REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



W. E. Safford has chosen marine invertebrates. 

 Each one is engaged in the practical work of the respective depart- 

 ments in identifying, and classifying, as far as able, the collections 

 received from various sources. 



Special Objects received. — Among the articles received during the year 

 may be mentioned a lock of Sir Walter Scott's hair presented by Hon. 

 George Ainslee, Delegate in Congress from Idaho, whose father was a 

 neighbor and friend of Scott. The presentation was made through one 

 of our regents, Hon. S. S. Cox. 



A fine large specimen of agate, found off Keweenaw Point, in Lake 

 Michigan, near Manitou Island (which lies off the shores of Northern 

 Michigan) by S. H. Broughton, has been received by the Institution. It 

 was left to the Smithsonian Institution by bequest of the late Mrs. 

 Broughton, and was dei)osited by J. P. Newland, executor of Mrs. 

 Broughton's will. 



Set of United States Weights and Measures. — By act of Congress, March 

 3, 1881, the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to deliver to the 

 Smithsonian Institution a complete set of all the weights and measures 

 adopted as standard by the United States Government. 



Naval Museum of Hygiene. — Congress having established a " Kaval 

 Museum of Hygiene" in connection with the Bureau of Medicine and 

 Surgery of the Navy Department, we have, in accordance with the prin- 

 ciple of co-operation adopted by the Institution, placed in its custody 

 a large exhibit of tile and terra-cotta pipe, for sewers and traps, and 

 other articles having sanitary relations. 



Manuscript Declaration of Independence. — In the report for 1880 refer- 

 ence was made to the appointment of a commission, of which the Secre- 

 tary of the Institution was one, to consider the restoration of the faded 

 and now nearly illegible manuscript of the original Declaration of 

 Independence. The subject was referred to the National Academy of 

 Sciences, and a report was made by a special committee on the 17th 

 January, 1881. Nothing however, has been done in regard to the 

 matter. 



Peale's Portrait of Washington. — In the last report of the Institution 

 it was stated that a claim had been made by Mr. Titian E. Peale for a 

 portrait of Washington painted by his father, Charles Wilson Peale, on 

 deposit in this establishment. This claim was originally made in 1871. 

 In 1873 the executive committee reported adversely to the claim, on 

 the ground that sufficient proof of ownership of the portrait had not 

 been presented. 



During the last session of Congress, however, the matter was taken 

 up and investigated, and as the contesting claimants made a compromise 

 the portrait was finally purchased by the Library Committee of Con- 

 gress, and it is now the property of the United States. 



