1871.] 209 l Annual Report. 



and the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cam- 

 bridge. The first step in this direction demands a thorough 

 acquaintance with our present position and a complete defini- 

 tion of the future policy to be pursued. In this way, the 

 Society will be ready for the consideration of any scheme of 

 cooperation, and what is still more important, feel in the 

 meantime that its expenditures, whether of money or labor, 

 are distributed judiciously. Another reason for a definition 

 of our plans lies in the fact that Societies are liable to sudden 

 changes of policy and should, therefore, have some precise 

 standard of comparison by which the value of each new 

 measure can be judged. 



The Society, as it is now constituted, has three well 

 marked divisions, — the meetings, with their attendant publi- 

 cations, especially devoted to the use of the members ; the 

 Library, also for the use of the members, but to which, as to 

 the meetings, all respectable applicants have ever been made 

 welcome; and lastly the Museum and Lectures. 



The effects of the meetings are too complex to be readily 

 defined. It may be affirmed, however, that they secure mu- 

 tual good understanding and support between professional men 

 and amateurs, that they furnish to mature minds the most sym- 

 pathetic of all audiences, encourage the hesitating student to 

 take his first steps in the public service of science, and restrain 

 the hasty and over-confident by the presence of critical 

 judges. They also exercise a powerful influence upon the 

 public at large, by means of the bi-monthly reports of the 

 Secretary, published in the newspapers. 



The publications are accessory to the meetings and add 

 greatly to their attractions, besides' maintaining creditably our 

 part of the general correspondence now uniting all Natural 

 History Societies and Institutions. 



The principal object of the Library must necessarily be 

 the preservation and systematic cataloguing of the books and! 

 pamphlets, but it has certain duties, also, in connection withi 

 the publications and the purchase of books, which need to be; 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H.— VOL. XIV. 14 JANUARY, 1872. 



