REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 25 



terms of wave lengths. The excellent facilities of the Observatoiy 

 have enabled this to be done with such great accuracy as to give the 

 wave lengths of the lines discovered to an average accuracy of 3 parts 

 in 10,000. 



This brings up the analysis of the infra red solar spectrum to a point 

 closely corresponding with that reached by eye observations in the 

 visible spectrum prior to the use of photography and the concave 

 grating, and it is certainly calculated to excite a feeling of wonder to 

 know that it is possible to thus automatically obtain in the dark, by 

 means of the bolometer, results comparable in accuracy with those 

 reached by incomparably more pains through the eye itself. 



Personal investigation into the phenomena of the Welsbach mantle 

 had interested me in their purely scientific aspect, but the records of my 

 early prolonged investigation being unfortunatel}^ inaccessible, I have 

 asked Mr. Abbot, Aid Acting in Charge, to repeat these experiments 

 with the aid of the completer bolometric apparatus, more recently 

 acquired by the Observatory. He has done so with marked success, 

 and pending still further investigation attention is called to the inter- 

 esting curves reproduced in his detailed report. An interesting thing 

 in connection with these curves is that they show, as I have elsewhere 

 remarked, that all artificial lights, even the best, are extravagantly 

 wasteful of energy, in that they lavish it in the infra-red and not in 

 the visible spectrum. Nature here as elsewhere does what we can not, 

 for the glowworm and the firefly are still able to confine their exertions 

 to the production of light with comparativel}^ little heat, and to set us 

 an example which would add millions to the nation's wealth if we could 

 imitate it successfully on a commercial scale. 



I am gratified to say that the first extensive publication of the 

 Astrophysical Observatory is now in the hands of the Public Printer. 



NECROLOGY. 



JUSTIN SMITH MORRILL. 



Senator Justin Smith Morrill was born in Strafford, Vermont, April 

 14, 1810, and died in Washington City December 28, 1898. He was 

 appointed regent February 21, 1883, and reappointed March 23, 1885, 

 December 15, 1891, and March 15, 1897. 



The following most true as well as deeply felt tribute to the memory 

 of Senator Morrill was given by Mr. Henderson at the last meeting 

 of the Regents of the Institution : 



1 feel a personal loss in the death of Senator Morrill, whom I had 

 known somewhat intimately from 1862, and with whom I had been 

 associated, more or less, in public life when I was a young man. 



Mr. Chancellor, the deceased statesman, Mr. Morrill, is now per- 



