DEPARTMENT OF MOLLUSKS. 179 



CONDITION OF THE COLLECTION OF MOLLUSKS. 



As stated in previous reports the total number of specimens in the 

 collection can only be estimated. Not including the material in the 

 hands of Professor Yerrill and assistants, but including duplicates 

 and alcoholic specimens, the total last year must have been in the vicin- 

 ity of 400,000. The number received during the year has not been 

 counted, as much of it still remains in the original packages. Not until 

 our arrearages are closed up shall we be able to state categorically the 

 annual numerical changes in a collection comprising so many minute 

 objects, of which there may be hundreds in a single box or bottle. 



The number of entries in the Museum register of mollusks, including 

 quaternary fossils, from July 1, 1885, to June 30, 1886, inclusive, was 

 18,638, representing between 50,000 and 60,000 individual specimens. 

 During the twenty years or more which have passed over the collection 

 since I first made acquaintance with it up to July 1, 1885, the total 

 number of entries has been 42,440 ; or much less than three times as 

 many as have been attended to in the single year just closed. 



During the past year we have closed up all vacancies in the catalogue 

 arising from whatever causes, except those where numbers have been 

 reserved for Professor Verrill for use in connection with the Fish Com- 

 mission collection temporarily at New Haven. In future, therefore, 

 the schedule of entries given in the appendix to this report will proba- 

 bly be much less complicated. The last number actually used in 1886 

 was 64005, but the full schedule is comprised in Appendix C. 



As explained above and in previous reports a categorical enumera- 

 tion of the material, reserve and duplicate, in the custody of this de- 

 partment is at present impracticable, and even an estimate must neces- 

 sarily be of a very approximate nature. 



The need of intelligent clerical assistance in this department is greater 

 than ever since the disablement of our most efficient clerk by illness, the 

 termination of which can not yet be predicted. 



