REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



and tbeir assistants to i)erform the urgent work of tlieir departments. 

 In a degree, this is attributable to the growing frequency of the demand 

 of educational institutions and the outside public upon the staff" for 

 iniorination and aid. For tlie safe-keeping of the collections, whose 

 increase in value hasrenderedtheresponsibility of custody much greater, 

 the force of watchmen should also be increased, while to insure proper 

 cleanliness of the floors and cases, a larger number of laborers and clean- 

 ers should be employed thau is possible with the appropriation of the pres- 

 ent year. It is hoped, then, that the appropriation for the preservation- 

 of collections may be restored to at least the amount at which it stood 

 when the reduction was made in 1893; though even this sum, as I 

 have attempted to show in my letters year by year accompanying the 

 estimates, is far below what is needed for efficient work. 



It is also hoped that the appropriation for furniture and fixtures, 

 which has been considerably decreased of late years, may be made 

 larger, since the crowding of the exhibition halls renders it necessary 

 to reconstruct many old cases and to build new ones in places hitherto 

 unoccupied, because they have been thought hardly suitable for exhi- 

 bition, but to the use of which the administration is now driven. 



It should be borne in mind also that there is constant expense for the 

 repair and renovation of the cases already on hand, which yearly suf- 

 fer considerable damage from the throngs of visitors. The necessity 

 for repair and renovation of the building is yearly becoming greater 

 as it grows older, and there being no special provision to meet such 

 expense, its cost is of necessity, and by direction of the Treasury author- 

 ities, paid from the appropriation for " cases, furniture, fixtures, and 

 appliances required for the exhibition and safe-keeping of the collec- 

 tions." 



The necessity of a more liberal allowance by Congress for printing the 

 publications of the Museum still increases. The editions are far too 

 small to admit of placing complete sets in the libraries of each college, 

 university, scientific school, normal school, and scientific society in the 

 United States — which I deem of the highest importance — as well as 

 in every State library, and every local library of importance, as indi- 

 cated upon the i^rovisional list which was published as Appendix D in 

 the report of the assistant secretary for 1880. In addition to these 

 institutions it is desired to send our publications to every national 

 library abroad, as well as to every great library, university, or academy 

 of sciences which has a center of scientific activity. In return for 

 the publications distributed to foreign libraries there is obtained in 

 exchange for the Museum library a large number of scientific publica- 

 tions of the greatest value, many of which it is impossible to buy, and 

 which, if purchasable, would require annually a large expenditure of 

 money. On account of the present small editions, the Museum is 

 nnfortunately unable to send sets to many scientific institutions from 

 which it might otherwise obtain many valuable publications for its 

 library. 



