4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1933 



appointed assistant director. During the year the following lines of 

 study have been pursued by the scientific staff of the division: The 

 growth of wheat under measured concentrations of water vapor and 

 carbonic acid with fixed temperature and illuminated by measured 

 quantities of light from helium discharge tubes; the improvement in 

 methods of producing substantially monochromatic light of any 

 desired wave length for use in plant growth experiments; the propa- 

 gation of unicellular algae under 12 difterent varieties of fight; the 

 growth of wheat under outdoor conditions Mdth different concentra- 

 tions of carbon dioxide; and investigations with the quartz and the 

 rock salt spectrographs of the absorption energy spectra of organic 

 substances including the extreme infrared spectrum. 



International Catalogue of Scientific Literature. — The work of the 

 United States Bureau in recording current scientific literature of 

 this country was continued, so that the necessary data may be avail- 

 able for indexing when it is found possible to resume pubfication of 

 the catalogue. Efforts to refinance the organization were unsuccess- 

 ful, and as Congress failed to provide funds for the continuation of 

 the United States Bureau, work was suspended at the close of the 

 fiscal year. It is hoped, however, that the enterprise may eventually 

 be resumed, as there is notlfing to take its place in providing not 

 only an index, but also a condensed digest, of the world's scientific 



Uterature. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 

 1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of England, 

 who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of America 

 "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, an estabUshment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

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

 Congress determined that the Federal Government was without 

 authority to administer the trust directly and, therefore, constituted 

 an "estabUshment" whose statutory members are "the President, 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 membersliip 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 of 

 Washington and the other four shall be inhabitants of some State, 

 but no two of them of the same State." One of the regents is elected 

 chancellor of the board. In the past the selection has fallen upon the 

 Vice President or the Chief Justice, and a suitable person is chosen 



