514 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PEOGEESS OF SCIENCE 



THE RESEARCH WORE OF THE 

 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



The seventh year book of the Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington, like 

 its predecessors, gives an interesting 

 account of the investigations carried 

 on last year. The work is now in the 

 main conducted by its departments; 

 only a few minor grants are made to 

 scientific men in other institutions, and 

 these are nearly all in continuation of 

 work begun when it was the policy to 

 distribute the larger part of the in- 

 come in special grants. 



The institution has now ten depart- 

 ments, or twelve, if the Index Mediciis 

 and the horticultural work of Mr. 

 Luther Burbank are included. Two of 

 the principal departments are in as- 

 tronomy, two in geophysics, three in 

 biology, one in physiology and two in 

 economics and history. The amount of 

 the grants for these departments last 

 year was: astronomy, $105,000; geo- 

 physics, $139,000; biology, $70,000; 



physiology, $35,000; economics and 

 history, $50,000. There was a special 

 grant of $50,000 for publications. 



In astronomy the institution con- 

 ducts the solar observatory on Mount 

 Wilson in California, under the direc- 

 torship of Dr. George E. Hale, and last 

 year established an observatory in 

 Argentina for meridian astrometry, 

 under Dr. Lewis Boss. The solar ob- 

 servatory has made notable progress 

 in its elaborate installations and has 

 carried forward research work in sev- 

 eral directions. The 60-inch reflecting 

 equatorial telescope has been mounted 

 in a new steel dome, and the tower 

 telescope and the horizontal telescope, 

 together with the spectroscopic labora- 

 tory in Pasadena, have been in use. 

 The most important work relates to 

 sun-spots and flocculi, giving new re- 

 sults in regard to the constitution and 

 rotation of the sun. The study of the 

 motion and structure of the stellar sys- 

 tem has been continued in the Dudley 



Steel Building and Dome foe the 60-inch Reflector. 



