54 



Report of the President 



of touching the specimen by the pupil adds to its teaching value, 

 is practically the unanimous opinion of the teachers who use 

 the material from the Museum. On the other hand, the neces- 

 sary wear and tear resulting from the handling incur an added 

 expense to the Museum in keeping certain collections, such as 

 mounted birds, in good condition. However, in the case of the 

 birds, when the number of years that many of the specimens 

 have been in circulation and the number of times that they have 

 been handled by the pupils have been considered, the results 

 are not discouraging. However, on account of more and more 

 stringent laws regulating the collecting of native birds, the de- 

 partment may be forced to put its loan collections under glass, 

 so that they can not be handled by the pupils. 



The loan collections have been increased by the issue of an 

 improved edition of the series of public health charts entitled 

 "The Spread and Prevention of Communicable 

 Public Health Di sease# " Heretofore these had been prepared 

 by a photographic process, while the new charts 

 are in printed form, lighter in weight, more attractive in appear- 

 ance, and it is thought they will prove to be more durable. 



The Rockefeller Institute requested four sets of these charts 

 for use in war work in France. Four sets of eleven charts each 

 were prepared without captions so that French captions could 

 be substituted. These, together with one complete set of fifteen 

 charts with English captions, were presented by the Museum 

 to the Rockefeller Institute. 



Comparative Statistics Relating to the Circulating 

 Collections for the Past Seven Years 



Number of Collec- 

 tions in Use. . . . 



Number of Schools 

 of Greater New 

 York Supplied . . 



Number of Pupils 

 Studying the Col- 

 lections 



1911 



1912 



1913 



1914 



1915 



1916 



512 



537 



597 



675 



671 



704 



486 



491 



5oi 



470 



473 



439 



1.253,435 



1,275,890 



1,378,599 



1,273,853 



1,238,581 



1,118,322 



1917 



712 

 446 



1,075,076 



