14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



and botiiul uinouuts to somewliat more than G,000, making about 15,000 

 pages. The official letters written amount to about 7,000 pages. The 

 corresi)ondence relating to the affiiirs of the ISlational Museum has been 

 not much less in amount. 



THE LABORATORY. 



One of the provisions specially designated in the fifth section of the 

 act of 184-6, establishing the Smithsonian Institution, was that of a 

 chemical laboratory, in which scientific research could be prosecuted. 

 During the entire period of the history of the Institution this require- 

 ment has been borne in mind, and at no time has the Institution been 

 without some kind of arrangements for chemical and physical investiga- 

 tion. The great drawback, however, has been the lack of suitable 

 rooms in which the work could be prosecuted without encroaching too 

 much on the other branches, and endangering the safety of the build- 

 ing. 



Advantage was taken in the erection of the new Museum to provide 

 suitable accommodations for a chemical laboratory, and I have now the 

 pleasure of reporting that such an establishment is in successful opera- 

 tion, and is believed to bo fully equal in its equipment and facilities to 

 any other in the United States. A large room, about thirty feet square, 

 has been fitted up with tables for analytical work, with conveniences 

 for heating, filtering, blow-pipe work, &c. Attached to this is a room 

 13 feet square, in which are kept the balances and more delicate glass 

 work. A second adjacent room furnishes an ofiice for the chemist in 

 charge. Next to this is an assay laboratory room, 30 feet square, hav- 

 ing a stone floor and furnished with muffles, sand baths, water-distilling 

 apparatus, &c. 



The work done in the laboratory consists mainly in the examination 

 of the chemical composition of the various undetermined minerals in 

 the National Museum, and in the prosecution of chemical investigations 

 in behalf of the diiferent departments of the government. Eequests 

 for such service are always complied with as far as possible. Among 

 such subjects of examination may fee mentioned a i^rocess for preparing 

 wood for naval purposes, so as to protect it against decomposition and 

 the attacks of insects, presented to the Navy Department. At the 

 request of the department. Dr. Taylor, the chemist of the Institution, 

 was detailed for service with the board, embracing in addition Dr. J. 

 M. Flint, of the Navy, as chairman, and Dr. Mew, of the Army Medical 

 Museum, to thoroughly investigate the subject. Their report has been 

 made and presented to the Navy Department for its consideration. 



In addition to this Mork specimens (most frequently of mineral sub- 

 stances) are continually received by the Institution from private sources 

 in all parts of th^e country — in number averaging i^robably some half a 

 dozen a day — with the request for an analysis and report of constituents. 

 As these require merely a general or qualitative determination, they do 



