Report of the President 5 1 



PHYSIOLOGY 

 Ralph W. Tower, Curator 



Department of Physiology. — Much of the time of the 

 preparator, Mr. Elwyn, has been occupied in completing work 

 which has been requisitioned by other departments. Some 

 time, however, has been devoted to perfecting the device 

 designed to illustrate the mechanism of respiration. The 

 apparatus is composed of an artificial thorax, constructed from 

 glass, and supplied with a rubber diaphragm. Within this 

 thoracic cavity is suspended a lung, so prepared that it has 

 retained its elasticity. By a mechanical device the diaphragm 

 is made to expand and contract, and thus cause the alternate 

 expansion and contraction of the lung as in normal breathing. 

 Another apparatus illustrating the passage of a nerve impulse 

 over a sensory fiber to the brain and return over a motor fiber 

 has been designed ; the same device will also show the phe- 

 nomenon of reflex action. 



The preparation of one hundred and thirty-six skeletons 

 and eight hundred and forty-three skulls, large and small, has 

 been completed during the year. Particular attention has been 

 given to the osteological preparation of fishes, amphibians and 

 saurians intended for exhibition by the Department of Ichthyol- 

 ogy and Herpetology; in this work the digestion method has 

 proved unusually effective. 



The equipment in the preparation room at the present time 

 is quite inadequate, and it is hoped that some change may 

 soon be made to improve these unfavorable conditions. 



The department has received in the flesh one hundred and 

 eleven specimens from the Central Park Menagerie, fifty-six 

 from the Zoological Society, and nineteen from other sources, 

 making a total of one hundred and eighty-six animals. 



PUBLIC HEALTH 



Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, Curator 



Department of Public Health. — The widespread interest 

 in the Tuberculosis Exhibit, which was held at the Museum in 

 1908-1909 with an attendance of more than a million, demon- 



