APPENDIX TO THE SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



Appendix I. 

 THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following condensed report upon the present 

 condition of the National Museum and the progress made during the year ending 

 June 30, 1899: 



In addition to the building, heating plant, and other equipment, the fixed prop- 

 erty of the Museum consists of collections, books, ofiice furniture, and cases and other 

 receptacles for exhibiting and storing specimens. 



The collections comprise nearly 4,400,000 specimens, including objects in all 

 branches of anthropology, biology, and geology. 



Since July 1, 1898, the collections have been increased by the acquisition of about 

 211,000 specimens. 



The cases used for exhibiting specimens number about 2,250, and those used for 

 storage purposes about 1,500. 



The office furniture, including tables, desks, chairs, file cases, typewriters, book- 

 cases, and minor articles, comprises about 900 pieces. There are also some 500 chairs, 

 formerly used in the lecture room. 



New furniture and fixtures have been acquired to the value of nearly $35,000, 

 more than half of this amount having been expended for cases for the new galleries. 



The library contains about 12,000 volumes and 8,500 pamphlets, not including the 

 library of the late Dr. G. Brown Goode, which comprises about 2,900 volumes, 

 18,000 pamphlets, and 1,800 portraits, engravings, etc., and which was purchased 

 during the past year by special authorization of Congress. During the year covered 

 by this report 640 books, 965 pamphlets, and 5, 196 parts of periodicals were catalogued. 



Additional galleries have been erected, and steps have been taken toward the 

 construction of skylights, for which special provision was made by Congress. The 

 appropriation for these purposes was §10,000. Two of the old wooden floors in the 

 Museum building have been replaced by terrazzo pavements. 



There have been no losses of property during the year. 



The boilers connected with the heating plant in the Museum building have been 

 in use for nearly twenty years and are now practically worn out. They should be 

 replaced. 



The Museum staff. — Dr. 0. C. Marsh, professor of paleontology at Yale University, 

 and for anany years connected with the staff of the National Museum in the capacity 

 of Honorary Curator of vertebrate fossils, died March 18, 1899. 



Mr. E. A. Schwarz, Avho formerly had charge of the coleopterous larvag, has now 

 been placed in charge of the entire collection of coleoptera, and Mr. Nathan Banks 

 has been made Custodian of the collection of arachnida. 



Mr. O. F. Cook, who has been connected with the Museum in the capacity of 

 Assistant Curator in the Division of Plants, has been on leave of absence for several 

 months. Having recently accepted a position in the Department of Agriculture, he 

 has now been made Honorary Assistant Curator in charge of the cryptogamic 

 collections. 



Dr. George H. Girty has been appointed as Custodian of the carboniferous collec- 

 tions in the Section of Invertebrate Fossils. 

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