64 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



coinmittee for identification. Under this arrangement witli Mr. Asli- 

 mead one set of types lias been deposited in tlie U. S. National 

 Mnseum. 



The unmber of specimens received dnring tlie year is about 3,000. 

 This does not include the Japanese collection of about 10,000 speci- 

 mens, which was received during the previous year, but not taken up 

 on the accession records until the year 1894-95. The last entry in the 

 catalogue in June, 1894, was 1423, and in June, 1895, 1584. 



DEPARTMENT OF MARINE INVERTEBRATES. 



An important feature of work in this department has been the dis- 

 tribution of duplicate collections of marine invertebrates. Forty-two 

 sets have been disposed of in response to applications from educational 

 establishments. Keference to these and all other distributions made 

 during the year will l)e found in Appendix x. In only four of the 

 other departments of the Museum— minerals, geology, fishes, and pre- 

 historic anthropology — has any systematic work in separating the 

 duplicates for this purpose been possible. From this department, in 

 addition, twenty-one special collections were also sent out for Museum 

 purposes and for study. The work of preparing these collections has 

 devolved upon the assistant curators, Mr. James E. Benedict and Miss 

 Mary J. Kathbun. The honorary curator, Mr. Richard Rathbun, has 

 been able to devote only a very limited amount of time to Museum 

 matters, being almost exclusively engaged in the work of the Fish 

 Commission, to which he is officially attached. 



There was an increase of eleven accessions over the number received 

 in the preceding year, and the scientific value of the accessions for 

 this year far exceeded that of those acquired in the jirecediug year. 

 The total number of specimens added to the collections in 1895 was 

 2,378. The United States Fish Commission was the princi])al con- 

 tributor, and from it were received four collections, comprising a large 

 and valuable series of Ilolothurians and Foraminifera, resulting from 

 the cruise of the Albatross to the Galapagos Islands in 1891, types of 

 Calamocrinns diomedew Agassiz, and Brachyura and Anomura from 

 the North Pacific Ocean, the latter group containing a fine series of 

 Lithodida\ A collection of crustaceans and worms from the Azores 

 was contributed by Prof. William Trelease, director of the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden, !St. Louis, as a part of the result of his expedition. 

 Dr, Edgar A. Mearns, U. S. A., transmitted an interesting series of 

 invertebrates from near San Diego, Cal. This, and numerous other 

 collections received from Dr. Mearns, was the result of an arrangement 

 made between the War Department and the Smithsonian Institution 

 in connection with the work of determining the boundary line between 

 the United States and Mexico, Mr. Warren W. Herman contributed 

 crustaceans, echinoderms, and hydractinians from Japan. Mr. Harlan 

 I. Smith, of Saginaw, Mich., sent crayfishes, sponges, and bryozoans 



