REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1930. 71 



every group of insects, and to furnish identifications and other aid 

 to entomologists and other workers in every State." The statements 

 by these committees as to the limitations of the Museum with regard 

 to the insect collections apply with equal force to the other inverte- 

 brates. There is a crying need for more investigators, for more 

 specialists. For the better development of the collections it is 

 urgently required that the different groups of the invertebrates 

 should be in the immediate care of responsible experts. 



As a step, however slight, in the right direction, it is therefore 

 with great satisfaction that I place on record the establishment on 

 April 1, 1920, of a separate division of echinoderms with Mr. Austin 

 H. Clark, formerly assistant curator of marine invertebrates, as 

 curator. As Mr. Clark has also devoted considerable study to the 

 Onychophores, the}" were also placed in his care. It is to be hoped 

 that in the near future other large classes and phyla, such as the 

 crustaceans, coelenterates, annulates. mollusks. etc., may be segre- 

 gated as independent divisions. 



The other changes in the organization and staff Consist of the resig- 

 nation of Dr. Frank N. Blanchard on October 31, 1910, as aid in the 

 division of reptiles and the appointment, until a register can be 

 established by the Civil Service Commission, of Miss Doris M. Coch- 

 ran to fill the vacancy. In the division of insects, Mr. J. C. Crawford 

 resigned the honorary custodianship of Hymenoptera, and Mr. S. II. 

 Rohwer, of the Bureau of Entomology, was appointed in his place. 

 Mr. Waldo L. Schrnitt, assistant curator in the division of marine 

 invertebrates, was given the title of associate curator from April 1, 

 1920. In the division of plants Mr. Emery C. Leonard, who had been 

 furloughed for military service, resumed his duties as aid on July 18, 

 1919, and on July 7, 1919, Mr. Ellsworth P. Killip was appointed 

 temporarily as aid pending the establishment of a register of eligibles 

 by Civil Service examination. 



COMPARISON OP INCREMENT OF .SPECIMENS OF 1019-20 WITH THAT OF 101S-19. 



• 



While the number of specimens received in any one year is not a 

 reliable criterion as to the progressive or regressive activity of a 

 museum, nevertheless it furnishes a good index for an estimate of the 

 work of a purely curatorial character expended by the staff as com- 

 pared with other years. That is to say, if the staff has to handle 

 twice as many incoming specimens in one year as compared with 

 another, the inference is that the additional time spent in handling, 

 classifying, and generally caring for the material in excess must have 

 been taken from the time which would otherwise have been avail- 

 able for the scientific study of the collections and the reports thereon. 



