REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1911. 65 



The auditorium in the new building of the Museum was used dur- 

 ing the year for three meetings and two lectures. The meetings 

 were those of the First American International Humane Conference, 

 which also occupied several of the side rooms of the adjacent main 

 hall with an interesting exhibition relating to the objects of the 

 Congress, from October 10 to 15, 1910; the Twenty-eighth Annual 

 ' Congress of the American Ornithologists' Union, from November 15 

 to 17, 1910; and the annual session of the National Academy of 

 Sciences, from April 18 to 20, 1911. Dr. Svante August Arrhenius, of 

 Sweden, director of the Physico-Chemical Department of the Nobel 

 Institute, delivered a lecture on "The Climate of Planets," on the 

 evening of March 25, 1911, under the auspices of The Washington 

 Academy of Sciences and The Philosophical Society of Washington ; 

 and Sir John Murray, of Edinburgh, Scotland, spoke on the subject 

 of " The Ocean," on the evening of April 18, under the auspices of 

 The Washington Academy of Sciences. 



ORGANIZATION AND STAFF. 



On June 1, 1911, Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, curator of reptiles and 

 batrachians, was appointed head curator of the department of 

 biology, in succession to Dr. Frederick W. True, who on that date 

 became assistant secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in charge 

 of library and exchanges. Doctor Stejneger will also continue in 

 direct charge of the division of reptiles and batrachians. Dr. A. D. 

 Hopkins and Mr. Frederick Knab, both of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology of the Department of Agriculture, were made custodians 

 in the division of insects, the former of the section of forest tree bee- 

 tles on July 1, 1910, the latter of the section of Culicidse on October 

 26, 1910. Dr. Philip E. Garrison, passed assistant surgeon, United 

 States Navy, was designated an assistant custodian of the section of 

 helminthological collections on November 1. Dr. E. O. Wooton 

 served for a short time during the autumn and winter as an assistant 

 curator in the division of plants, and Prof. Francis P. Daniels was 

 temporarily appointed to a corresponding position, beginning June 

 16, 1911. 



Dating from June 16 the organization of all the paleontological 

 collections and work was consolidated in one division, called the 

 division of paleontology, with Dr. R. S. Bassler as curator. The 

 three divisions of invertebrate paleontology, vertebrate paleontology, 

 and paleobotany will hereafter be known as sections. Mr. Chester G. 

 Gilbert was appointed assistant curator of the division of physical 

 and chemical geology on April 1, and Mr. Neil M. Judd, an aid in the 

 division of ethnology on June 20. 

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