REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1909. 53 



Exposition, illustrating- the history of ^photography from about 1824 

 to the present time. This required the making of numerous bromide 

 enlargements and photographs in color by the most recent methods. 

 Mr. Smillie also invented a process for producing by synthesis a white 

 coating on fossils and other like objects of ^Yhich it is desired to 

 photograph the form without regard to color. This process has been 

 patented in the interest of the Government and the public at large. 

 Mr. Smillie continues to act as the advisor of the Civil Service Com- 

 mission in all examinations in which the subject of photography is 

 involved. The routine work of the year consisted in making 791 

 negatives, 1,599 silver prints, 1,190 velox prints, 3,097 blueprints, 

 and 31 lantern slides. 



CONGRESSES AND MEETINGS. 



International Congress on Tuberculosis. — The new building for 

 the National Museum, although still in a very unfinished state, was 

 christened by the sixth gathering of this important congress, which 

 remained in session from September 21 to October 12, 1908. The 

 attendance was large and notable, and the proceedings were indicative 

 of the energetic fight which is being waged against the white plague. 

 The use of the building was secured for the purpose through a special 

 act of the United States Congress, which also appropriated sufficient 

 funds for the necessary preparations. The space occupied consisted 

 of the middle hall and both sets of ranges in the first and second 

 stories, a part of the basement, and one of the open courts. One-half 

 of the middle hall was set apart as a general assembly room, while 

 the remainder of the floor area was divided by wooden partitions into 

 apartments for sectional meetings and the exhibition of specimens. 



One of the important features of the congress was an exhibition 

 illustrating the spread of tuberculosis among the American Indians, 

 contributed by the Snjithsonian Institution in conjunction with the 

 Office of Indian Affairs. Of the appropriation of $25,000 for partici- 

 pation by the Government in the congress, $1,000 was allotted to the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, assistant curator of 

 physical anthropology in the National Museum, who had already 

 made a study of the subject, was detailed to conduct additional ob- 

 servations under the joint ausjjices of the Institution and the Office of 

 Indian Affairs. He was in the field from the beginning of July until 

 the 1st of September, 1908, accomjjanied by a bacteriologist, and 

 visited the Menominee, Sioux, Quinault, Hupa, and Mohave tribes. 

 In three of the tribes over 100 families were examined,. and in the case 

 of the Hupas every member of the tribe. The exhibit resulting from 

 this investigation comprised charts, maps, photographs, etc., covering 

 the screen walls of a space 18 by 40 feet square, to which were added 

 two lay-figure groups from the collection of the Museum, representing 



