No. 2.— Proceedings of tlie Annual Meeting , May 5, 1897. 
REPORT OF THE CURATOR, ALPHEUS HYATT. 
Owing to the sickness of a member of his family, the Curator 
was obliged to be absent from the last annual meeting, his report 
having been read by Prof. H. W. Haynes, who kindly consented to 
appear for him. During this absence, which lasted about six weeks, 
the Curator called at the great seaside laboratory of Professor 
Dolirn at Naples, and selected a suite of preparations in alcohol for 
which that establishment is famous. The perfection of the prepara¬ 
tions is such that the natural colors and forms even of delicate 
animals like jelly fishes are preserved, and they are far more satis¬ 
factory than models or artificial preparations. The Society owes 
this collection to the generosity of Miss H. O. Cruft. 
The Gulick collection of shells was first alluded to in the report 
of May 7, 1890. Since that time, the Curator has spent a large part 
of his available time in working upon this collection. The impor¬ 
tance of solving the problem presented by these land snails cannot 
be over-estimated. They illustrate more perfectly than any known 
group of living or extinct animals the modes of evolution of organic 
beings. Evolution as an obviously rational hypothesis applied to 
the history of organisms is generally admitted, but series of animals 
so closely and undeniably connected that they can be used as 
demonstrations of the laws of divergent evolution are so rare that 
only a half dozen have been so far published, and none of these 
approach in perfection the Acliatinellinae of the Hawaiian Islands. 
The most complete representation of these interesting and beautiful 
shells was collected by Rev. J. T. Gulick, a missionary to these 
islands, and from him the fullest suite of specimens in his possession, 
except his own reserved collection, was purchased by the Society in 
1890. This collection has been thoroughly worked over by the 
Curator, and every species and variety and their connection with 
others carefully and fully re-described. This statement of the facts, 
by far the most important part of this piece of scientific work, is now 
rapidly nearing completion. In order to obtain the means to con¬ 
tinue this investigation, which requires a large amount of clerical 
