32 ANNUAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 



During the past year 34,409 classified index cards of American 

 scientific literature were prepared and forwarded to London, as 

 compared with 28,528 during the year preceding. The publication 

 of the sixth annual issue was completed during the year and 9 of the 

 17 volumes of the seventh annual issue were received from the Central 

 Bureau and distributed to the subscribers in this country. 



NECROLOGY. 



OTIS TUFTON MASON. 



It is with deep regret that I have to announce the death, on Novem- 

 ber 5, 1908, of one of our strong men, Prof. Otis T. Mason, who had 

 been associated with the Institution since 1873, first as a collaborator 

 in ethnology, next as curator of that branch, and finally as head 

 curator of the department of anthropology. I may say, indeed, that 

 this association and influence dates much farther back, when, at 12 

 years of age, in 1851, he began his education in Washington when 

 the activities of the Institution affected every intelligent citizen. 



Professor Mason was born in 1838, so that his life has been almost 

 contemporaneous with the Smithsonian Institution, and he bears an 

 honorable share in its history. He says in his autobiography: 



My first studies were in the culture of the eastern Mediterranean peoples, 

 which I followed persistently until the early seventies, when a chance acquaint- 

 ance with Professor Henry and Professor Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 opened the Western Hemisphere to my mind and changed the current of my 

 life. 



His agreeable qualities as a man, his earnestness in his work, and 

 his contagious enthusiasm render this loss a most severe one to the 

 Institution. 



Respectfully submitted. 



Charles D. Walcott, Secretary. 



