26 ANNUAL KEPOBT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



researches in a paper entitled " Summary of studies of Cambrian 

 brachiopods." At the First Pan-American^ Scientific Congress, to 

 meet in Santiago, Chile, December 25, 1908, to January 5, 1909, 

 Mr. W. H. Holmes, chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 has been designated by the Department of State, upon the recom- 

 mendation of the Institution, to represent the United States Govern- 

 ment in the section of anthropology and ethnology. Prof. Morris 

 Jastrow, jr., of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Paul Haupt, 

 of the Johns Hopkins University, have been suggested by the Institu- 

 tion as delegates on the part of the United States to the Third Inter- 

 national Congress for the History of Religions, to meet at Oxford, 

 September 15-18, 1908. The Institution has subscribed to member- 

 ship in the First International Congress on Refrigerating Industries 

 to be held in Paris, October 5-10, 1908. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Hamilton finul lecture. — In 1871 a bequest was made to the Smith- 

 sonian Institution by Mr. James Hamilton, as follows : 



I give one tliousaud dollars to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, located at Washington, D. C, to be invested in some safe fund, 

 and the interest to be appropriated l)iennially by the secretaries, either in 

 money or a medal, for such contribution, paper, or lecture on any scientific or 

 useful subject as said secretaries may approve. 



The bequest was accepted, but the income was allowed to accrue 

 until it amounted to the principal, the interest of which now gives 

 biennally $240. The first use made of this fund was in 1905, 

 Avhen Dr. Andrew D. AVliite was invited to deliver a lecture on " The 

 diplomatic service of the United States, with some hints toward its 

 reform." Doctor White delivered this lecture in one of the halls of 

 the National Museum in Washington, and it was subsequently printed 

 by the Institution in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections and 

 widely distributed. The second lecture under the auspices of this 

 fund was delivered on Wednesday evening, April 22, 1908, at Hub- 

 bard Memorial Hall, Washington, by Dr. George E. Hale, on " Some 

 recent contributions to our knowledge of the sun." 



Seismology. — The Institution has received during the year a num- 

 ber of letters and reports on earthquakes in various parts of the world, 

 and has communicated the information therein to Prof. Harry Field- 

 ing Reid, of Johns Hopkins University, the representative of the 

 United States on the International Seismological Association. In the 

 Congressional diplomatic appropriation for 1909 there was included 

 the item, " For defraying the necessary expenses in fulfilling the obli- 

 gations of the United States as a member of the International Seis- 

 mological Association, including the annual contribution to the ex- 

 penses of the association, and the expenses of the United States dele- 



