REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 9 



which has been adopted. The curators of the several divisions of the 

 department of Invertebrate Fossils are still unprovided with exhibition 

 space. An immense quantity of material in each of these sections is 

 ready for exhibition, and a special effort will be made during the autumn 

 to provide in some measure for their exigencies. The collections of 

 fossil and recent plants are provisionally arranged upon the south 

 balcony, where they are at all times accessible to students. The curator 

 of Minerals is giving much attention to building up the collection of me- 

 teorites. Several new cases have been constructed for the lithological 

 hall, which will afford some relief to the unavoidably crowded condition 

 of this collection. In this hall is being gathered together a valuable 

 collection of relief maps and models showing the geological features of 

 various parts of the United States. 



D.— REVIEW OF THE YEAR'S WORK IN THE SCIENTIFIC 



DEPARTMENTS. 



DIVISION OF ANTHROPOLOGY. 



DEPARTMENT OF ARTS AND INDUSTRIES. 



It has seemed desirable to continue the existence of the so-called 

 department of Arts and Industries, as a convenient means of grouping 

 together a number of special collections not elsewhere assigned, although 

 the scope of this department is much less extensive than it was before 

 the organization of the department of Ethnology, to which properly be- 

 longs a very large proportion of the objects formerly assigned to the 

 department of Arts and Industries. 



In this department, under the charge of a number of special curators, 

 are included at present the various technological collections, which are 

 for the most part made up of materials derived from the civilized races 

 of mankind. 



In the hall containing the Fisheries collection very little has been done 

 since its formal opening to the public in April, 1834. Its arrangement 

 had at that time been so thoroughly completed that this section was 

 considered to be more nearly in a finished condition than any other in 

 the Museum, and there was little left to be desired in the way of addi- 

 tional material. The collection is still under the charge of Mr. R. 

 Edward Earll, one of the assistants in the Fish Commission, who has 

 been so much occupied by his regular official duties that he has had 

 little time to devote either to this or to the other collection of which he 

 has voluntarily assumed the care, that of the Animal Products, which 

 was thoroughly adjusted after its return from the New Orleans Exposi- 

 tion in the spring of 1885. 



The section of Naval Architecture is also under the charge of an 

 honorary curator attached to the Fisli Commission, who has been con- 



