auction, under legal proceedings, for thirty-seven thousand dollars, barely enough to cover the amount of the mortgages and the unpaid interest thereon. "And the Lyceum found itself out of debt and out of a home, with a valuable library and large collections, and no place to put them." For a year, the collections were stored and the library deposited in the buildings of New York University, while the meetings were held in the home of the president, Major Joseph Delafield, at 104 Franklin Street.

After a period of much uncertainty, arrangements were finally completed for rooms with the University Medical College, in Stuyvesant Institute, 659 Broadway, opposite Bond Street. Here the library was satisfactorily accommodated, and a considerable part of the collections could be displayed, and here the Lyceum met for the first time April 7, 1845. In 1851, the medical college sold the building and erected a new one on Fourteenth Street, on the site since long occupied by Tammany Hall. The Lyceum accepted the offer of a meeting-room in the new building, but the collections, with minor exceptions, had to be boxed and stored in the cellar, while the library was deposited temporarily with the Mercantile Library Association.

For fifteen years the Lyceum held its meetings in the Fourteenth Street building, until, on the night of May 21, 1866, this was totally destroyed by fire. The society which had lost its building in 1844 was now without collections; after half a century of enthusiastic work and sacrifice, it was without material possessions other than its library. Well may the members have been discouraged, but they were undismayed; their work went

on. For a year the meetings were held in the rooms of the Geographical Society, in Clinton Hall, the same building in which the Lyceum's library had been housed for years.

UNIVERSITY MEDICAL COLLEGE, FOURTEENTH STREET.

Erected 1851; Destroyed by

Fire, 1866. Home of the Lyceum throughout this Period.

The loss of the collections, as viewed with the perspective of later years, was a blessing in disguise. It relieved the Lyceum of a heavy and ever-increasing burden of responsibility, and paved the way for the establishment of a great independently endowed museum. Such an institution was incorporated three years later, became an actuality within a few more years, and to-day is the scientific center of our great metropolis.

In 1867 the Lyceum removed to Mott Memorial Hall, 64 Madison Avenue; here its library was also installed, and both society and library remained until May, 1878. The semi-centennial of the organization of the Lyceum, in 1867, was allowed to pass by without any formal celebration; but early the following year, April 29, 1868, a public meeting was held in the Great Hall of Cooper Union, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the acceptance of the Charter. The historical sketch presented at that time by Professor John Torrey, the only surviving original member, was not preserved.

While the society was located at Mott Memorial Hall, under the presidency of Professor John Strong Newberry, a strong movement sprang up for a change of name. Of course there were many conservative members, particularly those who did not wish to abandon the name with which years of association had linked their affections; but it was urged that the name "Lyceum" had been put to such varied uses that it had lostany appropriateness it might have possessed when originally chosen, that "Natural History" no longer indicated the actual scope of the society's activities, that there was no other organization in New York City devoted to science in general and to science alone, and that the name "The Lyceum of Natural History in the City of New York" was unnecessarily cumbersome. After much discussion, the alteration of the name was approved by the required three-fourths vote; the Supreme Court confirmed the change, and it was accepted by the society February 2, 1876, when the corporate name became The New York Academy of Sciences. At the same time a special class of membership was introduced, called Fellows, "chosen from among the Resident Members in virtue of scientific attainments or services," and most of the detailed routine business of the society was delegated to a central committee called the Council.

In May, 1878, the Academy deposited its library with the American Museum of Natural History, and changed its meeting-place to the building of the New York Academy of Medicine, then in West Thirty-first Street. Most of the active members of the Academy of Sciences, however, were connected in some way with Columbia College, and the following decade witnessed an increasingly close relationship between the two institutions. Beginning with October, 1883, the meetings of the Academy were held in Hamilton Hall, and three years later the Academy's library was removed from the Museum of Natural History to the Herbarium room in the college library building.

This arrangement continued until Columbia University removed to its present location in 1897.

