60 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



previous years, and to the plans for the future. So far as it is deemed 

 likely to be of public, iuterest, reasons are always given for the course 

 pursued, especially when there are changes in method and policy. 



It is also intended to sliow fully what new museum materials have 

 come into the possession of the Government during the year and how 

 it has been assigned, what is being done to preserve and utilize the 

 old collections, and when, in accordance Mitli law, material has been 

 distributed to other institutions, to show what has been done witli it. 



The report then must of necessity discuss hundreds of thousands of 

 small details, and it is exceedingly difficult to handle them so system- 

 atically that the reference to anyone of these details can be at once 

 found. 



With the growth of the Museum the system has been becoming 

 yearly more complicated, and the body of the report constantly more 

 and more filled up with tables and statistical summaries. 



In the attempt to avoid what is becoming a burden, many of the state- 

 ments heretofore included in the main report have this year been placed 

 in appendixes. The discussions of the gifts and other accessions have, 

 so far as possible, been assembled in a special appendix under the con- 

 trol of indexes, which show not only the source but the disposition of 

 each object by museum departments, and also group the objects by 

 geogiaphical origin. 



Still further concentration has been made by doing away with the 

 special reports of the curators upon their respective departments and 

 incorporating their substance in the general report upon the progress 

 of the Museum. This is an experiment, and it is not impossible that 

 hereafter the old system may, at least in part, be resumed. 



THE MUSEUM STAFF. 



There are at the present time thirty-two organized departments and 

 sections in the Museum under the care ol curators and assistant cura- 

 tors, and eight administrative divisions.* 



The following changes in the personnel of the scientific departments 

 have occurred during the year: 



Dr. William S. Dixon, honorary curator of the section of materia 

 medica, was detached by the Secretary of the Navy on January."), 181Ki, 

 for duty in the office of the Surgeon-General, and was succeeded by Dr. 

 C. H. White, U. S. Navy. 



Mr. W. S. Yeates, who has for many years filled the position of assist- 

 ant curator of the Department of Minerals in the National Museum, 

 resigned on June 14, 1893, to accept the post of State Geologist of 

 Georgia. 



Dr. George Vasey, honorary curator of the Department of Botany in 

 the National Museum, died March 4, 1893, and Mr. Frederick V. Coville, 



'A list of the scientific aud administrative officers is printed in Appendix i. 



