31 



or five from the centre to the bark circumference, so that by selection of a sec- 

 tion from a tree eight or nine inches in diameter, and planing one side, we may 

 exhibit bark, sap-wood, heart-wood, natural grain as split, and grain when 

 smoothed by the plane or polished artificially. All the different kinds of seeds 

 constituting what we usually term grain should be exhibited in clear, wide- 

 mouthed bottles ; samples of all the roots and fruits which will keep, whether 

 used medicinally or for food; a special hortus siccus for the grasses,* tame and 

 wild ; the seeds of them separately, in bottles : the gums, balsams, resins, &c. ; 

 different kinds of starch food, as arrowroot, sago, tapioca ; coloring matter, as 

 madder, woad, gamboge ; in short, most of the vegetable products found in a 

 city apothecary's and druggist's establishment should all be represented. 



3. Zoological Department. In addition to the collection enumerated, part of 

 which should exhibit the osteology of as many vertebrates as practicable, par- 

 ticularly ^f useful domestic animals, there should be a large aquarium, or 

 several small ones, for studying the habits of mollusks and other animals, jars 

 of alcohol for preserving specimens, a dissecting-table, knives, and other facili- 

 ties for taxidermy. Diagrams exhibiting the general classification, in one con 

 spectus, of the four departments dependent on the nervous system ; also synopsis 

 of each minor subdivision, as the distinctions forming the classes, orders, and 

 genera, based on variations chiefly in the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive 

 organs. The different colored cards, to aid the eye in readily distinguishing the 

 classification, have already been recommended. Diagrams such as those pub- 

 lished by Day & Son, London, giving the whole animal kingdom according to 

 Patterson's classification, and the Extinct Animals, by Waterhouse Hawkins, 

 from the same publishing house, are very valuable. The lecturer on zoology 

 might also lecture on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, as some one must teach 

 that h'ghly important branch, audit connects well with the comparative anatomy 

 and physiology of zoology. He should, at all events, have large illustrative 

 plates, such as those of Cutter, or those published by Kelloggs & Comstock, 

 Hartford, Connecticut. A good solar microscope would al-so be valuable in 

 exhibiting infusorial and other animalcules to advantage. 



4. Geological Department. There should be in one of the smaller rooms 

 adjoining the geological collection a large table especially devoted to the geology 

 of the State in. which the college is located. Thus, in Indiana we would have 

 a table, perhaps 16 feet long by 12 wide, on which there might be finely-worked 

 stiff clay or plaster of Paris, laid from two to three inches thick, diminishing to 

 one inch on the lower side of the dip of each formation consequently in Indiana 

 on the southwest. This material might be painted different colors say blue 

 for the silurian, (deep for the lower, light for the upper,) red for the devonian, 

 and black for the carboniferous formation, (a lighter shade of black or gray 

 being used for the subcarboniferous.) Upon this clay, or plaster, the specimens 

 would be placed, each in its respective county. The counties could be de- 

 signated by having their names pasted on, in prominent capital letters. By 

 walking around the table, not only could the geography of the State be impressed, 

 but a correct idea of the geology of the State in which the student then 

 resides could thus be obtained. This department should also have diagrams of 

 the different geological periods, maps on which the coal-fields are, laid down 

 with India ink, models explaining upheaval and the apparent anomaly that the 



By a typographical error in the former communication, I appeared to recommend the 

 keeping of grapes. It is true I have seen grapes which kept well by being hung in bunches 

 in a cellar, but. for this special purpose, I was recommending a good assortment of all the 

 grasses to be exhibited to the student for his instruction. At another place, in speaking of 

 healthful ditt, it was recommended, by a mispiint, to boil meat, wheieas I was contending 

 for the wholesomeness of broiled meat, the boiliug being best, not when the meat itself is 

 to be used, but when the nutritious portions are extracted by boiling and found in the water 

 in the form of soup, &c. 



