96 REPORT OF NATIONAL, MUSEUM, 1923. 



Dr. August F. Foerste spent the summer of 1922 in further 

 study of the Museum's collections of Early Paleozoic cephalopods, 

 giving valuable service in arranging and identifying these. Other 

 students of the invertebrates were Dr. J. B. Reeside, jr., who wrote 

 two papers based on material in the Mesozoic collections; Dr. Julia 

 Gardner, Dr. C. W. Cooke, and W. C. Mansfield, who have been 

 steady workers on the Tertiary mollusca; Dr. R. T. Jackson, who is 

 supplementing his former studies on the Antillean echini ; Dr. C. A. 

 Matley, Government Geologist of Jamaica; and Professors H. Yabe 

 and N. Yamasaki, of the Imperial Universities of Sendai and Tokyo, 

 Japan. 



Students of the paleobotanical collections include Dr. Arthur 

 Hollick, who continued his studies of Alaskan plants; Prof. E. W. 

 Berry, collections from Mexico and elsewhere; Dr. G. R. Wieland, 

 the cycads ; Dr. Ralph W. Chaney, the far western Cenozoic plants ; 

 Prof. T. D. A. Cockorell, Eocene plants of Colorado ; Miss Winifred 

 Goldring, the Devonian plants with a view to monographing them 

 in cooperation with the New York State Museum ; and Mr. Frost, of 

 Chicago University, who has studied the Carboniferous collections. 



Dr. O. P. Hay, under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution, has 

 continued studies of the Pleistocene vertebrates, and Messrs. Reming- 

 ton Kellogg and Alexander Wetmore, of the Biological Survey, the 

 fossil cetacean and bird material. 



In addition to research work upon Museum material, considerable 

 time has been spent by all members of the staff in furnishing in- 

 formation to inquirers, and examining materials sent for report. 

 Upward of 500 letters, exclusive of those addressed directly to the 

 Head Curator and Curators, have passed through the office, and 

 reports have been furnished upon 361 lots of material. 



Distributions. — For purposes of scientific research there were sent 

 out during the year 29 lots of material aggregating 2,387 specimens. 

 As exchanges, 45 shipments, with a total of 5,765 specimens; and as 

 gifts, 2,069 individual specimens and 100 pounds of blowpipe ma- 

 terial, specially prepared to meet particular needs, and comprised 

 in 12 shipments, while of the prepared school sets, 55 of those illus- 

 trating rockweathering and soil formation, aggregating 1,155 speci- 

 mens, 18 sets of minerals and ores, with an aggregate of 1,530 speci- 

 mens, and 3 sets of fossil invertebrates, containing 165 specimens, 

 were distributed to schools and colleges. One shipment of 7 speci- 

 mens, sent to another department of the Government, is recorded as 

 a transfer. 



Total number of specimens in the department. — ^With the esti- 

 mated total of last year as a basis, and adding the approximate 

 number of specimens received this year, the total number now in the 

 collection is 1,560,202. As stated repeatedly, however, these figures 

 are merely estimates, and do not include duplicates. 



