REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51 



of all new substances described as the result of chemical research, 

 either by obtaining the same by gift or purchase from the discoverer 

 or by causing the same to be prepared in sufficient quantity accord- 

 ing to the discoverer's published directions — all for the purpose of 

 facilitating comparison by subsequent observers. 



The Chemists' Club of New York accepted the trust, but being 

 unable to comply with the conditions in the Loeb will, offered t** ^r^ 

 up their claim, and the Institution indicated its ^"^g^ese to accept 

 the responsibility, through the N^-"«i Museum. The fund should 

 hereafter yield »» annual income of about $1,155, though the amount 

 for the calendar year 1920 will be slightly less. 



By means of this income from the Morris Loeb fund, the Smith- 

 sonian Institution proposes to build up in the National Museum " the 

 Loeb collection of chemical types," a permanent reference or study 

 collection of new substances and original material resulting from 

 chemical research. Steps will be taken to secure a competent advisory 

 committee composed of eminent chemists of the country to advise 

 on the policy to be pursued in dealing with investigators desiring the 

 use of portions of type material in the Loeb collection. 



The general scheme has the sanction of various governmental 

 chemists, and the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, 

 favoring the establishment of such a collection under the Museum as 

 the proper place for a national collection, offers hearty cooperation, 

 placing at the Museum's disposal in developing this project any of 

 the bureau's resources in the way of personnel, equipment, and 

 supplies. 



It is hoped shortly to reorganize the division, or section, of chem- 

 ical industries, in the department of arts and industries, begun in 

 1886. Insufficiency of funds prevents this being done at once. In 

 the meantime the Loeb collection, as well as other chemical specimens 

 which the agitation of this subject will doubtless bring to the 

 Museum, will be cared for under the direction of one of the curators 

 in arts and industries. 



BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT. 



The first deficiency act for 1920 included an item of $5,640 for 

 placing the Natural History Building in the same condition as it 

 was when occupied by the Bureau of War Bisk Insurance in October, 

 1917. This permitted the pointing up of the damaged plastered 

 walls and the painting of walls, ceilings, and floors in the area occu- 

 pied by the bureau from October, 1917, to March, 1919. 



Other improvements in this building from the regular Museum 

 appropriation included repairs of settlement cracks in Venetian floors 

 in exhibition halls, the pointing up of cracks and painting the walls 



