14 A"M"NrTTAT. REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



income from which should be used for an annual lecture on some 

 aspect of the study of the sun. 



The ninth Arthur lecture, "Solar Prominences in Motion," by Robert 

 R. McMath, Director of the McMath-Hulbert Observatory of the 

 University of Michigan, was given in the auditorium of the National 

 Museum on the evening of January 16, 1940. The lecture was illus- 

 trated with moving pictures of the sun. It will be published in full 

 with illustrations in the 1940 Smithsonian Report. 



The eight previous lectures in the series given under the Arthur 

 fund were as follows : 



1. The Composition of the Sun, by Henry Norris Russell, Professor of Astronomy 



at Princeton University. January 27, 1933. 



2. Gravitation in the Solar System, by Ernest William Brown, Professor of Math- 



ematics at Yale University. January 25, 1933. 



3. How the Sun "Warms the Earth, by Charles G. Abbot, Secretary of the Smith- 



sonian Institution. February 26, 1934. 



4. The Sun as a Typical Star, by Walter S. Adams, Director of the Mount Wilson 



Observatory. December 18, 1934. 



5. Sun Rays and Plant Life, by Earl S. Johnston, Assistant Director of the Divi- 



sion of Radiation and Organisms, Smithsonian Institution. February 25, 

 1936. 



6. Discoveries from Eclipse Expeditions, by Samuel Alfred Mitchell, Director of 



the Leander McCormick Observatory, University of Virginia. February 9, 

 1937. 



7. The Sun and the Atmosphere, by Harlan True Stetson, Research Associate, 



Massachusetts Institute of Technology. February 24, 1938. 



8. Sun Worship, by Herbert J. Spinden, Curator of American Indian Art and 



Primitive Cultures, Brooklyn Museums. February 21, 1939. 



WnHERSPOON BEQUEST 



In May 1940 the Institution received approximately $130,000, the 

 residuary estate of the late Eleanor E. Witherspoon, of Washington, 

 D. C. The paragraph in Mrs. Witherspoon's will relating to this be- 

 quest reads as follows : 



All the rest, residue and remainder of my estate, of every kind and description, 

 real and personal, wheresoever and howsoever situated, now possessed or that may 

 hereafter be acquired by me, including any lapsed or void legacy or devise, I give, 

 devise and bequeath absolutely and in fee simple, unto the Smithsonian Institution, 

 to be held by it as a fund to be known as the Thomas A. Witherspoon Memorial, 

 in memory of my late beloved husband, with full power in said Institution of 

 managing, controlling, investing and reinvesting the same, and sale of all or any 

 part of the corpus thereof, and of any investment or reinvestment thereof, and the 

 net income therefrom to be used for the advancement of human knowledge, 

 with the single exception that no part of the corpus of the trust fund created 

 in this Sixteenth Paragraph hereof or the income therefrom shall be used in 

 collecting birds and animals dead or alive or for purposes of vivisection. 



This generous bequest is a most welcome addition to the Institution's 

 resources for research, exploration, and publication, and the wishes of 

 the testatrix in respect to it will be scrupulously observed. 



