«894-] 287 [Annual Meeting. 
beer, made to support tliese reforms with extra teachers or with 
supplies of various kinds needed for effective objective teaching, 
ft was therefore possible that this movement, which the 
Teachers' Scliool of Science has been actively helping to accom- 
{disli so many years, might fail at the outset from the want of 
proper facilities that could be offered to the students. With 
these considerations in view, the Executive Committee granted 
the use of the Laboratory and its diagrams and microscopes to the 
Normal School gratuitously, and special privileges in the Museum 
were also given, as related above. Miss J. M. Arms also kindly 
volunteered to give a normal course in elementarj^ zoology, using 
our Laboratory for her class. This course is not yet finished. 
The President, assisted by Mr. Barton of the Institute of Tech- 
nology, has also volunteered to give a series of lessons on geology, 
and these have been begun. The results of these courses will be 
given in the next annual report. 
The class to whom these advantages have been given will 
graduate September next, and consists of sixteen young women 
who have expressed a desire to fit themselves to teach natural 
history in the public schools. Dr. Dunton, principal of the 
Normal School, and the teachers of natural history in his school 
liave requested the Curator to thank the Society and its officers 
for the timely aid afforded them during the past year. 
The Lowell Free Coui-ses in the Teacthers' School of Science 
have been as follows : — 
The field course in geology by Mr. G. II. Barton, referred to 
in the last annual report as the spring course and begun on April 
22, before the expiration of the last official year, consisted of nine 
lessons and excursions ending June 24. One excursion to Mt. 
Holyoke occui)ied two entire days. The average attendance was 
63.40. The similar course given in the autumn consisted of ten 
lessons and excursions beginning on September 9 and ending on 
the 11th of November; the average attendance was 67.33. One 
excursion was to the Hoosac Tunnel, and this also took two days. 
Witli the opening of the field lessons last autumn a more definite 
and systematic course of instruction in field work was devised. 
Tlie system pursued was to begin Avith places adapted to the 
study of the simpler problems and gra<lually pass on to those 
which furnished more complex ones. At first the instructor did 
the larger share of the work, pointing out the phenomena and 
