REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 37 



can consul at Tripoli, ou the occasion of which he withdrew the manu- 

 script for revision and preparation for the press. He took it with him 

 to his distant post of duty, with the intention of returning it to the 

 Institution, but his sudden death prevented the realization of this inten- 

 tion. We have made inquiry in regard to this manuscript, but have 

 been unable to obtain any information as to what has become of it. 



An account of the large additions to the department of ethnology dur- 

 ing the last year will be found in the report on the Museum. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The Institution, as in former years, has been in harmonious co-opera- 

 tion with the Department of Agriculture, the Army Medical Museum, 

 and the Corcoran Art Gallery. With the first it has deposited plants 

 and other articles relating to agriculture ; to the second it has trans- 

 ferred a large number of articles pertaining to comparative anatomy 

 and materia medica, and has received in return ethnological specimens; 

 in the third, the Corcoran Art Gallery, it has deposited a number of en- 

 gravings. 



Chemical Laboratory. — During a part of the past year the laboratory of 

 the Institution has been in charge of Dr. Oscar Loew, the chemist and 

 mineralogist of the Wheeler Survey, during which time, besides analyzing 

 various mineral waters and other substances collected by that expedi- 

 tion, he has made a series of analyses of minerals for the Institution. 



Photography. — In the photographic laboratory, under the direction of 

 Mr. T. W. Smillie, a large number of photographs have been made of 

 ethnological and natural-history specimens. The Institution has con- 

 tinued during the past year the collection of photographic likenesses of 

 cultivators of science in all parts of the world, the whole number re- 

 ceived up to this time being over twelve hundred. 



Light-house duty. — I have been a member of the Light-House Board 

 since its organization, and during this time have discharged the duty of 

 chairman of thecommittee on experiments. To the discharge of the duties 

 connected with this service I usually devote one day in the week, and the 

 greater portion of my summer vacation to light-house investigations. A 

 considerable portion, however, of the vacation last year was expended 

 in acting as one of the board of centennial judges. On this account the 

 researches on sound as applied to fog-signals have been deferred until 

 another season. 



Fish Commission. — The investigation in regard to food -fishes and the 

 methods of their propagation, for which an appropriation for several 

 years has been annually made by Congress, has been continued under 

 the direction of Professor Baird. This work was commenced in 1S72, 

 aud has been prosecuted with satisfactory results to the present time. 



