REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 



change with other museums or for distribution to educational institu- 

 tions. 



Special effort is directed on the part of the Smithsonian Institution 

 toward carrying out this feature of the plan in the most thorough 

 manner; and while the distribution thus made in 1873 has been very 

 extensive, that for 1874 will be even greater still. 



It is in this particular feature that the National Museum of the United 

 States differs from almost any other in the world, excepting, perhaps, 

 in a single direction only, the Government Geological Museum at Vienna. 



In most other museums single specimens only of objects are offered 

 or accepted, especially of such as are new to the cabinet, the labor of 

 digesting the results of great expeditions being accomplished under 

 other auspices, no plan being adopted to utilize any surplus, in any 

 other interest than that of the establishment itself. The British Mu- 

 seum, for instance, which stands at the head of all institutions of this 

 kind, never parts with a duplicate, and is oppressed by the weight of its 

 surplus material, even though in small proportion to the reserve collec- 

 tion. 



It is a question whether any museum in the world is in receipt of so 

 great an amount of material as the National Museum at Washington ; 

 and were the rule of the British Museum to prevail it would be crushed 

 by the weight of its own riches. The constant effort, however, on the 

 part of the Smithsonian Institution to utilize this material in the interest 

 of science and education, tends to keep down the mass, though it is 

 only at the expense of the incessant activity and constant labor of the 

 Museum force that this object is in any measure accomplished. 



In most public museums there is a corps of specialists whose business 

 it is to supervise all the collections received, the British Museum hav- 

 ing a large force of such officers. The funds available for the National 

 Museum of the United States do not authorize the appointment of such 

 officers, although some of the present assistants are prominent special- 

 ists in certain branches. In order, therefore, to secure the prompt de- 

 termination of the material received, and the consequent speedy dis- 

 posal of the duplicates, the offers of assistance from eminent scientists, so 

 frequently made, are gladly accepted, and the material placed in their 

 hands for investigation. During the year this labor has been performed, 

 always gratuitously, by a number of gentlemen, among whom may be 

 mentioned Prof. E. D. Cope as employed in the investigation of the fos- 

 sil mammals ; Dr. Cones, Mr. J. A. Allen, and Mr. Bidgway on that of 

 the birds ; Professor Cope, of the reptiles ; Dr. Gill, Professor Goode, 

 and Mr. J. W. Milner, of the fishes; Mr. P. B. Uhler, Mr. William H. 

 Edwards^ Dr. A. S. Packard, Mr. Cyrus Thomas, and Dr. L. Le Conte, 

 of the insects ; and Mr. William G. Binney and others, of the shells. 



Professor Verrill has undertaken the determination of the collection 

 of marine invertebrates obtained from the waters of the east coast of 

 the United States, with the assistance of Mr. S. J. Smith, Dr. Packard, 