During the earlier years at Columbia, the Academy held the even tenor of its way, maintaining its dignified position but failing to keep abreast of the rapid development of science in the city. A history of the Academy, by the recording secretary, Mr. H. L. Fairchild, was read in abstract at the meeting of May 10, 1886, and published in full the following May. This handsome volume was not very conveniently arranged for ready reference, and is somewhat unbalanced in the emphasis placed upon the various activities of the society; but it is an invaluable storehouse of reliable information concerning the sixty years of the Lyceum and the first ten of the Academy. One fact, brought out by the inscription on the title-page and the explanation in the preface, is by no means creditable to the Academy, and emphasizes its lack of enterprise at this particular time: the author, after long and faithful labor in the preparation of the manuscript, was permitted to publish the volume at his own

expense.

Just how much influence the appearance of this history may have had upon the subsequent development of the Academy is uncertain. It did not call direct attention to the almost moribund condition of the organization, but it did show clearly that the Academy ought to be the leading factor in the scientific life of New York. Such was the wish of those who guided the destinies of the Academy, and they soon began to work diligently with this in view. During the few following years the active membership of the Academy gradually but slowly decreased; this limited the available income, but at the same time resulted in a more compact working body, so that the small membership should not be regarded as a true index to the efficiency of the organization.

The year 1891 witnessed a great forward movement affecting the scientific life of New York. From time to time increasing specialization had resulted in the formation of a number of scientific societies in the city, wholly independent and unrelated except through more or less overlapping of their membership. Organic union of these diverse elements was at no time practicable, yet the desirability of cooperation was self-evident. The first formal suggestion of a plan for such cooperation appears in a communication presented by Dr. N. L. Britton at a meeting of the Council of the Academy held in Room 22, Hamilton Hall, on the afternoon of December 22, 1890. It was a special meeting, called to act upon a revision of the by

laws; but that revision proved of far less importance than the other matter then discussed. Dr. Britton's communication very concisely outlined the need for concerted action, suggested a method for its accomplishment, and enumerated some of the ways in which the proposed alliance could be of practical value. The plan was referred to a committee, approved, submitted to other scientific societies of the city, and ultimately adopted in agreement with even the minor details of the original communication; and before the close of the summer vacation season of 1891 the Scientific Alliance of New York was fully organized and had entered upon its work. For sixteen years the Alliance was a powerful adjunct of local scientific progress, and paved the way for the Greater Academy of to-day. It issued an annual directory listing the members, and a monthly bulletin announcing the meetings, of all of the component societies. It held two public joint meetings, and in many ways helped to mutualize scientific activities and to bring science prominently before the public. The success of the Alliance was due in large measure to Charles Finney Cox, its first and only president.

One of the primary objects of the Scientific Alliance, the erection of a great building which should serve as a home for all of the societies, and as a scientific center for the city, was never realized. It may yet come; but present opinion seems to favor the strengthening of existing institutions rather than the establishment of new ones. In fact, this sentiment no doubt encouraged the final dissolution of the Alliance, and the adoption of the new plan which grouped the younger organizations of a more specialized nature about the old historic Academy as affiliated societies. The new idea was first promulgated by Mr. William Dutcher, one of the delegates of the Linnæan Society of New York, at the meeting of the Council of the Scientific Alliance held at the Museum of Natural History, January 24, 1906; it met with instant approval, and forthwith was referred to the various societies for action. This was favorable in every case, and the final meeting of the Council of the Alliance was held April 18, 1907; the corporation was then consolidated with that of the New York Academy of Sciences, and the treasurer was instructed to turn over to the Academy all funds of the Alliance.

During the sixteen years of existence of the Scientific Alliance, the work of the Academy had been greatly stimulated. In 1893 there was unveiled in Trinity Cemetery a monument to Audubon, erected by popular subscription through the efforts and under the direction of a committee of the Academy ap