No. 5 .—Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, Mag 0, 1896. 
Report of the Curator, Alpheus Hyatt. 
Last year the Curator called special attention to the fact that for 
the first time in its history this Society had acknowledged the 
claims of investigation by paying a salary for original exploration 
in the geology of the Boston Basin. This is not an entirely new 
departure. It is the direct and legitimate result of the plan of the 
Museum. This plan contemplates the completion of different depart¬ 
ments, as shown in final reports and in the exhibition collections, 
and so far as the educational departments are concerned it may 
possibly be considered as stopping at this point, but it should be 
understood that proper provision must be made for the occasional 
revision and rearrangement of these collections as made neces¬ 
sary by the progress of science. In other words, the educational 
departments cannot be neglected for a series of years without 
becoming more or less antiquated and deteriorating in their capacity 
for teaching. 
The New England collections, although they are not yet brought 
together in one place, are by far the most important part of the 
Museum, and no limit has been set for them. The exposition of 
these departments plays directly into the hands of teachers in all 
natural history subjects, and the plan includes connected series of 
investigations in all departments as fast as the men and the means 
can be found. There is but little prospective benefit in attempting 
to build up New England collections which are simple masses of 
specimens that any man can collect and label. Each of the New 
England collections should have a character of its own, derived from 
the investigations of the person who made it. They will then 
possess a teaching capacity and an influence derived from the labors 
of the investigators who made them, that will extend widely through¬ 
out the community. The geological department is an excellent illus¬ 
tration of what may be done. This in combination with the work 
of the Teachers’ School of Science in the same direction lias 
created a general interest which fills our lecture rooms whenever 
O 
this subject is being taught. The number of original publications 
