REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15 
James Smithson. He successfully completed the legal steps neces- 
sary to establish the claim of the United States in the English courts, 
and in August, 1838, arrived in New York with half a million dollars 
in gold sovereigns which were formally transferred to the Treasurer 
of the United States. Mr. Rush later rendered important service in 
the organization of the Institution and was one of its first Regents, 
serving on the Board from 1846 until his death in 1859. 
The continued demand for the Smithsonian Physical Tables, pre- 
pared by the late Prof. Thomas Gray, necessitated the reprinting of 
a fourth edition from the stereotype plates. A thorough revision 
of these Tables is in preparation to bring the work within the range 
of the important advance made in the science of physics during the 
last decade. 
The volume of “Smithsonian Mathematical Tables: Hyperbolic 
Functions,” prepared by Dr. George F. Becker and Mr. C. E. Van 
Orstrand, which was in press at the close of the last fiscal year, has 
been completed as a “ special publication.” 
Three papers descriptive of my researches in Cambrian Geology 
and Paleontology have been added to those mentioned in my last 
report. These are: No. 3, Cambrian Brachiopoda: Description of 
New Genera and Species; No. 4, Classification and Terminology of 
the Cambrian Brachiopoda; and No. 5, Cambrian Sections of the 
Cordilleran Area. The last-named paper is accompanied by a num- 
ber of illustrations of various parts of the Rocky Mountains showing 
the Cambrian Cordilleran sections which had been examined to a 
total thickness of more than 12,000 feet. 
Among the works in press at the close of the year was a paper on 
“Landmarks of Botanical History,” by Dr. Edward L. Greene, and 
a work on the “ Mechanics of the Earth’s Atmosphere,” comprising a 
selection of important French and German papers translated and 
edited by Prof. Cleveland Abbe. 
There was practically completed, ready for press, at the ciose of 
the year a Bibliography of Aeronautics containing references to 
about 13,500 books and papers on that subject, dating from the earli- 
est days of printing down to the publications of the present year. 
The greater part of the Annual Report for 1908 was in type at 
the close of the year, but press work could not be completed. The 
volume contains 27 papers showing progress made in astronomy, 
physics, biology, geology, and other branches of knowledge. 
To meet the demand for copies of papers by Secretary Langley on 
aerial navigation, there was reprinted a special edition, under one 
cover, of four articles that had appeared in the Smithsonian Reports 
from 1897 to 1904, as follows: “ Story of experiments in mechanical 
flight ” (1897); “The Langley aerodrome” (1900); “The greatest 
flying creature ” (1901) ; and “ Experiments with the Langley aero- 
