6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 8 



the desirability of mountain sites for solar observatories. Dr. Abbot 

 made further progress in the development of devices for utilizing 

 solar radiation. The solar-radiation station on Mount St. Katherine 

 in Egypt was abandoned for several reasons in December 1937, and a 

 new station was located on Burro Mountain near Tyrone, N. Mex. It 

 is hoped to begin observations there by November 1938. Dr. Brian 

 O'Brien, aided by Smithsonian grants, has made further progress in 

 the development of methods and apparatus for measuring solar varia- 

 tion in the ultraviolet from sounding balloons, and he hopes soon 

 to be able to compare this method with the results of the Smithsonian 

 solar-constant observations. 



Division of Radiation and Organisms.— Many investigations relat- 

 ing to plant growth and radiation have been fruitfully pursued dur- 

 ing the year. An improved method has been developed for measur- 

 ing plant growth substances concerned in the bending of plants 

 toward the light. Several members of the staff have collaborated in 

 preparing a new automatic apparatus for measuring and recording 

 photosynthesis continuously, as well as an apparatus for the deter- 

 mination of chlorophyll. Preparations are under wav for the investi- 

 gation of photosynthesis in algae. Studies were continued of mixtures 

 of artificial lights suitable to promote satisfactory plant growth under 

 laboratory conditions. Dependence of the induction periods in the 

 photosynthesis of wheat on the length of previous dark exposures was 

 further investigated, and in addition important results were obtained 

 on the chlorophyll— C0 2 ratio during photosynthesis. Members of the 

 staff published five papers on the results of these and other investiga- 

 tions during the year. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT 



The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 

 1846 according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of 

 England, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States 

 of America "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of 

 knowledge among men." In receiving the property and accepting the 

 trust, Congress determined that the Federal Government was without 

 authority to administer the trust directly, and, therefore, constituted 

 an establishment'' whose statutory members are "the President, the 

 Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of the executive 

 departments." 



THE BOARD OF REGENTS 

 During the year the Board of Regents lost three of its members 



iJ t \ n T J ' Senat ° r J ° Seph T ' Robi *som of Arkansas, on July 

 14, 1937; Ambassador Robert W. Bingham, of Kentucky, on December 



