68 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1910. 



It is impossible to adequately describe the character and value 

 of the work done in photography. Its primary object is to produce 

 illustrations for the publications of the Museum, but in some subjects 

 photographic prints furnish the only means for making an intelli- 

 gible record of specimens in connection with the cataloguing and 

 descriptive notes. Photography has also to be extensively resorted 

 to for the reproduction of plans relating to structural features of 

 the buildings and of furniture. During the past year the work 

 accomplished may be briefly summed up as follows: The number of 

 negatives made was 1,136; of silver prints, 1,410; of velox prints, 

 905; of blue prints, 2,777; of lantern slides, 24; of bromide enlarge- 

 ments, 10; and of transparencies, 10. 



CONGRESSES AND MEETINGS. 



Geological Society of America. — At the twenty-second annual meet- 

 ing of this society, held in Boston, Massachusetts, from December 28 

 to ol, 1909, in connection witli the meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of vScience, the Museum was represented by 

 Dr. Ray 8. Bassler, curator of invertebrate paleontology. 



National Academy of Sciences. — For the public sessions of the 

 National Academy at its annual meeting in Washington from April 

 19 to 21, 1910, temporary arrangements were made in one of the 

 exhibition halls in the Museum building, accommodations for the 

 business meetings being furnished in the Smithsonian building. 



International Congress of Botany. — Mr. Frederick V. Coville, curator 

 of the division of plants, represented the Museum at the International 

 Congress of Botany, held in Brussels, Belgium, May 14 to 22, 1910. 



Seventeenth International Congress of Americanists. — At this con- 

 gress, held in Buenos Aires, Ai'gentina, May 16 to 20, 1910, Dr. Ales 

 Hrdlicka, curator of the division of physical anthropology, served as 

 a delegate on behalf of the Institution and Museum, and also of the 

 United States Government. 



Fifth International Congress on Ornithology. — Mr. William Dutcher, 

 of New York City, acted as the representative of the Government, the 

 Institution, and the Museum at this congress, held in Berlin, Ger- 

 many, May 30 to June 4, 1910. 



Eighth International Zoologicul ( 'ongress. — Dr. Charles WardcU 

 Stiles, of the Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service, Dr. William 

 K. Kellicott, of Goucher College, Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Herbert 

 Haviland Field, director of the Concilium Bibliographicum, Zurich, 

 Switzerland, and Mr. Austin H. Clark, of the Museum staff, have been 

 designated as delegates on the part of the Institution and Museum, 

 as well as of the United States Government, to the Eighth Inter- 

 national Zoological Congress, to be held in Gratz, Austria, August 

 15 to 20, 1910. 



