16 MEMOIR OF 



ments were soon after entered into for the delivery 

 of courses of lectures, chiefly on Chemistry and 

 Botany ; and the library and museum were at once 

 replenished with books and specimens from Mr. 

 Maclure's European collections. 



On the 30th of December, 1817, Mr. Maclure 

 was elected President of the Academy; to which 

 office of confidence and honour he was annually re- 

 elected up to the time of his death, a period of more 

 than twenty-two years. 



Under his auspices the Journal of the Academy 

 (which now numbers eight octavo volumes) was 

 commenced with energy and talent; and such was his 

 interest in its progress, that a considerable portion of 

 the first volume was printed in an apartment of his 

 own house. 



Among the most ardent of Mr- Maclure's col- 

 leagues at this time was Mr. Thomas Say, a gentle- 

 man who united in a remarkable degree the love of 

 science and the social virtues. Enthusiastic in his 

 favourite studies, and possessed of a singular tact for 

 detecting the varied relations of organized beings, he 

 early attracted the notice and secured the esteem of 

 Mr. Maclure ; and the friendship which thus grew 

 up between them, continued unaltered by time or 

 circumstance to the end of life. How much the 

 Acad -j my and the cause of Natural History owe to 



