REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 

 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



C. G. ABBOT 



FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1934 



To the Board oj Regents oj the Smithsonian Institution. 



Gentlemen: I have the honor to submit herewith my report show- 

 ing the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and 

 the Government bureaus under its administrative charge during the 

 fiscal year ended June 30, 1934. The first 10 pages contain a summary 

 account of the affairs of the Institution, and appendixes 1 to 10 give 

 more detailed reports of the operations of the National Museum, the 

 National Gallery of Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of Amer- 

 ican Ethnology, the International Exchanges, the N ational Zoological 

 Park, the Astrophysical Observatory, the Division of Radiation and 

 Organisms, the Smithsonian Library, and of the pubhcations issued 

 under the direction of the Institution. On page 70 is the financial 

 report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents. 



OUTSTANDING EVENTS 



Reduced income, both private and governmental, has greatly re- 

 stricted the scope and amount of the Institution's researches, explora- 

 tions, and pubhcations. Nevertheless, the year has been exception- 

 ally fruitful. Specimens of the rarest merit have been purchased for 

 the Freer collections. Fifteen papers were published descriptive of 

 new forms of marine life discovered by the first Johnson-Smithsonian 

 Deep-Sea Expedition to the Puerto Rican Deep in 1933. Very 

 significant progress is believed to have been made in the study of the 

 dependence of weather on the variation of the sun's heat. Indeed 

 the indications already furnished by many test forecasts seem almost 

 to verify the hope that Secretary Langley voiced 40 years ago, namely, 

 that the study of the sun will yield means of forecasting weather for 

 seasons and even years in advance. In the Division of Radiation and 

 Organisms very accurate data have been obtained showing the in- 

 fluence of wave lengths of radiation upon the absorption of carbon 

 dioxide by wheat plants and upon the bending of plants toward the 

 light. Interesting results have also been gained on the growing of 

 wheat to maturity in air containing enhanced amounts of carbon 

 dioxide. Several papers were completed on the action of radiation to 



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