58 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



that a simple inspection or study will not furnish. After this the various 

 articles are placed where they properly belong. Some, however, require 

 further treatment by the taxidermist or otherwise. 



Should the specimens belong to the ethnological series, and be com- 

 I)Osed of animal substances, as of woolen material, fur, &c., they are care- 

 fully treated with a solution of corrosive sublimate in alcohol, so as to pre- 

 vent danger from insects, and finally i^laced in the cases where they be- 

 long, or packed away until they can be properly considered. Of course, 

 collections well dried, shells, minerals, fossils, &c., require little treat- 

 ment preliminary to their final disposition. 



This Museum work, as already stated, occupies the greater part of the 

 time of the assistants, although most of them find the occasion and the 

 leisure to prepare critical monographs in regard to certain species, which 

 are then, for the most part, published in the Proceedings of the National 

 Museum. 



The total number of entries in the record books of the Museum dur- 

 ing the year, as shown by the detailed list appended,' embraces 14,586 

 numbers, averaging probably four or five distinct objects to each entry. 

 Where a number of articles of the same general character, from the 

 same locality, are received from the same donor at the same time, the 

 same number may be aflQxed to all of them, as in the case of a collection 

 of shells, of fossils, of stone implements, «S:c. The total number of en- 

 tries and dates amounts to over a quarter of a million (actually-, 281,511), 

 and fill over GO large folio ledgers. 



Among the more special investigations conducted by the naturalists 

 of the Institution, ujion which papers have been prepared, are those on 

 archeology, by Dr. Charles Kau; on fishes, by Mr. G. B. Goode, and Dr. 

 T. H. Bean ; on the birds, by Mr. Eobert Eidgway ; on the fossils, by 

 Dr. C. A. White. Dr. F. M. Endlich, before leaving for the West Indies, 

 and subsequently Dr. F. W. Taylor, made numerous examinations as 

 well as analyses of minerals. 



Among investigations by collaborators not directly connected with the 

 Institution have been, those of Crustacea, by Profs. S. J. Smith, Oscar 

 Harger, and E. B. Wilson, of Yale College ; of mollusks, by Professor 

 Verrill and Mr. Sanderson Smith, of New York ; of radiates and worms, 

 by Professor Verrill; of reptiles, by Prof. E. D. Cope, of Philadelphia; 

 of fishes, by Mr. S. E. Garman, of Cambridge ; of birds, by Mr. George 

 N. Lawrence, of New York, Dr. Elliot Cones, and Mr. Henshaw; of 

 mammals, by J. A. Allen, of Cambridge, and Dr. Coues. 



The more imi^ortant investigation in the marine invertebrates, how- 

 ever, has been made directly by Prof. A. E. Verrill, of Yale College, or 

 under his supervision. The insects have been transmitted to Prof. C. 

 V. Eiley and Professor Comstock, of the Department of Agriculture ; 

 the x>lants have been referred to the Department of Agriculture or to 

 Prof. Asa Gray, of Cambridge. 



Worli done on collections. — For a number of years past the Smithsonian 



