, ilia паку messing h OF THE 531 MUS. COMP, ZOOL HARVARD BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE BUILDING-FUND OF THE Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia TO THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THE FUND. JANUARY, 1868. PHILADELPHIA: MERRIHEW & SON, PRINTERS, No. 243 Arch Street, below Third. REPORT. JANUARY 14th, 1868. In obedience to the provisions of a resolution adopted by the Academy March 27, 1866, a meeting of the contributors to the building fund was held January 8th, 1867, and Messrs. E. S. Whelen, Frederick Graff, Joseph Leidy, M.D., Wm. P. Wilstach, W. S. W. Ruschenberger, M.D., John B. Budd, Wm. S. Vaux, John Welsh, George W. Tryon, jr., Thomas Sparks, Robert Bridges, M.D., Joseph Jeanes and John Rice were duly elected a board of trustees of the building fund of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. On Friday, January 11th, the board of trustees met "for the purpose of organization," and elected W. S. W. Ruschenberger, M.D., chairman, George W. Tryon, jr., secretary, and Wm. S. Vaux, treasurer. Messrs. Wilstach, Budd, Sparks and Whelen, in conjunction with the treasurer, were constituted the committee on finance. The preparation of a code of by-laws for the government of the board was directed; and Messrs. Ruschenberger, Bridges, Tryon, Leidy and Vaux were appointed a committee to report to the board "the character of building which, in their opinion, will best suit the present and future wants of the Academy." This committee reported in substance that, in its opinion, the present and future wants of the Academy require a fire-proof building of two stories; a basement of not less than sixteen feet. high, and above it a saloon of not less than thirty-two feet elevation, three hundred feet in length and sixty feet wide in the clear, or an aggregate of 36,000 square feet of floor-space, exclusive of the floors of the three galleries with which it is proposed the saloon shall be surrounded. It was suggested that |