REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 7 



tion of its officers has made it grow; how the other Departments of the 

 Government have strengthened it; how private persons all over the 

 country have aided in buikling up and increasing- the importance of 

 the national collections commensurate with the growth of intelligence 

 and the development of research in a country so preeminently dcA'oted 

 to the arts of peace as the United States. 



BUILDINGS. 



Through the construction of four new galleries and the leasing of 

 three small buildings south of B street, some additional space has been 

 gained during the year, but not more than was required to meet the 

 urgent current demands caused by recent increases in the collections 

 and the needs of the mechanical work. All of the galleries in 

 question were designed for storage purposes, two to receive mainly 

 the Geological Survey collections elsewhere referred to, one in 

 part for the Division of Plants, and one for the overflow from the 

 Library. In this connection it is interesting to note that the ten gal- 

 leries erected during the past three years have added to the Museum 

 building, which contained originally 140,625 square feet on the ground 

 floor, an area of only about 22,600 feet, equivalent to about 16 per 

 cent, while the collections have increased over twenty-fold since the 

 first occupancy of the building in 1881. 



The renting of additional outside quarters has made it possible to 

 remove from the Museum building or from its immediate vicinity all 

 of the shops in which the heavier or more noisy kinds of work are 

 carried on or whose contents constitute an element of danger from 

 fire, such as the carpenter and paint shops, as well as the laboratories 

 for several branches of specimen preparation. 



It becomes necessary, unfortunately, to call attention to certain 

 structural weaknesses in the roof of the Museum building, disclosed ])y 

 the great storm of February, 1899, which caused a number of the main 

 iron girders to ])uckle badly and gave warning of more serious trouble 

 in the near future unless ample precautions be promptly taken. The 

 small size of the appropriation available for the purpose rendered it 

 impossible to do more at the time than repair the inmiediate damage, 

 but a thorough inspection will be made to determine what further 

 action may be required. This roof was built some twenty years ago, 

 before the extensive use of iron or steel in such constructions and 

 when the conditions of their use in buildings of so great a width were 

 but imperfectly understood. 



THE COLLECTIONS. 



Additirm.'i. —ThQ scientific collections have been increased during the 

 year to the extent of over 210,000 specimens, comprised in 1,497 

 accessions. The total number of specimens now in the Museum is 



