REPORT Otf ASSISTANT SECRETARY. ? 



Professor in the University of Osaka, departed on his mission in July, 

 1886. 



Mr. W. V. Cox was designated Chief Clerk in December, 1885. Mr. 

 E. I. Geare has been placed in charge of Correspondence and Beports; 

 and Mr. A. Howard Clark is Assistant in charge of Publications, Sta- 

 tionery, and Labels. Mr. S. C. Brown, as Begistrar, has charge of 

 Transportation, Begistry, and Storage. Mr. John Murdoch has been 

 designated Assistant Librarian. 



By the death, March 19, 1886, of Mr. James Tern pieman Brown, the 

 Museum suffered the loss of an enthusiastic worker, who had rendered 

 efficient service in the development of the Museum. Mr. Brown had 

 made an exhaustive study of the whale fisheries of the world, and the 

 collection formed by him to illustrate the history of the New England 

 whale fishery, will always be a prominent feature in the fisheries court. 



The Museum staff, as now organized, consists of two classes — the 

 scientific officers or curators, and the administrative officers. 



There are at present 28 curatorships, some of which are divided, so 

 that the number of heads of departments or sub-departments is 26, 

 and the total number of men in the scientific staff 30, of whom 13 are in 

 the pay of the Museum, and the others are honorary (or unpaid), some 

 being detailed for this duty by the Director of the Geological Survey, 

 by the Director of the Bureau of Ethnology, others by the Commis- 

 sioner of Fish and Fisheries, and by the Secretary of the Navy, while 

 two are volunteers. These details are in every instance made in the 

 interests of co-operation by those Bureaus of the Government engaged 

 in work closely connected with that of the Museum. The paleontol- 

 ogists of the Geological Survey have found it to be so much to their 

 advantage to have access to the paleontological collections of the Mu- 

 seum and the use of the laboratories, storage cases, and general ad- 

 ministrative appliances of the Museum, that they are permitted by 

 the Director to assume the responsibilities of curatorships and perform 

 a general work of supervision. It is intended, however, that the Museum 

 shall provide paid assistants, to relieve the honorary curators of most 

 of the routine work of their departments. 



B.— THE CONDITION OF THE COLLECTIONS. 



The reports of the curators indicate that the collections under their 

 charge are in an excellent state of preservation. 



The perishable objects, such as skins of birds and mammals, the in- 

 sects, certain ethnological materials, and the objects preserved in spirits, 

 have in most cases been provided with improved case accommodations, 

 and a decided advance has been made in the methods of preventing in- 

 sect ravages. 



During the year the collection of aboriginal American pottery in the 

 northwest court has been opened to the public, and a series of casts of 



