100 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



was expected, the curator of the department of mollusks found it very 

 desirable to at least impose certain conditions upon persons desiring to 

 obtain expert determinations from tbe Museum in this direction. 



Special effort is now being directed to the work of revising the mail- 

 ing lists. 



The list of libraries is being carefully scrntinized with a view to utiliz- 

 ing the small editions to the best advantage. It is proposed to include 

 libraries which have attained to the number of 10,000 volumes since 

 the list was first prepared, as well as to insure the representation on the 

 list of all towns which contain more than 10,000 inhabitants. 



REGISTRATION AND DISTRIBUTION. 



The registrar, Mr. S. C. Brown, states that there were received dur- 

 ing the year 25,249 packages of all kinds, including material for addi- 

 tion to the collections, publications, and supplies. 



There were 3,195 packages sent out, of which 637 contained speci- 

 mens transmitted to educational institutions as gifts, or sent to 

 individuals or institutions in exchange or for study. A few specimens 

 returned to owners are also included in this number. The entries 

 made on the incoming transi)ortation record numbered 2,910 and on 

 the outgoing transportation record 1,487, there being an increase of 

 about 250 entries in the case of the former record and of more than 

 700 in the latter. 



The number of accessions or "lots" of material received was 1,299, 

 an increase of 70 over the record for the preceding year. There was 

 also an increase of 75 in the "temporary" accessions, consisting of 

 material received for identification, the total for the present year hav- 

 ing been 542. About 27,000 specimens of all kinds have been sent out 

 as gifts or in exchange, and about 3,000 specimens have been lent for 

 study. 



Of the entire number of objects donated to educational establish- 

 ments perhaps two-thirds consisted of fishes and marine invertebrates. 

 The remainder was composed largely of geological specimens and casts 

 of prehistoric implements. 



Several special collections of fishes were prepared in the fall of 1895 

 from material received from the United States Fish Commission. 

 These were transmitted to the following institutions : Oberlin College, 

 Oberlin, Ohio; State Normal School, Mankato, Minn.; High School, 

 Duluth, Minn.; Arkansas Industrial University, Fayetteville, Ark.; 

 University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr.; Iowa State University, Iowa 

 City, Iowa; Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.; Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. ; Leland Stanford Junior Univer- 

 sity, Stanford University, Cal. 



A few montlis later eight special collections of fishes, prepared from 

 specimens obtained by the United States Fish Commission in the North 

 Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea, were sent to the following establish- 



