ADVi'jrnsEMKX^r. 



The object of the GENERAL Ai'PENDlX 1o the Aiiiitiiil report of tlie 

 Sinitiisoiiiaii Institution is to tiniiisii l)iiet' accounts of scieutilicdiscov- 

 eiy iu partieulai' direetions; occasional reports of the investigations 

 niade by colhiborators of the Institution; memoirs of a i^'eix^'al cliarac- 

 ter or on S])ecial topics, wlietherorii^inal and prepared expressly for the 

 pur])Ose, or selected from foreign journals and proceedings; and briefly 

 hi jnesent (as fully as space will permit) such papers not published in 

 the Snuthsonian Contributions or in the Miscellaneous (-ollecticms as 

 may be sup|»ose(l to be of interest or value to the numerous correspond- 

 ents of the institution. 



It has been a pronunent object of the Board of Eegents of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, from a very early date, to enrich the annual report 

 re(|uired of them by law with memoirs illustrating the more remark- 

 able and important deyeh)pments in physical and biological discovery, 

 as well as showing the general character of the operations of the Insti- 

 tution; and this purpose has, during the greater part of its history, 

 been carried out largely by the i)ublication of such i)apers as would 

 l)ossessan interest to all attracted by scientitic progress. 



In 18S0, the Secretary, induced in i)art by the discontinuance of an 

 annual summary of jirogress which for thirty years previous had been 

 issued by well-known ])rivate publisliing firms, had prepared by com- 

 petent collaborators a serit's of abstracts, showing concisely the 

 prominent features of recent scientific progress in astronomy, geology, 

 meteorology, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoiilogy, and 

 anthro])ology. This latter ]»lan was continued, though not altogetlun- 

 satisfactorily, down io and including the year 1SS8. 



In the re])ort for 1889, a return was made to the earlier method of 

 ])resenting a miscellaneous selection of ])a])ers (sonu^ of them original) 

 embracing a ('onsiderable range of scientilic investigation aiul discus- 

 sion. This method has been continued in the ])resent repm-t, for 1802. 



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