34 REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



E._ REVIEW OF WORK IN THE SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENTS. 



Department of Ethnology. — Prof. O. T. Mason, Curator, mentions in 

 his report nine collections, received during the year, as being of more 

 than usual value. He has paid much attention during the year to the 

 formation of several special exhibits, by which it is intended to bring 

 before the eye of the visitor at a glance the entire collection from a defi- 

 nite locality, or to explain, within as limited a range as possible, a 

 given art or industry of a particular tribe of Indians. This plan is in 

 continuation of the method of installation of the Eskimo collection by 

 Lieut. T. Dix Bolles in 188G. The subjects of fire making, heating, and 

 lighting have been carefully studied by Mr. Walter Hough. 



Special attention has also been paid to the study of transportation on 

 the backs of men and women, to aboriginal hide dressing, to aboriginal 

 cradles, and to the evolution of common tools, the knife, the hammer, 

 the saw, etc. To interest the boys who visit the Museum a series of 

 "jack-knives" has been arranged for public inspection, and the interest 

 which such a case excites is shown by the gifts made constantly to the 

 series. 



In the latter part of the year the Curator commenced to collect for 

 public reference a card catalogue of the resources of anthropology, to 

 serve as a reference to the resources of the science, so that a special 

 student, a lecturer, or a college professor can be put at once into com- 

 munication with the chief sources of information. 



Several exchanges of specimens have been effected during the year 

 with other museums, notably the Peabody Museum at Cambridge, The 

 Cincinnati Art Museum, and with Dr. Gosse, of Geneva, Switzerland, 

 with the Royal Ethnological Museum in Berlin, and with Mr. Edward 

 Lovett, of Croydon, England. The accessions of the year in this depart- 

 ment were from sixty localities, and eight hundred and sixty specimens 

 were received. The catalogue entries during the year were seven hun- 

 dred and twenty-one in number. 



Section of Oriental Antiquities. — Dr. Cyrus Adler, Assistant Curator, 

 has devised an excellent plan for making copies of the smaller Assyro- 

 ] la In Ionian objects preserved in this country. These consist, for the 

 most part, of seals, and are of much importance in the study of the his- 

 tory of Assyro-Babylonian religion and art. The primary object of the 

 establishment of this section in the Museum was to collect copies of 

 these seals and specimens of similar import. The history, archaeology, 

 languages, arts and religions of the peoples of Western Asia and Egypt 

 are included in the scope of the section. 



In common with several other departments in the Museum, this sec- 

 tion was called upon to prepare an exhibit for the Cincinnati Exhibi- 

 tion. This work occupied several weeks, and a report upon the exhibit 

 has been prepared by Dr. Adler and will be published in a future re- 



