REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 71 



gaged in a study of the vertebral column, and in this connection pieces 

 of* the vertebral column of Chimaera were lent to him. Dr. Ryder has, 

 in a letter dated April 11, 1889, stated that every step can now be 

 traced of the process by which the axial column of vertebrata has be- 

 come what it is in the highest types. 



.Messrs. Frank Burns and Charles B. Greene have, by permission of 

 the Director of the I'. S. Geological Survey, rendered valuable assist- 

 ance b\ their studies of the collections of Tertiary Mollusks. 



The collection of Materia Medica has been studied by several students 

 of medicine in the District of Columbia. 



Dr. .1. A. Allen, of New York, Dr. P. L. Sclater, and Mr. Osbert 

 Salvin, of London, Count von Berlepsch, of Miinden, Germany, and 

 several other active ornithologists, have 1 received from the National 

 Museum material to aid them in their studies of particular groups of 

 American birds. 



Dr. G. Baur, of Yale College, New Haven, Connecticut, has had for 

 study a number of the Chelonians belonging to the Museum. The re- 

 sults of his studies have been published in Vol. xi of " Zoologischer 

 Anzeiger," Vol. xxn of the "American Naturalist," Vol. in of "An- 

 nals and Magazine of Natural History," Vol. ix of " Biologisehes Cen- 

 tralMatt," and Vol. xi of " Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum." 



The undetermined Myriapoda in the collection of insects were sent 

 to Mr. C. H. Bollmann,of Bloomington, Illinois, for study. The material 

 in thf genera Oediomychis and J>isonycha were sent to Dr. George H- 

 Horn, of Philadelphia, who is engaged in working up the genera of the 

 RalticidcB. Capt. T. L. Casey, of New York City, is studying the 

 Staphylinid group of beetles, and the Museum material in certain genera 

 was sent to him for examination. 



Prof. A. I",. Verrill and Prof. S. I. Smith have continued their work 

 upon the collections made by the (J. S. Fish Commission, and for the 

 pies. -nt stored at the Peabody Museum of Yale College. Prof. Edwin 

 Linton is studying the internal parasites of fishes collected chiefly by 

 himself at Wood's Holl. Prof. Walter Faxon, of the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has promised to report 

 upon the cray fishes received since L885, and Mr. J. Walter Fewkes has 

 completed a paper on some of the Medusae collected by the Fish Com- 

 mission steamer Albatross in t he region of the Gulf Stream. Prof. Les- 

 lie A. Lee, chief naturalist of the Fish Commission steamer Albatross, 

 has assorted the collections made by that vessel during the voyage 

 around South America, and several groups of marine objects have been 

 sent, for study and report, to different naturalists. These are referred to 

 at greater length in the report* of Mr. Richard Bathbun, curator of the 

 Department of Marine [n vertebrates. Dr. T. II. Bean, curator of 

 Fishes, has rendered assistance to several students of ichthyology in 

 this and other cities. 



" See Section n. 



