756 PROCEEDINGS OF r J 
Journals.23,007 
Geology. 8,039 
General Natural History .... 2,860 
Botany. 2,429 
Voyages and Travels. 1,870 
Anatomy and Physiology.... 1,719 
Entomology. 1,207 
Anthropology. 1,120 
Conchology. 1,073 
Medicine. 903 
Ornithology. 863 
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, 
etc. 816 
Physical Sciences. 630 
Mineralogy. 554 
Mathematics. 551 
Bibliography. 428 
Geography. 421 
Agriculture. 407 
THE ACADEMY OF [Dec., 
Ichthyology . 323 
Mammalogy. 304 
Miscellaneous. 299 
Philology . 296 
Helminthology. 295 
Chemistry. 276 
Herpetology. 186 
Meigs Library (miscellane¬ 
ous) . 1,916 
Warner Library (miscellane¬ 
ous) . 128 
American Entomological So¬ 
ciety Library (Entomologi¬ 
cal Section). 3,160 
Unbound pamphlets, 2524, 
forming volumes. 170 
51,249 
In considering the growth of the library since the last enumera¬ 
tion, it must be remembered that about 450 volumes, bibliographical 
and non-scientific, have been, by direction of the Council and the 
Library Committee, transferred to the Free Library. 
Many of the works in the library of the Entomological Section 
(American Entomological Society) are duplicates, while those in 
the James Aitken Meigs Library are foreign to the purposes of 
the Academy, being retained under an agreement with the legatee. 
It may not be out of place, at the beginning of the new cen¬ 
tury, to review briefly the history of the library, so as to deter¬ 
mine with some degree of clearness what has been accomplished by 
this department of the Academy during its ninety years of existence. 
It will be remembered that on the evening of January 25, 1812, 
** a meeting of gentlemen, friends of science and of rational dis¬ 
posal of leisure moments,’’ was held to consider the advisability 
of forming a scientific society. After mature deliberation it was 
decided that such a society was desirable, and preliminary steps 
were taken toward its organization. The men who met on that 
occasion took themselves with entire seriousness, as is evidenced by 
the dignified wording of the minutes and the care with which they 
were kept by the first Recording Secretary, Dr. Camillus McMahan 
Mann. They evidently attached due importance to the formation 
