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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 
BOARD OF REGENTS OF 


THE SMITHSONIAN 
INSTITUTION 


SHOWING THE 


OPERATIONS, EXPENDITURES, AND 
CONDITION OF THE INSTITUTION 
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30 


1944 


See INCRS 


(Publication 3776) 


UNITED STATES 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
WASHINGTON : 1945 


For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. 
Price $1.50 cents 


LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
Washington, November 20, 1944. 
To the Congress of the United States: 

In accordance with section 5593 of the Revised Statutes of the 
United States, I have the honor, in behalf of the Board of Regents, 
to submit to Congress the annual report of the operations, expendi- 
tures, and conditions of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 
ended June 30, 1944. I have the honor to be, 

Respectfully, 
A. Wetmore, Acting Secretary. 
0 


CONTENTS 


Tre fete CES ih cl Soe ee La wh he es ee cad Poe ge al 
Wartime activities Of the Institution... 2.02.0 S. 222424222 tes 
Summary of the year’s activities of the branches of the Institution. Bet 8 
Pbherestablishmentas sac is 2 Me eee CE ee Ce See et eis 
Mesa OUNCE EOREOINGR 2 20) Step ee er ee Pl ee ah 
PET ATICOS en Nee ees. kes see ee bee ee eS es ee 
velit Arthur lecture: .c.0 2 cs 8 oh eee Pe tee Ser eee 
OTIS SY 07S IR EE ER ae nr see 2s ek eee Aue 
De ah Re os ie ee er ie ees oe Ne tnd eee Linea t io 
Appendix 1. Report on the United States National Museum_-_--_---_ ~~ 
2. Report on the National Gallery of Art____-______- Bie die 
3. Report on the National Collection of Fine Arts________-_-- 
4. Report on the Freer Gallery of Art._._._-2-.---2_=+-.---=- 
5. Report on the Bureau of American Ethnology___-_-----_--- 
6. Report on the International Exchange Service_____-__--_-_- 
7. Report on the National Zoological Park --_--__---.--------- 
8. Report on the Astrophysical Observatory--_-_-__--_------ 
OU Reporh On the Mbrany 2) = oe ne eA eee ee 
20. Renot, Of MUONCHGIONS “22002220 y oe eben Soe 
Report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents____-_-_-_--_- 


GENERAL APPENDIX 


Solar variation and weather, by Charles G. Abbot_.___-___-____--_____- 
Astronomy in a world at war, by A. Vibert Douglas- ------_- 2 Vin ie Syale oi 
The structure of the universe, by Claude William Heaps__--_--_-_-_-_-- 
Industrial science looks ahead, by David Sarnoff_________________- eres 
The new microscopes, by R. E. Seidel and M. Elizabeth Winter-_-_-_-_____ 
Radio acoustic ranging (R. A. R.), by Commander K. T. Adams_-______ __ 
The David W. Taylor Model Basin, by Rear Admiral Herbert 8. Howard_ 
Research for aeronautics—its planning and application, by W. S. Farren__ 
Human limits in flight, by Byran H. C. Matthews___-_---_-_-----_-_-- 
Trans-Arctic aviation, by Lt. Elmer Plischke--_______---.-.--_-_-_---___ 
Our petroleum resources, by Wallace E. Pratt_....---_---------------- 
Woods and trees: Philosophical implications of some facts of science, by 
ne ene kellie tc TeC Ker tae Ne Unt me eae ete. bs ee eee Le 
Biology and medicine, by Asa Crawford Chandler_-_--___-----_--_---___- 
me lecnst pineies Dy b.a. UU WarOvccos. 22 20545. eee SL 
whe coding moh, by i..A. Porter... oo... 22 S22. 22nd ol. ee ne 
Grassland and farmland as factors in the cyclical development of Eurasian 
FRELOEY A OVG). eUNBELD mI bie. Stes os. ok el See eee eck 
Southern Arabia, a problem for the future, by Carleton S. Coon__-_____-_- 
The New World Paleo-Indian, by Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr__-__-_____-- 
Paster aend. ty Almom Metraus. 275 oe a 
fers ruses, OY ©, L)-CAdMmam. ee oe 8 See aa 
The development of penicillin in medicine, by H. W. Florey and E. Chain_ 
Recent advances in anesthesia, by John C. Krantz, Jr___-__________-_-- 
Aspects of the epidemiology of tuberculosis, by Leland W. Parr-_-------- 


LIST OF PLATES 


Secretary’s Report: 


Plates 1, 22232220 2.o25\S ee ope eee ee ee 


Solar variation and weather (Abbot): 


Plates: Yi, vn 52x ie ee ee 


The new microscopes (Seidel and Winter): 


Plates Ih= 225222 le See ae ee es ee 


Radio acoustic ranging (Adams): 


Taylor Model Basin (Howard): 


Plates, 14s Se ee eo eS 


Human limits in flight (Matthews) : 


Plates 132 sok 22s Fea att eee ee eee aes 


The codling moth (Porter): 


12d Hic t~ tall Cn | aCe ee Pre EO LSS Ce Oe oh ey ee ee 


New World Paleo-Indian (Roberts): 


Plates WTO Se ee ee a ee ee ee 


Easter Island (Métraux): 


Plates: 142 sn oo a a ap ee 


Iv 


THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
June 30, 1944 


Presiding Officer ex officio—Frankuin D. Roosevett, President of the United 
States. 
Chancellor.—HAr.Lan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States. 
Members of the Institution: 
FRANKLIN D. RooSEvELtT, President of the United States. 
Henry A. WALLACE, Vice President of the United States. 
Haran F. Strong, Chief Justice of the United States. 
CoRDELL HULL, Secretary of State. 
Henry MorgentHAv, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury. 
Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War. 
Francis Bippie, Attorney General. 
FRANK C. WALKER, Postmaster General. 
JAMES V. FoRRESTAL, Secretary of the Navy. 
Harrop L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior. 
CLAUDE R. WICKARD, Secretary of Agriculture. 
JESSE H. JonES, Secretary of Commerce. 
FRANCES PERKINS, Secretary of Labor. 
Regents of the Institution: 
Haran F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States, Chancellor. 
Henry A. WALLACE, Vice President of the United States. 
ALBEN W. BARKLEY, Member of the Senate. 
BENNETT CHAMP CLARK, Member of the Senate. 
CLARENCE CANNON, Member of the House of Representatives. 
Foster STEARNS, Member of the House of Representatives. 
Epwakrp E. Cox, Member of the House of Representatives. 
Freperic A. DELANO, citizen of Washington, D. C. 
Ro.uanp S. Morgis, citizen of Pennsylvania. 
Harvey N. Davis, citizen of New Jersey. 
ARTHUR H. CoMPTOoN, citizen of [llinois. 
VANNEVAR BusgH, citizen of Washington, D. C. 
FREDERIC C. WALCOTT, citizen of Connecticut. 
Executive Committee.—F RepERic A. DELANO, VANNEVAR BUSH, CLARENCE CANNON. 
Secretary.— CHARLES G. ABBOT. 
Assistant Secretary.—ALEXANDER WETMORE. 
Administrative assistant to the Secretary. HARRY W. DOBSEY. 
T'reasurer.—NIcHOoLAs W. DORSEY. 
Chief, editorial division.—WEBSTER P. TRUE. 
Librarian.—LeILa FF’, CLARK. 
Personnel officer —B. T. CARWITHEN. 
Property clerk.—JAMES H. HIxt. 


UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 


Keeper ex officio—CHARLES G. ABBOT. 
Director.—ALEXANDER WETMORE. 
Associate Director.—JoHN E. GRAF. 


VI ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


SCIENTIFIC STAFF 


DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY : 
Frank M. Setzler, head curator; A. J. Andrews, chief preparator. 

Division of Archeology; Neil M. Judd, curator; Waldo R. Wedel, associate 
curator ; R. G. Paine, scientific aid; J. Townsend Russell, honorary assistant 
curator of Old World archeology. 

Diwision of Ethnology: H. W. Krieger, curator; Arthur P. Rice, collaborator. 

Division of Physical Anthropology: T, Dale Stewart, curator; M. T. Newman, 
associate curator.* 

Collaborator in anthropology : George Grant MacCurdy. 
DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY: 
Waldo L. Schmitt, head curator; W. L. Brown, chief taxidermist; 
Aime M. Awl, illustrator. 

Division of Mammals: Remington Kellogg, curator; D. H. Johnson, associate 
curator* ; H. Harold Shamel, scientific aid ; A. Brazier Howell, collaborator ; 
Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., associate. 

Division of Birds: Herbert Friedmann, curator; H. G. Deignan, associate 
curator; Alexander Wetmore, custodian of alcoholic and skeleton collec- 
tions; Arthur C. Bent, collaborator. 

Division of Reptiles and Batrachians: Doris M. Cochran, associate curator. 

Division of Fishes: Leonard P. Schultz, curator; BE. D. Reid, scientific aid. 

Division of Insects: L. O. Howard, honorary curator; Edward A. Chapin, 
curator; R. E. Blackwelder, associate curator.* 

Section of Hymenoptera: S. A. Rohwer, custodian; W. M. Mann, assist- 
ant custodian; Robert A. Cushman, assistant custodian. 

Section of Myriapoda: O. F. Cook, custodian. 

Section of Diptera : Charles T. Greene, assistant custodian. 

Section of Coleoptera: L. L. Buchanan, specialist for Casey collection. 

Section of Lepidoptera: J. T. Barnes, collaborator. 

Section of Forest Tree Beetles: A. D. Hopkins, custodian. 

Division of Marine Invertebrates: Waldo L. Schmitt, curator; James O. 
Maloney, aid; Mrs. Harriet Richardson Searle, collaborator ; Max M. Ellis, 
collaborator; J. Percy Moore, collaborator; Joseph A. Cushman, collabo- 
rator in Foraminifera. 

Division of Mollusks: Paul Bartsch, curator; Harald A. Rehder, associate 
curator; Joseph P. E. Morrison, assistant curator. 

Section of Helminthological Collections: Benjamin Schwartz, collabo- 
rator. 

Division of Echinoderms: Austin H. Clark, curator. 

Division of Plants (National Herbarium) : W. R. Maxon, curator; Ellsworth 
P. Killip, associate curator; Emery C. Leonard, assistant curator; Conrad 
V. Morton, assistant curator; Egbert H. Walker, assistant curator; John 
A. Stevenson, custodian of C. G. Lloyd mycological collection. 

Section of Grasses: Agnes Chase, custodian. 

Section of Cryptogamie Collections: O. F. Cook, assistant curator. 
Section of Higher Algae: W. T. Swingle, custodian. 

Section of Lower Fungi: D. G. Fairchild, custodian. 

Section of Diatoms: Paul S. Conger, associate curator. 

Associates in Zoology: Theodore §. Palmer, William B. Marshall, A. G. Bov- 
ing, W. K. Fisher, C. R. Shoemaker, E. A. Goldman. 

Associates in Botany: Henri Pittier, F. A. McClure. 


*Now on war duty. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY VII 


DEPARTMENT OF BroLocy—Continued. 
Collaborator in Zoology: Robert Sterling Clark. 
Collaborators in Biology: A. K. Fisher, David C. Graham. 
DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY: 
R. S. Bassler, head curator; Jessie G. Beach, aid. 

Division of Mineralogy and Petrology: W. F. Foshag, curator; E. P. Hender- 
son, associate curator; B. O. Reberholt, scientific aid; Frank L. Hess, 
custodian of rare metals and rare earths. 

Division of Invertebrate Paleontology and Paleobotany: Gustay A. Cooper, 
curator. 

Section of Invertebrate Paleontology: T. W. Stanton, custodian of 
Mesozoic collection ; J. B. Reeside, Jr., honorary custodian of Mesozoic 
collection; Paul Bartsch, curator of Cenozoic collection. 

Division of Vertebrate Paleontology: Charles W. Gilmore, curator; C. Lewis 
Gazin, associate curator* ; Norman H. Boss, chief preparator. 

Associates in Mineralogy: W. T. Schaller, S. H. Perry. 

Associate in Paleontology: T. W. Vaughan. 

Associate in Petrology: Whitman Cross. 

DEPARTMENT OF EXNGINEERING AND INDUSTRIES: 
Carl W. Mitman, head curator. 

Division of Engineering: Carl W. Mitman, head curator in charge; Frank A. 
Taylor, curator.* 

Section of Transportation and Civil Engineering: Frank A. Taylor, in 
charge.* 

Section of Aeronautics: Paul E. Garber, associate curator,* F. C. Reed, 
acting associate curator. 

Section of Mechanical Engineering: Frank A. Taylor, in charge.* 

Section of Electrical Engineering and Communications: Frank A 
Taylor, in charge.* 

Section of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering: Carl W. Mitman, in 
charge. 

Section of Physical Sciences and Measurement: Frank A. Taylor, in 
charge.* 

Section of ‘Tools: Frank A. Taylor, in charge.* 

Division of Crafts and Industries: Frederick L. Lewton, curator; Elizabeth 
W. Rosson, assistant curator. 

Section of Textiles: Frederick L. Lewton, in charge. 

Section of Woods and Wood Technology: William N. Watkins, associate 
curator. 

Section of Chemical Industries: Frederick L. Lewton, in charge. 

Section of Agricultural Industries: Frederick L. Lewton, in charge. 

Division of Medicine and Public Health: Q@harles Whitebread, associate 
curator. 

Division of Gruphic Arts: R. P. Tolman, curator. 

Section of Photography: A. J. Olmsted, associate curator. 

Division or History: T. T. Belote, curator; Charles Carey, associate curator ; 
J. Russell Sirlouis, scientific aid; Catherine L. Manning, assistant curator 
(philately). 


ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF 


Chief of correspondence and documents.—H. S. Bryant. 
Assistant chief of correspondence and documents.—L. E. COMMERFORD. 


*Now on war duty. 


VIII ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Superintendent of buildings and labor.—L, L. OLIVER. 

Assistant superintendent of buildings and labor.—CHARLES C. SINCLAIR. 
EHditor.—PAavutL H. OEHSER. 

Accountant and auditor.—N. W. DoRsEY. 

Photographer.—G. I. HIGHTOWER. 

Property officer.—A. W. WILDING. 

Assistant librarian.—HLISABETH H. GAZIN. 


NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 
Trustees: 
THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES, Chairman. 
THE SECRETARY OF STATE. 
THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. 
THE SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
DaAvip K. E. BRUCE. 
FERDINAND LAMMOT BELIN. 
DUNCAN PHILLIPS. 
SAMUEL H. Kress. 
CHESTER DALE. 
President.—Davip K. E. Bruce. 
Vice President.— FERDINAND LAMMOT BELIN. 
Secretary-Treasurer.—HUNTINGTON CAIRNS. 
Director.—Davip E. FINLey. 
Administrator.—H. A. McBrRIDE. 
General Counsel.—HUNTINGTON CAIRNS. 
Chief Curator.—JoHN WALKER. 
Assistant Director.—MaccILuL JAMES. 


NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 
Acting Director.—RvEt P. TOLMAN. 
FREER GALLERY OF ART 


Director.—A. G. WENLEY. 
Assistant Director.—GRACE DUNHAM QUEST. 
Associate in research.—J. A. Pope. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


Chief.—MATTHEW W. STIRLING. 

Senior ethnologists.—H. B. CoLuins, Jr., JOHN P. HAarRinetTon, JOHN R. SWANTON. 

Senior archeologist FRANK H. H. RoBerts, Jr. 

Senior anthropologist.—H. G. BARNETT. 

Senior ethnologist.—W. N. FENTON. 

Editor.—M. HELEN PALMER. 

Librarian.—MIiriaAM B. KETCHUM. 

Iilustrator.—EpwWIN G. CASSEDY. 

INSTITUTE OF SocIAL ANTHROPOLOGY.—JULIAN H. StTewarp, Director; ALFRED 
METRAUX, Assistant Director. 


INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE 


Secretary (in charge).—CHARLES G. ABBOT. 
Acting Chief Clerk.—F. E. Gass. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY IX 


NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 


Director.—WILLIAM M. Mann. 
Assistant Director.—ERNEST P. WALKER. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 


Director.—CHARLES G. ABBOT. 

DIVISION OF ASTROPHYSICAL RESEARCH: Loyal B. Aldrich, assistant director; 
William H. Hoover, senior astrophysicist. 

DIVISION OF RADIATION AND ORGANISMS: Earl S. Johnston, assistant director; 
Edward D. McAlister, senior physicist; Leland B. Clark, engineer (precision 
instruments) ; Robert L. Weintraub, associate biochemist ;*Leonard Price, junior 
physicist (biophysics). 


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REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 


C. G. ABBOT 
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1944 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. 


GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to submit herewith my report show- 
ing the activities and condition of the Smithsonian Institution and the 
Government bureaus under its administrative charge during the fiscal 
year ended June 30, 1944. The first 12 pages contain a summary ac- 
count of the affairs of the Institution; it will again be noted that many 
activities usually included in this section are missing, wartime con- 
ditions having forced their suspension. Appendixes 1 to 10 give more 
detailed reports of the operations of the National Museum, the Na- 
tional Gallery of Art, the National Collection of Fine Arts, the 
Freer Gallery of Art, the Bureau of American Ethnology, the Inter- 
national Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, the Astrophysical 
Observatory, which now includes the divisions of astrophysical re- 
search and of radiation and organisms, the Smithsonian library, and of 
the publications issued under the direction of the Institution. On 
page 110 is the financial report of the executive committee of the Board 
of Regents. 

Change in the Secretaryship.—This will be my last report, as on 
June 20, 1944, I addressed the following communication to the Board 
of Regents: 

Having occupied the post of Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution since 
February 1928, and of Acting Secretary for one year prior to that, and having 
passed the age of 72 years, I wish to resign from that office, my resignation to take 
effect as of July 1, 1944. 

I feel that it would be quite unfair to the Institution to continue in this re- 
sponsible position when in the nature of things my capacity must gradually begin 
to decline. In tendering my resignation, I wish to express my gratitude to the 
Board for its kindly and helpful attitude, and my desire to be of any service 
which the Board or my successor may feel disposed to suggest. 

Accordingly on July 1, 1944, I ceased to be Secretary of the In- 
stitution, and Dr. Alexander Wetmore, Assistant Secretary, took over 
the duties of the position as Acting Secretary. I wish to record here 
publicly my appreciation of the unfailing helpfulness and support 


1 


2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


accorded to me by the staff of the Institution, and to bespeak for my 
successor and for the Institution their continued loyalty and devoted 
service. 


WARTIME ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTITUTION 


During another full year of war, the Institution again utilized its 
capabilities to the fullest extent in aiding the Army and Navy and the 
various war agencies. Its normal peacetime research and exploration 
program was largely abandoned except for those projects designed 
to promote better cultural relations with the other American re- 
publics, and its publications were restricted almost entirely to papers 
having a bearing on the war or on the other Americas. To visitors 
to the Institution, these changes would not be apparent, as its visible 
features—museums and art galleries—have continued to operate on 
full schedule. In fact, hours of opening have been expanded to in- 
clude Sundays for the benefit of the large numbers of service per- 
sonnel stationed around Washington and passing through. But the 
time of the staff—aside from necessary curatorial work and the 
recording of observations the cessation of which would result in gaps 
in the scientific record—has been devoted largely to furnishing tech- 
nical information and assistance urgently needed by Army, Navy, 
and war agencies. 

Strategic information to Army and Navy. ace scientific staff of 
the Institution and its branches includes specialists in many branches 
of biology, geology, anthropology, astrophysics, engineering, and 
technology, and these scientists have been called upon constantly since 
Pearl Harbor to answer questions confronting Army and Navy 
officials. The present war, covering as it does widely scattered 
regions of the earth, many of them little known to Americans, has 
required the assembling of large amounts of data on the peoples, 
geography, disease-harboring insects, animals and plants, and other 
features of these far-flung regions. The Smithsonian Institution has 
been able to furnish, both directly and through the Ethnogeographic 
Board, described below, replies to hundreds of urgent questions of this 
nature, and some staff members have been in almost constant con- 
sultation with Army and Navy officials. Furthermore, a number of 
war-connected research projects have been assigned to the Institution, 
and its laboratory facilities have been utilized from time to time for 
Army and Navy investigations. 

Ethnogeographic Board.—As stated in my last report, the Ethno- 
geographic Board is a nongovernmental agency, set up jointly by 
the Smithsonian Institution, the National Research Council, the 
American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Science Re- 
search Council, to serve as a clearinghouse between the Army, Navy, 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 3 


and war agencies on the one hand, and the scientific and educational 
institutions of the Nation on the other. Many urgent reports and 
items of strategic information have been furnished by the Board prin- 
cipally on the peoples, geography, and related features of war areas. 
The offices of the Board are in the Smithsonian building, and three 
members of the Institution’s staff were assigned to assist the Director, 
Dr. William Duncan Strong. The Army and Navy found the ser- 
vices of the Board so useful that each appointed liaison officers to 
facilitate contact. ‘The Board plans to continue in operation as long 
as needed during the coming fiscal year. 

Inter-American Cooperation—Through invitation by other agen- 
cies and through its own initiative, the Institution engaged in a 
number of activities designed to promote better cultural relations with 
the other American republics. Work on the monumental Handbook 
of South American Indians, under the editorship of Dr. Julian H. 
Steward, was advanced materially. Volume 1, “The Marginal 
Tribes,” and volume 2, “The Andean Civilizations,” went to the 
printer toward the close of the fiscal year, and the manuscripts of 
volumes 3 and 4 were well on toward completion. The editorial work 
on this project is financed by the State Department, and the printing 
costs will be borne by the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian 
Institution, as the Handbook will appear in the Bureau’s Bulletin 
series. 

In September 1943 Dr. Steward was appointed Director of the 
Institute of Social Anthropology, an autonomous unit of the Bureau 
of American Ethnology reporting to the Secretary, created to carry 
out cooperative training in anthropological teaching and research 
with the other American republics as part of the program of the 
Interdepartmental Committee for Cooperation with the American 
Republics. The work of the Institute in Mexico was begun in co- 
operation with the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia of the Instituto 
Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, and plans were pending for 
work in several other American republics. Dr. Steward also served 
on the Temporary Organizing Committee of the Inter-American 
Society of Anthropology and Geography, which had been started on 
his initiative during the previous year. Dr. Ralph L. Beals served 
as secretary of the committee and editor of the quarterly journal of 
the Society, Acta Americana. Paid membership in the Society from 
all parts of the Americas reached a total of 800. 

A valuable biological project is the publication by the Institution 
of a “Checklist of the Coleopterous Insects of Mexico, Central America, 
the West Indies, and South America,” by Dr. R. E. Blackwelder. 
No list of this important insect group now exists, and entomologists of 
all the Americas will find it indispensable in future researches. The 


4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


first and second parts appeared in print during the year, and the 
third part was in press. 

A number of scientists on the Institution’s staff made trips to other 
American republics during the year in the furtherance of cooperative 
scientific projects in biology, geology, and anthropology. 

Other wartime activities —As stated above, for the benefit of mili- 
tary and naval personnel and war workers the Smithsonian and 
National Museum buildings have again been kept open all day on Sun- 
days. To accomplish this with available funds, it was necessary to 
have the buildings closed on Monday mornings. Sunday Museum 
tours for service personnel were arranged in the Natural History 
building through cooperation with the U. 8S. O. <A Field Collector’s 
Manual in Natural History was published and distributed free on 
request to Army and Navy personnel. One thousand copies each were 
turned over to the Army and Navy for distribution through their own 
channels. 

War Committee.—The Smithsonian War Committee appointed early 
in 1941, after canvassing fully all the possibilities of increasing the 
Institution’s usefulness in the war and embodying the results of this 
study in recommendation for action, felt that its function was fulfilled 
and asked that it be dissolved. In assenting to the dissolution of the 
committee, I wrote to the chairman, C. W. Mitman, as follows: 

I beg to express, for myself and on behalf of the Institution, a deep sense of 
the value of the work of the committee in these several years, and the feeling 


that those of its recommendations which have been carried through cannot but 
have been very helpful to the war effort. 


SUMMARY OF THE YEAR’S ACTIVITIES OF THE BRANCHES OF THE 
INSTITUTION 


National Museum.—Again this year the time of the scientific staff 
has been largely occupied with conferences on war problems with 
Army, Navy, and war agency officials and with furnishing technical 
information on requests to military and naval organizations. The 
Museum buildings have again been kept open all day on Sundays for 
the benefit of service personnel, and Sunday Museum tours were ar- 
ranged for them in cooperation with the U. S. O. New accessions 
for the year totaled 239,640 specimens, an increase of more than 
9,000 over last year. Among the outstanding additions to the col- 
lections were the ‘following: In anthropology, an important lot of 
material from Indian sites on DeSoto’s route through the south- 
eastern United States in 1539-42, a collection pertaining to the Huichol 
Indians of northern Jalisco, Mexico, and an assemblage of Moro and 
Indonesian brasses and Philippine metalwork presented to the Tafts 
during their residence in the Philippines; in biology, 2,000 mammal 
specimens from Colombia collected by Philip Hershkovitz, a bird 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 5 


collection from the same country numbering 3,281 specimens, more 
than 10,000 mosquito specimens from the sanitary and medical corps 
of the armed forces, a molluscan collection of 51,000 Jamaican Neri- 
tidae, the valuable Chickering herbarium of 10,550 plant specimens, 
and the Albert Mann diatom collection, which with the other material 
on hand in this field makes the Museum diatom collection one of the 
most important in the world; in geology, a number of important gems 
and minerals obtained through the Roebling, Chamberlain, and Can- 
field funds, 7 new meteorites, 6 of them undescribed falls, and 500 
specimens of rare Paleozoic fossils collected by the curator during field 
work in Mexico; in engineering, a jeep, the prototype of these vehicles 
made famous by World War II, and a Winton automobile of 1903, the 
first automobile to be driven across the United States; in history, a 
number of Army and Navy medals and decorations of types estab- 
lished during the present war. The few expeditions that were in the 
field during the year were related directly or indirectly to the war. 
Visitors for the year numbered 1,532,765, an increase of 177,496 over 
last year; approximately 40 percent were service personnel. The 
Museum published an Annual Report, 3 Bulletins, 1 Contribution from 
the National Herbarium, and 14 Proceedings papers. Staff changes 
included the loss by death of the curator of invertebrate paleontology, 
Dr. Charles E. Resser; Dr. G. Arthur Cooper was appointed curator 
to succeed him. 

National Gallery of Art.—Visitors to the Gallery totaled 2,060,071 
for the year, the largest attendance since its opening. Thirty percent 
of the visitors were men and women in the armed services. Features 
of particular interest to service personnel were the Servicemen’s 
Room, which provides a place of relaxation for them, the Sunday 
. evening concerts, and the special exhibitions. The Board of Trustees 
was directed by the Treasury Department to assume custodianship of 
all works of art and exhibition material sent to this country for various 
exhibitions by the former French Government, and several officers 
of the Gallery were appointed to serve as officers of the American Com- 
mission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Mon- 
uments in War Areas, the headquarters of which are located in the 
Gallery building. In March 1944, at the request of the State De- 
partment, the Gallery established the Inter-American Office to act 
as the official Government clearinghouse for the exchange of informa- 
tion concerning art activites in the American republics. The Gallery 
accepted a number of gifts of paintings, prints, and drawings, in- 
cluding 8 paintings and 196 prints and drawings from Lessing J. 
Rosenwald. Among the 18 special exhibitions held during the year 
were a number relating to war subjects. More than 72,000 people 
attended the various programs conducted by the Gallery’s educational 


6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


department; these included Gallery tours, discussions of the “Picture 
of the Week,” and lectures on special topics. 

National Collection of Fine Arts.—The annual theeting of the 
Smithsonian Art Commission was again omitted because of war con- 
ditions. 'The Commission lost one member by death—Dr. Frederick P. 
Keppel, a member since 1932. Four miniatures were acquired through 
the Catherine Walden Myer fund. Several proffered gifts of art 
works are being held for action of the Art Commission at its next 
meeting. A number of paintings and other art works have been ac- 
cepted by the National Collection as loans; other paintings and 
miniatures belonging to the Collection have been lent to museums and 
art galleries, mostly for special exhibitions. Only one painting was 
purchased from the Henry Ward Ranger fund, “Fifteenth Century 
French Madonna and Child,” by Harry W. Watrous. Eight special 
exhibitions were held during the year, as follows: Oil paintings and 
other art works by Ceferino Palencia, of Mexico; water colors of 
Mexico by Walter B. Swan, of Omaha, Nebr.; miniatures by 52 artists 
of the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters; water colors and 
block prints by Ralph H. Avery, United States Navy; paintings by 
John Mix Stanley, Jane C. Stanley, and Alice Stanley Acheson; paint- 
ings and other art works by the National League of American Pen 
Women; “Portraits of Leading American Negro Citizens,” by Mrs. 
Laura Wheeler Waring, of Philadelphia, and Mrs. Betsy Graves 
Reyneau, of Washington; and mural paintings from the caves of 
India and other paintings of India by Sarkis Katchadourian, of New 
York City. 

Freer Gallery of Art-——Additions to the collections included Chinese 
bronzes, ceramics, jade, and painting; Japanese lacquer and painting; 
and one Armenian manuscript. Much of the time of the staff was de- 
voted to war work for several Government agencies, including Jap- 
anese translations, compilation of a glossary of Chinese geographical 
and topograhpical terms, and the examination of Japanese documents. 
The Director attended a meeting in New York of the Committee of 
the American Council of Learned Societies on Protection of Cultural 
Treasures in War Areas. Visitors to the Gallery totaled 62,462 for 
the year. Fifteen groups received instruction by staff members. 

Bureau of American Ethnology—Emphasis on activities concerned 
with Latin America has continued during the year. Dr. M. W. 
Stirling, Chief of the Bureau, directed the Sixth National Geographic 
Society-Smithsonian Institution expedition to Mexico, locating sev- 
eral new archeological sites in southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and 
Campeche. Dr. J. R. Swanton read the proof of his extensive work 
on “The Indians of the Southeastern United States,” and completed 
a manuscript on the much discussed Norse expeditions to America. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY “f 


Dr. Swanton retired at the end of the year after 44 years of service. 
In continuation of his studies of Indian languages, Dr. J. P. Harring- 
ton discovered evidence that the two South American languages 
Quechua and Aymara are related to the Hokan of western North 
America, the first time a linguistic relationship between North and 
South America has been indicated. Dr. F. H. H. Roberts, Jr., in- 
vestigated a prehistoric Indian burial near Abilene, Tex., his studies 
indicating that the burial was made about 10,000 years ago. Dr. 
Roberts also assembled and edited a manual, “Survival on Land and 
Sea,” which was prepared for the Navy by the Ethnogeographic 
Board and the staff of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. J. H. 
Steward continued work on the Handbook of South American Indians. 
He was appointed Director of the Institute of Social Anthropology, 
an autonomous unit of the Bureau reporting to the Secretary, on 
September 1, 1943. Dr. Alfred Métraux, of the Bureau staff, was ap- 
pointed Assistant Director of the above Institute on September 18, 
1948. Dr. H. B. Collins, Jr., served as Assistant Director of the 
Ethnogeographic Board, conducting researches connected with 
regional and other information requested by the Army, Navy, and 
war agencies. Dr. W. N. Fenton served as research associate of the 
Board and participated in a survey of area and language teaching 
in the Army Specialized Training Program and the Civil Affairs 
Training Schools in American universities and colleges. Dr. H. G. 
Barnett, who joined the Bureau staff in December 1943, served as 
executive secretary of a committee formed under the sponsorship of 
the Ethnogeographic Board for the purpose of assembling data upon 
the existing state of our scientific knowledge of the Pacific island area. 
Miss Frances Densmore, a collaborator of the Bureau completed a 
manuscript on “Omaha Music.” The Bureau published its Annual 
Report and six Bulletins during the year. 

International Exchanges.—The International Exchange Service 
acts as the official agency of the United States Government for the 
interchange of governmental and scientific publications between this 
country and all other countries. The total number of packages of 
such material handled during the fiscal year was 407,764, weighing 
243,180 pounds. Shipments to foreign countries continued to be 
greatly curtailed by war conditions. All countries in the Western 
Hemisphere received shipments as usual, but in the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere, the only countries to which shipments could be made were 
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Portugal, the U. S. S. R., Union 
of South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand. In normal 
times 93 sets of United States official publications are sent abroad 
through the Exchange Service. At present, however, only 58 sets 
can be sent, the other 35 sets being held until after the war. 


