58 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1908. 



the section of zoogeography. Dr. L. O. Howard for the section of 

 entomology, and Dr. Ch. Wardell Stiles, custodian of the helmintho- 

 logical collections, for the section of applied zoolog}'. 



After the close of the meeting in Boston many members of the Con- 

 gress, especiall}^ from abroad, were entertained at other places, and 

 among them Washington, which they visited during the 3d, 4th, and 

 5th of September. The Museum building was opened for their 

 private inspection on the last evening, when an informal reception 

 was also tendered them by the Smithsonian Institution. 



Dr. Paul Haupt, associate in historic archeology, will represent 

 the National Museum at the Fifteenth International Congress of 

 Orientalists, to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in August, 1908. 

 Dr. Arnold Hague, of the U. S. Geological Survey, has also been 

 appointed to serve in a like capacity at the centenary celebration of 

 the Geological Society of London, which will take place in Sep- 

 tember, 1908. 



Accommodations in the Smithsonian building were accorded to 

 the National Academy of Sciences for the business sessions of the 

 annual meeting, from April 21 to 23, 1908, while one of the exhibi- 

 tion halls in the Museum building was especially fitted up for the 

 open sessions, at which many scientific papers were read. 



f ORRESPONDEN CE. 



The corresi:)ondence of the Museum is increasing each year, since, 

 besides its relations with practically all of the scientific and many of 

 the art establishments throughout the world, the Museum is called 

 upon by the public generally for the identification of specimens and 

 the answering of inquiries. As would naturally be expected from the 

 character of the requests, this work encroaches heavily upon the time 

 of the scientific staff, on which dependence must be had for the in- 

 formation required. The number of specimens received for identifi- 

 cation amounts to several thousand everv vear. 



The office of correspondence also attends to the distribution of 

 the publications of the Museum, of which about 50,000 copies of vol- 

 umes and separates were sent out during the year to institutions and 

 individuals on the regular mailing list and about 10,000 copies in 

 compliance with special requests. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



There were issued by the Museum during the past year 8 volumes 

 and 6 parts of volumes. The Annual Report for 1907, published in 

 December, was restricted, like those of the two preceding years, to 

 an administrative statement of the operations of the Museum. Vol- 

 ume 32 of the Proceedings, issued in July, 1907, contained 51 papers, 



