ARTICLE IV. 
SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE NATURAL HISTORY 
SOCIETY OF NEW BRUNSWICK. 
By G. F. Matthew. 
It is now fifty years since our Society was formed, and but 
few of its originators remain alive to tell of its inauguration. 
This, then, would seem a fitting occasion to recall its early days, 
and the men who were then active in promoting its objects. 
In the years preceding its formation there were a few 
enthusiastic students of the then still new science of geology 
who were applying its rules to the rock-formations about St. 
John, and who had for their text-books Lyell’s works and 
Gesner’s reports on the geology of New Brunswick, and for 
working material the Gesner museum in the Mechanic’s Institute 
and the rocks exposed around the city. 
Having made some important discoveries bearing on the 
geology of the province, this group of young geologists, who 
called themselves the “Steinhammer Club,” communicated 
them to Sir Wm. J. Dawson (then Dr. Dawson) who advised 
them to organize a Natural History Society in St. John as a 
stimulus to scientific investigation. 
In pursuance of this suggestion, a meeting was called at the 
Director’s room of the Mechanic’s Institute, on January 29, 
1862, to inaugurate the society. Dr. LeB. Botsford was chair- 
man of this meeting and the first president of this Society; and 
William Jack, Esq., seconded by Mr. J. W. Lawrence, moved 
that a scientific association should be formed and that it be 
called the Natural History Society of New Brunswick. It \yas 
moved, also, that a “special aim of the Society should be to 
form in connection with it such a collection of specimens in the 
different branches of scientific research as shall fully illustrate 
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