44 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



present crowded condition of the Museum also interferes with the overhauling of the 

 collections, which is necessary in jiicking out the duplicates. 



The exhibition halls. — Although no increase in the amount of exhibition space is 

 possible in the present building, yet by resorting to various expedients and removing 

 specimens to storage a little more room may be obtained here and there for the dis- 

 play of exhibits or single objects which it is thought may prove of greater interest to 

 the public. 



In the Department of Anthropology a few cases have been added in the northwest 

 court gallery for an exhibit of Indian baskets, this subject having gained special 

 prominence through the jjublication of Prof. 0. T. Mason's recent paper. Space has 

 also l)een provided for a portion of the splendid Malaysian collection received from 

 Dr. William L. Abbott. A collection of lamps, a typical series of guns, and three 

 table-cases containing revolvers and pistols of various dates and makes have been 

 arranged in the east hall, and a number of ethnological objects from the Philippine 

 Islands in the gallery of the northwest court. The collection of musical instruments 

 has been i)artly reinstalled. Among the technological objects has been placed the 

 cylinder of the Hornblower engine, the first steam engine put together on the western 

 continent, having been imported from England in 1753. 



The groups of ethnological lay figures returned from recent expositions have been 

 installed wherever a place could be found for them, some having been arranged in 

 the lecture hall. 



But little was done toward preparing new exhibits in the Department of Biology, 

 as other and more urgent work has interfered. Some of the more valuable birds 

 have been remounted, and four-groups of game birds have been installed in two new 

 cases at the entrance to the Smithsonian building. The unoccupied cases in the 

 southeast range set apart for casts of fishes will soon be filled by new preparations 

 now in course of making. A beginning has been made toward the installation of a 

 series of specimens illustrating the mollusk fauna of the District of Columbia, one 

 case having already been completed. 



To the display collection in the Department of Geology have been added the skulls 

 of a new genus of Ceratopsia, and of Diplodoeus and Trachodon, and also a mounted 

 skeleton of Syornis casuarinus from New Zealand. The Claosaurus, mentioned in 

 last year's report, is exhibited near the south wall of the southeast court. 



Visitors. — The number of persons who visited the Museum building during the 

 year was 220,778, and the Smithsonian building, 143,988, being an approximate daily 

 average of 705 for the former and of 460 for the latter. The decrease as coinpared 

 with the previous year was a result of the large attendance at the time of the encamp- 

 ment of the Grand Army of the Republic in October, 1902. Since the first occupa- 

 tion of the Museum building in 1881, the total number of visitors recorded has been 

 over 8,000,000. 



Meetings and lectures. — On February 20 and 27, and March 5, 12, and 19, a series of 

 lectures was given in the lecture hall under the auspices of the Biological Society of 

 Washington by Mr. Charles H. Townsend, Mr. Gifford Pinchot, Mr. E. AV. Nelson, 

 Prof. Henry F. Osborn, and Dr. C. Hart Merriam, the average attendance having 

 been about 1,000. The closing exercises of the Naval Medical School and the Army 

 Medical School were held in the same place on March 21 and April 5, respectively. 

 The Aiiicrican Oriental Society had its annual meeting in the lecture hall on April 

 7 and 8, anil the National Academy of Sciences from April 19 to 21. On June 13 an 

 illustrated lecture entitled " Botanical Tramps with a Camera" was delivered by Dr. 

 C. E. Waters, of Johns Hopkins University, under the auspices of the Wild Flower 

 Preservation Society of America. 



Publications. — The publications issued during the year comprised 6 volumes and 59 

 technical Proceedings papers, being an increase over previous years, due partly to 

 delays in completing volumes belonging to 1903. The (5 volumes referred to were 

 Nos. 25, 26, and 27 of the Proceedings, the Ammal Reports for 1901 and 1902, and 



