BEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15 



year, including a mass of correspondence with individuals and scien- 

 tific establishments throughout the world. It is becoming increas- 

 ingly difficult for the Institution with its extremely limited funds, 

 in the face of greatly increased costs in every phase of its activity, 

 to carry on effective work. However, in spite of the fact that the 

 Institution's endowed funds have never been materially increased, it 

 has been possible in some measure to advance knowledge and publish 

 the results of scientific work, as noted in the following report on the 

 year's activities. 



It is my sad duty to note here the death during the year of Mr. 

 Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, an irreparable loss to the art interests 

 of the country. As stated in previous reports, Mr. Freer presented 

 his unrivaled collections of American and oriental art to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in 1906, and provided $500,000 (later increased to 

 $1,000,000) for the erection of a suitable building to house the collec- 

 tion. This building is now practically completed and nearly ready 

 for the installation of the collections. That Mr. Freer did not live to 

 see the fulfillment of his splendid art gift to the Nation is greatly to 

 be regretted. An interesting article by Miss Katharine N. Rhoades 

 on the recent additions to the Freer Collections appeared in Art and 

 Archeology, October, 1919. 



In addition to allotments for the maintenance of the Smithsonian 

 solar observing station at Calama, Chile, several small grants for 

 original research have been made from the Hodgkins fund of the 

 Institution — one to Dr. L. G. Hoxton, professor of physics at the 

 Universit} r of Virginia, for research on the Joule-Thomson effect in 

 various gases ; another to Mr. Alexander TVetmore, of the Biological 

 Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, for carrying 

 on investigations of the body temperatures of birds; and a third to 

 the Austrian Meteorological Association for the purpose of aiding in 

 continuing the publication of the Meteorologische Zeitschrift and 

 for the support of the meteorological observatory on the Sonnblick. 

 Both of these were in danger of being discontinued on account of 

 lack of funds, and their cessation would have been a great loss to 

 meteorology. 



Working also under a grant from the Hodgkins fund. Prof. Robert 

 H. Goddard, of Clark College, continued his researches on a multiple- 

 charge rocket for reaching great altitudes mentioned in last year's 

 report. The early results of his experiments were published during 

 the year by the Institution under the title "A Method of Reaching 

 Extreme Altitudes," in which Prof. Goddard showed that it would 

 be perfectly possible by means of his new type of high-efficiency 

 rocket to send recording instruments to the hitherto unknown upper 

 layers of the atmosphere and to provide for their safe return, thus 



