20 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1884. 



C— THE CONDITION OF THE COLLECTIONS. 



The custodianship of the specimens of the several departments has 

 been conscientiously fulfilled by the curators with the assistance of the 

 various preparators. I am confident that the material in the possession 

 of the Museum has never been in better condition than it is at the 



present time. 



9. A PROVISIONAL CENSUS OF THE COLLECTIONS. 



Estimated number of specimens now in the several departments of the National Museum.* 



No. of specimens. 

 Department of Arts and Industries: 



(a) Materia med-ica 4,442 



(&) Textile industries 2,000 



(c) Fisheries 5,000 



(d) Animal products 1, 000 



(e) Naval architecture , COO 



(/) Foods -. , 1,580 



Department of Ethnology -.. 200,000 



Department of Antiquities 45, 252 



Department of Prehistoric Pottefy 12, 000 



Department of Mammals} Skins and alcoholic specimens 5,694 ) c 



I Skulls and skeletons 4,214 > 



Department of Birds... 50, 350 



Department of Birds' Eggs 40,072 



Department of Reptiles and Batrachians 23,495 



Department of Fishes 68,000 



Department of Comparative Anatomy, (department not organized) 3,000 



Department of Mollusks 400,000 



Department of Insects 150,000 



Department ol* Marine Id vertebrates 200, 000 



Department of Invertebrate Fossils (Paleozoic) 73,000 



Department of Invertebrate Fossils (Mesozoic and Cenozoic) 100,000 



Department of Plants, fossil and recent 7,291 



Department of Mineralogy 16,610 



Department of Lithology and Physical Geology 18,000 



Department of Metallurgy and Economic Geology 40,000 



Total • 1,471,000 



10. ASSIGNMENT OF SPACE. 



There has been made no material change in the assignment of exhi- 

 bition space, as described on page 2 of my report for 1883. The north- 

 west court wilj probably be opened dining L885 with the collections of 

 North American pottery. The exhibition space for the collections of 

 the metallurgical department will shortly be increased by the opening 

 of the southwest court. 



In the Smithsonian building the four main halls are occupied as they 

 were in 1883. and as follows: Main hall, Ornithology ; upper main 



•These estimates do not bake into account the actual oumher of specimens, Inn 

 refer to " lots" of specimens, which may include one or several hundred, but which 

 are included in a single entry of the Museum register 



