270 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the department has been devoted to the preparation of the card cata- 

 logue of the ores; and although many specimens are visible, yet it was 

 only towards the close of the year that any attempt was made at placing 

 the specimens on exhibition, so that only 763 specimens can be said to 

 belong to the exhibition series ; the large bulk of the material is there- 

 fore considered as being for the present in the reserve series, although 

 there have been 321 specimens definitely assigned to the reserve series 

 proper and 465 specimens to the duplicate series. 



The general condition of the ore collection has been greatly improved 

 by the care and attention devoted to it during the past year; the most 

 part of it is now thoroughly identified, catalogued and provided for, at 

 least temporarily, in cases ; it is no longer subject to the unfavorable 

 influences which in the past have tended so much to impair its utility, 

 so that its further deterioration is guarded against as securely as pos- 

 sible. 



A beginning has been made upon the metal specimens, and while 

 many of them are badly injured from the exposure and want of care to 

 which they, in common with the ore specimens, have been subjected, 

 others are not so far gone but that they can be made useful, while a few 

 are in a tolerably good state of preservation. 



The ore collection, while large and in general quite complete, yet con- 

 tains a few prominent deficiencies, for the filling of which some steps 

 should be soon taken, and this is especially so in regard to the ore of a 

 few regions, as Arizona, New Mexico, and the Menominee region, which 

 have come into prominence since the close of the Centennial. 



Illustrations of the various steps in the extraction of the metals, to- 

 gether with the incidental and by-products, are not as full and complete 

 as could be desired. This being a subject of instruction in the science of 

 metallurgy rather than a matter of the exhibition of showy and attract- 

 ive specimens, it is not at all to be wondered at that the Centennial col- 

 lection from which we derived so much should be deficient in this re- 

 spect. A few complete series in this direction would very greatly en- 

 hance the instructive value of the extensive collections of ores and 

 finished products by providing the necessary connection between the 

 two. An excellent illustration of what is desired in this direction is 

 furnished by the collection already mentioned from the Muirkirk Fur- 

 nace. This collection embraces 75 specimens, and shows everything con- 

 nected with the production of No. 4 iron at that furnace. Besides this, 

 Mr. Coffin has very kindly furnished the department with full analyses 

 and with the record of the running of the furnace, the whole forming a 

 complete and very instructive exhibit. In this connection it might be 

 well to say that manufacturers are not always willing to give such full 

 illustrations of their operations, and, when they are willing, they do 

 not always take the necessary care in selecting illustrations, so that it 

 will not be so easy to procure just what we need as it might at first ap- 

 pear. 



