No. 393-] WORCESTER NAT. HIST. SOCIETY. 707 
study specimens in the collection. It has a small reference 
library whose books are sometimes loaned. There are also 
two rooms for special study; one fitted up as a mineralogical 
laboratory, with gas fixtures, reagents, blowpipes, and other 
appliances, ready for use at any time; another fitted for use as 
a botanical laboratory. 
For purposes of study, duplicate specimens are loaned as 
freely as books from a public library, and this is taken advan- 
tage of by the teachers of the city schools, who not only borrow 
objects for their own study, but for use in their class work. 
There were loaned to teachers and others during the last year : 
344 birds, 18 nests, 30 mammals, 72 lots of minerals and rocks, 
20 fossils, and a lesser number each of shells, charts, drawings, 
and books. 
` The society fosters the study of natural history by its yearly 
classes, many branches of the subject in the past having been 
covered. Those arranged for 1899, now under way, are: For 
the study of birds, two — one for adults, one for children; 
botany, two — one each for adults and children ; elementary 
biology and microscopy, one; mineralogy, one. The class- 
room is not large enough to well accommodate the attendance 
at some of these classes. 
The society gives a series of lectures each winter and spring, 
covering natural history subjects generally. It has also en- 
deavored to popularize nature study by means of interesting 
articles in the daily papers of the city, on the mammals, birds, 
fish, frogs, toads, turtles, mollusks, flowers, minerals, and geol- 
ogy of the county, written by its members. 
Again, the society aims to make its collection and work 
useful in all ways, as, for instance, in answering questions that 
may arise as to the best means of combating harmful plants 
and animals, and fostering those which are beneficial; also as 
to the economic values of woods, rocks, etc. 
Two pamphlets have been published: ora of Worcester 
County, by Joseph Jackson, Jr., 46 pp., 1883; and The 
Physical Geography of Worcester, Mass., by Joseph H. Perry, 
F.G.S.A., 40 pp., 1898. 
The society has invested funds of the par value of $6,500; 
