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MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Apr. 



Miss Slack, our librarian, is performing her duties with the 

 most praiseworthy diligence. 



Professor Shaler is now chiefly occupied with teaching our 

 under-graduates ; and, in order to render his instruction more 

 practical and impressive, every possible effort is now making to 

 prepare suitable collections for the lecture room, for the use of 

 the professor, as well as for the purposes of the students, of 

 which Professor Shaler will have charge. All the heads of the 

 different department are instructed to assist Professor Shaler in 

 the preparation and systematic arrangement of these collections, 

 and at the same time to prepare materials for distribution 

 among the Normal Schools. Besides this, Mr. Shaler continues 

 to take part in the work of the Museum, and is at present 

 devoting his attention to the Silurian Fossils. 



The friends of science will, no doubt, be pleased to learn that 

 the Museum of Comparative Zoology has made arrangements, 

 by which Dr. Wm. Stimpson may be able to begin making an- 

 other collection of those specimens upon which he had bestowed 

 special attention during his untiring and successful devotion to 

 zoology. 



The most valuable additions to the Museum, during the past 

 year, have been the collection of Devonian Fossils, bought of 

 Dr. L. Schultze, and the large collection of marine animals of 

 Mauritius, presented by the Hon. Nicholas Pike, U. S. Consul at 

 Port Louis ; not to speak of the numerous exchanges mentioned 

 below in the special reports of the heads of the departments. 



Thanks to the liberality of the legislature, and of the citi- 

 zens of Boston, our institution has been put upon a footing of 

 rapid growth and improvement. Its corps of workers is efficient 

 and devoted. Our relations with other scientific bodies in dif- 

 ferent parts of the world are all we could desire. Our exchanges 

 are rapidly increasing and improving, and we are missing few 

 opportunities of making valuable purchases. If its present 

 rate of expenditure could be made permanent, in a few years 

 the Museum may have no superior, perhaps no equal. 



With this I submit the special reports of my fellow workers 

 as part of my own. 



(Signed), 



Ls. AGASSIZ. 



