Report of the President 23 



the people the latest results of scientific research and discovery 

 which are flowing from the men of genius enlisted in the va- 

 rious affiliated departments of the Carnegie Institution. Dur- 

 ing the year 1916, the Carnegie Institution expended the 

 unprecedented sum of $750,710 in pure research in astronomy, 

 pure and applied chemistry, physics, geophysics, terrestrial 

 magnetism, biology, zoology, palaeontology and experimental 

 evolution. 



It has been suggested to the Trustees of the Carnegie Cor- 

 poration that they should take into consideration the means 

 which the American Museum now affords, and 

 Carnegie which may develop through further building and 

 equipment, for the wide diffusion among the peo- 

 ple, and especially among the pupils and students of our educa- 

 tional institutions, of the results of the most recent scientific 

 discoveries. For example, in the COURT OF OCEAN LIFE, 

 in the adjoining Hall of Fishes and in the Hall of Biology 

 (Darwin Hall), the discoveries which are being made in va- 

 rious parts of the world by the Carnegie Institution in these 

 subjects could be translated into visual or graphic form and 

 made to exert an influence, as is done by the remarkable 

 Oceanographic Museum at Monaco and the Institut fur Mee- 

 reskunde at Berlin. Similarly in the proposed ROTUNDA 

 OF ASTRONOMY, which forms the central feature of the 

 Museum's new plan of building, approved by the Trustees in 

 191 1, the most recent discoveries from the great astronomic 

 observatories of America, especially the work of Hale at 

 Mount Wilson, of Campbell at Mount Hamilton, of Pickering 

 at Harvard, of Lowell at Flagstaff and of other American 

 observers, could be presented visually. 



To present the subject of astronomy properly, the central 

 rotunda would cost about $500,000, representing an annual in- 

 terest and maintenance charge of approximately $30,000. By 

 this annual expenditure, the results of researches, which cost 

 the Carnegie Institution alone more than $219,000 annually, 

 could in considerable measure be brought to the pupils of the 

 schools, to the students of the universities and to the general 

 public. 



