148 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE 



with only partial success. Constant work alone, he said was the most effectual. Every 

 bird had been soaked in benzine or naptha. The great want was such cases as are 

 the best adapted to keep out the pests that do the injury. Those in use were not fit by 

 their construction to contain specimens liable to attack. 



The department of the Mammalia was reported as rapidly improving. The New Eng- 

 land collection had received many accessions obtained by expenditure of a portion of the 

 bequest of Mr. Sidney Homer, the Council, as before stated, having appropriated the sum 

 thus received for the purpose of adding to this collection. 



At the election of officers, Mr. R. C. Greenleaf was chosen Second Vice-President, and 

 Mr. J. A. Allen one of the Committee on birds in place of Mr. J. Elliot Cabot, resigned. 



Walker Prizes. At a meeting of the Society in June, the President, Mr. Bouv6, pre- 

 sented the report of the committee on the Walker prizes. 



To Prof Albert N. Prentiss of Ithaca, New York, the first prize of one hundred dollars 

 was awarded, and to Mr. Daniel Milliken of Hamilton, Ohio, the second, of fifty dollars, 

 for their competitive essays " On the mode of the Natural Distribution of Plants over the 

 Surface of the Earth." 



In October, Mr. F. W. Putnam called the attention of the Society to the great loss the 

 Chicago Academy of Science had suffered in the destruction by fire of their valuable col- 

 lections in the various departments of natural history and of archaeology, and offered a 

 resolution of sympathy on the part of the Boston Society of Natural History, and the 

 offer of such of our publications and duplicate specimens as might be acceptable. This 

 was ably seconded by Professor Agassiz, who mentioned that the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology had suffered greatly by the fire, as all of Count Pourtal^s' collections on the Deep 

 Sea dredging expedition were deposited there. The resolve was unanimously passed. 



At a meeting of the Council it was voted that Miss Lucinda Foster be employed to suc- 

 ceed Miss Blaikie as assistant in the Library. 



The death of the Reverend Joshua Augustus Swan, the Recording Secretary and Libra- 

 rian of the Society, occurred on the 31st of October. At the meeting on November 1st, 

 the President, Mr. Bouv6, paid the following tribute to his memory : 



" I know not how to utter the deep grief I feel and which I know is shared by you all 

 in the death of our dear companion, Mr. Swan, the Secretary of the Society. No one, I 

 am sure, who has had the pleasure of personal intercourse with him, but will feel that he 

 has lost a near and dear friend. To me his presence even has always seemed a benedic- 

 tion. I do not think I ever was so much impressed by the personal character of any man 

 with whom I have come in contact as with that of Mr. Swan. He seemed always over- 

 flowing with love for, and a desire to aid, all about him. What might excite in other 

 men feelings of bitterness or anger, moved him only to sorrow, and no one was more char- 

 itable in his judgments of the acts of others. Truly we have lost from our circle a man 

 devoid of guile, upright in conduct, lovable beyond expression, pure in heart and faithful 

 in every duty. God grant that his family, so dear to him, may have strength to bear the 

 loss that falls so much more heavily upon them than upon all others." 



The following resolution, with others offered by Prof. J. D. Runkle, was then unani- 

 mously passed : 



