MUSEUMS OF NATURAL HISTORY. 49 



Apart from the class visits, teachers are making a practice of sending 

 individual pupils to look up specimens and seek information at first 

 hand. This plan has been followed more particularly in bird and plant 

 study. Another means of rousing interest is through competition for 

 prizes for the best collections or reports. Last year the supervisor of 

 nature study offered a prize for the best collection in mineralogy, and 

 the twenty-seven sets of specimens entered were exhibited in the museum 

 and attracted much attention. This fall prizes were awarded for the 

 best work done in collecting and studying beetles by any pupil below 

 high school grade. In connection with this contest, two talks were given 

 on 'Beetles and how to collect them,' and two excursions were con- 

 ducted under the auspices of the museum. Ten children presented col- 

 lections numbering in all 1,806 beetles. The prize winner had collected 

 202 species and 28 food plants. A number of rare specimens were 

 among those presented, and the results showed that the young people 

 had spent much time on the work with genuine interest and careful 

 thought. There are many profitable lines on wliich such contests may 

 be conducted. 



Pupils from the high school are encouraged and guided to use the 

 museum in connection with the study of zoology, botany, mineralogy 

 and physiography. Teachers in the high school draw freely on the re- 

 sources of the collection for specimens and are allowed under simple 

 conditions to take out specimens for use in recitations and lectures. 



Cooperation between schools and museums has been worked out in 

 detail in many places in England, notably in Liverpool, Leeds and 

 Manchester, and with excellent results. The director of the Liverpool 

 Museum, Henry 0. Forbes, in a special circular dated July, 1902, 

 reaches the following conclusion: 'That these efforts to interest chil- 

 dren in nature study are producing good results is strikingly demon- 

 strated by the way in which school children avail themselves of holidays 

 to voluntarily visit our museum — the fact of a school holiday being of 

 late always unmistakably indicated by the invasion of the museum by 

 school children who evince a growing interest in the exhibits.' 



Each year definite class-work is conducted in the Springfield 

 Museum. During the past winter, twelve exercises on the chemical and 

 physical properties of minerals with simple tests for determination were 

 given by the assistant curator. A volunteer class in plant study was 

 formed in the early spring and has continued to hold weekly meetings, 

 with the exception of the two months of summer. Another means of 

 arousing public interest has been found in the informal evening open- 

 ings. During the season of 1901-02, six talks were given at these 

 openings on such topics as 'Vegetable Fibers,' 'Industrial Insects,* 

 'The History of a Lake,' and on 'Plants,' 'Buds' and 'Galls.' Special 



voii. liXiii. — 4. 



