Prehistoric Anthropology.-Dr. Alěs Hrdlička, Dr. Charles Peabody, and Dr. George Grant MacCurdy were appointed representatives of the Smithsonian Institution to the Fourteenth International Congress of Prehistoric Anthropology and Archeology at Geneva, September 9 to 15, 1912.

Congress of Orientalists.-Dr. Paul Haupt was appointed representative of the Smithsonian Institution and designated as delegate of the United States at the Fifteenh International Congress of Orientalists, held at Athens, April 7 to 14, 1912. Additional delegates on the part of the United States were Prof. E. Washburn Hopkins, Prof. A. V. W. Jackson, and Prof. Morris Jastrow, jr. (Unforeseen circumstances later prevented Prof. Jackson from attending.) Congress on Hygiene and Demography.-The Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography was invited by the Government, through the State Department, to meet in Washington, September 23 to 28, 1912. I accepted the invitation of the department to serve as a member of the committee on organization. Mr. W. H. Holmes, head curator of anthropology in the National Museum, has been appointed as representative of the Smithsonian Institution on the interdepartmental committee to consider the preparation of exhibits for the congress. At the close of the fiscal year, June 30, 1912, arrangements for the congress were well in hand.

Congress on Applied Chemistry.-In connection with the Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry, to be opened in Washington September 4, 1912, and subsequent meetings closing in New York City September 13, Prof. F. W. Clarke has been designated as representative of the Institution, and I have accepted an invitation to attend personally.

Royal Society.-Dr. Arnold Hague, of the United States Geological Survey, was appointed a representative of the Smithsonian Institution at the commemoration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the Royal Society of London, July 16 to 18, 1912.

GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL BUILDING.

There is now pending in the House of Representatives a bill passed by the Senate, April 15, 1912, granting to the George Washington Memorial Association permission to erect on the Government reservation known as Armory Square, a memorial building to cost not less than $2,000,000," where large conventions or in which large public functions can be held, or where the permanent headquarters and records of national organizations can be administered." By the provisions of the bill the control and administration of the building would be vested in the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and the association is to provide "a permanent endowment

fund of not less than $500,000, to be administered by the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, the income from which shall, as far as necessary, be used for the maintenance of said building."

There is need in Washington of such a structure as here proposed. It would be a fitting memorial to George Washington-the gatheringplace and headquarters for patriotic, scientific, medical, and other organizations interested in promoting the welfare of the American people, the development of the country in science, literature, and art.

NATIONAL MUSEUM.

The past year was marked by a new feature in the administration of the National Museum-its opening to the public on Sundays. This measure had long been advocated without effect, and even now the practice must be for a time limited to the new building. Public appreciation was evidenced on the first day of Sunday opening, October 8, 1911, by the presence of 15,467 visitors. The average number of visitors on Sundays up to the close of the year was 1,666, as compared with 693 on week days.

There was added to the permanent collections of the Museum a total of 238,000 specimens and objects, an increase of 10,000 over the year preceding. Of these accessions about 168,000 were biological, 63,000 geological and paleontological, and 7,000 anthropological. A large number of valuable temporary additions in the form of loans were made to the National Gallery of Art, to the collection of art textiles, and to those of the division of history. Among the accessions that I may specially mention are the first aeroplane (Wright) acquired by the Government; important memorials of Gens. Gansevoort and Custer, Rear Admirals Foote and Schley, Commanders Maury and Hosley, and other eminent soldiers and sailors, and mementos of the Washington, Ball, Cropper, McLane, Bradford, and Bailey-Myers-Mason families; some interesting Polish coins dating from 1386 to 1835; and a very large and unique series of postage stamps and other objects relating to the operation of the United States Postal Service. There were also received about 4,000 mammals, besides birds, reptiles, fishes, and invertebrates from the Paul J. Rainey expedition to British East Africa; a large collection of Cambrian fossils; and an unrivaled collection of some 75,000 specimens of fossil echnioderms deposited by Mr. Frank Springer. From the Bureau of Fisheries were received extensive and important collections of fishes from Japan and the Philippines and over 27,000 specimens of marine invertebrates. Other additions of importance are noted by the assistant secretary in his report on another page.

About three-fourths of the exhibition space in the new building has already been made accessible to the public, and before the close

of another year it is expected that the last of the halls will be opened. The installations, however, are to a large extent provisional and much work will still remain to be done to complete their permanent arrangement.

By the transfer of the natural history and anthropological exhibits to the new building, space has become available in the older buildings for the better exhibition of the large collections of the department of arts and industries. The very interesting series of objects commemorative of eminent Americans and of important events in the history of the United States; the collections illustrative of art textiles, graphic arts, and ceramics, as well as firearms, electrical inventions, and other technological material may now receive more attention and be more adequately displayed than has heretofore been practicable.

