REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE CARNEGIE INSTI- 

 TUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



In conformity with Article IV, section 2, of the By-Laws of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, I have the honor to submit the 

 following report on the work of the Institution for the fiscal year 

 ending October 31, 1913, along with recommendations of appropria- 

 tions for the ensuing year and with sundry suggestions concerning 

 other matters of general or special interest. 



This report is the twelfth annual report of the Institution and 

 is presented under the following principal heads : 



1. Salient events of the year. 



2. Outline of researches of the year. 



3. Financial records. 



4. Publications. 



5. Proposals for budget for 1914 and other recommendations. 



SALIENT EVENTS OF THE YEAR. 



The history of an institution may be derived essentially from 

 the aggregate of the biographies of participating individuals; and 

 in proportion as the number of such individuals is 

 ecro ogy. j^j-gg ^j^g complexity of this aggregate presents diffi- 

 culties of interpretation and obstacles in the way of a just apprecia- 

 tion of even conspicuous merits. Thus it happens that the history of 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington is already a highly complex 

 affair, to which not less than two thousand individuals have con- 

 tributed directly, in one way or another, while the number of those 

 who have contributed indirectly must be at least ten times as great. 

 Among this considerable list of contributors to the development of 

 the Institution, death has fallen naturally most heavily on members 

 of the Board of Trustees, of whom thirteen from a total of thirty-nine 

 are to be numbered as deceased before the Institution has fully 

 emerged from the formative period of its existence. Twelve of these 

 colleagues died during the first decade of this period. Their names 

 make a roll of distinction quite irrespective of their connection with 

 the Institution. They need only to be designated alphabetically 

 to recall the services they rendered in the progress of our times: 

 Alexander Agassiz, Wilham E. Dodge, Daniel C. Oilman, John Hay, 

 Abram S. Hewitt, Ethan A. Hitchcock, Henry Hitchcock, William 



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