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Boston, February 5, 1861. 



To the Honorable the Senate and the House of Representatives : — 

 At the Annual Meeting of the Trustees of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, January 30, 1861, it was 



Voted, That the Secretary be instructed to prepare a Report, on 

 behalf and in the name of the Trustees, giving full information as to 

 the Museum, with copies of all important documents in regard to its 

 history, and present the same to the legislature. 



In compliance with this instruction, the undersigned respect- 

 fully submits the following Report : — 



The first meeting of the Trustees was held April 30, 1859, 

 when the Act of incorporation was accepted, and a code of by- 

 laws adopted. 



A Committee was then appointed to confer with the President 

 and Fellows of Harvard College, who owned a large collection of 

 objects of Natural History, and who held a fund of fifty thousand 

 dollars, given to them in compliance with the request, and from 

 the estate of Francis C. Gray, to establish and maintain a 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



At the same meeting, a subscription of private individuals, 

 amounting to seventy-one thousand one hundred and twenty- 

 five dollars was transferred to the Trustees, for the erection of a 

 fire-proof building in Cambridge, and for such other purposes as 

 would best promote the study and advancement of the science 

 which this collection was intended to teach and illustrate. 



