JANUARY, 1902. 
PROCEEDINGS. 
11 
acter by purchase and exchange, and these are all at present stored 
in the offices of the Public Museum, and, besides being almost in- 
accessible, are uncatalogued and unindexed, and therefore of prac- 
tically no use to the society. 
There is urgent need for a well arranged and fairly complete 
Natural Science Library here in Milwaukee, and we should not 
let the matter rest until something permanent has been accom- 
plished in this direction. 
Still another matter has been in a manner thrust upon us dur- 
ing the past few months. The founders of our society plainly 
intended it as a state organization, and named it the Wisconsin 
Society, and distant parts of the State have at all times been repre- 
sented on its membership roll, but the actual work of the society 
has practically always been confined to the vicinity of this City and 
to Milwaukee County. 
Letters, however, have been received of late from science 
teachers, collectors and archeologists throughout the state, express- 
ing a desire that our field of work be extended so that our society 
become in fact as in name a state organization. In fact steps have 
already been taken in our Archeology Section to extend its mem- 
bership and its field of work in this way, but we think it wise to 
consider the matter well and weigh well all our resources before 
committing ourselves to any definite step of this kind. A large 
non-resident membership can only be successfully retained and 
the work of the organization carried on with such, by correspond- 
ence and publications, and this implies an immense amount of 
work for those who have it in charge. In other societies where 
such work is successfully conducted, those entrusted with it are 
generally persons having considerable leisure or those holding 
positions whose duties do not clash with the work thev do for 
their society, such as government scientific officials or University 
professors. 
There are, we believe, no men of leisure among our active 
members and probably none who could look after such work effi- 
ciently without considerable self-sacrifice, so that it behooves us 
not to hastily take any step in this matter until we are assured 
that what we do w'lW be permanent and done well. 
W. J. BENNETS, Secretary. 
A Committee on Membership, consisting of Messrs. Habhag- 
ger, Cline, Stanhope and Bennetts, which had been nominated at 
a section meeting, was approved by the society upon a motion 
made by Mr. Harlowe. 
A motion to the efifect that the dues of non-resident members 
should henceforth be $t.oo per annum was made by Dr. Chas. 
Stanhope and unanimously carried. 
