REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



•world. A collection which might be readily made at one of the great 

 centres, where hundreds of thousands of swine are killed, would enable 

 us to clear up the history of the growth of this animal, and to estab- 

 lish the true relations between the living and fossil quadrupeds of this 

 class, or, perhaps, afford the means of tracing a correct outline of 

 those types which have become extinct, and the forms of which are, 

 perhaps, only preserved in our day in some transient state of the olBF- 

 spring, uncompleted in the womb of our living species. Indeed, so far 

 does Professor Agassiz carry this idea, that he entertains no doubt of 

 the practicability of drawing correct figures of the fossil Palcetlierium 

 and Anoplotherium from the embryos of our present allied animals, 

 viz : of our hogs and horses. 



The museum continues to receive large additions from the govern- 

 ment surveys and other sources. According to the statement of Prof. 

 Baird, the specimens catalogued at the end of the year 1856 were as 

 follows, viz : Of mammals, 2, 04&; otbirds, 5,S55 ; of skulls and skele- 

 tons, 3,060, making in all an aggregate of nearly eleven thousand 

 articles, besides 2,000 mammals in alcohol, and at least 1,200 skins 

 of birds not yet entered on the museum registers. 



However valuable these collections may be in themselves, they are 

 but the rough materials from which science is to be evolved ; and so 

 long as the specimens remain undescribed, and their places undeter- 

 mined in the system of organized beings, though they may serve to 

 gratify an unenlightened curiosity, they are of no importance in the 

 discovery of the laws of life. 



The collections of the Institution are intended for original investi- 

 gation, and for this purpose the use of them, under certain restric- 

 tions, will be given to any person having the knowledge and skill 

 necessary to the prosecution of researches of this character. It is not 

 the policy of the Institution to hoard them up for mere display, or for 

 the special use of those who may be immediately connected with the 

 establishment. Cooperation, not monopoly, as we have stated in 

 previous reports, is the motto which expresses our principle of action. 

 It is an object of the Institution to induce as many persons as possible 

 to undertake the study of special branches of natural history, and to 

 furnish them, as far as possible, with the means of knowing what has 

 been done, as well as of adding to the stock of existing knowledge. 

 The only return which is required is that proper credit in all cases 

 should be awarded to the Institution for the facilities it has afforded. 



Included in the additions to the museum during the last few years 

 from government exploring parties and private individuals have been 

 a number of living animals. Among these were two bald eagles, an 



