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When the orders now in the hands of manufacturers are
completed, we shall have the moans of illustrating fully two
branches of Natural Philosophy, Pneumatics and Electricity.
There still remain to be provided for in great part (though
we have some scattering pieces of apparatus on these subjects)
Mechanics, Hydrostatics, Acoustics, Optics, Heat and Mag-
netism. I think an appropriation of $2500 would lay a, good
foundation, and an annual outlay of $400 raise the depart-
ment of Natural Philosophy as high, in a few years, as the
character of the school demands.

MODEL SCHOOL.

On the 3rd of September, the Model school was opened in
a rented house on Broadway. The location is by no means a
good one, but it was the only neighborhood where a house
could bo procured at that time at a moderate rent. The
school has an attendance of about 20 scholars; and is con-
ducted by one of the Teachers of the Normal School with
the aid of a number of the students who are detailed from
week to week to observe and assist. This is the training
ground for the student teachers. Here they put in practice
the lessons of the Normal school, and make trial of their
strength in the profession they have ehosen. If a school of
practice were only an appendage to the Normal school, which
may be dispensed with if desirable, it might have been well
to dispense with it until the opportunity was afforded of hav-
ing both schools under one roof. But believing that the
Model school is a vital part of the Normal school, without
which the latter could hardly be said to be organized at all,
it was thought better to have a Model school in an unfavora-
ble location than to delay its opening any longer. But the
inconvenience of having one department of an Institution on
Broadway and another on Paca Street two miles away is a
very serious one, especially in view of the fact that there
must be daily, (and ought to be hourly) communication be-
tween the two.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

After the close of the Normal school in June, Institutes,
were held in all the Counties that signified a desire to have
one; namely, Howard, Kent, Talbot. Harford, Washington
and Baltimore. The meetings were well attended; the
teachers, though a little shy at first, soon entered with spirit
into the work of the Institute; the interest increased at
every session; and when the hour of final adjournment came,
they separated with reluctance and with pleasant anticipa-
tions of a renewal of their intercourse next year. I must
confess that I entered on these labors with some misgivings;
but I am now fully convinced that no better means can be
devised for stimulating the zeal and increasing the efficiency
of teachers throughout the State. In some counties the citi-