2 AN-NUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 194 



Dr. Swanton. A bequest of approximately $130,000 came during the 

 year from the estate of Mrs. Eleanor E. Witherspoon, of Washington, 

 D. C. Two vacancies in the Board of Regents of the Institution were 

 filled by the appointment of Senator Bennett Champ Clark, of 

 Missouri, and Vannevar Bush, of Washington, D. C. 



The enormous task of revising all solar-constant results from all 

 observing stations from 1923 to the present was nearly completed at 

 the close of the year, and it is expected to publish the final values 

 during the coming year. The Division of Radiation and Organisms 

 carried forward valuable experiments in the fundamental phenom- 

 enon of photosynthesis. Working plans have been prepared for the 

 proposed Handbook of South American Indians to be published by 

 the Institution under the editorship of Dr. Julian H. Steward. 



Dr. W. M. Mann directed the Smithsonian-Firestone Expedition 

 to Liberia for the purpose of collecting live animals for the National 

 Zoological Park. Dr. Leonard P. Schultz accompanied the Navy 

 Surveying Expedition to the Phoenix and Samoan Islands, bringing 

 back 14,000 specimens of the fishes of that region. M. W. Stirling 

 made a second archeological expedition to southeastern Mexico in 

 cooperation with the National Geographic Society, uncovering many 

 additional stone monuments, including one with an initial series date 

 in the Maya calendar. 



SUMMARY OF THE YEAR'S ACTIVITIES OF THE BRANCHES OF THE 



INSTITUTION 



National Museum. — Appropriations for the maintenance and oper- 

 ation of the Museum for the 5'ear totaled $810,725, an increase of 

 $32,345 over those for the previous year. Additions to the col- 

 lections numbered 1,960 accessions, totaling 212,474 individual spec- 

 imens, bringing the number of catalog entries in all departments 

 to more than 17,000,000. Some of the outstanding accessions were : 

 In anthropology, Eskimo and other artifacts from Siberia and 

 northern Alaska, Bondu and Yoruba masks from West Africa and 

 Nigeria, and a cast of a Neanderthal child skull from Uzbekistan; 

 in biology, several varieties of seals from the Antarctic, collections of 

 birds from Veracruz and Indochina, Mexican reptiles and amphib- 

 ians collected by Dr. Hobart M. Smith, 14,000 fishes taken by Dr. 

 Leonard P. Schultz in the Phoenix and Samoan Islands, the E. D. 

 Ball collection of 75,000 specimens of Hemiptera, and 600 marine 

 invertebrates from southeast Greenland collected by the Bartlett 

 Greenland Expedition of 1939; in geology, a flawless aquamarine 

 crystal weighing 347 grams, a 128-carat emerald crystal from Bahia, 

 Brazil, and 495 Mexican minerals, a large collection of Paleozoic 

 fossils made by Drs. G. A. Cooper and Josiah Bridge in 1939, and 



