REPORT OF THE SECRETARY, 57 



Work done in the Museum. — As in previous years, the time of the sev- 

 eral curators of the Museum and of their assistants has been, to a great 

 degree, occupied in receiving the collections coming from various sources, 

 doing to them what is necessary for their permanent preservation, en- 

 tering them in the record-books, properly labelling them, and then plac- 

 ing them in their apjiropriate receptacles. 



The magnitude of this labor may be easily understood from what has 

 been said of the increase of the Museum during the year, no single 

 establishment in the United States, nor, perhaps, in the world, being in 

 receipt of so great a number of objects requiring such treatment. In 

 most establishments where a largo amount of material is received 

 from time to time, this comes, for the most part, by purchase or dona- 

 tion, the several collections having already j^assed under the hands of 

 the taxidermist or specialist, so that all that remains is to properly place 

 the matter in a position for permanent preservation. The aggressive 

 campaign, carried on directly or indirectly by the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion in unoccupied fields of research, involves a greater amount of labor 

 in treating the spoils of conquest. A statement of the general circum- 

 stances attendant upon the transmission of a miscellaneous collection of 

 specimens may perhaps serve as an illustration of what is here stated. 

 Thus, an explorer in the field announces that he has transmitted a cer- 

 tain collection from a given locality to the Institution. An entry is 

 made of the fact in what is called the announcement book, which is 

 ruled in columns to show successively the date of announcement, the 

 name of the sender, his address, the point from which the sending is 

 made, the general nature of the transmission, the agent to or through 

 whom forwarded, and the mode of conveyance. There are then left 

 two blank columns, one indicating the date of the arrival, the other the 

 freight and other charges, which are filled up at the proper time. When 

 the package arrives the date is entered in the announcement book, and 

 an entry made in another volume (the transportation record). The col- 

 lection or object is then recorded in still another volume (accessions to 

 the Museum), and has affixed to it a " donation" number. Should there 

 be any letter or memorandum accomiianjing the parcel or consignment, 

 with fuller details than simply the locality and sender, it is transmitted 

 with the i^ackage to the general curator, under whose direction the 

 latter is opened and the contents assorted. Mammals, birds, reptiles, 

 &c., are assigned respectively to the various curators, whose business it 

 is, if possible without delay of a single day, to enter the specimens 

 in the respective Museum registers, and to affix a number, as inefface- 

 able as possible, corresi)ondiug to the entry in what is called the Muse- 

 um Eegister. 



At this stage it is not necessary that the specimen be accurately 

 identified and named, as it is supposed that this can at any time be 

 done by the specialist. Care, however, is exercised to make an entry 

 of the donor, locality, date, and other facts of the history of the object 



