6 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1928 



discouraging. Nor is it very adequate even yet. However, I note 

 with satisfaction the following items of gain or promise. 



1. Gifts to the unrestricted endowment from donors mentioned last 



year and this (approximately) .$60,000 



2. Prospective bequests already disclosed (approximately) 700,000 



3. Annual income set free July 1, 1928, by Government assumption of 



certain overhead 25, 000 



4. Expected royalties from Smithsonian Scientific Series for the calen- 



dar year 1928 20,000 



5. Allotment f©r radiation research from the Research Coi"poration of 



New York 15, 000 



We hope to enlist the interest of other donors to build up the unre- 

 stricted endowment of the Smithsonian to such an extent as to yield 

 an assured annual income of not less than $500,000. 



While it has not been possible under existing financial circum- 

 stances to push strongly into the fields of research and publication 

 which I have indicated above, gratifying progress has been made 

 with the means we have. A fuller account of the researches will 

 appear from place to place below, but I note among indications of 

 progress the following : 



1. To make space for laboratories and offices associated with the 

 work proposed in radiation and its applications to plant growth and 

 human health, improvements planned to include an elevator, lighting, 

 heating, and finishing, at the estimated expense of $15,000, will make 

 available eight rooms, each of nearly 200 square feet, in the flag tower 

 of the Smithsonian Building, which hitherto, being inaccessible to 

 humans, has been occupied mainly by owls, bats, and pigeons. 



2. In cooperation with the New York Commission on Ventilation, 

 Mr. Aldrich, of the Astrophysical Observatory, has done a novel, 

 interesting, and successful research on the cooling of the human body 

 by radiation and convection. 



3. In cooperation with the Fixed Nitrogen Laboratory, research 

 has been started on relations of radiation to plant growth and on 

 the measurement of certain ultra-violet rays. 



4. Among 30 expeditions relating to the natural-history sciences, 

 and reported upon in later pages by the chiefs of the National 

 Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnology, and the Freer Gallery, 

 an important group relates to the archeology, the fauna, the flora, 

 and the paleontology of the West Indian Archipelago. This group 

 of islands, so near our continent, yet separated from it for several 

 geological epochs, is of interest as illustrating the cumulative influence 

 on life of moderate changes of environment continued over a long 

 period of time. Other newly worked and interesting fields of recent 

 Smithsonian exploration lie as far apart as Alaska, Mexico, South 



