1906.] 
NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
585 
ings and Journal of the Academy bound and, in common with the 
other volumes, appropriately labelled so as to indicate the source and 
object of the gift. A letter of acknowledgment recently received 
conveys the assurance that the books will be an important assistance 
to the California Academy, the members of which, in common with all 
the people of San Francisco, displayed such superb courage and for- 
titude under an almost overwhelming affliction. The boxes were sent 
to California through the Smithsonian Institution. 
Many duplicates received from corresponding societies had for years 
been accumulating in the Library of the Academy. After a selection 
had been sent to the California Academy, the Library Committee and 
the Council directed the return of the remainder to the publishing 
societies, in the hope that a similar favor might be secured in the case 
of duplicates of the Academy’s publications. 
Parcels therefore have been sent through the International Bureau 
of Exchange to 215 societies, each accompanied by the following 
notice: "The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia returns 
duplicates of publications received from corresponding societies, 
and requests that duplicate numbers of its Journal and Proceed- 
ings be returned, either by post or through the International 
Bureau of Exchange.” It is hoped that this action may result in an 
addition to the stock of the earlier issues of the Academy’s publications, 
several of which are nearly out of print. 
Seventy-eight volumes and 256 pamphlets, publications of the 
Department of Agriculture, U. S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Educa- 
tion, etc., have been returned to the Government Printing Office, in 
compliance with the law. The greater number of these were dupli- 
cates, but some were works not pertinent to the Academy's Library. 
About thirty-seven volumes belonging to the latter class were given 
to the Free Library of Philadelphia. 
Cards have been prepared to be placed in the spaces left by books 
kept in the study rooms for use, thus in a measure remedying the incon- 
venience arising from such retention. 
The necessity for additional room in some of the departments of 
the Library becomes annually more pressing. In view of the possi- 
bility of an increase of the Academy’s building in the near future 
certain of the additions are placed temporarily, not always in con- 
formity with the system of classification, in the hope that the required 
increase in the shelving capacity of the Library may be secured. 
Ten cases are still to be shelf-listed in the department of Journals 
and Periodicals, although the work has continued during the year' as 
steadily as the time at the disposal of the Assistant would permit. 
