REPORT OF ASSISTANT SFXRKTAKY. 125 



of tlie .li^rapliic arts. That the ettort in this direction lias been \ery 

 successful is certain, lu continuatiou of this stateiueut 1 quote a few 

 sentences from tlie official report of Prof. William Roose, chief of the 

 chalcog'raphieal division in the German Government i)i'intinj>- office, 

 who visited \Yashin<;ton and the ^lu-seum in the course of his mission 

 to the World's Fair: 



This wouderful collection iu the National Museum [writes Prof. Roose] illustrates 

 the grapiiic arts Iroiu their beginnings to the developments of the present day. It 

 forms the most remarkable and unique collection of its kind, and probably stands 

 alone in the world. It is nut a so-called collection of engravings or of the produc- 

 tions of the graphic arts in the generally accepted sense, for theem])liasis is not jdaced 

 here upon the artistic value of the specimens shown. The aim is rather to illustrate 

 how the graphic arts developed in the course of time, and how they are practiced at 

 present. All kinds of intaglio engravings, etchings^ mezzotints, aquatint, wood- 

 engraving from its earliest products to the latest newspaper cut, lithography iu all 

 its varieties, the latest photo-mechanical reproductions in copper, gelatine, zinc, 

 brass, etc., are shown in many hundred specimens, in all stages of development, 

 and arranged in chronological series, accompanied by detailed descriptions — ])artly 

 on the walls, partly in table cases — together with the plates, stones, electrotyi>es, 

 etc., needed for their elucidation. The purpose here is to exhil>it the technical, 

 and to show how man managed to make pictures multipliable, wliat means he has 

 thought out and used with this aim in view, from the l)eginniug down to our own 

 day. An original, one-sided, genuinely American, but certainly also a practical 

 and sensible idea. 



TnE MATERIA MEDICA COLLECTION. 



The work of this section, which is now under the care of Medical 

 Inspector C. H. White, U. S. Xavy, has been confined to the preserv^a- 

 tiou of the collection in its present form and in the preparation of such 

 new specimens as were fouiul desirable for exhibition. The collection 

 is in excellent condition for study, and the exhibition series is admira- 

 bly installed, the greater part of it bein^ a most admiiable display iu 

 tlie held of economic botany. 



The collection is so comi)lete that novel additions are few. 



DE PARTMENT OF ETHNOLOGY, 



The ethnological collections are at present understood to include all 

 objects illustrating the history and activities of mankind, save those 

 classed as prehistoric and those which are assigned to the Department 

 of Arts and Industries. The division is somewhat arbitrary, and there 

 are of necessity constant changes of material, as the needs of the exhi- 

 bition series show them to be necessary. 



The ethnological collections are particularly complete for North 

 America, but as years go by, through exchange and gift, they are 

 becoming fairly representative of the whole world. The Xorth Amer- 

 ican collections are especially rich iu respect to the Eskimo stock, the 

 stocks of the Northwest coast, the Shoshoneau tribes of the Great Inte- 

 rior Basin, the buffalo-hunting tribes of the stocks alonu' the Phiins 



