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18

General Remarks

The curator deeply regrets that he has been unable to make greater progress toward the permanent opening up of the exhibition hall of this department to the general public, but a combination of circumstances has interfered with the proposed arrangements in that direction up to the present time. The want of proper storage and work rooms, to accomodate the immense stock of specimens with which this department is now entrusted, and which is being constantly added to, has necessitated the use of the exhibition hall for such purposes, and the care and presentation of the general collections require so much attention that it has been impossible to devote any time to the display series, which is still in the same condition it was when my last report was submitted. Admission to the hall is not refused, however, to any one specially interested in examining the specimens and during the summer months it will be temporarily opened to the public. The additional space afforded by the northwest gallery in the bird hall gives much relief, and, if proper cases are constructed, there will be no difficulty in making a suitable arrangement of the dried specimens, but the alcoholic materials are greatly in excess of the storage room allotted to them, and it this portion of the collection that is increasing most rapidly.

Except for the fact of this constant increase, the bulk of the collections could be rapidly and greatly decreased by the elimination of duplicates, but the latter cannot be selected out until all the