16 ANNUAL. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1923 



employment in what should be their leisure hours in order to meet 

 living expenses. Better conditions are expected to result, however, 

 from the passage by Congress of the reclassification act of 1923, 

 which becomes effective July 1, 1924. 



The Museum acquired during the year a total of 217,611 specimens. 

 While numerically this is only 60 per cent as many as received during 

 the previous year, many of the accessions are of exceptional value, 

 either intrinsically or from a scientific point of view. The distri- 

 bution of duplicate specimens, mainly to educational institutions, 

 totaled 9,131 specimens, classified and labeled. About one-half of 

 these were in regular sets alread} 7 prepared for shipment, and the 

 other half were specially selected to meet particular needs. Nearly 

 35,000 duplicates, chiefly relating to botany and geology, were sent 

 out in exchange, resulting in the acquisition of much desirable mate- 

 rial. Over 12,000 specimens were lent to specialists for study pur- 

 poses. The material received by the Museum during the year is 

 described somewhat fully in the report of the administrative assist- 

 ant in charge, appended to this report, but it may be well to here 

 mention briefly some of the outstanding accessions. Among much 

 material in anthropology, there may be mentioned an expressive 

 carved stone figure from the Makah Indians; casts of the famous 

 La Quina and Obercassel skulls and skeleton; a series of archeo- 

 logical specimens from Haiti; an ethnological collection from For- 

 mosa ; and casts of the busts of the heretic Pharaoh, Amenophis IV, 

 and his queen. 



The biological specimens received during the year, while fewer in 

 number, compare favorably in scientific value with those of previous 

 years and probably are above the average. Perhaps the outstanding 

 accession in biology was the Evezard collection of recent mollusks 

 presented by the late John B. Henderson, while another of great 

 scientific interest is the series of Opalinid ciliate infusorians pre- 

 pared by Prof. Maynard M. Metcalf. A significant feature of the 

 year's accessions is the fact that some of the most important are from 

 China as a result of a deliberate effort to improve systematically the 

 study material from the Palearctic region which is of fundamental 

 importance for a full understanding of our North American fauna. 

 Several expeditions from which biological material may be expected 

 to come to the Museum are now in the field in China. A number of 

 other expeditions to South America and elsewhere during the year 

 have resulted in much valuable material, the National Herbarium 

 especially being enriched. Striking new exhibits in the department 

 of biology include several species of Australian mammals, a Malay 

 tapir, and a gorilla collected in French Congo by Mr. Aschemeier, 

 of the Museum staff. The scientific staff has continued to carry on 

 research work on the study collections, resulting in the publication 



