Report of the President 73 



to their full capacity in the preparation of skeletons received 

 by the various departments of the Museum. Messrs. Johnstone 

 and Cohn have been occupied entirely with the large material, 

 including the osteological preparation of the California Gray 

 Whale and the Elephant Seal. Again the time of Mr. Elwyn 

 has been wholly occupied in completing work which has been 

 requisitioned by the Departments of Mammalogy and Ornith- 

 ology, and Ichthyology and Herpetology. Notwithstanding 

 that this work is important and has been skilfully done, it is 

 unfortunate that no time has been left for the regular work of 

 the Department of Anatomy and Physiology. The total 

 preparations of all kinds, large and small, register 25 skeletons 

 and 564 skulls; also 11 skeletons and 13 skulls have been 

 mounted for exhibition purposes. 



Through the courtesy of Bashford Dean, an African 

 lungfish was placed at the disposal of the Curator for experi- 

 ments on the mechanism of respiration. It is well known that 

 this interesting animal uses both its gills and a true lung in the 

 process of respiration, but the method by which this is carried 

 on and what proportion of the function is maintained by the 

 gills and what by the lung has never been demonstrated. 

 While the experiments at the present writing are far from com- 

 plete they are suggesting interesting problems in a very com- 

 plicated process. 



PUBLIC HEALTH 



Charles-Edward Amory Winslow, Curator 



Department of Public Health. — A tentative plan has 

 been outlined for an ideal future development of the Depart- 

 ment of Public Health so that its exhibition halls may present 

 a fairly comprehensive picture of the life of man as an animal, 

 his place in the general scheme of natural history, his relation 

 to his geographical and meteorological surroundings, the para- 

 sites which cause his diseases, and the animals and plants 

 which serve him for food and clothing. The plan as outlined, 

 giving a survey of the cycle of human life, its dangers and its 

 safeguards, complete enough to satisfy the curiosity of the 



