REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1919. 17 



'face of Hippocrates' and yet painted and adorned to deceive the public and 

 to catch a last glimpse of admiration. How beautiful is everything! In the 

 distance, however, I see its doom, the fatal dam of Assouan, and I hear the 

 roaring of the floods passing through it. The rocky islands of Bigeh and 

 Konosso frame this picture, to the east a few verdant fields ashore and the 

 miserable little railway and steamer station Shellal. If it were not so very 

 lonely it would be more beautiful here. I am absolutely alone on the deserted 

 island. My servant uses every pretext to go to Assouan; he forgets things, I 

 fear, only to have another chance of crossing the Nile. The Nubian guard 

 of the Temple is rarely seen ; he mostly is over on Bigeh with his family, and 

 he rows over to Philae only when he sees a boat coming to the island. Thus 

 it is a perfect hermit Ufe I am leading now." 



Reports of Dr. Miiller's researches in Egypt have been given 

 in publication No. 53, volumes 1 and 2, while a third volume, 

 bearing the title 'The Two BiHngual Decrees of Philse," is now 

 nearly ready to issue. This latter was in press at the time 

 of his premature death. Fortunately for him and for this work 

 the sympathetic and critical aid of his friend and colleague, 

 Dr. H. F. Lutz, has been secured to complete this volume and to 

 add it to the enduring contributions the author had already 

 registered for himself in the world of scholarship. 



When the armistice was agreed to by the contending nations 

 in November 1918, the Institution had become more of an 



agency for the promotion of warfare than one 

 from wS! fo^ t^^ promotion of peaceful pursuits. About 



two-thirds of the staffs connected directly with 

 the Institution, or somewhat more than 200 men, were engaged 

 in war work, and about the same proportion appHes to the 

 Research Associates of the Institution and their collaborators. 

 Nearly every expert of the Institution was able to render assist- 

 ance and many of them devoted their entire time and energies 

 to Government work. Of the larger undertakings in this work, 

 the most conspicuous are the development to the point of quan- 

 tity production of the optical glass industry by the Geophysical 

 Laboratory; the manufacture of precision micrometers for the 

 U. S. Bureau of Standards and the manufacture of optical 

 adjuncts for artillery by the staff of the Mount Wilson Observa- 

 tory; the construction of special devices for the Navy in the 

 shops of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism; the con- 

 tributions of the Nutrition Laboratory to knowledge of the 

 effects of undernutrition; and the information service rendered 



