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Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



result in still greater benefits. If, also, they could be supplemented 

 by more special courses during the summer, spring or fall, it would 

 be still more useful. At the March meeting of the Executive 

 Board, it was decided to have a course of instruction in Practical 

 Botany, for the benefit of the teachers in the public schools, and thus 

 try and get them interested in Natural Science. The first of these 

 lectures will be given about the middle of the present month (April), 

 and should they prove successful, other subjects will be taken up in 

 the fall and be pursued in the same way. 



Since writing the above, the Annual Report of the American 

 Museum of Natural History of New York, has come to hand, and 

 in it are some remarks relative to courses of lectures given by that 

 institution. A department has been created, called the "Depart- 

 ment of Public Instruction," and the Superintendent of this Depart- 

 ment, Professor Albert S. Bickmore, has arranged a course which 

 is to continue for four years. In the past, these lectures have been 

 so popular and successful, that although the capacity of the lecture 

 room is twice that used at first, there are more applicants than can 

 be admitted, and it is suggested that the room be again enlarged 

 so as to seat twelve hundred people. The first course, which be- 

 gan last fall, embraces six lectures on Human Anatomy and Phys- 

 iology, two on Mineralogy, two on Forestry, and the remaining 

 ten, to be given this spring, on the Animal Kingdom, including 

 such subjects as Oysters and Clams, Crabs and Lobsters, Flies 

 and Mosquitos, Bees and Ants, etc. The second course will em- 

 brace ten lectures on Physical Geography, and ten on Zoology. 

 The third has three lectures on useful minerals, four on articles of 

 Food, three on Materials for Clothing, five on Birds, and five on 

 Mammals. In the fourth and last course, during the winter of 

 1887 and 1888, there will be four lectures on Physical Geography, 

 ten on the Races of Mankind, and six on Mammals. All these 

 lectures are so arranged that the same subject is not taken up twice. 

 Their titles, furthermore, are such as to be sure to attract attention. 

 This Society is not yet in a position to give such an extensive 

 series, but something could be done in that direction during the 

 coming year, and it is sincerely hoped some step will be taken in 

 this direction. 



