26 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



hopes that with some minor additions quarters may be found for fifteen or 

 more investigators every summer. During- the past season twelve associates, 

 one collector, and one artist illustrator, in addition to the Director, carrid on 

 work at the laboratory. Of the investigators, nine returned to continue work 

 begun in previous years, while two of the other three expect to return in 1911. 

 Many researches are in progress, therefore, as may be seen by reference to 

 the full reports of the Director and his associates in the current Year Book. 

 Of the publications of the department during the year, special attention 

 should be cald to the comprehensiv monograf in three quarto volumes by 

 Dr. Mayer, on "The Medusas of the World," issued as Publication No. 109 

 of the Institution. Two other volumes, Publications Nos. 132 and 133, con- 

 taining shorter papers from the Director and associates of the laboratory, 

 are now passing thru the press. 



Capital progress has been made during the year in the large and exacting 



undertaking which this department has so successfully started. Work at 



^ , , the observatory in Argentina has gone forward at an un- 



Dcpartmcnt of , 1 , • , , , r , 



Meridian precedentcd rate and with such a degree of thoroness and 



Astrometry. completeness as to give assurances that this part of the 

 enterprise will be completed within the next year. Great credit is properly 

 assignd by the Director to the zeal and the industry shown by the resident 

 staff of the observatory in thus completing, within so short a time and with- 

 out lowering the highest standards of precision, an tmparalleld amount of 

 observational work. The general success of this enterprise affords a for- 

 cible illustration of the superior effectiveness of a department of research 

 which may proceed with its work intensivly in accordance with carefully pre- 

 arranged plans and organization of effort. 



While the supplementary observations of the positions of the stars are 

 going forward in the southern hemisphere, arrangements for the final com- 

 putations of these positions are proceeding at the Dudley Observatory; for 

 the formidable task of observation must be followd by a still more formida- 

 ble task of computation. Preliminary to the grand catalog of stellar positions 

 projected by the department, there has been issued by the Institution during 

 the past year, as Publication No. 115, a catalog of 6188 stars for the epoch 

 1900. This has alredy assumd first rank among catalogs of precision and 

 the demand for it indicates that a second edition may be cald for before the 

 larger catalog is completed. In response to a demand from other astrono- 

 mers and in view of the needs of his own work, the Director has publisht 

 also, thru the Dudley Observatory, a "List of 1059 standard stars for 1910." 



