284 



NA TURE 



[January 23, 1896 



situated for the administration of trusts of this character, and 

 this privilege has, within the past few years, been accepted by 

 several benefactors. 



Dr. Jerome H. Kidder, of Washington City, bequeathed, in 

 1889, 5000 dols. for the purpose of an astro-physical observa- 

 tory. 



Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, in 1889, gave 5000 dols. to the 

 Secretary for his personal use in physical investigation, which 

 has been transferred by him to the credit of the Institution, and 

 devoted to physical work. 



Mr. Thomas G. Hodgkins, of Setauket, N.Y., gave, in 

 1891, nearly 250,000 dols., a portion of the income from which 

 is to be applied to the investigation of atmospheric air.^ 



Robert Stanton Avery, of Washington City, who died in 



1894, left property then estimated to be worth at least 50,000 

 dols. to provide for special investigations. 



There have also been many valuable gifts to the Museum, 

 such as that of Dr. Isaac Lea, of Philadelphia, who gave his 

 great collections of mollusks, and of gems and precious stones ; 

 that of Mr. Joseph Harrison, of Philadelphia, consisting of the 

 collection of Indian portraits painted by George CatUn ; that of 

 Mr. R. D. Lacoe, of Pittston, Pa., the largest existing collection 

 of American fossil plants ; and the collections of American 

 birds' eggs given by Major Charles Bendire, U.S.A., and Dr. 

 William H. Ralph, of Utica, N.Y. 



The Astro-Physical Observatory. 



The Astro-physical Observatory was established in 1891, 

 under the immediate direction of the present Secretary. The 

 expense of maintenance has since been provided for by a small 

 appropriation from Congress. Here is carried on work cor- 

 responding to that of similar institutions maintained by the 

 principal European Governments, and on a much less expensive 

 scale, though not less effectively. 



Since astro-physics is almost the newest of sciences, it may 

 not be amiss to give here a brief description of the purposes of 

 this observatory : 



"Within the past generation," we are told, "and almost co- 

 incidentally with the discovery of the spectroscope, a new branch 

 of astronomy has arisen, which is sometimes called astro-physics, 

 and whose purpose is distinctly different from that of finding 

 the places of the stars, or the moon, or the sun ; which is the 

 principal end in view at such an observatory as that, for instance, 

 at Greenwich. 



"The distinct object of astro-physics is, in the case of the 

 sun, for example, not to mark its exact place in the sky, but to 

 find out how it affects the earth and the wants of man on it ; 

 how its heat is distributed, and how it in fact affects not only 

 the seasons and the farmer's crops, but the whole system of 

 living things on the earth, for it has lately been proven that in 

 a physical sense it, and almost it alone, literally first creates and 

 then modifies them in almost every possible way. 



"We have, however, arrived at a knowledge that it does so, 

 without yet knowing in most cases how it does so, and we are 

 sure of the great importance of this last acquisition, while still 

 largely in ignorance how to obtain it. We are, for example, 

 sure that the latter knowledge would form, among other things, 

 a scientific basis for meteorology, and enable us to predict the 

 years of good or bad harvests, so far as these depend on natural 

 causes, independent of man, and yet we are still very far from 

 being able to make such a prediction, and we cannot do so till 

 we have learned more by such studies as those in question. 

 Knowledge of the nature of the certain, but still imperfectly 

 understood dependence of terrestrial events on solar causes is, 

 then, of the greatest practical consequence. 



" It has been observed that this recent science itself was 

 almost coeval with the discovery of the spectroscope, and that 

 instrument has everywhere been largely employed in most of 

 its work. Of the heat which the sun sends, however, and 

 which, in its terrestrial manifestations, is the principal object of 

 our study, it has long been well known that the ordinary spec- 

 troscope could recognise only about one-quarter, three-quarters 

 of all this solar heat being in a form which the ordinary spectro- 

 scope cannot see nor analyse, lying as it does in the, till lately, 

 almost unknown ' infra-red ' end of the spectrum, where neither 

 the eye nor the photograph can examine it." 



