746 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [DeC. , 



arrangement of the mollusca has also been instituted. The entire 

 series of alcoholics has been removed from the exhibition rooms 

 and placed in compactly arranged cases in the basement, where 

 some 100,000 specimens are within easy reach of the student who 

 desires to consult them, being at the same time largely shielded 

 from the light, the great destroyer of pigment. For exhibition 

 there is being installed by the liberality of Mr. Clarence B. Moore 

 a series of plaster casts of snakes, colored and mounted amid 

 natural surroundings, which are far more instructive to the general 

 public than the alcoholics that have been removed. 



In the Botanical department the modern plan of mounting the 

 specimens upon uniform standard herbarium sheets, begun some time 

 ago, has been finished during the present year, with the exception 

 of certain special collections. 



The museum catalogues are the Avork of recent years. In 1893 

 uniform catalogues were provided for all departments, except En- 

 tomology and Botany. In some only the accessions since that date 

 have beeu entered, but in the cases of the mammals, birds, rep- 

 tiles, fishes and minerals every specimen has been numbered and 

 entered in its respective catalogue. In the case of disarticulated 

 skeletons every bone has been numbered. 



These catalogues are necessarily ouly accession lists, but a sys- 

 tematic card catalogue of the mammals has been prepared, showing 

 at a glance exactly what the Academy possesses in this department 

 of the museum. 



The character of the exhibition specimens has also beeu much im- 

 proved. In 1892, a taxidermist was employed and all mammals 

 and birds since prepared for exhibition have been mounted in the 

 most approved manner. A large number of mammals have beeu 

 jn-epared during the past ten years, and so far as the larger forms 

 are concerned, they have replaced the grotesque and faded stuffed 

 specimens of earlier years, while a local collection of birds, 

 mounted in groups, with nests and eggs, has replaced the old 

 series. 



The Academy's efforts of late years have been mainly devoted 

 to the renovation of the museum, the increase of the collections 

 and library, and the expansion of the publications. Nevertheless, 

 a number of expeditions have been sent out in its interest through 



