44 REPORT OF THE ACTING SECRETARY. 



ACCESSIONS. 



The number of specimens added to the collections was over a quarter of a 

 million, divided among subjects under the three departments of the Museum 

 about as follows: Anthropology-, 8,000; biology. 227,000; geology, 21,000. 



The most valuable single contribution, and one of the largest ever received 

 by the Department of Biology, was the gift from Mr. William Schaus of his 

 collection of North and South American lepidoptera, containing 73,000 specimens 

 and a very lai'ge number of types and rare species. Dr. W. L. Abbott, who is 

 still continuing his systematic investigations in the Malaysian region, presented, 

 as usual, the entire results of his year's field work, comprising a very large 

 amount of important material chiefly from Engano and Nias islands. West 

 Borneo, and western Sumatra. The subjects mainly represented are ethnology, 

 physical anthropology, mammals, and other vertebrate animals. From little- 

 known localities in the southwestern part of the United States, especially the 

 Territories of Arizona and New Mexico, colections in ethnology and archeology 

 to the extent of several thousand specimens were obtained through explora- 

 tions by Dr. Walter Hough, of the Museum staff, in conjunction with Mr. P. G. 

 Gates, of Pasadena, California, and by members of the Bureau of American Eth- 

 nology. Many additions were made to the Philippine collection of ethnology 

 secured at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and important specimens in 

 archeology were received from Japan, France, Algeria, South America, and 

 Mexico. 



The Museum has been for some time assembling a comprehensive collection 

 of small arms, with the aid and cooperation of the Departments of War and 

 of the Navy. Appreciating the interest taken here in this subject, the 

 United States Cartridge Company, of Lowell, Massachusetts, has most gener- 

 ously deposited its splendid series of 569 pieces, the finest and most complete 

 collection of its kind in the United States. Beginning with the common 

 bow and crossbow, all typical features in the mechanical development of 

 devices for throwing projectiles are represented, down to the most perfect 

 gun and pistol of modern times. The display cases in which these implements 

 are shown, 38 in number, were supplied by the company, and are excellently 

 well adapted for the purpose. To the collection of aeroplanes have been 

 added originals of the Lilienthal and Hargrave flying machines, and several 

 models used by Mr. Octave Chanute in his experiments on this subject. 



The collection of glassware has been greatly enriched by a gift from the 

 Libby Glass Company of many pieces and tools illustrating the entire process 

 of making cut glass, from the raw material to the finished article, the latter 

 comprising exquisite examples of their workmanship. In pottery, also, many 

 fine pieces of domestic manufacture and decoration were obtained through 

 the members of the American Potters' Association. 



An especially notable addition to the division of historic religions is a 

 Tibetan manuscript, presented by the British Indian government. It is a 

 treatise on Tibetan Buddhistic theology or metaphysics, written in gold 

 characters on the black ground of 366 cardboards between covers of lacquered 

 wood. The acquisitions in history have been numerous and important, and 

 some of great intrinsic value. They illustrate many interesting subjects 

 both of warfare and of domestic life. 



A finely executed bust of the late Walter Reed, major and surgeon. United 

 States Army, and chief of the Government commission which determined 

 the relations of the mosquito to the transmission of yellow fever, has been 

 deposited by the Walter Reed Memorial Association, and given a conspicuous 

 place in the main Museum tiall. 



