114 EEPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



eral use among civilized people, aud known as "official" or " pharma- 

 copoeal" drugs. These it is proposed to illustrate, as fully as possible 

 in the space allowed, by colored plates, photographs, drawings, etc. 

 Following this fully illustrated series will be presented the indigenous 

 drugs of the United States, not official, with references from the labels 

 to the illustrations, which will be placed in the pillar screens. In this 

 way case room will be saved, at some sacrifice of attractiveness, but 

 not of utility to the intelligent student. The collections, in many in- 

 stances quite large and interesting, of drugs from Mexico, Chili, India, 

 Japan, Corea, China, and other countries, will be placed in separate 

 geographical series, whereby their ethnological and botanical interest 

 will be increased without any sacrifice of their medical value. 



The routine work, begun and to be continued, is the thorough label- 

 ing of the collection, giving to every object, whether drug, botanical 

 plate, or diagram, a carefully prepared label. 



As at present exhibited the labels are without unity of method in 

 their treatment of the subjects, some of them being very elaborate and 

 technical, the most of them giving scarcely more than the name of the 

 article and the donor. It is proposed to take the specimens in regular 

 order according to the classification, prepare a careful label for each, 

 and take note of desiderata which the investigation may suggest, and 

 thus render whatever work may be done complete and ijermanent. To, 

 obtain specimens seems to be the easiest part of the work, for every 

 large commercial drug-house in this and other countries appears to be 

 ready and anxious to contribute and to make personal effort to obtain 

 what is wanted. 



Up to the date of closing this report (June 30, 1888) four hundred 

 and fifty labels have been completed and mounted in type-writer copy 

 for temporary service. A manuscript copy of these labels, with brief 

 explanatory and descriptive notes, has been made for the purpose of 

 l)ublication at some future time, should it be thought desirable. The 

 present state of the collection may be briefly summarized as follows, 

 viz: Number of specimens registered June 30, 1887, 5,516; number of 

 specimens registered during the past year, 245 j total, 5,761. Less du- 

 plicates and rejected specimens, 500; remaining, 5,261. 



