( xH ) 



parfcment, Medical Departments of the Army and Navj, 

 Lighthouse Board, Signal Corps, Agricultural Department, 

 Bureau of Statistics, Census Of&ce, Bureaus of ISTavigation 

 and Steam Engineering, the Smithsonian Institution, etc. 

 etc. In addition to this, no city in the Union possesses 

 more ample facilities, in the way of books and implements, 

 for the prosecution of scientific research. The library of 

 Congress, enriched by the Smithsonian Deposit with the 

 transactions of all the principal learned societies of the 

 world, is almost unrivalled in scientific works. If to this 

 extensive collection we add the special libraries of the 

 Patent Office, the Agricultural Department, the Coast Sur- 

 vey, the National Observatory, and of the Surgeon-Gene- 

 ral's Office, we have a collection of modern books on science, 

 accessible to the members of the society, scarcely surpassed 

 by the collections of the most favored cities of the old 

 world. Nor are the articles of apparatus necessary for 

 any line of investigation beyond the reach of any member 

 of the Society who may possess the knowledge and skill 

 requisite to their proper use. There is great liberality on 

 the part of the heads of departments in the way of fur- 

 nishing apparatus that may in any degree facilitate the 

 special investigations under their direction. 



Among those connected with the various organiza- 

 tions just mentioned, a considerable number are engaged 

 in original investigations, the results of which are of inte- 

 rest to the scientific world, and which will be facilitated 

 and improved by the discussions of this Society. Fur- 

 thermore, in the daily operations of the different establish- 

 ments, facts of scientific importance are continually becom- 

 ing evident which would be lost if not preserved in the 

 records of the Society. It is not, however, alone to facili- 



