14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY: 
logical records, forming a portion of the archives of the Smithsonian 
Institution, and representing a considerable amount of work accom- 
plished by it in earlier days, have been temporarily transferred to the 
Signal Office, and deposited there in a fireproof vault for custody and 
storage. These records serve to carry back the meteorological obser- 
vations of the Signal Service as far as the year 1840. They consist of: 
346 bound volumes of monthly reports by observers from 1840 to 1873, inclusive. 
6 volumes of records made at the Smithsonian Institution. 
47 pasteboard boxes of miscellaneous records by locality. 
64 paper packages of miscellaneous records, scraps, ete. 
15 miscellaneous note-books. 
1 large package of manuscript folio sheets, observations, survey northwestern 
lakes. 
7 royal octavo bound volumes, printed reports. 
Bequest of Dr. J. Rk. Bailey—Information has been received that Dr. 
J. R. Bailey, late of Olmstead, Ky., has devised his library to the 
Smithsonian Institution, and the necessary steps will be taken to 
acquire possession. 
Assignment of rooms for scientific work.—A. basement room especially 
suited for delicate physical measurements on account of its freedom 
from tremor has been used by the officers of the United States Coast 
and Geodetic Survey for making pendulum observations. 
Stereotype plates.—Owing to the more urgent demands of current 
work, but little progress has been made in examining and re-arranging 
the stereotype plates of the publications of the Institution. I hope to 
make arrangements during the coming year to push this work to an 
early completion. 
The stereotype plates and engravers’ blocks are cheerfully placed at 
the disposal of publishers for supplementing or illustrating scientific 
works privately issued. 
U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
In my representations to Congress during recent years I have felt 
called upon to insist upon two points: First, that the collections have 
increased so rapidly that additional space is required for their proper 
administration, and that unless more space be provided, the growth of 
the national collections must, to a large extent, be interfered with; 
and secondly, that the collections, although growing rapidly in certain 
directions, are not developing in such a symmetrical and consistent 
manner as is essential to the necessities of the work. 
I feel justified in assuming that it is the intention of Congress that 
the National Museum of the United States shall be, as far as a museum 
can be, a worthy exponent of the natural resources and scientific 
achievements of the nation, that it shall be worthy of the attention of 
visitors to the capital, and that it shall perform its proper functions 
as one of the scientific departments of the Government, and shall also 
