20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1907. 
edge, Miscellaneous Collections, Annual Reports, publications not 
included in the regular series, and publications not Smithsonian.¢ 
The Proceedings of the United States National Museum, the first 
volume of which was issued in 1878, are intended as a medium for the 
publication of original papers based on the collections of the Museum, 
setting forth newly acquired facts in biology, anthropology, and 
geology, or containing descriptions of new forms and revisions of 
limited groups. A volume is issued annually or oftener for distri- 
bution to libraries and scientific establishments, and in view of the 
importance of the more prompt dissemination of new facts a limited 
edition of each paper is printed in pamphlet form in advance. The 
dates at which these separate papers are published are recorded in 
the table of contents of the volume. The Museum Bulletin, publica- 
tion of which was begun in 1875, comprises a series of more elaborate 
papers issued separately, and, like the Proceedings, is based chiefly, 
if not wholly, on the collections of the Museum. A quarto form of 
the Bulletin, known as the “ Special Bulletin,” has been adopted in a 
few instances in which a larger size of page was deemed indispen- 
sable. Since 1902 the volumes of the series known as “ Contributions 
from the National Herbarium,” and containing papers relating to the 
botanical collections of the Museum, have been published in the 
Bulletin series. 
The Annual Report of the Museum is printed as a separate volume 
of the report of the Board of Regents to Congress. 
The publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, consisting 
of annual reports and bulletins, relate to the operations of the Bureau 
in its various branches of exploration and research. Part I of the 
Handbook of American Indians (A to M) was issued in March and 
the main portion of Part II is in type. The Twenty-fourth Annual 
Report has been published and much progress made on the Twenty- 
fifth Report. Several Bulletins have been issued. 
The Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the 
year 1905 was transmitted to Congress in May, 1906, under the re- 
quirements of the act of incorporation of the association, but only one 
of the two volumes had been completed at the close of the fiscal year. 
The Smithsonian Institution is by law allowed a number of copies of 
reports of this association, which are distributed in exchange for the 
publications of various foreign and American historical societies. 
There was also forwarded to Congress on February 25, 1907, the 
ninth report of the National Society of the Daughters of the Ameri- 
can Revolution, in accordance with the act of incorporation of that 
organization. 
a Contributions to Knowledge, 775; Miscellaneous Collections, 10,059; Reports, 
18,490; publications not in regular series, 2,890; publications not Smithsonian, 
709. 
