REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 



acquainted with what is known in any branch, would be a labor of such 

 magnitude as to form a serious obstacle to the advance of knowledge were 

 not means devised for facilitating this labor. The means adopted for 

 this end are classified indexes of special subjects in which may be found 

 everything of importance which has been published in regard to the 

 subject. 



The Eoyal Society's Catalogue of Scientific Papers is a boon to science, 

 and is of great importance to every original investigator, but it is 

 arranged solely under authors' names, and contaius only references to 

 papers appearing in periodicals published since 1800, excluding all books 

 published separately. To supplement this the Institution has pub- 

 lished during the year an index of books and memoirs relating to 

 nebnlfe and star clusters, by Prof. E. S. Holden, of the Washing- 

 ton Observatory. This index includes all papers, memoirs, and books 

 on nebulae and clusters alphabetically arranged according to authors, 

 giving, for each reference, volume and page. Where the title of 

 a book or paper explains the subject of it, such title is, in general, 

 alone given. Where a paper is quite important its title is given, and if 

 necessary, a note more or less brief, expressive of its contents. The works 

 of the elder Herschel on these subjects are analyzed at considerable 

 length, in order partly to supply the great want of an edition of his col- 

 lected works. In the case of papers of minor interest, a reference to the 

 periodical, volume, and page is alone given (no title), and a note of its 

 purport. In addition to this, there is given a very condensed reference 

 to the papers in each periodical consulted. In this way a person con- 

 sulting the catalogue will find all the works of any author upon the gen- 

 eral subject, with brief notes of the contents of each paper; or again, any 

 lierson desiring to refer to the various papers on this subject contained 

 in any serial publication, as the Philosophical Transactions, for example, 

 will find references which will save him much time. The index is prac- 

 tically complete to the present date ; it contains a complete list of all 

 published (and many unpublished) drawings of nebulae and clusters, and 

 also an index to Sir William Herschel's classes of uebulce. 



In the last two reports an account was given of a new series of publi- 

 cations to form part of the "Miscellaneous Collections," entitled "Bul- 

 letins of the National Museum," and intended to illustrate the collec- 

 tions of natural history and ethnology belonging to the United States, 

 of which the Smithsonian Institution is the custodian. They are pre- 

 pared at the request of the Institution by different individuals, and are 

 printed, by the authority of the Secretary of the Interior, at the Govern- 

 ment Printing OCBce. 



Since the date of the last report, numbers 7, 8, and 9 of the Bulletins 

 have been published. 



No. 7 is a contribution to the Natural History of the Hawaiian and 

 Fanning Islands and Lower California, by Dr. Thomas H. Streets, passed 

 assistant surgeon, United States Navy. The collection that furnished 



