REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



The Secretary now has in preparation for this series a review of his 

 investigations in aerodynamics, and in particular of experiments in 

 developing the principles and methods of mechanical flight. 



Miscellaneous Collections. — In this series five works have been pub- 

 lished since my last report. These are a Catalogue of Scientific and 

 Technical Periodicals, by Dr. H. C. Bolton; Catalogue of Pacific Coast 

 Earthquakes, by Prof. E. S. Holden; Review and Bibliography of 

 Metallic Carbides, by Prof. J. A. Mathews; Bibliography of Metals of 

 the Platinum Group, by Prof. J. L. Howe, and a report by Dr. D. H. 

 Bergey on the results of experiments to determine whether impure 

 atmosphere produces a detrimental influence upon the animal organism 

 as shown in greater susceptibility to certain diseases. 



There have been also reprinted from the stereotype plates new edi- 

 tions of the Smithsonian Meteorological, Geographical, and Physical 

 Tables. A Supplement to the Bibliography of Chemistry, by Dr. H. 0. 

 Bolton, containing about 4,000 additional titles, is in hand, and about 

 half of the volume had been printed at the close of the year. 



Smithsonian reports. — The Annual Reports of the Institution for the 

 year 1896 and 1897 had not been issued at the close of the fiscal year, 

 although the volume for 1896 was in the Government bindery, and press- 

 work was in progress on the report for 1897, their completion having 

 been delayed by the imperative need of supplying documents required 

 by Congress for the military departments by reason of the Spanish- 

 American war. 



National Museum publications. — In addition to the Museum volume of 

 the Smithsonian report, two series of publications are issued directly 

 by the Museum, the Proceedings and the Bulletin. Of the first series 

 Volume XIX was completed in bound form, the separate papers having 

 previously been issued as pamphlets, and seventeen papers comprising 

 Volume XX were distributed in pamphlet form during the year. A 

 pamphlet containing instructions for collecting scale insects was pub- 

 lished as Part L of Bulletin 39, and a circular was issued relating to 

 the collection and preservation of the bones and teeth of the Mastodon 

 and Mammoth. 



Bureau of Ethnology reports. — The seventeenth report of the Bureau 

 of Ethnology, for the year ending June 30, 1896, was sent to the Public 

 Printer on July 6, 1897, and proof reading was completed before June 

 30, 1898, but actual press work has not begun. The eighteenth report is 

 also in the printer's hands, but no progress has been made beyond the 

 revision of some first proofs. 



Astrophysical Observatory publications. — There has been prepared and 

 is now ready for publication a full report on the results of the researches 

 carried on in the Astrophysical Observatory since its establishment and 

 this work will probably be printed in quarto form during the next fiscal 

 year, the cost of the publication being charged to the appropriation for 

 the Observatory under authority of Congress, 



