18 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Congress has laid upon the National Museum quite other and addi- 

 tional functions. Not to dwell upon the fact (so constantly insisted on 

 in previous reports) of the entire inadequacy of the buildings here for 

 the collections, the National Museum, containing all the diverse col- 

 lections of the Government, has many more departments and a very 

 much larger necessary expenditure for salaries, owing to the diversity 

 of its cares. It is also the source of supply which has been succes- 

 sively depleted for the exhibitions at Louisville, Cincinnati, and New 

 Orleans in 1884 and 1885, Madrid in 1892, Chicago in 1893, and Atlanta 

 iu 1895; and a large part of the force has thus been engaged in the dis- 

 arrangement of its own collections, a condition of things under which 

 no museum, public or private, could prosper. 



It is also called upon by Members of Congress to send collections to 

 every portion of the country, and in the last year, on the request of 

 individual Members of Congress, collections comprising iu all at least 

 39,000 specimens were sent out. The National Museum is also treated 

 as a National Bureau for scientific information, and is expected to 

 answer inquiries from every portion of the country. 



These are some of the purposes for which the Museum is compelled 

 to use money which should go to collections, purposes not perhaps 

 alien to the objects of a National Museum, but widely diverse from 

 those of a private one. 



The final result is shown in such figures as those above cited, where 

 museums no larger or even of less extent, paying in many cases higher 

 salaries to their officers and employees, are able to expend, as in the 

 instance alluded to, thirteen times the amount on collections. 



All these are reasons why, in spite of the most earnest efforts and 

 self-sacrifice on the part of those in their immediate charge, the collec- 

 tions of the Government iu many most important respects are not 

 advancing as fast as those of some civic museums. 



It seems but justice to the late eminent man — Dr. G. Brown Goode — 

 who gave his life to this Museum, and who had entire freedom in his 

 administration of it, to say that more than he did would have been, it 

 is believed, impossible under. the conditions just cited. He did more, 

 in fact, than could be demanded, for he supplemented these defects by 

 arousing, through his own enthusiasm and his unselfish interest, such 

 a like spirit iu others, that a large portion of all the curatorships are 

 actually filled by those giving entirely voluntary and unpaid services, 

 there being, in fact, more exactly, eight curators who are paid (though 

 inadequately) to seventeen who receive their salaries in other Govern- 

 ment employment, but give their private time to their respective 

 departments, a condition of things which it would be hard to parallel 

 elsewhere, but which alone lias made it possible, under the depressing 

 influences already cited, for the Museum to not have fallen further 

 behind the progress of others than it has done. The clerical force, 

 which is relatively larger than it would be under conditions other than 



