100 REPORT ON NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1885. 



THE PLAN OF ORGANIZATION. 



Like other departments of the Museum, this has a threefold function 

 to perform. It must keep, as far as possible, a perpetual record of past 

 researches; it must furnish material for future investigations; it must 

 instruct and interest the public. 



To meet all these ends perfectly with the present material and facili- 

 ties is obviously impossible. Under existing circumstances only a few 

 limited lines of work can be followed out. The material at command 

 consists of skulls and skeletons of vertebrates, entire specimens of ver- 

 tebrates and invertebrates in alcohol, a few embryos, a few tanks of 

 viscera, also in alcohol. 



Injections and dissections of soft parts, ernbryological and anatom- 

 ical casts there are none, nor are there the means of obtaining them. It 

 is evident, therefore, that for the present the department must practi- 

 cally be one of comparative osteology, rather than of comparative anat- 

 omy. 



The reserve and duplicate series will not be differently administered 

 from those of other departments. The exhibition collection will be di- 

 vided into several distinct series : 



First, a series representing the varieties of structure of bone. 



Second, a series representing the comparative morphology of the 

 skull, limbs, and other parts of the skeleton. 



Third, a series of mounted skeletons representing the orders of ver- 

 tebrates. 



Fourth, a series of mounted skeletons representing by families, gen- 

 era, or perhaps even species, the vertebrate fauna of North America. 



To these it is proposed to add: 



Fifth, a series representing the races of domestic animals. 



To the building up of these series and to the care of the reserve col- 

 lection the time of the curator and assistants has been devoted during 

 the past half year. 



Early in the year exhibition cases were placed in the range, and 

 nuclei for all the above-mentioned series have been formed. 



On June 30, the following number of specimens were on exhibition : 



Class. 



Skeletons. 



Skulls. 





127 

 10 

 16 



50 



Birds 



1 













Total 



153 



51 







The morphological and histological series included 43 pieces. 



This comparatively small number of specimens did not, of course, oc- 

 cupy but a few of the exhibition cases in the hall. On the other hand the 

 storage cases were full of material belonging to the reserve series, or 

 belonging to the exhibition series, but not ready to be displayed. 



