14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
during the year which were devoted mainly to advancing the acquisi- 
tion of a building site and a suitable museum building in the Wash- 
ington area. The Museum expects during the coming year to sub- 
mit to Congress a report regarding sites and a building, the prelim- 
inary study of which has been prepared in cooperation with the Public 
Buildings Administration. Among outstanding accessions of the 
year were the Swoose, the historic B~17—D bomber that served through- 
out World War II from Bataan to the defeat of Japan, presented by 
the city of Los Angeles; Maj. Alford Williams’ renowned Gulfhawk-2 
presented by the Gulf Oil Co.; a Japanese Baka Bomb, or “suicide 
plane,” transferred by the Department of the Navy; and 10 scale 
models of recent types of Naval aircraft received from the manufac- 
turers who produced the original planes. New accessions totaled 
122 objects from 40 different sources. 
Canal Zone Biological Area.—A new building for woodworking and 
carpenter shops and for living quarters for the warden-caretaker was 
completed during the year, the old quarters being converted into a 
two-room laboratory unit. Work on the new 14,000-gallon water 
tank was halted by heavy rains but can be completed with 2 or 3 
weeks of dry weather. The most urgent needs are the fireproofing of 
existing buildings and the construction of a new six-room laboratory 
and storage building. Twenty-nine scientists representing many 
different organizations worked at the laboratory during the year, and 
their contributions have added materially to our knowledge of tropical 
life. Among the interesting researches were the work of Drs. Scho- 
lander and Walters of the Arctic Research Laboratory at Point Barrow, 
Alaska, on the metabolic reactions to temperature in various animals 
and plants in order to obtain a tropical counterpart for similar work 
on Arctic forms in Alaska; the studies of Drs. Clark and Soper of the 
Research Laboratory of Eastman Kodak on the effects of tropical 
conditions on photographic equipment and materials, including color 
film; and the Resident Manager’s own special studies, particularly the 
long-term termite-resistance tests. 
PUBLICATIONS 
In carrying out the diffusion of knowledge, the Institution issues 
eight regular series of publications and six others that appear less fre- 
quently. All these series, embodying the results of Smithsonian 
researches, are distributed free to more than a thousand libraries, 
both here and abroad, as well as to a large list of educational and 
scientific organizations. The findings of Smithsonian scientists, 
chiefly in the fields of anthropology, biology, geology, and astrophysics, 
are therefore made readily available to all through this wide free 
distribution. 
