REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 85 



William Hayes Ward, New York. Grant No. 131 . For a study of 

 the oriental art recorded on seats, etc. , from zvestern Asia. $1 ,500. 



Abstract of Report. — During the summer of 1904 Dr. Ward was 

 abroad, giving his entire time to work in the British Museum and 

 other Enghsh and Scotch collections of seal cylinders. He secured 

 a large number of casts and photographs. This supplemented the 

 work he had done during the previous summer in Paris and Berlin. 



Dr. Ward has now written nearly the whole of the analysis and 

 description of the seal cylinders of the early and middle Babylonian 

 empires, which covers more than half of the whole work. He has 

 already prepared some 220 pages for printing. These include 26 

 chapters, with a full bibliography of the subject, an introduction on 

 the origin, use, and materials of the cj^inders, and a classification 

 and explanation of the designs, with an identification of the gods 

 figured and emblems employed. This begins with the most archaic 

 period and carries on the development into the later conventional 

 forms. Besides this text thus carefully prepared, he has selected from 

 all published — and many unpublished — sources for these 26 chapters 

 375 cylinders, of which 320 have already been drawn. In addition 

 a number of chapters have been written but not yet revised and copied 

 for publication, and some 70 drawings have been made for other 

 chapters. It is believed that the work will be completed in 1905. 



ASTRONOMY. 



Lewis Boss, Dudley Observatory, Albany, N. Y. Grant No. 100. 

 For astronomical observations and computations. (First report is 

 in Year Book No. 2, p. xviii.) $5,000. 



The program outlined in the preceding annual report has been 

 followed, with some modifications of detail, throughout the year. 

 Work has been prosecuted in two lines : 



(i) In the section of observation, reductions of observations 

 already made for the new Albany Catalogue have been carried nearly 

 to the completion of the work. The observations for this catalogue 

 were made at Albany in the years 1896 to 1901. This catalogue will 

 contain about 10,000 stars, of which about 8,000 are in the zone 

 — 20° to — 37° of declination. Every star in that zone denoted by 

 reliable authority as brighter than magnitude 7.5 is included in the 

 program, together with many other stars that are fainter. This 

 catalogue can be made ready for publication very promptly at any 

 time when means for its publication may become available. 



