6 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



CINCINNATI EXPOSITION. 



The Exposition closed on November 8, 1888. The appropriation 

 available for the use of the Museum was $40,000. The space occu- 

 pied by the Museum exhibits was 12,000 square feet. Sixteen depart- 

 ments of the Museum prepared exhibits. The total attendance at the 

 Exposition was 1,055,276, the daily average being 9,593. 



TRANSFER OF DISBURSEMENT OF MUSEUM APPROPRIATIONS. 



A statement relating to this matter is made on page 20 of the report 

 for last year. Congress has sanctioned the proposed transfer, and the 

 Museum appropriations will henceforth be disbursed under the direc- 

 tion of the Smithsonian Institution. 



FORMATION OF A FORESTRY COLLECTION. 



Through the courtesy of the Secretary of Agriculture Dr. B. E Fer- 

 now, Chief of the Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture, 

 has accepted the charge of the Section of Forestry in the National Mu- 

 seum. The Section of Forestry was established in April, 1889. 



C— THE CONDITION OF THE COLLECTIONS. 



INCREASE OF THE COLLECTIONS. 



The total number of specimens as estimated in the appended table 

 is now not far from three millions. The increase during this year is 

 much smaller than in any previous year since the completion of the 

 Museum building. At the close of 1882 there were about 192,000 speci- 

 mens in the collections. The increase during 1883 was about 170,000; 

 during 1884, more than 1,200,000. It was during this year that the 

 extent of the ethnological collection was first estimated and also of the 

 collections of mollusks, insects, aboriginal pottery, birds' eggs, reptiles 

 and batrachians, and mesozoic fossils. During 1885 no estimate was 

 made, this being the year when the fiscal year was adopted in place of 

 the calendar year, and the report for 1885 covered only six months. 

 In 1886 a careful estimate showed a further increase of about 950,000. 

 In 1887 the increase was nearly 250,000, and in 1888 nearly 140,000. 

 The increase during the fiscal year covered by this report is only 

 00,000. This may be accounted for to a large degree by the fact that, 

 the exhibition halls and storage rooms being filled to their utmost ca- 

 pacity, it has become necessary to cease to a large degree the cus- 

 tomary efforts for the increase of the collections. 



In order that the tabulated results here presented may not be mis- 

 leading, it is proper to repeat what has elsewhere been alluded to, 

 namely, that the classification of some of the largest collections, such as 



