2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 31 



reau of American Ethnology have been consolidated under one gen- 

 eral management and the offices brought closely together. Two ex- 

 ceptionally valuable publications, The Skeletal Remains of Early 

 Man, by A. Hrdlicka, and A History of Applied Entomology, by 

 L. O. Howard, were completed. A bequest netting approximately 

 $50,000 has been received from the estate of the late James Arthur. 

 Its income is to be used for promoting knowledge of the sun. A 

 friend of the Institution has announced to it a large intended bequest 

 to promote and reward original investigation. Numerous valuable re- 

 search and collecting expeditions by the National Museum, the Bu- 

 reau of American Ethnology, and the Zoological Park have returned 

 highly successful. Accounts of their results will be found below. A 

 gigantic dinosaur, Diplodocus longus, 75 feet long, whose skeleton 

 has been in preparation for several years, has been placed on exhi- 

 bition. Improved methods of solar-radiation research have been 

 perfected and applied in connection with the observing stations at 

 Table Mountain, Calif., and Mount Brukkaros, Southwest Africa, 

 Volume V of the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory, con- 

 taining all results of the years 1920 to 1930, inclusive, on the meas- 

 urement of solar radiation has been sent to press. The numerous 

 variations of the sun since the year 1920 are represented by monthly 

 mean values whose average probable error is less than 0.1 per cent. 

 Long-continuing regular periodicities in solar variation are demon- 

 strated. Highly accurate results on the spectral distribution of 

 phototropism in plants have been obtained by the Division of Radia- 

 tion and Organisms. By cooperative work with the Fixed Nitrogen 

 Research Laboratory, excellent results on the absorption of pure 

 organic chemicals in the infra-red spectrum have been reached, and 

 an independent method for determining the ozone content of the 

 earth's atmosphere has been worked out and applied at Table Moun- 

 tain, Calif. 



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 Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment 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 con- 

 stituted an " establishment " whose statutory members are " the Presi- 

 dent, the Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of the 

 executive departments." 



