30 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



A report on work for the year up to August 15, 1908, was rendered by 

 the Director of the Department of Meridian Astrometry just before he 



Department of sailed from New York for Argentina, for the purpose of 



Meridian estabhshing a temporary observatory in that country. 



Astrometry. Later advices bring an account of the proceedings of 



his department substantially down to date, and his report in this volume, on 



pages 139-145, will be found to include the entire fiscal year. 



With headquarters at the Dudley Observatory, Albany, New York, the 

 department has been occupied with the completion of a preliminary catalog 

 of standard star positions and with preparations for the establishment, in 

 accordance with plans outlined in previous reports, of a temporary ob- 

 servatory in the southern hemisphere. 



The preliminary catalog just referred to has been completed and the 

 manuscript is now in hand for printing. It gives the positions of 6,188 

 stars with a degree of precision hitherto unequaled in this branch of astron- 

 omy. The precision of these positions is, indeed, so great as to indicate 

 important corrections to other astronomical data and to disclose remarkable 

 common proper motions in certain groups of widely separated stars. 



The observatory in the southern hemisphere will be located at San Luis, 

 Argentina, in latitude about 33.3° south, in longitude about 16.5° west of 

 Greenwich, and at an altitude of about 2,500 feet above sea-level. The 

 meridian instrument of the Dudley Observatory, whose constants have been 

 thoroly investigated, will be transferred to San Luis and used in secur- 

 ing the desired measurements of the positions of stars in both hemispheres. 

 Several members of the staff of the Dudley Observatory will be transferred 

 also to the temporary observatory, so that the observations and computations 

 may be carried on expeditiously and simultaneously. 



The department has been especially fortunate in securing the services of 

 Professor R. H. Tucker, of the Lick Observatory, to take charge, as resi- 

 dent astronomer, of this arduous enterprise, which will require three to five 

 years for its completion. The work of observing and computation is ex- 

 pected to be well under way early in the next calendar year. 



It is a source of pleasure to acknov.'Iedge the cordial assistance uniformly 

 rendered to the department by representatives of the Argentine Republic. 

 Thru their good offices the expedition to their country assumes an interna- 

 tional interest peculiarly appropriate to the science of sidereal astronomy. 



The attention of the staff of the Nutrition Laboratory has been restricted 

 during the year chiefly to the work of construction and equipment of this 

 unusual establishment. Begun in July, 1907, the building 

 Laboratory. '^'^^ SO far advanced that members of the staff' were per- 

 mitted to take possession in the following January. Con- 

 struction and installation of equipment proceeded rapidly, considering the 

 quantity and special designs of the apparatus required. Most of the latter 



