2 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 2 



Mathematical Tables — Hyperbolic Functions — were issued. A con- 

 siderable number of scientific expeditions were in the field from the 

 Institution, the National Museum, and the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology; these expeditions brought back valuable new informa- 

 tion and collections bearing on the Institution's researches. The 

 Director of the National Zoological Park headed an expedition to 

 British Guiana, returning with 317 live animals for the park. 

 Volume V of the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory appeared, 

 presenting the results of its researches on the sun for the past 10 

 years. New instruments for the solar work were devised, and in- 

 vestigations were made of periodicities in solar and terrestrial 

 phenomena. The Division of Radiation and Organisms, pursuing 

 its pioneering experiments in biophysics, measured the carbon- 

 dioxide assimilation of wheat for different light intensities, made 

 experiments on the lethal effects of the ultra-violet rays upon algae, 

 and a study of the effects of different wave-length distributions of 

 light on the growth of plants. The reduction in the Institution's 

 income, both private and governmental, has occasioned strict econ- 

 omy in all lines and the curtailment of some activities. Its funds 

 for publication have been cut nearly to one-half of last year's 

 amount, with the result that valuable manuscripts have had to be 

 refused or held up for a year and others have been cut to half their 

 normal size, as has been done, for instance, with this report. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 

 1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 

 land, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of 

 America " to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men." In receiving the property and accepting the 

 trust. Congress determined that the Federal Government was with- 

 out authority to administer the trust directly and, therefore, consti- 

 tuted an " establishment " whose statutory members are " the Presi- 

 dent, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of the 

 executive departments." 



THE BOARD OF REGENTS 



The affairs of the Institution are administered by a Board of 

 Regents whose membership consists of " the Vice President, the 

 Chief Justice, three Members of the Senate, and three Members of 

 the House of Representatives, together with six other persons other 

 than Members of Congress, two of whom shall be resident in the city 



