6 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



In general our publications furnish that expression of activity which 

 can be defined most easily in the form of a report. 



A large number of our most important results go out to the public 

 through regularly established channels of publication, such as the 

 scientific journals and other periodical literature. Papers of this 

 nature written by members of the staff are handled in the same manner 

 as those of other investigators, but in a considerable number of cases, 

 especially those in which it is desired to use articles of exceptional 

 length or with unusually expensive illustrations, the Institution contrib- 

 utes toward publication costs. These papers are thus placed in the well- 

 known channels of publication without imdue expense to the journals 

 concerned. Through this medium members of the Institution have 

 presented in the past year approximately 3,300 pages, included in 350 

 articles occurring in about 90 publications, ranging over the whole 

 field of research from fundamental studies in physics to contributions 

 bearing upon problems of human heredity. 



As an illustration of the importance of this concise presentation of 

 the results of our work, the Geophysical Laboratory has issued in the 

 past year 46 articles covering 740 pages, distributed in 12 journals. 

 In this list, those of N. L. Bowen on the behavior of fragments of rock 

 included or enveloped in molten rocks, and papers by E. T. Allen on 

 chemical aspects of volcanic activity, are of special significance in 

 physics and geology. Within the same period Mount Wilson Obser- 

 vatory has issued 101 articles covering 665 pages, distributed in 10 

 journals and including a range of studies represented by such titles as 

 Dr. Hale's paper on ''Invisible Sunspots," in the Proceedings of the 

 National Academy of Sciences, his article on "The Depths of the 

 Universe," in Scribner's Magazine, a paper by Adams and Joy on a 

 method of deriving the distance of the A-type stars, A. S. King's 

 notes on electric-furnace experiments involving ionization phenomena, 

 and Michelson and Pease's " Measurement of the Diameter of a Orionis 

 by the Interferometer." 



The publication series handled directly by the Institution this year 

 comprises 24 volumes with a total of 6,605 pages. Most of these 

 contributions are monographic works. In some instances, as in vol- 

 umes of the Department of Embryology and the Department of Marine 

 Biology, groups of papers on related subjects have been issued under 

 the same cover. These volumes have been issued at a total expense of 

 approximately $95,000. 



While it is not possible to make reference here to all of the volumes 

 included in our own series this year, an understanding of the work of 

 the Institution is perhaps given more clearly by this means than by 



