BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATUEAL HISTORY. 205 



Ireland and Mrs. Samuel Wells for their personal efforts in behalf of the Teachers' School 

 of Science. 



" The teachers themselves, at our solicitation, joined in making up the fund. The contri- 

 butions from this source amounted to $789. 



" Notwithstanding this generous assistance, it would hardly have been possible to carry 

 on the several courses without the friendly aid and direct assistance in various ways of the 

 following institutions and persons. 



" The Institute of Technology, which most generously gave us the use of Huntington 

 Hall, upon the payment of a merely nominal sum for cleaning and heatino-. 



" The Museum of Comparative Zoology, under the direction of Mr. Alexander Agassiz, 

 which, thi'ough Count Pourtales, Dr. Hermann Hagen, and Mr. E. C. Hamlin, at various 

 times assisted us by donations of specimens from the respective departments superintended 

 by these gentlemen. 



" Mr. Henshaw, my right hand assistant in all the work of preparation and distribution, 

 whose untiring energy contributed largely to secure the success of every lesson ; Miss 

 Hintz, of the Normal School, who drew with remarkable skill the diagrams used in the 

 Zoological course, and enabled the Custodian to illustrate fully all subjects ; Mr. Van 

 Vleck for aid in the preparation of models ; Mr. L. S. Burbank ; Miss Nunn, Professor of 

 Biology at Wellesley College ; Mr. Eobert McCarthy, of New York ; Captain Horsfidl, of 

 Steamer Canopus ; Mr. Eugene G. Blackford, of New York ; and the proprietors of the 

 Parker House and Young's Hotel, for donations of specimens and assistance in various 

 ways. 



" Mr. E. G. Gardiner, Mr. E. A. W. Hammatt and Mr. G. H. Barton of the Institute of 

 Technology, have also kindly assisted at the lectures in various capacities. To many of my 

 own students, teachers and others I am also indebted for assistance. 



" Since the lectures were begun in 1871, they have been continued without interruption, 

 except during the winter of 1872-73, under the patronage of Mr. John Cummino-s; and 

 previous to this winter about 75,000 specimens of minerals, plants, and animals had been 

 studied and distributed to teachers of the public schools. The applications for tickets rose 

 during those years from an average of 55 to 166. 



" The number of recorded applications for the course now approaching completion is 

 616, or nearly four times as many as in previous years, and the number of specimens 

 which will have been distributed during this winter alone cannot fall short of 100,000. 



" After an introductory lecture in which the Superintendent of the Public Schools, the 

 President of the Society, and the Custodian delivered addresses appropriate to the occa- 

 sion. Professor Goodale completed a course of six lessons on Botany in which he instructed 

 the whole audience of five hundred with apparently as much readiness as if it had been 

 but fifty. Mr. Jackson Dawson, Mr. Watson and " Mr. Greenleaf were of great assistance 

 to Professor Goodale in the procuring of the vast number of live plants and the great 

 amount of other material required for his lessons. Mr. Charles W. Spurr, 522 Harrison 

 Avenue, Boston, prepared, for the purpose of illustrating the subject of wood sections, 500 

 packages of excellent specimens of the following woods : tulip-tree or whitewood, rose- 

 wood, ash, oak, pine, mahogany, walnut, butternut, maple, cedar, birch, cherry, elm and 

 holly. Many of these were in duplicate, exhibiting both plain and figured texture. The 



