28 BULLETIN OF THE * ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



month of the year. She illustrated her subject by speci- 

 mens from the Peabody Academy of Science. 



Monday, Feb. 10, 1896.— Frof. T. C. Mendenhall, of 

 Worcester, lectured in Plummer Hall this evening. The 

 subject was "Chance and the Long Run," illustrated with 

 the blackboard and with lantern views. He spoke of what 

 is commonly known as chance and showed how little chance 

 there really is in it. By diagrams and figures he showed 

 how little the accidents on railroads vary from year to 

 year. He explained clearly how even the common events 

 of life may seem like chance but they simply follow out a 

 natural order of things. 



Monday, Feb. 17, 1896. — Regular meeting in the Li- 

 brary room. 



Monday, Feb. 24, 1896. — Messrs. Samuel Cabot of 

 Boston, and Edwin Reed of Cambridge, lectured in Plum- 

 mer Hall this evening. Mr. Cabot explained the cypher 

 which it is claimed Bacon used to show that he wrote the 

 Shakespeare plays. Mr. Reed demonstrated that the edu- 

 cation and early training of Shakespeare and his associa- 

 tions and surroundings at Stratford were all against the 

 possibility of his authorship of the works attributed to 

 him. He believed they were written by Francis Bacon 

 who, for political reasons, did not wish, in his time, to be 

 known as the author. 



Monday, March 2, 1896. — Regular meeting in the 

 Library room. 



Monday, March 9, 1896.— Frot Arlo Bates, of the 

 Institute of Technology, Boston, lectured this evening in 

 Plummer Hall, on "Dr. Johnson and his Dictionary." 



