16 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 
as much for the hardening of the plaster as for the application of color 
to relieve the extensive white surfaces. 
Other buildings —The repairs put upon the older buildings were of a 
varied character, being such as are constantly necessitated by dete- 
rioration through wear and tear and through the effects of the 
weather. The outside stone steps at the main entrance of the Smith- 
sonian building were redressed and reset; the old doors were replaced 
by revolving doors, which will greatly improve the conditions as to 
heating and the inroads of dust from the adjoining pavements; while 
the worn floor of the vestibule was relaid with new stone, and the 
walls and ceiling were painted. The large second story of this build- 
ing having been allotted to the division of plants, it became necessary 
to plan the changes and improvements required to meet the needs 
of the extensive herbarium, which is already in excellent condition 
for the transfer. This work, which includes the division of a part 
of the hall into separate apartments, will be taken up at the begin- 
ning of the new year. 
In the interior of the older Museum building the principal repairs 
and adaptations consisted of the painting of walls and ceilings, the 
construction of macite partitions in furtherance of fire protection, 
and the fitting up of a part of the southeast range for taxidermal 
work, the older quarters in the south shed being inadequate for 
present purposes. The painting and repair of portions of the roofs. 
and woodwork on the exterior of the same building constituted an 
item of considerable importance. The transfer of the roughing-out 
laboratory of physical anthropology to the stable building necessi- 
tated the overhauling of a part of that building and the addition of a 
ventilating stack and fans. The rooms in the south shed formerly 
occupied as tin and electrical shops, which are now provided for in 
the new building, were fitted up for certain kinds of preparators’ 
work in biology. 
During the summer and autumn of 1909 the boilers and machinery 
in the old Museum building were thoroughly overhauled, but in view 
of the extension to this and the Smithsonian building of the heating 
system from the new plant, as elsewhere described, the old boilers 
will not be used, but kept in reserve. 
The furniture and fixtures constructed or purchased during the 
year were almost entirely for the new building. An enumeration 
shows that there were on hand at the close of the year 2,406 exhibition 
cases, 5,882 storage cases, and 2,649 pieces of laboratory and office 
furniture. 