619830—45——2 


8 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


National Zoological Park.—In spite of expected difficulties in 
obtaining food and supplies and those resulting from manpower 
shortages, the Park and the animal collection were maintained in good 
condition and continued to be used and appreciated by large numbers 
of visitors. The total for the year reached 1,803,532, including a large 
proportion of service personnel. Many requests for information on 
biological problems were received from the Army and Navy and other 
Government agencies, and numerous schools and medical and other 
groups came to study the collections. Very few animals could be 
obtained by purchase, but a number of desirable specimens were 
received by exchange and as gifts from Army personnel and others 
interested in the Park. Births and hatchings at the Park totaled 73 
mammals, 180 birds, and 126 reptiles. Losses by death included the 
African rhinoceros, the maned wolf, and other animals, birds, and 
reptiles, including a large python that measured well over 25 feet 
in length and weighed 305 pounds. At the close of the year the col- 
lection totaled 2,626 animals representing 696 species and subspecies. 

Astrophysical Observatory—In the division of astrophysical re- 
search, secret war research problems occupied most of the time of two 
members of the staff; the other members were engaged in reducing 
and determining the statistical correction for the solar-constant work 
of the three Smithsonian observing stations at Montezuma, Chile, 
Table Mountain, Calif., and Tyrone, N. Mex., since 1939. Most of 
the Director’s work consisted in the study of solar-constant variation 
and associated solar changes in connection with the weather, resulting 
in the publication of a paper entitled “Weather Predetermined by 
Solar Variation.” As unusual weather conditions are expected dur- 
ing the coming year following a predicted depression of the solar con- 
stant, every effort was made to keep the three observing stations in 
operation. In spite of manpower shortages, this was accomplished 
by the assistance of the wives of the field directors in observing and 
computing. In the division of radiation and organisms, the staff 
was occupied mainly with war research projects. 


THE ESTABLISHMENT 


The Smithsonian Institution was created by act of Congress in 
1846, according to the terms of the will of James Smithson, of Eng- 
land, who in 1826 bequeathed his property to the United States of 
America “to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian 
Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowl- 
edge among men.” In receiving the property and accepting the trust, 
Congress determined that the Federal Government was without 
authority to administer the trust directly, and, therefore, constituted 
an “establishment” whose statutory members are “the President, the 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 9 


Vice President, the Chief Justice, and the heads of the executive 


departments.” 
THE BOARD OF REGENTS 


The Board suffered the loss by death of one member, Senator Charles 
L. McNary, of Oregon, who died on February 25, 1944. He had served 
as a Senatorial regent since January 28, 1935. 

The roll of regents during the fiscal year was as follows: Harlan 
F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United States, Chancellor; Henry A. 
Wallace, Vice President of the United States; members from the 
Senate—Alben W. Barkley, Bennett Champ Clark; members from 
the House of Representatives—Clarence Cannon, Foster Stearns, Ed- 
ward E. Cox; citizen members—Frederic A. Delano, Washington, 
D. C.; Roland S. Morris, Pennsylvania; Harvey N. Davis, New Jersey ; 
Arthur H. Compton, Illinois; Vannevar Bush, Washington, D. C.; and 
Frederic C. Walcott, Connecticut. 

Proceedings.—The annual meeting of the Board of Regents was held 
on January 14, 1944. The regents present were Chief Justice Harlan 
F. Stone, Chancellor; Vice President Henry A. Wallace; Representa- 
tives Clarence Cannon, Foster Stearns, and Edward E. Cox; citizen 
regents Frederic A. Delano, Roland S. Morris, Harvey N. Davis, 
Arthur H. Compton, and Vannevar Bush; and the Secretary, Dr. 
Charles G. Abbot. 

The Secretary presented his annual report covering the activities 
of the parent Institution and of the several Government branches, 
and including the financial report of the executive committee, for the . 
fiscal year ended June 30, 1948, which was accepted by the Board. 
The usual resolution authorizing the expenditure by the Secretary 
of the income of the Institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1945, was adopted by the Board. 

The Secretary stated that in order that the employees paid from 
Smithsonian funds might share the same liberalized retirement ad- 
vantages as the Government-paid employees in the Institution, a bill 
covering this matter (S. 1558) had been introduced by Senator Bark- 
ley and referred to the Senate Committee on the Civil Service. 

Owing to the exigencies of wartime travel, the annual meeting of 
the Smithsonian Art Commission, usually held in December, was 
again omitted. 

The Board formally ratified certain resolutions adopted by a mail 
vote authorizing the Secretary to.execute an indenture dated March 
31, 1948, by Samuel H. Kress and the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 
modifying and amending an indenture dated June 29, 1939, by the 
same parties, and further authorizing the Secretary to accept the | 
offer of additional art objects by these parties for the collections of 
the National Gallery of Art. 


10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


A resolution was adopted providing for the appointment of com- 
mittees to handle matters connected with the proposed celebration 
in 1946 of the centenary of the founding of the Institution. 

In his special report the Secretary outlined to the regents some 
of the more important wartime activities carried on by the Institution 
and its several branches. 


FINANCES 


A statement on finances will be found in the report of the execu- 
tive committee of the Board of Regents, page 110. _ 


TWELFTH ARTHUR LECTURE 


Under the terms of the will of the late James Arthur, of New 
York, the Smithsonian Institution received in 1931 a fund, part of 
the income from which should be used for an annual lecture on some 
aspect of the science of the sun. 

The twelfth Arthur lecture was given by Secretary C. G. Abbot 
on February 29, 1944, under the title “Solar Variation and Weather.” 
The lecture will be published with illustrations in the Report of the 
Smithsonian Institution for 1944. 

The 11 previous Arthur lectures have been as follows: 


1. The Composition of the Sun, by Henry Norris Russell, professor of 
astronomy at Princeton University. January 27, 1982. 

2. Gravitation in the Solar System, by Ernest William Brown, professor 
of mathematics at Yale University. January 25, 1933. 

3. How the Sun Warms the Earth, by Charles G. Abbot, Secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution. February 26, 1934. 

4. The Sun’s Place among the Stars, by Walter S. Adams, director of 

the Mount Wilson Observatory. December 18, 1934. 

. Sun Rays and Plant Life, by Earl S. Johnston, assistant director of 
the division of radiation and organisms, Smithsonian Institution. 
February 25, 1936. 

6. Discoveries from Eclipse Expeditions, by Samuel Alfred Mitchell, di- 
rector of the Leander McCormick Observatory, University of Vir- 
ginia. February 9, 1937. 

7. The Sun and the Atmosphere, by Harlan True Stetson, research asso- 
ciate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. February 24, 1938. 

8. Sun Worship, by Herbert J. Spinden, curator of American Indian Art 
and Primitive Culture, Brooklyn Museums. February 21, 1939. 

9. Solar Prominences in Motion, by Robert R. McMath, director of the 
McMath-Hulbert Observatory of the University of Michigan. Janu- 
ary 16, 1940. 

10. Biological Effects of Solar Radiation on Higher Animals and Man, by 
Brian O’Brien, professor of Physiological Optics, University of 
Rochester. February 25, 1941. 

11. The Sun and the Earth’s Magnetic Field, by John A. Fleming, Depart- 
ment of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington. 
February 26, 1942. 


Ot 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 11 
PUBLICATIONS 


The Institution’s publication program has again emphasized ma- 
terial pertaining to the war or to Latin America as a part of its 
endeavor to make every phase of its activities serve a useful wartime 
purpose. 

The papers in the series Smithsonian War Background Studies 
continued to be in great demand, particularly from Army and Navy 
organizations and personnel. Seven numbers were issued during the 
year—Nos. 13 to 19—and No. 20, on China, appeared soon after the 
close of the year. A list of these, as well as other publications of the 
year, will be found in appendix 10. The demand for the War Back- 
ground papers continued to increase until it became necessary to make 
a charge for copies requested by civilians and for large lots of copies 
ordered by service organizations, while continuing the free service 
distribution of single copies and small lots. Soon after the close of the 
year the total number of copies of Nos. 1-20 printed by the Institution 
had reached 203,500, and 211,525 additional copies have been ordered 
for the Army and Navy, a grand total of nearly half a million books. 

A pocket-size field collectors’ manual was published with the aim 
of providing a worth-while activity for service personnel stationed in 
areas not actually in the fighting zones. The manual gives detailed 
directions for preparing, preserving, and packing specimens of 
animals, plants, and minerals. This book also is given free to service 
personnel and sold to civilians. 

In the Miscellaneous Collections series, a paper intended chiefly 
for the use of medical officers was issued under the title “The Feeding 
Apparatus of Biting and Disease-carrying Flies: A Wartime Con- 
tribution to Medical Entomology,” by R. E. Snodgrass. Several 
hundred copies were made available to Army and Navy medical per- 
sonnel. Also for use in connection with wartime medical problems 
in the Pacific theater, it was necessary to reprint an edition of a 
previous paper, “Molluscan Intermediate Hosts of the Asiatic Blood 
Fluke, Schistosoma japonicum, and Species Confused with Them,” by 
Paul Bartsch. 

Many papers in all series of Smithsonian publications dealt with 
studies in biology and anthropology of the other American republics, 
as a part of the Government’s program of improving cultural rela- 
tions between the Americas. In the Miscellaneous Collections a sur- 
vey of existing archeological knowledge of the Andean region ap- 
peared under the title “Cross Sections of New World Prehistory: A 
Brief Report on the Work of the Institute of Andean Research, 1941- 
1942.” by William Duncan Strong. The Smithsonian Annual Report 
included a comprehensive papér on the “Past and Present Status of 
the Marine Mammals of South America and the West Indies,” by 


12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Remington Kellogg. National Museum publications included a num- 
ber of Proceedings papers on various phases of biology in Latin 
America and a Bulletin entitled “Checklist of the Coleopterous In- 
sects of Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and South Amer- 
ica,” parts 1 and 2, by Richard E. Blackwelder. This last will be an 
essential tool for all future entomological work in Latin America. 
In the series Contributions from the United States National Her- 
barium appeared “Taxonomic Studies of Tropical American Plants,” 
by C. V. Morton. The Bureau of American Ethnology published four 
Bulletins on the archeology of Mexico, among them one entitled “Stone 
Monuments of Southern Mexico,” by Matthew W. Stirling. 

The total number of publications issued during the year was 
67, and 172,027 copies of the various series were distributed. 


LIBRARY 


The Smithsonian library has been increasingly used by the Army, 
Navy, and war agencies. In the Museum branch library alone, 520 
requests for information from these sources were recorded. The 
branch libraries of the Bureau of American Ethnology and the Astro- 
physical Observatory were also frequently called upon, and the 
staff of the Ethnogeographic Board used all the branch libraries in 
search of material needed to aid the armed services and war agencies. 
Through the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian library is co- 
operating with the American Library Association in collecting material 
to aid libraries in war areas. The gradual decline in the receipt of 
publications from abroad has continued, but domestic scientific series 
showed very little decline. Changes in library procedure shortened 
the interval between the receipt of new publications and their avail- 
ability for use. Statistics of the year’s activities show 194 new 
exchanges arranged, 4,422 “wants” received, 6,673 volumes and pam- 
phlets cataloged, 11,360 books and periodicals loaned, and 1,683 vol- 
umes sent to the bindery. 

Respectfully submitted. 

C. G. Assor, Secretary. 


APPENDIX 1 
REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 


Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the con- 
dition and operation of the National Museum for the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1944. : 

Appropriations for the maintenance and operation of the National 
Museum for the year totaled $929,999, which was $37,369 more than 
for the previous year. 


THE MUSEUM IN WARTIME 


Visitors during the year numbered 1,532,765, an increase of 177,496 
over those of the previous fiscal year; approximately 40 percent of 
all visitors were men and women in uniform. 

Although the possibility of enemy attack on Washington became 
steadily less, measures for safeguard of visitors, collections, and build- 
ings were continued in force. The air-raid defense organization re- 
mained in operation under the direction of the general defense co- 
ordinator, F. M. Setzler, head curator of anthropology. Collections 
removed from the buildings as a precaution against enemy attack 
were inspected regularly, and careful guard was maintained over 
them. 

Asa result of a recommendation by the Smithsonian War Committee 
a free guide service through the National Museum for members of 
the armed forces was arranged through the U. 8. O. groups of Wash- 
ington. Under the direction of F. M. Setzler a route was estab- 
lished within the Natural History building and a script was pre- 
pared describing the exhibits selected for the tour. Classes for in- 
structing the volunteer hostesses were held on Sunday afternoons 
from August 22 to October 17, 1948, and during February 1944. On 
October 24 the first U. S. O. guide service for men and women in 
uniform was inaugurated. Tours were conducted each Sunday at 
15-minute intervals from 11 a. m. to 3:30 p. m. Each tour required 
approximately 45 minutes. From October 24, 1948, to June 25, 1944, 


5,825 military visitors were escorted through the building. Credit 
for the success of this service is due to the excellent cooperation of 


U. S. O. headquarters, to the chairman and head receptionist, Miss 
Margaret Bledsoe, and to other U. S. O. hostesses. 


13 


14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Requests for information from the various war agencies continued 
to come to the staff during the year, and numerous war services 
were rendered by most of the laboratories and by many individuals 
on the staff, 

Dr. Remington Kellogg, curator of mammals, served as chairman 
of the American delegation at the International Conference on the 
Regulation of Whaling in London during January 1944. At the 
request of the National Research Council, Dr. Kellogg prepared text, 
keys, distribution maps, and illustrations of monkeys known to be 
susceptible to infection by malarial parasites to aid in studies of 
malaria in man. Other services provided by the personnel of the 
division of mammals to officers of special Army and Navy units 
and other agencies concerned with the war included the furnishing of 
information relative to the distribution and identification of mam- 
mals involved in the transmission of diseases. Herbert G. Deignan, 
associate curator of birds, assisted in work on maps and on geographic 
names of the Far East and in a compilation of literature dealing with 
parts of that area. Dr. Doris Cochran, associate curator of reptiles 
and amphibians, assisted the Surgeon General’s Office in the prepara- 
tion of lists of Asiatic reptiles. Personnel of the division of fishes 
furnished information in response to numerous inquiries relative to 
dangerous, poisonous, and useful fishes, methods of fishing, sound- 
making fishes, and emergency fishing equipment. Many identifica- 
tions were made in the division of insects, particularly of mosquitoes, 
mites, and ectoparasites, and information was supplied on the habits of 
these forms, at the request of the Army and Navy. About 1,200 
specimens of insects and Acarina were specially mounted on pins and 
approximately 450 slide mounts were made for use in Army and Navy 
training centers throughout the country in training programs in 
which health problems are involved. In addition, nearly 200 officers 
assigned to malaria survey or control units, or to similar activities, 
received instructions or other help from personnel of the division, and 
information on the disease-bearing insects of specific foreign areas 
was furnished the Division of Medical Intelligence of the Surgeon 
General’s Office. At the request of the National Research Council, 
Dr. Paul Bartsch, curator of mollusks, served as a member of a com- 
mittee charged with the preparation of a list of helminth parasites of 
the Southwest Pacific and their intermediate hosts. Dr. E. H. Walker, 
assistant curator of plants, prepared an account of the emergency 
food plants of the Tropics. Paul S. Conger, associate curator of the 
section of diatoms, studied samples of material involved in the fouling 
of ships, mines, and other marine structures. He likewise prepared a 
bibliography of literature concerning the value of plankton as food. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 15 


Services of the department of anthropology dealt with a wide variety 
of subjects relating to people in the Caribbean islands, Pacific and 
Indonesian areas, Oceania, Micronesia, Burma, Japan, China, the 
Philippine Islands, Central America, Europe, and Africa. The in- 
formation furnished included suggestions for Tropical and Arctic 
clothing, and footgear for aviators, water supply, population, primi- 
tive weapons, house types, degree of western influence, physical char- 
acteristics, and leather products. The collections of the division were 
used in a study of the resources of particular strategic geographical 
areas with a view to conservation of shipping space. Dr. T. Dale 
Stewart was granted a 6-month furlough to teach anatomy to Army 
and Navy medical students at the Washington University School of 
Medicine in St. Louis, Mo. Dr. Waldo R. Wedel, associate curator 
of archeology, was detailed for special services to the Military Plan- 
ning Division, Office of the Quartermaster General, War Department, 
from September 1943 to March 1944. The division of physical 
anthropology supplied the Office of Strategic Services with photo- 
graphs of various eastern physical types. It also supplied detailed 
data on average body weights of Europeans and various peoples of 
the Far East to the Office of the Quartermaster General. 

In the department of geology, two members of the staff, in coopera- 
tion with the Geological Institute of Mexico, have continued field 
studies in the economic geology of that country as a part of the war 
effort. Curator W. F. Foshag spent the year on detail from the 
Museum in a continuation of the supervision of surveys for strategic 
minerals in Mexico. Dr. G. A. Cooper, similarly, spent 3 months in 
the field in Sonora concluding studies begun last year on the stratified 
rocks. The results, soon to be published, will be useful in the location 
of new mineral areas. Dr. Cooper also concluded field work on the 
project dealing with the subsurface geology of the Devonian rocks 
of Illinois, obtaining information for use in the oil development of 
that and neighboring States. 

Members of the geological staff in the home office have been more 
occupied than ever before in furnishing information to the various 
war agencies. These services have included such diverse items as the 
preparation of analyses, assisting in selecting and grading calcite for 
the War Production and other Boards, editing a scientific volume for 
an allied country, and furnishing information of all kinds to an ever- 
increasing number of service men and women visiting the Museum. 

Other services, especially from the department of engineering and 
industries, have included the following: 

Construction of two demonstration models of new ordnance devices 
for the National Inventors’ Council; transfer of a series of model 


16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


buildings to the War Department, Corps of Engineers, Camouflage 
Section; information on revolving airfoils to the Technical Data 
Laboratory, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio; furnishing photographs 
for Navy training films; identification of woods; also information on 
properties and uses of woods for Navy Department, War Production 
Board, Foreign Economic Administration, and Inter-American De- 
velopment Commission; methods of preserving specimens of dehy- 
drated foods for War Food Administration; advice on disposition 
of hemp produced in Kentucky to Commodity Credit Corporation ; 
assistance in drawing up contract specifications involving a true lock- 
stitch in sewing safety seams, to United States Maritime Commission ; 
suitability of palmyra fiber as a substitute for rattan for stiff brushes 
to the Navy Department; and aid in the training of document in- 
spectors of Federal Bureau of Investigation in identification of various 
printing processes. 


COLLECTIONS 


Accessions, for the year numbered 1,159 separate lots, totaling 
239,640 specimens. This was an increase over those received last year 
of 9,409 specimens, but a decrease of 18 in the number of accessions. 
Specimens were accessioned by the five departments as follows: An- 
thropology, 852; biology, 229,546; geology, 3,466; engineering and 
industries, 1,888; history, 4,388. Most of the accessions were gifts 
from individuals or specimens transferred from other Government 
agencies. The more important of these are summarized below. 
Catalog entries in all departments now total 18,098,775. 

Anthropology.—The division of archeology received an important 
gift of 115 lots of potsherds and other materials from various Indian 
sites, many of which are on or near the presumed route of De Soto’s 
expedition of 1539-42 through the southeastern United States. Two 
gold-and-silver book ends, reflecting the Tiahuanacan style of archi- 
tecture and sculpture, were presented by Vice President Henry A. 
Wallace, who received them as gifts from the Chamber of Commerce 
in Bolivia, on the occasion of his visit to La Paz. The division of 
ethnology was presented with a documented collection (159 speci- 
mens) pertaining to the Huichol Indians of northern Jalisco. Two 
other important collections received by the division were 26 oil por- 
traits of Navaho, Apache, and Pueblo Indians of Arizona and New 
Mexico, painted by Carl Moon, and an assemblage of excellent ex- 
amples of Moro and Indonesian brasses and Philippine metalwork, 
which had been presented to the late President and Mrs. William 
Howard Taft, during their residence in the Philippines. 

Biology.—The largest single collection received by the division of 
mammals in the past 25 years consisted of about 2,400 specimens from 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 17 


Colombia, collected by Philip Hershkovitz during his tenure of the 
Walter Rathbone Bacon Traveling Scholarship of the Smithsonian 
Institution. From the Fish and Wildlife Service came by transfer 
the year’s second-largest mammalian accession, 624 mammals from 
various North American localities. A beaked whale foetus, about 7 
feet long, the largest in the National collections, is also notable. 

As in the division of mammals, the largest accession of the year 
to the division of birds came from Colombia. This collection com- 
prised 3,281 specimens, sufficient to give the Museum a reasonably 
complete representation of the bird life of northeastern Colombia. 
A smaller avian collection, 85 specimens, also from Colombia, repre- 
sents localities not included in the larger collection first mentioned. 
Another collection included 20 species of birds hitherto unrepresented 
in the study series. 

As a result of exchanges with other institutions, several species ' 
of reptiles and amphibians hitherto unrepresented or poorly repre- 
sented in the Museum have been added to the collections. Specimens 
from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Jamaica, and Hon- 
duras were received, and 60 turtles, lizards, snakes, and frogs were 
contributed by Philip Hershkovitz, through the Walter Rathbone 
Bacon Traveling Scholarship. 

Exchanges consummated during the year brought much valuable 
material, including 321 cotypes, to the division of fishes. Smaller 
ichthyological collections, received as gifts, also included type ma- 
terial and some specimens from type localities not previously repre- 
sented in the National collections. 

The vital and significant role played by entomology and entomol- 
ogists in the war is reflected in the host of mosquitoes and mosquito 
larvae received from the sanitary and medical corps of the armed 
forces—more than 10,000 specimens. About 67,000 bees, butterflies, 
and insects, including some holotype and paratype material, came as 
gifts and by transfer from other Government departments. 

Seven of the year’s accessions in the division of marine invertebrates 
included type material. Especially noteworthy is the fact that dur- 
ing the past year seven accessions, totaling 2,380 specimens, many of 
them rare, were collected and donated to the Museum by men in the 
armed forces. 

The collection of Mexican land shells in the division of mollusks 
was materially enhanced by three gifts, totaling 1,490 specimens. The 
largest known single collection of Jamaican representatives of the 
molluscan family Neritidae, consisting of 51,000 specimens and ac- 
companying 850 microscopic slides, came as a gift. 

Several valuable accessions in the form of types and cotypes came 
to the helminthological collections as gifts. These included species of 


18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the genera Ochoterenella, Choledocystus, Choricotyle, Diphylloboth- 
rium, Hexostoma, Cyclocotyla, and Raillietina. 

Among the 89 echinoderms accessioned were 6 undescribed species, 
6 paratypes of new ophiurans, and 2 interesting abnormal starfishes. 

Outstanding among the 36,240 plants received during the year was 
the Chickering herbarium of approximately 10,550 specimens. This 
herbarium, formed by the late John White Chickering, Jr., is a valu- 
able addition as it includes material of historical importance from 
collections not at all or scantily represented previously. Also in- 
cluded are numerous specimens from the District of Columbia, of 
which many were collected in plant habitats now destroyed. Most 
of the smaller collections received came from South American or 
West Indian localities. Of special importance among these were 
about 2,500 specimens of bamboos, including an unusually good repre- 
sentation of vegetative structures important to the field identification 
of the bamboos. 

The Albert Mann diatom collection, consisting of approximately 
8,000 slides of mounted specimens, more than 10,000 samples of crude 
diatom material, and over 200 negatives and 300 lantern slides, trans- 
ferred from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, was formally 
accessioned during the year. In combination with the other material 
this makes the Museum collection of diatoms one of the most im- 
portant in the world. 

Geology.—Income from the Roebling fund, provided for the pur- 
chase of important gems and minerals, was used to procure 31 gem 
stones of rare quality and high exhibition value and 2 mineral acces- 
sions, consisting of 4 unusually formed quartz crystals and 8 trans- 
parent colorless scheelites. A beautiful pink Brazilian topaz of 34.1 
carats was acquired through the Frances Lea Chamberlain fund, and 
the Canfield endowment fund provided two specimens of libethenite 
and acovellite. Several important single accessions came as the result 
of the associate curator’s efforts to interest people in making collec- 
tions for the Museum. By transfer from another Government de- 
partment the division of mineralogy and petrology received specimens 
of weinschenite (yttrium phosphate), representing the first occurrence 
of this rare mineral in the United States. 

Seven new meteorites were added to the collection, six of them being 
undescribed falls. 

The largest addition to the ore collection consisted of a series of 
manganese and chromium ores from world-wide foreign deposits. 

The most important new material received by the division of in- 
vertebrate paleontology and paleobotany consisted of 500 specimens of 
rare Paleozoic fossils collected by the curator during his field work 
in northwestern Sonora, Mexico. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 19 


Plaster casts of type fossils today have great scientific value, in 
view of the destruction taking place in foreign museums. Such a 
cast, an important English Carboniferous crinoid, the holotype and 
only specimen of which was in the ill-fated Bristol Museum, was 
received as a gift. Numerous types and holotypes of foraminifers, 
bryozoans, mollusks, echinoids, cephalopods, and corals were welcome 
additions to the collection. Important among the acquisitions of 
specimens of fossil vertebrates was a composite skeleton of an extinct 
antelope, as well as casts of the following: Complete skull of a curious 
three-horned antelope; type specimen of a flying reptile; and skeleton 
of a rare Triassic armored reptile. The ichnite collection was en- 
riched by nine slabs containing the trails of Paramphibius didactylus, 
once considered a vertebrate animal but now regarded as a horseshoe 
crab. 

Engineering and industries—From the standpoints of historical 
merit and of popular appeal first honors among the acquisitions of 
the year in this department are bestowed upon two automobiles. One 
of these is a U. S. Army 14-ton, 4 x 4 truck, one of the first of 62 of 
these vehicles built in 1940, and the prototype of these vehicles 
made famous by World War II. The other is a Winton, 1903, the 
first automobile to be driven across the United States, a trip that re- 
quired 63 days on the road. Outstanding among the gifts to the 
watercraft collection was an original kerosene-burning brass bulk- 
head lantern of the first S. S. Mauretania, 1907-87, presented by Presi- 
dent Franklin D. Roosevelt. The lantern now stands in the exhibi- 
tion case containing the handsome model of this famous vessel pre- 
“sented to the Museum by the President several years ago. 

Through the Textile Color Card Association of the United States, 
the textile section received the ninth edition of the Standard Color 
Card, with its two supplements, the United States Arms and Serv- 
ices Color Card and the United States Army Standard Thread Card. 
The Association is supported by textile manufacturers and representa- 
tive firms of almost every industry using color. These firms agree to 
have their products match the colors included in the official standard 
card, resulting in a great saving of time to consumers in obtaining 
exact shades of colors in materials that are to be used together. This 
standardization is especially valuable to the United States Arms and 
Services, each service having an official color requirement for its uni- 
forms, trimmings, badges, and similar equipment. The Standard 
Thread Card is furnished by the Quartermaster General’s office to 
quartermaster depots and contractors making clothing or equipage 
for the United States: Army. 

An important accession in the section of chemical industries was 
an exhibit illustrating the chemistry and applications of refined alpha- 


20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


cellulose derived from wood pulp. Since the military services’ re- 
quirements for ordnance purposes cover practically all the annual 
production of cotton linters, the manufacturers of rayon found it 
necessary to turn to alpha-cellulose for their raw material. The appli- 
cations of the wood-pulp cellulose shown in the exhibit include rayon, 
molded and laminated plastics, cellophane, artificial leather, rayon 
tire-cord fabric, and electric-are welding rods. 

An interesting addition to the collection of commercial furs was 
a gift from Vice President Henry A. Wallace of two robes made 
from strips of vicufia skins. The robes were presented to him by 
Miss Rosa Prado, daughter of the President of Peri, on the occasion 
of Mr. Wallace’s good-will tour. 

In the division of medicine and public health the most valuable 
items were added to the section of pharmacy. These included a com- 
plete exhibit illustrating the manufacture and use of dried blood 
plasma now effectively employed by our armed forces; a series of ob- 
jects picturing the method of obtaining penicillin, the recently dis- 
covered miracle-performing bacteriostatic drug; and a collection out- 
lining the life history of Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the internationally 
famous apothecary. To the history of medicine section was added 
the first portable X-ray machine known to have been operated suc- 
cessfully on a battlefield. 

The outstanding accession in the section of graphic arts was a French 
color print of the eighteenth century, “L’Amant Surpris,” by C. M. 
Descourtis after F. Schall. This type of print, the estampe galante, 
is highly prized and much sought after by collectors. Descourtis 
was one of the important engravers of the period, and it is said that . 
“L’Amant Surpris” is one of his masterpieces. Walter Tittle, a well- 
known drypoint artist, presented the section with 19 examples of his 
work, following his special exhibition in the Museum. VOKS, the 
Soviet Russian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, 
gave the section six war posters produced by the hand-stencil process.’ 
No printing equipment is necessary in making posters of this kind, 
which the Russians have developed to a high degree. Guerrilla artists 
have used this method extensively in occupied territories where the 
absence of printing and transportation facilities eliminates other 
methods. 

History.—The collection of civil, naval, marine, and military medals 
and decorations was increased by specimens of several awards of 
these types established during the present war. Among these were 
specimens of the Air Medal, awarded to members of the armed forces 
of the United States who have distinguished themselves since Sep- 
tember 8, 1939, by meritorious achievement in flight. It is second only 
to the Distinguished Flying Cross. They include also specimens of 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 2) 


the decorations representing the four degrees of the Legion of Merit, 
namely, Chief Commander, Commander, Officer, and Legionnaire. 
These decorations are for award to the personnel of armed forces of 
the United States and the Philippines, and of the armed forces of 
friendly foreign nations. The recipients must have distinguished 
themselves by exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance 
of outstanding services since the Presidential proclamation of emer- 
gency, September 8, 1939. These decorations are the first to be 
founded by the United States Government for award to foreigners. 
Other specimens illustrate the Merchant Marine Distinguished Serv- 
ice Medal and the Mariner’s Medal. The first of these was established 
for award to any person in the American Merchant Marine who on 
or after September 3, 1939, “has distinguished himself * * * in 
the line of duty.” The second is awarded to any seaman who, while 
serving on a ship during the war period, is wounded, suffers physical 
injury, or suffers through dangerous exposure as the result of an act 
of an enemy of the United States. 

The collection of uniforms was increased by the addition of several 
United States Army and United States Military Academy uniforms 
of the early part of the twentieth century. Uniforms of the types 
worn by Army nurses and officers and members of the Women’s Army 
Corps were received from the War Department. A series of German 
and Japanese uniforms captured in Italy and the Aleutian Islands 
was received as a loan from the War Department. 

An interesting gift to the philatelic collection was a series of 
Aguinaldo (Philippine) stamps totaling more than 2,000 specimens. 
A cover franked with a 2-cent red Aguinaldo stamp postmarked 
Bataan, the locality famous for the valiant fight against the Japanese 
of the American forces under the leadership of Gen. Douglas Mac- 
Arthur, is included. Among the stamps transferred by the Post 
Office Department was a special series of 12 United States stamps 
commemorating the European countries that have been overrun and 
occupied by the Axis powers—Albania, Austria, Belgium, Czecho- 
slovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, Luxembourg, Norway, The Nether- 
lands, Poland, and Yugoslavia. Each stamp bears in color the na- 
tional flag of the country concerned. The Soviet Union presented a 
30-kopeck and a 3-ruble stamp showing the Russian, British, and 
American flags, commemorating the recent historic conference at 
Tehran. Among the stamps emanating from enemy countries that 
found their way into the Museum collections were 2 Japanese stamps 
commemorating the fall of Bataan and Corregidor, 11 stamps issued 
by the Japanese military authorities for use in the occupation of the 
Dutch Indies, and 14 varieties of Japanese stamps for the army of 


22 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


occupation in the Philippine Islands. A large number of German 
stamps also were received. 


