General Meeting.] 
38 
[Nov. 7, 
ciously at. our meetings at the close of the last season. The com- 
mittee of the Society will make an early report upon this subject, 
but we must not leave the committee to do all the work when we, 
as individual members, can do so much in arousing an interest in 
the community to which we must look for support. 
Another matter, to which I must call your attention at this first 
meeting of the season, is one that seems to me to be full of good 
to the Society if properly managed and cordially entered into. It 
is that of sociability among the members. We are really a so- 
ciety of friends* and yet we meet in this hall with such formality 
that we feel as if we were hardly acquainted with each other and 
were waiting for an introduction before we dared to address even 
the chairman of the meeting. That we should have a proper amount 
of formality when we are assembled here none will deny being 
right, but cannot we, as many other learned societies do in other 
places, be a little social over a cup of coffee or tea at a gathering 
before our formal meeting begins? Should we not all be benefited 
by informal discussions and come into our meetings better prepared 
for the formal ones? I suggest this subject as one worthy of your 
consideration. 
The records of the last meeting were then read and approved. 
The President announced the death of Dr. Kneeland as follows : 
Since my recent return I have heard with sorrow of the death 
of Dr. Samuel Kneeland, which took place in Hamburg, on Sept. 
27th. I have not had time to make any inquiries about the life of 
Dr. Kneeland and I am not prepared to make the extended remarks 
which are due to the memory of one who was for forty-two years 
a member of the Society, but I cannot let this occasion pass with- 
out an acknowledgment of our indebtedness to Dr. Kneeland. 
In 1847 the great Agassiz had inspired with a new life the nat- 
uralists of this vicinity by the completion of his first course of lec- 
tures at the Lowell Institute, and the members of this Society were 
aroused to grander work than ever before by his enthusiasm and 
wonderful knowledge. At this time Dr. Warren was elected Presi- 
dent of this Society to succeed Dr. Binney, recentty deceased, and 
Dr. Kneeland was made Cabinet-keeper, which office he held for 
two years. In 1848 the Society purchased the building of the old 
Medical College, on Mason street, which was modified and duly 
adapted to its new uses. As cabinet-keeper a large share of the 
work and responsibility of moving the collections and books to 
