Feb. 17, 1887] 



NATURE 



37: 



reason of its field of exploration, and especially through 

 the valuable accessions of material furnished by it to the 

 National Museum. 



With regard to the Smithsonian Institution itself there 

 is not much to be said, except that its usual operations 

 were steadily carried on during the year, with a marked 

 increase in routine work. In the way of explorations 

 there was less activity in the year 1SS6 than there has 

 been in some previous years, but important collections of 

 objects of scientific interest were received from various 

 parts of America and Asia. Of the ditferent classes of 

 works issued by the Institution, the most valuable are the 

 quarto " Contributions to Knowledge." A work in this 

 series, entitled " Researches upon the Venoms of Poison- 

 ous Serpents," by Dr. .S. Weir Mitchell and Dr. E. T. 

 Reichert, was printed during the past year, and will soon 

 be ready for distribution. Among the " Smithsonian 

 Miscellaneous Collections " of 1885-86 may be mentioned 

 "A Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals (1665 

 to 1882), together with Chronological Tables, and a Check- 

 List,'' " The Scientific Writings of Joseph Henry" (not 

 yet published, but entirely stereotyped), " Index to the 

 Literature of Uranium, 1789-18S5" (one of a series of 

 bibliographies especially directed to the indexing of 

 chemical literature), and " .Accounts " of the progress of 

 astronomy, chemistry, physics, geography, anthropology, 

 and other sciences in 18S5. The Smithsonian Institution 

 has also issued the Bulletins and Reports of the Proceed- 

 ings of the National Museum, and valuable publications 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology. 



It is well known that in bequeathing to the L^nited 

 States the fund with which the Smithsonian Institution 

 was established, Mr. Smithson stipulated that his bequest 

 should be devoted to " the increase and diffusion of know- 

 ledge among men." The Institution has always complied 

 with this condition in a most liberal spirit, and now its 

 system of " free exchanges " has reached vast proportions. 

 For the year ended June 30, 1886, the receipts for foreign 

 transmission were 94,093 packages, weighing 195,404 

 pounds. The transmission filled 764 boxes, having an 

 aggregate bulk of 5208 cubic feet. For domestic ex- 

 changes the number of parcels received and distributed 

 during the fiscal year was 14,496, of which 2533 parcels 

 (or about one-sixth) were received for the library of the 

 Institution. Twenty years ago the Institution was made 

 by law the agent of the United States Government for 

 conducting the international exchanges of public official 

 documents between it and foreign Governments, and 

 during the past year 29 boxes, containing 56,229 packages, 

 were received for Government exchanges, and 114 boxes 

 were sent abroad. The exchange system of the Institu- 

 tion is found to be of so much public service that Congress 

 supports it by an annual grant of 10,000 dollars. 



Perhaps the most interesting part of the report is that 

 which relates to the National Museum. It is five years 

 since the work of moving into the new Museum building 

 was begun. Two years ago the Director reported that 

 the packing-boxes, several thousand in number, containing 

 the accumulations of many previous years, had for the 

 most part been unpacked, and that the entire floor space 

 of the building would soon be occupied by exhibition collec- 

 tions. During the past year this result was attained, and 

 (with the exception of one corner of one of the central halls 

 still occupied by one or two collections received at the 

 close of the New Orleans Exhibition, and which have not 

 been opened on account of delay in preparation of cases 

 for their reception) the entire floor space of about 100,000 

 square feet is open to the public, and the collections 

 arranged in accordance with the provisional plan of 

 installation. The work of mounting and labelling is still 

 in progress, and each month shows marked advances. 



The development of the Museum during the past year 

 was unexpectedly great. About fifteen hundred separate 

 lots of specimens were received. A certain proportion of 



these were obtained from Government expeditions and 

 surveys, and material of perhaps equal value through 

 exchange, but by far the largest part of the increase, both 

 in quantity and value, w-as in the form of gifts. 



A census of the collections made in 18S4 showed an 

 estimated total of 1,471,000 "lots" of specimens in the 

 Museum. The nuinber at the present time is 2,420,934. 

 The total number of " lots '' of specimens received during 

 the year and separately entered on the record of accessions 

 was 1496, including 6S90 separate packages. The con- 

 struction of cases was constantly in progress, and during 

 the year there were received and fitted for use and placed 

 in the exhibition halls 84 cases, chiefly of the standard 

 patterns. Forty-five storage cases were made for use in 

 the laboratories, 5400 wooden drawers and trays, and 

 54,000 pasteboard trays. There were also purchased 

 3504 glass Jars, for storage and exhibition of alcoholic 

 specimens, and 24 barrels (11 15 gallons) of 98 per cent, 

 alcohol. 



The distribution of duplicates was much the same as in 

 previous years. About twenty-four thousand specimens 

 were sent out to 118 institutions and societies: those to 

 institutions in the United States are generally gifts, 

 though many were sent in the way of exchange. For all 

 foreign sendings, equivalents in the way of exchange were 

 received or promised. 



Many interesting details are given as to the various 

 Departments in which the collections of the Museum are 

 grouped. In the Department of Arts and Industries a 

 prominent place is held by the section of textiles, which 

 includes a very full series of the animal and vegetable 

 fibres used throughout the world, together with good 

 representations of devices for spinning and weaving, and 

 of the various products of the textile industries. This 

 collection is nearly all permanently installed, provided 

 with printed labels, and illustrated by diagrams. For lack 

 of room, fully half of the material ready for exhibition has 

 been stored away, and the cases prepared for its display 

 are in boxes in the Armoury building. The space assigned 

 to the exhibition series is still so crowded that the objects 

 cannot be satisfactorily examined. To the collection of 

 food substances, in the same Department, is assigned a 

 large quantity of unassorted material. The few cases 

 now on exhibition contain the foods of the North American 

 Indians, of Japan and China, and some of the more curious 

 and unusual articles of diet. There are also two cases of 

 educational importance, which exhibit graphically the 

 composition of the human body and its daily expenditure 

 of tissues, and the manner in which this is compensated 

 for by daily rations of food. This collection is modelled 

 after the famous collection of a similar character prepared 

 by Dr. Lankester and others for the Bethnal Green 

 Museum in London. It is, however, based upon an en- 

 tirely new series of analyses, and upon a revised plan pre- 

 pared by Prof. W. O. Atwater,of the Wesleyan University 

 and corresponds to the latest views in physiological 

 chemistry. The collections in chemical technology 

 alreadv have a good nucleus, and the increase during 

 the year in the collections of materia medica was greater 

 than during any previous year except the first. The 

 fisheries collection was opened to the public in May 1884, 

 and since that time there has been constant improvement 

 in the condition of the material exhibited. Some gaps in 

 the series of illustrations of foreign fisheries have been 

 filled by collections received from the Governments of 

 Siam and Japan, and by the extensive collections from 

 Great Britain, Sweden, Spain, France, Holland, and Greece, 

 acquired at the close of the London Exhibition. 



Of the collection of historic relics in the Department of 

 Arts and Industries, we learn that it includes several 

 hundred objects of national interest connected with the 

 history of soldiers, statesmen, and important events. 

 Closely related to the historical collection is the series 

 illustrating the history of steam transportation, under the 



