Annual Meeting.] 234 [May 6, 



No. 11, and had been solicited in order to prepare teachers for 

 giving instruction in " Common Metals, Minerals and Rocks," 

 according to the plan indicated in the schedule of the " Course of 

 Study for the Boston Grammar Schools." 



The course consisted exclusively of practical lessons given in 

 the Mineralogical Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, and in consequence of the size of the room, the class 

 was necessarily limited to sixty teachers. 



The seats were full and the attendance showed that such courses 

 are more eagerly sought now than formerly. 



Lessons given to large audiences have done their share of the 

 work in exciting this interest and we are beginning, also, to reap 

 the benefits of these and of the more direct and earnest efforts 

 made by Miss Lucretia Crocker and Mrs. Richards for the instruc- 

 tion of Boston teachers. The average attendance was sixty-five. 



Laboratory. 



The laboratory has been used by the following classes : one in 

 Zoology and Paleontology from the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, one in Zoology from the Boston University, both of 

 these being under the charge of the Curator ; also one in Botany, 

 and one in Physiology, both of these being under the charge of 

 Mr. Van Vleck. 



Annisquam Laboratory. 



In the last annual report the Curator ventured to predict that 

 this establishment had reached the lowest point to which it was 

 destined to descend. This prediction has been fulfilled, since the 

 past summer has witnessed a very decided revival in the number 

 and quality of the attendance and the coming summer looks still 

 more promising. This department has at length succeeded so far 

 as instruction and personal effort can make success ; the future 

 depends upon other and more material supports. 



The Director has felt that his plan was open to criticism, on ac- 

 count of its novelty, for it differed from the ordinary plans of 

 similar laboratories. 



It assumed that all persons admitted were capable of conducting 

 their own work, whereas they very rarely were ; and it also as- 

 sumed, on the part of all students, an ability to realize that being 

 taught how to do one's own work was more valuable than the mere 



