REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1913. 15 



given in the President's reports may not be mistaken for adequate 

 accounts of current progress or for sufficient recognition of the merits 

 of the researches referred to. 



In accordance with the views just set forth it seems appropriate 

 at this time to hmit still more narrowly than hitherto the brief 



Departments of Summaries of departmental work and to invite atten- 

 Research. ^jqj^ ^iw\ more directly to the departmental reports 

 published in the Year Book. All of the departments of research of 

 the Institution hitherto reported upon are now well-defined organi- 

 zations, each of them independent of and more or less isolated from 

 the others, and each of them devoted to a field which, while in 

 some cases related to, does not encroach upon, the fields of others. 

 Each of them possesses thus a degree of autonomy which calls for a 

 corresponding degree of freedom in the rendition of annual reports 

 and accounts of progress. But along with this autonomy, indis- 

 pensable to the highest efficiency in such organizations, it is equally 

 essential that there should coexist a fraternity of interest and a soli- 

 darity of purpose centering in the Institution as a whole. First 

 steps toward development of these latter desiderata were taken in 

 December, 1909, on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Board 

 of Trustees, when the Administration Building was dedicated and 

 when the directors of departments of research were invited to give 

 exhibits of the salient features of their work up to that time. On 

 the same occasion two related experiments were inaugurated, namely, 

 that of a lecture to the Trustees and their guests from the head of 

 a department of research, and that of a conference between the 

 directors of departments and the President. The results of these 

 experiments have been so favorable that the plan of having an 

 annual lecture, an annual conference, and exhibits of departmental 

 work at intervals of three to five years, has come to be adopted by 

 common consent. In addition to the exhibit held in December, 1909, 

 another was held in December, 1911, on the occasion of the tenth 

 anniversary of the foundation of the Institution. 



By reason of the decision of the Board of Trustees a year ago to 

 take part in the Panama-Pacific Exposition, to begin in San Fran- 

 cisco in February, 1915, it is proposed to hold the next departmental 

 exhibit in the Administration Building at the time of the meeting 

 of the Board of Trustees in December, 1914. It will thus be prac- 

 ticable to bring together an aggregate from which (by aid of counsel 

 from departmental representatives) a more restricted exhibit may 

 be drawn for the Panama-Pacific Exposition. On account of this cir- 



