In 1882 agents were obtained, by correspondence and through the kindness of the Secretary of the State Board of Education, Mr. Dickinson, in forty-four towns, who distributed tickets and filled out blanks so that the benefits of The Teachers' School of Science were extended beyond the limits of Boston. In this year there were two courses, one of ten lessons, by Professor Niles, on physical geography, and five on physiology, by Dr. H. P. Bowditch. These courses began in November and continued throughout the whole year, with a decrease in attendance after the Christmas and April holidays. These lessons were followed by five on elementary chemistry, by Prof. L. M. Norton, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His subjects were as follows: First Principles of Chemistry; the next, Chemistry of Air, Chemistry of Water, Chemistry of Combustion, Chemistry of Metallic Elements. There were also five on Practical Examination, with Simple Apparatus of the Physics and Chemistry of Vegetable Physiology, by Professor Goodale, which were divided as follows: (1) Vegetable Assimilation, the mode in which plants prepare food for themselves and animals; (2) The Kinds of Food Stored in Vegetable Organs, illustrations of the starches, sugars, oils, and albuminoidal matters; (3) How Food is used by Plants and Animals in a Formation of New Parts, mechanics of growth; (4) How Food is Used in Work of all Kinds by Different Organisms; (5) Adaptations of Organisms to Extremes of Heat and Light, chiefly with respect to geographical distribution. This session was concluded with a series of five lessons on Chemical Principles illustrated by Common Minerals, by Professor Crosby. At the beginning of this season there was the usual large attendance, with teachers from thirty towns, but the number was slowly reduced. It was evident to the curator that the decline in attendance was not due to the subjects nor the mode in which they were treated, but from fatigue on the part of the teachers, and this state of affairs caused him to say in his annual report that "proper and wise forethought should long ago have given teachers a portion of every week besides the usual Saturday holiday for the pursuit of information needed for teaching new subjects." He believed that the efficiency of the individual teacher would be greatly increased by this expedient, and that the pupils would gain more than they lost by the shortening of the school hours.