26 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OE WASHINGTON. 



tion and equipment of such a laboratory. In compliance with the contract 

 made in July, 1906, the laboratory was completed and ready for occupancy 

 within a year, so that the director and his staff were in possession of their 

 new quarters early in July of this year. At the present writing the equip- 

 ment of the laboratory is also nearly secured and installed. 



Attention is invited especially to a description, with appropriate illustra- 

 tions, of this laboratory, to be found in the report of Dr. Day on pp. 85-96 of 

 this volume. It may suffice here, therefore, to remark that the building is in 

 many respects no less novel than the work for which it is designed. Sub- 

 stantially tho economically built, nearly fire-proof, admirably situated as re- 

 gards isolation, elevation, light, and ventilation, it is worthy of inspection by 

 those interested in physical laboratories in general as well as by those inter- 

 ested in the special work to which this one is devoted. 



Naturally the time and energies of the staff of the laboratory have been 

 absorbed largely by the duties of construction, transfer, and installation of 

 equipment and by the attendant preparatory work. Several publications 

 from members of the laboratory staff have been issued, however, as ex- 

 plained in the director's report and as recorded on pp. 46-54. 



With many departments devoted to as many different fields of research 

 there must be of necessity a corresponding diversity of aims, methods, and 

 results. It is impossible, therefore, to measure ade- 

 Hist rf "*^°* h quately departmental activities by any common standard. 

 This diversity and this lack of common terms of compar- 

 ison are forcibly suggested in passing abruptly from the physical to the 

 historical sciences. But the work which the Department of Historical Re- 

 search has entered upon is not so remotely allied to the physical sciences as 

 might at first appear. It is, for example, in one respect, strikingly similar 

 to the work of the Department of Meridian Astrometry ; for while the latter 

 has for one of its main objects the construction of a catalog of the posi- 

 tions of the stars for the use of astronomers and navigators, the former has 

 for one of its main objects the construction of a comprehensive series of cata- 

 logs of historical documents for the use of historians and investigators in 

 American history. 



In addition to the line of v^'ork just named, the department serves also as 

 a sort of American clearing-house for the dissemination of historical data 

 and for the promotion of historical research. Thus the guides in preparation 

 to materials of American history found in the archives of Canada, Cuba, 

 Mexico, Spain, England, and other foreign countries, as v/ell as in the 

 United States, seem destined to prove of great aid to a wide circle of con- 

 temporary and future investigators in this field of history. A guide to 

 materials in Cuban archives, by Mr. Luis M. Perez, has been published 

 during the year; a similar guide to materials in Spanish archives, by Pro- 