EXPLORATIONS AND RESEARCH 


Although field explorations for the year were concerned principally 
with the conduct of the war, important research. was accomplished 
along many other collateral lines. 

Anthropology.—During his assignment as teacher of anatomy to 
Army and Navy medical students at Washington University School 
of Medicine, St. Louis, Mo., studies were carried on by the curator, 
Dr. T. Dale Stewart, on age and sex changes in the human skeleton. 
This was possible because the skeletal collections preserved in the 
university’s department of anatomy were obtained from the dis- 
secting rooms and therefore were accurately identified. During the 
course of this work Dr. Stewart took the opportunity also of studying 
arthritic changes in the skeleton. Since arthritis is closely correlated 
with age, it was hoped that the university’s identified material would 
aid in the interpretation of the condition in the groups in the Museum 
collections where exact age is unknown. In addition to his work at 
the university, Dr. Stewart spent some time in studying Indian skele- 
tons excavated in Illinois by Dr. P. F. Titterington, a St. Louis physi- 
cian. Two cultural horizons are represented by these Indian re- 
mains, the Hopewell and the Jersey County bluff focus of the Middle 
Mississippi. 

Up to the time of his death on September 5, Dr. Ale’ Hrdlicka 
continued the work of analyzing his data on the human tibia. The 
year also saw the publication by the Museum of the seventh and 
last part of Dr. Hrdlitka’s “Catalog of Human Crania in the United 
States National Museum Collections,” a work on which he had been 
engaged for many years. The final part covers the non-Eskimo 
people of the Northwest Coast, Alaska, and Siberia and includes 
measurements of all skulls of this provenience deposited in the Na- 
tional Museum as well as of many supplementary ones in various 
Russian institutions. The entire series of catalogs presents measure- 
ments of more than 7,500 non-White crania and has been described 
as constituting “one of the most valuable sources of basic anthropo- 
metric data in existence.” 

Biology.—Under the auspices of the Division of Cultural Relations 
of the Department of State, Ellsworth P. Killip, associate curator of 
plants, visited Colombia during April, May, and June for consulta- 
tions and work in botanical centers in Bogoté and Cali. In working 
over the Museum’s South American material, which includes large 
recent collections of plants, as well as a considerable accumulation of 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 23 


specimens received for identification in the past, Mr. Killip assembled 
much valuable data for the proposed “Flora of Colombia.” 

Philip Hershkovitz, holder of the Walter Rathbone Bacon Scholar- 
ship for 1941-43, returned from Colombia in October, after an absence 
of almost 2 years. The collection he amassed forms the largest single 
accession of mammals received by the Museum during the past 25 
years. 

Under the W. L. Abbott fund, M. A. Carriker, Jr., continued 
ornithological field work in Colombia until October. He brought to 
the Museum the results of two seasons’ work, one of the finest collec- 
tions of birds that has ever been made in that area. 

Dr. Remington Kellogg, curator of mammals, served as chairman 
of the American delegation to the International Conference on the 
Regulation of Whaling held in London during January. Between 
sessions of the conference he studied at the British Museum in prepara- 
tion of a report on the recent porpoises. Dr. Kellogg spent part of 
September at the Museum of Comparative Zodlogy examining a col- 
lection of cetacean remains from Polk County, Fla. Also, at the re- 
quest of the National Research Council, for the Board for the Co- 
ordination of Malarial Studies, in collaboration with Major E. A. 
Goldman of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Dr. Kellogg prepared 
the first of a series of descriptive accounts of the kinds of monkeys 
that may carry malarial infections. 

The curator of birds, Dr. Herbert Friedmann, completed part 10, 
the gallinaceous birds, of Ridgway’s unfinished monograph, “The 
Birds of North and Middle America,” and began the revision of his 
own previously completed manuscript on the falconiform birds. 
H. G. Deignan, associate curator of birds, completed his monograph 
on “The Birds of Northern Thailand,” now in press. 

The associate curator of reptiles, Dr. Doris M. Cochran, reports 
further substantial progress in her studies on South American frogs. 
She also undertook to expand her popular handbook on “Poisonous 
Reptiles,” Number 10 of the Smithsonian War Background Studies, 
into a treatise on “Dangerous Reptiles,” nonpoisonous, as well as poi- 
sonous, for the general appendix to the Smithsonian Annual Report. 

Dr. Paul Bartsch, curator of mollusks, has worked in close coopera- 
tion with a special committee of the National Research Council, in 
preparing a list of known or suspected molluscan intermediate hosts 
of human parasites. 

In connection with the preparation of survivor manuals, Dr. L. P. 
Schultz, curator of fishes, and Earl D. Reid, scientific aid, demonstrated 
to members of the U. S. Navy the use of derris root for securing 
fish for food in emergencies. 

619830453 


24 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Dr. Schultz also made notable progress with his studies on the 
extensive material that he collected in Venezuela, finishing a report on 
the Characinidae and completing manuscript for the families Gymno- 
tidae, Cichlidae, Cyprinodontidae, Dasyatidae, Tetradontidae, and 
Centropomidae. 

The curator of insects, Dr. E. A. Chapin, made further progress 
with: the manuscript embodying the results of his investigations 
on the beetle genus Hippodamia and continued work on other sections 
of the Coccinellidae. 

Dr. R. E. Blackwelder, associate curator of insects, continuing his 
work on Bulletin 185 of the National Museum, “Checklist of the Col- 
eopterous Insects of Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and 
South America,” submitted the manuscript for part 3. Parts 1 and 2 
were published during the year. 

Austin H. Clark, curator of echinoderms, completed part 4 of Bul- 
letin 82, “Monograph of the Existing Crinoids,” except for assembling 
the plates. He also published “Iceland and Greenland,” the fifteenth 
of the Smithsonian’s War Background Studies, and, in collaboration 
with Dr. E. H. Walker, assistant curator of plants, prepared material 
for the biological section of another volume of this series dealing with 
the Aleutian Islands. 

All divisions in the department contributed to the Navy’s “Survival 
on Land and Sea,” published in December, to “A Field Collector’s 
Manual in Natural History,” recently issued by the Smithsonian, and 
to the preparation of nine mimeographed leaflets for distribution to 
correspondents inquiring about the animal and plant life of the 
Southwest Pacific. 

Geology.—As in the other departments of the Museum, several 
members of the staff of the department of geology are on military 
detail. The researches of the head curator, Dr. R. 8. Bassler, have 
been limited to three projects; first, his monographic study of Lower 
Paleozoic corals; second, a paper on the giant Paleozoic Ostracoda 
known as the Leperditiidae; and third, a continuation of researches 
on American Ordovician crinoids and cystids contained in the 
Springer collection. The manuscript and illustrations of all three 
have been more than half completed. 

Curator William F. Foshag was occupied the entire year in Mexico 
with his supervisory work for the Geological Survey in surveys for 
strategic minerals. In addition, he spent some time at the Paricutin 
Volcano making observations and collecting material for the Museum 
exhibition series. 

E. P. Henderson completed several analyses of new meteorites. 
“The Metallography of Meteoric Iron,” a monograph by Dr. Stuart H. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 25 


Perry, associate in mineralogy, was published during the year as a 
- Bulletin of the National Museum. 

Dr. G. A. Cooper, in collaboration with Prof. A. S. Warthin, of 
Vassar College, completed his survey of Illinois Devonian oil strata, 
and, in collaboration with the Instituto Geolégico de México, con- 
tinued field and laboratory studies of the geology of northwestern 
Sonora. A month and a half of field work in Sonora, in association 
with his Mexican colleague, Ing. A. R. V. Arellano, resulted in note- 
worthy paleontological collections and considerable increase in knowl- 
edge of the structure and stratigraphy of the area. 

Under the Walcott fund of the Smithsonian Institution, in collabo- 
ration with Drs. Myron N. Cooper and R. S. Edmundson, of the Vir- 
ginia Geological Survey, Dr. Cooper made an investigation of the 
relationships of the limestones that occur on the flanks of Clinch 
Mountain in southwestern Virginia and northern Tennessee. 

Before his untimely death Dr. Charles E. Resser was engaged in the 
study of the Lower Ordovician trilobites of Vermont and adjacent 
areas and was continuing his Cambrian Summary and Bibliography. 
Many years of work by Drs. Walcott and Resser have gone into this 
summary and bibliography, both of which when finished will be valu- 
able contributions to science. 

Field work in vertebrate paleontology, usually one of the best sources 
of striking exhibition material, was necessarily restricted. In a 
short trip to the nearby Calvert Cliffs on Chesapeake Bay, Curator 
C. W. Gilmore and his assistants had the good fortune to excavate a 
sirenian skeleton of Miocene age, a fossil sea cow over 10 feet long. 


MISCELLANEOUS 


Visitors.—The number of visitors to the Museum buildings during 
the year showed an increase of 177,496 over the previous year. The 
total number, 1,532,765, is, of course, far below the peacetime record 
of 2,408,170 in 1937-38, but the increase does indicate a salutary up- 
trend in the degree to which the National Museum exhibits and col- 
lections are being viewed and studied by the people even in wartime. 
August 1943 and April 1944 saw the largest number of visitors, 162,016 
and 164,221, respectively, being recorded for these months. The 
attendance in the four Smithsonian and Museum buildings was as 
follows: Smithsonian building, 301,212; Arts and Industries building, 
566,496 ; Natural History building, 493,239; Aircraft building, 171,818. 

Since a considerable proportion of the visitors consisted of men and 
women in the armed forces, special services were proffered this group 
and every effort was made to enhance their visits. In the Natural 
History building a program of Sunday docent service, for guiding 


26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


parties through the Museum, was inaugurated. A number of women 
U. S. O. volunteers were especially trained to act as guides, and the 
“tours” conducted by them have proved very popular. During the 
period covering the last 35 Sundays of the fiscal year, over 5,000 mem- 
bers of the military personnel took advantage of this guide service. 

Publications and printing.—The sum of $30,000 was available dur- 
ing the fiscal year for the publication of the Annual Report, Bulletins, 
and Proceedings of the National Museum. Twenty publications were 
issued—the Annual Report, 4 Bulletins, 1 Contribution from the 
National Herbarium, and 14 Proceedings papers. A list of these 
publications is given in the report on publications, appendix 10. 

The distribution of volumes and separates to libraries and individ- 
uals on the regular mailing lists aggregated 40,817 copies. 

Special exhibits —Seventeen special exhibits were held during the 
year in the foyer and adjacent space of the Natural History building, 
under the auspices of various educational, scientific, recreational, and 
governmental groups. In addition the department of engineering and 
industries arranged 28 special displays—5 in engineering, 12 in graphic 
arts, and 11 in photography. 


CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION AND STAFF 


There was no major change in the organization of the National 
Museum, but some work has been done in allocating positions to their 
proper grades under the Classification Act on the basis of the duties 
of each position. 

Honorary appointments were conferred on Maj. Edward A. Gold- 
man as associate in zoology on August 1, 1948, Dr. Floyd A. McClure 
as research associate in botany on April 21, 1944, Dr. J. B. Reeside, Jr., 
as custodian of Mesozoic collection on June 19, 1944, and Clarence R. 
Shoemaker as associate in zoology on April 1, 1944. 

In the department of biology, Dr. David H. Johnson, associate 
curator, division of mammals, was furloughed for military duty on 
November 15, 1943, and Dr. Richard E. Blackwelder, associate cura- 
tor, division of insects, was furloughed temporarily for war work on 
August 23, 1943. Other changes were the resignation on March 22, 
1944, of Walter A. Weber, assistant curator, division of birds; the 
retirement of Clarence R. Shoemaker, associate curator, division of 
marine invertebrates, and Julian S. Warmbath, taxidermist. The 
latter vacancy was filled by the promotion of Watson M. Perrygo on 
December 9, 1943. In the section of diatoms, Paul S. Conger was 
appointed associate curator on March 9, 1944. 

In the department of geology, Dr. G. Arthur Cooper was advanced 
to the curatorship of the division of invertebrate paleontology and 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 27 


paleobotany on October 2, 1943, to succeed Dr. Charles E. Resser, who 
died on September 18, 1948, Miss Marion F. Willoughby, scientific 
aid, transferred to the United States Geological Survey on October 
31, 1943. 

In the department of engineering and industries, Dr. A. J. Olmsted, 
for a number of years chief photographer of the Museum, was relieved 
of the duties of that position on November 9, 1943, and was appointed 
associate curator in charge of the section of photography. Gurney I. 
Hightower succeeded Dr. Olmsted in charge of the photographic 
laboratory on January 9, 1944, with Floyd B. Kestner as assistant. 

Other changes in the administrative staff during the year were the 
retirement of Royal H. Trembly, superintendent of buildings and 
labor, who was succeeded by Lawrence L. Oliver on December 10, 1943. 
Anthony W. Wilding was appointed property officer on December 21, 
1948. The vacancy created by the death of Miss Helen A. Olmsted, 
personnel officer, was filled by the appointment of Mrs. Bertha T. 
Carwithen on February 1, 1944; and Mrs. Margaret L. Vinton was 
appointed personnel assistant on March 9, 1944. 

Employees furloughed for military duty during the year were as 
follows: Robert L. Bradshaw, on October 12, 1943; Joseph R. Burke, 
Jr., on October 13, 1943; John Carl Carter, on May 5, 1944; Walter 
McCree, on April 3, 1944; and David H. Johnson on November 15, 
1943. 

Ernest Desantis returned to duty from military furlough on Oc- 
tober 18, 1943. 

Eleven persons were retired, three having reached retirement age, 
five on account of disability, and three by optional retirement, as fol- 
lows: For age, William Rice, laborer, on September 30, 1943, after 15 
years, 3 months of service; Thomas J. Shannon, guard, on April 30, 
1944, after 18 years, 6 months; and Clarence R. Shoemaker, associate 
curator, on March 31, 1944, with over 33 years, 4 months of service. 
For disability, Eugene C. Miller, guard, on December 9, 1943, with 6 
years, 1 month of service; Cecil R. Mulnix, guard, on March 31, 1944, 
with 13 years, 7 months service; Arthur G. Rodgers, guard, on Novem- 
ber 10, 1943, with 8 years, 5 months service; Ann M. Stokes, laborer, 
on October 4, 1943, with 18 years, 6 months service; and Charles O. 
Watson, laborer, on April 5, 1944, with 35 years, 3 months service. 
By optional retirement, Royal H. Trembly, superintendent of build- 
ings and labor, November 30, 1943, with over 49 years of service; Bertie 
Turner, attendant, on November 30, 1943, with 32 years, 6 months 
service; and Julian S. Warmbath, taxidermist, with 15 years of service. 

Through death, the Museum lost during the year five employees 
from its active roll: Dr. Charles E. Resser, curator, division of in- 


28 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


vertebrate paleontology and paleobotany, on September 18, 1943, after 
29 years, 5 months; Miss Helen A. Olmsted, personnel officer, on Jan- 
uary 11, 1944, after 43 years, 9 months; Benjamin F. Coe, guard, on 
March 1, 1944, after 25 years, 5 months; George E. Matheny, guard, 
on July 20, 1948, after 24 years, 6 moriths; and Cornelius S. Jones, 
laborer, on March 17, 1944, after 32 years, 6 months. 

From its honorary staff, the Museum lost by death on September 5, 
1943, Dr. AleS Hrdlicka, associate in anthropology since April 1, 1942; 
and on February 22, 1944, Dr. E. O. Ulrich, associate in paleontology 
since June 9, 1914. 

Respectfully submitted. 

ALEXANDER Wetmore, Director. 

THe SECRETARY, 

Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 2 


REPORT ON THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART 


Sir: I have the honor to submit, on behalf of the Board of Trustees 
of the National Gallery of Art, the seventh annual report of the Board 
covering its operations for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944. This 
report.is made pursuant to the provisions of the Act of March 24, 19387 
(50 Stat. 51), as amended by the public resolution of April 18, 1939 
(Pub. Res. No. 9, 76th Cong.). | 


ORGANIZATION AND STAFF 


During the fiscal year ended June 80, 1944, the Board was comprised 
of the Chief Justice of the United States, Harlan F. Stone; the Sec- 
retary of State, Cordell Hull; the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry 
Morgenthau, Jr.; and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 
Dr. C. G. Abbot, ex officio ; and five general trustees, David K. E. Bruce, 
Ferdinand Lammot Belin, Duncan Phillips, Samuel H. Kress, and 
Chester Dale. Mr. Dale was elected as general trustee on November 1, 
1943, to succeed Joseph E. Widener, who died on October 26, 1943. 

At its annual meeting, held on February 14, 1944, the Board re- 
elected David K. E. Bruce, President, and Ferdinand Lammot Belin, 
Vice President, to serve for the ensuing year. The executive officers 
continuing in office during the year were: 

Huntington Cairns, Secretary-Treasurer. 

David E. Finley, Director. 

Harry A. McBride, Administrator. 

Huntington Cairns, General Counsel. 

John Walker, Chief Curator. 

Macgill James, Assistant Director. 
Donald D. Shepard continued to serve during the year as Adviser to 
the Board. 

During the year E. Roy Bergholz was appointed as Assistant Treas- 
urer to succeed Charles Zinsner, who resigned; John A. Gilmore was 
appointed as Assistant General Counsel; Hanns Swarzenski was ap- 
pointed Curator of Sculpture; and Porter A. McCray was appointed 
Chief of the Inter-American Office. 

The Board of Trustees during the year was authorized and directed 
by the Foreign Funds Control of the United States Treasury Depart- 
ment, and at the request of the State Department, to assume custodian- 


29 


30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ship of all works of art and exhibition material sent to the United 
States under the auspices of the former French Government for exhi- 
bition purposes at various places in the United States, including the 
World’s Fairs at New York, N. Y., and San Francisco, Calif. 

On August 20, 1948, The American Commission for the Protection 
and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas was 
organized, and several executive officers of the Gallery were appointed 
to serve as officers of the Commission. The headquarters of the Com- 
mission are located in the Gallery building. 

In March 1944 the Gallery, at the request of the State Department, 
established the Inter-American Office. This office was created to act 
as the official Government clearinghouse for the exchange of informa- 
tion concerning art activities in the American Republics. 

The three standing committees of the Board, provided for in the 
bylaws, as constituted at the annual meeting of the Board, held Febru- 
ary 14, 1944, were: 


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 


Chief Justice of the United States, Harlan F. Stone, chairman. 
David K. E. Bruce, vice chairman. 

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. C. G. Abbot. 
Ferdinand Lammot Belin. 

Duncan Phillips. 


FINANCE COMMITTEE - 


Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., chairman. 
David K. E. Bruce, vice chairman. 

Secretary of State, Cordell Hull. 

Ferdinand Lammot Belin. 

Samuel H. Kress. 


ACQUISITIONS COMMITTEE 


David K. E. Bruce, chairman. 
Ferdinand Lammot Belin, vice chairman. 
Duncan Phillips. 

Chester Dale. 

David BH. Finley, ex officio. 

The permanent Government positions of the Gallery are filled 
from the registers of the United States Civil Service Commission or 
with its approval. On June 30, 1944, the permanent Government staff 
numbered 243 employees. Since the beginning of the war, 58 mem- 
bers of the staff, or approximately 25 percent, have entered the armed 
services. 

The operation and maintenance of the Gallery building and grounds 
and the protection of the works of art have been continued through 
the fiscal year 1944 at as high a standard as possible with the reduced 
staffs now available. These staffs have been cut to a minimum owing 
to the fact that the Gallery has desired to reduce expenditures and 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 31 


the use of manpower to the greatest possible extent during the war 
period. That it has been possible to maintain a fairly high standard 
is due solely to the intensive efforts, efficiency, and interest of the main- 
tenance staff and the guard force. However, it will be necessary 
to increase both the maintenance staff and the guard force as soon 
as possible in order adequately to operate and maintain the Gallery 
building and grounds and to enable the Trustees to carry out their 
duties in the protection and care of the works of art in the Gallery’s 
collections. 
APPROPRIATIONS 


For salaries and expenses for the upkeep and operation of the Na- 
tional Gallery of Art, the protection and care of works of art acquired 
by the Board, and all administrative expenses incident thereto as 
authorized by the Act of March 24, 1937 (50 Stat. 51), and amended 
by public resolution of April 13, 1939 (Pub. Res. No. 9, 76th Cong.), 
the Congress appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1944, 
the sum of $623,365.00. This amount includes the present appropria- 
tion of $541,365.00 and a supplementary deficiency appropriation 
amounting to $82,000.00 for the payment of “overtime compensation” 
as authorized by Public Law 49, 78th Congress. From these appro- 
priations the following expenditures and encumbrances were incurred : 


EXPENDITURES AND ENCUMBRANCES 


BELSON a la SCT VACC See omer re neta mene erie ae Wen ee rae eae $510, 665. 00 
Printing andspinginge=— 1 ee hee ee a ee 4, 047. 22 
Supplies and equipment, ete2.-_—---22. 2 103, 315. 03 
Unencumbered balance. 2024-2 bet See ee 5, 337. 75 

dt Dy 31) Fess MeN Oe RE 8 ae |S 2S Re ee ee 623, 365. 00 


In addition to the above-mentioned appropriations, the Gallery re- 
ceived $15,932.16 from the Federal Works Agency, Public Buildings 
Administration, to cover expenses incurred in connection with the 
special protection of paintings and sculpture evacuated from the 
Gallery. 

ATTENDANCE 


During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, the visitors to the 
National Gallery of Art totaled 2,060,071, the largest annual attendance 
since the opening of the Gallery. This compares with 1,508,081 dur- 
ing the fiscal year ended June 30, 1948, or an increase of 551,990 or 
36.6 percent. The increase in popularity of the Gallery is evidenced 
by the fact that the average daily attendance during the fiscal year 
1944 was 5,659 visitors, as compared with 4,143 for the fiscal year 1948. 
On Sunday, December 21, 1943, there were 22,248 visitors, the greatest 
number in any one day. 


a2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Contributing to the public’s increasing interest in the Gallery 
are the evening hours on Sunday, the special exhibitions, particularly 
those of wartime art, the Sunday evening concerts without charge, and 
the Servicemen’s Room, which provides a place of relaxation for men 
and women in the armed services. Approximately 30 percent of the 
visitors to the Gallery are men and women in the armed services, 


PUBLICATIONS 


The Information Rooms in the Gallery continue to offer an in- 
creasing variety of fine, although moderately priced, colored repro- 
ductions of paintings in the Gallery’s collections, as well as post cards, 
illustrated catalogs, and a general information booklet that is of 
great assistance to visitors and which may be obtained without charge. 
With the acquisition of the Lessing J. Rosenwald collection of prints 
and drawings, a large illustrated catalog of this collection and a set 
of 32 post-card reproductions of some of the prints and drawings in 
the collection have been added to the publications now available. 

During the past year there has been a great increase in the number 
of orders for the Gallery’s publications from servicemen overseas, who 
are purchasing color prints and catalogs for use in recreation rooms 
at military posts all over the world. There has also been an unusual 
demand from public schools throughout the United States for color 
reproductions and text material descriptive of the Gallery’s collections. 
These publications also are in demand in the Latin-American 
republics. 


WORKS OF ART STORED IN PLACE OF SAFEKEEPING 


Early in January 1942 a limited number of fragile and irreplace- 
able works of art in the Gallery’s collections were removed to a place 
of greater safety. ‘These works, stored in a place adapted for the pur- 
pose, have since been under constant guard by members of the Gal- 
lery’s guard force and under supervision and inspection by a member 
of the curatorial staff of the Gallery. 


ACQUISITIONS 
GIFTS OF PRINTS AND DRAWINGS 


The Board of Trustees, on December 4, 1948, accepted six etchings 
from David Keppel, five by Piranesi and one by Ugo de Carpi. Also 
on December 4 the Board accepted a gift of two drawings, “Seated 
Figure,” by Pascin, and “Head of a Girl,” by Puvis de Chavannes, 
from Lessing J. Rosenwald. On May 20, 1944, the Board accepted an 
additional gift of approximately 196 prints and drawings from Mr. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 33 


Rosenwald. The Index of American Design, consisting of 22,000 or 
more drawings and water colors, which was accepted by the Board on 
June 7, 1943, from the Works Progress Administration, was received in 
the Gallery during the fiscal year 1944. 


GIFTS OF PAINTINGS 


On December 4, 1948, the Board of Trustees accepted eight paintings 
from Lessing J. Rosenwald, viz: 


Title Artist 
ERTS BSCO CLC Cl Cee ee eee uci ee Ser as LIN Oe NCEE Rn Se ee Ee Forain. 
ADI aCe) 3) Beet pel RO ae) cM MR pas Al AS et SRE A al AR Oe eee ape! Se Forain. 
CATS Ty SRT VEO Ce) ae ae aa ae Forain. 
BeUINGLENOVSCENGS ease = ene 2 oN ieee eee ay Ee aS Zee Forain. 
MES Str OF thenGOUS == sees Se re eS ee eee Daumier. 
ANY GUO Dh ye) ahh aia sape, Fk alle NEAR aire ek ibe pices Dee ee Ones ec aoe Iie SEEM Daumier. 
PEACH LOSS ORI os bere eee Se RUN yh eS oe Po a Gk Whistler. 
PATOL GUS TSN ys eae EE SE ore Pa Whistler. 


On the same date it also accepted the painting entitled “Breezing Up,” 
by Winslow Homer, from the W. L. and May T. Mellon Foundation. 
On December 18, 1943, the Board accepted the portrait of “Commodore 
John Rodgers,” by John Wesley Jarvis, from the Misses Christina and 
Nannie R. Macomb. On February 14, 1944, the Board accepted two 
paintings, “The Stream,” by Courbet, and “The Eel Gatherers,” by 
Corot, from Mr. and Mrs. P. H. B. Frelinghuysen. From the children 
of the late Rt. Rev. William Lawrence, the Board on the same date 
accepted the painting entitled “Amos Lawrence,” by Chester Harding; 
and on May 20, 1944, the Board accepted the painting of “Horace 
Binney,” by Gilbert Stuart, as a gift from Dr. Horace Binney. 


SALE OR EXCHANGE OF WORKS OF ART 


During the year no works of art belonging to the Gallery were sold 
or exchanged. 
LOAN OF WORKS OF ART TO THE GALLERY 


During the year the following works of art were received on loan: 
From Mrs. John C. Clark of New York, N. Y.: 


69 etchings by Pennell. 


‘From Mrs. Cary Grant, Pacific Palisades, Calif. : 


Title Artist 
PIPED Gy WR ee ce SP ae Canaletto. 
The Courtyard, Doge’s Palace, with the Procession of the Papal 

Lae E |  slata ESE IETS SE LSI Dy SR, LO ee nae A I Canaletto. 


34 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
LOAN OF WORKS OF ART BY THE GALLERY 


In the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, the Gallery loaned the fol- 
lowing five paintings to the Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, 
Conn., for exhibition purposes: 

From the collection of the National Gallery of Art: 


Title Artist 
BeltPortraite) 22h. i ee Benjamin West. 
Major Thomas’ Biddle__=-___-_-____ Thomas Sully and Thomas Wilcocks Sully. 


From the loan collection of The A. W. Mellon Educational and 
Charitable Trust: 


Title Artist 
Anna GOnd VOW SUL: (it) as eee eens attributed to John James Audubon. 
Gilbert Stuarts Pamily,\(?)=22 attributed to Washington Allston. 
Peter Re Mivinestonm (G7) es ee attributed to Abraham Delanoy. 


LOANED WORKS OF ART RETURNED 


During the year the following works of art lent to the Gallery by 
Chester Dale of New York, N. Y., were returned to him: 


Title Artist 
GCrouehing Tito ses Be NE UN ace lI ae et a Delacroix. 
Nude Woman: Seated) onja*Beds. 2 2 le ee Forain. 
Womans Seated ome: Chia treo a a eA a ar acl Cae Forain. 
Monsieur Louis Oy cee ee ee Nas ena aba See ee eee ce Gauguin. 
Cottage Interior with Woman and Little Girl____________________. Millet. 

EXHIBITIONS 


The following exhibitions were held at the National Gallery of Art 
during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944: 

Group of political caricatures by French and British artists, from 
the Lessing J. Rosenwald collection, from July 31 to September 5, 
1943. 

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century drawings and water colors from 
French museums and private collections (2d showing) from August 
8 to September 5, 1943. 

“Art for Bonds,” by American artists and sponsored by the Treasury 
Department’s National Committee of Honorary Patrons, in connec- 
tion with the Treasury’s Third War Loan Campaign, from September 
12 to October 10, 1948. 

Marine water colors and drawings by officers and enlisted men of 
the U. S. Marine Corps, through cooperation of the Division of Public 
Relations, U. S. Marine Corps, from September 12 to October 10, 1943. 

Navaho pollen and sand paintings. Selections from a group of 
paintings executed by Miss Maud Oakes, and accompanied by a group 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 35 


* 


collected by Miss Mary Wheelwright, from October 17 to November 
14, 1943. 

Paintings of naval aviation by American artists. From the Abbott 
Laboratories and in cooperation with the U. S. Navy, from November 
21 to December 12, 1943. 

Prints and drawings from the Rosenwald collection. The first 
general exhibition of prints and drawings from the Lessing J. Rosen- 
wald collection, comprising a group of selections from the fifteenth 
century to the present time, from December 19, 1943, to February 13, 
1944. 

Etchings and lithographs by Goya from the Gallery’s collection, 
from January 23 to February 138, 1944. 

“The Army at War,” paintings and drawings by American artists 
at Army bases throughout the world. Exhibition lent by the War 
Department to the Treasury Department, and shown at the National 
Gallery of Art from February 20 to March 19, 1944. 

Index of American Design. First exhibition of a selection of draw- 
ings and water colors (from the Metal Work and Hooked Rug sec- 
tions), from March 26 to April 23, 1944. 

Nanteuil engraved portraits. A selection of 35 of Nanteuil’s works, 
from the Lessing J. Rosenwald collection, from March 26 to June 21, 
1944. 

British war paintings. An exhibition of official British war paint- 
ings, recording military operations and civilian activities in wartime 
Britain. Lent by the British Ministry of Information, from April 23 
to May 20, 1944. 

Rembrandt prints and drawings. A survey of the work of the great 
Dutch master, selected from the Rosenwald, Widener, Rice, and 
Nowell-Usticke collections, from April 30 to June 21, 1944. 


TRAVELING EXHIBITIONS 


During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, the following drawings, 
water colors, and prints were placed on exhibition: 


INDEX OF AMERICAN DESIGN 


Exhibition made up from the documented drawings and water colors con- 
tained in the Index of American Design. Six drawings, together with data sheets, 
for use in an Exhibition of Maine Art, opening April 14, 1944, were shipped to 
Colby College, Waterville, Me., and were returned to the Gallery June 15, 1944. 

Ninety-five duplicate data sheets of Texas material contained in the Index, 
from which to make a selection of photographs, were shipped to the University 
of Texas, Austin, Tex., on June 27, 1944. 


ROSENWALD PRINTS 


A traveling exhibition, consisting of 35 prints from the Lessing J. Rosenwald 
collection. Sent on May 6, 1944, to Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, 


36 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Tenn.; then to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va., on June 12, 
1944, from where it will be returned to the National Gallery of Art about August 1, 
to be held for further bookings. 


VARIOUS GALLERY ACTIVITIES 


In the period from July 1, 1943, to June 30, 1944, a total of 53 con- 
certs were given, of which 52 were in the East Garden Court on Sun- 
day evenings and one on Saturday afternoon in the Auditorium. The 
concerts were free to the public, and were attended to capacity. The 
National Gallery Sinfonietta, under the direction of Richard Bales, 
played 13 concerts. An American Festival of works of native com- 
posers was held during March and April, 1944, when five perform- 
ances were given. 

The Sunday night suppers for servicemen have been continued 
during the year, approximately 35 being served each Sunday in the 
cafeteria at the Gallery. Funds to defray the cost of the suppers were 
contributed by members of the staff and by friends of the Gallery. 

A total of 195 special permits to copy paintings in the National 
Gallery of Art were issued during the fiscal year 1944, and 72 special 
permits were issued during the same period to photograph paintings. 


CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT 


During the year the work of the curatorial department consisted 
mainly of installing a large number of gifts and additional works of 
art from the Widener collection; arranging 17 temporary exhibitions; 
cataloging paintings, sculpture, and prints; assisting the American 
Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic 
Monuments in War Areas by providing information on damaged and 
looted works of art in war areas; and the assumption of additional 
responsibility resulting from the appointment of the Trustees of the 
Gallery as custodian of works of art and exhibition material sent to 
this country under the auspices of the former French Government. 

Two publications, “Great American Paintings from Smibert to 
Bellows,” edited by John Walker and Macgill James, and “Master- 
pieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art,” edited by Hunt- 
ington Cairns and John Walker, were prepared with the assistance of 
members of the curatorial department. One book, two catalogs, and 
three pamphlets were issued by the curatorial and educational depart- 
ments in collaboration. Six members of the staff contributed eight 
articles to several periodicals and pamphlet series. 

During the past year approximately 622 works of art were sub- 
mitted to the acquisitions committee (the largest individual gift being 
490 prints and drawings to be added to the Rosenwald collection) with 
recommendations regarding their acceptability for the collections of 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 37 


the National Gallery of Art; 45 private collections were viewed in 
connection with offers to the Gallery of gifts or loans; 94 consultations 
were held concerning 139 works of art brought to the Gallery for 
expert opinion; and 58 written replies were made to inquiries in- 
volving research in the history of art. 


RESTORATION AND REPAIR OF WORKS OF ART 


With the authorization of the Board, and the approval of the Direc- 
tor and Chief Curator, the necessary restoration and repair of paint- 
ings and sculpture in the Gallery’s collection were made by Stephen S. 
Pichetto, Consultant Restorer to the Gallery. All the work was com- 
pleted in the Restorer’s studio in the Gallery with the exception of 
several paintings that required restoration before shipment to Wash- 
ington, and one where the work was of such a delicate and complicated 
nature that it was necessary for the work to be done in Mr. Pichetto’s 
New York studio. 


EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM 


More than 72,000 people attended the various programs conducted 
by the educational department during the year. The Gallery tours 
of the collection attracted nearly 15,000 people, while 22,000 attended 
the “Picture of the Week,” a 10-minute discussion of a single painting 
given twice daily on Mondays through Fridays. More than 9,000 
attended the regular lectures on special topics delivered by the educa- 
tional staff and guest speakers. 

During the first 4 months of the fiscal year, a new project undertaken 
by the educational department was that of an automatic program 
(no speaker) employing 2 x 2 Kodachromes and titles on slides, en- 
titled “What To See in the National Gallery of Art—A Suggestion 
for Your First Visit.” This program was accompanied by recorded 
music, and more than 15,000 people attended. 


LIBRARY 


The most important contribution to the library during the year was 
the art library of the late Joseph E. Widener. This gift consisted of 
1,373 books and 579 periodicals. 

As a gift from Solomon R. Guggenheim, the library received the 
_ Richter Archives, consisting of over 60,000 photographs and reproduc- 
tions. Mr. Guggenheim also gave 975 photographs of art objects in 
the Solomon R. Guggenheim collection. A number of books on works 
of art were also added to the library collection through funds donated 
by Capt. Paul Mellon. 


38 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


PHOTOGRAPHIC DEPARTMENT 


During the fiscal year 1944, the photographic laboratory of the 
Gallery made 6,037 black-and-white prints and 510 black-and-white 
and 1,117 color slides. 


OTHER GIFTS 


In the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, gifts of books on works of art 
and related material were made to the Gallery library by the Honor- 
able Solomon Bloom, Mrs. Juliana Force, Mrs. Victor Harris, Macgill 
James, Pvt. Lincoln Kirstein, Leander McCormick-Goodhart, Capt. 
Paul Mellon, Lamont Moore, John H. Morgan, W. Francklyn Paris, 
Duncan Phillips, and Maj. Ray L. Trautman. Gifts of money were 
made to the Gallery during the year by Mrs. Florence Becker, David 
EK. Finley, Mrs. Deering Howe, Mr. and Mrs. Macgill James, Life 
Magazine, Mrs. H. A. McBride, Capt. Paul Mellon, Donald D. Shep- 
ard, Col. and Mrs. O. J. Troster, and the late Joseph E. Widener. 


AUDIT OF PRIVATE FUNDS OF THE GALLERY 


An audit is being made of the private funds of the Gallery for the 
year ended June 30, 1944, by Price, Waterhouse & Company, public 
accountants, and the certificate of that company on its examination 
of the accounting records maintained for such funds will be submitted 
to the Gallery. 

Respectfully submitted. 

F. L. Brewin, Acting President. 
Tur SECRETARY, 
Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 3 
REPORT ON THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS 


Sm: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activities 
of the National Collection of Fine Arts for the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1944: 

APPROPRIATIONS 


For the administration of the National Collection of Fine Arts by 
the Smithsonian Institution, including compensation of necessary em- 
ployees, purchase of books of reference and periodicals, traveling 
expenses, and other necessary incidental expenses, $17,486 was allot- 
ted, of which $6,364.74 was expended in connection with the care and 
maintenance of the Freer Gallery of Art, a unit of the National Collec- 
tion of Fine Arts. The balance was spent for the care and upkeep 
of the National Collection of Fine Arts, nearly all of this sum being 
required for the payment of salaries, traveling expenses, purchase 
of books and periodicals, and necessary disbursements for the care 
of the collection. 


THE SMITHSONIAN ART COMMISSION 


Owing to crowded transportation conditions and lack of proper 
hotel facilities, it was decided to omit again the December annual 
meeting of the Smithsonian Art Commission. Several proffered gifts 
of art works have been deposited with the National Collection of Fine 
Arts to be passed upon at the next meeting of the Commission. 

The Commission lost one member by death during the year. Dr. 
Frederick P. Keppel, a member of the Commission since 1932, died 
September 8, 1943. 


THE CATHERINE WALDEN MYER FUND 


Four miniatures, water color on ivory, were acquired from the fund 
established through the bequest of the late Catherine Walden Myer, 
as follows: 

42. “Charles Carroll,” by Henry Inman (1801-1846); from Mrs. Dora Lee 
Curtis, Arlington, Va. 

43. “William E. Dickson,” by Rembrandt Peale (1778-1860) ; from Mrs. J. J. 
Hooper, Washington, D. C. 

619830—45-—_4 39 


40 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


44. “Katherine Douglas Dickson,” by Raphael Peale (1774-1825) ; from Mrs. 
J. J. Hooper, Washington, D. C. 

45. “British Officer,” by Alfred T. Agate (1812-1846) ; from Miss Dlizabeth A. 
DuHamel, Washington, D. C. 


LOANS ACCEPTED 


A miniature, “Otto, Count de Mosloy,” by Charles Willson Peale, 
1779, was lent by Dr. L. P. Shippen on September 24, 1943. 

An oil painting, “Portrait of Mrs. Stephen Decatur, nee Susan 
Wheeler (1776-1860),” by Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828), and four 
crayon drawings on paper, “Portrait of Ann Decatur Pine,” “Portrait 
of Capt. James McKnight,” “Portrait of Capt. Stephen Decatur, Sr.,” 
and “Portrait of Ann Pine McKnight Decatur,” by Saint-Memin 
(1770-1852) , were lent by Mrs. William F. Machold, nee Sarah Morris, 
on November 22, 1943. 

Thirty Chinese jade ornaments were lent anonymously on March 1, 
1944, 

A miniature, “Col. Nathaniel Darby,” by an unknown artist, was 
lent by Dr. L. P. Shippen on March 25, 1944. 

Two miniatures, “John Church Hamilton,” and “Unknown Lady,” 
by Alfred T. Agate (1812-1846), were lent by Miss Elizabeth A. 
DuHamel on April 7, 1944. 

A miniature, “William Parsons, 2nd, of Gloucester, Mass.,” by 
Washington Blanchard (ac. 1831-43, Boston), was lent by Mrs. Alba 
Walling on May 18, 1944. 

An oil painting, “Portrait of Lt. Gen. Mark W. Clark,” by M. Arnold 
Nash, was lent by Mrs. Mark W. Clark on June 7, 1944. 


LOANS TO OTHER MUSEUMS AND ORGANIZATIONS 


The following 13 paintings were lent to the Civilian Medical Di- 
vision, Office of the Secretary of War, Dr. F. C. Smith, Medical Di- 
rector, Room 1 E 356, Pentagon Building, on July 21, 1943, with the 
understanding that they can be recalled at any time. 


“Street Scene in Ajmere,” by William S. Bagdatopoulos. 
“Peshawar City from the Fort,’ by William §S. Bagdatopoulos 
“Peachbloom,” by Alice Pike Barney. 

“Landscape with Pond,” by John L. Bennett. 

“The Woodland Way,” by William Baxter Closson. 

“Joyous Childhood,” by William Baxter Closson. 

“Near the Ocean,” by Robert Swain Gifford. 

“On the Lagoon, Venice,” by Robert Swain Gifford. 
“Landscape with Windmill,” by E. Landseer Harris. 

“Great Silas at Night,” by Robert C. Minor. 

“The Brook,” by Clinton Ogilvie. 

“The Patriarchs, Zion National Park,’ by Gunnar Widforss. _, 
“The Artist’s Children,” by John Wood. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 41 


A marble statue, “Greek Slave,” by Hiram Powers (without the 
pedestal), was lent to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 
City, for an exhibition “The Greek Revival in the United States,” 
November 8, 1943, to March 1, 1944. (Returned March 7, 1944.) 

_ Two oil paintings, “Cliffs of the Upper Colorado River, Wymoing 

Territory,” by Thomas Moran, and “Fired On,” by Frederic Reming- 
ton, were lent to The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, for an 
exhibition of “Romantic Painting in America,” November 17 through 
February 6, 1944. (Returned February 18, 1944.) 

An oil painting, “Thomas A. Edison Listening to his First Per- 
fected Phonograph,” by Col. A. A. Anderson, was lent to the Depart- 
. ment of Engineering and Industries, United States National Museum, 
on February 11, 1944, to be used in connection with a special exhibition 
commemorating the ninety-seventh birthday of Edison. (Returned 
March 3, 1944.) 

The following five miniatures were lent to the Lyman Allyn Museum, 
New London, Conn., to be included in the exhibition of John Trum- 
bull and his contemporaries from March 5 to April 16, 1944. (Re- 
turned April 19, 1944.) 

“Mr. Nichol,” by John Wesley Jarvis. 

“Hlizabeth Oliphant,” by James Peale. 

“Blizabeth Knapp,” by James Peale. 

“Robert Oliphant,” by Raphael Peale. 

“Rubens Peale,” by Raphael Peale. 

An oil painting, “Portrait of Frank B. Noyes,” by Ossip Perelma, 
was lent to the artist to be shown in connection with his exhibition of 
portraits held at the Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D. C., May 9 to 
June 1, 1944, (Returned June 5, 1944.) 


WITHDRAWALS BY OWNERS 


The following six paintings, lent by the Rev. F. Ward Denys, were 
withdrawn November 3, 1943, by the executor of his estate, the Ameri- 
can Security and Trust Company. . 

“The Salutation,” copy after Albertinelli. 

“Holy Family,” copy after Del Sarto. 

“Gathering Flowers,” by E. Keyser. 

“St. Michael and the Dragon,” copy after Guido Reni. 

“Madonna and Child,” copy after Perugino. 

“St. Anthony and the Lions,” by unknown artist. 

The bronze statue of Lincoln, by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, lent by 
the estate of Mrs. John Hay, was withdrawn December 13, 19438. 

An oil painting, “Portrait of a Dutch Girl,” by Jan Victoors, was 
withdrawn December 31, 1943, by Mrs. Feroline Perkins Wallach, 
Administratrix of the Estate of Cleveland Perkins. 


42 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Two oil paintings, “The Windmill,” by Salomon Ruysdael, and 
“Portrait of a Dutch Girl,” by Paul Moreelse, were withdrawn May 
15, 1944, by Mrs. Feroline Perkins Wallach, Administratrix of the 
Estate of Cleveland Perkins. 


THE HENRY WARD RANGER FUND PURCHASES 


No. 118 entitled “Fifteenth Century French Madonna and Child,” 
by Harry W. Watrous (1857-1940), was assigned by the Council 
of the National Academy of Design to the Coker College for Women, 
Hartsville, S. C., on August 4, 1948. 


THE NATIONAL COLLECTION OF FINE ARTS REFERENCE LIBRARY 


A total of 651 publications (329 volumes and 322 pamphlets) were 
accessioned during the year. This number includes 171 volumes and 
52 pamphlets added by purchase, and 60 volumes of bound periodicals. 
The Parke-Bernet priced catalogs accounted for 31 volumes and 45 
pamphlets among the purchases. The other accessions were publica- 
tions received in exchange or as gifts. 


OTHER ACTIVITIES 


The following paintings have been cleaned or restored since July 1 
1943: 


“Portrait of Andrew Jackson,” by Thomas Sully. Property of the United 
States Capitol. 

“Portrait of Commodore Oliver H. Perry,” by John Wesley Jarvis (or after). 
Property of the division of history, United States National Museum. 

“City of St. Louis,” by George Catlin. Property of the division of ethnology, 
United States National Museum. 

“Ha-won-je-tah, the One Horn. Sioux (Dah-Co-Ta),” by George Catlin. Prop- 
erty of the division of ethnology, United States National Museum. 

“View on Upper Missouri—Back View of the Mandan Village,’ by George 
Catlin. Property of the division of ethnology, United States National Museum. 

“Buffalo Hunt under the Wolf-skin Mask,” by George Catlin. Property of 
the division of ethnology, United States National Museum. 

“Portrait of Robert Morris,” by Gilbert Stuart (or after), offered to the Na- 
tional Collection of Fine Arts by the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. 


SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS 


The following exhibitions were held: 

October 6 through 31, 1943.—Exhibition of 13 oil and 2 varnish 
paintings, 4 water colors, 1 gouache, 4 pencil drawings and 2 etchings, 
by Ceferino Palencia, of Mexico, was sponsored by the Mexican Am- 
bassador and the Pan American Union. A catalog was published by 
the Pan American Union. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 43 


December 8, 1943, through January 2, 1944.—Exhibition of 74 water 
colors of Mexico, by Walter B. Swan, Omaha, Nebr., was sponsored 
by the Mexican Ambassador and the Pan American Union. A catalog 
was published by the Pan American Union. 

December 14, 1943, through January 16, 1944.—Exhibition of 82 
miniatures by 52 artists, by the Pennsylvania Society of Miniature 
Painters. Reprint of catalog was published by the National Collec- 
tion of Fine Arts. 

January 6 through 30, 1944.—Exhibition of 21 water colors and 20 
block prints, by Ralph H. Avery, C. Sp. (P.), United States Navy. 

February 4 through 27, 1944.—Joint exhibition of paintings by 
John Mix Stanley (1814-72), his daughter-in-law, Jane C. Stanley 
(1863-1940), and her daughter, Alice Stanley Acheson, consisting of 
30 oil paintings, 3 chromolithographs, and 7 small lithographs by 
John Mix Stanley, a photograph of John Mix Stanley, and a book 
entitled “John Mix Stanley and his Indian Paintings,” by W. Vernon 
Kinietz; 40 water colors by Jane C. Stanley, and 28 oils by Alice Stan- 
ley Acheson. A catalog was privately published. 

April 29 through May 2, 1944.—Biennial Art Exhibition of 20 
water colors, 41 oils, 4 etchings, 2 pastels and 4 pieces of sculpture, by 
the National League of American Pen Women. A catalog was pri- 
vately published. 

May 2 through 28, 1944.—Exhibition of “Portraits of Leading Amer- 
ican Negro Citizens,” 8 by Mrs. Laura Wheeler Waring, of Phila- 
delphia, Pa., and 15 by Mrs. Betsy Graves Reyneau, of Washington, 
Dc. 

June 2 through 28, 1944.—Exhibition of 78 mural paintings from the 
caves of India, and 16 paintings of modern India, by Sarkis Katcha- 
dourian, of New York City. A catalog was published by the State 
Department. 

) PUBLICATIONS 


Totman, R. P. Report on the National Collection of Fine Arts for the year 
ended June 30, 1948. Appendix 3, Report of the Secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution for the year ended June 30, 1943, pp. 35-40. 

Wentey, A. G. Report on the Freer Gallery of Art for the year ended June 30, 
1943. Appendix 4, Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 
for the year ended June 30, 1943, pp. 41-46. 


Respectfully submitted. 
R. P. Totman, Acting Director. 
THe SECRETARY, 
Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 4 
REPORT ON THE FREER GALLERY OF ART 


Str: I have the honor to submit the twenty-fourth annual report 
on the Freer Gallery of Art for the year ended June 30, 1944: 


THE COLLECTIONS 
Additions to the collections by purchase are as follows: 


BRONZE 


43.9. Chinese, 12th century B. C. Shang dynasty. Ceremonial vessel of the type 
ku. Light green patina with patches of silvery gray inside and out; 
incrustations of cuprite and native copper inside and out. Surface 
design incised and filled with a reddish pigment. A two-character 
inscription inside the foot. 0.293 x 0.167 over all. 

44.1. Chinese, 12th century B. C. Shang dynasty. A ceremonial vessel of the 
type tsun. Light green patina; incrustations of cuprite and azurite 
inside. Traces of red and black pigments in the design. A three-char- 
acter inscription with ya hsing inside on the bottom. 0.297 x 0.281 over 
all. (Illustrated.) 

44.3. Chinese, Han dynasty (206 B. C-—A. D. 221). Mirror. Surface: a black 
patina with overlay of green aerugo on the face and on the rim of the 
back. Decoration in low relief with four characters around the boss. 
Diameter: 0.142. 

44.4, Chinese, T‘ang dynasty (A. D. 618-907). Mirror. Surface: a bright 
silvery patina with patches of green aerugo. Decoration of birds, ani- 
mals, insects, and flowers in relief. Diameter: 0.192. 

44.5. Chinese, T‘ang dynasty (A. D. 618-907). Mirror. Surface: a silvery 
patina with occasional patches of green aerugo. Decoration of grapes, 
birds, and animals, in bold relief. Diameter: 0.212. 

44.6. Chinese, early Han, 8d century B.C. Mirror. Surface: a tarnished silvery 
patina with patches of green aerugo. Decoration: fine incised back- 
ground with designs in flat relief superimposed. Diameter: 0.100. 

44.7. Chinese, Sui dynasty (A. D. 581-618). Mirror. Surface: a bright silvery 
patina with remains of green lacquer spilled over the edge; boss incrusted 
with green aerugo. Decoration in relief with additions of red and 
green pigment. Inscription of 27 characters. Diameter: 0.184. 

44.8. Chinese, T‘ang dynasty (A. D. 618-907). Mirror. Surface: a tarnished 
silvery patina covered with patches of green aerugo. Decoration: 
lacquer inlaid with silver and gold. 0.159 x 0.159. 

44.9. Chinese, 3d-2d century B.C. Mirror. Surface: a black patina with patches 
of green aerugo. Decoration: background incised, with a smooth circular 
band and a seven-pointed star superimposed in countersunk relief. Di- 
ameter: 0.190. 

44.10. Chinese, 3d-2d century B.C. Mirror. Surface: a black patina with patches 

of green aerugo. Decoration in low linear relief. Diameter: 0.142. 


44 > 


Secretary's Report, 1944.—Appendix 4 PLATE 1 


fa 


ACSA Sad ih 


hoe 


bos 


44.14 


RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION OF THE FREER GALLERY OF ART 


Secretary's Report, 1944.—Appendix 4 


PLATE 2 
af 


enim 


44.17 


44.20 


RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION OF THE FREER GALLERY OF ART. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 45 


CERAMICS 


44.11. Chinese, Sung dynasty. Ko ware. Dish with sloping sides and six-foil 
rim. Body of hard, dark gray clay showing brown on the foot-rim, coy- 
ered with an opaque, buff-gray glaze with a medium crackle and some 
small iron spots. 0.031 x 0.182. 

44.12, Chinese, Sung dynasty. Yiieh ware. Round, covered box with a design 
of three flowers carved in low relief on the top. Body of hard, fine- 
grained medium-gray clay, covered with a transparent, greenish-gray 
glaze which shows green in thicker areas. 0.052 x 0.137. 

44.13—- Chinese, Ch‘ing dynasty, Ch‘ien Lung period. Pair of bowls, each with 

44.14, a stem attached into a free-moving reticulated base. The body of 
each is of white porcelain, covered with a pure white glaze upon which 
the decoration is painted in overglaze enamels. The base of each is 
glazed in celadon. On the foot of each stem a six-character mark of 
the Ch‘ien Lung period in underglaze blue. 44.13, 0.131 x 0.164 over all; 
44.14, 0.185 x 0.163 over all. (44.14 illustrated. ) 

44.15. Chinese, Sung dynasty. Ting ware. Small plate, with a slight concavity 
and a narrow rim, bound in brass. The body is of white porcelanous 
clay, covered with a lustrous, cream-white glaze. The decoration of 
ducks, lotuses, and water plants in slight relief under glaze. 0.017 x 0.140 
(diameter). 


JADE 


44.18. Chinese, 18th century. Ch‘ien Lung period (1736-95). A tripod vessel of 

a-b-c. the ting type with a cover surmounted by a lion sejant; annular handles 
depending from dragon heads in relief; all carved from a single piece of 
white nephrite. Wood stand. 0.250 x 0.283 over all. 


LACQUER 


44.19. Japanese, late 17th century. Writing box (swzuri-bako) in polished black 
lacquer (rd-iro) decorated in gold and pewter. Bronze water box (mizu- 
ire) and an ink stone; two trays. 0.051 x 0.226 x 0.221. 

44.20. Japanese, 14th century. Late Kamakura. Small cabinet (kodansu) in 
polished black lacquer (76-iro) now turning brown. Decorations of 
chrysanthemums, grasses, butterflies, and vines executed in gold and 
mother-of-pearl. Six drawers and two doors; lock, hinges, ete., in dark, 
chiseled bronze. 0.280 x 0.384 x 0.2138. (Illustrated). 

44.21. Japanese, 16th century. Painter’s box (e-bako) in two parts with cover 
and tray in upper part. Polished black lacquer (7r6-iro) inlaid with 
closely set small chrysanthemums of mother-of-pearl, whose surfaces are 
engraved with the lines of the petals. 0.203 x 0.172 x 0.358. 

44.23. Japanese, late 17th century. Letter-box (fu-bako) with gold-flecked ground 
(nashi-ji) upon which the decoration is executed in varying tones of 
gold and silver. Silver fittings. 0.075 x 0.250 x 0.096. 

44.26. Japanese, dated in correspondence with A. D. 1844. By Yamamoto Shun- 
sho. Medicine chest (yakur6). Polished black lacquer (rd-iro) con- 
taining six drawers; silver corner mountings. Decorations executed in 
black lacquer in relief, and in gold and red. Inscription of 11 characters 
including date, signature, and kakihan. One seal. 0.338 x 0.328 x 0.198. 

44.22. Japanese, 17th-19th century. Three writing boxes (suzuri-bako). 

44.24. 

44.25. 


46 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


44.27- Japanese, 17th-18th century. Highteen medicine cases (inro) of varying 
44.44 types and designs. 
incl. 
MANUSCBIPT 


44.17. Armenian, 13th century. The Gospel according to the four Evangelists. 
Original binding of tooled brown leather, the top cover adorned with a 
cruciform design executed in silver nailheads; at its center a square 
crystal containing a Greek cross cut into it from underneath ; other small 
silver appliqués (some missing). The text is written on 582 parchment 
leaves in double columns, in bolorgir or “round hand,” in black, gold, and 
occasional blue, red, and green. Initials, paragraphs, title pages, arcades, 
and four full-page miniatures with figures of the Evangelists—executed 
in colors and gold. Dated colophons. 0.244 x 0.179 over all. 
0.240 x 0.169 average page. (Page 28 illustrated.) 


PAINTING 


43.10. Chinese, dated in correspondence with A. D. 1541. Ming dynasty. By 
Wén Pi (Chéng-ming), 1470-1559. Chrysanthemums and pine tree. Ink 
painting on a paper scroll. Dated and signed by the artist; two colo- 
phons, one by the artist; 20 seals. 0.755 x 0.315. 

44.16. Chinese, dated in correspondence with A. D. 1684. Ch‘ing dynasty. By 
Tao-chi (fl. circa A. D. 1662-1706). Landscape. Ink and slight color ona 
paper scroll. Inscription, signature, and four seals on the painting; in- 
scription and three seals on the mount. 0.264 x 3.182. 

44.45. Japanese, dated in correspondence with A. D. 1778. Attributed to Okyo. 
Pilgrims going to Hase-dera in the springtime. Color and ink on a 
silk kakemono. Inscription, signature, two seals. 0.447 x 0.812. 


STONE SCULPTURE 


44.2. Chinese, 8th century. T‘ang dynasty. Head belonging to the dancing 
figure in the processional relief 24.2 (reattached). 0.115 x 0.068 x 0.068. 
The work of the curatorial staff has been devoted to the study of 
new acquisitions and of other objects submitted for purchase, from 
the fields of Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Persian, and Indian fine arts. 
Such work involves comparative study, reading of inscriptions and 
seals, written reports, and so on. In addition to the work within the 
collection, reports, either oral or written, were made upon 658 objects 
and 122 photographs of objects submitted for examination by their 
owners, and 44 inscriptions were translated. A large part of the time 
of staff members has been given to work directly contributing to the 
war effort, summarized as follows: 


WAR WORK 


Members of the staff devoted many hours both inside and outside 
regular hours to work for several Government agencies. Five 
hundred forty-two typed pages-of Japanese translations were made 
for the Office of Strategic Services; and a revised translation of a 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 47 


Guide to Signs and Symbols used on Chinese military maps were made 
and a compilation of a glossary of Chinese geographical and topo- 
graphical terms was edited and revised for the Army Map Service. 
The Chinese character for “Victory” was made for an artist to be 
used in connection with a publication on the United Nations. Photo- 
graphs made by the Freer Gallery field staff in China were reproduced 
for the Military Intelligence Division of the War Department (27 
prints). For another agency, several Japanese documents were ex- 
amined. 

Other services have been given to various persons. For example, 
63 photographs of Chinese paintings were presented to Dr. Shih- 
chieh Wang, Secretary General of the People’s Council and Central 
Planning Board of China and a member of the Chinese Goodwill 
Mission; 557 photographs were given to members of the armed ser- 
vices who visited the offices; 24 military students of the School of 
Foreign Service, Georgetown University, were shown through the 
Chinese exhibition galleries; and in Santa Fe, N. Mex., a lecture on 
“Flower Painting in the Near and the Far East” was given by a staff 
member using Freer Gallery material, for the benefit of the Indian 
Service Club. 


CHANGES IN EXHIBITION AND REPAIRS TO THE COLLECTION 


Six hundred eighty-eight changes in exhibition have been made, as 
follows: 


American paintings: 
Oils, 79; water colors, 35; pastels, 22. 
American prints (Whistler) : 
Etchings, 32; lithographs, 21. 
Biblical manuscripts, 6. 
Coptic book covers, 4. 
Chinese arts: 
Bronzes, 47; bronze and jade, 4. 
Ceramics, 40. 
Jade, 152. 
Marble, 2. 
Paintings, 117. 
Silver, 36. 
Sculpture, bronze, 32. 
Sculpture, stone, 30. 
Korean pottery, 27. 
Syrian glass, 2. 


Repairs to the collection were as follows: 


One Chinese bronze repaired; 1 Persian painting remounted; 5 Japanese paint- 
ings remounted ; 31 Chinese paintings bound in portfolio form. 

Sculptured head 44.2 cemented upon its original place on the figure of the 
dancer of the Chinese Buddhist relief 24.2. 


48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ATTENDANCE 


The Gallery has been open to the public every day from 9 untii 
4:30 o’clock with the exception of Mondays and Christmas Day. 

The total attendance of visitors coming in at the main entrance 
was 62,408. Fifty-four other visitors on Mondays bring the grand 
total to 62,462. The total attendance on weekdays was 35,610; Sun- 
days, 26,798. ‘The average weekday attendance was 137; the average 
Sunday attendance, 515. The highest monthly attendance was in 
August, with 6,789 visitors, the lowest in December with 3,394 visitors, 

There were 1,279 visitors to the main office during the year; the pur- 
poses of their visits were as follows: 


For; general:information 22. -U2n te ecn yee nt Pe eee eee 180 
To, see, members) of the, staff. =~ 23) ss a ee ea ee ae Be ee 505 
To. readin, the Wray ee ee eae 213 
To make tracings and sketches from library books_________________________ 5 
To'iseeibuilding ‘and installacl omg eee ee ee 37 
To. make'photographs) and: sketehes2o< 2£2— 5200s je C2) Be ie Ae ee 15 
Tojysee exhibition: galleries;on, Monday. 22% S28! She eee eet 6 
To examine or purchase photographs and slides___________________________ 378 
To ‘submit objects; for examination 22222 2s ee eee a 96 
To see objectsiimu store ge G a 28 8 ee a PEN a ae 209 
Washington M Ouseni pte 8 ets ae ee ee eee 56 
NariMasterns paintings and textiles = 225202 ee ee 36 
Near Hastern paintings and manuscripts_____-_-_____4_-_-___- == 26 
Tibetsm’: pain tin eee eee a eee ae ea 1 
Endian “pain Ging gees eh a ete 1 
American) ‘paintingss 2.2 3 22 Joe A ee ee eee eee 8 
Oriental pottery, jade, bronze, lacquer and bamboo_________________ 72 
Gold/treasnres. 222 S027 2 sh ee Se SRO ee 2 eee eee 3 
ATL seul tur ete 228 oe Si ee ee a ARE EIA Dg SO es ae RES 5 
Syrian ‘@1ass, ;etes 26266 AE a eee a ST al 


DOCENT SERVICE, LECTURES, ETC. 


By request, 2 groups met in the study rooms and 18 groups in the 
exhibition galleries for instruction by staff members. Total num- 
ber of persons, 321. 

January 21,1944: The Director attended a meeting in New York 
of the Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies on 
Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas. ; 

February 10, 1944: A lecture by Miss Guest, on “Flower Painting in 
Persia and China,” before the American Association of University 
Women. 

Two lectures by members of the Civil Service Commission were 
given to supervisors in the auditorium. Total attendance, 224. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 49 
PERSON NEL 


Weldon N. Rawley resigned from the Civil Service position of 
superintendent of building (CAF-8) August 15, 1943. He was ap- 
pointed by the Freer Gallery as superintendent of building, court 
and grounds, August 16, 1943. 

Rita W. Edwards resigned from the Civil Service position of senior 
clerk-stenographer (CAF-5) October 8, 1943. She was appointed 
by the Freer Gallery as administrative secretary to the Director, 
October 9, 1948. 

Ruth W. Helsley appointed senior clerk-stenographer (CAF-5) 
October 9, 1943. 

EK. Harriet Link, clerk-stenographer (CAF-4) transferred from the 
Library of the Smithsonian Institution October 9, 1948. 

Grace C. Griffith appointed librarian for a period of 1 year October 
25, 1943. 

Elizabeth Hill Maltby, former librarian, trained Miss Griffith for 
the position of librarian October 25—December 13, 1943. 

Thomas R. Fullalove, painter, who was retired on account of dis- 
ability February 15, 1937, died on November 22, 1943. 

Bertie Turner, attendant at the Gallery since November 17, 1920, 
retired on November 380, 1948. 

Ruth W. Helsley, senior clerk-stenographer, resigned on December 
4,1943. She first came to the Gallery on November 22, 1920, resigned 
on February 28, 1922, and was reinstated on May 5, 1930. 

Alice Copeland appointed attendant (CPC-2) December 9, 1943. 

E. Harriet Link promoted to senior clerk-stenographer (CAF-5) 
December 9, 1943. 

Grace C. Griffith, librarian, was married to Charles Maxwell Bar- 
nett, United States Army Air Forces, on April 15, 1944. 

Burns A. Stubbs resigned from the Civil Service position of chief 
scientific aid (SP-8) April 23, 1944. He was appointed by the Freer 
Gallery as assistant to the Director on April 24, 1944. 

Glen P. Shephard was appointed museum aid (SP-4) from guard 
(CPC-4) April 24, 1944. 

Grace T. Whitney worked intermittently at the Gallery in the 
Near East section between December 2, 1943 and June 21, 1944. 

