62 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1914. 



the cases, and in many instances they furnish the only means of 

 representing a subject. 



The section dealing with the history of medicine has 8 exhibits, 

 beginning with magic medicine, which is followed by psychic or 

 mental remedies, and the medicines of the American Indians, the 

 Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Greeks and Eomans, and the other 

 more eastern nations. Of modern medicines there is 1 case of animal 

 products, 10 cases of vegetable products, and 1 case of organic 

 chemical products. Among the special features are 2 screens of 

 portraits of eminent American physicians, 2 pillar screens with 

 j)ictures of medicinal plants, and exhibits illustrating the compo- 

 sition of food, including milk and bread, the utilization of food, 

 with an example of a day's ration, and the composition of the 

 human body. The instruments used in connection with the practice 

 of medicine are also represented. 



The exhibition as at present constituted is of gi-eat cultural value, 

 but its importance in this respect could be much enhanced by certain 

 additions, including more botanical illustrations, both as colored 

 pictures and as mountings of actual plants. This it is hoped can 

 soon be done and the collection given more room. The reserve series, 

 however, is the one which appeals most to the profession. It is 

 supposed to contain a fairly complete representation of drug mate- 

 rials, all of which, together with the specimens on exhibition, have 

 been carefully identified and catalogued, but the division has never 

 been supplied with an adequate laboratory through which these 

 materials could be rendered as fully serviceable as is implied in the 

 scheme of the division. The collection should also be kept up to 

 date, all newly discovered substances pertaining to the subject being 

 promptly added, and, furthermore, all specimens in at least the 

 reserve series should be in a condition retaining their full natural 

 properties. On such a basis the division would become in the truest 

 sense, as was intended, a place of reference, where makers and testers 

 of drugs could always find accurately determined samples of all the 

 natural products of which medicines are made. Its importance has 

 always been recognized by the Government, but, through the inade- 

 quate support given the honorary curator, it has not been possible 

 to fully or properly carry out the objects to which his time was so 

 long and earnestly devoted. It is the purpose to place this division 

 on a better working basis at the earliest opportunity. 



PHOTOGRAPHY. 



During a long period there has been gradually assembled a 

 large amount of material designed to illustrate the history and 

 development of photography. This work of collecting was begun 

 by Mr. T. W. Smillie, chief photographer of the Institution and 



