156 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
A number of teachers brought their classes to the museum 
for instruction on various subjects and a large number of school 
and college students have spent many hours in the museum 
studying for their science examinations. 
The thanks of the Society are due the press of the city which 
has taken much interest in our progress and has published a 
series of articles on the work of the museum. 
In submitting my annual report (1909), it affords me pleasure 
that the general condition of the museum shows an improvement 
over that last reported, though it still lacks very much, in the 
matter of arrangement and labeling, of attaining the ideal we 
have in mind. The necessity for one person devoting a part of 
his time to filling the positions of Curator, Corresponding Secre- 
tary, also doing all the identifying, labeling and detail work of 
the collections, naming material and supplying information to 
school children, teachers, farmers and others, conducting 
children’s outings in summer and lectures in winter, attending to 
a multitude of minor duties which require much time and atten- 
tion does not allow of his doing his best in the museum. The 
present arrangement also necessitates slighting or leaving entirely 
undone many things outside the regular work that would 
materially enhance the usefulness of the institution, but for 
which sufficient time cannot be found. 
Notwithstanding these difficulties we are able to report a 
considerable amount of work done in the museum. The follow r - 
ing is a summery of what has been accomplished in the various 
departments : 
Zoology. — The collection of foreign birds possessed by the 
Society have been brought together and arranged in one case 
and a number of specimens were mounted on new stands. The 
general collection of shells has been re-arranged; this was 
necessary to incorporate a large number of handsome shells 
donated recently. 
Botany. — The principal accession to this department is a col- 
lection of seeds, barks, roots and vegetable oils used medicinally, 
presented by Joseph N. Bardsley. 
