Febkuary 12, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



273 



living animals of the lower forms, and an 

 exhibit of such wild flowers as may be in 

 bloom. 



The Nunnemacher collection of arms has 

 been extended and it is noted that this prob- 

 ably contains the best series of firearms ex- 

 hibited in any museum in the country. 



There is the usual plea for more room and 

 it is to be hoped that this plea may meet with 

 a favorable response and the fine building 

 extended to meet the exigencies of the case. 



L. 



TBE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



We reproduce from the Washington papers 

 the accounts of the meeting of the regents of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, held in Wash- 

 ington on January 27, which it is understood 

 are given out by the secretary. As an ad- 

 journed meeting was held in the evening, for 

 the first time in recent years at least, it may 

 be assumed that the general policy and admin- 

 istration of the institution were under dis- 

 cussion. 



The annual meeting of the board of regents of 

 the Smithsonian Institution was held at the insti- 

 tution at ten o'clock on the morning of January 

 27. Of the members of the board those present 

 were: Mr. Chief Justice Fuller, the chancellor of 

 the institution, who presided; Senator S. M. 

 Cullom, Senator 0. H. Piatt, Senator F. M. Cock- 

 rell. Representative R. R. Hitt, Representative 

 Robert Adams, Jr., Representative Hugh A. Dins- 

 more, ex- Senator John B. Henderson, Dr. A. Gra- 

 ham Bell, Dr. James B. Angell, ex-Secretary of 

 State Richard Olney and the secretary of the 

 institution. Dr. S. P. Langley. Senator William 

 P. Frye, president pro tempore of the Senate; 

 Judge George Gray and Dr. Andrew D. White were 

 unable to be present. It was announced that 

 Representatives Hitt, Adams and Dinsmore had 

 been reappointed regents on th.e part of the House 

 for a term of two years, and that Mr. John B. 

 Henderson and Professor A. Graham Bell had been 

 elected regents from the District of Columbia for 

 a period of six years. 



The secretary presented his annual report re- 

 viewing the work of the year ending June 30, 

 1903. The total permanent fund now stands at 

 $937,000, deposited in the treasury. Certain rail- 

 road bonds forming a part of the Hodgkins fund 

 make the total fund of the institution about 

 $1,000,000. 



The institution in addition was charged with 

 the disbursement of congressional appropriations 

 for the United States National Museum, the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, the international 

 exchanges, the Astrophysical Observatory and the 

 National Zoological Park, amounting in all to 

 $472,400. 



Under the Hodgkins fund a memoir has been 

 issued by Dr. Barus, entitled ' The Structure of 

 the Nucleus,' and grants have been made to Pro- 

 fesor M. W. Travers, of University College, Lon- 

 don, for researches ' on the attainment of very 

 low temperatures ' ; to Dr. Victor Schumann, of 

 Leipsic, for work on vacuum spectroscopy, and to 

 Professor E. W. Scripture, of Yale University, 

 for the construction of a ' vowel machine.' 



Tlie subscription to the Smithsonian table at 

 the Naples Zoological Station has been renewed. 

 During the year this table was occupied by eight 

 American biologists, all of whom conducted special 

 researches of value. 



In the series of ' Contributions to Knowledge ' 

 two valuable publications have been issued, those 

 of Dr. Barus and Dr. Schumann, while a memoir 

 by Dr. Frederick W. True, entitled 'The Whale- 

 bone Whales of the Western North Atlantic, com- 

 pared with those occurring in European Waters, 

 with some Observations on the Species of the 

 North Pacific,' and a work by Professor N. S. 

 Shaler, of Harvard University, entitled ' A Com- 

 parison of the Features of the Earth and the 

 Moon,' are in course of publication. A number 

 of papers have been issued in the series of ' Miscel- 

 laneous Collections,' and a work by the late Dr. 

 G. Bro-mi Goode, ' What Has been Done in America 

 for Science,' is now being prepared for the press. 



The usual reports have been issued and greatly 

 sought after. The library has received valuable 

 additions from Gen. John Watts De Peyster, in 

 Napoleonana, and on gypsies. The museum 

 library has received two important gifts, being 

 the E. A. Schwartz collection of books on Ameri- 

 can coleoptera, and the W. H. Dall collection of 

 books on recent and fossil mollusks. 



The institution has taken over for America the 

 work of the International Catalogue of Scientific 

 Literature. 



At its last session Congress authorized the con- 

 struction of a fireproof building for the use of the 

 National Museum, at a cost not to exceed $3,500,- 

 000. The plans for this structure are now prac- 

 tically finished, and borings for the foundation 

 have been made. The actual work will begin in 

 warm weather, though it will probably be three 

 or four years, before the building is completed. 



Two hundred and thirty-six thousand specimens 



