REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39 



ASTRO-PHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 



I am gratified to state that tlie researches conducted here have cou- 

 tinued to fulfill the expectations held out iu previous reports. I believe 

 that the results attained may be stated to be the most important which 

 have ever been reached iu regard to that region of the spectrum of 

 which so little is known, and which includes the greater portion of all 

 those energies of the sun which, through its heat, affect climate and 

 the crops, and are thus related not only to questions of abstract interest 

 but to utilities of national importance. The interest aroused by these 

 researches among men of science has been very gratifying, and it is 

 hoped that it may be found that no money granted by the Government 

 for scientific investigation has been more profitably employed than this, 

 even iu the restricted j)oint of view of the merely utilitarian advantages 

 which may be hoped from it. 



For a more ijarticular account of these recent results I refer to the 

 report of the Observatory. 



Mr. R. C. Child was appointed aid in the Observatory on September 

 1, 1893, and Mr. F. E. Fowle, jr., as photographer, on June 1, 1894. 

 Mr. F. L. O. Wadsworth resigned the position of senior assistant :n 

 the Observatory on June 1, 1894. 



Respectfully submitted. 



S. P. Langley, 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



