REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 33 



Grants and subscriptions. — In accordance with the precedents estab- 

 lished by your first Secretary for encouraging meritorious scientific en- 

 terprises, undertaken without view to pecuniary gain, a subscription of 

 twenty copies of the Astronomical Journal, edited by Dr. B. A. Gould, 

 has been continued. 



Privilege of the floor of the House of Representatives. — Owing to the 

 lamented death of the Hon. S. S. Cox, no further action appears to have 

 been taken by the House in reference to a bill introduced by him to con- 

 fer the privilege of the floor on the Secretary of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution. 



Smithsonian grounds. — At the request of the Director of the Geologi- 

 cal Survey, permission was granted to place stones for a base line 300 

 feet on B street, south, to be used as a standard of comparison for tape 

 lines. 



American Historical Association. — Eeference was made in the last re- 

 port to a bill introduced in the Senate to incorporate the Historical As- 

 sociation and to connect it with the Smithsonian Institution. Congress 

 has since passed the act organizing the association. 



Stereotyping. — All the stereotype plates belonging to the Institution 

 have been brought from Philadelphia to Washington and stored in the 

 basement of the building. 



I have elsewhere alluded to the fact that the practice of stereotyping 

 the bulletins and proceedings of the Washington scientific societies has 

 been discontinued. 



Temporary shed. — I have also elsewhere alluded to the purpose of 

 putting up in the Smithsonian grounds a temporary shelter for instru- 

 ments and apparatus, which may at the same time permit of some astro- 

 physical observations being made. This, however, is only a temporary 

 expedient, and if the Regents ever sanction the erection of an observa- 

 tory for this purpose it will be necessary to place it in some very quiet 

 locality far removed from all tremor. Such a locality exists in the new 

 zoological park, but while the action of Congress in regard to the pur- 

 chase of the latter was still uncertain I addressed a letter to the honor- 

 able the Secretary of War, asking permission in case it were found de- 

 sirable to occupy a vacant tract of land in the southern portion of the 

 cemetery at Arlington for this purpose. His assent was given in the 

 following letter: 



War Department, 

 Washington City, January 9, 1889. 



Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 

 the 18th ultimo, requesting that the Smithsonian Institution be author- 

 ized to occupy a site in the Arlington national cemetery, as indicated 

 in a memorandum and plat inclosed by you, for the purposes of an 

 astro-physical laboratory. 



328a 3 



