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16.

involving money, time and labor. A mild social element, if it were thought well to introduce it, like the tea and crackers of the Royal Society on a small scale, might promote good feeling and esprit du corps in a way not to be despised. It might be well for the Assistant Director to name a subject for the main discussion of the evening and to have a question box into which queries might be dropped from time to time, and taken out, if other matters did not occupy the whole time.

The introduction of estimates by the Curators, for material needed during the coming year, for the information and consideration of the Assistant Director has been a decided step in advance in the methods of organization of the Museum work. I would respectfully suggest that another step is needed to complete this mode of cooperation between the officers of the museum and its directing authority. That is, that, when the allotments have been decided upon, an official letter should be addressed to each Curator informing him of the decision in regard to his estimates, so that he may have official knowledge of what his working material for the year is going to consist.