120 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



lets (2,336 pages and 274 plates), the National Museum 48 volumes and pamph- 

 lets (4,322 pages and 450 plates), and the Bureau of American Ethnology 3 pub- 

 lications (890 pages and 59 plates). The total number of copies of all these 

 series of publications distributed during the year was about 201,500 — an in- 

 crease of more than 50,000 over the preceding year. The annual report of 

 the American Historical Association and of the National Society of the Daugh- 

 ters of the American Revolution were also transmitted through the Institution 

 to Congress, as required by law. 



As usual these publications cover nearly every branch of natural and ap- 

 plied science. Among those of the Institution proper I may mention two 

 papers on aeronautics, one on wind tunnel experiments at the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, the other on the dynamical stability of aeroplanes, 

 both by Assistant Naval Constructor J. C. Hunsaker and associates: four 

 papers from the Astrophysical Observatory of the Institution dealing with the 

 instruments used and observations made by the observatory staff in the study 

 of solar radiation; three papers by your Secretary describing his researches 

 in Cambrian geology and paleontology ; two reprints of the Smithsonian Physi- 

 cal Tables, made necessary by the demand for this useful work; a paper bj* 

 Chester G. Gilbert, of the National Museum, on sources of nitrogen com 

 pounds in the United States, which attracted considerable attention; and the 

 usual semipopular account of the exploration and field work of the Institution 

 during the year, which was more extensive and more profusely illustrated than 

 ever before. 



Of special interest among the numerous Museum publications may be men- 

 tioned a complete descriptive catalogue, by Dr. G. P. Merrill, of the valuable 

 and extensive meteorite collection in the National Museum. 



The Smithsonian report again appeared earlier than ever before, the com- 

 plete volume for 1915 being i-eceived from the printer in June, 1916. The 

 change in the size of the edition from 7,000 to 10,000 copies has proved very 

 advantageous. 



Natwiml Museum (including National Gallery of Art). — In many 

 departments of the Museum extensive and valuable collections have 

 been acquired, though none of the additions calls for special men- 

 tion in this connection. 



It is, however, considered very important that attention be drawn 

 to the inadequacy of the present appropriations for carrying on the 

 technical and exhibition work of the Museum, and while this de- 

 ficiency applies in varying degree to all branches of the Museum, it 

 is now more especially felt in connection with the art-industrial col- 

 lections. The richest as a whole and the most varied of their kind 

 in the country, planned by the Board of Regents in 1846, though not 

 organized until 1881, and now filling the older Museum building as 

 well as the main and western halls of the Smithsonian building, 

 these collections are at present administered by so small a technical 

 staff that it is impossible to make creditable progress with their 

 classification and public installation, though it is through the devel- 

 opment of these branches that the Museum offers the greatest prac- 

 tical benefits to the public at large. The immediate increase in 

 funds required to attain this purpose is relatively inconsiderable, 



