REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 



Miscellaneous Collections, Reports and publications not included in 

 the i"ej>ular series." 



In the publications of the Institution the double aim of its founder is 

 represented, in that it should exist both for the "increase''' and the 

 '"diffusion" of knowledge. 



The recording of results of original researches, the "increase" of 

 knowledge, is chiefly through the Contribution to Knowledge, a (|uarto 

 series begun in 1848, and in which 145 memoirs, collected in 83 vol- 

 umes, have so far been pul)lished. 



Three memoirs have been added to this series, one on the moon, one 

 on reflecting telescopes, and one on whalebone w^hales. 



The moon memoir, by Prof. N. S. Shaler, entitled "A Comparison 

 pf the Features of the Earth and Moon," is a work of 79 pages of text, 

 with 25 full page illustrations, each of them accompanied by a descrip- 

 tion of the principal objects shown. 



As stated in my last report, I have for more than twelve years past 

 been preparing the material for the publication of a work, on the part 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, which it w^as hoped would consist essen- 

 tially of photographic views of the moon, so complete and, it was 

 expected (with the advance of photography), so minute, that the fea- 

 tures of our satellite might be studied in them by the geologists and 

 the selenographer, nearly as well as by the astronomer at the telescope. 

 This hope has only been partially fulfllled, for photography, which 

 has made such eminent advances in the reproduction of nebuhe and 

 like celestial features, has indeed progressed in lunar work, but not to 

 the same extent as -in other fields. The expectation tliat such a com- 

 plete work could be advantageously published for this })urpose has, 

 then, been laid aside for the present. 



It was decided to draw from the material prepared for this larger 

 work, some photographs taken at the Lick 01)servatory and the 

 Paris Observator}", and particularly some recently obtained by Pro- 

 fessor Ritchey at the Yerkes Observatory, for which I luive to express 

 the thanks of the Institution. These illustrations ai-e attached to the 

 present paper by Professor Shaler, and may, th(Mi, be considered to be 

 a separate contribution by the Institution to the study of selenography. 



Professor Shaler's memoir gives the results of i)ersonal studies car- 

 ried on for a third of a century. He has devoted about one hundred 

 nights to telescopic study of the moon with the Mertz equatorial of 

 Harvard College Observatory, his later researches having been chiefly 

 b}^ means of photographs at Harvard University, with which he has so 

 long been connected. 



A memoir of 106 pages, with 13 full-page illustrations and many 

 text tigures, consists of a reprint of a work b}' Professor Draper on 



a Contributions to Knowledge, 3,148; Miscellaneous Collections, 7,819; Reports, 

 31,202; publications not in regular series, 3,536. 

 SM 1904 ^^ 



