1876.] 245 [Bouv<*. 



The meetings, as before stated, were in the afternoon, and were 

 conducted, as now, with due formality; but, as now, the social ele- 

 ment was not lacking, and perhaps manifested itself the more readily 

 because of our fewer number, and of our close contiguity about the 

 chair. 



An instance of jocoseness may be not improperly mentioned, 

 which may recall pleasantly the scene to some of the eldest among 

 you. 



One of our number, and one of the best of men, Dr. Martin Gay, 

 a near and dear personal friend of mine, had, among numberless 

 good traits, one not so commendable, that of being often tardy. 

 One afternoon, just as we had got well into the proceedings, the door 

 of our hall, quite distant from where we were sitting, was opened, 

 upon which Dr. Storer, partially rising and looking back, that he 

 might see the reason of the disturbance, turned to the President and 

 quietly announced the arrival of the late Dr. Gay. The latter thus 

 acquired the cognomen of the " late " Dr. Gay with many of us, long 

 before the phrase became significant of a sad and great loss to our 

 number. 



On the left side of the hall, as you entered it, were upright cases, 

 all, or nearly all, filled with the fine mineralogical cabinet of Dr. 

 Jackson, and on the floor were table cases, two rows running length- 

 wise with the room, some containing fossils, but the larger portion 

 devoted to the conchological collection belonging to the Soci- 

 ety, which was then quite a good one, and under the care of Dr. 

 Gould, who took great interest in it. It was then the custom of 

 some of the Curators to be present on days of exhibition and to 

 interest visitors by their explanations. This was especially the case 

 with Dr. C. T. Jackson, who seldom failed to meet visitors and to 

 gratify them by his talk upon minerals, and his interesting anecdotes 

 concerning them. Dr. Gould, too, passed much time in this way, to 

 the great advantage of his hearers and to the Society. My own 

 studies at this period had been mainly in Mineralogy, but as I was 

 somewhat interested in geological inquiries, I was asked to become 

 a Curator; and the department of Geology was accordingly separated 

 from that of Mineralogy, the fossils at the same time coming under 

 my charge, as there was no separate department of Palaeontology. 

 I state all this to give some idea to many of you not acquainted 

 with our early history, of the gradual development of our knowledge 

 and of our modes of action in the immature youth of the great Soci- 



