REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



17 



The following table shows the uumber of volumes, pamphlets, etc., 

 received by the Institution during the past two years ; all of which 

 were transferred to the Library of Congress, excepting a small number 

 transferred to the library of the National Museum : 



Deposit of hooks, etc., in the Library of Congress by the Smithsonian Institution, 1885-'87. 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The National Museum, though supported by Government appropria- 

 tions, has since 1846 been under the direction of the Institution. Its rapid 

 growth during the last few years has shown how impossible it would 

 be for the Smithsonian Institution to adequately maintain it, even by 

 the devotion of its entire resources to the task. Indeed, the spacious 

 building so recently erected by the Government for its accommodation 

 is already quite insufficient to display its accumulation of valuable ma- 

 terial, and unless a due provision be early made for the erection of addi- 

 tional buildings (as urgently asked for in my report for 1883, and in 

 subsequent reports) there will be a serious hiuderance to the proper 

 administration of the establishment in. the insufficiency of space which 

 can be allowed to its several scientific departments. 



In the report of the Museum for 1884 (at page 20), the number of 

 specimens is estimated at 1,471,000; this number is now increased by 

 more than a million, and it is evidently a matter of great importance 

 that some means of storing and exhibiting this vast quantity of incom- 

 ing material should be provided without delay. The growth of this 

 Museum has been exceedingly rapid. Until the beginning of this decade 

 there was only 1 curator with a few "assistants." At the present time 

 there are 31 regularly-organized dei)artments and sections under the 

 care of 26 curators and numerous assistant curators and aids. Only 9 

 of the curators receive salaries from the Museum ai)propriations. Of the 

 remaining 17, 4 are detailed from the U. S. Fish Commission, 2 from 

 U. S. Army, 1 from U. S. Navy, 5 from the U. S. Geological Survey, and 

 1 from the Bureau of Ethnology. Prof O. C. Marsh has been appointed 

 honorary curator of the department of vertebrate fossils, and Mr. S. 

 li. Koehler, of Koxbury, Mass., has accepted a commission as acting 

 curator of the section of graphic arts. 



Tht re have been no important changes in the administrative staff, a 

 classification of which is given in full in the report for 1885-1886. 

 H. Mis. 600 2 



