REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



15 



A momoraiHluin in regard to this matter was duly tiansmittod to the 

 Hon. Beujaiuiii Buttcrwortli, a meiii))er of the lioard of Regents, in the 

 House of Ttepresentatives, for the purpose of taking the necessary steps 

 to procure a return by Congress to the Smithsonian fund of this hist 

 iiieutioned sum, juimely, $i5,17o.82, but I am not aware that action has 

 l)eeii taken on it. 



LIBRARY. 



The accessions to tlie library have been recorded as in the j)revious 

 year, the entry nund)ers in the accession ])ook extending from 225,580 

 to 240,109. 



The following statement shows the nuniljcr of volumes, parts of vol- 

 umes, pami)hlets, and charts received from July 1, 1891, to June .30, 

 1892. 



Of these accessions, 297 volumes, 0,303 i)arts of volumes, and 774 i)am- 

 phlets — 7,434 in all — were retained for use in the Institution and Mu- 

 seum; and 857 medical dissertations Avere dejwsited in the library of 

 tlie Surgeon-General, U. S. Army; the remaining- publications were 

 sent to the Library of Congress on the Monday following their receipt. 



The reading- room continues to be well used ; it has only been possi- 

 ])le t(> providf^ room upon the shelves for new periodicals by removing 

 to the special libraries under the charge of (curators or to the Library 

 of Congress such technical periodicals as experience has shown are 

 seldom called for by general readers. 



The i)laii detailed in my report for 1887-'88 for increasing- the acces- 

 sioufs to the library and for completing- the series of scientific journals 

 already in i)ossession of thi^ Institution has been continued; the sup- 

 ])lementary work involved by the issue of new scientitic journals within 

 the last few years has added somewhat to the work originally planned. 



The small collection of books forming what is called '' the Secretary's 

 library" has been added to this year, but is already encroaching- upon 

 the limited space available for library purposes. These books, as I have 

 stated in my previous reports, are mostly, if not exclusively, books of 

 scientific reference, and are, under certain restrictions, available to all 

 connected with the Institution. 



I regret to state that Mr. John Muidoch, who has been the efiicient 

 librarian of the Institution since 1887, resigned his position on May 

 15, 1892. At the close of the year his successor had not been appointed. 



