REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE CARNEGIE 

 INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



In conformity with Article IV of the By-laws of the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington, I have the honor to submit the following report on the work 

 of the Institution for the fiscal year ending October 31, 19 12, along with 

 recommendations of appropriations for the ensuing year and with sundry 

 suggestions concerning other matters of general or special interest. 



This report is the eleventh annual report of the Institution and is pre- 

 sented under the following principal heads : 



1. Work of administration. 



2. Resume of investigations of the year. 



3. Publications. * 



4. Recommendations of budget for 1913. 



ADMINISTRATION. 



That the progress of individuals is merged with and preserved in the 

 progress of the race is forcibly called to mind by the loss through death dur- 

 ing the past year of two associates eminent for their con- 

 eat osses o e (.j.j]^)^^jQj^g ^q mathematico-physical science, namely: Prof. 



Jules-Henri Poincare and Prof. Lewis Boss, Director of 

 our Department of Meridian Astrometry. Although death has thus far fallen 

 lightly on the scientific staff of the Institution as a whole, it has drawn 

 heavily from the ranks of those devoted to research in astronomy; for the 

 two associates just named and Prof. Simon Newcomb, whose death was re- 

 corded three years ago, were all preeminent for their fundamental researches 

 in astronomical science. 



Professor Poincare, whose death occurred July 17, 1912, at the early age 

 of 58 years, was one of the most profound and fertile investigators in the 

 history of science. Like his illustrious predecessors, Lagrange and Laplace, 

 the range of his researches included the entire domain of pure and applied 

 mathematics ; and contemporary progress in this domain is due largely to 

 his penetrating generalizations and to his concrete additions of new methods 

 and of new results. His association with the Institution arose in connection 

 with the publication of the Collected Mathematical Works of Dr. George W. 

 Hill (publication No. 9), in which he took a lively interest and for which 

 he contributed an introductory chapter of biography, analysis, and apprecia- 

 tion. His breadth of interest, his originality, and his surpassing clearness in 

 exposition, strikingly typical of his nationality, gave to his works an inspira- 

 tion for progress which is, and must long remain, peculiarly international. 



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