318 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 948 



The present status of the investigations of 

 the several divisions of the department is 

 set forth in detail by the chairman in his 

 report. 



The attention of the trustees is especially 

 invited to a paragraph in Professor Par- 

 nam's report calling attention to the de- 

 sirability of a more permanent organiza- 

 tion of this department before its present 

 program of research is completed. He 

 recommends an organization similar to that 

 of other departments of the institution, 

 which would involve the appointment of a 

 salaried director and a permanent staff. 

 The experience of the institution leaves no 

 doubt as to the wisdom of this recom- 

 mendation on the score of continuity and 

 efficiency for this as well as for other de- 

 partments of the institution. Further ref- 

 erence to this subject will be made in the 

 budget section of this report. 



Geophysical Lahoratory 

 The list of twenty-six publications which 

 have emanated from the geophysical labo- 

 ratory during the past year, and which are 

 briefly reviewed by the director in his an- 

 nual report, furnishes the best index of 

 the activity of this establishment. Two 

 specially noteworthy publications of the 

 laboratory have been issued during the 

 year by the institution, namely. No. 157, 

 "High Temperature Gas Thermometry," 

 and No. 158, "The Methods of Petro- 

 graphic-Microscopic Research." The pur- 

 pose of the first of these was to give an 

 account of the apparatus and methods for 

 accurate measurement of the critical tem- 

 peratures incident to mineral combina- 

 tions; and the object of the second is to 

 place, so far as practicable, microscopic 

 study of minerals upon a quantitative 

 basis. Attention has hitherto been called 

 to this characteristic feature of the investi- 

 gations of the geophysical laboratory, 



which is a characteristic feature of all of 

 the advancing sciences. The work already 

 accomplished demonstrates the practica- 

 bility of achieving this object for the sci- 

 ence of mineralogy. This advance requires 

 that special attention be given to accurate 

 measurements of high temperatures and 

 high pressures, as well as to their simul- 

 taneous effects upon mineral constituents. 

 Much study, therefore, continues to be 

 given by the laboratory staff to the devel- 

 opment of effective apparatus and tech- 

 nique for the measurements essential in 

 this work. 



Special attention is called in the di- 

 rector's report to extended studies on 

 quartz and other forms of silica which is 

 the most widely diffused ingredient in rock 

 masses ; to further experiments on the con- 

 ditions of association of the three oxides, 

 lime, alumina and silica, which in addition 

 to being the commonest components of 

 igneous rocks are also incidentally the 

 three principal ingredients of the so- 

 called Portland cement; to mineral sul- 

 phides, which are often of great economic 

 importance; and to mineral and rock 

 densities. 



Perhaps the most interesting of the more 

 recent investigations of the laboratory are 

 those of the physics and chemistry of 

 active volcanoes undertaken tentatively a 

 year ago and pursued with very gratifying 

 success during the past summer. It has 

 proved practicable for members of the staff 

 to descend into the crater of Kilauea and 

 to collect considerable quantities of gas as 

 it emerged from the liquid lavas of the 

 crater. Specimens of gases were collected 

 in glass tubes without contamination from 

 the air, and these have been brought to 

 the laboratory at Washington for detailed 

 study. There seems little reason to doubt 

 that the phenomena of vulcanism will be 

 ultimately revealed by the methods, appa- 



