24 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



iiianent exhibits provision should be made for rejmiring any damage 

 incurred. 



Stereotype plates. — All the stereotype plates belonging to the Institu- 

 tion are now stored in the basement of the building, and some progress 

 has been made in examining, rearranging, and where the boxes have 

 become worn out, in re-packing plates. Owing to the limited amount 

 of time that can be devoted to this work, however, it will be some months 

 before they can be put in a thoroughly satisfactory condition for ready 

 reference. 



A request from Messrs. Lee & Shepard, of Boston, for the use of 

 plates from Professor Hyatt's "Genesis of the Arietidse" has been cheer- 

 fully complied with. 



Correspondence. — I have given much attention to the improvement of 

 the methods of handling the correspondence of the Institution, which is 

 constantly growing and has already assumed very considerable propor- 

 tions. A simple but effective means of recording letters, showing at a 

 glance, what letters remain unanswered each week, has been intro- 

 duced, and as a result few letters remain long without reply. 



It should be borne in mind, however, that the character of the cor- 

 respondence, except such as relates to business routine, is quite differ- 

 ent from that of Government bureaus. Constant inquiries are made 

 from all parts of the country for information on almost every conceiva- 

 ble topic, and requests for statistics and for information on the most 

 varying scientific subjects. It is intended that all of these inquiries 

 should receive acknowledgment, and, wherever possible, that the infor- 

 mation desired should be sent, though in many cases it requires an amount 

 of time and labor on the part of curators and other officers of the Insti- 

 tution wholly out of proportion to the merits of the case. 



As properly coming under the head of " diffusion of knowledge," it 

 does not seem proper to neglect such inquiries, and it is intended to give 

 encouragement and advice wherever possible to all interested in the ob- 

 jects of the Institution. 



The course taken by an incoming letter is now as follows: The 

 mail is opened each morning in the chief clerk's office, and all letters 

 addressed to the secretary or the Institution, with the exception of 

 those on printed forms, purely routine matters, and applications for 

 Museum publications, are placed on the secretary's desk at 10 o'clock, 

 together with letters for signature. Having been acted upon, the 

 date stamp of the secretary's office is affixed to each communication 

 and the letter is then returned to the chief clerk's office. Should 

 the secretary have written in his own hand the name of any em- 

 ploy6 or officer of the Institution upon a letter, such action means 

 that the letter is to be referred to the person named, who is expected 

 to prepare a reply thereto for the secretary's signature. 



The one exception to this rule is when the secretary refers a letter to 

 the assistant secretary, who §xercises his discretion as to whether the 



