REPORT 
OF THE 
BOARD OF DIRECTORS. 
Philadelphia, April 24th, 1879. 
The Board of Directors of the Zoological Society of Philadel- 
phia submit to the members and loan-certificate holders, this, 
their Seventh Annual Report of the business and operations of 
the Society, from 1st of March, 1878, to 1st of March, 1879. 
MEMBERS. 
The number of members of the Society on the 1st of March, 
1879, was— 
Annual members, ...... 731 
Life members, . . . . . . . 188 
Corresponding members, ..... 9 
Honorary members, ..... . 14 
Total members (exclusive of loan-holders), . 942 
Decrease from preceding year of nineteen Annual Members, 
and a loss, by death, of three Honorary Members, viz.. Prof. 
Joseph Henry, Thomas H. Powers, and Brigham Young. 
The number of loan-holders is four hundred and ninety-three. 
VISITORS. 
The present year presents a marked increase in the number of 
visitors. The total excess over the attendance of last year, 
being seventy-six thousand nine hundred and sixty-six, and the 
average daily increase being two hundred and three. This year, 
freed as well from the excitement of novelty attendant on our first 
two years, and that of the Centennial Exhibition in 1876, as from 
the extreme depression attending 1877-8, is perhaps the first 
year since the opening of the Garden which presents a fair esti- 
mate on which the ordinary number of visitors may be predi- 
cated. In this light, the number of its visitors is gratifying ; 
(5) 
