connection with the Chemists' Club of New York City, or the National Museum in Washington, or the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, preference to be given in the order named. The chief object of the museum was to be the preservation of all new substances described as the result of chemical research, either by obtaining the same by gift or purchase from the discoverer or by causing the same to be prepared in sufficient quantity according to the discoverer's published directions-all for the purpose of facilitating comparison by subsequent observers.

The Chemists' Club of New York accepted the trust, but being unable to comply with the conditions in the Loeb will, offered to give up their claim, and the Institution indicated its willingness to accept the responsibility, through the National Museum. The fund should hereafter yield an annual income of about $1,155, though the amount for the calendar year 1920 will be slightly less.

By means of this income from the Morris Loeb fund, the Smithsonian Institution proposes to build up in the National Museum "the Loeb collection of chemical types," a permanent reference or study collection of new substances and original material resulting from chemical research. Steps will be taken to secure a competent advisory committee composed of eminent chemists of the country to advise on the policy to be pursued in dealing with investigators desiring the use of portions of type material in the Loeb collection.

The general scheme has the sanction of various governmental chemists, and the Bureau of Chemistry, Department of Agriculture, favoring the establishment of such a collection under the Museum as the proper place for a national collection, offers hearty cooperation, placing at the Museum's disposal in developing this project any of the bureau's resources in the way of personnel, equipment, and supplies.

It is hoped shortly to reorganize the division, or section, of chemical industries, in the department of arts and industries, begun in 1886. Insufficiency of funds prevents this being done at once. In the meantime the Loeb collection, as well as other chemical specimens which the agitation of this subject will doubtless bring to the Museum, will be cared for under the direction of one of the curators in arts and industries.

BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT.

The first deficiency act for 1920 included an item of $5,640 for placing the Natural History Building in the same condition as it was when occupied by the Bureau of War Risk Insurance in October, 1917. This permitted the pointing up of the damaged plastered walls and the painting of walls, ceilings, and floors in the area occupied by the bureau from October, 1917, to March, 1919.

Other improvements in this building from the regular Museum appropriation included repairs of settlement cracks in Venetian floors in exhibition halls, the pointing up of cracks and painting the walls and ceiling of these halls, painting walls and ceilings of comfo.t room and rooms 223 and 224 on third floor, painting floors in west north and west ranges, repointing open seams in the granite courses and ledges on exterior and court walls and the stone steps at south entrance, the painting of exterior surface of metal window frames of first and second stories, and painting gutters. The building in the east court was remodeled for use as a laboratory.

In the Arts and Industries Building the exterior woodwork of the windows was painted; a number of walls in the exhibition halls, offices, and laboratories were repainted, including the café; and an additional dark room was constructed in the photographic laboratory. An improved system of ventilation was installed in the mascerating room in the south shed.

The deficiency act above referred to also provided the sum of $14,000 to enable the regents of the Smithsonian to heat and fit up for the exhibition of aircraft and accessories the temporary metal structure erected in the Smithsonian Grounds by the War Department, with the understanding that the custody and control of the building be transferred to the regents of the Institution by the Secretary of War. Immediately after the building was turned over to the Institution in November, the old heating equipment was condemned and sold and arrangements made to heat and light the building from the power plant of the National Museum. Steam pipes were run from the Arts and Industries Building, and electric lights were provided for use on dark days and for police purposes at night.

To make the interior of the building suitable for exhibition purposes, a concrete floor was laid in place of the wooden floor, which had deteriorated to an extent that made its use impossible. The entire ceiling and side walls were sheathed, covered with wall board, and painted. Ventilators were installed at either end of the building, a concrete platform constructed at the east end of the building, and a glazed vestibule built at this end to be used as a public entrance. A combination storage, workroom and office was partitioned off in the southeast corner and a new comfort room constructed. The doors on the north side were closed, two doors on the west side remodeled as emergency exits, and the exterior of the building was painted.

The additions to the furniture this year included 30 exhibition cases and bases, 229 storage cases and pieces of laboratory and office furniture, 198 standard unit drawers, 602 insect drawers, and 388 special drawers.

The power plant was closed for two months and eight days, during which time electric current for light and power was purchased from the Potomac Electric Power Co. under special contract made by the Treasury Department.

The changes and repairs to the plant consisted of the installation of the forced oil-feed system for the engines purchased the previous year; the purchase and installation of asbestos covers for the four boiler drums, together with the repairing of the covering on the pipes and smoke breeching in the engine room, and the purchase and installation of a new pump for removing water of condensation from the main exhaust pipe. For the first time since the installation of the plant, in 1909, it became necessary to replace the tubes in two of the boilers and also to have the main bearings of two engines rebabbitted. Though the entire plant has been operated under pressure the deterioration is, in the opinion of the engineer, largely due to the inability of the Museum to secure competent and reliable men as stokers, firemen, and assistant engineers at the very small salaries paid.

MEETINGS AND CONGRESSES.

The annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences was held again this year in the Museum, on April 26, 27, and 28, the auditorium and committee rooms being used, respectively, for the presentation of the scientific papers and the business sessions. On the first evening the William Ellery Hale lecture in the form of a discussion by Dr. Harlow Shapley, of Mount Wilson Solar Observatory, and Dr. Heber D. Curtis, of Lick Observatory, on the scale of the universe, was followed by a conversazione in the National Gallery of Art and the adjoining halls of the Museum.

Governmental, scientific, and educational organizations making use of the auditorium and the committee rooms included: The National Women's Trade Union League of America, for the First International Congress of Working Women; the Delaware River Shipbuilders' Council, for a conference of workers in various navy yards and shipyards of the United States in reference to the Government's shipbuilding and shipping program; the American Association of Anatomists, for its annual meeting; the American Association of Ichthyologists, for its annual meeting; Southern Sociological Congress; the American Association of Museums, for its fifteenth annual meeting; the United States Department of Agriculture, for a meeting of fertilizer manufacturers in connection with an investigation of fertilizer prices; the States Relations Service of that department, for various gatherings of its employees, including a seven-day conference of its farm-management demonstrators from all parts of the country and the annual meeting of the Potomac