Other changes in personnel are as follows: 

Appointments.—Alfred Hewitt, a guard on the day watch since 
August 1, 1936, promoted to sergeant (CPC-5) July 1, 1943. Glen 
P. Shephard, guard (CPC-4), from military furlough, July 1, 1943. 
Charles W. Frost, guard (CPC-4), by transfer from Airport Detach- 
ment No. 5, Gravelly Point, Va., August 27, 1943. Ethel Anderson, 
charwoman (CPC-2), by transfer from the United States National 


50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Museum, December 9, 1943. George Jonathan, guard (CPC-4), ap- 
pointed December 15, 1943. Pearl Fisher, charwoman (CPC-2), 
appointed December 23, 1943. Milton Williams, laborer (CPC-2), ap- 
pointed May 1, 1944. Victoria L. Dickerson, charwoman (CPC-2), 
appointed May 4, 1944. George S. Young, cabinetmaker, appointed 
by the month for special help in the shop, May 8, 1944. 

Separations from the service—George S. Young finished temporary 
employment as cabinetmaker, November 4, 1943. Julia A. Robinson, 
charwoman (CPC-2), transferred to the United States National 
Museum, December 8, 1943. Pearl Fisher, charwoman (CPC-2), re- 
signed March 22, 1944. Walter McCree, laborer (CPC-2), on in- 
definite furlough for naval duty, April 4, 1944. 

Respectfully submitted. 

A. G. Wentey, Director. 

Tue SECRETARY, 

Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 5 
REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the field 
researches, office work, and other operations of the Bureau of Amer- 
ican Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, conducted 
in accordance with the act of Congress of June 26, 1943, which pro- 
vides “* * * for continuing ethnological researches among the 
American Indians and the natives of Hawaii and the excavation and 
preservation of archeologic remains. * * *” 

During the fiscal year emphasis on activities concerned with Latin 
America has continued. 

Dr. W. D. Strong, Director of the Ethnogeographic Board, planned 
to return to his duties at Columbia University soon after the close of 
the fiscal year, and the work of the Board will thereafter be conducted 
entirely by members of the Bureau staff. 

As the war continues and the need for specialized information grows 
less it is expected that the Bureau may gradually assume more of its 
normal duties. 


SYSTEMATIC RESEARCHES 


On January 28, 1944, Dr. M. W. Stirling, Chief of the Bureau, left 
Washington on the Sixth National Geographic Society-Smithsonian 
Institution expedition to Mexico. The month of February was spent 
in the states of Michoacan and Jalisco, where ‘a photographic record 
was made of lacquer working in Uruapan and vicinity, and of pottery 
making in Tlaquepaque. Ethnological pictures were made depicting 
the activities and customs of the Tarascan Indians of Lake Patzcuaro. 

From the beginning of March until the middle of May, an archeo- 
logical reconnaissance was conducted in southern Veracruz, Tabasco, 
and Campeche, with the principal objective of finding the extent of 
the early La Venta culture in this area. Several new sites were located 
as a result of this survey, and photographic records were made of a 
number of private archeological collections. 

Dr. Stirling returned to Washington on May 22, 1944. 

During the year a report by Dr. Stirling, “Stone Monuments of 
Southern Mexico,” was issued as Bulletin 138 of the Bureau. 

During the year just passed, Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, 
completed the reading of proof for Bulletin 137, “The Indians of the 
Southeastern United States.” 

51 


52 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


A study of the much discussed Norse expeditions to America was 
undertaken and a manuscript completed embodying the results. 

During the course of the year Dr. Swanton furnished to the Navy 
Department more than 1,000 Indian tribal names and names of prom- 
inent Indians, to be used for naming war vessels. Approximately 200 
of these have been used. 

On June 30, 1944, Dr. Swanton retired from the Bureau after 
almost 44 years of service. 

Dr. John P. Harrington, ethnologist, continuing his American In- 
dian linguistic studies, discovered evidence suggesting that Quechua 
and Aymara, the languages of the two most highly civilized groups 
of aboriginal South America, are related to the Hokan stock of western 
North America. This is the first time that a linguistic relationship 
has been indicated between North and South America. In addition 
to this Dr. Harrington has reduced the number of linguistic stocks in 
South America by establishing the relationship of many groups previ- 
ously considered to be separate. 

Because of his unique knowledge of languages, Dr. Harrington has 
been called upon daily by the Office of Censorship to translate letters 
written in little-known languages from all over the world. . 

During the year several short papers on linguistic subjects have been 
published in scientific journals. 

On July 5, 1943, Dr. Frank H. H. Roberts, Jr., senior archeologist, 
went to Abilene, Tex., where he spent 5 days investigating a prehistoric 
Indian burial which had been exposed 21 feet below the surface in a 
bank of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River by floodwaters and which 
was in danger of being washed away by a new rise. Studies of the 
deposits at the site showed that the burial had been made during the 
closing days of the Pleistocene or the beginning of the Early Recent 
geologic period about 10,000 years ago. The skeleton was turned over 
to the division of physical anthropology of the United States National 
Museum, where it has received careful study and has added to the 
knowledge of the physical type of the early Texas Indians. 

Returning to Washington, Dr. Roberts spent the remainder of the 
summer and the months of early autumn preparing contributions 
to, obtaining pictures for, editing the manuscript, and reading proof 
of a manual, “Survival on Land and Sea,” which was prepared for 
the Publications Branch of the Office of Naval Intelligence, United 
States Navy, by the Ethnogeographic Board and the staff of the 
Smithsonian Institution. He later worked on a revision of this man- 
ual for a second edition and also served as a consultant for a similar 
manual being prepared for the Army Air Forces. During this period 
he also furnished information to several other branches of the armed 
services and some of the war agencies. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 53 


Dr. Roberts also worked on his final report on the excavations at 
the Lindenmeier Folsom Man site in northern Colorado, a project 
completed shortly before the outbreak of the war, and also wrote a 
number of articles for publication in scientific journals. On March.16, 
1944, Dr. Roberts was appointed a member of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution’s Committee on Personnel Utilization and from that date until 
the close of the fiscal year devoted considerable time to the activities 
of that committee. 

During such periods as the Chief was absent from Washington, 
Dr. Roberts served as Acting Chief of the Bureau. 

On September 1, 1943, Dr. Julian H. Steward, anthropologist, was 
appointed Director of the Institute of Social Anthropology, an autono- 
mous unit of the Bureau, reporting directly to the Secretary. His 
work as editor of the Handbook of South American Indians also con- 
tinued concurrently. <A brief statement on these two projects will be 
found later on in this report. 

At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. Alfred Métraux, ethnologist, 
was teaching in Mexico City, through an arrangement with the Na- 
tional University of Mexico. He returned to duty on August 1, 1943, 
and assisted Dr. Julian H. Steward in the preparation of the Hand- 
book of South American Indians. Dr. Métraux was appointed Assist- 
ant Director of the Institute of Social Anthropology on September 18, 
1948. He completed four papers for the Handbook, and also gathered 
bibliographical material for several other contributions and assembled 
notes for the articles of the Handbook’s fifth volume. 

During the fiscal year Dr. Henry B. Collins, Jr., ethnologist, con- 
tinued his work as Assistant Director of the Ethnogeographic Board. 
As in the previous year, the activities of the Board for which he was 
responsible concerned research in connection with regional and other 
information requested by the Army, Navy, and other war agencies. 
He represented the Smithsonian Institution and the Ethnogeographic 
Board as a technical adviser to the Emergency Rescue Equipment Sec- 
tion of the Navy and wrote the Arctic section for the booklet “Survival 
on Land and Sea.” Some 750,000 copies of this official Navy survival 
manual have been distributed to the fleet and shore stations. 

Dr. Collins contributed the sections on geography, history, and 
anthropology for an article on the Aleutian Islands, which will be 
published as one of the series of War Background Studies of the Smith- 
sonian Institution. 

During such time as was available, Dr. Collins continued his re- 
searches on the Eskimo and the southeastern Indians. 

Dr. William N. Fenton, ethnologist, continued to serve as research 
associate of the Ethnogeographic Board. With the assistance of 


® 


54 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Miss Mae W. Tucker, he has maintained for the Ethnogeographic 
Board the world file of area and language specialists, which has 
grown to include more than 10,000 entries for all continents and island 
areas. This file has been extensively used by the military and other 
war agencies in their search for specialized personnel. From this 
file a series of five studies were prepared, together with maps and in- 
dexes, showing domestic sources of photographs on strategic areas 
of interest particularly to the Navy Department. At the request 
of the Army Specialized Training Division, the Ethnogeographic 
Board commenced a survey of area and language teaching in the Army 
Specialized Training Program and the Civil Affairs Training Schools 
in 25 American universities and colleges. Dr. Fenton participated 
in the survey, visiting 13 institutions between December 19438 and 
March 1944, and since that time has been occupied in writing up ob- 
servations and preparing reports for the proper offices. 

In addition to this work, Dr. Fenton continued his studies on the 
League of the Iroquois, translating a number of texts collected by 
J.N. B. Hewitt and A. A. Goldenweiser. Dr. Fenton’s publications for 
the year were: “The Last Passenger Pigeon Hunts of the Corn- 
planter Senecas” (with M. H. Deardorff), and “The Requickening 
Address of the Iroquois Condolence Council” (of J. N. B. Hewitt), in 
the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences; and an obituary, 
“Simeon Gibson: Iroquois Informant, 1889-1943,” in the American 
Anthropologist; also several book reviews and notes in scientific and 
literary journals. 

Since joining the staff in December 1943, Dr. Homer G. Barnett, an- 
thropologist, has served as executive secretary of a committee formed 
under the sponsorship of the Ethnogeographic Board for the purpose 
of assembling data upon the existing state of our scientific knowl- 
edge of the Pacific Island area. The committee includes representa- 
tives of the geological, geographic, linguistic, political science, and 
anthropological disciplines. As executive secretary Dr. Barnett 
has served chiefly as organizer and coordinator of the committee’s ac- 
tions. Since some of the committee members are located outside of 
Washington, considerable correspondence has been necessary as well 
as meetings both in Washington and New York. 

When not engaged in the above activities, Dr. Barnett has worked 
on the organization of field notes on various Salishan and Northwest 
Coast tribes, having in project a series of publications stressing cul- _ 
tural change among the Yurok, the Tsimshian, the Yakima, and the - 
Makah. He has just completed one manuscript dealing with the 
Indian Shaker cult of the northwestern United States. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY ap 
INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY 


As stated above, Dr. Julian H. Steward, anthropologist, on Septem- 
ber 1, 1948, became Director of the Institute of Social Anthropology, 
an autonomous unit of the Bureau reporting directly to the Secretary. 
As Dr. Steward was instructed in the official order establishing the 
Institute to report to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 
there are presented here brief abstracts from Dr. Steward’s reports 
to Dr. Wetmore, Acting Secretary. 

The Institute of Social Anthropology was first conceived in July 
1942 and a project for its work was placed before the Interdepartmen- 
tal Committee for Cooperation with the American Republics in Au- 
gust of that year. Its stated purpose was to carry out cooperative 
training in anthropological teaching and research with the other 
American republics. For the fiscal year 1944, $60,000 was made avail- 
able for the work of the Institute by transfer of funds from the State 
Department appropriation. 

In September 1943 the Director visited Mexico and established the 
terms of an agreement for the work of the Institute with the authori- 
ties of the Escuela Nacional de Antropologia and the Instituto 
Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, submitting this to the Depart- 
ment of State in late September. After some months of delay encoun- 
tered in completing the agreement, Dr. George M. Foster, engaged by 
the Institute as anthropologist in charge of the work in Mexico, pro- 
ceeded to that country in May and started work in cooperation with 
the organizations mentioned above. Dr. Donald D. Brand also repre- 
sented the Institute in Mexico as cultural geographer. 

No formal agreement has yet been entered into for similar work 
in Peru. Nevertheless, Dr. John Gillin, appointed by the Institute in 
January 1944 as anthropologist, commenced work in that country on 
an informal basis. The remaining 6 months of the fiscal year were 
devoted to reconnaissance and teaching at Cuzco and Trujillo. 

A memorandum agreement for cooperative work in Colombia was 
submitted early in 1944, but at the close of the fiscal year it had not 
yet been reported out. 

A new series in social anthropology entitled “Publications of the 
Institute of Social Anthropology” was started with two papers, which 
went to the printer just before the close of the fiscal year. No. 1 was 
on “Houses and House Use of the Sierra Tarascans,” by Ralph L. 
Beals, Pedro Carrasco, and Thomas McCorkle; No. 2 was entitled 
“Cheran, a Sierra Tarascan Village,” by Ralph L. Beals. 


619830—45——_5 


56 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
HANDBOOK OF SOUTH AMERICAN INDIANS 


The editing of the Handbook of South American Indians, begun 
some years ago, was continued during the year by Dr. Julian H. 
Steward after September 1, 1943, under his appointment as Director 
of the Institute of Social Anthropology. Funds for the preparation 
of the manuscript are transferred to the Smithsonian Institution from 
the State Department appropriation for “Cooperation with the Ameri- 
can Republics,” and the Bureau will pay the cost of publication in its 
Bulletin series. 

Volume 1, “The Marginal Tribes,” and volume 2, “The Andean Civil- 
izations,” were completed during the year and sent to the printer. The 
manuscripts of volumes 3 and 4 were nearly completed. 

The Handbook is a truly cooperative project, as one-half of the 
100 contributors are scientists of the other American republics. 


SPECAL RESEARCHES 


Miss Frances Densmore, a collaborator of the Bureau, continued 
her work on the study of Indian music by writing a manuscript enti- 
tled “Omaha Music,” with transcriptions of 64 songs. This manu- 
script was based upon research in Nebraska in 1941 and included re- 
recordings of several songs that were recorded for Miss Alice C. 
Fletcher by the same singers. The date of the previous recordings 
was said to have been 1887 to 1890 and the songs are included in Miss 
Fletcher’s “Study of Omaha Indian Music,” published by the Peabody 
Museum of Harvard University, and in “The Omaha Tribe,” by Miss 
Fletcher and Francis La Flesche, in the Twenty-seventh Annual Re- 
port of the Bureau. Many songs in Miss Fletcher’s work were recog- 
nized by men who had not the tribal right to sing them. The present 
manuscript includes old songs of Omaha military and social societies, 
songs connected with the First World War, and songs of legends and 
the hand game. 

Miss Densmore compiled and presented to the Bureau a chronology 
of her study and presentation of Indian music from 1893 to June 1944. 
This chronology was based on diaries, scrapbooks, and Reports of the 
Bureau. During a portion of the year she was engaged in completing 
the handbook of the Smithsonian-Densmore collection of sound record- 
ings of American Indian music for the National Archives. 


EDITORIAL WORK AND PUBLICATIONS 


The editorial work of the Bureau continued during the year under 
the immediate direction of the editor, M. Helen Palmer. There were 
issued one Annual Report and six Bulletins, as follows: 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 57 


Sixtieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1942-1943. 9 pp. 
Bulletin 133. Anthropological papers, numbers 19-26. ix+615 pp., 34 pls., 
62 figs. : 


No. 19. A search for songs among the Chitimacha Indians in Louisiana, by 
Frances Densmore. 

No. 20. Archeological survey on the northern Northwest Coast, by Philip 
Drucker; with appendix, Early vertebrate fauna of the British 
Columbia Coast, by Edna M. Fisher. 

No. 21. Some notes on a few sites in Beaufort County, South Carolina, by 
Regina Flannery. 

No. 22. An analysis and interpretation of the ceramic remains from two 
sites near Beaufort, South Carolina, by James B. Griffin. 

No. 28. The eastern Cherokees, by William Harlen Gilbert, Jr. 

No. 24. Aconite poison whaling in Asia and America: An Aleutian transfer 
to the New World, by Robert F. Heizer. 

No. 25. The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River: Their social and religious 
life, by Diamond Jenness. 

No. 26. The quipu and Peruvian civilization, by John R. Swanton. 


Bulletin 136. Anthropological papers, numbers 27-32. viii+375 pp., 32 pls., 
5 figs. : 

No. 27. Music of the Indians of British Columbia, by Frances Densmore. 

No. 28. Choctaw music, by Frances Densmore. 

No. 29. Some ethnological data concerning one hundred Yucatan plants, by 
Morris Steggerda. 

No. 30. A description of thirty towns in Yucatan, Mexico, by Morris 
Steggerda. 

No. 31. Some western Shoshoni myths, by Julian H. Steward. 

No. 32. New material from Acoma, by Leslie A. White. 


Bulletin 138. Stone monuments of southern Mexico, by Matthew W. Stirling. 
vii+84 pp., 62 pls., 14 figs. 

Bulletin 139. An introduction to the ceramics of Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico, 
by C. W. Weiant. xiv-+144 pp., 78 pls., 54 figs., 10 maps. 

Bulletin 140. Ceramic sequences at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico, by Philip 
Drucker. ix-++155 pp., 65 pls., 46 figs. 

Bulletin 141. Ceramic stratigraphy at Cerro de las Mesas, Veracruz, Mexico, 
by Philip Drucker. viii+-95 pp., 58 pls., 210 figs. 

The following publications were in press at the close of the fiscal 
year: 

Bulletin 187. The Indians of the Southeastern United States, by John R. 
Swanton. 

Bulletin 142. The contemporary culture of the Céhita Indians, by Ralph L. 
Beals. 

Bulletin 143. Handbook of South American Indians. Julian H. Steward, 
Editor. Volume 1. The Marginal Tribes. Volume 2. The Andean Civilizations. 

List of Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, with index to 
authors and titles. Revised to June 30, 1944. 

Publications distributed totaled 14,903. 

In addition to the regular work, the editorial staff of the Bureau 
edited the first two publications of the Smithsonian Institution’s 
Institute of Social Anthropology, now in press. 


58 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
LIBRARY 


Accessions during the fiscal year totaled 190. There has been a 
sharp decrease in accessions owing to war conditions. 

The routine work of accessioning and cataloging new material has 
been kept up to date. About half of the cards withdrawn from the 
catalog for reclassification have been returned to the catalog, with the 
new numbers added and subject headings corrected. 

The library has been used considerably for the work of the Ethno- 
geographic Board and other war agencies. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


During the year E. G. Cassedy, illustrator, continued the prepara- 
tion of illustrations, maps, and drawings for the publications of the 
Bureau and for those of other branches of the Institution. 


MISCELLANEOUS 


During the course of the year information was furnished by mem- 
bers of the Bureau staff in reply to numerous inquiries concerning the 
North American Indians, both past and present, and the Mexican 
peoples of the prehistoric and early historic periods. Various speci- 
mens sent to the Bureau were identified and data on them furnished 
for their owners. 

Personnel.—Dr. Julian H. Steward, anthropologist, was appointed 
Director of the Institute of Social Anthropology, Smithsonian 
Institution, on September 1, 1943, by transfer from the Bureau, and 
Dr. Homer G. Barnett was appointed as anthropologist on December 
30, 1948, on the Bureau roll, to fill this vacancy. The work on the 
Handbook of South American Indians was continued under the 
Interdepartmental Committee for Cooperation with the American Re- 
publics after September 1, 1948. Anthony W. Wilding, clerk-stenog- 
rapher, was appointed Property Officer of the United States National 
Museum on December 20, 1943, by transfer from the Bureau, and 
Mrs. Catherine M. Phillips was appointed to fill this vacancy on De- 
cember 22, 1943, by transfer from the editorial division, Smithsonian 
Institution. Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, retired on June 30, 
1944. 

Respectfully submitted. 

M. W. Stirtine, Chief. 

THe SECRETARY, 

Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 6 
REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE 


Sm: Ihave the honor to submit the following report on the activities 
of the International Exchange Service for the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1944. 

From the appropriation “General Expenses, Smithsonian Insti- 
tution” there was allocated for the expenses of the Service, $26,137. 

No money was allotted to the Institution this year by the Depart- 
ment of State for use in mailing packages to Argentina and Brazil, 
so that the cost of such mailings had to be met from the regular 
Exchange allotment. These are the only two American countries with 
which there are no reciprocal arrangements for the exchange of pub- 
lications under governmental frank. 

The number of packages received during the year for distribution 
at home and abroad was 407,764, a decrease from last year of 105,696. 
These packages weighed a total of 243,180 pounds, a decrease of 5,468 
pounds. This material is classified as follows: 


Packages Weight 


Sent Received Sent Received 


from rom 
abroad abroad abroad abroad 
Pounds | Pounds 
United States parliamentary documents sent abroad_-_---__---- BOG LOO |e aa ee 7 BET) Lh ee 
Publications received in return for parliamentary documents__-_|__._------ 757, (hele eee 1, 544 
United States departmental documents sent abroad____---_---- 02) O68) ae ane gS i) by a | Se 
Publications received in return for departmental documents_-_-__|_-.__-___- B70 fete tees 1, 530 
Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications sent abroad__| 46,700 |_...---_-- 62768 (bene 
Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications received from 
abroad for distribution in the United States____.__.._--_.__--|---------- Ry le ee 6, 320 
ANGE Ae AI 2 OU aoe Wires ile Pere need Sees ee 402, 71 4,993 | 233, 786 9, 394 
SrAnGi to bales . 8*. West She. eal ee ee a eae 407, 764 248, 180 


Packages are forwarded abroad partly by freight to exchange 
bureaus for distribution, and partly by mail directly to their destina- 
tions. The number of boxes shipped abroad was 649, an increase over 
last year of 6 boxes. Of these, 385 were for depositories of full sets of 
United States governmental documents. The number of packages 
sent by mail was 89,688. 

59 


60 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


War conditions have made it necessary for the Institution to suspend 
shipments to many foreign countries. The countries to which 
shipments were being made at the close of the year were as follows: 

Eastern Hemisphere: 
Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 
Portugal. 
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. 
Union of South Africa. 
India 
Australia. 
New Zealand. 
Western Hemisphere: All countries. 

In the report for 1941 it was stated that the British Museum, Depart- 
ment of Printed Books, had requested the Institution to discontinue 
the sending of the full set of United States governmental documents 
for the duration of the war because of the possibility of destruction 
of the material through bombings of London. About the middle of 
the current year the British Museum asked that the forwarding of 
the Government sets be resumed as numerous requests had been re- 
ceived for information contained in many of the documents. Accord- 
ingly, all accumulations of official documents for the British Museum 
were sent and regular transmissions have since been made. 


FOREIGN DEPOSITORIES OF GOVERNMENTAL DOCUMENTS 


The number of sets of United States official publications received 
for transmission abroad through the International Exchange Service 
is 93 (55 full and 38 partial sets). On account of war conditions it is 
possible at this time to forward only 58 of these sets. The remaining 
35 are being withheld for the duration. 

During the year Iran and Iraq were added to the list of those coun- 
tries receiving partial sets. The depository in Iran is the Ministry 
of Education at Tehran, and in Iraq, Public Library at Baghdad. 

The partial-set depository in Afghanistan has been changed to the 
Library of the Afghan Academy, Kabul. The depository of the 
partial set sent to Bengal has been changed to Library, Bengal Legis- 
lature, Calcutta. 

A complete list of the depositories follows. Under present condi- 
tions, consignments are forwarded only to those countries listed on 
tions, consignments are forwarded only to those countries listed above. 


DEPOSITORIES OF FULL SETS 


ARGENTINA: Direccién de Investigaciones, Archivo, Biblioteca y Legislacién 
Ixtranjera, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, Buenos Aires. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 61 


AUSTRALIA: Commonwealth Parliament and National Library, Canberra. 
New SoutH WaAtgs: Public Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 
QUEENSLAND: Parliamentary Library, Brisbane. 
SoutH AUSTRALIA: Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 
TASMANIA: Parliamentary Library, Hobart. q 
Victoria: Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 
WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 
BeueluM: Biblothéque Royale, Bruxelles. 
Braziu: Instituto Nacional do Livro, Rio de Janeiro. 
CanapA: Library of Parliament, Ottawa. 
Manrropa: Provincial Library, Winnipeg. 
ONTARIO: Legislative Library, Toronto. 
QUEBEC: Library of the Legislature of the Province of Quebec. 
CHILE: Biblioteca Nacional, Santiago. 
CHINA: Bureau of International Exchange, Ministry of Education, Chungking. 
CoLomBIA : Biblioteca Nacional, Bogota. 
Costa Rica: Oficina de Depésito y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, San 
José. 
CusA: Ministerio de Estado, Canje Internacional, Habana. 
CZECHOSLOVAKIA : Bibliothéque de ]’Assemblée Nationale, Prague. 
DENMARK: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Copenhagen. 
Eeyper: Bureau des Publications, Ministére des Finances, Cairo. 
ESTONIA: Riigiraamatukogu (State Library), Tallinn. 
FINLAND: Parliamentary Library, Helsinki. 
FRANCE: Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris. 
GERMANY: Reichstauschstelle im Reichsminsterium fiir Wissenschaft, Erziehung 
und Volksbildung, Berlin, N. W. 7. 
Prussia: Preussische Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, N. W. 7. 
GREAT BRITAIN: 
ENGLAND: British Museum, London. 
Lonpon: London School of Economics and Political Science. (Depository 
of the London County Council.) 
Huncary: Library, Hungarian House of Delegates, Budapest. 
Inp1A: Imperial Library, Calcutta. 
IRELAND: National Library of Ireland, Dublin. 
ITaty: Ministero dell’Educazione Nazionale, Rome. 
JAPAN: Imperial Library of Japan, Tokyo. 
LATVIA: Bibliothéque d’Etat, Riga. 
LHAGUE oF NATIONS: Library of the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland. 
Mexico: Direccié6n General de Informacién, Secretaria de Gobernacién, Mexico, 
D. F. 
NETHERLANDS: Royal Library, The Hague. 
NEW ZEALAND: General Assembly Library, Wellington. 
NORTHERN JRELAND: H. M. Stationery Office, Belfast. 
Norway: Universitets-Bibliothek, Olso. (Depository of the Government of 
Norway.) 
Peru: Secci6n de Propaganda y Publicaciones, Ministerio de Relaciones Ex- 
teriores, Lima. 
PoLAND: Bibliothéque Nationale, Warsaw. 
PorTUGAL: Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. 
Rumanta: Academia Rom4an4, Bucharest. 


62 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Spain: Cambio Internacional de Publicaciones, Avenida de Calvo Sotelo 20, 
Madrid. 
SwebDen: Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. 
SWITZERLAND: Bibliothéque Centrale Fédérale, Berne. 
TURKEY: Department of Printing and Engraving, Ministry of Education, 
Istanbul. 
UNIon oF SourH AFrrica: State Library, Pretoria, Transvaal. 
Union or Soviet SoctArist Rerusrics: All-Union Lenin Library, Moscow 115. 
UKRAINE: Ukrainian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, 
Kiev. 
Urvucuayr: Oficina de Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, Montevideo. 
VENEZUELA : Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas. 
YUGOSLAVIA: Ministére de l’Education, Belgrade. 


DEPOSITORIES OF PARTIAL SETS 


AFGHANISTAN: Library of the Afghan Academy, Kabul. 
Botiv1a: Biblioteca del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Culto, La Paz. 
BRAZIL: 

Minas GerdAgs: Directoria Geral e Estatistica em Minas, Bello Horizonte. 
BRITISH GUIANA: Government Secretary’s Office, Georgetown, Demerara. 
CANADA: 

ALBERTA: Provincial Library, Edmonton. 

British Cotumpia: Provincial Library, Victoria. 

NEw BRUNSWICE: Legislative Library, Fredericton. 

Nova Scorra: Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia, Halifax. 

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND: Legislative and Public Library, Charlottetown. 

SASKATCHEWAN: Legislative Library, Regina. 

Cryton : Chief Secretary’s Office, Record Department of the Library, Colombo. 
CuHiInA: National Library of Peiping. 
DoMINICAN REPUBLIC: Biblioteca de la Universidad de Santo Domingo, Ciudad 
Trujillo. 
Ecuapor: Biblioteca Nacional, Quito. 
GUATEMALA: Biblioteca Nacional, Guatemala. 
Harr: Bibliothéque Nationale, Port-au-Prince. 
HONDURAS: 
Biblioteca y Archivo Nacionales, Tegucigalpa. 
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Tegucigalpa. 
IcELAND: National Library, Reykjavik. 
INDIA: 

BENGAL: Library, Bengal Legislature, Assembly House, Calcutta. 

BIHAR AND ORISSA: Revenue Department, Patna. 

Bompay: Undersecretary to the Government of Bombay, General Depart- 

ment, Bombay. 

BurMa: Secretary to the Government of Burma, Education Department, 

Rangoon. 

PungaB: Chief Secretary to the Government of the Punjab, Lahore. 

UNITED PROVINCES OF AGRA AND OUDH: University of Allahabad, Allahabad. 
IRAN: Imperial Ministry of Education, Tehran. 

JrRAQ: Public Library, Baghdad. 
JAMAICA: Colonial Secretary, Kingston. 
Liseria: Department of State, Monrovia. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 63 


Matra: Minister for the Treasury, Valleta. 
NEWFOUNDLAND: Department of Home Affairs, St. John’s. 
Nicaragua: Ministerio de Relaciones Hxteriores, Managua. 
PanaMA: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Panama. 
Paraguay: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Seccién Biblioteca, Asuncién. 
SALVADOR: 
Biblioteca Nacional, San Salvador. 
Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, San Salvador. 
THAILAND: Department of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok. 
VATICAN City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vatican City, Italy. 


INTERPARLIAMENTARY EXCHANGE OF THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL 


There are now being sent abroad only 58 copies each of the Con- 
gressional Record and Federal Register, the number having been 
reduced on account of the war from 71, as fully reported on last year. 
The Library of Congress has arranged to have an extra copy of the 
Register furnished for transmission to Dr. Fermin Peraza for use in 
connection with his work as director of several pan-American organ- 
izations at Habana, Cuba. 

A list of the countries and depositories to which these journals are 
being forwarded follows: 


DEPOSITORIES OF CONGRESSIONAL RECORD AND FEDERAL REGISTER 


ARGENTINA : 
Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Buenos Aires. 
Camara de Diputados, Oficina de Informacién Parlamentaria, Buenos Aires. 
Boletin Oficial de la Repfiblica Argentina, Ministerio de Justica e Instruccién 
Piiblica, Buenos Aires. 
AUSTRALIA ; 
Commonwealth Parliament and National Library, Canberra. 
New SourH WatgEs: Library of Parliament of New South Wales, Sydney. 
QUEENSLAND: Chief Secretary’s Office, Brisbane. 
WESTERN AUSTRALLA: Library of Parliament of Western Australia, Perth. 
BRAZIL: 
Biblioteca do Congresso Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. 
AmAzonas: Archivo, Biblioteca e Imprensa Publica, Mandos. 
BawniA: Governador do Estado da Bahia, Sao Salvador. 
Espirito Santo: Presidencia do Estado do Espirito Santo, Victoria. 
Rio GRANDE po Sut: “A Federaciao,” Porto Alegre. 
Serciee: Biblioteca Publica do Estado de Sergipe, Aracajt. 
BririsH HonpurAs: Colonial Secretary, Belize. 
CANADA: 
Library of Parliament, Ottawa. 
Clerk of the Senate, Houses of Parliament, Ottawa. 
CusA: Biblioteca del Capitolio, Habana. 
GREAT Britain: Printed Library of the Foreign Office, London. 
GUATEMALA: Bibiloteca de la Asamblea Legislativa, Guatemala. 
Hartt: Bibliothéque Nationale, Port-au-Prince. 
HonpvurAs: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Tegucigalpa. 


