MEETING IN HONOR OF MADAME CURIE.

A meeting in honor of Madame Curie, the codiscoverer of radium, was held in the auditorium of the National Museum the evening of May 20, 1921, by the Madame Curie Committee of Washington. The address of welcome to Madame Curie was delivered by your secretary, honorary chairman of the committee, who said in part:

In your personality as a child of Poland and a citizen of France you recall to us the inspiration that has come to our national life from those lands and as a scientist the inspiration and courage that you have given to every research student in America. Your discovery of the two elements, polonium and radium, and the determination of their atomic weights and many of their properties, awards you a place in the foremost rank of the world's research workers, while your generous devotion to science and the application of your work to the alleviation of human suffering, asking for yourself only the privilege of continuing your work, place you among the great benefactors of mankind. Moreover, your work has another great underlying value. It has demonstrated to the public at large and to those who control Government expenditure for scientific research, the inevitable ultimate benefit to humanity of research in the domain of pure science, however distant it may seem in the beginning from useful application.

The meeting was also addressed by Miss Julia Lathrop, and a lecture on radium was given by Dr. R. A. Millikan, of the University of Chicago.

CINCHONA BOTANICAL STATION.

The lease of the Cinchona Botanical Station held by the Smithsonian Institution on behalf of several American botanical agencies, mentioned in previous reports, was terminated on June 30, 1921, as the colonial Government of Jamaica decided to retain the station for the use of British and Jamaican botanists. It is hoped that the Institute for Research in Tropical America, recently organized in this country, will soon be able to provide some station affording advantages similar to those of the Cinchona station for botanical research in the Tropics.

PUBLICATIONS.

There were issued during the year by the Smithsonian Institution and its branches 113 volumes and pamphlets. Of these publications there were distributed a total of 142,208 copies, including 255 volumes and separates of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 12,922 volumes and separates of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 24,423 volumes and separates of the Smithsonian annual reports, 89,000 volumes and separates of the publications of the National Museum, 12,795 publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 2,000 special publications, 14 volumes of the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory, 40 reports on the Harriman Alaska expedi

tion, 414 reports of the American Historical Association, and 345 publications presented to but not issued by the Smithsonian Institution.

The publications of the Institution and its branches are the principal means of carrying out one of its chief purposes, the "diffusion of knowledge." They cover practically every branch of science and are distributed to libraries, educational and scientific establishments, and interested individuals throughout the world. The annual report of the Institution contains a general appendix made up of articles reviewing in a semipopular style recent advances and interesting developments in all branches of science. These reports are printed in large editions, and the increasing demand for them indicates that there is a growing interest in scientific matters among the American people. The publications of the National Museum and the Bureau of American Ethnology are described in detail in the appendices devoted to those branches of the Institution.

Seven papers of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections were issued during the year, among which may be mentioned as of special interest a seventh revised edition of the Smithsonian Physical Tables, a comprehensive work for which there is great demand among industrial concerns, engineers, and educational institutions; the annual Smithsonian Exploration Pamphlet, which describes briefly the results of the Institution's explorations and field-work during the year and is profusely illustrated with interesting photographs taken by the explorers in various parts of the world; and a reprint of the Smithsonian Mathematical Tables, one of the Institution's series of tables which includes the Physical Tables mentioned above, the Meteorological Tables, and the Geographical Tables.

Allotments for printing.-The congressional allotments for the printing of the Smithsonian reports and the various publications of the branches of the Institution were practically used up at the close of the year. The allotments for the coming year ending June 30, 1922, are as follows:

For the Smithsonian Institution: For printing and binding the annual reports of the Board of Regents, with general appendices, the editions of which shall not exceed 10,000 copies, to be immediately available

For the annual reports of the National Museum, with general appendices, and for printing labels and blanks, and for the bulletins and proceedings of the National Museum, the editions of which shall not exceed 4,000 copies, and binding in half morocco or material not more expensive, scientific books and pamphlets presented to or acquired by the National Museum Library.

$20,000

37, 500

For the annual reports and bulletins of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and for miscellaneous printing and binding for the bureau 21,000 For the annual report of the National Gallery of Art and for printing catalogues, labels, and blanks....

1,000

7,000

For the annual report of the American Historical Association.... Committee on printing and publication.-The function of the Smithsonian advisory committee on printing and publication is to examine and make recommendations concerning all manuscripts offered for publication by the Institution or its branches. During the year eight meetings were held and 94 manuscripts were acted upon. The membership of the committee is as follows: Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, head curator of biology, National Museum, chairman; Dr. George P. Merrill, head curator of geology, National Museum; Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, chief, Bureau of American Ethnology; Mr. N. Hollister, superintendent, National Zoological Park; and Mr. W. P. True, editor of the Smithsonian Institution, secretary.

LIBRARY.

