1883.] 351 Annual Meeting. 



these were teachers, and volunteered their aid, and all faithfully 

 formed the duty of sending out blank applications, and receiving 

 and distributing our tickets to the applicants whom we had 

 selected. In Boston, and many of the towns, the utility of the 

 school was recognized so fully by the Superintendents of the Pub- 

 lic Schools, that they themselves acted as our agents, and the 

 tickets were distributed from their offices. There were two 

 courses, one of ten lessons by Prof. W. H. Niles on Physical 

 Geography, and one of five lessons on Physiology, by Dr. H. P. 

 Bowditch. The courses began Nov. 4th, and the audiences at 

 first averaged five hundred, but the interruptions of the Christmas 

 holidays, as in former years, caused a falling off in the average of 

 100 to 150. In Dr. Bowditch's course which deals with a special 

 subject, the average attendance was at first about 400, diminished 

 after the April holidays by about 100 to 150. The diminution of 

 the average caused by holidays has been noted more or less every 

 winter, but the fact that it should have occurred this year was 

 especially noteworthy. Both the courses were unusually attrac- 

 tive and popular, and had a large attendance ; nevertheless the holi- 

 days were followed by the usual effect. 



The average attendance of teachers in Prof. Niles course was esti- 

 mated at about forty-four per cent, of the whole number of tickets 

 issued for that course, and in Dr. Bowditch's course it was about 

 forty per cent. 



The following is an abstract of the statistics taken from our 

 files of applications and records : — 



NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS RECEIVED. 



Physical Geography 988 



Physiology 834 



Both courses . .. 1,822 



NUMBER OF TICKETS DISTRIBUTED. 



TO TEACHERS. 



Physical Geography 953 



Physiology 812 



Both courses 1,765 



TO PRIVATE ADDRESSES. 



Physical Geography 145 



Physiology 131 



Both courses 276 



