REPORT OP THE PRESIDENT, 1906. 21 



RESUME OF WORK OF THE YEAR. 



In my preceding report attention was called to the desirability of confer- 

 ring personally with all investigators at work under the auspices of the 



■D X tvT t f Institution and inspecting laboratories, observatories, and 



Kange of Work of ^, . 1 i- 1 .1 , . , 



the Institution. Other establishments where work is under way. Much 



progress in this regard has been made during the year, 

 altho much remains to be done. In the meantime the work of the Institu- 

 tion has undergone considerable expansion ; so that it may be stated that 

 we are now working in cooperation in one way or another with about one 

 hundred different institutions and establishments thru about four hundred 

 individuals. The range and ramifications of the work are thus very exten- 

 sive, making it difficult of comprehensive and summary explanation. Atten- 

 tion is therefore invited to the detailed reports of the heads of departments 

 of investigation and to the reports of individual investigators to be found on 

 pages 53-251. 



In conformity with the authorization of the Board of Trustees voted at 

 their meeting of December 12, 1905, a new department of work has been 



-,, , _, . added to the ten larger projects enumerated in my preced- 



T he Larger Projects. . ^ ^1 • t . 



mg report. This new department is occupied with meas- 

 urements of the positions and the motions of the so-called fixed stars, and 

 it contemplates, as one of the essential parts of its program, the temporary 

 establishment of an observatory in the southern hemisphere. Since the 

 work of this department is chiefly devoted to meridian measurements and 

 their applications, it may be conveniently designated as the Department of 

 Meridian Astrometry. This department has been placed in charge of Prof. 

 Lewis Boss, of the Dudley Observatory. 



In conformity with a like authorization of the Board of Trustees, the 

 work of the Desert Botanical Laboratory, which was previously conducted 

 by a non-resident advisory committee, has been enlarged and placed under 

 the charge of Dr. Daniel T. MacDougal as resident director. Since the 

 scope of the work is chiefly botanical in this department, it has been con- 

 veniently designated as the Department of Botanical Research. 



Applying departmental designations so far as practicable, the larger 

 projects now under way are enumerated alphabetically in the following 

 list, which gives also the names of the directors of the departments, or the 

 principal investigators, as the case may be, conducting the researches : 



Botanical Research : D. T. MacDougal, director. 

 Economics and Sociology : Carroll D. Wright, director. 

 Experimental Evolution : Charles B. Davenport, director. 

 Historical Research : J. F. Jameson, director. 

 Horticulture : Luther Burbank. 



