16 ANNUAL REPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



The original plans for tliis publication provided for a third part, covering the 

 experimental data obtained in tests of curved surfaces and propellers. Owing 

 to the pressure of other matters on the writer, the preparation of this third 

 part is not yet complete and is reserved for later publication. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. — In this series there were 

 published during the past year 35 papers forming parts of three 

 vohimes and covering a wide range of topics. I may mention the 

 Hamilton lecture by Dr. Simon Flexner on " Infection and Recovery 

 from Infection," three papers by your secretary on Cambrian Geology 

 and Paleontology, several papers descriptive of new genera and spe- 

 cies of birds, mammals, and other animals and plants from Smith- 

 sonian expeditions in the Panama Canal Zone, Africa, and Canada, 

 as enumerated in the editor's report on another page, and an inter- 

 esting paper on " The Natives of the Kharga Oasis, Egypt," by Dr. 

 Hrdlicka, who discusses the physical measurements and other obser- 

 vations made by him on these people dwelling in an oasis 130 miles 

 west of Luxor, the ancient Thebes. Dr. Hrdlicka says : 



The type of the Kharga natives is radically distinct from that of the negro. 

 It is, according to all indications, fundamentally the same as that of the non- 

 negroid Valley Egyptians. It is in all probability a composite of closely related 

 northeastern African and southwestern Asiatic, or " hamitic " and " Semitic " 

 ethnic elements, and is to be classed with these as part of the southern extension 

 of the Mediterranean subdivision of the white race. 



Judging from the mummies of the Oasis inhabitants from the second to fifth 

 centuries A. D., exhumed at El Baguat, the type of the present nonnegroid 

 Kharga natives is substantially the same as that of the population of the 

 Oasis during the first part of the Christian era. The nature of the population 

 of the Oasis in more ancient times can only be determined by skeletal material 

 from the ancient cemeteries. 



Smithsonian re^port. — The annual report for 1910, issued during 

 the past year, contained in the general appendix 34 interesting 

 papers of the usual high character, and of many of them it was neces- 

 sary to publish extra editions to meet the public demand. The re- 

 port for 1911 was all in type before the year closed, but unavoidable 

 delays prevented its publication. 



Zoological nomenclature. — In continuation of the series of Opin- 

 ions Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological 

 Nomenclature, there were published two pamphlets containing Opin- 

 ions 30 to 37 and 38 to 51. The Institution cooperates with this 

 commission by providing clerical assistance for its secretary in 

 Washington and in the publication of its Opinions. In connection 

 with the summary of each opinion there is printed a statement of 

 the case and the discussion thereon by members of the commission. 

 The rules to be followed in submitting cases for opinion^ as laid 

 down by the commission are as follows : 



i Cases should be forwarded to the secretary of the commission, Dr. Ch. Wardell Stiles, 

 U. S. Hygienic Laboratory, Washington, D. C. 



