CONTENTS 



Fase 



List of oflBcials ix 



Outstanding events 1 



Summary of the year's activities of the branches of the Institution 2 



The establishment 8 



The Board of Regents 8 



Finances 9 



Matters of general interest 9 



Smithsonian radio program 9 



Walter Rathbone Bacon scholarship 11 



Smithsonian main hall exhibit 12 



Tenth Arthur lecture 13 



Bequests 14 



Explorations and field work 15 



Publications 17 



Library 17 



Appendix 1. Report on the United States National Museum 19 



2. Report on the National Gallery of Art 34 



3. Report on the National Collection of Fine Arts 45 



4. Report on the Freer Gallery of Art 51 



5. Report on the Bureau of American Ethnology 56 



6. Report on the International Exchange Service 69 



7. Report on the National Zoological Park 78 



8. Report on the Astrophysical Observatory 108 



9. Report on the Division of Radiation and Organisms 111 



10. Report on the library 116 



11. Report on publications 123 



Report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents 130 



GENERAL APPENDIX 



What lies between the stars? by Walter S. Adams 141 



Artificial converters of solar energy, by H. C. Hottel 151 



The new frontiers in the atom, by Ernest O. Lawrence 163 



Science shaping American culture, by Arthur H. Compton 175 



Mathematics and the sciences, by J. W. Lasley, Jr 183 



The role of science in the electrical industry, by M. W. Smith 199 



The new synthetic textile fibers, by Herbert R. Mauersberger 211 



Plastics, by Gordon M. Kline 225 



Vitamins and their occurrence in foods, by Hazel E. Munsell 239 



Science and human prospects, by Eliot Blackwelder 267 



Iceland, land of frost and fire, by Vigfus Einarsson 285 



The genes and the hope of mankind, by Bruce Bliven 293 



Care of captive animals, by Ernest P. Walker 305 



The influence of insects on the development of forest protection and forest 



management, by F. C. Craighead 367 



Growth hormones in plants, by Kenneth V. Thimann 393 



Useful algae, by Florence Meier Chase 401 



V 



