14 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



sounds. Doctor Scripture says the pr()])lem now before him is to 

 replace the material used in the artificial j>lottis he has constructed, by 

 a substance which can be more perfectly adapted to his purpose in some 

 essentials than any he has hitherto availed himself of. \Yhen this 

 object is attained, he expects to be able to construct an organ which 

 can sing- the vowels, or a vowel register which, attached to a pipe 

 organ, may be effectively used in church music. 



The memoir of Dr. Victor Schumann, of Leipzig, on the "Absorp- 

 tion and Emission of the Gases of Atmospheric Air in the Ultra- Violet 

 Spectrum/' mentioned in my last report as in course of publication, 

 has now 1)een issued in Volume XXIX of the Smithsonian Contribu- 

 tions to Knowledge, The special apparatus, devised and constructed 

 by the author, is shown by plates in the memoir, and the method of 

 using it described. Although Doctor Schumann considers this investi- 

 gation but preliminary to further research in this region of the spec- 

 trum, specialists recognize that a notable step in advance has been 

 made by the persevering and able work described in this memoir. 



Photographs of the apparatus used ))y Prof. William Hallock in his 

 Hodgkins research on the comi)osition of vowel sounds, together with 

 the curves drawn by the synthetic analyzer, have been submitted with 

 a detailed description of the same. Although unexpected difficulties 

 have been encountered in transferring the records to the magnetic 

 wire, the investigation is reported as i)rogrcssing, on the whole, satis- 

 factorily, and sound records, secured l)y means of the complicated and 

 ingenious apparatus made use of, are to be submitted. 



A memoir summarizing the research of Dr. M. ^X. Travers, "On 

 the Attainment of Very Low Temperatures," has now been issued as 

 No. 144:1 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. The investi- 

 gations of Doctor Travers, who has recently been appointed to the 

 chair of chemistry in University College, Bristol, P^ngland, which have 

 been temporarily suspended while awaiting the reconstruction of some 

 parts of the apparatus essential to the investigation, are soon to be 

 resumed, when further progress will be reported to the Institution. 



Dr. K. von Lendenfeld, of the University of Prague, who was aided 

 in 1 !><)<) l)y a grant from the Hodgkins fund for a study of the motion 

 of birds in actual free flight, has recently submitted a paper on the 

 structure of biid's wing feathers, written by Dr. E. Mascha, with 

 the aid and u?ider the supei-vision of Doctor von Lendenfeld. This 

 paper, which treats of the morphology and physiology of flight feath- 

 ers (/v'////V/'-^), studied microsco])ically, is of interest in connection with 

 the Hodgkins research of Doctor von Lendenfeld, which I have men- 

 tioned in former reports. 



The subscription of the Listitution to the Journal of Terrestrial 

 Magnetism and Atmosphei'ic Electricity has been again continued, the 

 copies thus secured being distributed, as l>efore, to domestic and for- 



