REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 31 



Table showing the number of visitors to the Museum and Smithsonian buildings since 1881. 



Year. 



1881 



1882 



1883 



1884 



1 885 (January-June) 



1885-'86 



1886-'87 



Total number of visitors 



Now Museum 

 building. 



* 150, 000 

 +167, 450 

 202, 188 

 195, 322 

 107, 365 

 174,225 

 216, 562 



1,213,117 



Smithsonian 

 building. 



152, 744 



104, 823 



91, 130 



60, 428 

 88, 960 

 98, 552 



596, 637 



* Estimated on basis of register. 



t Estimated on basis of attendance from February 8 to December 31. 



Students, Lectures, and Meetings of Societies. 



As in past years, the Museum has offered facilities to several students, 

 who have in some instances rendered a partial equivalent by volunteer 

 work upon the collections. 



Mr. Walter H. Brown spent six weeks with the Department of Com- 

 parative Anatomy for the purpose of studying the methods of preparing 

 and mounting osteological specimens. 



In the Department of Insects volunteer service was rendered by Mr. 

 S. Davis, of Washington, and Mr. W. H. Crane, of Cincinnati, whose 

 assistance was utilized chiefly in the arrangement of the Diptera aud in 

 the synoptic collection of Coleoptera. Prof. P. E. Uhler, of Baltimore, 

 having offered to arrange and name the insects of the family Capsulce, 

 the material was sent to him for that purpose. 



Paul Pelseneer, of the museum at Brussels, applied for certain species 

 of pteropod mollusks for study. Certain Pacific specimens and copies 

 of colored drawings, made from life by Mr. Dall while in the North 

 Pacific, were lent to him. 



Mr. Delano Ames, of Washington, served as a volunteer in the depart- 

 ment of Marine Invertebrates during the months of May and June. 

 Prof. A. E. Verrill, of Yale College, assisted by Misses A. J. and C. 

 E. Bush, and Mr. Sanderson Smith, Prof. J. Walter Eewkes, of the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Prof. S. 

 I. Smith, of Yale College, Prof. L. A. Lee, of Bowdoin College, Prof. 

 E. Linton, of Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, and 

 others have rendered valuable aid to this department by researches in 

 special directions. 



In the department of Minerals volunteer service was rendered from 

 July to November, 188G, by Mr. H. H. James. 



An examination of the entire collection of deer antlers, in connection 

 with the question of bilateral asymmetry in the class Mammals, was 

 made by Dr, Harrison Allen. 



