NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 
561 
1893 .] 
his work in remounting the ornithological collection, has prepared 
and mounted upwards of 50 birds, mammals and osteological speci¬ 
mens received during the year, thereby adding greatly to the value 
of these departments. 
Several hundred jars of reptiles and fishes which had been stored 
in the cellar have been examined, relabeled and placed in their 
proper places in the museum, and a number of osteological speci¬ 
mens which had been removed from their cases have been restored 
to the museum. 
The greater part of the Pennsylvania State Geological Survey col¬ 
lection, which has been stored away in boxes ever since its presenta¬ 
tion to the Academy, has been unpacked and placed in drawers in the 
new cases which were procured for the connecting museum over the 
lecture hall. For the present these specimens have been arranged 
according to the State Survey list. 
This work is of great importance as it renders this valuable col¬ 
lection, which it has hitherto been impossible to consult, readily 
accessible to the student. 
Early in the year a series of uniform catalogues were procured by 
the Curators and the attempt made to form a systematic catalogue of 
all the departments of the museum, something that has hitherto only 
been attempted in one or two branches. The work entailed in an 
undertaking of this kind is enormous, and it will be several years at 
least before it will be possible to bring it to completion. 
Throughout the past year, however, all the accessions except in a 
few special collections have been systematically numbered and cata¬ 
logued so that the preservation of the data relating to them will be 
ensured even though the labels become misplaced or lost. Apart 
from cataloguing the accessions, the wark in this direction has mainly 
been that of verifying and copying such old catalogues as were in 
existence. 
In copying the catalogues of the mammalia it was found necessary 
to renumber the entire series of osteological specimens in order to 
bring them into sequence with the mounted specimens and skins. 
Heretofore they were numbered in different series, which caused 
much confusion. At the same time all the separate bones of the dis¬ 
articulated skeletons were numbered so as to prevent their becoming 
mixed and their identity lost. The importance of this work can 
readily be appreciated. 
