8 Thirty-eighth Annual Report of the 



separately from the report, both for use in the Museum and for distri- 

 bution to collectors and others. 



In the same report, Mr. George B. Simpson contributed an important 

 paper on the Anatomy and Physiology of Anodontaefiuviatilis. A pre- 

 liminary Notice, Part I,* of the Lamellibranchiata, Monomyaria has 

 been published in the same report, in order both to give a wider circu- 

 lation of the specific descriptions, and to fulfil a promise made many 

 years since in the preliminary Notice, No. II, published in 1870. 



The descriptions of corals (here published with illustrations) were 

 issued in advance in pamphlet form in 1882. 



With the thirty-fifth report, in 1882, I communicated a preliminary 

 notice of some fossil reticulate sponges of the family Dictyospongidae. 

 The same, accompanied by illustrations, was read before the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, at the Montreal meeting in 

 1882, with a discussion of the relations of Dictyophyton, Phragmodic- 

 tya, and similar forms with Uphantaenia. The investigation was at 

 that time incomplete, and it became impcssible to finish the work in the 

 time required for the publication of the report. The plates now pub- 

 lished were lithographed in 1882, and a partial synopsis of the genera and 

 species is given in this report. In the mean time the drawings, beyond 

 those already lithographed, have been completed, the whole making 

 about twenty quarto plates. The descriptions, amounting to about ninety 

 pages of manuscript; were finished in April, 1884. The whole now awaits 

 the determination of the Board of the Regents as to its mode of pub- 

 lication. This manuscript, together with the figures arranged on cards, 

 will be laid before you. 



A list of the titles of papers in these several reports named, and of 

 the plates illustrating the same, will be appended to this report. 



Current Work of the Museum. 



The work of the Museum, in the care and preservation of the collec- 

 tions already arranged in the cases and drawers, has been carried on as 

 usual. 



In the Zoological collection, the stuffed skins of mammals and birds 

 have been cleaned and rearranged. The jars of alcoholic specimens 

 have been cleaned and refilled. The collection of skulls and skeletons 

 of mammals have been removed from their cases, cleaned and rearranged, 

 and also the stuffed skins and skeletons 9/ fishes. The cases of Echi- 

 nodermata and Radiata have been cleaned and the collections rearranged. 

 The Historical and Antiquarian collections have also received the nec- 

 essary attention for their preservation. 



The work of cutting and preparing transl ucent sections of corals and 



* This paper was communicated with a previous report but afterward withdrawn and 

 again communicated with the Thirty-fifth Report. 



