like amount were subscribed by others, the 
whole to form a working capital to be funded. This 
became an accomplished fact in Mav, 1864, but this was 
not all, for on Dr. Walker’s death in April, 1865, it was 
found that he had left by will a large fortune to the 
Society, and following this good example ere this fourth 
(1860-70) decade passed away, other liberal members had 
subscribed some 50,000 dollars to the capital of the 
Society, thus establishing the Institution on sucha firm 
foundation as to secure its perpetuity as long as wisdom 
shall prevail in its Councils. Its property, besides the 
buildings with their inestimable contents, consisted of 
vested funds, amounting to 186,898:20 dollars, and a fair 
annual income from members. 
The fifth decade, the celebrating of the close of which 
took place in April, 1880, was chiefly noted for the 
progress that was made in a scientific arrangement of 
the collections of the Society, under the custodianship of 
Mr. Hyatt; by the deaths (1874) of Louis Agassiz, about 
whose early career some very interesting facts are given, 
and (1874) of Jeffries Wyman, of whom there is a short 
biography, of Charles Pickering 1878), of C. F. Hartt 
(1868), and of T. M. Brewer (1880). 
There is a very valuable account of the Teachers’ 
School of Science, which seems in Boston to have 
attained a great success, and a summary of the general 
contents of the Museum. Very excellent portraits of 
Benjamin D. Greene, George B. Emerson, Amos Binney, 
J. C. Warren, Jeffries Wyman, and Thomas T. Bouvé, 
being the first six presidents of the Society, accompany 
this part of the volume and also a history of Dr. 
William J. Walker, and engravings of the portraits of A. 
A. Gould and Dr. Humphreys Storer. 
The second portion of this fine memorial volume is de- 
voted to the publication and illustration of a series of 
memoirs, of which we must be content with the bare enume- 
ration of their titles. These are thirteen in number, and are 
profusely illustrated: N.S. Shaler, Propositions concern- 
ing the Classification of Lavas considered with Reference 
to the circumstances of their Extrusion; A. Hyatt, the 
Genesis and Evolution of the Species of Planorbis at 
Steinheim (ten plates and a map); S. H. Scudder, the De- 
vonian Insects of New Brunswick, with a Note on the Geo- 
logical Relations of the Fossil Insects from the Devonian 
of New Brunswick, by Dr. J. W. Dawson (one plate) ; W. 
G. Farlow, on the Gymnosporangia (Cedar Apples) of the 
United States (two plates) ; Theodore Lyman, on a New 
Structural Feature, hitherto unknown among Echinoder- 
mata, found in Deep Sea Ophiurans (two plates) ; W. K. 
Brooks, the Development of the Squid (Loligo fpeadlit, 
Les.), three plates; A. S. Packard, jun., the Anatomy, 
Histology, and Embryology, of Limulus polyphemus 
(seven plates); Edward Burgess, Contributions to the 
Anatomy of Danazs archippus, Fab. (two plates) ; Saml. 
F. Clarke, the Developmeat of a Double-Headed Verte- 
brate (one plate) ; C. S. Minot, Studies on the Tongues 
of Birds and Reptiles (one plate) ; Edward S. Morse, on 
the Identity of the Ascending Process of the Astragalus in 
Birds with the Intermedium (one plate) ; Lucien Carr, on 
the Crania of New England Indians (two plates) ; William 
James, the Feeling of Effort. 
THE PHYSIOGNOMY OF CONSUMPTION 1 
“pees idea that a certain type of face indicates a ten- 
dency to certain diseases is not only widely diffused 
in the medical profession, but among the public at large, 
as is shown by the frequent occurrence of such phrases as 
“ consumptive-lookinz,” and “ apoplectic-looking.” With 
a view to ascertaining how far these generally-entertained 
ideas are true, and of substituting for mere personal im- 
pressions the test of exact and unprejudiced investigation, 
the authors of this paper have made a number of observa- 
tions by the method of composite portraiture, already 
described by Mr. Galton in NATURE. The countenance 
which is supposed to indicate a tendency to phthisis or 
t!* An Inquiry into the Physiognomy of Phthisis, by the Metiod of 
Composite Portraiture.’? By Francis Galton, F.R.S., and F. A, Mahomed, 
M.D. 