The picture gallery in the new building, constituting the National Gallery of Art, continues to grow in public interest and importance. A special exhibition of part of the collection of American and oriental art presented to the Nation by Mr. Charles L. Freer was held from April 15 to June 15. The objects displayed included 38 paintings by Whistler, Tryon, and others, 13 Japanese paintings, 36 Chinese paintings, a number of Chinese bronzes, one dating back to 1766-1122 B. C., and examples of Chinese, Persian, and Mesopotamian pottery, ancient Egyptian glass, and Persian and Indo-Persian illuminations. Mr. William T. Evans, of New York, has made 10 important additions to his collection of works of contemporary American painters, now numbering 137 pieces by 98 artists.

A meeting in memory of Mr. Francis D. Millet, lost in the Titanic disaster, was held in the auditorium of the new building on the evening of May 10, 1912, under the auspices of The American Federation of Arts, when addresses were made by Senators Root and Lodge, and others. On this occasion I called attention to the valuable services rendered to the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Millet as chairman. of the advisory committee of the National Gallery of Art.

Meetings of a number of scientific organizations were held as usual in the auditorium, including the usual annual April meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute of Architects, and the Red Cross conference.

On March 28 and 29 the Washington Academy of Sciences held a conversazione and an exhibition of important recent apparatus, methods, and results pertaining to the scientific investigations carried on by the different Government bureaus and scientific institutions of Washington.

Models and pictures of designs for the memorials to Abraham Lincoln and Commodore Perry were exhibited in several rooms of the new building and attracted much public attention.

The publications issued included the annual report for 1911, numerous papers of the Proceedings, and several Bulletins, which will be enumerated in detail in the usual volume devoted to the operations of the National Museum.

BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY.

The operations of the Bureau of American Ethnology during the last year are stated in detail on another page by the ethnologist-incharge of that branch of the Institution's activities. The systematic researches bearing on the history, languages, manners, and customs of the American Indians cover a wide range, and the results of these studies are published as soon as completed. Since the organization of the bureau under the Smithsonian Institution in 1879, 27 annual reports in 32 royal octavo volumes have been issued, and more than 50 bulletins, the collection comprising a most valuable ethnological library. The demand for the "Handbook of American Indians," which is printed in two volumes, has so far exceeded the authorized edition that a measure has been introduced and is now pending in Congress for reprinting it.

The recent field work of the bureau includes:

(1) A visit to El Morro, New Mexico, where impressions of some Spanish inscriptions dating from the year 1606 and having an important bearing on the early history of the Pueblo tribes, were made; (2) excavations in the Jemez Valley in a ruined pueblo on a mesa 1,800 feet high, the ruins bearing evidence of occupancy at two different periods, and containing some interesting pottery, traces of textiles, and other objects; (3) field work to determine the western limit of the ancient Pueblo culture in Arizona; and many other lines of investigation, discussed by Mr. Hodge in an appendix to this report.

The construction of the Panama Canal has aroused so greatly public interest in the aboriginal remains of the West Indies that the bureau has arranged for more extended studies in West Indian archeology. Researches thus far made indicate that the Tainan culture of Porto Rico and the Dominican Republic was represented in the Lesser Antilles by an agricultural people, probably Arawak, who were conquered and absorbed by the marauding Carib. Types of pottery found in some of the Lesser Antilles indicate their occupancy by people superior in culture to the Carib and to those found there at the time of the discovery by Columbus.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.

There has been an increase of more than 10 per cent in the number of packages handled by the Exchange Service during the past year as compared with the preceding 12 months, the total number being 315,492. These packages weighed over 284 tons.

No change has been made in the amount ($32,200) granted by Congress during the past four years for the support of this branch of Government work carried on under the direction of the Institution, and the usual sum was collected from various Government and State establishments for services in connection with the transportation of exchanges, the total available resources for meeting the expenses of the system being $36,591.02.

The publications dispatched by the Exchange Service are classified under four heads: First, the Congressional Record; second, " Parliamentary documents"; third, "Departmental documents"; fourth, "Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications.”

The term "Parliamentary documents" as here used refers to publications set aside by law for exchange with foreign Governments, and includes not only copies of documents printed by order of either House of Congress, but copies of each publication issued by any department, bureau, commission, or officer of the Government. The object in sending these publications abroad is to procure for the use of the Congress of the United States a complete series of the publications of other Governments, and the returns are deposited in the Congressional Library.

The term "Departmental documents" embraces all the publications delivered at the Institution by the various Government departments, bureaus, or commissions for distribution to their correspondents abroad, from whom they desire to obtain similar publications in exchange. The publications received in return are deposited in the various departmental libraries.

The "Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications" are received chiefly from learned societies, universities, colleges, scientific institutes, and museums in the United States and transmitted to similar institutions in all parts of the world.

At the request of the Secretary for the Interior of the Union of South Africa the Institution discontinued the sending of full sets of governmental documents to Cape Colony and the Transvaal and partial sets to Natal and the Orange River Colony, substituting one full set for the Government of the Union of South Africa. There are therefore now sent through the Exchange Service to regular foreign depositories only 54 full and 32 partial sets of official documents.

No countries were added during the year to the list of those with which the immediate exchange of official parliamentary journals is carried on, the number of countries taking part in this exchange being 29.