26 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



competent investigators but also to mitigate the difficulties which beset the 

 administration of minor grants to miscellaneous applicants. The attention 

 of the Trustees is therefore especially invited to the aspects of this subject 

 explained in reference to his department by Dr. Mayer in his reports of the 

 past and preceding years. That the work of the department will prove 

 adequately productive in spite of the climatic obstacles in its way is suffi- 

 ciently indicated by the reports cited and by the accompanying bibliographic 

 lists. 



The same investigators engaged in research along three distinct lines in 

 this field under the auspices of the Institution during the preceding year have 

 _j , . continued their work during the past year. Thus Prof. 



F. G. Benedict has extended and perfected his experiments 

 with the respiration calorimeter at Wesleyan University ; Professors R. H. 

 Chittenden and h. B. Mendel have carried forward their fundamental inves- 

 tigations in physiological chemistry at Yale University, while Dr. T. B. 

 Osborne, of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station at New Haven, 

 has made excellent progress in his capital researches on the chemistry of 

 the vegetable proteid foodstuffs. 



All three of these lines of research are of great practical and theoretical 

 importance, whether considered independently or collectively. They are 

 closely related, however, and when considered as parts of a whole they give 

 promise not only of extensive additions to our knowledge of the physics and 

 chemistry of normal nutrition, but also of extensive additions to our knowl- 

 edge of the conditions of and the remedies for abnormal nutrition. All three 

 lines of work appear to me, therefore, well worthy of continuous support 

 for such periods of time as may be essential to secure the anticipated results. 



The branch of this work carried on by Professor Benedict calls for a special 

 equipment and for a laboratory of unusual character. It appears particu- 

 larly desirable, also, to apply the calorimetric method to pathological as 

 well as to normal subjects of investigation. Hence some additional recom- 

 mendations in reference to this work will be submitted to the Trustees for 

 consideration at their next meeting. 



In accordance with a recommendation of the Executive Committee the 



Trustees voted at their meeting of December 12, 1905, an appropriation of 



$200,000, to be distributed over a decade, for the purpose 

 Department of Me- ^ . ^ , . . . . r n 



ridian Astrometry. 0^ preparing a catalog giving precise positions of all 



stars from the brightest down to those of the seventh 

 magnitude, inclusive. One of the essential features of this work is the 

 establishment for a few years of a meridian observatory in the southern 

 hemisphere in order to supplement by additional observations existing data 

 for the positions of stars in that hemisphere. The execution of this enter- 

 prise has been intrusted to Prof. lycwis Boss, the director of the Dudley 



