24 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1922. 



Duplicate specimens are filed away and, when available in sufficient 

 quantity and suitable variety, are put up into labeled sets ready for 

 distribution. Ores and minerals, rocks, materials illustrating rock 

 weathering and soil formation, fossils, mollusks, marine inverte- 

 brates, fishes, and ethnological and archeological objects have mainly 

 been utilized in this way, though other classes of objects have been 

 used to a more limited extent. Special sets are also prepared to meet 

 particular needs. Nor is supposedly waste material discarded, for 

 trimmings from certain specimens are held and utilized for experi- 

 mental and blowpipe work. Since this system of distribution was 

 adopted, about a million specimens, representing nearly all the sub- 

 jects of the scientific collections, and approximately 15,000 pounds 

 of bulk material suitable for blowpipe and assay analysis have been 

 thus given to educational establishments. 



The public schools of the District of Columbia have long enjoyed 

 the benefits of this custom, consignments of duplicates having been 

 made to them for many years. The recent frequent applications 

 from teachers in the nature departments of these schools for ma- 

 terial to illustrate their lessons, with particular reference to the 

 weathering of rocks and soil formation, led to the preparation dur- 

 ing the past year of a reference collection comprising 41 varieties of 

 minerals, rocks, and ores useful for teaching purposes. This was 

 placed in a cabinet at the headquarters in the Franklin School Build- 

 ing, so that the needed samples for any particular lesson can be 

 selected by the teacher and readily carried to his own school. Sim- 

 ilar material was likewise furnished to the Wilson Normal School 

 for instruction of the pupils in nature work. In addition, teachers 

 are encouraged to bring to the Museum for identification such nat- 

 ural history specimens as the children bring in to them. Nor is this 

 work confined to the public schools only, for as much, if not more, 

 material was sent during the same time to the private schools and 

 universities of the District. 



In an effort to have greater advantage taken of the educational 

 facilities afforded by the Museum exhibition halls, arrangements 

 were recently completed with the authorities of the public schools 

 of the District of Columbia whereby, when notified in advance, the 

 Museum furnishes expert guidance by a member of its scientific staff 

 to scholars and teachers visiting the Museum. An increasing num- 

 ber of students has thus been guided through the exhibition halls 

 during the year, not only from the local public schools but also from 

 local universities and private schools and from educational institu- 

 tions as far distant as Alexandria, Va., and Lackawanna County, Pa. 



In some instances the visits to the Museum were only the be- 

 ginning of further work along the line. For instance, the sixth- 

 grade girl pupils of a number of the Washington public schools 



