1872.} 1 65 [Annual Report. 
drew Mr. Sanborn from his position as Assistant in the Mu- 
seum, and from the care of the Entomological Department for 
four months. 
The publications have fallen behindhand on account of 
these various changes, and other reasons explained in my pre- 
vious report, but they are, owing to the energetic manage- 
ment of the present Secretary, now being rapidly advanced. 
The Teachers’ School of Science was conceived, and has 
been carried into successful operation during the past winter 
under the patronage of Mr. John Cummings, a well known 
member of this Society. 
After this gentleman had pledged himself to the support of 
this undertaking, a Committee was appointed, consisting of 
Mr. John Cummings, the President, Prof. W.H. Niles and the 
Custodian, to take the matter in charge. 
Under the direction of the Committee, courses of lessons 
have been given on Physical Geography, by Prof. W. H. Niles, 
on Mineralogy, by Mr. W.C. Greenough, and on Zoology by 
the Custodian. The last course on Botany, by Dr. W. G. Far- 
low, of Cambridge, is now in progress. When this is 
finished there will have been thirty-three lessons given. 
The courses have been almost wholly tentative and experi- 
mental, but the success already attained has been most en- 
couraging. 
Prof. W. H. Niles delivered the first six. He undertook to 
give the more general features of the earth’s surface, and then 
'to apply these general principles to the explanation of the 
physical characteristics of Massachusetts. The success of this 
course may be judged by the average attendance, which was 
by about six hundred teachers of all grades, and the fact that 
_the methods of teaching Geography in some of our public 
‘schools are now undergoing a change in favor of the more 
natural method introduced by him. 
The necessity of actually handling and dissecting speci- 
mens obliged the Committee, after consultation with the Mas- 
_ters of the public schools, to confine the issue of tickets to 
