11 



Public Instruction. The Museum and the public owe much of 

 the gratifying development of this popular department to the 

 appreciative cooperation of Judge Draper, from whose annual 

 report, transmitted to the Legislature, January 5, 1887, is the fol- 

 lowing important extract : 



" The system is new, but is undoubtedly destined to have an 

 important part in future educational work. The course of lec- 

 tures in progress is eminently attractive and practical, and teachers 

 and those preparing to teach are thus given the advantages of 

 foreign travel and opportunities for scientific research, which they 

 could obtain in no other way. 



" The need of a much larger lecture hall at the Museum is sorely 

 felt. If it is provided, the information now being supplied to 

 teachers can be extended to mechanics, artisans, and others, as is 

 contemplated by the second section of the law under which we are 

 proceeding. Much of it would be of peculiar interest to this class of 

 our city population. Such lectures as the four upon ' Food Fishes,' 

 and those upon • Coal and Petroleum,' ' Iron and Lead,' ' Tea 

 and Coffee,' ' Indian Corn and Tobacco,' ' Wheat and Rice,' 

 ' Sugar and Salt,' and many others, would prove of great value 

 to them. The City of New York ought to provide accommoda- 

 tions for carrying on this work, and very likely will." 



The rapidly increasing interest in this illustrative method of 

 promoting public education is strikingly manifested in the fol- 

 lowing statement of the number of teachers who have attended 

 the first lecture in the Spring Course during the past four years : 



January 12, 1884, 121 



February 14, 1885, 140 



February 20, 1886, 286 



January 8, 1887, 504 



The present lecture hall is designed to seat 275. On January 

 8, the opening of the present course, 390 teachers were crowded 

 into the little hall — of whom nearly fifty were ladies who were 

 obliged to stand after having taught all the week — and 114 went 

 away, unable to get inside the doors. 



During the past summer, at the suggestion of Judge Draper, 

 Prof. Bickmore traveled at his own expense in Norway to the 

 North Cape and throughout the sublimest scenery of Switzerland, 

 to gather illustrations and data for his lectures on those countries. 



GEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. 



[Under the charge of Prof. R. P. Whitfield.] 



PaljEONtological Collections. — In this collection much 

 has been done during the past year, in providing labels ; a large 

 number of explanatory labels having been added. The vertebrate 

 remains of the Holmes Collection, from the Phosphate beds of 



