IV ANNUAL REPORTS, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



The Smithsonian Reports are distributed by the Institution to 3,600 

 libraries in the United States and 1,700 libraries abroad. Although 

 each volume includes an index, access to the valuable scientific infor- 

 mation in the Reports has been limited by the lack of a general index 

 to the series as a whole. With this thought in mind, Miss Ruth M. 

 Stemple of the Florida State University Library (now at the West 

 Virginia University Library) undertook on her own initiative to pre- 

 pare such an index. The manuscript was reviewed and somewhat am- 

 plified by the Editorial and Publications Division of the Smithsonian. 



The index is by authors and subjects, the subjects being sufficiendy 

 cross-indexed, it is believed, to enable users to locate any desired 

 subject of interest to them. 



The subjects treated in Smithsonian Report articles cover almost 

 the entire gamut of scientific disciplines. If any subjects predominate, 

 they would be in the general fields of biology, geology, and anthro- 

 pology — fields with which the Smithsonian has been prominently 

 identified during its more than a century of scientific endeavor. 

 However, articles dealing with all other sciences will be found in the 

 Reports, including astronomy, physics, chemistry, meteorology, 

 medicine, and engineering. 



Many of the earlier Reports contain articles of great historical inter- 

 est as recording scientific discoveries which have exerted vast influence 

 on the lives of all of us up to the present time. For example, W. C. 

 Roentgen records in the 1897 Report his discovery of the penetrating 

 radiation which he called X-rays. In the Report for 191 1 we read 

 Marconi's own account of his successful transmission of messages over 

 distances by "wireless." The beginnings of practical human flight are 

 recorded by Wilbur Wright in the 1902 Report and Orville Wright 

 in that for 1914. 



Scientific breakthroughs that led to spectacular developments are 

 exemplified by Ernest Rutherford's article in the 1938 Report record- 

 ing the successful transmutation of one element into another; by 

 Karl K. Darrow's 1940 account of the first achievement of nuclear 

 fission; and by Wendell M. Stanley's attempt to relate viruses to cancer, 

 genes, and life in the Report for 1957. 



Outstanding current activities in various fields of science are repre- 

 sented in the 1959 Report by Capt. E. B. Roberts's account of the vast 

 scientific results of the recent International Geophysical Year, and by 

 Ralph S. Solecki's description of the skeletons of three Neanderthal 

 adults, who lived from 46,000 to 64,000 years ago, found in Shanidar 

 Cave in northern Iraq; in the i960 Report by the article "Exploring 

 the Solar System by Radar," by Paul E. Green, Jr., and Gordon H. 



