REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



fund, the income of which is to be used for promoting the increase 

 and the scientific value and usefulness of the two important Isaac 

 Lea collections, $25,000 being given on account of the gems and 

 precious stones and $10,000 on account of the fresh-water mussels 

 or Unionidse. Owing to delay in the settlement of the will, pay- 

 ment had not been made to the Institution at the close of the year. 



By the will of Miss Lucy Hunter Baird, daughter of Prof. Spencer 

 F. Baird, the second Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the 

 Museum received during the year many interesting objects for its 

 collections and several hundred important books for its library. 



The distribution of duplicate material suitable for teaching pur- 

 poses to schools and colleges in all parts of the country aggregated 

 14,564 specimens, besides several hundred pounds of rock and min- 

 eral fragments for blowpipe analysis. These were sent out in 

 148 separate sets, and consisted mainly of rocks, minerals, ores, 

 fossils, and moUusks and other marine invertebrates. In exchange 

 transactions with other establishments and with indiAdduals over 

 15,000 duplicates were used, about 80 per cent of this number 

 being plants. The loans to specialists for study comprised 10,256 

 specimens of animals and plants, and 5,425 specimens from the 

 department of geology, besides 746 unassorted lots of marine 

 invertebrates and 107 lots of fossils. 



The total attendance of visitors at the new building aggregated 

 267,728 for week days and 61,653 for Sundays, making the daily 

 average for the former 855 and for the latter 1,185. The number 

 who visited the older Museum building was 146,533, a daily average 

 of 486, and the Smithsonian building 102,645, a daily average of 

 328. The falling off in attendance at these two buildings may be 

 ascribed to the fact that inany of the halls in the former, emptied 

 by the withdrawal of the natural history collections, have not yet 

 received their new installations, and extensive rearrangements and 

 repairs in the Smithsonian building practically caused the closing 

 of its exhibition rooms for a considerable part of the year. 



The publications of the year numbered 14 volumes and 58 separate 

 papers, 49 of the latter belonging to the series of Proceedings and 9 

 to the Contributions from the National Herbarium. In addition, 31 

 short papers on materials in the collections of the Museum, relating 

 mainly to new discoveries, were printed in the Smithsonian Miscel- 

 laneous Collections. The total distribution of Museum publications 

 amounted to about 93,200 copies. 



The library received 1,917 volumes^ 1,723 pamphlets, and 132 parts 

 of volumes, and its total contents were thereby increased to 43,609 

 volumes and 73,765 pamphlets and other unbound papers, the greater 

 part of which have been obtained through exchange and as gifts. 

 Good progress was made in the reorganization and arrangement of 



