146 Notice of British Naturalists. 



vancement of Science may be said to be but the carrying out of 

 this principle on a grander and more enlightened scale.* 



In this country much has been done both in forming scientific 

 and popular museums and societies. It must, however, be al- 

 lowed that few of our societies are efficient, and too many exist 

 only in name ; but the Philosophical Society, the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, of Philadelphia ; the Lyceum of Natural His- 

 tory, of New York ; similar institutions in Baltimore and Charles- 

 ton ; the American Academy, and the Natural History Society, of 

 Boston ; the Institute, of Albany ; the young Natural History So- 

 cieties of Salemf and Yale College ; and a still more youthful 

 Society in Harvard University, evince that all are not asleep, or in 

 a state of suspended animation. Several of these institutions have 

 valuable collections, most of which are rapidly increasing. Among 

 the most distinguished, are those of the Academy of Sciences and 

 the Franklin Institute, of Philadelphia ; of the Lyceum of New 

 York, and the Natural History Society, of Boston. 



Among our popular Museums are several of great merit in our 

 principal cities, at the head of which is deservedly placed the fine 

 museum of the late venerable Peale — with its colonies in other 

 cities, — and several others, in all our larger towns. 



Our living Naturalists are numerous. Audubon, Nuttall, Har- 

 lan, Morton, and Torrey are not without coadjutors, and it would 

 require a long catalogue to enumerate them all. The early pub- 

 lication of Wilson's Ornithology, with its continuation in later 

 years, and of Holbrook's Herpetology, still going on, affords suf- 

 ficient proof that this country is alive to the claims of Natural His- 

 tory. 



The next great writer upon British Zoology is Thomas Pen- 

 nant. We should wish to depict Pennant's character as that of 



* Among the earlier collections formed in England, the WycklifFe Museum may 

 be particularly noticed as one much celebrated in its day. It was formed and own- 

 ed by Marmaduke Tunstall, an independent gentleman, of old family, at Wickliffe, 

 in Yorkshire. He was the friend and correspondent of the greatest naturalists of 

 the day. To this collection the writers of those times owe niucJi ; and from unique 

 specimens contained in it, Edwards, Brown, Pennant, Latham, and Bewick, illus- 

 trated their works. At his death it was sold ; aiid having passed through the hands 

 of Mr. Allan, of Darlington, in the county of Durham, it became in 1822 the founda- 

 tion of the excellent collection in Newcastle upon Tyne, where it still remains, 

 t The East India Museum of Salem is an unique and most interesting collection ; 

 and tlic Chinese Museum at Philadelphia, although having little relation to science, 

 is rich beyond all example, in illustrations of China. 



