REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 69 



Witlitho exception of the s[)ecial Musciiiii of Ilyoiene niuintaiiied by 

 tlie Navy Department and tlie Army Medical Museum, the nucleus of 

 which are the surgical and pathological collections develo])ed in the 

 course of the preparation of the medical and surgical liistories of the 

 war, no departmental museums have been formed, and the collections 

 which have incidentally resulted from their activities have been 

 promptly transferred to the custody of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The association of the Museum with the scientific bureaus whose 

 work requires the use of Museum material, has always been intimate 

 and friendly. 



The collections of the Geological Survey arc deposited in the Museum 

 and incorporated with the general collection, while the interests of l)oth 

 establishments are advanced through the detail of certain of the 

 scientific investigators connected with the Survey, to act as curators or 

 custodians of the combined collections. In this way, Prof. Marsh, .Mr. 

 Walcott, Dr. White, Prof. \Yard, and Prof. Clarke are attached to the 

 scientific staff of the ^luseum. 



Between the Fish Commission and the Museum a similar and even 

 more intimate relationship exists, since tbe Museum undertakes to 

 publish all the results of work upon the Fish Commission collections, 

 except those which relate to economic fishes, or, have in some way a 

 l)ositive economic value. Dr. Rathbun and Dr. Beau, officers of the 

 Fish Commission, have been for many years m charge of departments 

 in the Museum. 



With the Department of Agriculture the same kind of alliance has 

 always existed. The National Herbarium, the depository of all the 

 plants belonging to the Smithsonian Iiistituti<m, as well as those which 

 have been obtained by the Department of Agriculture, is under the 

 charge of Mr. Coville, botanist of the Department and also an honorary 

 curator in the :\Iuseum, and this collection is deposited in the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. The insects, on the other hand, with relation to 

 which Prof. P.iley, the entomologist of the Department, holds a similar 

 relationship, are in the Museum. The collections of the division of 

 Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy are also deposited in the 

 Museum, and are under the general c<mtrol of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 

 chief of the division, who is practically, though not nominally, a mem- 

 ber of the Museum staff. The chief of the Forestry Division of the 

 Department, Dr. Fcruow, is in charge of the somewhat chaotic mass of 

 material illustrating the methods of forestry and the wc.odworking 

 industries, which has as yet no definite place in either establishmenr. 

 The Department has a temporary museum in a wooden building upon 

 its own reservation, in which are placed on view a large number of 

 objects of interest to agriculturists, and which is the source of the mate- 

 rial which the Department is often called upon to exhibit at expositions. 

 A considerable mass of technological material is also lvei)t in the 

 National .Museum, chiefly in storage, awaiting the time when it shall be 



