REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39 
The citations are secured by regularly going through all of the 
journals listed for examination, by a daily search through the publi- 
cations which are received by the Smithsonian Institution, and by 
examination of all available sources. Lists of all papers indexed are 
also from time to time submitted for revision directly to the authors 
whose names appear on the records. The authors are requested to 
send separates of their work for the use of the Catalogue, a practice 
which results incidentally in considerable accesisons to the library. 
It has been hoped that the material collected by the Bureau could 
be printed separately as a current classified index of American Scien- 
tific Literature, which would make it available for American men of 
science probably a year before the International Catalogue was pub- 
lished, but since the printing would have to be done at the expense of 
the fund of the Institution, it was decided after thorough considera- 
tion that the outlay could not at present be justified. 
NECROLOGY. 
During the year the Institution has suffered the loss of a Regent 
and of three able members of its staff. The Hon. R. R. Hitt, dis- 
tinguished for his services in the diplomatic corps and as a Member 
of Congress, where he ably served for many years as chairman of the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs, a man of cultivation and broadly 
interested in science and art, passed away on September 20, 1906. 
He was appointed a Regent on August 11, 1893, and served continu- 
ously until his death and acted since 1901 as a member of the execu- 
tive committee. In the Proceedings of the Board of Regents, printed 
in another place, there will be found an appropriate tribute to his 
memory by his colleagues. 
One of the oldest members of the administrative staff of the Institu- 
tion, William Jones Rhees, died March 18,1907. Mr. Rhees was born 
March 13, 1830. In 1852 he became chief clerk of the Institution, and 
in that capacity, and later as keeper of the archives, served it with a 
brief interruption until the time of his death. His knowledge of the 
affairs of the Institution was wide, and with him there passed away 
the principal human repository of its history, for he had been con- 
nected with it almost since its inception and had served during the 
greater part of the administrations of Secretaries Henry, Baird, and 
Langley.. He was a methodical man, and in addition to his adminis- 
trative labors issued publications valuable to the librarians of the 
country and others of importance on the history of the Institution 
and its founder. He was a public-spirited citizen, and his deep de- 
votion to the Institution is evidenced by a bequest from his modest 
estate. 
Albert S. Gatschet, a distinguished linguist and for many years 
connected with the Bureau of American Ethnology, died on March 
41780—08——7 
