36 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



are now referred from the Smithsonian Institution to the Assistant Sec- 

 retary for final action. In previous years a considerable part of the 

 Museum correspondence had been attended to by officers of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



The Museum correspondence may be grouped under the following 

 headings : 



(1) General Museum business, including matters connected with 

 Museum administration, arraugement of foreign exchanges, etc. 



(2) Eeplies to requests for information of a technical character. 



(3) Acknowledgment of gifts, loaus, and exchanges. 



(4) Keports upon specimens sent tor examination and report. 

 During the year, 1,406 letters were written relating to the general 



business of the Museum. The reports upon specimens sent for identi- 

 fication numbered 540, and 1,152 acknowledgments of accessions were 

 made, a large number both of reports and of acknowledgments being 

 in letter form. This gives a total of 3,098 official papers prepared for 

 the signature of the Assistant Secretary in charge. 



Reports upon specimens sent for examination. — The special researches 

 which have been carried on by the curators during the year have been 

 referred to at some length in the discussion of the work accomplished 

 in the scientific departments. In addition to this a large quantity of 

 laboratory work is necessitated by the receipt of specimens of all kinds 

 which are sent to the Museum for examination and report* The ex- 

 amination of this material, of which a classified list is given below, oc- 

 cupies very much of the curators' time, elaborate reports being in many 

 cases necessary. In each instance a copy of the report, or a letter em- 

 bodying it, is mailed to the sender. The following table gives the num- 

 ber of requests of this kind received, and arranged by states, the state 

 given being that in which the sender resides and not necessarily that 

 from which the specimen originally came, this fact in many cases not 

 being stated by the sender. 



Alabama 10 



Arizona 9 



Arkansas 9 



California 11 



Colorado 5 



Con necticnt 3 



Dakota 5 



Delaware 2 



District of Columbia 14 



Florida 13 



Georgia 5 



Idaho 1 



Illinois 3 



Indiana 5 



Iowa 4 



Kansas 9 



Kentucky ,. 4 



Louisiana 4 



Maine 3 



Maryland J> 



Massachusetts 6 



Michigan 6- 



Minnesota 1 



Mississippi 10' 



Missouri 3 



Montana 4 



Nebraska 3- 



Nevada 3 



New Jersey 6 



New Mexico 5 



New York 19 



North Carolina 12 



Ohio 16 



Oregon 3. 



