MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Jan. 



[A.] 



FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT 



Of the Director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, by 



Louis Agassiz. 



Before I proceed to give a special account of the operations 

 of the Museum during the past year, permit me to submit to 

 you the plan I adopted for the instruction regularly given in 

 the establishment to the special students of the Lawrence 

 Scientific School in the department of Zoology, and to other 

 persons admitted to the lectures delivered in the regular course 

 of our University programme. With reference to the latter, I 

 have nothing particular to add beyond what has already been 

 noticed in former Reports. As usual these lectures have been 

 attended by a large number of public teachers, besides the 

 regular students of the College and of the Scientific School. 

 But during the past year, with the introduction of the system 

 of University courses of lectures, the Museum has received a 

 new accession to its means of usefulness. Mr. Scudder has 

 delivered a special course upon Entomology in the lecture room 

 of the Museum, Mr. A. Agassiz one upon the Embryology of 

 Echinoderms, and I one upon the Natural History of the Cre- 

 taceous epoch. I may also mention that on two occasions large 

 delegations of the public teachers from Rhode Island and New 

 Hampshire, numbering upwards of four hundred individuals, 

 have visited the Museum, spending the day in its examination 

 under my guidance and that of the assistants of the establish- 

 ment. Thus the importance of this kind of instruction is grad- 

 ually better appreciated in a wider circle ; and a knowledge of 

 what is practicable in this direction will, I hope, contribute to 

 disseminating a love for the study of nature, and lead to the 

 introduction of that branch of instruction in those schools and 

 colleges where it is still neglected. 



The instruction which is given at the Museum to the special 

 students of the Zoological department of the Lawrence Scientific 