64 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


InpIA: Legislative Department, Simla. 
InisH Free STATE: Dail Hireann, Dublin. 
MEXxIco: 
Direccién General de Informaci6n, Secretaria de Gobernacién, Mexico, D. F. 
Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, Mexico, D. F. 
AGUASCALIENTES: Gobernador del Estado de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes. 
CAMPECHE: Gobernador del. Estado de Campeche, Campeche. 
CHIaPas: Gobernador del Estado de Chiapas, Tuxtla Gutierrez. 
CHIHUAHUA: Gobernador del Estado de Chihuahua, Chihuahua. 
CoaHuILA: Periddico Oficial del Estado de Coahuila, Palacio de Gobierno, 
Saltillo. 
CoLtimA: Gobernador del Estado de Colima, Colima. 
DUEANGO: Gobernador, Constitucional del Estado de Durango, Durango. 
GuANAJUATO: Secretaria General de Gobierno del Estado, Guanajuato. 
GUERRERO: Gobernador del Estado de Guerrero, Chilpancingo. 
JALISco: Biblioteca del Estado, Guadalajara. 
Lower CALIFORNIA: Gobernador del Distrito Norte, Mexicali. 
Mexico: Gaceta del Gobierno, Toluca. 
MicHoacAn: Secretaria General de Gobierno del Estado de Michoacan, 
Morelia. 
MORELOS: Palacio de Gobierno, Cuernavaca. 
NAYARIT;: Gobernador de Nayarit, 'Tepic. 
NUvEvo LEON: Biblioteca del Estado, Monterrey. 
Oaxaca: Peridédico Oficial, Palacio de Gobierno, Oaxaca. 
PuEBLA: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Puebla. 
QuERETARO: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Seccién de Archivo, Querétaro. 
San Luis Potosi: Congreso del Estado, San Luis Potosi. 
SrmnALoa: Gobernador del Estado de Sinaloa, Culiacdn. 
Sonora : Gobernador del Estado de Sonora, Hermosillo. 
TABASCcO: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Seccién 3a, Ramo de Prensa, Villa- 
hermosa. 
TAMAULIPAS: Secretaria General de Gobierno, Victoria. 
TLAxcALA: Secretaria de Gobierno del Estado, Tlaxcala. 
VeRAcRUzZ: Gobernador del Hstado de Veracruz, Departmento de Goberna- 
cién y Justicia, Jalapa. 
YucaTAn : Gobernador del Estado de Yucatan, Mérida. 
NEw ZEALAND: General Assembly Library, Wellington. 
Peru: Caimara de Diputados, Lima. 
UNION or SoutH AFRICA: 
Library of Parliament, Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope. 
_ State Library, Pretoria, Transvaal. 
Uruceuay: Diario Oficial, Calle Florida 1178, Montevideo. 
VENEZUELA: Biblioteca del Congreso, Caracas. 


FOREIGN EXCHANGE AGENCIES 


There is given below a list of bureaus or agencies to which consign- 
ments are forwarded in boxes by freight when the Service is in full 
operation. To all countries not appearing in the list, packages are 
sent to their destinations through the mails. As stated previously, 
shipments are forwarded during wartime only to those countries listed 
on page 60. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 65 


LIST OF AGENCIES 


ALGERIA, via France. 

ANGOLA, via Portugal. 

AZORES, via Portugal. 

BeLgiumM: Service Belge des Kchanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Royale de 
Belgique, Bruxelles. 

CaNaARy ISLANDS, via Spain. 

CHINA: Bureau of International Exchange, Ministry of Education, Chungking. 

CzECHOSLOVAKIA: Service des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque de 1’As- 
semblée Nationale, Prague 1-79. 

DENMARK: Service Danois des Echanges Internationaux, Kongelige Danske 
Videnskabernes Selskab, Copenhagen V. 

Ecypt: Government Press, Publications Office, Bulaq, Cairo. 

FINLAND: Delegation of the Scientific Societies of Finland, Kasirngatan 24, 
Helsinki, 

FRANCE: Service Francais des BWehanges Internationaux, 110 Rue de Grenelle, 
Paris. 

GrrMANY: Amerika-Institut, Universititstrasse 8, Berlin, N. W. 7. 

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND: Wheldon & Wesley, 721 North Circular Road, Willes- 
den, London, N. W. 2. 

Huncary: Hungarian Libraries Board, Ferenciektere 5, Budapest, IV. 

InDIA: Superintendent of Government Printing and Stationery, Bombay. 

ITaty: Ufficio degli Scambi Internazionali, Ministero dell’Educazione Nazionale, 
Rome. 

JAPAN: International Exchange Service, Imperial Library of Japan, Uyeno Park, 
Tokyo. 

Latvia; Service des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque d’Etat de Lettonie, 
Riga. 

LUxEMBOURG, via Belgium. 

MApDAGASCAR, via France. 

MaperrA, via Portugal. 

MozAMBIQUE, via Portugal. 

NETHERLANDS: International Exchange Bureau of the Netherlands, Royal Library, 
The Hague. 

New SoutH WatLgs: Public Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 

NEw ZEALAND: General Assembly Library, Wellington. 

Norway: Service Norvégien des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque de l’Uni- 
versité Royale, Oslo. 

PALESTINE: Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem. 

PotanpD: Service Polonais des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Nationale, 
Warsaw. 

PortuGaL: Secefio de Trocas Internacionaes, Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. 

QUEENSLAND: Bureau of Exchanges of International Publications, Chief Secre- 
tary’s Office, Brisbane. 

RuMANIA: Ministére de la Propagande Nationale, Service des Echanges Inter: 
nationaux, Bucharest. 

SoutH AvsTRALIA: South Australian Government Exchanges Bureau, Govern: 
ment Printing and Sationery Office, Adelaide. 

Spain: Junta de Intercambio y Adquisicién de Libros y Revistas para Biblote- 
cas Piublicas, Ministerio de Educaci6n Nacional, Avenida Calvo Sotelo, 20, 
Madrid. 

SweEpEN: Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. 


66 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


SWITzrRLAND: Service Suisse des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Centrale 
Fédérale, Berne. 

TASMANIA: Secretary to the Premier, Hobart. 

TuRKEY: Ministry of Education, Department of Printing and Engraving, Istanbul. 

UNIon oF SouTH AFRICA: Government Printing and Stationery Office, Cape Town, 
Cape of Good Hope. 

UNIon oF Soviet SocraLtist RepusBLics: International Book Exchange Depart- 
ment, Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Moscow, 56. 

Victoria: Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 

YuceostaviA: Section des Echanges Internationaux, Ministére des Affaires 


Etrangéres, Belgrade. 

M. A. Tolson, who was appointed under the Smithsonian in March 
1881, resigned December 31, 1943, after having been connected with 
the Institution over 62 years. Mr. Tolson was retired from the gov- 
ernment roll in 1934, but has since been employed by the Smithsonian 
Institution. He continued to perform his regular duties until his 
resignation. 

Clayton L. Polley was, at his own request, retired July 1, 1943. 
Mr. Polley was a veteran of the volunteer forces of the United States, 
having served in the Spanish-American war and the Philippine 
Insurrection. 

Paul M. Carey, who enlisted in the Army in August 1942 and who 
was discharged therefrom on account of disability, was, owing to that 
condition, retired from the Exchanges February 24, 1944. 

Respectfully submitted. 

F. E. Gass, Acting Chief Clerk. 

Tue SECRETARY, 

Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 7 
REPORT ON THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the opera- 
tions of the National Zoological Park for the fiscal year ended June 
30, 1944. 

The regular appropriation made by Congress was $277,130, of which 
$34,732 was expended for overtime under the special legislation in 
effect for this purpose. 


GROUNDS, BUILDINGS, AND ENCLOSURES 


The primary function of the Zoo is to maintain and exhibit its col- 
lection of animals. To accomplish this under wartime conditions, it 
has been necessary to limit other activities strictly to maintenance 
work. No extensive improvements have been made during the year, 
and because of the difficulty in obtaining critical materials, even the 
maintenance work has frequently been of a temporary nature. The 
gates of the Zoo have been open from daylight to dark, and many 
visitors come to the Park after their working hours. In general, the 
Park and the collection are in good condition and continue to be used 
and appreciated by large numbers of visitors. 


PERSONNEL 


There has been a fairly consistent shortage of manpower in the Zoo 
of about 20 percent. This has necessitated the employment of tem- 
porary labor when it could be obtained, which has thrown a heavy 
burden onto supervisors to whom such untrained personnel was 
assigned. The additional supervisory burden has been well carried 
out, with the result that the care of the Park and of the animals 
has not been seriously neglected. 

On December 31, Head Keeper W. H. Blackburne retired. For 17 
years past the retirement age he had been retained by Executive 
order, and on December 31 completed service of 53 years. He came to 
the Zoo in 1891 as Keeper, and was made Head Keeper the following 
year. In 1913, accompanied by Mrs. Blackburne, he went to Egypt to 
bring back a collection from the zoo at Gizah. Jumbina, the National 
Zoo’s large African elephant, was one of the specimens he brought 
back; also the pair of cheetahs that lived in the Zoo for nearly 15 


67 


68 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


years. On his retirement the Smithsonian Institution appointed Mr. 
Blackburne consultant to the Director for life. In his more than half 
a century of continuous service, Mr. Blackburne saw the Zoo grow 
from the original lot of 124 specimens that he brought to the Park from 
the Smithsonian grounds in a wagon borrowed from the Humane 
Society to its present size. 


WARTIME PROBLEMS 


All zoos have faced wartime difficulties in obtaining food and sup- 
plies. The National Zoo, however, has received valuable assistance 
from the managers of some of the large Safeway, A. and P., Giant, 
and other stores, who have put aside for the Zoo trimmings from vege- 
tables. These are picked up by truck each day and provide the Zoo 
with greens and certain types of vegetables. Through the United 
States Marshal’s Office there have been obtained considerable quan- 
tities of food condemned for one reason or another as not fit for human 
consumption, including several tons of peanuts, quantities of soy beans, 
and other products, which have been of material aid. 


ATTENDANCE 


The attendance for the year was: 


Ue eee ee ee ee 172,200) ‘Mebrnary <0). 602 er eee 53, 200 
MAI SEUIS Green ar cree knee ee eet cas 204, 500F March ni) joes Sa eee 97, 450 
September] 2) oe eee 228, OOO: ADTIL json ee eer 207, 982 
Octobery ss set ieee eee ae 142 STOOD May) ie ae CS eee ee 269, 500 
INOvenbers=s25 2 eee 14S) 200) Sune eee 169, 000 
December yas. 22 A ee 42, 850 —_ 
PADMA Seo ee ee ee 72, 300 Total) 2 eee 1, 803, 532 


Although no actual tabulation was made, it was apparent that mili- 
tary and naval personnel constituted a very substantial proportion of 
the total number of visitors. 

There has been a good attendance from various schools and groups 
who have come by whatever means of transportation were available. 
It is interesting to note that the number of visitors is more even 
throughout the week than hitherto, although naturally the attendance 
reaches its peak on Saturday afternoons, Sundays, and holidays. The 
number of family picnic parties has greatly increased. 

Medical groups have come to the Zoo for the purpose of studying 
certain types of animals, and the Zoo office receives many requests from 
the War and Navy Departments and other agencies of the Govern- 
ment for information on biological problems. The Zoo continues to be 
a regular study ground for art and biology classes, as well as a focal 
point for inquiries about animals by mail, by telephone, and in person. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 69 


ACQUISITION OF SPECIMENS 


The animal market has naturally been restricted by the small num- 
ber of shipments being made from abroad, but a moderate number of 
desirable specimens have been obtained by purchase or exchange. 
Among these are a trio of Dama wallabies, the two females of which 
have produced young since their arrival from the San Diego Zoological 
Society ; a Diana monkey, also from the San Diego Zoological Society ; 
a pair of cotton-headed marmosets, a pair of scarlet cocks-of-the-rock, 
and a young male jaguar. 


GIFTS 


Through the Army a number of interesting and valuable specimens 
have been obtained. Among these are a pair of those rare birds, the 
kagus, presented by the Free French Government of New Caledonia 
through Lt. Gen. A. M. Patch and brought to Washington by Lt. John 
H. Fulling while on leave. On a subsequent voyage, Lieutenant Full- 
ing obtained for the Zoo a pair of flying phalangers and a fine carpet 
python. 

The Army of the U.S.S. R. presented to the Persian Gulf Command, 
United States Army, through Maj. Gen. Donald H. Connolly, a young 
Russian bear from the southern Caucasus. This bear, “Mischa,” was 
brought from Persia to Washington under the care of Lt. A. J. Miller. 

From the Medical Section, India China Wing, Air Transport Com- 
mand, through Col. Don Flickinger, came a collection of Indian rep- 
tiles, including cobras, kraits, Russell’s vipers and a monitor lizard. 
These were brought to Washington by Corp. Wesley H. Dickinson. 

Another interesting addition was a baby howling monkey. 

A complete list of donors and their gifts follows: 


DONORS AND THEIR GIFTS 


W. Alderson, Washington, D. C., 2 Pekin ducks. 

Ord Alexander, Washington, D. C., red-bellied turtle. 

Army of the U. §. S. R., through Commanding General, Persian Gulf Command, 
Maj. Gen. Donald H. Connolly, U. S. Army, Old World brown bear. 

W. H. Aughinbaugh, Arlington, Va., 3 Reeves’ pheasants. 

Mrs. C. A. Baker, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Jack Baldwin, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

George Ballou, Bethesda, Md., raccoon, short-tailed shrew, sparrow hawk, 30 
white mice, crow, fence lizard. 

Mrs. Nell Barger, Washington, D. C., horned lizard. 

Dr. Paul Bartsch, Washington, D. C., chain or king snake. 

Mrs. G. N. Bates, Alexandria, Va., raccoon. 

J. H. Benn, Silver Spring, Md., worm snake. 

Mr. Berg, Fredericksburg, Va., red fox. 

Mrs. John P. Bressler, Bethesda, Md., nine-banded armadillo. 


70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


James G. Brunzos, Washington, D. C., 2 Pekin ducks. 

S. M. Call, Mocksville, N. C., through North Carolina State Museum, Raleigh, N. C., 
albino opossum. 

Donald A. Campbell, Chapel Hill, N. C., vervet monkey. 

T. L. Canby, Silver Spring, Md., barn owl. 

Dr. H. J. Carter, Washington, D. C., great blue heron. 

Miss Margaret Carter and Miss Doris M. Rice, Washington, D. C., screech owl. 

Miss Frances Chatfield, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Peter Chittick, McLean, Va., spotted turtle, 3 milk snakes. 

Robert Clagett, Landover, Md., Pekin duck. 

Dr. Marie B. Clark, Cardozo High School, Washington, D. C., garter snake, 
hog-nosed snake. 

Tom Collingwood, Washington, D. C., tarantula. 

Mrs. Edward Costello, Washington, D. C., red fox. 

K. L. Curtis, Washington, D. C., raccoon. 

Gordon Daiger, Washington, D. C., 2 Cumberland terrapins. 

James Daphney, Washington, D. C., 2 alligators. 

Claudine DeHaven, Glasgow, Va., corn snake, black snake. 

Glenn Dixon, Washington, D. C., red-tailed hawk. 

Joanne V. Dyke, Washington, D. C., anolis. 

_J. E. Ennis, Washington, D. C., barn owl. 

Colonel Evans (address unrecorded), red-tailed hawk. 

William L. Foster, Rockville, Md., barn owl. 

F. F. Fox, Hyattsville, Md., 2 box turtles. 

John Francis, Jr., Washington, D. C., opossum. 

Mrs. Jean B. Fraser, Takoma Park, D. C., 5 American toads. 

Free French Government of New Caledonia, through Lt. Gen. A. M. Patch, U. S. 
Army, 2 kagus. 

Mrs. Freeman, Washington, D. C., ring-necked pheasant. 

Lt. John H. Fulling, U. S. Army, carpet python, 2 flying phalangers. 

Stephen Gatti, Washington, D. C., sparrow hawk. 

Gordon Gaver, Thurmont, Md., indigo snake. ; 

William C. Gawler, Bethesda, Md., 3 Pekin ducks. 

Roger Granum, Washington, D. C., white rabbit. 

Mrs. William S. Green, through C. Purcell McCue, Appledore Orchard, Greenwood, 
Va., 2 sika deer. 

Mrs. Charles Greer, Alexandria, Va., 3 Pekin ducks. 

Granville Gude, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Willie Haltzman, Alexandria, Va., 2 Pekin ducks. 

John N. Hamlet, Fish and Wildlife Service, College Park, Md., 4 meadow mice, 2 
northern ravens, 7 pine lizards, 2 blue-tailed skinks, 4 six-lined race runners, 
pilot black snake. 

Ernest O. Hammersla, Washington, D. C., howling monkey. 

Mrs. H. Hanford, Washington, D. C., 3 canaries. 

Maj. D. Elmo Hardy, U. 8S. A., 1 Hoolock gibbon. 

Richard A. Harman, Alexandria, Va., alligator. 

J. W. Harrison, Mt. Rainier, Md., 2 Pekin ducks. 

Richard T. Heckman, Washington, D. C., 2 white mice. 

Dr. Roy Hertz, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Md., 18 American toads. 

Mrs. Hibben, Vienna, Va., pilot snake. 

Thomas M. Hopkins, Laurel, Md., water snake, snapping turtle. 

Thomas M. Hopkins and Cylde T. Miles, Jr., Laurel, Md., 3 snapping turtles, 
spotted turtle, 2 box turtles. 

C. S. Howell, Remington, Va., guinea pigs. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 71 


Gordon L. Jessup, Potomac Heights, D. C., black snake. 

Miss J. M. Jones, Washington, D. C., yellow-naped parrot. 

Mrs. W. A. Justice, Edgewater, Md., double yellow-headed parrot. 

Mrs. Kanthal, Washington, D. C., white squirrel. 

James G. Keller, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Alfred Kendall, Washington, D. C., cardinal. 

Mrs. I. A. Kniazev, Silver Spring, Md., Cuban conure. 

Mrs. Alta Brill Kremer, Maurertown, Va., 2 Pekin ducks. 

Mrs. Martha Lawty, Washington, D. C., Texas horned lizard. 

Ralph D. Lindsey, Silver Spring, Md., snapping turtle. 

Miss Margaret Love, R. R., Leon, Kans., great horned owl. 

Mrs. Lorraine Lowe, Washington, D. C., gray fox. 

Francine Lee Lyons, Washington, D. C., Pekin duck. 

M. K. Macknet, Takoma Park, Md., pilot snake. 

Medical Section, India China Wing, Air Transport Command, through Col. Don 
Flickinger, M. C., king cobra, Indian cobra, banded krait, common krait, 
2 monitors, 2 tree snakes, Russell’s viper, 2 rat snakes, 5 pythons. 

Mrs. John C. Meikle, Washington, D. C., 2 zebra finches. 

George J. Merrick, Washington, D. C., barn owl. 

W. H. Meserole, Washington, D. C., black-crowned night heron. 

B. Miller, Washington, D. C., horned lizard. 

Billy Monroe, Washington, D. C., opossum. 

Benjamin Muller, Washington, D. C., pilot black snake. 

National Capital Parks, Washington, D. C., water snake, tadpoles, Gambusia 
holbrooki. 

Harry Neuman, Washington, D. C., 2 alligators. 

Fred Orsinger, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, D. C., 4 hellbenders, 
10 diamond-back terrapins, mud turtle, 4 mudpuppies. 

Joseph Pignataro, Washington, D. C., 6 ring-necked snakes. 

Freeman Pollock, Washington, D. C., timber rattlesnake. 

Scott Price, Washington, D. C., green racer. 

Anna M. Rager, Washington, D. C., 3 paradise fish, three-spot gourami, 4 blood- 
fins, 100 Trinidad guppies, catfish, 300 snails. 

Miss Anna Rees, Washington, D. C., Pekin duck, mallard duck. 

R. H. Riggs, Chevy Chase, Md., 2 Pekin ducks. 

Lt. Laurance S. Rockefeller, Washington, D. C., European goldfinch, white 
zebra finch. 

Mrs. M. L. Rue, Washington, D. C., 4 muscovy ducks. 

Migual A. Ruiz, Washington, D. C., hog-nosed snake. 

D. R. Sampson, Brentwood, Md., 2 red-shouldered hawks. 

Miss Eugenia Sasa, Washington, D. C., grass paroquet. 

Miss Katherine Sater, Washington, D. C., black snake. 

Daniel Schroeder, Washington, D. C., 2 blue tanagers, 3 Pekin robins, 2 diamond 
doves, Cuban bullfinch. 

Alfred L. Schwoser, Washington, D. C., red fox. 

Sandra Seymour, Riverdale, Md., great horned owl. 

Charles P. Shaeffer, Jr., West Haven, Md., alligator. 

Pfc. A. W. Sharer, United States Army, pilot snake, black snake, 2 copperheads, 
2 blue racers. 

Patsy and Linda Shaw, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Robert B. Sherfy, Washington, D. C., screech owl. 

Robert Shosteck, Washington, D. C., 2 fence lizards, spotted turtle. 


619830—45—-—_6 


2 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Mrs. J. R. Skinner, Washington, D. C., grass paroquet. 

David W. E. Smith, Washington, D. C., De Kay’s snake. 

Mrs. W. R. Smith, Cottage City, Md., 8 ring-necked doves. 

Melvin Snyder, Washington, D. C., Cumberland terrapin. 

Mrs. Rebecca Spitler and Dian Suunbrun, Bethesda, Md., 4 Pekin ducks. 

K. H. Spivey, Washington, D. C., Pekin duck. 

Mrs. L. D. Staver, Washington, D. C., barred owl. 

Mrs. George Strawbridge, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

Ralph Swiggard, Washington, D. C., worm snake. 

Mrs. Taylor (address unrecorded), 5 opossums. 

Edward M. Traylor, Washington, D. C., titi monkey. 

James H. Turner, Dunn Loring, Va., coatimundi. 

Dr. H. R. van Houten, Bethesda, Md., garter snake. 

Ralph C. Wainoskey, United States Army, rhesus monkey. 

Frank J. Walker, Arlington, Va., 2 flying squirrels. 

R. E. Walker, United States Navy, Hydrographic Office, Washington, D. C., 
painted turtle, diamond-back terrapin, praying mantis. 

T. Wampler, Washington, D. C., 2 crows. 

Ward Farms, Amelia Court House, Va., red fox. 

Theodore Weiner, Washington, D. C., pine lizard. 

Mrs. H. J. Wells, Washington, D. C., diamond-back terrapin. 

Richard Wells, Washington, D. C., desert tortoise. 

J. A. Wheeler, Washington, D. C., sparrow hawk. 

J. H. White, Washington, D. C., gray squirrel. 

Margie, Mary Lu, and June Aileen Wilkin, Washington, D. C., cottontail rabbit. 

C. W. Williamson, Washington, D. C., cottonmouth moceasin. 

Ray E. Wooldridge, Washington, D. C., alligator. 

J. C. Wright, Washington, D. C., wood frog. 

(Donor unknown), 2 bobwhites. 


NATURAL REPRODUCTION 


Four sets of twins of the common marmoset were born during the 
year. 

A cub was born dead to a pair of Polar and Alaska brown bear 
hybrids which were born in the National Zoological Park in 1936. 

Births and hatchings during the year included: 


MAMMALS 

Scientific name Common name Number 
ACT OCORIG MINGICG 22 ea ae oe ee ABI AIC Capita see oes ee a 
ATMLOUTU GUS LCTULG eee AONGRO 22.2 62s aay ee eee 5 
BH008: \QUUTUS Se 8 oe ee Geer oes ele ee ee al 
SUS OG SOUS OTE 20 eh ee ee SSO ro eo ee i 
BOS MANGICUR Se 2 ee, Eee aes Y A210) 1 eee ee er ee eee Tere Led, ENED AES WLS af 
ROS WE CAUTALS oo ey ees LO EL aa British Park, cattle 2 322s 1 
Calliitiia jacchus) =e eee Common, marmosets 8 
Cametus bactrianus__+___-_-__-___._ Bactrianvcameles =.= eee 1 
Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus_____ __— Green. 2ucnon.2 2 2s eee 1 
CeTOUS (CON GOEN SIS =o Si ee 1 De Ses RPE SEND foe NN Ey 1 


OChoeropsis liberiensis________________ Pigmy, hippopotamus2_—_-2-- -_= af 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY to 


Mallow) deere esse Se Ae Zz 
plate oR a rs ee a fora faliow'deer. 2.0) ee 6 
Dasyprocta croconota prymnolopha__-— Agouti —--.--_-__~______+_-__=_--.. 1 
Dolichotis patagona_________-_-_--__- Patagonian? Cavyo=2 =. ae ee 2 
CIES HCON COLON = tee a ee Burman 22a oa See ey 4 
Hemitragus jemlahicus________---___~ ODE NG Be & CI (spill ae ie ew Oe: al 
Microtus pennsylvanicus____---_--_~- Meadows moses 42 2s ee 4 
PIAIOCU STOUT UCOUME == oe £8 ee eas Coypit == sks ach eee nee 5 
IMUESUG ROT CM ns So oe Coatimundgiy 32s ae A 5 
Neotoma floridana attwateri_________~ Round-tailed wood rat--__----__- 3 
ONCuiClis «Geol Tout == Geottroy's: cata 2 2. eee ee ys 
DOS. SOR GSR a a raphe Woolless or Barbados sheep__--_-- 1 
PP OCUONTLOUOT Sar aa eee ee Blackyraccoon!: <2). ae eae al 
TRMLAKCLOR NOT SUS ane aan a eo es Ey bridksbesr ss. tes a 6 te ee 1 

BIRDS 
Anas platyrhynchos____.__--_.----_-_ Malian dau ckeecse sou Wiehe gonna a 70 
Brand ‘CANAGENS1I3 == = 2 Canada POOSEe ae satan ae 50 
Branta canadensis occidentalis_______-~ White-cheeked goose_____________ 20 
Oairing” moschataz2—2 22222) eee Muscovy; Guck 225 22s eee 8 
Hyllacas americanaa= as 2s ee ISMETICAM COOLS See ee ee 10 
Larus novaehollandiae_______________ Silver. pull be U.. 2e6 os Sen Os ae ls ee 2 
Nycticoraz nycticorar naevius_________ Black-crowned night heron____-___ 18 
SUR L UT RT TSOVUU Ro tes es a Be ine Ring-necked dove________________ 2 
REPTILES 
Agkistrodon mokeson__-_._________._ Copperhead) (snakes ee eee 8 
Gerrhonotus coeruleus principis_______ Allizatorm lizard lS a ee a 
Natriv septemvittata_____.____________ Queen or moon snake____________ 15 
IN GETee (Sinedon= oo Ee ed Fives Banded water snake______________ 51 
NICO Ores DilOld = eee ee Brown water snake____-__________ 39 
Thamnophis: siviahs2 ==. 2 ee Midwest garter snake____________ 12 
LOSSES 


Losses include the African rhinoceros, which died after 13 years in 
the Zoo; a slow loris, after 5 years and 10 months; a mandrill, after 
18 years and 7 months; and the maned wolf, after 10 years and 6 
months. 

A scarlet ibis died after 19 years 11 months; a roseate spoonbill, 
after 9 years. 

A large reticulated python, deposited for exhibition by Clif Wilson, 
died during the winter. A cast has been made of this snake for 
permanent exhibition in the United States National Museum. When 
the dead snake was sent to the Museum, it measured 24 feet 8 inches. 
Since 8 or 10 inches of the tail was missing, this specimen was well 
over 25 feet in length, and the dead body weighed 305 pounds, 
making it one of the largest snakes ever exhibited. 


74 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Statement of accessions 


Am- é In- 
A Mam- : Rep- F - Arach- 
How acquired Birds ; phib- Fishes . verte- | Total 
mals tiles iavis nids brates 
‘PYOSented =~ === 3s ese eee eee 67 85 122 28 14 1 1 318 
Born or hatched_------- see 73 180 1 5) ee a SO | Fa TSG ES (i eel Ee eee 379 
Received in exchange-_.------ 6 41 34 14).) 2 se SS oe sooes |e 95 
Purchased: ias ease ey 15 23 4 Bit (ee ee EEE SO eee eee 77 
Oni dopositas {ye ese ees 23 9 25) 22 | Bee oceans | eee 57 
Collected in the Park__.----- Dall sec oe he ee ae eee 1 
i Wye) 1) eee re ry Ee 185 338 311 77 14 1 at 927 
Summary 
Animals! on hand Yduly id (31943 ee ee ee ee eee 2, 435 
Accessions during the year 222- 2) 2 a ee een 927 
Total animals. in collection during year... 224") 2.2 3, 362 
Removals from collection by death, exchange, and return of animals on 
GEMOSit eee ee Ue 2 A ee ne ees 736 
Balers U Cero} ober fbb a\ewirs Oa kOe bs lle ee ee ne ee ea 2, 626 
Status of collection 
Species . Species Soras 
Olass and sub- anelsid Class and sub- nae 
species een species 
Mammanist:222 ha) eee tes 210 677-|\| Arachnids: 222) -25-2ss=- esse" 2 5 
Brae ieee: be 312 909 TISBCES (ae sete eee 1 100 
Reptiles._____- PCs cota 114 447 | 
Amphibians! -2225 2522220 ee 20 120 ‘Total: su sete eee es 096 2, 626 
Wishesh = ae oe ee 37 368 


A list of the animals in the collection follows: 


ANIMALS IN THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK JUNE 30, 1944 


MAMMALS 
MARSUPIALIA 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Didelphiidae: 
Didelphis virginiana_____----------- Oposstmi fh tee ies ee 4 
Phalangeridae: 
Retaurus treviceps= == Lesser flying phalanger________-__ 2 
Petaurus norfolcensis__-_____---___— Australian flying phalanger_______ 2 
Trichosurus vulpecula________-__--- Vulpine or brush-tailed opossum__ 1 
Macropodidae: 
Dendrolagus inustus____----------~- New Guinea tree kangaroo__-__-_~ 2 
Dendrolagus inustus finschi__-_------~ Finsche’s tree kangaroo_____-_-_ may sty i fe 
MCCTODILS: ANI OT So oe ee eee Great gray kangaroo_____---_~--- 1 
Thylogate eugenit== eee ee Dama wallaby:-222-222222) === 5 
Phascolomyidae: 


VOnvatus Ursinuss 822 ee Flinders Island wombat__-_------ 1 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 19 


INSECTIVORA 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Soricidae: 
Blarina, brevicauda_______-_-.----_- Short-tailedshrew222o3-4e22 a 
CARNIVORA 
Felidae: 
Acinonyx jubatus___---___-_______- @heetaliy= S22 - eee a ee 1 
PEC LSM CIUONUS ae Bee er a i che eer JUNGIC  CAtea te ees A ee 1 
AGLI R RCOMCOLON = eee ca oe ee AEE UBTNY chy ee eee cee SE 5 
Felis concolor patagonica_______---~ Patasoula punta ee 1 
Felis concolor X Felis concolor pata- North American X South American 
GONTCT MEAS 2 SESE eS Se ee se DUM A eae eS 4 
EU SYLE Qe ee eee ONG ee ee eee 6 
z po Roby oe Ss ae Leh fe pt 5 
Melis onca_——_———-—— ~~ ~~~ nt eae ETT 4 DCW gies el 0, oes pale peed IA Rb S 
CN SEDONRA GUS tee nn ae Ce i Ere ey 3 
: Indian leopard sees 3 
Felis pardus_._-------------------~ Black Indian leopard______-_____- 2 
CHELLLONUS eee eo eee Se ee ‘Bengals tiger ees eee ee 2 
Felis tigris tongipilis.—2= sos Sibetianetigers<*2 = 22322 eee 1 
Felis tigris sumatrae___------------. Sumatranitiser! our ee eee 4 
GUND US eee ee, BTN VAN Lid 0b. peptic ae coal pt BEN i Bao 2 
Lyne rmifus oaileyicn 2 eee. Barley Srlynxeres = en ee ee ee 1 
GU ORALIIU ee meee ee ee ee ODA tie eae Se ee eee a 
Neofelis mebulost=-s_=* su a2 SES ClondedMeoparda. 22 assess ere eee al 
Onctfelis qeolfroytas 223 ee ee Geoiroy Ss cat. oe a ee 4 
Profelis temminckti______-------_-_-- Goldenvcati 2-222 Se aaa eee 3 
Viverridae: 
ANChiCHS DINEUTONG ~~~ aa ee. IBINGUPON ee ae Se ee eee 2 
Otvettictiseivetia= 22222 AtricaniclyeQy== sss ee ae eee aft 
Myonar sanguineus——— =P SLE eee DWwart civeieee 3 ee eee 1 
Paradovurus hermaphroditus__-__--_- Small-toothed palm civet___--_____ al 
Hyaenidae: 
Crocuta crocuta germinans___------- East African spotted hyena______~ 1 
Canidae: 
OCOnisvlarran sre sere © oe ee, Coyotes22 32422. Cle See eee 2 
Canis latrans X familiaris___-__-_--- Coyote and dog hybrid__----__-_-~- aL: 
Canisilunus nubilus2—— == Plains) woltscossee = 5 Fee ree 2 
Canis’ nupuge tc Mexas red! wolf 22222 ee 5 
Cuon javanicus sumatrensis______--- Sumatran wild) do0gl22- 22a al 
Musicyon culpaeussa ss 2 Le South) American’ foxs22022 = oe 2 
Dusicyon (Cerdocyon) thous___----~-. South: American Toxs 22-22-2222 05 1 
Nyctereutes procyonoides__-___-____-. Raccoon idog=t Se ese es 2 
Urocyon cinereoargenteus_______---- EDV LO Ke een eee eee 9 
AID CRE FULD Ss ee BE SC26 IS 10, seen WIE LY Tie a al eR et 11 
Procyonidae: 
OSU RIUOTICU ea ye 2 oes Coatimiin Gis See ee ee eee 10 
INSU NCISONN Sn ea Nelson’s' coatimundiz——--- = _- 1 
POE Boo ee Rinks) Oa ee ee ee ee cee r¢ 
RS CCOOT ae re ee ee ee ee ees 5 
ER OCUORMMIOUON tee oars | Bigek Taccoonse. ete ae eee 1 
AlbinovPacecoone Sees oe ee al 


