678 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL XXXII. 
the rejecta contributed at frequent intervals by the members. 
Around the walls was a very promiscuous collection of birds and 
mammals, some shot and prepared by past members, others the 
gift of so-called benefactors, who, not knowing what else to do 
with them, turned them over to the Society. Quartz crystals 
and other showy but not very valuable minerals hobnobbed with 
skeletons, one of which, at least, must have been very useful, 
if one could judge by the perennial absence of some of the 
limbs, which had been removed, as was said, for study. 
Botany was represented by a single cabinet, whose pigeon- 
holes were filled with plants of New England, enriched by 
choice fragments of specimens collected by well-meaning persons 
sin the Alps and by travelers in the Holy Land. The plants 
were arranged, or rather shuffled, in the case according to the 
wishes or necessity of the curator of the time being. We were 
quite eclectic in our view of botanical classification, some 
pigeonholes being arranged on the Linnzean ‘system, some on 
the natural system, and some apparently alphabetically. What-- 
ever real value the collections may have had, once a year they 
were at least ornamental. Every year the members were pho- 
tographed, and the alligator, the turkey buzzard, and the human 
skeleton were taken down and added to the group to show that 
we were really the Natural History Society, and not the Hasty 
Pudding or the Phi Beta Kappa. 
The old collections were long ago dispersed, and the little 
which was of value is now incorporated with the different uni- 
versity collections. You may perhaps be curious to know 
what the members of the Society did. That is easily told. 
They all talked, and some dissected cats. The talk was toa 
great extent about the origin of species, and, no matter what 
was the subject of the papers announced for the evening meet- 
ing, it was not often that we adjourned without dropping into a 
discussion of evolution. Few had really read Darwin's book, 
but all felt able to discuss the great scientific question of the 
day, in which respects, perhaps, we did not differ from some 
older and more learned people. Although the traditional man 
who is always on principle “on the other side ” was not want- 
ing, we were practically unanimous in our opinion. We all 
