REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 



entire occupation of the seat for the year being eleven months. 

 Since inquiries as to available dates are frequently received a year 

 or even two years in advance of the time desired, it may be well 

 to repeat that in the interest of all applicants it is not customary 

 to approve a request for the seat more than six months in advance of 

 the period desired. 



By extension of his appointment, Dr. Stewart Paton, of Johns 

 Hopkins Universit}*, occupied the Smithsonian seat until the end 

 of June, 1906. His work at Naples dealt principally with the prob- 

 lems hitherto unsolved in connection with the nervous system and its 

 relations to the action of the heart. As before noted, the results of 

 this interesting research will be published on completion. 



The occupation of the Smithsonian seat at Naples by Dr. Maynard 

 M. Metcalf, formerly of the Woman's College in Baltimore, and now 

 of Oberlin College, began before the close of the final session of 

 Doctor Paton. Doctor Metcalf reports that on beginning his term 

 at the station he continued his study of the parasites of frogs prose- 

 cuted at Wiirzburg and designed for publication in connection with 

 work done there. 



There being apparently some doubt as to whether or not the advan- 

 tages of the Smithsonian seat at Naples are available to hitherto 

 unknown investigators, it may be well to state again that the applica- 

 tion of any student, who is suitably recommended to the Institution 

 as prepared to undertake original work in embryological, histological, 

 or other fields, will not fail to receive prompt consideration. 



The continued prompt and helpful action of the advisory commit- 

 tee in reporting on questions relating to appointments, etc., is appre- 

 ciated. I am glad to say that the personnel of the committee remains 

 the same as mentioned in the report of last year. 



PUBLICATIONS. 



It is mainly through its publications that that vital principle of 

 the Institution, " the diffusion of knowledge among men," is carried 

 out. The Institution proper maintains three regular series of pub- 

 lications, the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, the Smith- 

 sonian Miscellaneous Collections, and the Annual Reports, while 

 under its auspices are issued the Annual Reports, Proceedings, and 

 Bulletins of the National Museum, the Reports and Bulletins of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, and the Annals of the Astrophysical 

 Observatory, the whole presenting a fund of information covering 

 a wide range of human knowledge in both a specialized and general 

 form. 



