12 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 



countiT afforded ample facilities for this pm"pose, but its collections 

 and to a certain extent even the time of the members of its scientific 

 staff' have been at the service of students and scholars whose training 

 warranted the expectation that their researches here would lie fruitful 

 in the advancement of knowledge. An ever-increasing number of 

 such persons have resorted to the Museum from time to time or have 

 been sent material for examination, no less than 110 having l)ecn 

 engaged in studies upon the collections during the past year. Their 

 names and the special studies in which they were engaged will he 

 found recorded elsewhere in this report. 



Yet another class of persons have made demands upon the Museum — 

 those who, being unable to come to Washington, ask for information 

 by letter. These are sometimes scientific men engaged in special work; 

 more often the general public desiring answers to some question, 

 wishing to have some specimen which they have picked up identi- 

 fied, or other matters of this sort. All subjects with which the 

 Museum has to deal and, indeed, many which in no way come within 

 its scope have been included in this correspondence. Whenever the 

 requests for information have been at all reasonable or have come 

 within the province of the Museum or the knowledge of an}^ member of 

 its staff', such letters have been answered, although they entail an ever- 

 increasing amount of research and time. 



In the collections which reach the Museum there are naturally many 

 duplicates, and these are used for two purposes — first, for exchanges 

 with other museums, thereby furnishing a means for filling gaps in 

 the collections, and secondly, in furtherance of the general plan for 

 the diff'usion of knowledge, being prepared in small sets, labeled, and 

 sent to educational institutions of the higher grades throughout the 

 United States. 



Since the first international exposition in the United States, held at 

 Philadelphia in 1876, there have been many such, either international 

 in scope or of sufiicient importance to receive recognition from Con- 

 gress. All Congressional acts authorizing and aiding expositions in 

 this country have directed participation by the Smithsonian Institution 

 and its bureaus, and the collections which have been sent to them have 

 invariably been drawn, in the main, from the National Museum. This 

 participation of the Museum has recognized advantages to the country, 

 in rendering public-spirited persons in different localities familiar with 

 museum benefits and methods, and to it are directly traceable the 

 founding of several museums. It has also at times resulted in con- 

 siderable accessions to the National Museum, although of later years 

 these have been less valuable than formerly. 



There are, however, on the other hand, certain disadvantages of which 

 mention should l)e made. Expositions have followed each other so 

 closely that there is hardly a time when a portion of the Museum staff 



