Annual Meeting.] 186 [May 7, 



tending to similar technical details in Boston, and in his annual 

 report, noticed our work very favorably. 



The following extract is taken from that publication. 



"Besides the general instruction afforded by these lectures, the 

 teachers find in them valuable practical suggestions as to methods 

 of giving observation lessons and elementary science lessons in 

 school. This school is doing an invaluable work ; and the wise 

 liberality with which it has been supported out of the income of 

 the Lowell Institute fund deserves grateful public acknowledg- 

 ment." 



There were fifteen lessons given during the past winter. They 

 consisted of five on the "Elements of Chemistry," by Prof. Lewis 

 M. Norton of the Mass. Inst, of Technology, and were as follows : 

 1, first principles of chemistry; 2, the chemistry of the air; 



3, the chemistoy of the water ; 4, the chemistry of combustion ; 

 5, the chemistry of the metallic elements. There were also five 

 on the "Practical examination with simple apparatus of the phys- 

 ics and chemistry of vegetable physiology," by Prof. Geo. L. 

 Goodale of Harvard University, and were as follows : 



1, vegetable assimilation ; the mode in which plants prepare 

 food for themselves and for animals ; 2, the kinds of food stored 

 in vegetable organs ; illustrations of the starches, sugars, oils 

 and albuminoidal matters ; 3, how food is used by plants and ani- 

 mals in the formation of new parts ; mechanics of growth ; 



4, how food is used in work of all kinds by different organisms ; 



5, adaptation of organisms to extremes of heat and light, chiefly 

 with respect to geographical distribution. 



The course was concluded with a series of five lessons on 

 "Chemical principles illustrated b} r common minerals," by Prof. 

 W. O. Crosby of the Mass. Inst, of Technology. 



The lessons began with the usual large attendance of over five 

 hundred, and this number was slowly reduced until the audience 

 averaged less than two hundred. The excessively bad weather 

 had undoubtedly a serious effect upon the last course but less, we 

 think, than the fact that Saturday is not only the teachers' sole holi- 

 day, but it is almost all the time that can be made available for 

 study outside of the regular professional work. 



Though greatly in need of some leisure which can be devoted 

 to the studies necessary to keep up with the requirements of a 

 progressive curriculum, teachers are as closely confined to pro- 



