Bouv<5.] 250 [March 15, 



meaning, nevertheless, to serve your interests .as devotedly in the 

 future as I have endeavored to in the past. 



There is one strong wish of my heart ungratified, one that I hoped 

 might in some way be met whilst yet I remained an active member. 

 That wish is, that each department might possess a fund for the 

 care, proper use and preservation of its objects. With such funds 

 there would always be a corps of workers in the Society whose ser- 

 vices would be available for instruction, and thus the general objects 

 of the Society be the better promoted. The great service rendered 

 to the Society by the special funds now available for the Library, 

 Prizes and the Molluscan Department, are suggestive of the much 

 that might be accomplished by the like endowment of other depart- 

 ments. 1 



I must also express the great gratification that has been afforded me 

 by the yearly allowance made by Mr. John Amory Lowell, Trustee, 

 whereby the Society has been enabled to have lectures upon the sev- 

 eral branches of science given in this room, of great value to the 

 public; — and by the great generosity of Mr. John Cummings, by 

 which the Society has been able to give courses of lectures to teachers, 

 and to do much that it could not otherwise have done in employing 

 labor on its collections. 



In conclusion, allow me to express the hope that the same pleasant 

 association that has drawn towards us and kept with us, officers and 

 members of the Institutions in our neighborhood, may continue; for 

 with them we should have no antagonism. Whatever is for their 

 good is for ours, and the greater their success the more, I am sure, 

 will our welfare be advanced. 



At the close of the President's address Mr. George B. 

 Emerson spoke warmly of the Society's progress during Mr. 

 Bouve's admistration, and of the great regret all would feel 

 if he insisted on the acceptance of his resignation, which the 

 speaker begged him to reconsider. 



Prof. Wm. B. Rogers pleaded that, as the President him- 

 self admitted unfulfilled plans, he should consent to remain 

 in office for the present, at least. He knew of no one who 

 had served the Society so long and zealously, and believed 

 that his resignation would be an irreparable loss. Both 

 speakers were warmly npplauded. 



