238 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1886. 



From Prof. G. B. Goode, ou deposit, n carved agalmatolite plate. 



From the New Orleaus Exposition, through the Department of State, a aeries of Per- 

 sian turquoises. 



From Thomas Donaldson, esq., on deposit, a line series, polished, of the New Mexican 

 turquoise. 



By purchase, a collection of nearly a thousand examples of the crys- 

 tallized quartz from near Hot Si)rings, Ark., was also acquired. 



The routine work of the department, in addition to the usual details 

 of cataloguing, labeling, etc., has involved much labor in the identifica- 

 tion of species, completing exchanges, prei)ariDg and shipping sets of 

 minerals to schools and colleges, and correspondence. Furthermore, 

 great progress has been made in mounting the collection for exhibition, 

 and in the final distribution of the material into Museum and dujdicate 

 series. lu the latter connection the entire collection has been thoroughly 

 gone over and permanently classified. The final result of this classifica- 

 tion may be stated numerically so as to show the actual extent of the 

 collection on Julyl, 1880: 



Specimens. 



On exhibition, Museum series 15,238 



On exhibition, Willcox collection, deposited 1,229 



Reserve or study series 5, 401 



Duplicates • 8,530 



Total 18,401 



The number of the last catalogue entry in June, 1885, was 45,813, and 

 that of the last catalogue entry in June, 1880, was 46,015, giving a total 

 of 772 entries during the year. 



These figures require a few words of explanation, particularly as re- 

 gards the policy of the department. The exhibition series naturally 

 consists of the larger and showier specimens, and specimens having a 

 general public interest. But in every collection of minerals there 

 are many objects having purely scientific value, which could not be 

 publicly displayed without using an unwarrantably large amount of 

 space. Such specimens form our reserve or study series, and are pre- 

 served in drawers underneath the regular show cases. This series is 

 intended, so far as possible, to be monographic and exhaustive, so that 

 it may be of use to mineralogists, who wish to make comparative studies 

 of similar minerals from widely separated localities; and much material 

 finds a place in it, which has value only on account of its origin or as- 

 sociations. Some scientific work has been done on portions of the col- 

 lection incidentally to my duties as chief chemist of the U. S. Geological 

 Survey. For example, I have worked up the minerals from Litchfield, 

 Me., and the turquoise from New Mexico, and Mr. E. B. Biggs has made 

 full analyses of the lepidolites from Maine and the cryophyllite and 

 annite of Rockport, Mass. A full description of the gem collection, by 

 Mr. G. F. Kunz, appeared in the Popular Science Monthly for April, 

 1880. The latter paper, brought down to date and revised, is repro- 

 duced in Part iii of this report. 



