REPORT OF ASSISTANT SKCRKTAKY. 7l 



INFORMATION FURNISHED. 



The Musouni lono-ago cumo to Ix' I'ooardcd l»y th(» pul)li(' at large as 

 a place where inforinatiou mig-ht he sought on many scientitio topics. 

 Specimens are sent for identitication and analysis, and inquiries are 

 received bearing upon ever}' subject within its scope, as well as upon 

 many with which it has no relation. Every communication is an- 

 swered, and so far as possible the writer's wishes are complied with, 

 though requests for chemical analyses can not )>e met, as the Museum 

 is not equipped for work of that kind. 



During the past 3'ear the demands in this direction were nuich 

 greater than ever before. Over seven hundred lots of objects were 

 received for examination, while of letters asking information there was 

 an average of not less than one hundred weekly. As will be ivalized, 

 the time of both the scientific and the clerical staff was heavily drawn 

 upon in })reparing the necessary replies. Very few of the specimens 

 which come in this wa}' are of any value to the Museum, while those 

 that might be prolitably added to the collections have generally to be 

 returned to the owners, so that the Museum derives little benefit from 

 these sendings. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



Volume 1 of the Annual Report for 1S9T was received from the 

 Government Printing Office in December. The several papers com- 

 posing it have also been issued in separate pamphlet foi-m and dis- 

 tributed in the usual manner. The scM-ond volume of this report, still 

 in course of printing, will contain a l)iographical account of Dr. George 

 Brown Goode, the late assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion in charge of the National Museum, and reprints of several of his 

 most important papers on museums and on the history of scientific 

 progress in the United States. It is expected that the Annual Report 

 for 1898 will be ready for distribution early in the next fiscal ye^ar. 

 The appendix to this report will consist of only one paper — a mono- 

 graphic treatise on the ' ' Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes of North 

 AniiMica,"" by the late Prof. Edward Drinkei- Cope. 



Volume 21 of the Proceedings was issued in August, 1899, and 24 

 papers of volume 22 were printed and distributed during the year. 



Part lof Bulletin No. 47, entitled "The Fishes of North and Middle 

 America,'" by Dr. David Starr Jordan and Dr. Barton Warren Ever- 

 mann, was printed just before the close of the year. This volume, con- 

 sisting of some additions to the text, 892 plates with their explanations, 

 and a genci-al ta))le of contents, completes one of the most impoilant 

 w oiks thus far published by the Museum. Parts M, N, and O have also 

 been added to Bulletin No. ;-)9. They are entitled, respectively, '*The 

 methods employed at the Naples Zoological Station for the presei'\ a- 

 tion of marini* animals," hv Dr. Salvatore Lo Bianco; .''Directions for 



