REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 



should approximate in size one two- millionth of the lunar diameter; 

 but while photographs have been made on this scale, I do not think 

 that any of them show detail which may not be given on a smaller one. 



I have been favored with the cooperation and interest in this work 

 of the directors of the Harvard College Observatory, of the Lick 

 Observatory, and others, who in response to a letter addressed to them 

 on February 10, 1893, have obliged me with many valuable sugges- 

 tions. This important work is still under advisement. 



Delegates to universities and learned societies. — The Smithsonian 

 Institution is not infrequently invited to send representatives to special 

 celebrations instituted by learned societies or universities with which it 

 is in correspondence both in this country and abroad. Whenever 

 practicable, special delegates have been designated by the Secretary to 

 represent the Institution on such occasions. 



Dr. James C. Welling, president of the Columbian University and 

 Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, who was proceeding abroad as 

 a Commissioner of the United States to the Exposition at Madrid in 

 1892, was appointed delegate of the Smithsonian Institution to the 

 Tercentenary celebration of the founding of Trinity College of the Uni- 

 versity of Dublin, which took place on July 5-8, 1892. 



Dr. George Vasey, botanist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 

 and honorary curator of the department of botany in the U. S. 

 National IMuseum, represented the Smithsonian Institution and the 

 National Museum at the Botanical Congress, Geneva, on the occasion 

 of the Columbian festivities, from the 4th to the 12th of September, 1892. 



At the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 

 founding of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, from 

 May 22 to May 26, 1893, the Smithsonian Institution was represented 

 by Prof. William C. Winlock. Assistant in charge of ofl&ce; Dr. Goode, 

 the Assistant Secretary, having been unable to attend. 



Assignment of Booms. — A room is still reserved in the basement for 

 the use of the officers of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for i^en- 

 dulum experiments. 



The American Historical Association. — The annual report of the 

 American Historical Association was on February 27, 1893, communi- 

 cated to Congress in accordance with the act approved January 4, 1889, 

 and the usual public document number of 1,900 copies was ordered 

 printed. 



Stereotype plates and cuts. — The collection of stereotype plates of the 

 Smithsonian and Museum, and of engravers' wood cuts and process 

 plates is now so large that its proper cataloguing and storage has 

 called for serious attention. It has always been the policy of the 

 Institution to permit the use of these plates by publishers under reason- 

 able conditions, and the requests for electrotype copies o' cuts have 

 grown more numerous. The original cuts are placed in the hands of 

 SM 93 2 



