1855.] SENATE— No. 96. 13 



The comparisons rendered necessary by the study of the 

 geographical distribution of animals, have led to a very careful 

 revision of the specific characters of a large number of speci- 

 mens, collected in distant localities, and has often ended in the 

 identification of animals from different regions supposed to be 

 distinct, as also in the separation of others supposed to be 

 identical. In order to record these results permanently in the 

 Museum, some of these specimens have been put up with provi- 

 sional names in the systematic collection, while the others are 

 displayed in the faunal collections. This work is regularly 

 credited to those who have performed it, as well upon the labels 

 of the specimens as upon the sheets of the catalogue. 



As this arrangement progresses, the limited dimensions of 

 our building become daily more felt. Piles of drawers full of 

 specimens properly mounted, carefully labelled, and ready for 

 exhibition, are accumulated in all the working rooms, to such 

 an extent that even the passage-ways are encumbered, and 

 until a new part of our building is put up, all these specimens 

 must remain shut and inaccessible to visitors as well as to 

 students ; except on rare occasions which may justify the labor 

 of removing entire tiers of drawers for the sake of fin ding- 

 some specimen wanted in a special investigation. However, 

 such is now the order introduced in the Museum, that tedious 

 and time absorbing as the search may be, there is no specimen 

 within our walls which cannot be reached with comparative 

 ease. Another difficulty arising from our limited space, is the 

 impossibility of exhibiting the general plan adopted for the 

 final arrangement of the collections in their mutual relations 

 to one another. It is apprehended that years may pass before 

 this part of our plan can fairly be developed. I regret the 

 more any delay in that respect, since I see that the directors of 

 other Museums begin to feel the imperfections of the present 

 arrangement of their collections, and are proposing as new, 

 schemes identical with those which for many years have been 

 in active operation with us. I would particularly refer to the 

 recent suggestions of Dr. J. E. Gray, published in a recent 

 number of the "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," the 

 burden of which coincides, though on a limited scale, with 

 what we have been doing upon a much more extended plan for 

 several years past. 



