30 EEPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



Mr. George C. Maynard has accepted the custodianship of the collection of elec- 

 trical apparatus. Dr. C. Hart Merriam has heen enrolled upon the list of associates 

 in zoology. 



Distribution of specimens. — Nearly 30,000 specimens of all kinds have heen distrib- 

 uted during the year. About four-fifths of this number were donated to institu- 

 tions. The total also includes a large number of specimens which were transmitted 

 in exchange to institutions and individuals. Specimens are in no case given to 

 individuals. Of the entire number of specimens distributed, probably two-thirds 

 consisted of fishes and invertebrate forms of marine life. More than 2,300 geological 

 specimens and about half as many casts of prehistoric implements are also included 

 in the total number. 



Visitors. — The number of visitors to the Smithsonian building during the year was 

 103,650, and to the Museum building 180,505. 



Specimens received for determination. — There has been a noticeable increase in the 

 number of "lots" of material received for identification. This is readily accounted 

 for by the encouragement which the Museum has always given in this direction. A 

 stone cr insect, actually worthless, but believed by the sender to have some scien- 

 tific or commercial value, is as carefully examined and reported upon as would be a 

 collection having recognized value, from a correspondent known to be engaged in 

 scientific work. The number of "lots" received during the year was 542, or an 

 increase of 75 over the number received last year. 



Foreign exchanges. — Exchanges have been made with a number of foreign museums. 

 Among them may be mentioned the Royal Zoological Museum, Florence, Italy ; 

 Museu Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil; British Museum, London, England; Zoological 

 Museum, Turin, Italy ; Horniman Museum, London, England; Australian Museum, 

 Sydney, New South Wales; La Plata Museum, La Plata, Argentina; Museum of 

 Natural History, Paris, France; Museum of Natural History, Genoa, Italy; Royal 

 Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark; Imperial Zoological Museum, Vienna, 

 Austria. Exchanges of importance have also been made with individuals, among 

 whom may be mentioned Mr. Edward Lovett, Croydon, England; Mr. Edgar J. 

 Bradley, Happy Valley Water Works, South Australia; Dr. A. C. Haddon, Cam- 

 bridge, England; Prof. Guiseppe Bellucci, Perugia, Italy; Dr. Herman Credner, 

 Leipsie, Germany; Dr. A. Pavlow, Moscow, Russia; Col. Charles Scott Grant, Ham- 

 ilton, Ontario, Canada; Prof. M. Stossich, Trieste, Austria. 



Publications. — The Report of the National Museum for 1893 was published early in 

 the year, and a considerable portion of the Report for 1894 is already in type. 



Volume 17 of Proceedings of the National Museum was received from the Govern- 

 ment Printing Office and distributed in July. All the papers for Volume 18, except- 

 ing three, appeared as separates. This volume will probably be ready for distribution 

 in bound form during November. Advance editions of three papers to appear in 

 volume 18 were also received and distributed. Two of these contained descriptions 

 of remarkable new genera and species of batrachia and Crustacea obtained by the 

 United States Fish Commission from an artesian well at San Marcos, Tex. The 

 third contained preliminary diagnoses of new mammals from the Mexican border, 

 collected by Dr. E. A. Mearns, U. S. A. 



Bulletin 47, "The Fishes of North and Middle America," by Dr. D. S. Jordan and 

 Prof. B. W. Evermaun, will shortly be published, and Bulletin 49, "A Bibliography 

 of the Published Writings of Philip Lutley Sclater, F. R. S." prepared by Dr. G. 

 Brown Goode, is now in type. 



A second edition of Part F of Bulletin 39, " Directions for Collecting and Preserv- 

 ing Insects," by Prof. C. V. Riley, has been printed, to meet the unusually large 

 demand for this pamphlet. 



Special Bulletin No. 2, "Oceanic Ichthyology," by Dr. G. Brown Goode and Dr. 

 Tarleton H. Bean, is now ready for the press. This is a treatise on the deep-sea and 

 pelagic fishes of the world, and is based chiefly on the collections made by the steam- 

 ers Blalce, Albatross and Fish Hawk in the Northwestern Atlantic Ocean. It is an 

 elaborate work, in quarto form, of 553 pages, with an atlas of 417 figures arranged on 



