38 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1923. 



cuted for a number of years on fire and the history of its develop- 

 ment. The work comprises four parts, namely; A monographic 

 general treatment; handbook of illuminating devices in the U. S. 

 National Museum ; handbook on the making of fire artificially ; and 

 handbook on the development of stoves and cooking. 



In ethnology, the assistant curator made a study of the Fijian 

 material collected by Capt. Charles Wilkes, with a view towards 

 publishing an account of this rare old material. 



Various manufacturing concerns were supplied with information 

 dealing with the various ethnologic phases of their commodities; 

 this information was supplied from study of material in the national 

 collections. 



Information based upon Museum material was given the exam- 

 iners of the U. S. Patent Office, deciding several patent cases involv- 

 ing large sums. Several cases relating to games, bricks, hat brims, 

 etc., indicate the variety of subject concerned. 



T. A. Joyce, Deputy Keeper of the Department of Ethnography of 

 the British Museum, and Louis C. G. Clarke, Curator of the Museum 

 of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of Cambridge, Cam- 

 bridge, England, on a visit to study the museums of America, were 

 shown the collections and methods of the department. They com- 

 mended the work of the department highly and gave valued infor- 

 mation as to certain of the exhibits. 



A representative of Columbia University (Extension), Miss"Mary 

 Lois Kissell, from New York City, spent several days in studying 

 the designs on various articles in the collections with a view toward 

 their use in the New York schools. 



Dr. G. F. Freeman, College Station, Tex., spent a few days study- 

 ing the prehistoric beans and cotton in the ethnological collections. 



A member of the staff of the Division of Arms and Armor of the 

 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, made a study of the 

 primitive weapons in the division, particularly in regard to arrows. 



During the past fiscal year the curator of American archeology 

 continued examination of the cultural material collected by him in 

 Utah and Arizona some years ago for the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology and made further progress on his official report, describ- 

 ing both the material and the region from which it came. The pit 

 house collection presented by the National Geographic Society 

 during the past fiscal year was also studied and a short article con- 

 cerning it submitted for publication by the Smithsonian Institution. 



Dr. A. E. Douglass, of Steward Observatory, University of Ari- 

 zona, spent several days in the division laboratories in preparation 

 for a special expedition to be undertaken during the spring and 

 summer of 1923 in interest of the National Geographic Society. The 



