34 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM^ 1909. 



various companies. Eleven prints in color from wood blocks were 

 presented bv Mr. Walter Bobbett, of Berkeley, California. A collec- 

 tion of models of camera shutters, transferred from the United States 

 Patent Office, illustrate the historical sequence of the inventions for 

 the regulation of the contact of light with the sensitive plate. The 

 collection has also been enriched by 12 photographs in color made by 

 Mr. T. W. Smillie, whose manuscript, entitled " Recent Progress in 

 Color PhotograjDhy," was published in the Smithsonian Report for 

 1907. 



Musical instruments. — Noteworthy additions to this collection com- 

 prise a violincello, in which a part of the body is of paper and the 

 head and pegs of carved wood, lent by Mr. A. P. Rice, of the National 

 Museum, by whose great-grandfather it was made about one hundred 

 years ago; a model of a percussion keyboard instrument which sub- 

 stitutes tuning forks for wires, transferred from the Patent Office ; a 

 spinet, the only one in the collection, jDresented by Messrs. F. H. and 

 H. A. Vinton ; a drum or gong of bronze cast in one very thin piece, 

 constituting a remarkable example of metal working, from the 

 Karens, interior of Burmah, who regard such gongs as symbols of 

 wealth, deposited by Mr. H. A. Belden, of Washington, District of 

 Columbia ; instruments of bamboo used by the Igorot Avomen of 

 Benguet, Luzon, Philippines, for keeping time on the march, con- 

 tributed by Dr. Hugh ]M. Smith, United States Deputy Commissioner 

 of Fisheries ; and a unique tubular wooden drum used by the lao, an 

 aboriginal tribe of Canton Province, China, presented by Miss Louise 

 Johnston, Wooster, Ohio. The catalogue of musical instruments of 

 the world, on which Mr. E. H. Hawley has been long engaged, has 

 reached 9,740 entries. AA^ien completed it should contain over 17,000 

 numbers. 



Medicine. — The Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, 

 transferred 122 specimens of crude drugs of commerce, which had 

 been determined by Dr. H. H. Rusby. A collection of amulets and 

 charms, mostly pertaining to magic medicine, made in England for 

 trade with Africa, Lidia, and Italy, was purchased, and two Indian 

 fetishes from the upper Yukon, Alaska, were contributed by Dr. 

 Ferdinand Schmitter, U. S. Army, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. The 

 large series of portraits and scenes illustrating the history of medi- 

 cine in America was amplified and sent to the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific 

 Exposition at Seattle. Improvements have been made in the method 

 of installation of many specimens in the exhibition collection, and 

 a rearrangement of the series of magic medicine was begun. 



History. — A most valuable and attractive collection of presents 

 from the Czar of Russia to the Hon. Gustavus Vasa Fox was received 

 by bequest of his widow, Mrs. Virginia L. W. Fox. These objects 

 were given to Mr. Fox during his mission to Russia in 1866 for the 



