18 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



ists, held at Geneva, Switzerland, September 3-12, 1894. Besides the 

 Smithsonian the following American institutions and learned societies 

 were represented by delegates : Columbia College, Cornell University, 

 Johns Hopkins University, University of Minnesota, University of 

 Pennsylvania, American Oriental Society, American Philosophical 

 Society, Bureau of Education. The Congress was opened by the Pres- 

 ident of the Swiss Republic, Colonel Prey. The president of the con- 

 gress was the well-known Geneva egyptologist, M. Edouard Naville. 

 The work of the congress was organized in eight sections : India, lin- 

 guistics and Aryan languages, Semitic languages, Mohammedan lan- 

 guages, Egypt and African languages, Extreme East, Greece and the 

 Orient, Oriental geography and ethnography. There were altogether 

 about 600 members (about 100 of whom were ladies), representing 

 Africa, America, Asia, and 16 European countries. More than 275 

 (about 60 ladies) were present, not including those living at Geneva. 

 Of the 28 American subscribers (including 5 ladies), 12 (4 ladies) 

 attended the congress. Papers were read by the following American 

 members: Haupt, Jackson, Merriam, Bogers. 



At the first meeting of the first section the great Sanskrit scholar of 

 the University of Berlin, Prof. A. Weber, referred to the death of Pro- 

 fessor Whitney, and the proposition of the president of the section, 

 Lord Beay, to send a resolution of respect and condolence to Mrs. 

 Whitney, was unanimously adopted. 



The Eleventh International Congress of Orientalists will be held at 

 Paris in 1897. 



Archives. — The special room set apart on the fourth floor for the bet- 

 ter arrangement of the valuable archives of the Institution has proved 

 of great convenience, as there is frequent necessity for reference to the 

 early correspondence files, or to other records. 



Assignment of rooms. — A room in the basement of the east wing, 

 which has been specially fitted up with piers for pendulum experiments 

 and connected by telegraph, through the Western Union Telegraph 

 Company's office, with the United States Naval Observatory, is still 

 reserved for the occasional use of the officers of the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey. 



The Astro-physical Observatory standard clock has been mounted 

 in the room adjoining, where it is protected from sudden changes in 

 temperature and other disturbances to which it would be liable in the 

 observatory building. It can be compared with the Naval Observa- 

 tory time signals, and provision has been made for transmitting its own 

 signals to any part of the Institution. 



History of James Smithson. — Arrangements are in progress for plac- 

 ing bronze tablets on Smithson's tomb and in the English church at 

 Genoa, in memory of the founder of the Smithsonian Institution. 



A further English record has added somewhat to the knowledge of 

 Smithsou's personal family. 



