REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. , S 



ical, (C) j)liysical — designed to supersede the tables of Dr. Guyot, first 

 published by this Institution in 1852, which have had so wide ai>d so 

 useful a currency, but which are now so far out of date that it seems 

 better to replace than to revise and reprint them. 



SmWisonian Annual Reports. — The report of the U. S. N"ational 

 Museum to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 

 ending June 30, 1890, has only been received from the printer this year. 

 The Smithsouian Report for the year ending June 30, 1891, as well as the 

 Museum Report for the same period, have not yet been received from 

 tlie Government Printing Office. 



Iteports of the Bureau of Ethnology. — The Seventh Annual Report of 

 the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, jjublished during the year, maintains the usual char- 

 acter of excellence. 



LIBRARY. 



The plan detailed in my report for 1887-'88 for increasing the acces- 

 sions to the library and for completing the series of scientific journals 

 already in possession of the Institution has been continued, with grati- 

 fiying results. Since the plan was first put in operation 1,350 new peri- 

 odicals have been added to the list and 909 defective series have been 

 either completed or filled out as far as the publishers were able to sup- 

 ply missing parts. 



The reading room no longer has sufficient accommodations for the 

 growing exchanges of the Institution, nor for the persons desiring to 

 consult this important collection of current scientific literature. 



Ever since 1890 I have called attention in my reports to the fact that 

 the present quarters of the library are insufficient, the natural expan- 

 sion of the library having been prevented by the fact that the rooms 

 adjacent to it were occupied by the international exchanges. It will 

 be possible shortly to assign other quarters to the exchanges, and plans 

 have been prepared for book shelves and a gallery in one of the rooms 

 made vacant. It is estimated that space will thus be secured for about 

 0,000 volumes. 



Mr. John Murdoch, whose resignation as librarian was referred to in 

 my last report, was succeeded in charge of the library on Jul}- 16, 1892, 

 by Mr. J. Elfreth Watkins. 



Mr. Watkins on October 1, 1892, resigned his position, and on Decem- 

 ber 1, 1892, Dr. Cyrus Adler, of the Johns Hopkins University, was 

 appointed to fill the vacancy. Dr. Adler's report on the library for the 

 year is given in Appendix IV. 



The Institution has possessed for many years a number of costly 

 illustrated works of art, engravings and etchings, which were acquired 

 by the Regents, by purchase, of the late Mr. Marsh, our minister at 

 Rome. These were understood to have been temporarily deposited with 

 the Library of Congress for safekeeping in 1871. Some correspondence 



