Persons interested in the improvement of the teaching of geography in the public schools suggested to the trustee of the Lowell Institute the advisability of hearing again from Professor Davis, and the curator was requested to invite him to give a course of eight lectures on geography in the autumn and winter of 1897-'98. The subjects treated of in these lessons were selected from among those presented by Professor Davis in his course on geography in the Harvard Summer School, as they afforded material most directly applicable to the work of grammar-school teachers. At the end of each meeting opportunity was given for individual conference on questions suggested by the lectures. This course excited more interest among teachers than any which had been given since the beginning of the school, and it was consequently a serious disappointment to many teachers when it became known that Mr. Lowell did not feel able to re-engage Professor Davis and continue this kind of instruction. The same winter that Professor Davis gave his first course on physical geography Prof. F. W. Putnam, of Harvard University, Curator of Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Anthropology at Cambridge, and now President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, gave lessons on American archæology. The topics selected covered the whole range of the remains of prehistoric man and his life on this continent so far as these subjects could be presented in ten lessons. The original methods of research elaborated by Professor Putnam, which have placed his name among the first in his department of archæological work, rendered this course remarkably interesting and instructive. Specimens were studied and given away in sufficient numbers to illustrate the modes of making stone implements and some of the different kinds of pottery. Professor Putnam invited the teachers to visit the Peabody Museum, and there gave them an opportunity to inspect the larger objects which it had not been possible to bring into the city. The audience became so interested in the famous serpent mound in Ohio, which was then threatened with destruction, that a subscription was started which finally made it possible to purchase and preserve this ancient monument. [Illustration: F. W. PUTNAM.] The winter succeeding the lessons on archæology, Mr. B. H. Van Vleck, who had spent a considerable portion of the previous summer in preparing specimens for this work, gave fifteen lessons on zoölogy. The study of the general morphology of animals was made under advantages such as had never before been offered in this school, and enabled teachers to see and study structures not usually within their reach. The work was mainly directed to the observation and study of a limited number of types, but general points in physiology and anatomy were also taken up in a comparative way. The microscope was also used in this work. This special course was continued during the next two terms.