10 The American Museum of Natural History 



feature alone has an important bearing on the success of the present 

 system of circulating collections. Each collection is put up in a 

 small cabinet about the size of a suit-case and is accompanied by a 

 leaflet giving simple facts on the structure, habits, or characteristics 

 of the particular species in the collection. These notes are necessarily 

 brief and are intended chiefly as suggestions to the teachers. A 

 brief bibliography on the subjects is noted and attention is called 

 to the local collections of birds or other animals in the Museum 

 building. 



The method by which the teacher obtains the collections has 

 been made as simple as possible. The Museum furnishes blanks upon 

 which the principals make application for the collections and at the 

 same time indicate the sequence desired. Delivery is then made by 

 the Museum messengers, who call again at the end of the loan period, 

 that is, in three or four weeks, and make the second delivery. This 

 method keeps the Museum in frequent touch with the teachers and 

 enables us to understand their needs. 



The work began with ten small cabinets of birds. The requests 

 for the collections became so numerous that it was necessary im- 

 mediately to increase the number as well as the variety of the collec- 

 tions. In the first year collections of minerals and rocks, native 

 woods, insects, and several other lower animals were added to the 

 series. The collections then covered the greater part of the material 

 suggested in the Syllabus, and the growth of the work merely required 

 the duplication of the collections already in circulation. The collec- 

 tions now comprise minerals, rocks, woods, sponges, corals, sea- 

 urchins, starfishes, mollusks, worms, crabs, insects, birds, and small 

 mammals. The teaching value of these collections is enhanced 

 manyfold because the individual specimens may be removed from the 

 cases and utilized for close observation. 



Owing to the growing interest in questions of public health, a 

 number of folios pertaining to public health have been added to the 

 series. These comprise photographs illustrating the sources, spread, 

 and prevention of contagious diseases, the part played by insects in 

 carrying disease, and bacteria and their work. These public health 

 folios were prepared under the immediate direction of Professor C.-E. 

 A. Winslow, Curator of the Museum's Department of Public Health. 

 They are in great demand, especially by the teachers of High Schools, 

 and their duplication is desirable. Recently the first series of Public 

 Health Charts, namely, "The Spread and Prevention of Commu- 

 nicable Diseases," has been issued in printed form on cloth-backed 

 paper, 22x28 inches. Now there are 250 sets of these charts avail- 

 able for the New York Schools, and a limited number can be sold to 

 other educational organizations. 



