220 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 
witnessed his never-dying interest in the welfare of the Society will 
speak to you of this latter period. 
Thomas Tracy Bouv6, of Huguenot descent, was born in Boston, 
Prince Street, on Jan. 14th, 1815. His love of natural history 
declared itself very early in life, and he became a member of this 
Society in 1834. The statement of his appointment upon the com¬ 
mittee on Geology and Mineralogy will be found on the fourth page 
of the first volume of the published Proceedings, and from that date 
onwards there may be read the unbroken record of the successive 
offices he has filled so well. 
1841 —Cabinet Keeper to 1842 
1842 — Curator of Geology to 1863 
1861 — Treasurer to 1865 
1863 — Curator of Geology and Palaeontology to 1867 
1865 — Curator of Mineralogy to 1870 
1865—A Trustee to 1892 
1866 — Vice-President to 1870 
1867 — Curator of Palaeontology (then raised to separate 
department) to 1867 
1870 — Chairman of Committee on Minerals and Geology 
(curatorships then abolished) to 1881 
1870—President to 1880 
1880 — He resigned the Presidency, and became a Coun¬ 
cillor, ex-officio. 
How Mr. Bouve fulfilled the duties of these many and various 
offices I need not say in this hall and to this audience. In the lowest 
and highest of them, from his earliest appointment in the activity 
and enthusiasm of his youth to that he last filled in advanced age and 
under grave, painful infirmities, his work was conscientious, thorough, 
and unceasing. Did we not all know that any position he would 
consent to take needed no oversight, that it would be filled as per¬ 
fectly as human capabilities allow ? Business, nor family, nor cold, 
nor darkness, nor bodily suffering prevailed aught against his great 
love for this Society and his constant devotion to its interests. 
For forty years or more he worked upon the collections of 
Mineralogy, Geology, and Palaeontology; in the early days in the 
contracted rooms in Tremont Street and the dark, damp halls in 
