24 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884. 



it may be expected that our next year's report will show a great increase 

 in the amount of work directly concerned with the preparation of the 

 exhibition series, of final labels, of catalogues and hand books, and the 

 prosecution and publication of original researches. 



The activity of 1884 may best be gauged by the following table, which 

 shows the total number of entries made in the Museum registers of the 

 several curatorships: 



No. of 

 dept. 



II 

 Illrt 



lUb 



IV 



Va 



V6 



VI 

 VII 

 VIII 



IX 



X 



Name of department. 



Aits and Industries (general). 



Materia Medica 



Textile, Industries 



Foods 



Historical Relies. 



Ethnology 



Antiquities 



American Prehistoric Pottery 



Mammals 



Birds 



Birds' Eggs 



Reptiles 



Fishes 



Comparative Anatomy 



Mollnslis 



Insects 



No. of 



i 



entries 



No. of i 



diirini;' 



dept. 



1884. 





4, 429 



X! 



398 





1, 683 





420 





200 





1,184 





4, 307 





G03 





711 





8,142 



XIT« 



3, 222 



I XII6 



584 





3,015 



xnr 



547 



XIV 



' 5,231 



XV 



53 



XVI 





Name of department. 



Marine Invertebrates : 



Crustacea. 



Worms 



Tnnicates and Bryozoa 



Radiates 



Protozoa and Sponges .. .- 

 Invertebrate Fossils (Paleozoic) 

 Invertebrate Fossils (Mesozoic 



Cenozoic) 



Fossil Plants 



Mineralogy 



Litbology 



Metallurgy 



Total 



No. of 



entries 



during 



1884. 



351 

 89 

 858 

 04 5 

 564 



159 



07 

 307 

 541 

 021 



58. 195 



(b) Development of the exhibition and study series. 



The " reserve series" in the Museum includes all the specimens which 

 are retained for purposes of study, the exhibition series consisting of 

 objects which are suitable to be exposed to imblic view in glass cases, 

 selected from the reserve series of which it forms a part. The study 

 series is formed by the residue, which are kept compactly stored either in 

 cases in the laboratories or in the closed tables which serve as pedestals 

 for the smaller show-cases in the exhibition halls. 



The study series for any special group may generally be largely re- 

 duced in extent after an exhaustive monograph has been published 

 upon that group, it being the long-established policy of the Museum to 

 reserve only a sufficient number of specimens to permit the author of 

 such monograph to entirely rewrite it, should the manuscript of his 

 essay be destroyed. 



Much progress has been made during the year in many departments 

 in the work of separating the duplicate from the reserve series, and 

 in many of the others in the work of preliminary classification, which 

 is the necessary preparation for this task. The development of the 

 exhibition series is necessarily slow, since it is not considered desir- 

 able to place on exhibition specimens which are not fully explained by 

 printed labels. It is, to be sure, often necessary to expose to view 

 large objects which have not been labeled. The extent and nature of the 

 work of the Museum is not appreciated by persons who are not familiar 

 with I lie character of the laboratory work and who have not access to 

 (lie reserve stores. In the various departments of ethnology and indus- 



