16 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The work of Dr. O. Lummer and Dr. E. Pringsheim, under a grant from 

 the Hodgkins fund, on the determination of an exact measure of the 

 cooling of gases while expanding, with a view to revising the value of 

 that important constant technically termed the "gamma" function, 

 was referred to in my last report. 



The limitations of the fund have rendered it necessary, with slight 

 exceptions, to postpone further action on requests for grants, although 

 it is hoped that it will prove practicable at a later date to aid certain 

 important researches which are under consideration. 



A design for the Hodgkins fund medal of the Institution was 

 decided upon in May, 1895, and the preparation of the dies has been 

 ordered. 



AVERY FUND. 



Mr: Eobert Stanton Avery, of Washington City, died September 12, 

 1894, bequeathing the greater portion of his estate to the Smithsonian 

 Institution. The estate has not yet been fully administered upon, and 

 I am therefore unable to state the exact amount of the fund. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Besides the very voluminous routine and business correspondence of 

 the National Museum, or special correspondence of the Bureau of Eth- 

 nology ? of the Zoological Park, and of the Bureau of Exchanges, a great 

 number of letters come directly to the Secretary's office from all parts of 

 the country, on every imaginable subject that can by any possibility 

 be supposed to have a relation to science. Bequests for statistics that 

 may be of great value and importance to the writer, inquiries from 

 teachers and others, are constantly received, and it is still my aim that 

 this correspondence shall receive the same careful attention that was 

 bestowed upon it in the early days of the Institution, when the num- 

 ber of letters received formed but a small fraction of the present num- 

 ber; but it will be understood that the fulfilment of this aim grows 

 increasingly difficult. An effort is made to give a full reply to all such 

 inquiries, often involving a large amount of labor on the part of the 

 curators, as well as of those immediately occupied with the correspond- 

 ence of the Institution, out of proportion to the merits of the case. 



Of the more important correspondence of the Secretary's office, 3,601 

 entries were made in the registry book of letters received during the 

 year, while double that number of letters were received and referred to 

 the different bureaus of the Institution in the same time. A modification 

 of the system of registry was introduced on January 1, 1895, by which 

 each letter receives an arbitrary number indicating the date of the 

 letter and a subsidiary number giving the order of entry on that day. 



The card index of letters received and written is now complete from 

 January 1, 1892, to the present day, constituting the current file. The 

 correspondence prior to the current file has been placed in the 

 archives, and the index to the files is now practically complete. 



