1901.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 763 
spacious gallery above for the arrangement of periodicals is well 
known to all now using the library. 
The accompanying plates, D, E and F, illustrate the ground-plan 
of the building vacated in 1876 and the present distribution and 
aspect of the library. 
The first Librarian was John Speakman, who was elected Novem. 
ber 29, 1814, and served until December 26, 1815, when he was 
succeeded in rapid succession by Caleb Richardson, Jacob Pierce, 
S. W. Conrad, Charles Pickering, Paul Beck Goddard, Joseph 
Carson, Robert Bridges, Alfred L. Elwyn, Joseph Leidy, and 
William S. Zantzinger. Several of these served only one or two 
years, Dr. Zantzinger alone reaching an incumbency of ten years. 
Then came Dr. James Aitken Meigs, from August, 1856, to May, 
1859, and Dr. James C. Fisher, from June 28, 1859, to August 
27, 1861, when he entered the army as contract surgeon and was 
succeeded by Dr. R. E. Griffith, who served only one year. 
It was becoming hard to find any one who was willing to take the 
office. There were certain duties which manifestly had to be per¬ 
formed. As exchanges came in and the Wilson packages were 
delivered, the accessions must be shelved and Recorded, even 
though they were not systematically catalogued, and some few, 
from time to time, had to be prepared for the binder. Dr. Robert 
Bridges devoted much time at irregular intervals to the latter duty, 
although not officially. He deserves, also, the grateful remem¬ 
brance of the Academy for his supervision, in connection with Mr. 
William S. Vaux, of the distribution of the Proceedings and Jour¬ 
nal to subscribers and exchanges, the editorial work being per¬ 
formed by Dr. Joseph Leidy, then and until his death, Chairman 
of the Publication Committee. 
Mr. J. Dickinson Sergeant was finally prevailed on to take the 
Librarianship, but only on condition that an assistant should be 
engaged to perform the routine duties of the office. The financial 
resources of the Academy were not such as to permit the engage¬ 
ment of a trained bibliographer, and a boy was employed who 
owed his selection to the good offices of Mr. John Cassin. The 
Assistant’s first record of accessions was made February 4, 1862, 
within a few days of the beginning of the second half century of 
the society’s history. 
