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Full text of ' H, y t^- PROCEEDINGS OP THE Iflstan ^oridg of f Jifural listflvij, VOL. PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY. WILLIAM WOOD & CO., 61 WALKER STREET, NEW YORK.

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Jeffries Wymax. Dillaway Samuel H. A(?5.Ck BOSTON: A.

KiNGJIAN, 11 COBiraiLL. '^ R A R PROCEEDINGS BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY TAKEN FROM THE SOCIETY'S RECORDS. January 6, 1864. The President in the chair. Present, fifty-five members. Putnam stated that since the last mcotins: the Society had lost a valued member in the death of Dr.

Wheatland of Salem. Wheatland had always taken an active interest in the operations of the Society, and while connected with the Museum of Comparative Zoology, was a constant attendant at its meetings; though, owing to his retiring disposition, he seldom took an active part in their proceedings. By the decease of our member, science has lost an honest and enthusiastic laborer. Wheatland's investigations were principally devoted to the Keptiles, and his special study was the development of our native Ba- trachians. For this purpose he visited all the ponds and ditches in the vicinity of Salem and Cambridge, collected the eggs of our Frogs and Toads, and carefully raised the young in order to observe the changes which they undergo in their development. The collection thus made was placed in the Museum at Cambridge and the Essex Institute at Salem. PROCEEDINGS B.

1 8EPTEMBEE, 1865. Riitnain.l « Had health and life been spared to him, Dr.

^ Tieatland would have groatly advanced our knowledge of the embryology of tills most inter- esting' order of animals by his careful investigations. During his last period of partial health, he visited Buenos Ayres, in the hope of building up his failing strength, and while there contributed many specimens to t]ie collections of Salem, Cambridge and this Society; but, alas for his wishes, both the voyage and the season were adverse to his hopes, and he returned home with health still more impaired, and remained an invahd until his decease. During his long sickness Dr.

AVlieatland showed a Christian resignation to his fate, and con- tinued cheei-fully Avaiting until he should be called to the home of the God whoee worlcs on earth he so much loved, and in whose mercy he had firm faith. Jackson read the following Notice of the Death of Francis Alger of Boston. Our late associate, Francis Alger, son of Cyrus Alger, who married Lucy Willis, was born in Bridgewater in this State, March 8, 1807. He had one brother named Cyrus (now dead) and six sisters, five of whom are now living.

Francis, in youth, was not studious, and had only a common school education. His taste for study commenced in 1824, when his atten- tion was first drawn to the science of Mneralogy. To his love for that science he attributed his after progress in general learning and scientific acquirements. One branch of Natural History leads to oth- ers, and Francis soon found himself engaged in the study of shells and plants, first the fossils and then their analogues in the living world. He began to collect good scientific books, and his library shows how extensively he entered into the study of other branches of Natural History But it was to his first love, Mneralogy, with its proper physiology, Chemistry, that he devoted his chief attention.

In 182G his father made a trip to Nova Scotia for the purpose of erecting a furnace for smelting iron ores at Clements, on the Annapolis basin. He took Francis Avith him, and there the young mineralogist began his field labors by collecting such minerals as occur in the iron ores of Digby Neck and in the trap rocks of Granville. He brought home a small collection of Zeolites, Amethyst, Quartz and Agates, of Avhich he published a list In the Boston Journal of Philosophy and the Arts. He also published a brief description of the Nova Scotia min- erals in the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol.