HYATT: REPORT OF THE CURATOR 
233 
six years beginning in the winter of 1891-92, was obliged to resign 
on account of the pressure of his professional engagements. The 
Curator greatly regretted this, since Dr. Greenleaf had been a most 
successful teacher and his courses were very attractive to the best class 
of teachers and productive in other results noted from time to time 
in previous Reports. Mr. B. H. Van Vleck continued Dr. Green- 
leaf’s four-year course, completing the third year with sixteen les¬ 
sons of two hours each, beginning Nov. 18, 1899, and ending 
March 24, 1900. The number of persons registered was forty, and 
the average attendance thirty-two. Thirty took the examination, 
and all passed. Two students were for adequate reasons allowed 
to be absent and to have an examination later by Mr. Van Vleck. 
The subject was the structure and physiology of algae, and numer¬ 
ous preparations and specimens were used, fully illustrating the 
more important morphological and physiological facts which it was 
desirable to demonstrate clearly on account of their general bearing 
in relation to the higher orders of plants. Mr. Van Vleck w T as 
assisted effectively by the work of Miss Cora H. Clarke ; and through 
her kindness the class was able to do its work more advantageously 
and to receive pressed mounts to the number of 700, representing 
25 genera and thirty species. These were gratefully received by 
members of the class, who highly appreciated Miss Clarke’s 
generosity. 
The Curator gave the last series of lessons in a five years’ course, 
consisting of twenty-two lessons of two hours each, altogether forty- 
four hours of instruction, beginning on the 21st of October, 1899, 
and ending on the 15th of April, 1900. The examination has 
not yet been held, having been postponed until the second 
Saturday in May. The number of lessons exceeds that of any 
previous year, but it was necessary in order to carry out the 
plan of the whole course and finish it properly. The subjects 
were some of the higher orders of Insecta not finished last winter 
and the Vertebrata, ending with a special lesson on man. There 
were forty-eight tickets issued, and the average attendance was 
thirty-six. This course was fully illustrated as usual with speci¬ 
mens, and the lessons consisted partly of lectures and partly of 
observations made by the students themselves under the direction 
of the Curator, the object being instruction in the broad general 
facts of structural and functional relations of different animals, with 
only enough systematic work to enable the pupils to recognize the 
natural relations of the types used in the class room. 
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