SECRETARY'S REPORT 11 



drop an atomic bomb in warfare; the Stinson SR-IOF airplane used 

 by All American Aviation in airmail pick-up service; the City oj 

 Washington, the Piper Super Cruiser flown around the world in 1947 

 by Clifford Evans, Jr. ; a collection of memorabilia relating to Amelia 

 Earhart; the original Whittle W-l-X turbojet engine; a bust of 

 Wilbur Wright by Oskar J. W. Hansen; and a large collection of 

 aeronautical memorabilia assembled by Mrs. ("Mother") C. A. 

 Tusch, of Berkeley, Calif. The 34 new accessions totaled 465 objects 

 from 31 different sources. Much of the material is being kept at the 

 Museum's storage facility maintained at Park Ridge, 111., until such 

 time as the projected National Air Museum building is provided. 



Canal Zone Biological Area. — Twenty-one scientists, representing a 

 variety of organizations and localities, visited Barro Colorado Island 

 during the year and worked at the laboratory on an equal variety of 

 research projects, and the contributions have added materially to our 

 knowledge of tropical life. High cost of transportation deters many 

 from visiting the island. Since the laboratory was started in 1923, 

 about 660 separate papers have appeared in print dealing with re- 

 searches made on the area. A recent checldist shows 173 species of 

 vertebrate animals (exclusive of birds) now inhabiting the island. 

 Improvements in facilities completed during the year included the 

 construction of an 11,720-gallon concrete water tank, which has im- 

 proved the water-supply situation at the station as well as fire pro- 

 tection. Some new building construction is under way. One of the 

 most urgent needs is a dependable electric-power supply. The 

 resident manager continued his long-term termite-resistance tests and 

 studies of host relationships of the fruit-fly population. 



PUBLICATIONS 



In carrying out the second of the two main functions of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, the diffusion of knowledge, as prescribed by its 

 founder, James Smithson, the Institution issues eight regular series 

 of publications and six others that appear less frequently. All these 

 series, embodying the results of researches of the Smithsonian staff 

 and collaborators, are distributed free to more than a thousand 

 libraries, both here and abroad, as well as to a large list of educational 

 and scientific organizations. The findings of Smithsonian scientists, 

 chiefly in the fields of anthroplogy, biology, geology, and astrophysics, 

 are therefore made readily available to all through this wide free 

 distribution. 



In all, 72 publications appeared under the Smithsonian imprint 

 during the year. Outstanding among these were T. E. Snyder's 

 "Catalog of the Termites of the W^orld," Gordon R. Willey's "Arche- 

 ology of the Florida Gulf Coast," the eighteenth part of A. C. Bent's 



