4 
Museum, some years ago, organized courses of lectures both for school 
children and for adults. These lectures have now become an assured 
success and attendance and iuterest in them have grown from year to year. 
Ottawa possesses in the Government service a large number of scientists 
who are authorities on their special subjects of study and it is from these 
that the lecturers are chiefly selected. The committee in charge of the 
lectures endeavours to include in each lecture course as many branches of 
science as possible. Thus, lectures on such subjects as “The Life History 
of a Mosquito/ “The Building of Mountains/’ and “How a New Variety 
of Wheat has been Developed” may be found in the same program. Prac- 
tically all lectures are illustrated by coloured slides and appropriate motion 
pictures. 
The lectures for children are given on Saturday mornings at 10 and 
11 a.m., and at these hours hundreds of children may be seen wending their 
way in small groups towards the museum. It is a tribute to the interest 
of the lectures that the children of their own accord flock to the museum 
in such numbers that the lectures must always be repeated once and on 
some occasions twice. The benefit derived by the children from these 
lectures can hardly be over-estimated. They learn something about the 
natural resources of Canada and the value of science in the conservation 
and development of these resources, and they acquire much other infor- 
mation that will be remembered long after their school days are over. 
Future scientists, philanthropists, business men, and leaders in the public 
life of the country are being inspired, as well as instructed, so that early in 
life their interests are directed towards the beauty and usefulness of the 
things of nature and the important r61e played by science in preserving 
and developing our national inheritance. 
The lectures are given in a more extended form for adults at 8.15 on 
Wednesday evenings. Much of the information imparted by these lectures 
is the same as that of university lecture courses on similar subjects; most 
of the speakers have the rank of university professors in their training and 
knowledge of their subjects. On the whole, however, by the use of coloured 
slides, motion pictures, and in other w T ays, the lectures are given in a more 
popular w r ay than that prevailing in the university classroom. 
The total attendance of children at the Saturday morning lectures of 
the 1930-1931 series w r as 9,200, with an average of 613; the total attendance 
of adults at the Wednesday evening lectures was 4,857, with an average 
attendance of 303. Following is a list of the lectures delivered: 
Fur-bearing Animals and the Furs We Wear, by F. D. Burkholder. 
Indian Drums, Rattles, and Whistles, by Douglas Leeehman. 
Sunspots and Their Effects on Living Things, by Ralph E. DeLury. 
Chemistry of Familiar Things, by R. D. Whitmore. 
Why Forests Change, by D. Roy Cameron. 
Experiences in the Rocky Mountains, by C. S. Evans. 
Wild Life in Southern Manitoba, by Norman Criddle. 
French Canada, by Marius Barbeau. 
Town Planning — the Social Science of Living Conditions; the Evolution of Two 
Capitals — Paris Today: Ottawa Tomorrow? by Noulan Cauchon. 
An Evening with the Microscope, by William E. Harris. 
Sulphur — Where We Get It and How We Use It, by A. W. G. Wilson. 
The Seasons in the Garden, by George Simpson. 
Mere Maps, by Lawrence J. Burpee. 
The Romance of the Canadian Hen, by S. C. Barry. 
Picturesque Gaspe, by F. J. Alcock. 