76 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


CARNIVORA—continued 

Scientific name Common name Number 
Bassariscidae: 

Bassariscusiastutus2 = ee eee Ring-tail or cacomistle____________ 3 
Mustelidae: 

Arctonya \Collariss. © an ae ELoe | badger Ssans hie Bi aed See at 

Grisonella hiuronag se GR Ora ee HR eh ls Do al 

Dnira canadensis vaga2 Mloridax otters aes bel ae aL: 

Intra (Micraonyr) cinerea____-____ Small-clawed otter________________ ay 

Martes (Lamprogale) flavigula hen- 

TOUS 5 See INL Ee re RCPS RAE Ee 2h een Asiatic martensc. 27 oo oe il 
Meles meles leptorhynchus_________-. Chinese* badger== == a eee il 
Mellivora capensis_________________. Rates an See ea een ee ee 1 
Mephitis mephitis nigrua__-_________- SS Resa ra he a ee 4 
Mustela campestris_.___.._.____.___ Plains least weasel or ermine_____ 1 
Mustela eversmanni_.__ WMerreti23 22 i ae ee 2 
Tayra barbara barbara____________-- Wiite: tayrass 222 eee ae Pe 
T'ayra barbara senilis______________. Gray-headed) itayra_s2- 3] 1 

Ursidae: 
Huarctos americanus —~-.—_______~- Black pear:222 223. eee 5 
HBuarctos thibetanus 2-2 Himalayan bears sss ee eee 2 
Helarctos malayams __________-____ Malay or sun: beara ele al 
Melunsus unsiis= os eee SlothVbenty <5 = 0 eee 1 
Thatarctos maritumus_____=__-_--__— Polar bean. 223224 5a ee eens 
Thalarctos maritimus X Ursus mid- 

GON Ov [lia oo 2 oe eee Bad aie NE Lage Hybrid! bearva22 22220 se ae 4 
PLEMOULCLOS OTNAUS) 2 ee Spectacled bear 2222) ee. eee al 
UP SUS OT CLOS S22 Lie ee eee eee: EKuropean brown bear__-----__-_- 1 
Ursus arctos meridianalis___________ European brown bear____---__-~~- 1 
OTSUS  OYOS os =. eee ie ee Alaska Peninsula bear____-_-_____ 3 
Ursus middendorfi22 2 Kodiak) bear 2.222" sees eee 3 
Urswa sit kensi si. See eo a eee ce Sitka, brown bears=— 4-222 3 

PINNIPEDIA 
Otariidae: 
Zalophus californianus____--------_- Sea lion, 2282S. ee 2 
Phocidae: 
Phoca vitulina richardii_________--__ Pacific harbor seal__-____--_-_____ 3 
PRIMATES 
Lemuridae: 
CMU MONG OS eae Scere ome eee, Mongoose lemurs 2 Sees eee 2 
Callitrichidae: 
Oallithrin jacchus____________----__ White-tufted marmoset__________- 8 
Callithrie penicillata_______________. Black-tufted marmoset ___-_----__ 5 
Tamarin (Oedipomidas) geoffroyi___ Geoffroy’s tamarin--______________ af 
TOME MIA G8! 2 22.2 eee ee Yellow-handed tamarin___________ 4 
Tamarin (Oedipomidas) oedipus____ Cotton-top tamarin_____________-_ 3 
Tamarin (Leontocebus) rosalia _____ Lion-headed or golden marmoset____ 1 
Saimiridae: 


SQimirieecir ed ao ee ee Titi or squirrel monkey____-_____- 2 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY vi 


PRIMATES—Ccontinued 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Cebidae: 
Alouatia palliata mevicanus____---- Howling monkey 2228 2 saree 1 
AOLUaTETUIT GU OUUS. ne ee Douroucouli or owl monkey_______ 6 
ALCLESHUCLICTOSUS =e oe en ere Spider* monkey {ss 2S ee ee 9 
CEGUS ODOC nan oe eee Gray Capuchin aes aces. eure neta tee 2 
Cecgs CODUCINUS oo a= oe eee White-throated capuchin__________ 2 
CEOUSTTQUNCLUS oe ne Weeping? capuchin==2 "22 2 5 
Lagothria lagotricha _-_--_--------- Woollysmonkeye sss" 222" een 1 
Cercopithecidae : 
Cercopithecus aethiops pygerythrus__ Vervet guenon —__________________ al 
Cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus______ Green’ suenon sees ee ae eee 6 
Cercopithecus diana_____-__-___---- Dinnasmgnkey sees ee ee eee al 
Cercopithecus diana roloway__-____- Roloway monkey! 1 
Cercopithecus neglectus ________-___ De Brazza’s guenon___--___-_____ 1 
Cercopithecus nictitans petaurista___ Lesser white-nosed guenon________ il 
Cercopithecus Sps—- ee a West Atrican*guenon! 22222 ae al 
Gymnopyga maurus ____-_-__------- Moorhmacaquertes: sna se ase 1 
MRCACTSMSCOLG@ (one oe eee aL Japanese macaque______--_______- 2 
Macaca trus mordaxv_.-——----- -____- Javan; MACAGUes = kee ee 6 
IGCOCU MUL Ua ne ee nhesus "macaques eee 6 
Macaca mulatta lasiotis ____________ Chinese’ macaque==2"2222—- 2 1 
Macaca nemestrina_____---____---_- Pig-tailed; macaque-_---— === 2 
PAT COCO GUTULC sae een ee ee Toque or bonnet macaque_________ 1 
IM OCUCH SNCCIOSd asa ee ee Red-faced macaque _-_---__-____- Li 
MOnaritlis Spling oo. 2 ee ian Se ee eee 2 
IPORLORCONULLU See oe er ee Chacnia yes 22 ee eee eee al 
Paniaucynocepnravis. —- = a. aoe Golden: baboons... 22 eee 1 
Hylobatidae: 
ALOU CTE sn CUES ee ee et re Sumatrany sibbons2o ee 1 
Hylovates Noolocka.2—--~ 2-2-2 EHoolodk sibpon!. 2222 ee eee 1 
Hytobates lar pileatus_______-_-____. Black-capped gibbon______________ 1 
Symphalangus syndactylus______-__- Siamane eibbons 22 sees 1 
Pongidae: 
PON TT OUIOGY LCR oe a ee Chimpanzees 222200 ea ee 2 
Pam troglodytes verusi22 =. 2s. West African chimpanzee________ 3 
(PONGOCWUClIRa sao eee ee Ce teeta re Sumatran orangutan-___________- 1 
PONG: OUGMACUS Se i a Bornean orangutans. 2 
RODENTIA 
Sciuridae: 
Citellus townsendti. 22 = Soft-haired ground squirrel______ al 
Citellus tridecemlineatus___________ 13-lined ground squirrel__________ 2 
Oynomys ludovicianus______________. Plains: prairiedog eee 55 
Glaucomys volans___.______-_______. Klying aquirrels ss. eee ee 6 
MaTNOLe MOnNA@ 2.25 a2 ee: Woodchuck or ground hog_________ 7 
Sciurus carolinensis._________-__- = Eastern gray squirrel (albino)____ 1 
Scwurus jiniaysont._ > Lesser white squirrel____________ 3 
LHI TPY ECVE T ARATE) 5 ae aaa Sa fo i Ao oa Hastern. ehipmunk= 2 = 1 
Heteromyidae: 
Dipodomys merriami_______________. Merriam’s kangaroo rat___________ 1 


Dinodomys ord 2 Ora's) Ranparog rap ec 3 


78 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


RODENTIA—Ccontinued 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Cricetidae: 
Mesocricetus auratus______.------_-. Goldent hamsters soe ees 15 
Microtus pennsylvanicus______------ Meadow (mouses= 240 2 a 11 
Neotoma floridana attwateri________. Round-tailed wood rat--_--_-__-_ 8 
Onychomys leucogasier__________--- Grasshopper mouse_______________ 1 
Peromyscus crinitus auripectus____-~ Golden-breasted mouse___________ 1 
Peromyscus leucopus.____---_------. White-footed or deer mouse______ 2 
Peromyscus trucis True’s white-footed mouse________ 1 
Sigmodon hispidus___________--__~-- Cotton satis ie ee 2 
Muridae: 
MALS INS CUUTIL Gt ee White and other domestic mice_____ 8 
Ratius alexandrinus_______-----___- Roof rat and black sat-_- 2s 1 
Rattus norvegicus.___________--_-__ White and pied-colored rats______ 2 
Hystricidae: 
Acanthion brachyurum_____------_-- Malay. porcupine 2=2 222 oso ee 8 
Atherurus africanus__.______-__--_- West African brush-tailed porcu- 
OLN G Se tn bes eA ae Zz 
Hysivia galletas ie ol este. African porcupine________________ uf 
Thecurus crassispinis sumatrae____-- Thick-spined porcupine___________ il 
Myocastoridae: 
Maocustor: coypyn2 2 J 07) 4 | ee ee a DR PRED PARAS HYD 16 
Cuniculidae: 
Cuniculus paca virgatus_____-_-____ Central American paca___________ i 
Dasyproctidae: 
PIGS T OOH ee Fe a speckled agouti 0.4 le Ate 4 
Dasyprocta croconota prymnolopha—_ Agouti _-_--_----_______________-- 2 
Caviidae: 
Cava porcellise seeks Sa eee ue peters TOT ST oy a ut 
Angoraseuined (pig= =a 22 eee al 
Dolichotis patagona___.___________~_ Patagonian lcayy eee 5 
Hydrochoeridae: 
Hydrochoerus hydrochoerus_________ Capy Dara 22222 ee ae ee al 
LAGOMORPHA 
Leporidae: 
Oryctolagus cuniculus _-_---------_- Domestic rabbpite 22-2 s- see 15 
ARTIODACTYLA 
Bovidae: 
Ammotragus lervia_.__._._-._._.___-_.--— Aoudad) 22.2632 ei eee ee 12 
Anoa depressicornis_____--- HATTA Oa ae ees ose ee al 
ANOUSQUGANEISES - ett par ees Mountain anoa 2. eet ene il 
IBEDOS SO GUTUSI= Soe a oe eae ae Ge Sea aN hee eee ae Me 3 
Pibeeee ates CGN ONS’. Aaeieh iien MS eeneee bisgn 22498 pee ty ae 15 
AIDING} DISONwa se eee a ees 1 
BOSANOACUS Css 5 Dae ae eae eee ZU ea SI ae a ae 6 
BOS (OUTUS ee a ee Texas longhorn steer -—- === = u 
BOS GOUTUS 2o- oe ek ee ee West Highland or Kyloe cattle_____ 2 
BOS COUNUS: =o ae ss a DO ee ae ‘British? Park cattles= eee 4 
Rivalus bubalis 3 ee ee Teidian aia cee Ne Serr er 
Cephalophus marwellii __________-_- Maxwell's (duiker!322222 = ee 1 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 79 


ARTIODACTYLA—continued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Bovidae—Continued. 
Cephalophus niger _.__---_-_-------_- Black duiker.--222. 20302 eee I 
Cephalophus nigrifrons _--_-__------ Black-fronted duiker__.___------ eH dy 
Connochaetes gnou_—-_._-_-__------- White-tailed gnui2 == eee 1 
Hemitragus jemlahicus___-_-_------~- Mah resco. Ree ee eee ee 8 
Oreotragus oreotragus_________-_---~ Kodipspringer ae 1 
Oryx beisa annectens______--------- Thean beisa OLY x) ee 2 
(OTAGO aa ae ea en eens Se SOSH Woolless or Barbados sheep__----- 3 
Opis europaeus 222 2 Moutlon2.2 32222 2 eee 2 
Poephagus grunniens___------------ Bsr | rg lpn el gd area Byte Deby EE a gS 5 
IPSCULUISINGYOU ea oe eee ne Bharal or blue sheep_------------- 3 
SUTICChOSICO Clea aaa eo ATTICA DUM ALO m= sess ae eee 2 
Maurotragueé ory@:. 2 ==. 2+. TE eas eee ee EO 3 
Cervidae: 
ANG OAR GG I STE ee ees ASASde@ei 26 ah ae hte hs eee 4 
Oervus: canadensis —- === - 2 American: elig@ S22 ase 5 
Cervus velanhus 92 eees ee Rediideen 2 ace ee 2 at ee 6 
Rallowdeer ss 22322 ae ee es 14 
Sader Ra aT White fallow deer____------------ 12 
Muntiacus muntjak __--_-___--=-_-- Rib-faced or barking deer_____--_- 1 
Odocoileus virginianus ____--------- Virginiardeer. 225 48s" sae 2 
Pr ROMDON: 2 2.28) 282 Japanese deer. 22) 54.- 4. a a 
Giraffidae: 
Giraffa camelopardalis ___-__------- Wobiamvieiraties 3 + oS ek 4 
CUiGi GneulGulata. == See Retienlatedsriraite ==. o ees 1 
Camelidae: 
Camelus bactrianus —-22--=42224 422 Bactrianvcamel). 22225 a ee 4 
Camelus dromedarius _-.-----------~ Single-humped camel ~------~----- if 
QO SO VOINO oo eee ee HX Ta ee ee 3 
Lama glama guanicoe_____----_--_- Guandeos: 44 ee 2 
SL ULCOS = aria ee eet So Bes se Allan fbi ee 73 
VaCuagndy DICUGNW 2 220 ts ee Wi TANT Es et et ie 2 
Tayassuidae: 
Pecuri angulatusc 2... Collared pecearye . 282 2 
MaGyassw upectnt= 222 =- oo. PONE White-lipped peccary__-____------- 1 
Suidae: 
Babirussa babyrussa______.—___----— Balbinussaeig2 20 ee eee 2 
Phacochoerus acthiopicus aeliani____ East African wart hog_---- peas Fee 3 
MMW RON (D2 8 oe eS European wild boar__----—_---_--- 1 
Hippopotamidae: 

Choeropsis liberiensis_______-_------ Pigmy hippopotamus___---------- 5 
Hippopotamus amphibius__--------- Hippopotamus —-—_- =~ 2 
PERISSODACTYLA 

Equidae: 
Equus burchellii antiquorum___-----~ Chapman’sivebra. 2 et 4 
IGNUILS || GT COUY Uae eee were oped ee EE Grevy's)' zebras ea eee 1 
Hquus grevyi x asinus.o.------=+--+ Zebra-aAss HNyorid as 1 
Equus grevyi x caballus__-_--------- Zebra-horse shy bnGeose2. 2a eS 1 
SEU OALB NICU QTUG eof Do we ae Bs aye Asiatie wild ass or kiang-__.---_ 2 
Equus przewalskii_______-_.-------- Mongolian wild horse___--__--~-- 3 


OMAR COON ae tage oe es Od eS Mountain: Zebraa-2 eee eee fl 


80 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


PERISSODACTYLA—continued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Tapiridae: 
ACGroCOdiG Andicg 1-2 wee oe Asiation tapi css a5 ne 2 
TOUS LETT CSLTIS sue Bree ape South American tapir_..—__.--_»~ 3 
Rhinocerotidae: 
Rhinoceros unicornig___-____-___-_ Great Indian one-horned rhi- 
NO COT OS = 2 a ees eh 1 
PROBOSCIDEA 
Hlephantidae: 
Elaphas maximus sumatranus____-__ Sumatran elephant_______________ il 
Lozodonta africana omyotis___._____ African elephant<]2 m2 ae ae 1 
HYRACOIDEA 
(PT OCHULG OUDCNSIS as ee ee yaw 2 ik 5 ani ee 2 
EDENTATA + 
Choloepodidae: 
Choloepus didactylus__.________---_- Two-toed, sloth)... ees 2 
Dasypodidae: 
Chaetophractus villosus_________--~ Hairy. ania dil Osa ee ene ee al 
Huphractus sexcinctus_____________ Six-banded armadillo_____________ 1 
BIRDS 
CASUARTIFORMES | 
Casuariidae: | 
Casuarius bennetti papuanus_____-_- Papuan cassowary____-__--_____- 1 | 
Casuarius casuarius aruensis________ Aru cassowary 22 Sa a tae See 1 | 
Casuarius uniappendiculatus occipi- 
COAG aaa ee i ee ek ee Island! cassowary-—=—_ a ay 
Casuarius uniappendiculatus uniap- 
MENndiCulatuSe. 2 ee a PE One-wattled cassowary____-_-_--- 1 
Dromiceiidae: 
Dromiceius novaehollandiae________- Common emuc_ == eee 2 
SPHENISCIFORMES 
Spheniscidae: 
Aptenodytes forsteri____.____._____-_- Hmperor penguins 2222 ee 3 
Spheniscus demersus_______________- Jackass peneiine- aes = eee ee 4 
Spheniscus humbdoldti_________-____- Humboldt penguin________________ 2 iI 
TINAMIFORMES 
Tinamidae: 
Hudromia elegans. ne, Crested tinamou or martineta__-__ 2 
PELECANIFORMES 
Pelecanidae: 
Pelecanus californicus__.___________- California brown pelican_____-____ 4 
Pelecanus conspicillatus____________- Australian) pelican®222se22"s5 2622 2 


Pelecanus erythrorhynchus 
Pelecanus occidentalis____ 


Pelecamus onocrotalus_________-.____. 


White pelican 


Brown pelican-=2.- ee oe 
Huropean: pelican 222 Sees 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 8] 


PELECANIFORMES—Ccontinued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Sulidae: 

A GFUSHOOSSOILG = 2 abies SBR Ue Gannete2e 225 se eager aa ey if 
Phalacrocoracidae : 

Phalacrocoragz auritus albociliatus__. Farallon cormorant---~-~~ ---~--~~- 1 
Anhingidae: 

AnMInga Qnninga@s. 2.20) 2 Anininga ies soc soo Boe ee 3 
Fregatidae: 

PRCOULANOEl ad Jee eee Be Lesser frigate ‘birds 22922) 22222= 1 

CICONIIFORMES 

Ardeidae: 

Arded NEVvOdld8 ===) ee, ee eae Great blue heron____--_------~--. 2 

VAT ded OCGLACNTCIS 2 eas a eee Great white heron=s222 425225242 1 

WOPRCtLG thule. 2 eee ea eee Snowy, eeret. 2. ee ee i) 

Hiorida COC Aled 2a. ee ee a Juittle bine heroness= ses te = sa 14 

Hydranassa tricolor ruficollis______-. Tignisiana. ‘herpne.6 ee eal 14 

Notophoys novaehollandiae______-~-. White-faced heron___-__~_____--=- a 

Nycticorar nycticoraw naevius___—_-_- Black-crowned night heron____---- 30 
Cochleariidae: 

Cochlearius cohlearius_________----- Boatbill herons eee 2 
Ciconiidae: 

Dissourg eniscopus... is esheets Woolly-necked stork __----------- al 

TOUS CIN Eres Se 25 Malay, storkec2s ..- 42 a ee eee 2 

Leptoptilus crumeniferus___----~---~- Manaboue 620 Le ae ee 1 

Leptoptilus dubius_______----+-+---- Indian adjutant=_—22-- 1 

Leptoptilus javanicus.__--_--------- lesser adjutant. 22222 eae 2 

Mycteria americana_____.—---+---~--. Wroodeibism 2.2 = aes see ee ee 1 
Threskiornithidae: > 

Guana quod se | 2 a ees Whiteibis= 2... Uk 2 aie ee 8 

Guara alba X G. rubra___--—~--+--- Hybrid white and scarlet ibis______ a 

Gudna. ne0rndaa2— 02 See eae Scarletabis)= 2) >=.) s0shse eae 1 

Threskiornis aethiopica________----- Sacred? ibis): == 44.20. siete sue il 

Threskiornis melanocephala________- Black-headed: ibis ———_..==— ete 4 

Threskiornis spinicollis__.________--- Straw-necked ‘ibis == 223:-_ == =s2=5 2 
Phoenicopteridae: 

Phoenicopterus chilensis_____------- Chileany flamingos 55 ae ee 2 

Phoenicopterus rubra______--__----- Cuban flamingo __-__ ikl bapa HE ed 3 

ANSERIFORMES 

Anhimidae: 

OHOUNG Chisthld anaes eek ees @rested) screamer. 2.2225 Sees Th 
Anatidae: 

PA ASA ONRE os eee eS Pali tte Wood) Gucls 225005. eee eae 7 

Alopochen aegyptiacus_______--__--- Heyptian, 2o0ses== 42 ee ae 

Anas brasiliensig.____._--_.-_-_. = Brazilian tealiessa26 abe b 3 ea0 ee 2 

Anas \LOMeSTCW ee th oe bol ek ae Peking: duck). 25053 ese ee 12 

Anas platyrhynchos —----~.-----=--- Mallard (duck 2222S ee 50 

ANUS FUT ES 2 Be ese eo ee TB Tea Rg vc he a cree ot pe le molly 6 

AS CTMELOU TOUS 2a es oo Se ie American white-fronted goose____-_ 3 

Anser cinereus domestica_____------ Toulouse | OOSCS2. Sew eee ee 3 


Anseranas semipalmata __---------- Australian pied goose _______--_-- 2 


82 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ANSERIFORMES—continued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Anatidae—Continued. 
Branta canadensis 2502 ee Canada, c008e2 ee ee 25 
Branta canadensis hutchinsii________ Hutchin’s goose. 0S sit og eon 4 
Branta canadensis minima________-__ Cacklinig 200 Sei ise ee jee 8 
Branta canadensis occidentalis _____ White-cheeked goose______________ 25 
Cairima moschotd. 2 ea Muscovy duck2 24223233 aa 11 
Casarca variegata______.-__________ Paradise ducki220- 22. 22 eaten. 1 
Cereopsis novaehollandiae __________ Cape Barren goose________-_____-_ 2 
CHEN SATLONT ICA Sea eee es Snow! P00SC 2-22 Sees ieee ee B 
Chen caerulescens__. = ee Iplue!POOSe saa st) nae ee Ee 2 
ORCRODIS OU CU ae eee Blackswal]. 22 2o2 2 eae 4 
Chloephaga leucoptera__________-___ Magellan goose.) ee ae 2 
Cygnopsis cygnoides________________ Domestic gooseL.= = 22 Sa oe 2 
Cygnus columbienus__—_____________ Whistling swan 2-2/2. ae 2 
Cygnus melancoriphus_________-____ Black-necked swan —--__-_________ 1 
Cygnus olor i222 4 eae ee ee Mute Swan: s22 2 Seiten tee 5 
Dafila acuta 2.u.— 1 ey Pintall 222) eee eens 8 
Dafila spuicaidal = sane Chilean! pintall 22 ee ees 1 
Dendrocygna arborea_____-_-___-___ Black-billed tree duck ____________ 3 
Dendrocygna autumnalis ____-_-_-_-_ __ Black-bellied tree dueck_____-___--_ 2 
Dendrocygna viduata____-__________ White-faced tree duck____________ 4 
Dendronessa galericulata________-__ Mandarin duck. 22222 es ee 4 
Manecaamericang.2- ee ae Baldpate.. 2.52.0) Se oa) al 
Marta fines 22-252 ee hesSer: sca uped ce Ley eee 1 of 
Morita collariaW tensa wave Ring-necked duck __-__-___-______ 1 
Neochen4su0ates2 2 a aes Orinoco, go0se=s23l222 is aa ee 2 
Nettion carolinense________-________ Green-winged teal________________ al | 
Nettion formoswmaciss 2 Baikal teal. «2. > seni 5 | 
Norden: Aino. cee le ae Hybrid«duck22) els sh) Oe 
Nyroca valisineria__________--__---- Canvasback. duck.___J-_- 244. = 1 of 
Philacie. canagica, 2 en se Hmperor, goose 2. 2p een on 3 | 
Querquedula discors____-________-__- Blue-winged) tealésntuss =saeehiere 8 | 
Cathartidae: 
Cathartes. aura... 2) oe Turkey). vultures Si aaa eee 2 
COGAGUDS) GUC See eee Black. vultures. 2222 eee il 
Gymnogyps californianus___________ California. condor2]= eae il 
Gypohieragz angolensis_____.________ Fish-eating yulture_______________ 1 
GDS SUD DCLG se A i a Ruppelisi vulture al 
Sarecoramphus papa___—_-_-_________ Ming vullbureks 22 eee 1 
PONGOS tT ACh CU OES ae eee African eared vulture__-_________ i 
Accipitridae: | 
ACC IPILer. COONETI A=) aes Se een eee Cooper's’ hawk=o.2 =) he eee 1 
Buteo voregie. oo eee ee Red-tailed . hawk...s-225=- 02.084 2hg 
Buteo lineatus elegans_____________ Southern red-shouldered hawk_-___ 1 
Buteo lineatus lineatus__.___ = Red-shouldered hawk__--___-__-_- 2 
Buteo melanoleucus______-_-_-_.____ South American buzzard eagle__.__ 2 
Buteo platypterus_.-._-_-___ Broad-winged hawk__---__----__- 1 


Buteo poecilochrous__._—--_--_--_—_ = Red-backed.. buzzard= 2222 3s 3. i 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 


ANSERIFORMES—continued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Accipitridae—Continued. 
Haliaeetus leucocephalus____--_-- ot) Bald) Cagle esos 2 at ies ae ener ee 6 
HGURGSUUT ANOUS a ae oo eee ese Brahminy,) pkitete cee eS eas 5 
Orta ROtpy Gs Oe Tote as eee Harpy! eagles:sinsir ta eee 2 
Hypomorphnus urubitinga___--_---- Brazilianweasle: vei pe eee ee 1 
Milwago chimango____--~---------~- Chimango 23h sansa tee ir eat 3 
Milvus migrans parasitus__---__--_- African yellow-billed kite__-____-_ 2 
Pandion haliaetus carolinensis_____- Osprey. or fish hawk2_22 2232255 al 
Parabuteo unicinctus____-_-__-_------ One-banded hawk__-------------- 1 
Falconidae: 
Cerchneis sparverius________-____-_- Sparrow, hawk2s2) > 42) sea 5 
Daptrius americanus______________._ Red-throated caracara___-----~~- 3: 
Falco peregrinus anatum___----~~--~ Duck haw kis Lae 22 tee eee 1 
Polyborus planews__---_--_+---__-_- South American caracara_____-~- 1 
GALLIFORMES 
Cracidae: 
Oar jaSClOlGlGn nea eee ee ae Crested curassow__-----------~-- 2, 
OOO VUOT Go ee ee eS Panama, curass0wss eo oe 1 
Ora SEMEL RTS eset te eee Sclater’s curassow----_-.----_--- i 
UML BNA Ne ee Razor-billed curassow____------__ 2 
Phasianidae 
AG OUSLONUS: G7 GUS. == 9) a eee eee ATZuSs! pheasant. 22 See 2 
COM CUS IUTUCINU = een eee Cheer” pheasant: 222222 see ee 3 
Chrysolophus amherstiae___-_------ Lady Amberst’s pheasant________ il 
Chrysolophus pictus. a= ee Golden pheasant_________________ 5 
Colinus cristatuse2 2 aes @rested: quail. 22.4 kee 2 
Colinus virginianus__________-----~ Bobwhite. 220 2 <a ae 1 
GAGS SO OLS eo Se Se Red: jungle: fowl222-2 eae ee 4 
Golius (OfGueltia a. Bhs oa Ceylonese jungle fowl_____________ all 
GOLUS SO Se ee ar Bantam chickens =) owe a 1 
GUUS BY ee a Mighbtine, Towls 2 22a ae eee al 
Gallwes spase a oe Sot a Qonzg-tailed fowls) 2 eee 1 
Gennaeus albocristatus______--_-___ White-crested kaleege____________ 3 
Gennaeus nycthemerus_______---___ Nilver pheasant noe eee 6 
Hierophasis swinhoiti_______.________ Swinhoe’s pheasant______________ 2 
Lophophorus impeyanus____-__----_ Himalayan Impeyan pheasant_____ 1 
Lophortyx californica vallicola_____ Valley quailins 3.2. eee eee 2 
Pavol onistatuss Cie at Tore ae Resitowil 252 2 ee eee bay if 
Ring-necked pheasant____________ 6 
Phasianus torquatus_—------------- White ring-necked pheasant_______ 3 
Phasianus torquatus (var.)_._.__-_.__.._ Melanistie mutant ring - necked 
pheasants) 6c ae eh ee Oe) 3 
Phasianus versicolor_______________- Green Japanese pheasant_________ 1 
Polyplectron napoleonis____-__---- _. Palawan peacock pheasant__-_____ 1 
Syrmaticus reevesi_. 2 ek. Reeves’ pheasant____-___.-_______ 2 
Numididae: 
Acryllium vulturinum__._--_-------. Vulturine guinea fowl__-__-___-__ 1 


NAVA DIRD AS) a SOT Sp heh OE Guinea |) fowloce.2 2) ee 


84 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


GRUIFORMES 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Rhinochetidae: 
Rhinochetos jubatus.______-=-_______ Wags SoS el ieee heel, 1 
Gruidae: 
Anthropoides paradisea____________- Stanley or Paradise crane________ 8 
Anthropoides, vin gol ee Demoiselle crane__._._.___________ 5 
Balearica pavonina_____-___-______- West African crowned crane______ 3 
Balearica regulorum gibbericeps_.__. East African crowned crane______ 1 
Grus canadensis canadensis_________ Little brownicrane 2s sis il 
Grus. leucauchen.2 228 eager White-naped crane_______________ at 
GrUus TCUCODer anise seat e es Sees Siberian’ ‘crane: ee . tnelints PA 
Rallidae: 
Amaurornis phoenicurus_______ _____ White-breasted raiJ_______________ 2 
Ruhce, amencang a ae American’ Coots sales eke 6 
Gallinula chloropus cachinnans______ Florida) galiinule: See ee 2 
Gallinula chloropus orientalis_______ Sumatran ¢allinnle ee Oe 
Limnocoraxr flavirostra_____________. African black Tallest ae 3 
Porphyrio poliocephalus____________- Gray-headed porphyrio___________ 2 
Cariamidae: 
Caniuma. cristata. ee ae Cariama or ‘seriama=2"2 2 ae 2 
CHARADRIIFORMES 
Haematopodidae: 
Haematopus ostralegus___-__________. European oyster catcher__________ 2 
Charadriidae: 
Belanopterus chilensis______________ Chilean lapwing22222)2 50) ye 
Laridae: 
Larus: argentatus2i2a==~ 2 ee Herring gullo2) 2h iia eee fl 
Larus. delawarensisaos2 2-2-8 = Ring-billedgull-222 See ees al 
Larus domiunicaniss.—) Sse ae Kelp gullies EI 2 
Larus glaucescens____-__~ ICE ES A Glaucous-winged gull_____________ 1 
Larus novaehollandiae____-_-------- Silver: ounce epee A EAR 15 
Glariolidae: 
Glareola pratincola__________-_-_--_- Collared pratincole_______________ 1 
COLUMBIFORMES 
Columbidae: 
Columba: guimegan. 238 eee Triangular-spotted pigeon_________ 1 
Columba Ure. se en eee Domestie pigeon___-_____________- 3 
Columba maculosa__..—--~---=-~=- =. Spot-winged pigeon_______________ 1 
Dioula, agence 222 Sek hee ee Green imperial pigeon_____________ Al 
Gallicolumba luzonica_____------~---- Bleeding-heart “dove-_--~- =" es 4 
Gowrarertsiateu see eee Sclater’s crowned pigeon__________ 1 
GOura VICLOT se ee ee Victoria crowned pigeon__________ 1 
Lepntotila. Cassini! eee a ee Cassin’s/dove:3 eae hee ae i 
Muscadivores paulina______-_-__--- Celebian imperial pigeon________- il 
Streptopelia chinensis_______-______- Asiatie collared dove_____________ al 
Streptopelia chinensis ceylonensis__ Lace-necked or ash dove________- 3 
Streptopelia tranquebarica_____---- Blue-headed ring dove____________ 2 
Tartur. sors: 23 Sees eae Ring-necked dove________________ i 
Zenaida auriculata._._________=._.. South American mourning dove___ 5 


