REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. | 
In pursuance of this object, full sets of the specimens collected 
have been submitted to a large number of naturalists, both in this 
country and abroad, for critical study and description, and it is not 
too much to say that scarcely a monographic investigation has been 
conducted for ten years past in any branch of American zoology which 
has not derived part or the whole of its material from the Smithsonian 
collections. Duplicates of the specimens, when described, have been 
made up into series for distribution, always accurately labelled, and 
are usually types of some published investigation. The average of 
such distribution has, for the last ten years, been at least ten thousand 
specimens annually, while the distribution of 1864 amounted to nearly 
five thousand species and seventeen thousand specimens. In this 
way, besides supplying the principal museums of Europe with speci- 
mens, all the older museums in this country as well as Canada have 
been largely increased, and the foundation for several new establish- 
ments of a similar kind has been furnished. As an illustration of 
what has been done in the way last mentioned, I may cite the large 
donation of labelled specimens which has been made to the museum 
of the University of Michigan, and the co-operation which has been 
afforded the liberal-minded citizens of Chicago in founding a museum 
and establishing a society of natural history, which, under the direc- 
tion of Mr. Kennicott and Dr. Stimpson, is diffusing a taste for the 
study of nature in that city of unparalleled growth, which cannot be 
otherwise than highly salutary in ameliorating the sensual effects of 
great material prosperity. 
The Institution has also done good service in promoting and assist- 
ing the formation of local societies in rural districts for the collection 
of specimens and the recording of natural phenomena. ‘To all socie- 
ties of this kind, as well as to colleges and academies making special 
application, Jabelled specimens have been presented. 
This distribution of specimens is very different from the ordinary 
exchanges conducted between institutions or individuals, which usually 
involve the return of an equivalent. The question with the Smith- 
sonian Institution is, not what can be had in return, but where a par- 
ticular specimen or series of specimens can be placed so as best to 
advance the cause of science, by being most accessible to the largest 
number of students engaged in original investigations. 
Paleontology, geology, physical geography, &c.—Appropriations have 
been made for investigations of the surface formation of the Con- 
necticut valley by Professor EH. Hitchcock, and for the collection of 
materials for the illustration of the geology and paleontology of par- 
