1880 .] 
15 
[Annual Meeting. 
On the announcement of the ballot the President elect addressed 
the meeting as follows : — 
In accepting, Gentlemen, the position to which I am called by 
your indulgence, I can only express my wish that your choice had 
fallen elsewhere ; for, owing what I do to the Society, it is as 
little in my power as in my wish to decline any service it may 
demand, and which I have the strength or the knowledge to per- 
form. Any one who has watched the development of the Society 
in later years, and has been upon its Council as long as I, must 
be keenly alive to the responsibilities of the office, and cannot 
lightly assume them. But knowing equally the steady support 
the Council will give to the efforts of any one who aims to carry 
out the higher objects of the institution with singleness of pur- 
pose, it is impossible for me to foster such misgivings as naturally 
arise. 
We have just j>assed our fiftieth anniversary, and in the festiv- 
ities and congratulations of the occasion we have reviewed the 
past and seen from what small beginnings this lusty institution 
has grown. But now, having already entered upon our second 
semi-centennial, it rather becomes us to look forward. And just 
here should be formally announced the jmrposes the Society has in 
view outside the natural aims of such institutions the world over, 
— purposes to which I pledge my support, and of which the past 
ten years have seen almost the entire growth. They are not the 
product of the wisdom or the will of any one man, although all 
will accord large influence to him whom we are so sorry to lose 
to-day from the Presidential office ; they are the natural growth 
of the institution and of the times. This Society, like natural 
history societies every where, holds its stated meetings for dis- 
cussions, and publishes the researches of its members ; like most 
societies in America it supports a museum. But its distinctive 
aim is educational ; and to this end it proposes two things : First ; 
although more largely endowed than any similar institution in 
the country, it distinctly restricts its museum to the collection 
and exhibition of such objects as can be put directly to popular 
educational use ; to instruct without wearying ; to guide without 
confusing ; to set forth the manifold relations of natural objects 
by the simplest and clearest methods. Second ; it furnishes direct 
nstruction by lectures, lesson, and guide-book, to those who have 
