APRIL 24, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



667 



March, 1856, its work has been done under the 

 most discouraging circumstances. It has never 

 had a home. Its meetings have been held in the 

 meeting-room of the Board "of Education, at a 

 medical college, at Washington Univei-sity, and 

 in the rooms of the Missouri Historical Society. 

 It has never had its own home, where it might 

 make its valuable library and its collections of 

 real service to the citizens of our city. During 

 all these years of its existence the academy has 

 been collecting a library of scientific publica- 

 tions, in exchange with similar societies in all 

 parts of the world. Our published Transactions 

 have gone to every civilized land. We have cer- 

 tainly had the outward semblance of great sci- 

 entific activity. There is no local academy of 

 science in this country which can present a more 

 creditable record of published work. Even dur- 

 ing the Civil War, when almost every educational 

 interest suffered, a few working investigators, 

 aided by others who gave such support as they 

 could give, continued to produce before this body 

 their contributions to knowledge, and to publish 

 them to the world in the Transactions of the 



" During all of this time these pioneers have 

 been hoping to see this day. Year after year the 

 president's annual report has called attention to 

 the vital necessity of a fixed abiding-place which 

 we could own and control. Without this we 

 could never hope to establish a public museum of 

 science, or to avail ourselves of our precious li- 

 brary. 



"And now the first great advance has been made. 

 This gift to the cause we have been striving to 

 uphold could not have been more opportune. 

 These enlightened patrons of higher learning 

 have seen their opportunity, and they have volun- 

 teered their aid. The manner in which they have 

 bestowed their bounty makes it doubly valuable 

 and effective. They have made it impossible for us 

 to honor them by any act within our power. They 

 have become one with us in the cause which we 

 have all laboi-ed to advance. May we not hope 

 that they will permit us to enroll their names in 

 our membership as patrons of the academy ? 



" And this gift brings with it new obligations for 

 us. We should now seek to establish an endow- 

 ment fund, which will enable us to make our 

 valuable collections of books and specimens fully 

 available to the public. During the World's Fair 

 we shall be under examination. Learned men 

 from this and other lands will come among us. 

 The great public will be here. The location of our 

 new home is such that we can not fail to attract 



the attention of vast numbers of our visitors. We 

 should not only have a museum and library which 

 will be an honor to our city, but it should be open 

 to all. We wish to show that we have here, 

 among the permanent institutions of our city, an 

 academy of science which is dedicated to the ad- 

 vancement of human learning, and to the diffusion 

 of knowledge among men. In this way we shall 

 fittingly carry out the work which Mrs. William 

 McMillan and her son, Mr. William Northrop 

 JIcMillan, have so nobly begun." 



On nomination of the council, Mrs. Mc- 

 Millan and Mr. W. N. McMillan were elected 

 patrons of the academy. 



Wm. Trelease, 

 Recording Secretary. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 369th meeting was held Saturday, 

 Mardi 21. 



T. S. Pabner told of ' The Preservation of 

 Pelican Island as a Breeding Ground for 

 Birds.' He said that this islet situated in 

 Indian Eiver, Florida, was the only place on 

 the east coast where the brown pelican bred, 

 and that the Audubon Society had for some 

 time been endeavoring to secure it. It had 

 been found that the necessary legal proceed- 

 ings would require some two years' time and 

 that the spot might, after all, be secured by 

 another party; at the request of the Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture it had been made a gov- 

 ernment reservation, one of the very few cases 

 on record where such a step had been taken 

 to preserve the birds. 



Walter H. Evans drew attention to some 

 deficiencies in 'The International Catalogue 

 of Scientific Literature,' stating that in ex- 

 amining the volume containing the bibliog- 

 raphy of bacteriology he had found that only 

 a very small portion of such papers published 

 in the United States had been recorded. He 

 cited a number of journals whose articles had 

 been entirely or partially omitted, and said 

 that, on the other hand, papers were included 

 in the catalogue that could only by courtesy 

 be considered as bacteriological in their 

 nature. 



Vernon Bailey spoke of ' The Desert Life 

 of Western Texas,' illustrating his remarks 

 with views showing the characteristic features 



