Annual Meeting.] 
16 
[May 5, 
in charge the education of our youth. It is working, and it will 
not cease to work, for the introduction and retention of the study 
of nature in the public schools, confident that in the knowl- 
edge of the relations of man to the world in which he lives lie 
the strength and safety of the commonwealth, and that this 
knowledge is a sure basis of a higher culture, a better material 
and intellectual prosperity. To this end we beg the hearty sym- 
pathy of every member of the Society, which will welcome to its 
fellowship every one who will share this work. 
At a previous meeting I have already expressed my sincere 
regret that we can no longer be led in this work by the Presi- 
dent, whose devotion we have been only too pleased to acknowl- 
edge by our ballots for ten years past ; but as long as his life is 
spared to us, we shall have his sympathy and wise advice, and 
we may be sure that in everything the Society undertakes, it 
will have no stronger friend than he. 
Mr. John Cummings offered the following vote: 
“ In consideration of the fact that Mr. Bouve declines to be a candidate 
for the first office of this Society, the members desire to express their grate- 
ful acknowledgement of the long and valuable service he has rendered as 
President, and their cordial thanks for his arduous labors, unremitted devo- 
tion, prudent and successful administration, nor can they part from him in 
this official capacity without the additional expressions of their warm per- 
sonal esteem.” 
There was no one associated with Mr. Bouve, added Mr. Cum- 
mings, who did not feel himself drawn to him by the strongest 
and tenderest ties. In his own experience he had never met a 
man with so much devotion to any cause as Mr. Bouve had shown 
for the welfare of the Society. 
Mr. Cummings’ remarks were warmly applauded, and the vote 
was seconded by Prof. Hyatt who said, in respect to Mr. Bouve’s 
administration, that although from the first the present policy of 
the Society had met the severest criticism and sometimes disap- 
probation from the intimate friends and advisers of the President^ 
he had yet been able to keep his judgment un warped, and to con- 
sider those ideas which were new to him, purely on their own 
merits. It is not too much to say that the Society’s aims, which 
