history and ethnological collections in Celebes. In April the Museum received a shipment of ethnological objects from Mr. Raven, including native fish traps, baskets, cloth, rope, hats, dishes, blowguns used for hunting birds, and a curious native musical instrument.

COLLINS-GARNER CONGO EXPEDITION.

Early in 1917 an expedition with the title of the Collins-Garner Congo expedition in the interests of the Smithsonian Institution, left for the French Congo and neighboring parts of west Africa. Mr. C. R. W. Aschemeier, of the department of biology, National Museum, is representing the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum as natural history collector. All of the natural history specimens collected by the expedition will come to the National Museum. The other members of the expedition are Mr., Alfred M. Collins, of Philadelphia, chief; Prof. Richard L. Garner, of New York, who is making special studies concerning apes and monkeys, manager; and Prof. Charles W. Furlong, of Boston, scientist, artist, and explorer.

RESEARCH CORPORATION.

In my annual reports for several years past I have called attention to the Research Corporation organized in 1912 under the laws of New York State, and having as its officers and directors a group of men particularly interested in the development of the industrial arts. The present Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution is one of the directors and a member of the executive committee. The certificate of incorporation declares it to be the purposes of the corporation to

Provide means for the advancement and extension of technical and scientific investigation, research, and experimentation by contributing the net earnings of the corporation over and above such sum or sums as may be reserved or retained and held as an endowment fund or working capital, and also such other moneys and property belonging to the corporation as the board of directors shall from time to time deem proper, to the Smithsonian Institution, and such other scientific and educational institutions and societies as the board of directors may from time to time select, in order to enable such institutions and societies to conduct such investigation, research, and experimentation.

The principal income of the corporation is at present derived from royalties for the use of the Cottrell process for the electrical precipitation of suspended particles. Dr. F. G. Cottrell, the inventor of this process, offered his patents to the Smithsonian Institution, but since it was not practicable for the Institution to administer them commercially, the Research Corporation was organized for that purpose. The process is now in successful use by a score of smelting and refining companies and other industrial plants and the financial condition of the corporation is very gratifying.

The corporation seeks to do for industrial arts what some other institutions are now doing for the sciences generally, for medicine, and for the improvement of social conditions. There has now been established an annual fellowship "open to general competition for the purpose of encouraging and assisting scientists in the prosecution of their investigations. To the successful competitor, the corporation offers an honorarium of twenty-five hundred dollars and the assistance of the corporation in securing the most favorable opportunity for prosecuting the particular object of study."

The Cottrell process in operation has been described in publications of the Smithsonian Institution. The precipitation processes and their applications have been briefly described as follows:

Electrical percipitation consists of the removal of suspended particles from gases by the aid of electrical discharges. The precipitation process operates by passing the gases carrying the suspended, finely divided particles between two systems of electrodes, one of which is made to carry a negative electrical charge while the other carries a positive charge. In ordinary practice the negative electrodes are small in size, such as iron wires or chains, and the positive electrodes are large, such as iron plates or pipes. The gases are divided into several channels and passed through the space between the wires and the plates or pipes, in the latter case each pipe having a wire placed along its longitudinal axis. The electrodes are charged by being connected with a source of high voltage electricity, consisting ordinarily of a high voltage transformer for increasing the electric potential up to the working voltage which varies with the size and character of the installation from 20.000 to 100,000 volts; a rectifier for changing alternating current into direct current, and a switchboard provided with the necessary standard control equipment. The suspended particles while passing between the electrodes become electrically charged and are then driven to the plates or the inner surface of the pipes by the forces of the electric field. A common example of the application of the process is the precipitation of minute particles containing copper, silver, gold, lead, zinc, and other valuable metals ordinarily carried away from smelting and refining furnaces which may by this process be recovered from such gases without interfering with the operation of the plant. The recovered dust or fume, in such cases, is often valuable and constitutes a large financial saving. In many other industrial operations where noxious gases, fumes, or dusts are given off, the process has been successfully applied, some of the materials precipitated being sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric acids; arsenic, bleaching powder, lead, zine, and other poisonous materials.

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL.

