1879. ] DOr [Annual Meeting. 
progress with insufficient means, but we have not yet learned 
that donations of time and money to the public service on 
our part are in any sense remunerative. 
I will mention for example that the present course has 
cost the Society a year’s delay in the preparation of the 
General Guide to the Museum, about $1000 in the shape of 
the Custodian’s salary during the time in which they had no 
direct return for his personal services, a considerable amount 
of workin the Museum by Mr. Henshaw, some of Mr. Van 
Vleck’s time, and some also of the jinitor’s time. Such ex- 
penditures as these are not even distantly related to the kind 
of investments which men make when they expect tangible re- 
turns in the shape of interest moneys, or which purely scien- 
tific societies would select for a similar purpose, or even to 
stimulate donations. 
Report OF Mr. Burcess, SECRETARY. 
In preparing my annual report for the present meeting, it 
seems fitting to compare briefly the condition and work 
of the departments under the Secretary’s charge, during the 
years of the decade now closing. The history of these ten 
years is the common one of large, possibly extravagant, ex- 
penditure during the earlier half, and of an ever increasing 
reduction and economy in the later. On the departments in 
question, at least, the Society has spent a smaller sum during 
the present, than for many a year past ; owing, however, to 
the constant watchfulness of the various committees in charge 
and to the prevailing lower prices of labor and materials, as 
much has been accomplished as could be claimed in several 
preceding reports, and the present condition of these depart- 
ments warrants a hopeful prophecy for a future, I trust not 
far distant. : 
MEMBERSHIP. 
The resident membership of tbe Society now includes 
441 Corporate and Associate members, about fifty less 
PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H.— VOL. XX. 17 NOVEMBER, 1879. 
