14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Bejwrt of the expenditures to he made to Congress. — The House Com- 

 mittee ou Approi)riatious proposed a clause in the sundry civil bill for 

 the next fiscal year which was agreed to by Congress and forms part of 

 the act (No. 307), which is as follows: 



That the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution shall submit to 

 Congress at its next session a detailed statement of the expenditures of 

 the fiscal year 188S, underappropriations for "International Exchanges," 

 "Xorth American Ethnology," and the "National Museum," and annu- 

 ally thereafter a detailed statemeut of expenditures under said appro- 

 priations shall be submitted to Congress at the beginning of each reg- 

 ular session thereof. 



BUILDINGS. 



Among other matters discussed at the last meeting of the liegeuts 

 was the erection of a new Museum building. On this occasion the Re- 

 gents tacitly re-afiflrmed their resolution of 188J, recommending to Con- 

 gress the enlargement of the National Museum by the erection of a fire- 

 proof building ou the southwest corner of the Smithsonian reservation, 

 similar in style to the present National Museum ; but on viewing the 

 sketch plans, which had been pre[)ared subsequently to the resolution, 

 so as to include offices for the Geological Survey, they adde<l au ex- 

 pression of their opinion that the new building should be planned ex- 

 clusively for Museum purposes. 



It was not at first intended to take action in this matter during the 

 present year, but the overcrowded condition of the building, on account 

 of which not only the current work but the proper development of the 

 collections is greatly impeded, seemed to render immediate action nec- 

 essary. A still more urgent need appeared to be the unsatisfactory 

 sanitary condition of the new Museum building. A committee, consist- 

 ing of Dr. J. 11. Kidder, chairman. Dr. James M. Flint, U. S. Navy, and 

 Mr. J. E. Watkins, was appointed on April 14 to make a careful study 

 of the water supply, ventilation, and drainage, and in May submitted 

 a preliminary report, from which it appeared that an alarming amount 

 of sickness and mortality has been manifest among the employes since 

 1881 — a mortality which can not be attributed to the location of the 

 building, which has sometimes been pronounced unsanitary, since there 

 has been no corresponding percentage of ill health in the old Smithson- 

 ian building adjoining. The number of days lost by employes ou ac- 

 count of sickness in 18S0 was 706; in 1887,875; and in 1888, up to May 

 10, 213, by far the largest part of this loss of time being attributed on 

 the books of the Museum to miasmatic diseases. The committee states 

 that there is no reasonable doubt that some, if not all, of the ten deaths 

 since 1881 were hastened or induced by the unwholesome condition of 

 this building. The committee suggested repairs and modifications of 

 considerable extent, including the construction of continuous cellars 

 under each of the four sides of the building, which, in addition to the 

 otUer necessary expenses, would cost in the neighborhood of 140,000, 



