194 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 215. 



Preservation of collections 165,000 



Postage 500 



Galleries 10,000 



Boolcs 2,000 



Rent of workshops 4,500 



Buildiiis repairs 4,000 



Purchase of library of the late G. 



Brown Goode 5,000 



National Zoological Park, 1899 65,000 



HAMILTON FUND. 



The original amount of $1,000, the be- 

 quest of Mr. James Hamilton, of Pennsyl- 

 vania, received by the Institution in ISTd:, 

 was increased in 1895 to $2,000 by the 

 addition of accumulated interest under 

 authority given by the Regents in their 

 meeting of January 23, 1895, the sum of 

 $150 expended from the income of fund in 

 1876 for explorations having been re- 

 funded. The present income, together 

 with interest accumulated since 1895, seems 

 to warrant some definite application of the 

 interest on the bequest, and I am now con- 

 sidering a plan of lectureships in accord- 

 ance with the testator's purpose. 



AVERY FUND. 



Concerning the Avery fund I have to re- 

 port that by a decision of the Supreme 

 Court of the United States the Institution 

 has obtained a clear title to the property 

 on Capitol Hill claimed by the heirs of 

 Mrs. Aver3\ 



It may be recalled that the testator, 

 while leaving his property absolutely at the 

 disposal of the Eegents, expressed a wish 

 that it might be made useful in promoting 

 researches on the Ether, after certain math- 

 matical and phonetic publications and cer- 

 tain researches connected with a special 

 form of telescope have been made. The 

 moneys received from the estate are as yet 

 too small to carry out any part of this pur- 

 pose but the last. 



BUILDINGS. 



No alterations were made in the Smith- 



sonian Building during the year except such 

 slight repairs as seemed necessary to keep 

 it in good condition. The space in the rear 

 of the building, however, which for a num- 

 ber of years had been occupied by unsightly 

 and dangerous storage sheds and workshops, 

 has been cleared of these and graded into a 

 lawn, thus greatly improving the surround- 

 ings. 



In the park south of the building, and at 

 a distance sufficient to prevent annoyance, 

 there has been erected a temporary wooden 

 building of two stories for the use of the 

 taxidermists and for other purposes. 



The investigations being prosecuted in 

 the Astrophj'sical Observatory requiring 

 more space than is available in the old struc- 

 ture, plans have been approved and some 

 progress made toward the erection of some 

 very simple additions authorized by Con- 

 gress at its last session by a clause permit- 

 ting the expenditure for this purpose of an 

 unexpended balance. 



Four additional galleries have be,en 

 erected in the Museum building, threes for 

 exhibition purposes and one to serve as an 

 increase for the quarters for the Library, 

 thus adding 6,650 square feet to the floor 

 space of the Museum, 6,040 square feet of 

 which is available research for exhibition 

 purposes. 



The promotion of original research has 

 always been one of the principal functions 

 of the Institution. Investigations in the 

 anthropological, biological and geological 

 divisions of science have been extensively 

 carried on through the departments of the 

 National Museum, and in the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology there have also been 

 special inquiries into Indian customs and 

 languages. These lines of research being 

 well represented by its bureaus, it has re- 

 mained for the Institution proper to devote 

 its energies more especiallj' to some of the 

 physical sciences. 



The Secretary himself has carried on re- 



