REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 47 



Mr Paul Bartsch, whose place was in turn taken by Mr. William B. 

 Ma'rshall, appointed aid on April 1. Mr. R. G. Paine .-as made an 

 aid in the Division of Reptiles and Batrachians on April 6, and Mi. 

 T. Wayland Vaughan, Custodian of the Madreporarian Corals on 



June 30. ... • * j- t 



A list of the members of the Museum stali is given in Appendix i. 



NECROLOGY. 



It is P-ratifying to note that during the past year no deaths have 

 occurred in connection with the Museum staff, though among its 

 friends there have been several losses, only two of which will be men- 

 tioned here. ^ ■ ^ a 

 The tirst was that of Maj. J. W. Powell, explorer, geologist, and 

 anthropologist, for some time director of the U. S. Geological Survey, 

 and the founder and director of the Bureau of American Ethnology 

 An account of his life and work will be found in the hrst volume of 

 the Smithsonian report for 1902, and it need only be recalled here^that 

 in nearlv all the varied subjects of his personal studies and of his 

 administrative oversight he was brought into close relations with the 

 Museum, which is indebted to him for valuable collections, for wise 

 suo-o-estions, and for a continued interest in its welfare. 



The second loss resulted from the death of Dr. James Gushing 

 Merrill of the United States Army, which occurred in Washington 

 on October '>7 1902. Doctor Merrill was born in Cambridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, in 1853, and after attending school in Germany, he entered 

 the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania, from which 

 he was oraduated in 1871. About a year later he was appointed 

 assistant%urgeon in the United States Army. While stationed at 

 various military posts in the west and southwest, he devoted much 

 time to the studv and collection of birds and eggs, generously giving 

 away his collections, the National Museum being one of his favored 

 beneficiaries. The accession records show that between 18 i 5 and 189b 

 no less than 28 separate lots of specimens were received from him 

 these including a large number of valuable skins, eggs, and nests of 

 birds, besides mammals, fishes, and other natural history material. 

 Doctor Merrill was elected an active member of the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union at its first congress in 1883. He was a caretul and 

 accurate observer of the habits of birds and mammals, and also con- 

 tributed several important papers to scientific literature Two ot 

 these were published in the Proceedings of the National Museum, 

 their titles being as follows: Notes on the Ornithology of Southern 

 Texas being a list of birds observed in the vicinity of tort Brmv-ii, 

 Texas', from February, 1876, to June, 1878, and On the Habits ot the 

 Rockv Mountain Goat. 



