Annual Meeting.] 14 [May 3, 



Report of Edward Burgess, Secretary. 



The following report on the condition of the departments in 

 charge of the Secretary is respectfully submitted. 



Membership. 



The roll of Corporate and Associate Members bears to-day 

 four hundred and twenty-seven names, just thirty less than 

 reported one year ago ; but this loss is rather apparent than real, 

 for the roll has been carefully revised, and names of many mem- 

 bers have been erased for non-payment of fees, which strictly 

 should not have been enumerated last year. Nineteen Associate 

 Members have been elected. Owing to the failure of the last 

 regular election, from lack of a quorum, there have been no 

 elections in the higher classes of membership. We have lost 

 by death six Corporate Members and four Patrons, among whom 

 should here be especially mentioned Mr. John Amory Lowell, a 

 member of the Council, to whom the Society was indebted for the 

 Lowell Herbarium and other gifts, Dr. John Bacon, and Mr. 

 James Davis, the latter of whom showed his interest in the 

 Society by the generous bequest of five thousand dollars. Four 

 Corresponding Members have died during the year, and one 

 Honorary Member, Charles Darwin, whose death not, two w T eeks 

 since, the world now deplores. 



A new list of members is about to be printed. 



Meetings. 



Sixteen general meetings have been held as usual, with an 

 average attendance of thirty-three persons, the largest attendance 

 being seventy-four, and the smallest, twenty. The average — 

 thirty-three — is the same as reported last year. Forty-seven 

 communications were made at these meetings. 



The Section of Entomology held seven meetings, the average 

 attendance being eight persons. Twenty communications were 

 made. 



