My own convictions are that the work of this Society in Geographic Distribution should be restricted to the generalization of results: that we should deal with philosophic deduction rather than with detailed observations and the tedious steps and laborious methods by which they are made available. Our aim should be to correlate the distribution of animals and plants with the physiographic conditions which govern this distribution, and to formulate the laws which are operative in bringing about the results we see. In other words, we are to study cause and effect in the relations of physiography to biology.
The kind of works meriting discussion in the annual report of the Vice-president of this section are such philosophic treatises as those of Humboldt, Dana, Agassiz, DeCandolle, Engler, Darwin, Huxley, Pelzeln, Sclater, Wallace, Baird, Verrill, Allen, Cope, and Gill. As it is seldom that more than one or two such works appear in any single year, there is likely to be ample opportunity for profitable discussion.
January, 1889.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TREASURER.
FOR THE YEAR ENDING DEC. 27, 1888.
THE TREASURER, in account with the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.
| 1888. | ||||
| Dec. 27. | To cash | received from life members | $ 100 00 | |
| " | received for annual dues year 1888 | 1025 00 | ||
| $1125 00 | ||||
| 1888. | ||||
| Apr. 16. | By Cash— | M. F. Peake & Co. (20 chairs) | $ 60 00 | |
| " | Paid Columbian University, rent of hall | 20 00 | ||
| Oct. 31. | " | Paid Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor, for printing and binding vol. I of Magazine | $ 190 56 | |
| " | Norris Peters, for lithographing storm plates for Magazine | 58 00 | ||
| " | Sundry expenses of Magazine | 6 35 | 254 91 | |
| Dec. 27. | " | Paid Cosmos Club, rent of hall | 18 00 | |
| " | Paid for miscellaneous expenses: | |||
| " | Paid for Printing | 74 50 | ||
| " | Paid for Stationery | 28 35 | ||
| " | Paid for Postage | 29 15 | ||
| " | Paid for Sundries | 13 39 | 145 39 | |
| Balance on hand (Bank of Bell & Co.) | 626 70 | |||
| $1125 00 | ||||
C. J. BELL,
Treasurer.
December 28, 1888.
To the National Geographic Society: