REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 39 



owing chiefly to the appointment of an assistant curator, Mr. James E. 

 Benedict. All of the material, including the general alcoholic collec- 

 tions in the main storage-rooms, has been kept in excellent condition. 



The accessions have been greater in number and of more importance 

 than during the preceding year. A very valuable series of European 

 marine invertebrates was received from Eev. A. M. Norman, of Burn- 

 moor Rectory, Durham, England. The U. S. Commission has trans- 

 ferred to the Museum two very large collections from the Pacific Ocean, 

 gathered by the Fish Commission steamer Albatross. 



Other accessions deserving special mention were received from Wes- 

 leyan College, Middletown, Connecticut; W. H. Brown, naturalist, 

 with the United States Eclipse Expedition to South Africa; theBureau 

 of Navigation, Navy Department ; the U. S. S. Dolphin, Commander 

 George F. F. Wilde, commanding; Prof. O. B. Johuson, University of 

 Washington, Seattle, Washington ; and Mr. Romyn Hitchcock. 



The arrangement of type series of alcholic specimens has been contin- 

 ued. The alcoholic collection of alcyonariaus and actinians, and the 

 entire collections of brachyurans and anomourans, have been over- 

 hauled, and the card catalogues revised and completed. The assorting 

 of Mr. Dall's Alaskan collection, which has been in progress for several 

 years, has been completed. Much time has been spent in making up 

 sets of duplicates for distribution. 



The shore and shallow-water Echini, collected by the U. S. Fish Com- 

 mission steamer Albatross on the west coast of North America in 1888 

 and 1889, have been identified and a type series deposited in the Mu- 

 seum. 



The assistant curator has identified the crustaceans collected by the 

 United States Eclipse Expedition to West Africa, and has begun the 

 study of the Alaskan annelids obtained by Mr. Dall and by the Fish 

 Commission. Prof. Walter Faxon, of the Museum of Comparative 

 Anatomy, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has finished his investigation of 

 the cray-fishes lent to him, and has returned them, together with a re- 

 port, which has been published in the Proceedings of the Museum.* 



Vertebrate Fossils. — This department is under the honorary curator- 

 ship of Prof. O. C. Marsh, of Yale College, New Haven. Mr. F. A. 

 Lucas, assistant curator of the Department of Comparative Anatomy, 

 has classified and arranged in drawers a portion of a large number of 

 types of the species described by Dr. Leidy. 



The most important addition to the collection is a skull of Thoraco- 

 saurus neocesaurus, presented by Mr. Nelson C. Page. 



Department of Paleozoic Invertebrate Fossils. — Among the most im- 

 portant accessions to the collection of paleozoic fossils during the year, 

 three are mentioned in the report of the curator. The first is from 

 the British Museum, and includes a large number of trilobites. The 

 second consists of 592 specimens from the Lower Cambrian and the 



* Vol. xu, No. 785, pp. 619-634. 



