230 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Navy, it seems unnecessary to make any suggestions for the develop- 

 meDt in this direction of the Materia Medica section of the National 

 Museum." 



Section of Building Stones and lioclcs. 



Mr. George P. Merrill, acting curator of the department of building 

 stones, reports as follows : 



"The work of cataloguing has been carried on as rapidly as possible 

 in connection with the other work of the Museum, the specimens being 

 entered upon the Museum registers as soon as possible after their re- 

 ception; 611 numbers have thus been added to the register during the 

 year, and a card catalogue prepared of about the same number. 



"The work upon the reserve series has been almost wholly for the pur- 

 pose of classifying, arranging, and preparing for exhibition. Several 

 thousand specimens, which have heretofore been packed away in boxes 

 for lack of proper space, have within a short time been unpacked, and 

 will be classified and arranged as rapidly as possible. This work is now 

 in progress, and will yet require some time for completion. In connec- 

 tion with this work some 1,500 thin sections, principally of building- 

 stones, have been prepared for microscopic study. With the death of 

 the curator of the department, Dr. George W. Hawes, this entire branch 

 of the work has fallen upon me, and has been performed to the best of 

 my ability. The work upon the exhibition series has been of the same 

 nature as that upon the reserve, so far as methods of classifying are 

 concerned. Various styles of cases for the exhibition of specimens have 

 been designed and are now in process of preparation ; a form of label 

 has also been decided upon, and several hundred prepared, though as 

 yet unprinted. No duplicate specimens have been distributed during 

 the year. 



" The state of the collection has been such as to ofter but few induce- 

 ments for work to persons not connected officially with the Musuem. 

 As already noted, the builuiug-stone collection of the tenth census is 

 placed in the Museum, and every possible facility has been furnished 

 their special agent for properly working up the material. My own labors 

 have been very largely directed to furnishing what aid 1 was able in 

 the way of preparing thin sections and submitting them to microscopic 

 examination. 



" Owing the delay of work, caused by the sickness and death of the 

 curator of the department, and the limited time I have had it in charge, 

 but little has been published during the year; a single article, ' On a 

 Phosphate Sandstone from Hawthorne, Florida,' from the pen of the 

 late Dr. George W. Hawes, comprising all that has appeared. 



"The number of specimens at present in the collection cannot, owing 

 to the limited time it has been under my control and its consequent un- 

 assorted condition, be told with exactness; the following figures are, 

 however, v^ery nearly correct. 



