32 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



Some statements have been made in the notices of the Annual Meetings, of the 

 Treasurer's reports showing excess of expenditure over receipts, and the fact of an accu- 

 mulating debt which threatened seriously the welfare of the Society, notwithstanding the 

 ajinual subsidy of $300 received from the State, and which was granted for five years. 

 The Treasurer's Eeport for the year ending May, 1840, will show the financial condition 

 of the Society, at the end of the ten years of its existence. 



Its receipts for the year were as foUows : 



From the previous treasurer . . 



Dividend on one share Granite Bank stock ..... 



Annual and last grant from the State ....... 



Annual assessments and entrance fees ....... 



Borrowed from the Courtis Fund in order to pay off indebtedness of 

 the Society 



Payments as follows : — 



ITotes held against the Society and interest 



Rent and taxes due for rooms prior to the past year 



Amounts due incurred prior to year . 



Whole debt paid 



Books added to library 

 Rent and taxes of Society's apartments 

 Printing and advertising 

 Miscellaneous expenses of cabinet 

 Current expenses of the cabinet . 

 Entomological cabinet .... 

 Care and attendance on the room, fuel, &c 

 Expense altering shell-cabinet 

 Commissions collecting fees, &c. . 



Cash balance in ti-easury 



$1,772 00 



1,090 38 



- 668 94 



$1,759 32 

 12 68 



$1,772 00 



This account has been given in full, ha order to exhibit more clearly the economy exer- 

 cised m managiflg the afiairs of the Society, necessary if the Society was to be saved from 

 the burden of a debt that could not be borne, yet destructive afterwards to portions of the 

 collection of very great value, from that want of expenditure requisite to the proper care 

 and preservation of perishable objects. 



The Society had struggled with debt during the greater part of its existence, and was 

 ior the first time free from its harrassing claims. This, however, was only brought about 

 byborrowmg from the fund which it desired to hold sacred for special purposes; that 

 received from the heirs of Ambrose S. Courtis, $10,000. The claim that "we had now 

 shownto the world that a Society of Natural History could be supported in Boston," 

 having the aims and objects of the one existing, and relying on voluntary labor and 



