REPORT ON. THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY. 

 By Leonhakd Stejnegeb, Head Curator. 



IMPORTANT CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION AND STAFF. 



The hope expressed in my last annual report that " in the near 

 future " it might be possible to subdivide further the large division 

 of marine invertebrates was partly realized, when, on February 1, 

 1921, the old division of mollusks was reestablished, which since 

 October 16, 1914, had been combined with the division of marine 

 invertebrates for economical and administrative reasons in a single 

 division under the latter title. By the new arrangement the curator 

 of the combined division. Dr. Paul Bartsch, remained curator of the 

 division of mollusks, while the associate curator, Mr. Waldo L. 

 Schmitt, was promoted to curator of marine invertebrates. For 

 administrative reasons the collection of living, madreporarian 

 corals, and the helminthological collections remain for the present 

 under the curator of mollusks. The name " division of marine inver- 

 tebrates" has thereby become a misnomer more than ever; but as 

 there is no satisfactory collective term for the heterogeneous collec- 

 tions consisting of crustaceans, worms, sponges, etc., all together or 

 in part, and including fresh-water as well as terrestrial animals in 

 addition to the truly marine forms, it has been thought best to retain 

 the old designation without qualification until further subdivisions 

 in the future shall have made a more suitable nomenclature possible. 



Unfortunately, this sej^aration of the divisions could not be accom- 

 panied by any increase in the scientific staff. It is not only humili- 

 ating for the leading scientific institution of the Nation to have to 

 depend upon the generosity of other museums and private individuals 

 for aid in answering the numerous inquiries as to the identity of en- 

 tire phyla of the lower animals and in classifying and reporting upon 

 its own unsurpassed collections, but it is positively detrimental to the 

 progress of science, applied as well as unapplied, that there are cer- 

 tain important groups of animals of which we have not a specialist 

 in this country so situated that they can be worked up. It is not 

 pleasant to have to confess that, to mention an example, we have in 

 Washington no person who can classify and identify our spiders and 

 our myriapods, but it seems almost incredible that, in spite of the 

 efforts which have been made for fully 15 years, it has as yet been im- 

 possible to find the means for having the unrivaled collection of 

 sponges in the National Museum named and described by an Ameri- 

 71305°— 21 4 47 



