16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



while it has always been the policy of the Institution to give courteous 

 attention to all such inquiries, it has become impossible to reply in 

 detail to many of them ; the writers, however, are referred to sources of 

 information. The Institution has, unfortunately, perhaps, come to be 

 considered a bureau of general as well as of scientific knowledge. 



The following rule governing correspondence, adopted by the Regents 

 in 1855, is still in force. 



Resolved, That all correspondence of this Institution with any person 

 or society shall be conducted by the Secretary, and no assistant or 

 employee shall write or receive any official letter or communication 

 pertaining to the affairs of the Institution except under the authority 

 and by the direction of the Secretary; and all such correspondence 

 shall be duly registered and recorded in such manner as the Secretary 

 shall direct. 



As interpreted, this resolution is entirely consistent with the free 

 activities of the Institution and its bureaus in correspondence, the 

 requisite authority being always understood to be given and exercised 

 by the person to whom the Secretary delegates it in each instance. 



INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES. 



The Eleventh International Congress of Orientalists was held at 

 Paris from September 5 to September 12, 1897. There were thirty-four 

 members registered from the United States, several of whom were 

 present and took an active part in the proceedings. Dr. Paul Haupt, 

 honorary curator of the division of historic archgeology in the United 

 States National Museum and professor of the Semitic languages in the 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, represented the Smithsonian 

 Institution. There were also delegates from the American Oriental 

 Society, the American Philosophical Society, the University Archseo- 

 logical Association of Philadelphia, etc. 



The Congress was organized in seven sections: I, Aryan; II, The 

 far East (including China, Japan, Indo-China, the Indian Archipelago, 

 etc.); Ill, Mohammedan; IV, Semitic; V, Egypt and Africa; VI, 

 Archaic Greece and the Orient; VII, Ethnography and Folklore. 

 Several of these sections were divided into two or three subsections. 



Professor Erman, of Berlin, submitted the plan for a comprehensive 

 Thesaurus Verborum Aegyptiacorum, which is to be published under the 

 auspices of the royal academies of Berlin, Gottingen, Leipzig, and 

 Munich; it will contain all the words found in hieroglyphic and hier- 

 atic texts. The card catalogue for the work will be finished in 1904, 

 and the final redaction in 1908, while the printed edition will be com- 

 pleted in 1913. The assistance of Egyptologists all over the world is 

 solicited for this gigantic undertaking. 



Professor Goldziher, of Budapest, presented a report on the great 

 Mohammedan Encyclopedia which is to be published under his edito- 

 rial direction, and Professor Haupt announced a complete bibliography 



