REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



head, and wlilcli generally have a flat foot, adapted to crawling, and 

 are also usually provided with a univalve shell. The search for the 

 affinities and relations of these animals led to an examination of the 

 allied types inhabiting the sea and bra-ckish water. The results of 

 the iuvestigation were a more exact definition of the family to which 

 they belong, and the extension of it so as to include other forms pre- 

 viously scattered; also the establishment on anatomical bases of a 

 number of subordinate groups or sub-families, and the suggestions as 

 to many new genera distinguished by peculiarities in the structure of 

 the soft parts as well as the shell. This memoir not only furnishes 

 an interesting addition to descriptive natural history, but a method 

 of investigation which may be advantageously applied to other fami- 

 lies of the class. 



Dr. Stimpson, who was the naturalist to the Northwest Pacific 

 Exploring Expedition, under Commodore John Rodgers, is now in 

 charge of the Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. He has 

 spent several years, while preparing his report on the collections of 

 the expedition, in the building of the Institution, and, without salary 

 from the Smithson fund, has rendered us essential service in the clas- 

 sification and naming of specimens. 



The work on the Myriapoda of North America, by Dr. H. C. Wood, 

 jr., mentioned in previous reports, was completed and was awaiting 

 its turn for publication, when it was unfortunately destroyed by the 

 fire. It was subsequently rewritten, and as our funds did not per- 

 mit its being immediately put to press, it was, with the consent of 

 the Institution, oS'ered to and accepted by the xV.merican Philosophi- 

 cal Society, and printed in the thirteenth volume of its transactions. 

 The wood-cuts (about sixty) which had been prepared for the work 

 were lent to the society to facilitate the publication. These facts are 

 stated in the memoir, and full credit given to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution for the aid thus rendered. 



The close of the war having released Dr. John Le Conte from his 

 medical duties in connexion with the army, he has resumed his labors 

 in entomology, and has already written a considerable portion of his 

 " List of North American Coleoptera," and the " Description of New 

 Species," which will be published during 1866. When these works 

 are completed, he will commence the second part of his classification 

 of coleoptera. 



Reports. — During the last three years the government printing office 

 was so busied with the preparation of documents connected with 

 the war that the Annual Report of the Institution was inciden- 



