348 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
It is sometimes the duty of the Curator to recall the attention of 
the Society to the loss of some prominent member and this year it 
is the sudden death of Mr. Augustus Lowell. In spite of his ad¬ 
vanced age, this decease came with a shock to most of the older 
members on account of his extraordinary activity and appearance of 
good health. Mr. Lowell was elected to this Society in 1860, and 
at the time of his decease had been an active member for forty 
years. During part of this time he served in company with his 
father, John A. Lowell, and afterwards followed with relation to 
this Society the same benevolent policy as had his father, to whose 
generosity we owe the courses of lectures given in this room in 
1870-71 and also the Lowell Herbarium. Mr. Augustus Lowell 
began to support the larger part of the annual work of the Teachers’ 
School of Science in 1882 and continued this patronage until the 
year of his death. The school dates its greatest usefulness and 
stability from this year (1882), and it is likely that it would not have 
been able to survive in the face of the indifference of most of the 
masters of the public school and of the School Board had it not 
been for the assistance of the Trustee of the Lowell Fund. Its 
operations outside of the Lowell Free Courses, with the exception of 
Professor Barton’s field courses given in the last three years, have 
not been, comparatively speaking, very extensive or for the most 
part remunerative to the lecturers. Mr. Lowell was also, although 
not a constant attendant at our Council meetings, always ready 
to serve this Society when there was any real need of his assistance. 
The Curator, who has been more or less employed by the Trustee 
of the Lowell Fund for many years, feels that this notice would be 
inadequate if he did not express a sense of his personal obliga¬ 
tions to this gentleman for courteous treatment and appreciative 
consideration of his work that has made connection with the 
Lowell Institute a pleasure independent of all pecuniary returns. 
The School has also lost by sudden death one of its strongest 
supporters in Dr. Robert W. Greenleaf. This gentleman for about 
eight years, from 1891 to 1899, was the most successful laboratory 
teacher of botany that it has ever had. Dr. Greenleaf was still a 
young man, and his loss is deeply felt by his many friends and 
former pupils. 
