SECRETARY'S REPORT 9 



LECTURES 



In 1931 the Institution received a bequest from James Arthur, of 

 New York City, a part. of the income from which was to be used for 

 an annual lecture on some aspect of the study of the sun. The twenty- 

 second Arthur lecture was delivered in the auditorium of the Natural 

 History Building on the evening of April 27, 1955, by Sir Harold 

 Spencer Jones, Astronomer Eoyal of Great Britain. This lecture, 

 on the subject "Solar Activity and Its Terrestrial Effects," will be 

 published in full in the general appendix of the Annual Report of 

 the Board of Eegents of the Smitlisonian Institution for 1955. 



Dr. Konrad Z. Lorenz, director of the Eesearch Institute for Com- 

 parative Ethology, Max-Planck Institute, Bulden, Westfalen, Ger- 

 many, delivered a lecture in the auditorium of the Freer Gallery of 

 Art on the evening of November 17, 1954, on "Evolution of Behavior 

 Patterns in Animals." This was one of a series of lectures that this 

 distinguished foreign scientist delivered in America that season. 



Dr. Sumner McKnight Crosby, professor of the history of art at 

 Yale University and curator of medieval art at the Yale Art Gallery, 

 lectured on "Excavations in the Abbey Church at St.-Denis" in the 

 Freer Gallery auditorium on the evening of February 3, 1955, under 

 the joint sponsorship of the Smithsonian Institution and the Ai'chae- 

 ological Institute of America. Dr. Crosby's lecture was accompanied 

 by a colorful film showing the church as it is today, the teclmique 

 of excavation, the reconstruction of the earlier buildings, and the 

 important results. 



AWARD OF LANGLEY MEDAL 



The Langley gold medal, established in 1908 in memory of the 

 late Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley "for specially meritorious 

 investigations in comiection with the science of aerodromics and its 

 application to aviation," was awarded by the Institution on April 

 14, 1955, to Dr. Jerome Clarke Hmisaker, chairman of the National 

 Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and professor emeritus of aero- 

 nautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

 Although Dr. Hunsaker is a member of the Smithsonian Board of 

 Regents, he did not know of the award until the presentation was 

 made, at a private recei3tion and dinner held in the great hall of the 

 Smithsonian Building, by the Honorable Earl Warren, Chief Justice 

 of the United States, acting in his capacity as Chancellor of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. The occasion also marked the fortieth anniver- 

 sary of the founding of the National Advisory Conunitteo for 

 Aeronautics. The citation accompanying the presentation reads as 

 follows : 



In recognition of your unique and superlatively important contributions to 

 aeronautics as a distinguished designer of aircraft, as the creator of a great 



