32 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1924 



The Puerto Rico Society of Washington held an open meeting in 

 the auditorium on March 12 for the purpose of bringing together 

 all persons interested in Porto Rico and its inhabitants. The pro- 

 gram included addresses by Antonio Reyes-Delgado ; Hon. Louis W. 

 Fairchild, Member of Congress from Indiana; Hon. Felix Cordova 

 Davila, Resident Commissioner of Porto Rico ; and Dr. Guillermo A. 

 Sherwell, secretary of the United States section of the Inter Ameri- 

 can High Commission; piano selection by Miss Claire Ph. Sgueo, 

 and song, " The Star-Spangled Banner," by the audience. 



For many years the National Museum has furnished facilities: for 

 the annual gathering in April of the National Academy of Sciences. 

 This year the academy's new building at Twenty-first and B Streets 

 NW. was sufficiently completed to permit the meetings on April 28 

 to 30 to be held there. The Museum cooperated, however, to the 

 extent of lending certain special exhibits for display in the academy's 

 building during convocation week, including an exhibit devoted to 

 pseudo-ancient man in America, which had a direct bearing on the 

 academy's program, and geological specimens relating to certain 

 features of Dr. C. D. Walcott's work. Paintings of wild flowers by 

 Mrs. Walcott were also displayed. 



CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION AND STAFF 



The changes in the scientific staff this year were few, due doubt- 

 less to the approaching readjustments under the Classification Act of 

 1923, which becomes effective on July 1, 1924. A.s reported last year, 

 tentative allocations of all positions in the Government bureaus 

 under the Smithsonian Institution were submitted to the Personnel 

 Classification Board by the liaison officer of the Institution. The 

 board, after reviewing and in some cases revising, has approved with 

 few exceptions the allocations of the Museum employees. Arrange- 

 ments are being made, therefore, to put the new salary schedules 

 into effect on July 1, 1924. 



A program of greater development for the Loeb collection of 

 chemical types was inaugurated in the spring of 1924, through the 

 accrued interest on the Loeb fund, and includes the employment of 

 a chemist to devote his entire time to the subject. The advisory 

 committee on the Loeb collection was reorganized the middle of the 

 year to provide representation of the various governmental agencies 

 in Washington interested in chemistry. The committee is now con- 

 stituted as follows : 



Dr. J. E. Zanetti, chairman of the division of chemistry and 

 chemical technology, National Research Council, ex officio; Dr. C. A. 

 Browne, Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, ex officio; Dr. S. C. Lind, chief chemist of the 

 Bureau of Mines, United States Department of the Interior, ex 



