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policy of the Smithsonian Institution as expressed by the founder. The duplicates hitherto distributed have been mainly derived from the collections of the Fish Commission, examined and described by Professors Verrill and Smith, of Yale College. These have been put up in sets, covering as far as possible, all the groups of marine invertebrates common to the New England coast, and have been especially adapted to the use of institutions of learning. Over two hundred such sets have already been distributed, and applications for others of the same kind are being constantly received. The researches now being carried on in this department have reference mainly to the identification of all the materials belonging to certain groups, from whatever source obtained; the collection of sea-urchins have, in this manner, been carefully examined during the past two years, and those of the starfishes and Ophiuranus are now underway. The duplicates selected in the future will, therefore, for the most part, represent limited groups, and the sets prepared for distribution will be of a special rather than a general nature, thereby possessing greater scientific value. 

It is unfortunate that more inducements cannot be offered to special workers in this department, for, as will be seen by the present and previous reports, but few researches have been conducted in the Museum, upon the general collection of marine invertebrates. It is, however, but, fair to regard the numerous investigators engaged by the Fish Commission in this line of work, as collaborators of the Museum, as their materials are turned over to its keeping, generally in the best of order, and requiring only the mechanical labor of cataloguing, the rebottling of some specimens, and the drying of others, to bring them into