308 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



gators. Out of the surplus accumulations it selects series of specimens 

 for distribution to educational institutions, and it encourages publica- 

 tions which will make its treasures known to the world. Of these 

 latter activities it will be necessary to speak somewhat more in detail 

 before closing, and 1 will return to them presently. It is desirable to 

 point out here the fact, which will become evident to any one upon 

 reflection, that an institution such as the National Museum, with its 

 facilities for investigation and its corps of trained specialists, soon 

 becomes a center of intellectual activity, attracting to itself students 

 and savants, and being called ui)on to impart technical information 

 and advice. In these lines lies no inconsiderable part of its labor and 

 usefulness. 



It is to be said further that the Museum of to-day, owing in part to 

 a natural development and in part to the labors of a few advanced 

 leaders, among whom none have rendered more important service than 

 the late Dr. Goode, is no longer content with a passive existence, but 

 strives by the arrangement of its collections, by its labels, its hand- 

 books and other j)ublications, and its lectures, to impart instruction of 

 a definite character and in definite lines. It assembles great collec- 

 tions of natural objects and treasures of art, not merely to satisfy idle 

 curiosity but to difl'use knowledge among men. Thus it allies itself 

 to the university and the library, and must be counted among the chief 

 agencies for the spread of culture. 



To describe in detail all the more important objects in the National 

 Museum would require more space than can be devoted to such an 

 enumeration in this place, but it will be of interest to point out the 

 chief excellencies of the collections and to mention some of the treasures. 



The collections are at present divided among the following depart- 

 ments and sections : 



Zoological departihents : Mammals, Birds (with a section of Birds' 

 Eggs), Reptiles and Batrachians, Fishes, Mollusks, Insects, Marine 

 Invertebrates (with a section of Parasitic Worms), Comparative 

 Anatomy. 



A Botanical Department. 



Geological departments: Geology, Mineralogy, and Paleontology. 



Anthropological departments: Prehistoric Anthropology, Ethnology 

 (with a section of American Pueblo Collections), Oriental Antiquities. 



A Department of "Arts and Industries," with the following sections 

 at present: Historical Relics, Transportation and Engineering, Naval 

 Architecture, Physical Apparatus, Electrical Collections, Technolog- 

 ical Collections, Materia Medica, Forestry, and Graphic Arts. 



The Department of Mammals comprises the collection of the Wilkes 

 Exploring Expedition and of the numerous geographical and geolog- 

 ical surveys of the public domain, including the type specimens of spe- 

 cies described by Baird in his great work on North American Mammals, 

 and numerous tyi)es of J. A. Allen, Elliott Cones, Harrison Allen, and 



