82 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



CORRESPONDENCE AND REPORTS. 



There has been a large increase of work in this division, which 

 remains uuder the charge of Mr. R. I. Geare. This is doubtless due 

 to the now well-established policy of the Museum with regard to sup- 

 plyiug technical information to all applicants. There has also been 

 general evidence of increased interest in the publications of the 

 Museum, and this has resulted in a much larger distribution of them 

 than in any previous year. 



During the year more than 15,000 official letters aud other papers 

 have been prepared, and in addition nearly 30,000 volumes and pam- 

 phlets have been sent, free of charge, to applicants for special publica- 

 tions and to the libraries and individuals on the regular mailing lists. 

 The number of individuals making special application for some Museum 

 work is not less than 6,000, aud it may be added that, whenever prac- 

 ticable, their requests have been complied with. 



The Annual Report for 1894, Volume XVIII of the Proceedings, 

 Bulletins 47 and 49, and Special Bulletins 2 and 3 have been distributed 

 to the institutions on the regular mailing lists of the Museum, as have 

 also the separate papers issued from time to time during the year. 



In addition to the letters addressed to the Museum, there are received 

 from the parent Institution not less than 4,000 letters a year, asking 

 not only for publications, but for technical information, which can be 

 supplied only by reference of these letters to members of the Museum 

 scientific force. 



The detail, in February, of Mr, J. L. Willige, of this office, to act as 

 chief clerk of the Museum, while undoubtedly serving the best interests 

 of the Museum, was a serious loss to this division, and as no substitute 

 has yet been appointed, his work is kept up only by the strenuous 

 efforts of others in the office, among whom it has been subdivided, in 

 addition to their regular duties. In other respects the force of the 

 office has remained practically the same as last year. 



The manuscript and illustrations of the Report for 1895 were com- 

 pleted early in the fiscal year, and during the fall the proof of the 

 administrative portion of the Report was received aud read. In Feb- 

 ruary the general editorial supervision of the papers in the appendix 

 to the Report was j)laced in charge of the editor of the Proceedings 

 and Bulletins. Owing to pressure of other matters in the editor's 

 office, however, it became necessary to detail a clerk from this division 

 for several weeks, to assist in editing the papers aud in xi roof-reading. 

 The administrative part of the Annual Report for 1896 has been pre- 

 pared in this office, as well as that part of the Secretary's report to the 

 Board of Regents, which relates to the affairs of the National Museum. 



Considerable time was spent toward the close of the fiscal year in 

 cataloguing, in convenient form for reference, the applications for 

 specimens received during the past twenty or twenty-five years from 

 educational institutions. 



