40 
Annual Reports of Academy of 
Public Lectures. 
With the cooperation of the Ludwick Institute two courses of free, 
illustrated, public lectures were given by members of the scientific 
staff and others. These were arranged with the object of present¬ 
ing popular information on the animal and plant life in the vicinity 
of Philadelphia, on the results of the explorations of the Academy 
in the west, and upon general biological problems. 
In the Monday evening course, January 5 to April 12. Dr. Wit- 
mer Stone lectured on “A Naturalists’ Camp in the Chiricahua 
Mountains, Arizona,” and on “Birds’ Nests and Nesting Habits”. 
Dr. J. Percy Moore, on “The Foundations of Organic Evolution”. 
Mr. J. A. G. Rehn, on “Desert Sojourns of an Entomologist” 
and “Insect Collecting in the Higher Mountains of the West”. 
Mr. J. Fletcher Street, on “Spring Wild Flowers” and the “Flora 
of the Pine Barrens and Coast”. 
Dr. Spencer Trotter, on “The Mammalia”. 
Dr. H. A. Pilsbry, on “Oysters and the Oyster Industry”, and 
“The Shell Fish of Our Coasts”. 
Mr. Henry W. Fowler, on “Tropical Fishes”. 
Twelve lectures were also given in three of the city High Schools 
on “Local Birds” and “Local Wild Flowers”, by Dr. Stone; “Local 
Insects”, by Mr. Rehn; and “The Oyster Industry”, by Dr. Pilsbry. 
Dr. Stone, Mr. Rehn, and Mr. Fowler also gave voluntary lec¬ 
tures on the local fauna and flora to school children in the Academy 
Lecture Hall on Friday afternoons, January 16 to February 27. 
In the future it is planned to hold all of the lectures at the Acad¬ 
emy, to broaden their scope, and to give some of them on Sunday 
afternoons. 
The lectures form a very important part of the Academy’s educa¬ 
tional work. Through them the attempt is made to bring vividly be¬ 
fore the audience the beauties of nature, the life histories of ani¬ 
mals, and the laws underlying the development of animal and plant 
life; and through the aid of lantern slides to bring city children into 
close contact with the wild life, which many of them have never 
had an opportunity to study in reality. 
