14 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1906. 
The heating plant was kept in good condition, with a few changes 
and additions. Steam was maintained from October 13, 1905, to May 
11, 1906, with a consumption of 725 tons of furnace coal, 43 tons of 
ego coal, and 323 cords of wood. 
A thorough inspection of the electric lighting system was made by an 
electrical engineer detailed by the Supervising Architect of the Treas- 
ury Department, with the result of introducing many changes in the 
plant, to make it conform more nearly to modern methods and to 
eliminate all elements of danger. 
There were on hand at the close of the year 2,336 exhibition cases, 
2,279 storage cases, and 1,580 pieces of miscellaneous furniture. Of 
the additions in this line during the year, 59 cases were made in the 
Museum workshops, 151 were purchased, 14 were acquired from the 
Bureau of American Republics, and 2 from the U. 8. Geological Sur- 
vey. Besides this above 1,641 standard unit storage cases, insect 
drawers, and trays were purchased, and a great deal of attention was 
given in the Museum shops to repairing, remodeling, and refinishing 
old exhibition cases. 
The danger from fire, which is greater in the storage rooms than in 
the exhibition halls, has led to some experiments in the direction of 
securing noncombustible furniture for the former, having especially 
in view the needs of the new building. In providing for the storage 
of the Schaus collection of Lepidoptera, which fills about 500 mahog- 
any drawers of regulation size, a very satisfactory metal case was 
obtained on special order, each of a size to hold 50 of the drawers in 
two vertical tiers. The racks are made of channel and angle iron and 
covered on the back and top with sheet iron, and with the runners on 
which the drawers slide of cold-rolled steel riveted to the channel irons 
on the side. Experiments are in progress looking to the construction 
in metal of satisfactory standard storage cases and drawers, and her- 
barium cases. A number of the drawers have been received, but it is 
still too early to pass judgment upon them. Shelves of iron and glass 
have also been introduced in one of the laboratories, with excellent 
results. 
ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTIONS. 
The total number of accessions received during the year was 1,516, 
comprising 257,605 specimens, of which 8,232 were assigned to the 
department of anthropology, 227,633 to the department of biology, 
and 21,740 to the department of geology. <A detailed list of these 
accessions is given in the latter part of this report, only the more 
important ones being referred to on the following pages. 
Anthropology.—Oft the 62 accessions received by the division of 
ethnology, the larger ones, with a single exception, resulted from 
explorations by Dr. W. L. Abbott, Dr. Walter Hough, Prof. E. L. 