Accessions to the library of the Institution during the year numbered 11,948 volumes and pamphlets, of which 6,250 went to the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress; 938 to the Smithsonian office, Astrophysical Observatory, Freer Gallery of Art, and National Zoological Park libraries; and 4,760 to the National Museum library. Many of the packages of books and pamphlets received by the library through the International Exchange Service consisted of publications issued by several foreign countries during the years 1914 to 1920 which had been held awaiting normal transportation facilities. This unusual number of receipts necessitated more than twice the amount of cataloguing accomplished by the library staff during the previous year.

Among the many valuable accessions to the scientific library of the National Museum may be mentioned the entire geological library of the late Dr. Joseph P. Iddings, which forms the most important acquisition to the geological section of the library since the foundation of the department in 1880.

Two new branch libraries were created during the year, namely, the National Gallery of Art library and the Freer Gallery of Art library. The former is administered by the National Museum library, but the latter is a distinct unit consisting of publications needed for reference use in connection with the Freer art collections.

NATIONAL MUSEUM.

The past year was an unusually busy one for the National Museum. ? National Gallery of Art was separated from the Museum and a separate administrative unit under the Smithsonian Insti

tution; the Aircraft Building was opened to the public; and considerable additional work was entailed by the schemes for reclassification and reorganization of the Government departments, the putting into effect of the retirement system for civil employees, and the impending inauguration of the budget system for Government accounts. Other changes in the organization of the Museum besides the separation of the National Gallery of Art include the removal of the division of graphic arts from the department of anthropology to the department of arts and industries; the creation of the division of history, formerly under anthropology, as an independent division; the subdivision of the division of marine invertebrates; and the grouping of all strictly engineering units, including mineral and mechanical technology, under one curator. The Museum, as now organized, comprises an administrative office, 4 scientific and technical departments, and 1 independent division, with a total of 49 recognized subdivisions.

The total number of specimens acquired by the Museum during the year was 338,120. This new material is described somewhat in detail in the report of the administrative assistant in charge, appended hereto, so that it is necessary to mention here only a few of the most interesting accessions. In anthropology, a collection of rare Mission Indian baskets was received from Miss Ella F. Hubby, and Dr. W. L. Abbott contributed some very interesting stone fetishes and ancient pottery from Santo Domingo. An immense collection of skeletal material was received from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, which will double the value of the collections in the division of physical anthropology.

The most notable accession to the department of biology was the material collected in Australia by Mr. Charles M. Hoy through the generosity of Dr. W. L. Abbott. A great collection of Japanese mollusks was donated by Mr. Y. Hirase, of Japan, forming one of the most valuable accessions ever received by the division of mollusks. The geological accessions included a quantity of South American material comprising Bolivian tin and tungsten ores, rare copper minerals from Chile, and a representative series of ores from Argentina. An interesting exhibit of precious opal in the matrix, ranging in color from the "black" opal to the pale opalescent tints, was presented by the Rainbow Mining Co., of Nevada. An extensive series of igneous rocks from islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, collected by the late Dr. Joseph P. Iddings, was presented by his sister, Mrs. Francis D. Cleveland.

The division of textiles received specimens of the fabrics used in the construction of airplanes for military use, and many beautiful specimens of silks, fur fabrics, plushes, and velvets contributed by

American manufacturers to show the progress of textile industries in this country. The division of medicine acquired, among other valuable material, a series of the most frequently prescribed pharmaceutical preparations, arranged, according to their therapeutic action, into 26 groups. The collection of aeronautical material in the division of mechanical technology was enriched by the acquisition of the original hydroplane model devised by Mr. Edson F. Gallaudet. This model was constructed and experimented with in 1898, and is particularly interesting in that means for lateral control and wing warping were incorporated, but in practice were unsuccessful.

The Herbert Ward collection of African ethnologica was shipped from Paris on June 25, 1921, but was not received at the Museum until after the close of the fiscal year. This rare and valuable material includes 19 pieces of sculpture by Mr. Ward and about 2,600 specimens of the arms and implements of the Africans of the Congo. The usual large number of meetings and congresses were held in the auditorium of the Museum. Visitors to the Natural History Building during the year totaled 364,281 for week days and 103,018 for Sundays, and to the Arts and Industries Building 286,397. The publications issued during the year comprised the annual report, 8 bulletins, and 60 separate papers including 4 parts of bulletins, 5 parts of the Contributions from the National Herbarium, and 51 proceedings papers.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART.

An event of great importance in the development of Washington as an art center was the organization, at the beginning of the year, of the National Gallery of Art, previously a dependency of the United States National Museum, as a separate administrative unit under the Smithsonian Institution. This step, which was made possible through an appropriation contained in the sundry civil bill for the year 1921, will enable the institution to carry out the provisions of the act of establishment in which art was placed on an equal footing with science in the proposed development of the institution. The art feature has heretofore been held in abeyance through lack of funds and of proper means for administering the National Gallery. All that is now necessary for the full development of the Nation's art collections is a suitable building to house the treasures at present on hand and contributions that may confidently be expected in the future.

The first real impetus to the growth of the gallery was the bequest of a valuable collection of art works by Harriet Lane Johnston in 1906. Since that time the national collections have increased rapidly, chiefly through gifts and bequests of art works by patriotic