REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 55 



policy Las been repeatedly coinmented upou in incvious reports. It 

 lias iiot yet, however, been lonud practicable to conii)ly with these 

 applications as fast as rec^cived, becanse the cnrators have not yet had 

 time to arrange the dnj)licate material into sets for distribution. It is 

 to be hoped that in future it may be possible to relieve the curators of 

 some of the routine work M'hich they are now obliged to attend to per- 

 sonally, in order that among other things they may devote more of their 

 time to the classification of duplicate material. 



The iini)ortance of museum collections for purposes of education in 

 schools is becoming of late years much more fully appreciated, audit 

 seems desirable to make some changes in the manner of distributing 

 specimens; especially to make the collections sent out so complete — 

 within such limits as it may be possible to develop tliem by methods of 

 arrangement and labels — that they may be ready for immediate use in 

 instruction. In order to do this it is often necessary to supplement du- 

 l)licate material on hand by other material specially collected. With 

 this in view the curators of mineralogy and physical geology hav^ebeen 

 requested to obtain during the year in large quantities, for the special 

 l)urpose of distribution, specimens of minerals from certain rich locali- 

 ties. By this means material for a considerable number of series of 

 minerals and rocks have been obtained, while at the same time valua- 

 ble additions have been made to the Museum collections. Mr. Merrill, 

 curator of physical geology, visited during the summer, points in North 

 Carolina, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 

 mont, and New York. Mr. Yeates, assistant curator of minerals, vis- 

 ited the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and North 

 Carolina. Special attention has been thus given to obtaining geologi- 

 cal and miueralogical material for distribution, owing to the fact that 

 there is on file a very large number of applications for specimens of 

 this kind, which it has been impossible so far to meet. Collections of 

 this character are, furthermore, much better suited for school museums, 

 especially those which have not much money to spend in the prepara- 

 tion and installation of specimens, than are the more fragile and perish- 

 able zoological collections. It is hojied that during the coming year it 

 will also be practical to make up a considerable number of sets of bird- 

 skins, illustrating the classification of birds into families. 



The report on the operations of the National Museum for the first 

 half of I880, and forming Part 11 of the Eeport of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, has been received from the Public Printer. This report in- 

 cludes Mr. Thomas Donaldson's paper on "The George Catlin Indian 

 (xallery." The bound volumes of volume D of the "Proceedings of the 

 U. S. National Museum" were received from the Public Printer in Au- 

 gust. Two hundred copies of this volume had been distributed, signa- 

 ture by signature,to the collaborators of the Muscutn and other scientists 

 throughout the world. This volume consists of 720 pages, and is illus- 



