18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1914. 
the discovery of argon, a new element in the atmosphere. Another 
prize of $1,000 for the best popular treatise on atmospheric air was 
awarded to Dr. Henry de Varigny, of Paris, from among 229 com- 
petitors in the United States, France, Germany, England, Scotland, 
Ireland, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Norway, Denmark, Fin- 
land, Bohemia, Bavaria, Servia, Switzerland, Spain, India, Canada, 
Mexico, and Argentina. Numerous investigations on the “ composi- 
tion of expired air and its effects upon animal life,” in “ atmospheric 
actinometry,” the “air of towns,’ “animal resistance to disease,” 
“experiments with ionized air,” “the ratio of specific heats,” and 
kindred topics have been carried on with the aid of grants from the 
Hodgkins fund. Researches have likewise been aided in connection 
with the temperature, pressure, radiation, and other features of the 
atmosphere at very high altitudes, extending during the past year 
to more than 45,000 feet, and many other lines of investigation 
have been carried on, through all of which it is believed that valuable 
knowledge has been acquired by which the welfare of man has been 
advanced. 
Under a grant from the Hodgkins fund Mr. A. K. Angstrém car- 
ried on some observations in California during the past year for the 
purpose of measuring nocturnal radiations at different altitudes rang- 
ing from below sea level to the summit of Mount Whitney, 4,420 
meters (14,502 feet). Some of the results attained by Mr. Angstrém 
and work in connection therewith are discussed by Dr. C. G. Abbot 
in his report as director of the Astrophysical Observatory. 
A grant was also made to Mr. Angstrém to enable him to measure 
the “nocturnal radiation ”’—that is, loss of heat to space during the 
total eclipse of the sun August 21, 1914, in the north of Sweden. 
In connection with the International Congress on Tuberculosis 
held in the National Museum in 1908 the Institution offered a Hodg- 
kins fund prize of $1,500 for the best treatise on “the relation of 
atmospheric air to tuberculosis.” About a hundred papers were 
submitted, and after an exhaustive examination by the advisory 
committee the award has now been made and the prize divided 
equally between Dr. Guy Hinsdale, of Hot Springs, Va., and Dr. 8. 
Adolphus Knopf, of New York, for their essays on the topic stated. 
Dr. Hinsdale’s essay was recently published at the expense of the 
Hodgkins fund, the public demand for the work requiring the print- 
ing of a second edition. In discussing the general treatment of the 
disease, the essayist has special reference to the effect of the atmos- 
pheric air and the value of various climates in relation to tubercu- 
losis. In conclusion the author says: 
We believe that climate may be utilized as an adjuvant of great value for 
carrying out the hygienic, dietetic treatment of all forms of tuberculosis and 
many other diseases. * “ “* The first place must be assigned to an abundance 
