For this purpose alone we feel that nature study is 
well worth while. 
It may be that the present course of nature study 
needs simplification—perhaps radical revision—but 
to drop the subject entirely from the curriculum 
would be distinctly a retrogressive step. 
A resumé of the educational work of the Museum for the 
year 1912 is presented in the following extracts from the sixth 
Annual Report of President Osborn to the Board of Trustees: 
Although the location of the Museum is still far from the 
center of population, the attendance for the year was 846,963, 
an increase of 122,822 over the figures for 1911. The general 
lectures were attended by 80,249 persons; the children’s 
lectures and opportunities for special study attracted 49,872; 
while the circulating collections, which are sent out daily from 
our doors, reached 1,275,890 school children, the largest num- 
ber yet recorded. This system of circulating collections has 
been extended to some of the schools of New Jersey. It 
is also interesting to note that the colleges and universities of 
the country are making increasing use of our exhibition halls 
for purposes of instruction, professors and students from the 
colleges of New England and the Middle States making special 
journeys to the Museum for this purpose. 
The total number reached by the Museum’s Extension 
System is shown by the following statistics: 
1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 Ig!10_ IgII Igi2 
Board of Educa- 
tion Lectures... 42,212 45,000 35,068 43,386 28,402 43,549 40,067 52,855 
Lectures to 
School Children 
peecccsses 35,000 17,187 29,688 28,361 275524 15,610 29,935 39,624 
the Museum for 
General Study.. 11,000 6,813 73795 10,818 8,712 9,284 91444 10,248 
CUFES. ccccccees. 35,281 6,867 11,784 15,587 27,369 15,712 18,649 28,384 
General atten- 
eeeeees 555,489 476,133 537:894 1,043,582 839,141 613,152 724,141 846,963 
ideveseates 375,000 800,000 725,000 §75.801 922,512 839,089 1,253,435 1,275,890 
940,489 1,276,133 1,262,894 1,719,383 1,761,653 1,452,241 1,977,576 2,122,853 
5 
