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This class I have had to advance in their studies, while subject, during school hours, to peculiar interruptions from various sources, -- from some of the younger instructors resorting to me for signs, from persons coming to my room for the transaction of business; from visitors, some bringing letters of introduction, and most of all such wishing to visit the class taught by the principal, and he, of course, having afterwards to provide for their being admitted into some of the other classes. Of late, a person has been employed to receive visitors at the door, and to conduct them to some one of the school-rooms. Previous to this arrangement, and for a long course of time, the interruptions which I experienced from this source were so frequent as to create no small embarrassment in the attention which it was important I should bestow upon the class immediately under my care.

I have devoted also considerable time to the religious instruction of the younger classes, where the teacher has himself as yet been a novice in the art of making signs.

I have long regretted that my confinement to the daily instruction of a class has prevented me from spending more time in what I apprehend would have greatly contributed to the prosperity of the institution in maturing improvements in the general course of instruction -- in communicating signs, and the results of my experience to the other instructors, and especially to the younger ones, both by private lectures out of school, and by explanations and suggestions in school in the presence of their classes, and in the preparation of a series of books for the use of the deaf and dumb. To this latter object I have been for years endeavoring to give its true importance, while at the same time I have as constantly stated that, while engaged in the instruction of a class, it was impossible for me to prosecute it to any effect. Surely, while confined daily to the exhausting employment of making signs, having the common responsibilities of an instructor of a class, and the more peculiar ones of principal of the institution, it was not to be expected that I could find time for the arduous task of preparing such books as would be useful to the pupils and creditable to the institution. I experience no small degree of satisfaction in finding that my general views with regard to the importance of having such books prepared correspond precisely with those expressed in a late circular of the institution for the deaf and dumb at Paris. The employment of making signs daily for twelve years is one demanding vigorous health. I have found it, together with the pressure of my other duties, making deep inroads upon my bodily constitution. During the last term, in consequence of a statement which I made to you, gentlemen, I was released from the instruction of a class, with reference more especially to the preparation of some books for the deaf and dumb.

The result of my labors I beg leave to lay before you, and to state also the other duties which I discharged during that period of time. In that period I prepared the annual report for publication; I carried on that part of the general correspondence of the institution which has usually devolved upon me (some general view of the time employed in which the treasurer may be able to state from recollection); I officiated in turn in the various religious exercises of the school; I devoted every Saturday forenoon to the instruction of three of the lower classes, with their teachers, in their religious lessons; I spent some time in aiding the younger instructors in their school-rooms; I delivered for one month a course of daily lectures on signs, one hour each, to the younger instructors, including Mr. H., who, expecting soon to go to Ohio, was very anxious to have the benefit of my experience; for this I declined receiving any compensation, but the instructors presented me with a few books as an expression of their thanks. I attended also to many visitors, who were of such a character that it was indispensable that they should be treated with respectful attention by the principal.

Besides these more general duties, I prepared a book of about fifty pages, which was much needed in four of the classes. This book was ready for publication in September last. Delay on the part of the engraver in New York has prevented its publication. I have made an arrangement with the publisher that I shall be able soon to furnish, free of all charge, seven or eight hundred copies, sufficient to supply the new classes for years to come. I have also made considerable progress in the preparation of a vocabulary for the deaf and dumb. The preliminary steps which I deemed necessary for the completion of such a work in order to render it both creditable to the institution, and permanently useful to this and other similar schools, required an amount of patient labor which no one but those familiar with pursuits of the same kind can duly appreciate. Some estimate can be formed of the amount of this labor when I state that it was necessary for me to go twice through the English dictionary from A to Z, examining carefully each time thirty or forty thousand words in order to make the proper selections, and to arrange them in classes. In addition to this, I have transferred to a series of charts one principal class of these words, relating wholly to sensible objects, and also to other charts classes of words of a different kind. By no other process which I could devise could I see any mode of obtaining the materials necessary for the formation of a vocabulary for the deaf and dumb. I am aware that it has been thought that such a vocabulary might be formed in the space of a few weeks. If this were practicable, it is rather singular that it should not ere this have been done in some of the European institutions, for the late circular of the Paris institution, published in September last, to which I have already referred, states that the preparation of such a vocabulary is a work of great importance, and that the instructors in some of the European institutions are now actually engaged in it. The preliminary steps which I have taken are precisely those recommended in this circular, showing a remarkable coincidence of views in this respect, and what is more, stated to be absolutely indispensable. In the completion of this work there is still needed no small amount of time and labor, and I would most cheerfully put all my manuscripts into the hands of any person who would undertake to bring it to a conclusion; and if originally such a vocabulary could have been prepared in three or four weeks, the task will now be a much lighter one, as many of the more difficult preliminary steps are already accomplished.