REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1918. 55 



Dr. Merrill continued his researches on meteorites, having com- 

 pleted and forwarded to the National Academy of Sciences for pub- 

 lication a second report on " Researches on the chemical and min- 

 eralogical composition of meteorites, with especial reference to their 

 minor constituents," as well as a shorter paper, entitled " Tests for 

 fluorine and tin in meteorites, with notes on maskelynite and the 

 effect of dry heat on meteoric stones." He has also prepared four 

 short papers based on specimens in the Museum's collection, which 

 have either been published or are now in course of printing. In 

 addition to the foregoing, he has published a brief report on a pecu- 

 liar form of fibrous opal, based on a specimen submitted to the de- 

 partment for examination. 



Dr. L. P. de Bussy, director of the Colonial Museum, Amsterdam, 

 studied methods of preservation and installation of the collections; 

 Dr. Whitman Cross, of the United States Geological Survey, spent 

 several clays in arranging a collection of Hawaiian rocks ; Mr. W. C. 

 Phalen, of the Bureau of Mines, consulted the manganese minerals; 

 and Dr. Alfred P. Dachnowski, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, ex- 

 amined the peat collection in connection with investigations as to the 

 availability of this material for agricultural purposes. 



Mineralogy and petrology. — In mineralogy three accessions of ex- 

 ceptional value were received from Mr. C. S. Bement, of Philadel- 

 phia, who purchased and presented them to the Museum; the judi- 

 cious selections made by this donor as to quality for both study and 

 exhibition render his additions of highest importance. The first 

 consists of five particularly fine examples from Franklin, New Jer- 

 s&y, including willemite. hetaerolite, and crystals of rhodonite, zinc- 

 ite, and leucophoenicite. The second comprises two free crystals of 

 scheelite and one specimen of scheelite crystals attached to chalcopy- 

 rite, from Mexico; also a fine, large group of manganosite crystals 

 from Franklin, New Jersey. The third contained 11 specimens, in- 

 cluding an exceptionally fine, large twinned crystal of quartz and an 

 unusual crystal of clanburite from Japan; calamine, pyrite, and 

 milky quartz from Colorado ; the rare mineral achtaragdite and a va- 

 riety of vesuvianite (wiluite) from Siberia ; a cut gem of unusual 

 size and color, a free crystal, and an embedded crystal of willemite, 

 and a specimen of willemite with friedelite and white zeolite from 

 Franklin, New Jersey. All of these specimens are suitable for ex- 

 hibition. 



The American consul at Chaugsha, China, Mr. Nelson T. Johnson, 

 presented a specimen of twinned cinnabar crystals from Hunan 

 Province, China, unusual in size and beauty, showing seven groups of 

 crystals more than half an inch in diameter. This is, as far as known, 

 the finest of its kind in the United States. 



