18 
tute in November and December, with the largest attendance yet 
secured in the Academy, the record showing an average of 163 for 
each lecture. 
The condition of the collections in the department of geology re¬ 
mains unchanged. There is a deficiency of case-room, and imme¬ 
diate relief can hardly be looked for. Some rearrangement of the 
collections has been made under the direction of the Curators, both 
in the old and in the new museum buildings, but a large part of the 
specimens must still be placed in the drawers of the cases. 
Additions to this department of the Academy’s museum, and 
notably to the affiliated department of paleontology, have been re¬ 
ceived from various sources, a number of them from former students 
of the courses of geology. While the generous gift of the late Prof. 
E. D. Cope does not strictly concern the department of geology, as 
defined by the By-Laws, a reference to it cannot be omitted. Prof. 
Cope’s collections are not only a monument to the indomitable en¬ 
ergy and scientific devotion of a master of his specialty, but of the 
utmost importance to the student of vertebrate paleontology. The 
collections should be secured for the Academy, to which they have 
been virtually proffered, and with which the name of the deceased 
has been most intimately associated. 
Daniel G. Brinton, M. D., Professor of Ethnology and 
Archeology, reports that during the spring of 1897, a course of 
free public lectures was delivered by him in the lecture hall of the 
Academy on the recent advances in the science of anthropology. 
The lectures were well attended, and an increased popular interest 
in this branch was manifest. 
The anthropological collections of the Academy have been ar¬ 
ranged in mostly new cases and exposed to public view in a favor¬ 
able portion of the recently constructed addition to the Academy 
building. The number of visitors who give attention to this portion 
of the collections of the Academy show that it is one in which the 
general public is much interested. 
Benjamin Sharp, M. D., Professor of Invertebrate Zool¬ 
ogy, reports that during the past year he delivered two courses, one 
often and the other of six lectures, upon invertebrate zoology, 
under the auspices of the Ludwick Institute, and one lecture in the 
Friday Evening Course on “ The Sea and its Influence upon Animal 
Life.” 
