13 



To Messrs. Cabot, Lyman, and Poui'tal^s, the Museum is in- 

 debted for voluntary work and other valuable assistance. I 

 have been relieved of much tedious detail by the Bursar of the 

 College, Mr. Allen Danforth, who has taken charge of the Mu- 

 seum accounts since the transfer of the property from the Trus- 

 tees to the President and Fellows of Harvard College. 



Although summer instruction in Zoology has been abandoned 

 at the Museum, I have been able in my new Laboratory at New-' 

 port to give facilities for work to half a dozen teachers (three 

 ladies and three gentlemen) ; and it is my intention hereafter to 

 divide the facilities at my command between students of the 

 'Museum and teachers of our common schools, who must, how- 

 ever, be sufficiently advanced to study for themselves with 

 profit. 



The new Laboratory erected by me at Newport is twenty-five 

 feet by forty-five. The six windows for work are on the north 

 side, and extend from the ceiling to within eighteen inches of 

 the floor. In the spaces between the windows and the corners 

 of the building are eight work-tables, three feet by five, covered 

 with white tiles, one foot of the outer edge being covered, how- 

 ever, with black tiles for greater facility in detecting minute 

 animals on a black background. Between the windows, movable 

 brackets with glass shelves are placed ; while similar brackets ex- 

 tend across the windows and between the tables, thus providing 

 a shelf at any desired height. The tables for microscope work 

 are three-legged stands of varying height, adapted to the differ- 

 ent kinds of microscopes in use. The whole of the northern 

 side of the floor upon which the work-tables and microscope- 

 stands are placed is supported upon brick piei-s and arches inde- 

 pendent of the main brick walls of the building, which form at 

 the same time the basement of the building. The rest of the 

 floor is supported entirely upon the outside walls and upon col- 

 umns with stretchers extending under the crown of the arches 

 reaching to the northern wall. This gives to the microscopic 

 work the great advantage of complete isolation from all dis- 

 turbance caused by walking over the floor. This will be duly 

 appreciated by those who have worked in a building with 

 a wooden floor, where every step caused a cessation of work, 

 and was sure to disturb any object just at the most interest- 