This Observatory in Washington has been continuing the 



1 A prize of 10,000 dols., derived from this fund, was awarded August 6, 



1895, to Lord Rayleigh and Prof. William Ramsay, of London, for the dis- 

 covery of Argon, a hitherto unknown element in the atmosphere. 



NO. 1369, VOL. 53] 



famous researches in regard to that invisible portion of the solar 

 spectrum which lies beyond the limit ol the red, which had 

 been begun by Mr. Langley while director of the Allegheny 

 Observatory. The exploration of " this great unknown region," 

 which was first rendered possible by the invention of the 

 bolometer, is now being carried still further by means of a new 

 method, much perfected during the last four years, which has 

 rendered it possible to produce a complete map by an automatic 

 and absolutely trustworthy process, which shows the lines which 

 resemble the so-called Fraunhofer lines in the upper spectrum. 

 The results already attained are believed to be the most im- 

 portant which have ever been reached in regard to that region 

 of the spectrum of which so little is known, and which includes 

 the greater portion of all those energies of the sun which, 

 through its heat, affect climate and the crops, and are thus 

 related not only to questions of abstract interest, but to utilities 

 of national importance. 



The National Zoological Park. 



The National Zoological Park was established by Congress in 

 1890, as a result of the desire to secure the preservation of such 

 American animals as are upon the verge of extinction and will 

 soon vanish for ever if something is not done to protect them, 

 and occupies a tract nearly twice as extensive as that of any 

 zoological garden in the world ; this includes one hundred and 

 sixty-seven acres upon Rock Creek, only two miles north of the 

 Executive Mansion, at the centre of the city. The site has 

 admirable natural advantages, and much has already been done 

 in the opening of drives and the construction of buildings. 



When Congress was asked to appropriate funds for this Park, 

 it was in view of the fact that many North American animals, 

 constituting a part of the national wealth, and formerly occupy- 

 ing a large portion of its domain, are threatened with speedy 

 extinction. 



The buffalo, the beaver, the wapiti, the moose, and many 

 other species, which until lately were abundant east of the 

 Mississippi, are each year becoming rarer. On the Pacific 

 Coast the sea-elephant is gone, and the walrus practically so, 

 and the sea-otter, the fur-seal, and the sea-lion rapidly disappear- 

 ing. The passenger-pigeon and the Carolina parrakeet are almost 

 gone. It was urged upon Congress that unless steps were 

 speedily taken, these races must perish. 



The reservation of the Yellowstone National Park as a great 

 game preserve was an important start in this direction, but the 

 very immensity of the reservation seems to threaten thf defeat 

 of the plan, for the animals cannot be protected from marauders, 

 and are being rapidly destroyed. To retard their extinction and 

 to provide opportunities for their study, was the intention of 

 those who first advocated the establishment of a preserve near 

 Washington large enough to keep the animals as close to natural 

 conditions as is possible, and the project seems to have been 

 even more important than was at first supposed. 



A small representative collection of native American animals 

 has already been formed, including about five hundred indi- 

 viduals, among them a fine herd of young elk and a small herd 

 of buffaloes ; but the annual appropriations have not been 

 sufficient to permit satisfactory progress. 



The Bureau ok American Ethnology. 



The Bureau of Ethnology is an outgrowth of activities be- 

 ginning early in the history of the Institution, which has from 

 the very outset devoted much attention to the native American 

 races. 



The special work of the Bureau in its present form was 

 begun in 1872, in response to a request from the Commis- 

 sioner of Indian Affairs, who desired trustworthy information^ 

 concerning the affinities of the Indian tribes, to serve as a 

 guide in grouping them on the reservations. The question 

 was referred by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to 

 Major J. W. Powell, then engaged, under the direction of the 

 Institution, in explorations in the south-west. Combining the 

 vocabularies and other manuscipts already in possession of the 

 Institution, he prepared a report showing the character and 

 extent of existing information, and the manner in which it 

 was possible to utilise this in the segregation of the Indian 

 tribes, at the same time suggesting plans for^ the completion ot 

 the work of classification. 



This was the beginning of the Bureau, which since 1879 has 

 been supported by special appropriations from Congress, with 

 the understanding that the research should be so extended as to 



