48 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 



the Antarctic Ocean were presented by the Museum of Natural His- 

 tory of Paris, through Prof. E. L. Bouvier, 



The absence of the assistant curators in New Haven for so long a 

 period greatly curtailed the amount of scientific work accomplished. 

 Two papers descriptive of fossil crabs from California and fresh- 

 water crabs from East Africa were prepared by Miss ]M. J. Rathbun. 

 Work on the isopods was continued by Dr. Harriet Richardson, who, 

 besides identifying the specimens returned from New Haven, de- 

 scribed the sjjecies Leidya distorta from Bermuda and reported on a 

 second lot of isopods from the Antarctic Ocean, collected by the 

 French Charcot expedition. ]\Ir. Austin H. Clark, of the Bureau of 

 Fisheries, continued work in the laboratory of the division on a me- 

 moir covering the general collection of crinoids, and also completed 

 for publication 5 special papers on the group. Dr. Walter K. Fisher, 

 of Stanford University, spent about four months at the Museum and 

 visited the Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Yale University 

 Museum for the purpose of examining tyjje specimens and literature 

 in connection with the report which he is preparing on the Museum 

 collection of Pacific starfishes sent him a year ago. 



About 2,900 lots of marine invertebrates were sent to 18 specialists 

 for study and identification, mainly as follows: The entire collection 

 of s&ssile barnacles, comprising 1,202 lots, to Dr. H. O. Pilsbry, of 

 Philadelphia, who will report on the group for publication by the 

 Museum; 711 lots of ophiurans to Dr. H. L. Clark, of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, for use in the preparation of a work on the 

 oiDhiurans of the Pacific Ocean north of latitude 35° N. ; 141 lots of 

 medusae and 184 lots of plankton containing medusae from the Pacific 

 Ocean, to Dr. H. B. Bigelow, of the same museum ; and 211 vials of 

 larval crustaceans from the New England coast, to Dr. R. P. Bigelow, 

 of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The pedate holo- 

 thurians which have been in the possession of Prof. C. L. Edwards, 

 of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, except the specimens of 

 the genus Cucumaria on which he is still at work, have been returned 

 to the Museum. 



The helminthological collection, in charge of Dr. Ch. Wardwell 

 Stiles, of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, and Dr. 

 B. H. Ransom, of the Bureau of Animal Industry, has attained a 

 position of much practical importance, since it now contains a large 

 amount of material resulting from government investigations on 

 the diseases of man and of Avild and domestic animals. The speci- 

 mens have been mainly obtained through the two bureaus mentioned 

 and the Bureau of Fisheries. The additions from the Marine-Hos- 

 pital Service during the year included specimens obtained during the 

 plague investigation in San Francisco; from Manila, forwarded by 

 Asst. Surg. P. E. Garrison, U. S. Navy, and from physicians in 



