276 ANE"UAL KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1919. 
this information, primarily for the specific purpose of supplying 
data to the American representatives at the peace conference. As 
the Director of the Survey states in his fortieth annual report: 
Two general purposes were served — first that of obtaining a clear under- 
standing of the relations between our own war needs and the foreign sources 
of supply from which these needs must or could be met; second, that of ob- 
taining an understanding of the bearing of mineral resources upon the origin 
and conduct of the war and upon the political and commercial readjustments 
that would follow the end of hostilities. 
This work, of a kind that so far as knowm has not been previously 
undertaken by any national geological survey, has been continued 
with the view that it is important for those who direct American in- 
dustries to possess as much information as possible concerning those 
foreign mineral resources upon which they can draw or against 
which they must compete. The results aimed at are directly practi- 
cal and are largely obtained by compilation of available published 
and unpublished material, as it is manifestly impossible to make 
direct detailed investigations of the mineral resources of all foreign 
countries. Nevertheless the work appears to fall appropriately 
within the field of a geological bureau, and if it can be made to 
furnish the opportunity, hitherto lacking, for geologists in the Gov- 
ernment service to make first-hand comparison between our own 
mineral deposits and those of other lands the experiment will prob- 
ably bear scientific fruit. 
CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. 
Mineralogy and paleontology are so closely related to geology that 
there can be no question of the propriety of including the pursuit 
of these sciences within the scope of a geological survey. The appli- 
cation of chemistry and physics to geological problems admits of 
more discussion. Chemical work, however, as carried on in connec- 
tion with geological investigations is of such special character and 
must be conducted in such intimate contact with geological data as 
to make it almost certain that better results can be obtained with a 
special staff and equipment than would be possible were the routine 
and investigative work in geological chemistry turned over to some 
central bureau of chemistry. The same argument is believed to be 
applicable also to physics. Eesearch in geophysics was at one time 
a recognized function of the United States Geological Survey, but 
since the founding of the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie In- 
stitution of Washington this field has been left almost entirely to 
that splendid organization, which is unhampered by some of the 
unfortunate restrictions of a Government bureau. Under these par- 
ticular and unusual conditions this course may have been wise. 
