[ 4 ] 
ernment by Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner of that city, and now 
in a separate hall of the Congressional Library, a great deal in 
this direction will have been accomplished. 
An ancient poetical saying, apposite in this connection, has 
been preserved by Bacon, to the effect that at the extremity of 
the thread representing the life of each person, there hangs a 
medal which bears his name. At the moment of death, Time 
detaches them all and casts them into the flood of oblivion, but 
upon the stream there are swans who collect the names that may 
rise to the surface, seize them, and bear them to immortality. 
In numismatics as relating to natural science, the publication 
of nothing in the English language seems hitherto to have been 
commenced. The work indicated is not merely extensive but 
varied, comprising besides the medals of scientists and scientific 
organizations, under which would be included societies, conven¬ 
tions, and certain departments of colleges and universities, the 
medallic chronicles of notable physical perturbations affecting 
our globe, as earthquakes, inundations, and the like, and illus¬ 
trations of a vast number of objects of natural history. Regard¬ 
ing the first of these groups, it will be recollected that portrait 
medals are often taken from the living person, and where not, 
that they are usually from those representations of him thought 
most accurate by his contemporaries and friends. They are, 
therefore, to be valued as of the very highest importance in 
forming a just estimate of an author in connection with his 
works. As to the second of the divisions, I discussed with the 
late Prof. Baird, then in charge of the Smithsonian Institution, 
the National Museum, and the U. S. Fish Commission, and have 
more than once demonstrated to this Society, the great interest 
that would attach to a collection of coins and medals illustrating 
the various denizens of the earth, air and sea, and as an instance 
of what could easily be done, I sent to Prof. Baird a long list of 
the numismatic representations of a single animal, the American 
beaver (Castor fiber). 
A large proportion of naturalists, both in the limited and 
larger senses of the term, have been, and will probably con¬ 
tinue to be, persons who have been educated as physicians, and 
