16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 
since 1881, when the new building was completed, has been probably 
unprecedented in the history of museums; and this has rendered it nec- 
essary to employ a force of men proportionately larger than is found in 
most museums, in order to utilize the material to the best advantage. 
Notwithstanding this fact, the aggregate appropriation made by the 
United States for museum purposes is smaller than that of many foreign 
governments. 
The Museum building has now been occupied one decade, and during 
this time the total number of specimens of all kinds catalogued and 
ready for exhibition or study has increased from about 193,000 to more 
than 3,000,000. 
Curatorships.—The scientific departments of the Museum are not yet 
all supplied with curators. The number of separate departments and 
sections is now 33, and less than one-third of this number is under the 
charge of curators paid from the Museum fund and able therefore to 
devote all their time to Museum work. By far the larger number of 
the scientific departments is under the charge of officers of other depart- 
ments of the Government service (for instance, the Geological Survey, 
the Department of Agriculture, the Bureau of Ethnology, and the Fish 
Commission), who, although they render most important services in the 
way of supervision and general direction of the work, are necessarily 
so occupied with their own peculiar administrative duties, that they can 
not devote very much of their time to the development of the collec- 
tions under their charge. Three important zodlogical departments have 
for a great many years been under the charge of officers of the Fish 
Commission. Under the administration of Professor Baird, who was 
at once Commissioner and head of the Museum, it was considered proper 
that they should give a considerable portion of their time to Museum 
work, which was directly tributary to the results which Professor Baird 
was desirous of producing in connection with the service under his 
charge. Soon after the death of Professor Baird it became necessary 
for these men, although still retaining their positions as honorary cura- 
tors in the Museum, to devote nearly all of their time and attention to 
matters relating to the Fish Commission. If it were possible to employ 
experienced men as assistants in these departments, as well as under 
the other honorary curators, important advantages would manifestly 
result. At all events, it is absolutely necessary to have a curator. or 
assistant curator appointed to take charge of the work in each depart- 
ment, in order that the material collected at considerable expense by 
the Government shall be properly arranged and identified, and that the 
results of the work shalll be published for the advancement of science. 
This, however, can not be done until Congress shall see fit to make 
more liberal appropriations for the maintenance of the Museum. 
Increase in correspondence.—Within the past three years there has 
been an astonishingly large increase in the number of calls upon the 
