Jan., 1920. Annual Report of the Director. 



329 



principals that only schools of elementary grades would be best served 

 with loan cases. This idea has been followed out from the inauguration 

 of the system up to the present time. During the next scholastic year 

 the high schools, at the written request of Mr. J. E. Armstrong, Assistant 

 Superintendent of Schools, will be scheduled to receive cases. In his 

 request Mr. Armstrong said of the cases, "I have studied them with 

 great interest and am firmly of the opinion that they would be of very 

 great assistance in the high schools. " 



The Superintendent of the Municipal Pier formally requested cases 

 be placed on exhibition on the pier during the period of school vacation, 

 as was done last year. His request was granted and twenty-four cases 

 were placed on exhibition there dtiring the time specified. When the 

 cases were returned to the Museum the Superintendent expressed his 

 thanks and added, "I believe I am voicing the thanks also of a large 

 body of visitors who found entertainment and instruction in leisurely 

 contemplating your beautiful exhibits and the lessons they teach. " 



In reptile and similar branches of taxidermy the employment of the 

 skin of a specimen for mounting has not given satisfactory results. The 

 effects usually obtained being a shrunken and parchment-like surface 

 and a fading and disappearance of the natural colors. As these faults 

 seemed impossible to remedy, the use of the specimen's skin for moimt- 

 ing purposes has practically been abandoned. Better, though not en- 

 tirely approved results, have been derived by making, in plaster, cellu- 

 loid and other materials, casts of specimens, which were afterwards 

 painted to represent the natural colors. Painting on the surface of a skin 

 or on a cast has never brought an effect comparable with the living 

 model. In order to produce an effect more natural in appearance than 

 that accomplished by the use of the skin or by casts, this Department 

 has been, at intervals during the past year, experimenting with pyralin, 

 celluloid and similar materials. With celluloid as a mediimi it is found 

 possible to make reproductions of a character so closely resembling the 

 structure and coloring of the skin of the living specimen as to elimiaate 

 the necessity of painting it, thus displacing the objectionable appearance 

 of paint as it is usually employed. Experiments have also been made in 

 foliage reproducing in celluloid, using electro-deposited metal molds 

 which possess strength sufi&cient to withstand the pressure required in the 

 molding operations. The strength and elasticity of the celltiloid is such 

 as to correct the objectionable necessity of making the artificial leaf 

 unnaturally thick. 



During the year a request was received from Mr. H. Bolton, Director, 

 Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, England, and Secretary, Educational 

 Section, The British Association for the Advancement of Science, for 



