14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



One of the chief agencies of the Institution in promoting "the 

 diffusion of knowledge among men " is the publication and distribu- 

 tion throughout the world of the series of " Smithsonian Contribu- 

 tions to Knowledge," the " Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections,'' 

 and the Smithsonian Annual Report. These three series constitute 

 the publications of the Institution proper and, with the exception of 

 the annual report, are printed entirely at the expense of Smithsonian 

 funds. Other publications issued under the direction of the Insti- 

 tution, but at the expense of the Government, include the Proceedings, 

 Bulletin, and Annual Report of the United States National Museum ; 

 the Bulletin and Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnol- 

 ogy ; and the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory. 



The " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge " is a quarto series 

 begun in 1848, which now comprises 35 volumes of about 600 pages 

 each, including, up to the present time, 148 memoirs. The chief 

 characteristic of these memoirs is that they are discussions of exten- 

 sive original investigations, constituting important additions to 

 knowledge. 



The " Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections " is an octavo series 

 containing papers of varying length, from two or three pages to an 

 entire volmne, being special reports on particular subjects of bio- 

 logical or physical research, classified tabular compilations, tables of 

 natural constants, bibliographies, and other miscellaneous informa- 

 tion of value to the scientific worker or student. This series was 

 begun in 1862 and now numbers 60 volumes of about 800 pages each, 

 with an aggregate of several thousand articles. 



Limited editions of each memoir in the " Contributions " and of 

 articles in the " Collections " are distributed to specialists in the 

 subjects treated, but the principal distribution of these series during 

 the last 60 years has been to about 1,100 large libraries and institu- 

 tions of learning in the United States and throughout the world. 



The Annual Report of the Board of Regents, known as the Smith- 

 sonian Report, is printed under congressional appropriation and in 

 much larger editions than the other series. It is in great measure a 

 popular work, containing, besides the official report on the business 

 operations of the Institution, a general appendix made up of 30 or 

 more original or selected articles bearing on particular advances in 

 human knowledge and discoveries and showing the progress of 

 science in all its branches. It is a publication much sought after. 



Smithsonian C ontnhutions to Knowledge. — The Langley Memoir 

 on Mechanical Flight, which had been in preparation for several 

 years, was completed and published in August, 1911. It is a work 

 of 330 pages of text and 101 plates of illustrations. It is the third 

 memoir in volume 27 of the " Contributions," following Secretary 



