III.— REVIEW OF WORK IN THE SCIENTIFIC 

 DEPARTMENTS. 



The statements wliicli appear under this heading are for the most 

 part gathered from the annual reports of the curators. Commencing 

 with the year 1893, these have been submitted in the form of answers to 

 a series of questions. This form of report has, after much considera- 

 tion, been adopted, for the present at any rate, as preferable to the 

 former plan, the chief objection to which was that the information sui)- 

 l^lied in the reports did not always present a complete and homoge- 

 neous statement of the work accomplished. This made it dififlcult to 

 comprehend at a glance how much work had been accomplished in any 

 special direction, and often resulted in the introduction of a large 

 amount of material into the volume which did not have a direct bear- 

 ing on the work of the curator as custodian of a collection, and, there- 

 fore, although perfectly admissible in an extended essay, with the 

 work of the department as its basis, was not, at times, altogether 

 within the scope of an administrative document. 



In reviewing the work of the scientific departments in the Museum 

 during the year which ended on June 30, 1895, the fact must be remem- 

 bered that considerable time and labor have been necessarily expended 

 in the preparation of exhibits for the Atlanta Exposition, which opens 

 on September 18. Exhibits for this occasion are being prepared by 

 every department in the Museum, and a statement of what has been 

 done in this direction by each department will be presented in the 

 report for 1896, that being the fiscal year in which the Exposition is to 

 be held. An account of these exhibits, it may be added, is now being 

 prepared in the form of a pamphlet, to be distributed at Atlanta during 

 the continuance of the Exposition. 



Experience has proved that the regular work of the Museum always 

 sufters to a very considerable extent during the years when expositions 

 in which the Museum is directed to participate, are held. Nor can it 

 be otherwise, since the features which it is especially desirable to 

 emphasize in special exhibits of this kind are not, as a rule, such as 

 would ordinarily be made conspicuous in the natural development of 

 the Museum exhibition series. Again, it is noticeable that in exposi- 

 tion years the number of papers published by the curators, as the result 

 of their studies of the c )llections under their care, is much smaller 

 than in other years. This is readily accounted for by the fact that the 



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