which its friends now hope to see rapidly swelled to an adequate endowment. It may safely be said, therefore, that the hitherto always present question whether or not the academy might some day find itself without a meeting-place or the means of securing one is finally answered m a very satisfactory manner; and official and personal expressions without number testify to the warm gratitude with which those who have so long struggled with little more than hope to support them have witnessed the laying of this solid foundation of security for the future. That their struggles are at an end, however, they can not flatter themselves. Ample as the new building is for the present life of the academy, it is but temporarily suited to the housing of valuable collections, since it is not fire-proof; and one of the first things for future activity to accomplish is the provision of a suitable fire-proofed library and museum at the rear of the present building—for which ample space exists. Very unfortunately, too, while the academy is nominally able for the first time in many years to arrange its library and more important collections for convenient public use, it is actually confronted by the necessity, which has heretofore been felt by its late host, the historical society, of utilizing no inconsiderable part of its new home for purposes of revenue, by housing other homeless bodies, so that, as heretofore, its publication resources may be maintained. It is probable that many a vision of a reading room in constant use by investigators and science teachers, and of synoptical rooms thronged with nature and science classes from all grades of the schools of the city, will still be dreamed for some years by the council before giving place to the realities. That the academy will ultimately be enabled to perform this part of its functions, however, should now be certain; and the arousing of public interest in such matters which the world's fair and its congresses and the national scientific meetings of this winter are sure to lead to, makes it reasonable to hope that the time when this may be accomplished lies not very far in the future.
In its inner life, as well as in its outer semblance, the academy is not unlikely soon to experience marked changes. Its activity as a center of publication will doubtless remain unchanged. With the growth of the city, of the medical schools and of Washington University, with which many of its most active members have always been connected, scientific results of merit are certain to be offered for publication in increasing number; and there is little reason to question that in the future, as in the past, no paper of real value will lie long in manuscript awaiting the funds essential to its publication. As is necessarily true of most learned bodies, the world over, the academy's transactions are of an undesirable heterogeneity in their subject-matter, but their publication in brochures, each devoted to a single paper, ensures the availability of each paper when the entire volume is not desired; and if a national agreement were ever to be reached by which
