REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 



which has been made during the past year, it must again be remarked 

 that the full degree of satisfaction to be obtained in the investigation 

 can not be hoped for in the present site of the observatory. During 

 the past year plans have been prepared for the construction of a more 

 suitable building, and some experiments have been made looking to the 

 determination of a site more free from magnetic and other disturbances, 

 but no steps have yet been taken to remove to such a situation. 



It is proper to add that administrative duties have occupied too much 

 of my time in the past year to permit my giving the personal attention 

 1 should have wished to the conduct of the observatory, and that for 

 the improvements above described credit is due chiefly to Mr. 0. G. 

 Abbot, who efficiently aids me in its charge. 



NECROLOGY. 



GEORGE BROWN GOODE. 



Since the close of the fiscal year the Institution has suffered the irrep- 

 arable loss of its assistant secretary, Dr. George Brown Goode, who 

 died on September 0, 189G, at his home in this city. A sketch of his 

 life will more properly be given in my next report, but I can not refrain 

 from saying a word at this time about one with whom I was not only 

 officially intimate, but who was a very dear personal friend. 



Dr. Goode was born at New Albany, Ind., on February 13, 1851. 

 He was first associated with the Institution in 1873, and from that time 

 until his death was thoroughly devoted to the work he so loved — the 

 building up and development, under the charge of the Regents, of a 

 great National Museum. In 1887 he was appointed assistant secretary 

 of the Institution in charge of the National Museum, which, as it exists 

 to-day, is perhaps the most fitting monument to his memory. 



He possessed an exact scientific training that made him eminent as 

 a zoologist, but it was as a specialist in museum administration that he 

 was perhaps skilled above all others, and he gave himself with entire 

 devotion to the care of the Museum, which was practically his charge, 

 refusing many advantageous offers to go elsewhere, for the peculiar 

 value of his services was everywhere acknowledged. 



Dr. Goode united with his great administrative ability singularly 

 varied powers in other directions, and the most entire unselfishness in 

 their use I have ever known. My own trust in him grew with every 

 evidence of his special fitness for it, while our official relations continued 

 to be of the most happy character, and so also were those of his asso- 

 ciates and subordinates, for he possessed the rare art of maintaining an 

 exacl discipline without sacrificing the affections of those over whom 

 it was administered. He is gone, and his successor is hard to find. 



WILLIAM CRAWFORD WINLOCK. 



After the conclusion of the transactions of the Exchange Bureau for 

 the fiscal year, and before the annual report of the Institution was 



