14 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 



spirit of the Institution, has set itself from the first.. Its staff, though 

 chiefly engaged in the duties incident to the care, classification, and 

 labeling of collections in order that they may be accessible to the pub- 

 lic and to students, has yet in these operations made imi^ortant dis- 

 coveries in every department of the Museum's activities, which have 

 in turn been communicated to other scholars through its numerous 

 publications. But the collections have not been held for the study of 

 the staff' nor for the scientific advancement of those belonsfinsr to the 

 establishment. Most freely have they been put at the disposal of 

 iuA'estigators connected with other institutions, and, in fact, without 

 the helj) of many such the record of scientific progress based upon the 

 material in the Museum would be greatly curtailed. AA^ien it is pos- 

 sible to so arrange the investigator comes to Washington; otherwise 

 such collections as he needs are sent to him, whether he resides in 

 this country or abroad. In this manner practically every prominent 

 specialist throughout the world interested in the subjects here well 

 represented has had some use of the collections, and thereby the Na- 

 tional Museum has come to be recognized as a conspicuous factor in 

 the advancement of knowledge wherever civilization has a foothold. 



SOME IMPORTANT MATTERS OF THE YEAR. 



The collections of the Museum were increased to the extent of ap- 

 proximately 219,505 specimens, of which 176,263 were biological and 

 32,755 geological, while 10,487 pertained to the several subjects 

 grouped in the Department of Anthropology. 



The most important contributions in ethnology were illustrative 

 of the natives of Borneo, the Philippine Islands and Guam, the cliff 

 dwellers of northwestern Arizona, the Zuni Indians of New Mexico, 

 and the Tahltan Indians of British Columbia. Excavations at the 

 Casa Grande ruin, Arizona, 3'ielded an interesting collection of pre- 

 Columl)ian objects, and additional archeological material was received 

 from Mexico, Bolivia, Egypt, and India. The division of phj'sical 

 anthropology^ obtained many valuable series of specimens from vari- 

 ous sources, and arrangements were made with two of the exploring 

 expeditions now making excavations in Egypt to secure some of the 

 human remains found in the ancient tombs, this class of objects hav- 

 ing hitherto been generally disregarded. A large number of models 

 and actual examples of devices, deposited by the Patent Office, form a 

 most noteworthy addition in technology. The objects were selected 

 with reference to their permanent value and as illustrating the prog- 

 ress of invention through a long term of years. They relate to many 

 subjects and are being arranged in the public halls. 



An exceptionally interesting loan, which is attracting much atten- 

 tion, is the flag which floated over Fort McHenry at the time of its 



