Miscellaneous Intelligence. 155 



IV. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for 

 the year ending Jane SO, 1910. Pp. 89. Washington, 1910. — 

 The report of Dr. Walcott, recently issued, gives an interesting 

 summary of the work of the Smithsonian Institution in its many 

 lines of activity. Although the Institution is already committed 

 to so much, it is interesting to note that the Secretary is planning 

 to further extend its usefulness. He calls attention to the import- 

 ance of a national seismological laboratory, observations at which 

 would not only serve to give a large mass of important scientific 

 data, but might also serve to predict occurrences as serious as 

 that at San Francisco in 1906. A number of similar laboratories 

 are now being conducted in different parts of the world, and it is 

 a reproach to this country that it has taken no steps in this 

 direction hitherto. The estimate of initial expense involved is 

 moderate, amounting to some $20,000 for the equipment of the 

 laboratory and the expense of the first year. It is much to be 

 hoped that it will be found practicable to undertake this work at 

 an early date, although it is intimated that it may be necessary 

 to look for a special gift ; such gifts have already been made 

 effective in other lines of research. 



The total permanent fund of the Institution amounts to nearly 

 one million dollars, and the appropriations for the year covered 

 in this report amounted to $720,500. The Secretary remarks 

 with some detail upon the large and valuable collections made by 

 the Roosevelt expedition, the work of which was comprised 

 between April, 1909, and March, 1910. It is stated that the series 

 of large and small mammals from East Africa is probably more 

 valuable than is to be found in any other museum in the world. 

 The series of birds, reptiles and plants, is also of great import- 

 ance. Of the special investigations now being carried on or 

 planned for the near future, may be mentioned that of Dr. Wal- 

 cott on the Cambrian and pre-Cambrian rocks in Western Canada ; 

 also the biological survey of the Panama Canal zone to be under- 

 taken in the winter of 1910-1911 ; and the work of Dr. A. 

 Hrdlicka on the antiquity of man in South Africa. These last 

 researches, carried on for two months in the spring of 1910, fail 

 to substantiate a large part of the claims that have been made. 

 The specimens, both human and archeological, agree with those 

 of the American Indian, and, so far as observed, bear only intru- 

 sive relations to the Quaternary or Tertiary deposits with which 

 they are associated. It is noted that the new museum building is 

 practically completed in essential respects, and the transfer of 

 collections and laboratories is going on rapidly. 



The results of the work of the Astrophysical Observatory are 

 summarized by the Director, C. 6. Abbott, as follows : " The work 

 of the year is notable for the determination of the absolute scale 

 of pyrheliometry and for the success of spectrobolometric observa- 

 tions of the solar constant of radiation on Mount Whitney. 

 These agree with simultaneous observations of the same kind on 



