98 THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



The Kegents have usually been selected from among the most distin- 

 guished Members of Congress and the citizen Regents from among 

 the presidents of great universities or eminent public men. 



The Institution has had four Secretaries: Joseph Henry, 1846 to 

 1878, physicist and discoverer of the electro-magnet ; Spencer Fuller- 

 ton Baird, 1878 to 1887, naturalist and founder of the United States 

 Fish Commission; Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1887 to 1906, astron- 

 omer and astrophysicist and discoverer of the laws of mechanical 

 flight, which he successfully demonstrated; and Charles Doolittle 

 Walcott, elected 1907, paleontologist and geologist. 



The activities of the Institution fall under the following heads : 

 (1) The Institution proper; (2) the National Museum; (3) the Inter- 

 national Exchanges; (4) the Bureau of American Ethnology; (5) 

 the National Zoological Park; ((>) the Astrophysical Observatory. 



The Institution has aided numerous investigators with advice, 

 direction, and money, sui)plying books, apparatus, and laboratory 

 accommodations. It has also conducted series of public lectures, 

 which have afterwards been published. It undertook the collection 

 of meteorological data for weather forecasting and prepared the 

 first daily weather map ever issued in the world. Its Avork in this 

 field, after being brought beyond the experimental stage, was trans- 

 ferred to the Signal Service of the United States Army, and after- 

 Avards resulted in the establishment of the United States Weather 

 Bureau. It likcAvise undertook the initial investigations on the food- 

 fishes of the country, which resulted in the establishment of the 

 United States Fish Commission, now the Bureau of Fisheries. 



Publications of great value have been issued in the following 

 series : 



Annual reports^ 1846 to 1905, containing numerous papers of gen- 

 eral interest intended to keep the ordinary reader abreast of the 

 progress of science. 



Smitlisonian Contributions to Knoicledge^ of which 32 volumes 

 have appeared, the distinguishing feature of which is that each 

 memoir constitutes an original contribution to knowledge. 



Miscellaneous Collections^ of which 48 volumes have been printed. 

 These contain bibliographies, reports of expeditions, standard tables, 

 and minor scientific papers. Since 1902 some of the papers of this 

 series have been issued in the form of a scientific Quarterly. 



Under the Hodgkins foundation, a portion of which was intended 

 for the increase and dilfusion of knowledge in regard to atmospheric 

 air and its relation to the welfare of man, lunnerous investigations 

 have been undertaken and medals and prizes awarded, the most 

 notable being a prize of $10,000 to Lord Rayleigh and Sir William 

 Ramsay for their discovery of the element "Argon " in the 

 atmosphere. 



