26 REPORT OF THE ACTING SECRETARY. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



National Academy of Sciences. — In accordance with the custom 

 of many years the National Academy of Sciences was granted the 

 use of the lecture hall in the National Museum for its annual meet- 

 ing from April 16 to 18, 1906. 



California Academy of Sciences. — The Institution has assisted the 

 California Academy of Sciences in rehabilitating its library, which 

 was entirely destroyed by the earthquake and fire at San Francisco 

 in April, 1906, by duplicating, as far as possible, the sets of the 

 Smithsonian publications and b}^ soliciting and forwarding to the 

 academy the published works of learned institutions in this country 

 and abroad. 



Fire 'protection of buildings. — During the fiscal year a committee 

 was api^ointed to examine the buildings of the Institution and the 

 Museum and to suggest regulations for their further safeguard 

 against danger from fire. The report of this committee contained 

 valuable recommendations, which have been put into effect. 



International Bureau of Ethnogra'phy. — At the Congress on the 

 Economic Expansion of the World, held at Mons, Belgium, in Sep- 

 tember, 1905, a number of recommendations were formulated, includ- 

 ing one for the organization by the Belgian Government of an inter- 

 national bureau of ethnography, whose purposes were stated to be — 



1. The framing of ethnographical and sociological interrogatories. 



2. The transmission of these interrogatories through the proper 

 authorities to colonial officers, explorers, etc. 



3. The publication of the answers to such interrogatories. 



4. The distribution of these answers, and cooperation in the 

 investigations. 



The Smithsonian Institution was invited to cooperate in the 

 organization and promotion of the objects of this bureau, but after 

 careful consideration it was found that most of the objects to be 

 secured thereby were already included within the scope of the pres- 

 ent activities of the Institution and its bureaus, particularly in the 

 National Museum, where all collections belonging to the United 

 States are deposited, and in the Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 which is engaged upon investigations of the primitive peoples of 

 this country. The National Museum is at all times prepared, so 

 far as its collections allow, to enter into exchange relations with 

 the museums of other countries, and this part of the proposed 

 scheme could be carried on among the various countries that are 

 interested without the establishment of a new bureau. 



It was found, moreover, that a very considerable share of the 

 general expense incident to the proposed international bureau would 



