REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. 59 



Patent Office collection, which, had hecome greasy, dusty, or distorted, 

 "by time and accident, and hy their transfer to new stands. Many 

 skins of mammals and birds have been mounted and placed in the 

 cases to supply deficiencies, or to replace defective specimens, although 

 a vast amount yet remains to he accomplished in this respect hefore 

 the collection will attain its proper condition. A large number of 

 skulls have been cleaned and put in place ; nearly all the jars of 

 alcoholic specimens in the building, amounting to over 15,000, have 

 been washed and replaced with fresh spirits ; more than 1,000 gallons 

 of alcohol having been required for this purpose. 



Distribution of Collections. 



As the collections of the Smithsonian Institution become properly 

 indentified the duplicates are laid aside to be distributed to other 

 parties. It would, of course, be manifestly inexpedient to make such 

 distribution before determining the species accurately, as nearly all 

 are referred to in some official report or special monograph, and the 

 duplicates will be chiefly valuable as the types of such works. For 

 this reason not much has yet been done in the way of distribution to 

 public museums, although materials are constantly being furnished to 

 men of science for monographic investigations. 



Even after the species may have been determined some time must 

 elapse before any extensive systematic distribution of series can be 

 effected, as the labor of labelling each specimen, making duplicate 

 catalogues, and of packing, will be very great. No time will be lost, 

 however, in doing whatever is possible in the case, not only for the 

 purpose of supplying a great want, but also of relieving the shelves 

 and cases of the Institution of a redundancy of material. 



LIST OF DONATIONS DURING 1858. 



Dr. W. W. Anderson, U. S. A, — Birds of New Mexico. 



Samuel Arny. — Eeptiles from Kansas. 



Dr. W. O. Ayres. — Fishes from California. 



A. S. Babcock. — Eight skins of birds of Massachusetts. 



Wm. M. Baird. — Coal from Pittston, Pa. 



Thos. Barntt. — Cast of mastodon tusk (perfect) from St. Thomas, 

 Canada West. 



Sidney Barnet. — Box of minerals from Egypt. 



Dr. J. B. Barratt. — Skin of Pityophis melanoleucus from South 

 Carolina, and Lepidosternon fioridanum, in alcohol. 



Lieutenant Beale. — Four boxes of geological collections, with some 

 birds and alcoholic specimens. 



Thos. E. BlacJcney. — Mounted Grus americana from Illinois. 



W. P. Blake. — Zoological collections from New Mexico. 



W. G. Binney. — Series of land shells of United States. 



Captain A. H. Bowman, U. S. A. — Mammals and birds of New 

 Mexico. 



J. Brahely. — Jar of mammals from New Jersey. 



