XVI JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
There is in the present Museum Building no exhibition space avail- 
able for the collection of reptiles, mollusks, insects, marine inverte- 
brates, vertebrate and invertebrate fossils; and the space now afforded 
for the exhibition of the vast collections of fishes, birds’ eggs, plants— 
fossil and recent—and the geological collections, aggregating not less 
than 350,000 specimens, is entirely inadequate. 
In a letter addressed in 1888 to the chairman of the Senate Commit- 
tee on Public Buildings and Grounds [ endeavored to demonstrate the 
remarkable increase which had characterized the growth of the col- 
lections in the National Museum, and I there stated that in the five 
years between 1882 and 1887 the number of specimens in the collection 
had multiplied no less than sixteen times. Since 1887 the pressure for 
additional room has, of course, grown greater, and during the last year 
it has become necessary to decline many offers of collections for want 
not only of exhibition space, but even of storage room where they may 
be temporarily cared for. 
The armory building, which for more than ten years had been used 
by the Museum for storage purposes, is now entirely occupied by the 
U.S. Fish Commission, with the exception of four rooms, used by some 
of the Museum taxidermists, who are now working in very contracted 
space, and whom it is impossible to accommodate elsewhere. 
livery space is now fille to its utmost capacity, and no more collec- 
tions of any considerable extent can be received until additional room 
is provided for their reception. 
In a few words it may be stated that for exhibition, storage, and 
laboratory space 316,400 square feet are needed instead of 100,675 
square feet, which now constitute the available area for all of these 
purposes. 
In conclusion, I reaffirm without hesitation that unless additional 
space is provided it will be impossible to take any further important 
steps toward the improvement of the Government collections. 
Your obedient servant, 
S. P. LANGLEY, 
Secretary. 
Hon. SETH L. MILLIKEN, 
Chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings 
and Grounds, House of Representatives. 
In view of the probability of the passage by Congress of the bill 
providing for a new building for the Museum, it was— 
Resolved, That the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents, or 
a majority thereof, and the Secretary, be, and they are hereby, autho- 
rized and empowered to act for and in the name of the Board of Regents 
in carrying into effect the provisions of any act of Congress that may 
be passed providing for the erection of a new building for the United 
States National Museum. 
A memorial was read from Doulton & Co., of London, England, 
calling attention to the deposit in the institution in 1876 of certain 
articles of terra-cotta, the principal one being the colossal group 
“America,” a copy of one of the marble groups by Bell on the pedestal 
of the Albert Memorial Monument in Kensington, and asking that the 
Board of Regents be pleased to recommend to the Government that 
an appropriation be made for the purchase of the goods now in their 
possession. 