As stated in my last report, the National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences, the President of the United States appointing the representatives of the Government and authorizing the appointment of other members by the president of the academy. There was thus brought together about 50 members. representing various branches of science, and they were subdivided in several subcommittees. Joint committees were also formed in

cooperation with national scientific societies. The Research Council has since become a part of the Council of National Defense and operates in coordination with that body. In the membership of the Research Council are several of the scientific staff of the United States National Museum, your Secretary being vice chairman of the council and chairman of the military committee.

With the preparations for actual participation by the United States in the world war, the council became an important factor in the scientific work of the Government. On February 29, 1917, the Council of National Defense adopted the following resolution:

Resolved, That the Council of National Defense, recognizing that the National Research Council, at the request of the President of the President of the United States, has organized the scientific forces of the country in the interest of national defense and national welfare, requests that the National Research Council cooperate with it in matters pertaining to scientific research for national defense; and to this end the Council of National Defense suggests that the National Research Council appoint a committee of not more than three, at least one of whom shall be located in Washington, for the purpose of maintaining active relations with the director of the Council of National Defense.

Since that time the National Research Council has served as the department of science and research of the Council of National Defense and in such capacity has been charged with the organization of scientific investigations bearing on the national defense and on industries affected by the war.

Shortly after this action Dr. George E. Hale, chairman of the council, initially undertook the organization of research activities in direct cooperation with the United States Government and its various departments. Office accommodations were provided for chemistry, engineering, medicine and hygiene, and physics committees of the council, and arrangements were made to provide such accommodations also for the agriculture and psychology committees. Dr. Robert A. Millikan, chairman of the physics committee, was appointed vice chairman of the council and consented to give his entire time, upon leave of absence from the University of Chicago, to work in Washington as the executive officer of the council. Offices in New York were retained with the secretary, Dr. Cary T. Hutchinson, in charge.

Particular mention may perhaps be made of the appointment of a foreign service committee of the council and of its important mission and work as a direct aid in acquainting investigators in this country with the scientific problems which have been confronted both in military and industrial pursuits in England and France.

Two other committees of the council have been especially organized as the result of the cooperation brought about with the Council of National Defense; one a committee on navigation and nautical

instruments, appointed upon the request of the General Munitions · Board and the other a committee on relations with State research councils, appointed to consider and report upon desirable means of cooperation between the Council and State research committees.

OFFICERS OF THE COUNCIL.

George E. Hale, chairman; Charles D. Walcott, first vice chairman; Gano Dunn, scond vice chairman; R. A. Millikan, third vice chairman and executive officer; Cary T. Hutchinson, secretary.

The following members and new committees have been added to the council since my last report:

Since the close of the year the Signal Corps, desiring to avail itself of the assistance of the National Research Council, appointed Dr. R. A. Millikan, third vice chairman and executive officer, and Dr. Charles E. Mendenhall majors in the United States Army.

PUBLICATIONS.

The Institution proper issues three series of publications: Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, and Smithsonian Annual Reports. The publications of the various branches of the Institution issued under its direction include the Annual Reports, Proceedings, and Bulletins of the United States National Museum, including the Contributions from the National Herbarium; Annual Reports and Bulletins of the Bureau of American Ethnology; and the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory. All of the publications of these branches and the Annual Report of the Institution are printed by means of Congressional allotments.

Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge. Of this series, which contains in quarto form the results of studies constituting important contributions to knowledge, one memoir was published, entitled “A Contribution to the Comparative Histology of the Femur," by Dr. J. S. Foote, of Creighton Medical College, embodying the results of the author's work for a number of years on this subject.

Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.-Of this series, 19 papers forming parts of five volumes were issued, including three papers by your secretary containing the results of his field work in Cambrian geology. The annual Smithsonian exploration pamphlet appears in this series, which describes briefly the work in the field of the Smithsonian scientists and scientific expeditions, illustrated by photographs taken by the explorers in every quarter of the globe. The necessity for a second reprinting of the sixth revised edition of the Smithsonian Physical Tables indicates the continued usefulness of this work. In this series also appeared the important paper by H. Helm Clayton on the effect of variations in solar radiation on the earth's atmosphere, the possibilities of which for use in forecasting temperature are discussed elsewhere in this report.

Smithsonian report.-As stated in the report on the publications, Appendix 8, although the final proof of the 1916 report was returned to the printer in April, the books were not received before the close of the year because of the great rush of war printing at the Government Printing Office.

Special publications.-Among the special publications may be mentioned an illustrated folder describing the Smithsonian and its branches, for the use of visitors and correspondents.