Zenaidura macroura______--.._-__~ Mourning ido ven eens 1 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 85 


PSITTACIFORMES 
Scientific name Common name Number 

Psittacidae: 
Agapornis pullaria__________-----~- Red-faced lovebird______-__---_-- 3 
Amazona auropalliata______---_---- Yellow-naped parrot__---_--_---_- 4 
Amazona ochrocephala____--------- Yellow-headed parrot___-_------~- al 
AUR OZONE “OV CUTIE 228 ee Double yellow-headed parrot-__--___ 2 
Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus____--- Hyacinthine’ macaw _____— >= il 
NG OTN OMe a ee Yellow and blue macaw---------- 2 
PNRT AGL LLG EEE ea CMT ge TRE Red, blue, and yellow macaw-__--- 2 
AVG MUON 222 ee Mexican green macaw____-------- 1 
ARGIINGG (CUODSH ooo. oe 2) Cuban conures. 222-22 ee 2 
Calyptorhynchus magnificus_____-_- Banksian cockatoo__------------- il 
COVECODSUSS NG 10 = Lae ee lesser “vasa-parrotie. ee al 
Cyanopstitacus spizxi___________-_.-~ Six Sima Gate ee ee 1 
Ducorpsis sanguineus___________--- ibare-eyed cockaloo_——- == il 
HIGVECTILS | DECLONOUIS eee eee se Helectus pparrot= 222 ee 1 
Eolophus roseicapillus________------ Roseate, cockatoon— 32s 3 
KOkatoe Goa. en eee AD ae White: cockatooe sees 2 
Kokatoe gatlerita= 2. hoes ee Large sulphur-crested cockatoo__-__ 2 
Kakatoe teadbeatert_—.__~-—- __~+—-- Leadbeater’s cockatoo_____-____-- 2 
Kakatoe moluccensis__________--___ Great red-crested cockatoo____--__ a 
Kakatoe sulphurew________._____ Lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo____ 5 
OTIS: GOMACCI Gs 82511 £21) 1 Wm (0) fer eet e e ne URE NT LA 2 
WGOTUES. OOGTUUUS a ee te ee Rede loryee es ss 22S es Coe 1 
Melopsittacus undulatus____________ Grassy paroquet: sete ws See 12 
Myopsitia monachus_______________ Quaker paroquet 26) ye ee ee 1 
NOWELYUS MONAT Ys ee eee Nanday> paroquet=2-2" 2 Ses 1 
Wester ota biis 2 VE eine Wren 2k 2a oh cae ak eee ne 
Nymphicus hollandicus____________ Wockatiel2 2s. 5. aie ina) aes 1 
Pionites wanthomeria______________ Amazonian: _ Caique=s— ers Saus ree 2 
Psitiacula. eupgtria. 22s eee Red-shouldered paroquet__--_--_- 3 
Psittacula krameri__.______-______ Kramer’s paroquet_______-__--__- 2 
Psitiacula longicauda______________ Long-tailed paroquet_________-___ 2 
Tanygnathus muelleri______________ Mueller’s) narrotes. see eee 1 

CUCULIFORMES 

Cuculidae: 
Hudynamis scolopaceus____________ i <9) 2) (ie ee roee ey. kT Se Tea 1 

Musophagidae: 
Twracus liwingstoni_...__ -_2- Livingston’s turacou________----__ al 

STRIGIFORMES 

Tytonidae: 
Tyto alba pratincola______________ Barn: Owls Sees ee eles ees 3 

Strigidae: 
BUDO VUGUACTNS = 7 Urls RAT eee Great horned owls. 2 Assn bee se a 
Keune, ketupwio 1h tert have ee Malay ‘fishowle ts sb ohe Se sie ek 1 
NATOL CU ETUCLC Ose ota wee ae ee SHOWY | OW sae ee te es if 
Otusvasiow = both feel 9 je Sereech), OW 2o 225 eee ee aL 3 


Sinz varia varia. Barred) | Opler as ee 4 


86 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


CAPRIMULGIFORMES 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Podargidae: 
Podargus strigoides___———__----- ==. Tawny. fropmouthes. 222 2 1 
COLIIFORMES 
Coliidae: 
Colius strigtis. 23 Streaked mouse bird or coly______- 2 
CORACIIFORMES 
Alcedinidae: 
DP CCCLOWNGIG GS ee sew os ee eee RoOKsDULT HE Sees eee een ce ee 2 
FIALCYyOn \.SONC see ee eee =) (NACE) KInStShereec sea: = nents ak 
Momotidae: 
MOMOtus LES8ON 2 aae a eee ee Motmnot)===s322s3 se. ae eee al 
PICIFORMES 
Ramphastidae: : 
Aulacorhynchus sulcatus sulcatus... Groove-billed toucanet____________ ot 
Pteroglossus aracari__._--—=-- Black-necked aracari____________~ 2 
Ramphastos carinatus________-__-__ Sulphur-breasted toucan___-_____- 7 
Ramphastos culminatus_____-___--- White-breasted toucan____________ 1 
Ramphastos piscivorus_________--_- Toco. towcan..-.2o meas | 1 
PASSERIFORMES 
Cotingidae: 
Melanotis caerulescens_______-_--.~ Mexican (catbind i263.) 2) ena 2 
Rupicola peruviana sanguinolenta__._ Scarlet cock-of-the-rock___________ 2 
Corvidae: 
Callociita JOnmostsse= = a2) es Mexican jay i = oii eee 1 
Cisse; Chinensis foes) 2) oS tera Chinese’ cissaie tanita S . adie 2 
Cissilopha yucatanica______-___-_---_ Yucatan blue jaye ee ee 4 
Corvusialbuss bes eee eee ee White-breasted crow_____________ 2 
Corvus brachyrhynchos_______------ American’ Cro wase ee eae {¢ 
Corvus coraxz principalis____________ Northern \rayens: 222 h ene 3 
COnUtS:  COLPNIDE 2 Sea ais ea ee Hooded) (crows t22 ses a-ak ee 2 
Oorvus: cryptoleucws.= = White-necked raven_____-________ 1 
Corvus) imsolensi2 2-2. 2 eee Ingram: (ero weet 228 ee eae 2 
OCyanocorax chrysops_____________._ Urracasjay2so 2. ee eee al 
Cyanocoran mystacalis_____________ Moustached: jaya s2saAe = Sie 1 
CYOnOmea, CYGNU=2 2 ee eee Azure-winged pie________________ 1 
Gymnorhina hypoleuca_______-______ White-backed piping crow______-__ 2 
Urocissa caerulea.____--- 2 Formosan red-billed pie__________ 2 
Urocissa occipitalis_______-__ Red-billed blue magpie___________ a 
Paradiseidae: 
Ailuroedus crassirostris____.____.___ Australian eatbird22 es al 
Hpimachus fastuosus— Sickle-billed bird of paradise______ 1 
Ptilonorhynchus violaceus___.__-____ Satin’ bowerbird 22 eee a ae 1 
Seleucides, ‘niger 32) Va a ae 12-wired bird of paradise________ 1 
Pycnonotidae: 
Pycnonotus analis____ tt ee Yellow-vented bulbul___________ Ud bate | 
Trenidae: 


PV ENG DUC, ce or RE ree Hairy blue (binds eee 1 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 87 


PASSERIFORMES—continued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Mimidae: 
Melanotis caerulescens_______--_-__- Bine mockinepind=222 22 se be al 
TODOSLOMA TUPUN oe Ae ee Brown) thrashers=22 23 ei es 1 
Turdidae: : Y 
Garrulagx pectoralis picticollis_______. Chinese collared laughing thrush__ 1 
Garrulaw perspicillatus_____.______-_. Spectacled laughing thrush_______ 1 
TGELOERTAD ULC ws a ids ee Pekin roping. ois. Ae Sey Wty 
PUL Us GrOytn. 2s ee el Bonaparte’s tnrushes se 1 
Tundus nufiventrissect ios et Argentine ropin 2s 3 
Sturnidae: 
Cosmopsarus regius..__..___._____---. Splendid starlings se oot Dae al 
Oreatophora cineréa__ 3 Wattledstarling 22 eee 1 
Galeopsar salvadorii__._._...-._--_- @rested Starling: = 72. j2..-232 2 1 
Graculipica melanoptera_______.__-_.__. White, starling=.. 220 kee 2 1 
Ploceidae: 
Diatropura procne=- 22. = 19 2 ee Giant: whydah: 2 tee ob 
Lonchura leucogastroides___________ Bengallee@ss) m2 2 = eka ee 5 
MUA NOT 2 ae Wa Tes oe 2 F White-headed munia______________ 2 
Munia malacctn ete ee Ls Black-throated munia_______._____- al 
MUNG: OTYAVOTO => eee a Pt JAVA Sparrow: j= ses Cee Tf 
Munia punctulatus.___-___---_- - Rice bird or nutmeg finch____-____ 2 
IPlOCCUS: CYC 2222 ale ee ee eS Ia var weavers. 22222 aw ae eee 3 
Ploceus intermedius... ~ 2. Black-cheeked weaver_______-__-- 5 
Ploceus rubiginosus. =. - Chestnut-breasted weaver_________ il 
Poephita acuticauda_=__ Bong-tailed) finch =" 2322 2 ea 1 
Poephila, gouldiae = Couldiangtineh== 2222s 2esees eee 2; 
Quelea sanguinirostris intermedia___ Southern masked weaver finch_____ 2 
Steganura paradised_—— =. ee Paradise whydah 2-2-2 5 
Paeniopygia castanotis_..- { is finch____---—__--~=----=--- 2 
White:zebra, finch] 22a eee a 
Coerebidae: 
Gyanerpes cyanea ee ee Blue honeycreeper____----__--____ 6 
Icteridae: 
PAGELAVINS 1IASSUNUILUS = ee ee Cuban red-winged blackbird_______ me 
Cassiculus melanicterus____________- Mexicanicaciques 2 Sere 1 
Gymnomystax mexricanus___________ Giantorioles=1.. 9 9s 1 
heterusnoullockiz2 ee Se Ee. Bullock's: troupial322 2s ees 2 
RGCCTUSIICLET UG es eet sa ie) ei ase Proupial=< a Se BPS al 
Molothrus bonariensis__________.--__. Shiny cowbirdl2 see Sea al 
Notionsarn.curaeus. 2 Chilean blackbird--_____-___-______ 2 
Truptalis defilappi-2- Military, Starling==— 222222 ook StS 
Thraupidae: 
PArangasvidentataa= ss Le Oninge: tanager]—- - 2225 eee i 
Ramphocelus dimidiatus___._________. @rimson: tanarer==2= =a Pee 1 
Ramphocelus flammigerus__________. NWelow tanager. 2 a22s 2 eee 4 
Ramphocelus icteronotus_________.___ Yellow-rumped tanager__________-_ 2 
“Thraupts) episcopusa: 2 ee Bluestanagcer= see ay 2 
Fringillidae: 
Amandava amandava________-______ Strawberry finches? 32). Sievers 10 
Carduelis carduelis_____.___..____.__ Huropean+sold.finch!_2 22 ee a 


619830—45——_7 


88 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


PASSERIFORMES—Ccontinued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Fringillidae—Continued. 
Carpodacus mevicanus__--___-~---~- Mexican house finch______________ 4 
Coryphospingus cucullatus_________ Red-crested finch__.______________ 2 
Cyanocompsa argentina____________ Argentine blue grosbeak__________ 2 
Dinea died Se NS Bien, SBOE) Diwea + finch 2:2) A iets ree et 2 
Erythrura psittacea_______~__- New Caledonian parrot finch_____ al 
Lophospingus pusillus_______-----_~ Black-crested finch______________ 3 
Melopyrrha nigra_—i_-__ = 2-_ = 2 Cuban: . bullfinich!. 2.240 654 1 
Paroaria cucullata__.______---__-_-_- Brazilian. cardinal-*/ouieat ce p04 3 
Passerina cyanea______--------_--- Indigo bunting. 220) (AoE 2 
Passerina leclancherti_______-__*_-_- Leclancher’s bunting _____________ 6 
Passerina versicolor__________-______ Blue. bunting. Jee en Saino les 2 
Phrygius frutviceti2 ee eee Mourning finch ee eee 8 
Phrygilus gayi.______-__--________. .Gay’s gray-headed. finch__--__~--_ 4 
Serius canarniusee eae Canaty 42 a eee 4 
Sicalis- flaveola__2= a ere sees) Mysto finch... . seme Rees 1 
Sicalis® lieoldn es ee eee Saffron - finch] ee eee 3 
Stcealis-minop 22 ee Bees Lesser yellow finch_______________ 4 
Spinus uropygiahss eee Chilean..siskin_.-_.- -2 S97 eae ee 3 
Sporophila aurita-222 Se a es Hick’s,seed-eater_ Ores foe Be 
Sporophila gutturalis_______________ Yellow-bellied seed-eater__________ 2 
TAOTTS } OUDUCED hem virion VT RINT “oe 218 Mexican -erassquit.__ SU ees ay 
Volatinia jocanint 2 eee Blue-black grassquit_____________ 1 
Zonotrichia capensis. 22) 2 Chingolo-- 22.20. eae ae 2 
REPTILES 
LORICATA 
Crocodylidae: 
Alligator mississipiensis____________ Allivatoy 2222 See eee eee een 22, 
AUG CLOT. *SINENStS et eet eee eee Chinese alligatora 22225 22 Sess 3 
Caiman latirostrigs________.____---- Broad-snouted caiman____-_______ 1 
Caiman: scierone 22 en Spectacled caiman_________ vere. 3 
CTOCOAYIUS S CCULUSa ns aaa ne ee American crocodile______________- 4 
Crocodylus cataphractus_._________ Narrow-nosed crocodile___________ el! 
Orocodylus nilotieus____ 2 a African scrocodiles=222-) 2 
Crocodylus palustriss2—..__________ “Toad? ‘crocodile se: saa) uel aaa 2 
Crocodylis porosuss 2. 2s ae ee Salt-water crocodile______________ al 
Crocodylus rhombifer______________ Cuban’ crocodiles] -eo es eee 1 
Osteolaemus tetraspis.__..______ Broad-nosed crocodile____________ 2 
SAUBIA 
Gekkonidae: 
GEKKO GeCheO en noes oe es a pees Gecko 22522 eae Cea he ee ye 2 
Iguanidae: 
Anolis carolinensis... ea False ‘“chameleon”___.__________ 20 
Basiliscus’ splei ek es eee es, Banded basilisk. 25a ee ae 4 
Ctenosaura acanthura_______-_-____ Spiny-tailed iguana. 2 
Phrynosoma cornutum___.___-____ Horned lizard2) ea eee lr 
Sceloporus undulatus______________ Pine: or fence lizard] 2.) eee 8 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 89 


SAURIA—continued 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Anguidae: 
Ophisqurus, apusiesccee eek S ek European glass snake___-_-__---__ iL 
Ophisaurus ventralis____.__-_ ------ Glass snake or legless lizard__---- 6 
Gerrhonotus coeruleus principis_____ Alligator lizard: 222224 e5 933 4a §t 2 
Helodermatidae: 
Heloderma horridum ___--_---__---~ Mexican beaded lizard____________ 2 
Heloderma suspectum ____---------- Gila monster 22s 22 ep ek ok eek 7 
Teiidae: 
Cnemidophorus sezlineatus _________ Six-lined race rumner__---________ 5 
Crocodilurus lacertinus_.____-_-_---- Crocodile lizard j22o%e. eee if: 
Tupinambis nigropunctatus_____---- Black “‘tesu: 222 hes ai ee al 
Scincidae: 
Egernia cunninghami __------------ Cunningham's) skink= _— 2-22 42-2 2 
Humeces fasciatus ~~ ---24---=—--— Blue-tailed’ skinks otk ae ee 3 
TATU SCMNCOLE CR ease a ee Blue-tongued lizard __-_-__--___-_ 2 
Varanidae: 
Varanus komodoensis __-_______---- Komodo idracons228 eee ee 1 
Varanus monitor_______.__------- Indian monitors 2ss2- eb eee 2 
Varanus: niloticus.«=s254- 2 ecw 2. Nilesmonitors22 = oo] eee tet 2 
VGMaauiis S@UvalOn ane oe ee Sumatran’ monitor essa ee 5 
OPHIDIA 
Boidae: 
BOM COORG ee en Siete py eae Cook's: tree boa. =.= 2 es 1 
CORON OOLEe =e eee UD Der Oana ee att 
Constrictor constrictor___.______-_-- Boa) COnStrictor —_ == ee 3 
Constrictor imperator_______------—_ Central America boa__-_-~------_- 2 
Potcerates cenchrisu.—__ = 23-4 2 PAIN POW WOAs2 2... o 2 eae 6 
Hiptcrates crassus 2-22 Salamanialy= a. 2c ee tee 1 
piCrates STAs Sea ee iaitian Poa ee 8 = Se eee ee 1 
Hunecies murinus __..-_--__-__----. TTA GONG ss oo re 1 
Lichanura roseofusca______-____--_-- Galifornia rosy \b0al== 222-42 2 ere al 
IPYULTONS NOUS = ee ee indian rocks python =. ae 9 
PA WON COU sae a ee ee Ball pythons 2S. ee eer 3 
Python reliculatus..- = Regal) python 22 2-2 228 ae ee 3 
Python vartegatus_ Carpet: python #23 225 eee eee 1 
Tropidophis melanurus _-_---------- Cupan- bodes. <4 ee eee ee 1 
Colubridae: 
Carphophis amoena _--_------------ Worn @uake 2227 et b! 
Coluber constrictor ~ 5-2 --= Black «snakes = 2s ae ee eee 1 
CYCIOOTUR IGN So a ee @obra de; Paraguay 2 ea il 
Diadophis punctatus___---__-------- Ring-necked snake __-~-__________ iL 
Drymarchon corais couperi__-_-_---- Indigo. snakes 22s tee. ee ee 2 
Mianphe quitata 2222-22 eee Corn snakers see eee 3 
Hlapheiobsoleta 2 IB OtHSD Ake yee =e Seen ae oss ee I 6 
Elaphe quadrivittata___.__.___-_-----_ Yellow chicken snake_____________ 1 
Heterodon contortri@ _..___-_-.---.-- Hoe-nosedisnake ser sia 4 
Lampropeltis getulus floridana ___-__ Mioridavking snakes = oer 1 
Lampropeltis getulus getulus __---__- Chain or king snakes 1 


Natrigmpiscetore 22 ae Waiter snakes og 2 ee 15 


90 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


OPHIDIA—continued 
Scientific name Common name | Number 
Colubridae—Continued. 
Natria septemvitiata __.____________ Queen or moon snake_____________ 3 
Natric Speech nei Seema een lee Water: 'snakeii+sie hi kee aries te 1 
Pituophis catenifer__.2_______-___-_ Western bull snake#cso_202 0 "25 2 
Pituophis catenifer annectans_______ San Diego gopher snake___________ 2 
Pituophis melanoleucus_____________ Bull. snake) 2. Snel eh il 
PLY G8 CO SS ee Rat snake] at See vee pet pau ee | 
Rhinocheilus lecontei_____-_-________ Long-nosed snake __-_____________ 1 
Storeria (dekayeee ae eee De. Kay's snakes. ae as 1 
Thamnophis ordinoides________-____ Western garter snake_____________ 26 
Thamnophis sirtalis__._-2=_2- Garter ‘snakes wae ee ieheain 4 
Hlapidae: 
Naja najas2 Se: SR ee Indian... cobra. Ae ee a Soe al 
Onybelis fulgidus__- -—___-_ Green tree snake___________._-_._ al! 
Crotalidae : 
Agkistrodon mokeson___________ 2. Copperhead snake.) 22s aie 4 
Agkistrodon piscivorus_____________ Water. moccasin! te Sie 1 
Crotalus adamanteus_____-__-__-___ Florida diamond-backed rattlesnake 1 
Vipera russel ie a Russell’s:“viper._— 2 se eres 1 
TESTUDINATA 
Chelydidae: 
Batrachemys nasutas 2 South American side-necked turtle. 1 
Chelodina longicollis ____________ a. Australian snake-necked turtle____ 1 
HY OSDIS (SDs se South American snake-necked 
Gurtle 2 ee eee eee ae ee 3 
Hydromedusa tectifera_____________ Snake-necked turtle_-_____-______ 16 
Platemys platycephala_____________ Flat-headed turtle___.____________ ik 
Platysternidae : 
Platysternum megacephalum_____—__ Large-headed Chinese turtle______ ik 
Pelomedusidae : 
Pelomedusa. gateata__—--—_ = Common African water tortoise___ 2 
Podocnemis expansa____-—_________~ South American river tortoise_____ 1 
Kinosternidae: 
RAN OSTCLNOT SD ee ee Central American musk turtle__.__ 1 
Kinosternon subrubrum___--__--___ Musk turtles! === se eee 4 
Chelydridae: 
Chelydra serpentina222 Snapping .turtlest 22 eee 8 
Macrochelys temminckii____________ Alligator snapping turtle__________ 1 
Testudinidae: 
Chrysemys marginata_______________ Western painted turtle___________ 5 
ORTYSCINYUS DCLG ls ase eee eee Painted turtle ee on eee 3 
Clemmysiguiigtd= 23 eee Tee Spotted turtle 2 See ee eee 6 
Clemmys imsculptds— ee Wood turtle 22222 sig satedhr wed, fitan es i$ 
Clemmys muhlenbergiit______-__-_---_- Muhlenberg’s tortoise_____________ al 
Cyclemys amboinensis______________ Our Kira Oxo Ga ble ee eee 4 
Bans 1 OLOMOANG ee ee Blanding a; tunes. eee eee 1 
Geoclemys subtrijuga______________ Siamese field turtle. == —- et i 
Graptemys barbourt.___________. Barbout!s; uric os eee 7 


Graptemys pseudogeographica______ Halse map tunes. eee ees 1 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 91 


TESTUDINATA—Ccontinued 


Scientific name Common name Number 
Testudinidae—continued. 

oso Cred West African back-hinged tortoise. 1 

Malaclemys centrata___.___..___-___. Diamond-back turtle-__.__-_-__---_ 24 

Pseudemys concinna.__.-.-_~_~_=_ 07710) 12) eee nL UL a ae eet So 

Pseudemys elegans... Cumberland terrapin_____-~__-~-- 2 

Pseudemys ornata__ 3 es Central American water turtle-___ 1 

PREUGENYS TUGOSA—.- Cuban) terrapin’ 22a eee it 

Terrapene’ carolina... 2 et SO LUT Cs ae ee eee 50 

REMVANENe MMGiOT be Lee ee ee Mlorida) boxsturtles ss ase ae 4 

TCVINUDONG Opto Mexican box tuttles22.- === === = 2 

TESHUAO! CRULENSTSE = 24s ea Chilean land ‘tortoise-_-_ = = al 

Testudovdentieulataan = 8 ee South American land tortoise__-__ 2 

TESTU’ CLEQ ONS oo et NS eee 8 Star \lortois@s 2222 28 ees ee 2 

Testudo ephippium_________________ Duncan Island tortoise___-_______ 1 

Nestudo; NOOCENStse oa Hood Island tortoise_____________ 3 

PCSULAG tOTMACTIs ee Soft-shelled land tortoise_______- ne ey 

ESTUO! VACUNE cee Uae Es ee Albemarle Island tortoise________- 3 
Trionychidae: 

PANG OME OT OD oe hoa arte ee Se ee Ly Soft-shelled turtle__..________--___ 6 

Amyda irvunguis 223 ee West African soft-shelled turtle... 1 

AMPHIBIA 
CAUDATA 

Salamandridae: 

Triturus pyrrhogaster_____ Redisalamanders <4 2-2 eee 3 

TTUTUS COVORUS. ee eee Giantonewte. 2 2 eee 16 

Triturus viridescens________-_______ Gommon newt. — == 2522s 4 
Amphiumidae: 

AMDIUME MEONS =n 2 ee Blind eel or Congo snake_____-__~- il 
Cryptobranchidae: 

Cryptobranchus alleganiensis________ Helibenders22 2252. eee + 
Necturidae: 

NeCiurus maculosus oo 2-2 ee MUG puppy = eee al 

SALIENTIA 

Dendrobatidae: 

Dendrobates auratus____-___---___- Arrow-poison frog -- 2. se 3 
Bufonidae: 

BATON OMETIGUINUS ee Se Common: stad Se eee ee 25 

BUT O CMDUSUS ames Se ee Sapo'de|conchas=- == sa 8 

IBUTO! MONINWS =e ee ee Marine toad 22 Sao eae a 6 

Bufo, peltocephalisn oe Cuban, clantiteadees ee eee 3 
Ceratophrydae: 

Oeratophrys ornata___———_ EIOuReCO Troe se eee ee 5 
Hylidae: 

BAICTAS TLS oe kee CTCKCES RO pee te ee ete Cael 20 

PRUE NOUN GON aes eek pre Cia ere Lie 3 
Pipidae: 


PiptmMamernicangd.-=— 2". 5 ee ee Surinam \toade swe see Se ee 3 


a 


92 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
SALIENTIA—Ccontinued 
Scientific name Common name Number 
Ranidae: 
Rana catesbeiana___-__-____ Bullfrog 2 i ee ves 3 
wand clamitams see sie een hie) Green frog:: Weta aliens 3 
Rana, occipitalis 2 ee West ;African ‘bullfrogsss siete 1 
Rana pipiens s2 Sele Pin einai? Leopard) frogia:<. Seat) wien ban 5 
Rang sylvatica ls: ee hs BS Wood. frog... pha wi ean 3 
FISHES 
Acanthophthalmus kuhli_________---_~ Banded: WAC ties tte ee eae meee 1 
Aequidens portalegrensis _____-_______ Bluewacara a2 sear ees ae eer 1 
Aphysemion austrate lo = yre-tavled nish ee se ee ee 24 
Astronotus ocellatus. =. Pe a hy SAT Ste A lt 8 wn ue g ee mI 
Bar ousreverct ty aoe oa re eee ne Clown’ barbstirt Sone eee 8 
IBOTDUS OUQOLED UR. - ENN Le ee eee | eer eee ee eee en ee ee eee 3 
OL OUST SUGEEST eee ee ee 2 
Calamarichthys malabaricus __-_______ West African vancidlt2 22 aes 6 
Cichlasoma festivum _-_---____--____- Banded’ ncata* tio (entt eya 10 
Corydoras melanistius________________ ATMOTEO Cal CHS biel ee a eee een 1 
COryaor as 40 een ene Rabaut > cathshe= 222 ae 1 
COPY DOTS Sy 2 ere a Ta ty nee Be Cathishietaite ees ewer eee 2 
Epalzeorhynchus talopterus___________ Black-fin ssharkss 222. ler le ene a 
Gymnocorymbus ternetzi_______-_______ Black tetra ssa eee en 4 
ELCMAUGTAINIMUS Sposa eee eee Tetra Buenos Aires_______________ 6 
Hyphessobrycon immest_. se Neon tetra dish @eet2 2) aa 8 
Kryptopterus bicirrhus___-_____-.__.___ Glass (eatiishs 2 5 See 3 
WOOSTER TCLICIL LOTUS a ee ee Guppys22 oe ee eee ee 100 
Lepidosiren paradowva_________.__-__-____ South American lungfish _________ 3 
MOQCTODOQIES (Spee a ee ere pe Paradise  fishyss2 = 2) a 20 
Mothenisia sphenops _.__-_-- Sallfin’ molly. 2-3 oe eee 10 
Nannostomus margmatis oo 2 2a OP ee Se a eee A Wa 
Na@amnostonitsytrtnea tise - 2 ee Sake ee ee ae 2, 
Play DOCClUS Smee ene nett seers eee Red Pm OO Niet 5a eee re eee ee 50 
Platypoecilus maculatus_____-._-__-__-___ Black wag-tail moon __~__________ 30 
Platypoecilus maculatus __.___________ Goldplaties == See se = Ser tee Se ee 12 
PLCCORLO MU SIS Sas Sess See yee eee Armoredscatish===2eree seers 1 
Pristellacrid dlepecins he a he a ee eee ee ee ee 1 
Protopterus annectens_____________-~- African: lunghshs = =e 2 
Pterophyllum scalare____--__- AT OEE Shine ee 1 rea ee eee 2 
Puntius partipentazona______________- Red=finnedsbarbie=--2 = eee 8 
HaSbOl a NEteramor phan are eG, . See ee ee ee eee 2 
Serrasalmus ternetzi —.__-_-_- - 5 Piranha or cannibal fish_ _________ 1 
Tanichthys altonubes __-~_—__ White Cloud Mountain fish________ 30 
PALO See ee ies ie a a es Mouth-breeding fish______________ 2 
Triechogaster lectus]. Ss ee _. Three-spot gourami_________ pA ASL 2 


Rediswordtailes-. eevee 2 soe es 6 
TuxedouSwordtail 2s oe Oe 12 


Sword taller aaah ee ae 15 
Xiphophorus hellerit___..______-____-__ 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 93 


ARACHNIDS 
Scientific name Common name Number 
HUY CUNGESD=) ea ee PAT ATC gi ee ee eel Sete ee 2 
Latrodectus mactans___.-_____-___—__ Black widow spider_____-____----- 3 
INSECTS 
BLCOCEO SP ne ed Ct ea Giant cockroaches tas ees See 100 


Respectfully submitted. 
W. M. Mann, Director. 
THE SECRETARY, 
Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 8 
REPORT ON THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activi- 
ties of the Astrophysical Observatory, including the Division of As- 
trophysical Research and the Division of Radiation and Organisms, 
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944: 


DIVISION OF ASTROPHYSICAL RESEARCH 


No male assistants could be retained at the three solar-constant ob- 
serving stations, Montezuma, Chile, Table Mountain, Calif., and Ty- 
rone, N. Mex., on account of war conditions. In this situation the 
wives of the three field directors, Greeley, Warner, and Moore, have 
stepped into the breach and are assisting with observing and comput- 
ing. It has therefore been possible to keep the three stations in opera- 
tion in this exceptionally interesting period. 

As pointed out in last year’s report, the predicted march of solar 
variation through 1945 indicates a large depression of solar radiation 
beginning in October 1944, comparable to that which occurred 23 
years earlier, beginning in 1921. Figure 1 shows that the observations 
made at Montezuma observatory up to the middle of the year 1943 
support thus far the trend of the prediction published in figure 14 of 
volume 6 of the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory. It is there- 
fore confidently expected that the depression of the solar constant 
will begin with October 1944. It is not yet possible to forecast what 
exact effects this depression (similar to that of 23 years ago) may 
produce in weather, but as stated in an article a generation ago by 
Abbot,’ unusual weather conditions may be anticipated. 

Most of the time of Mr. Hoover, Mrs. Bond, and Miss Simpson at 
Washington, and part of that of Mr. Aldrich has been occupied with 
the reduction and determining of the statistical corrections for the 
solar-constant work of the three observing stations since 1939. Ad- 
ditional types of observing, namely, polarization of the sky, and energy 
spectrum observations limited to the ultraviolet region, have accumula- 
ted in these recent years. Their bearing on the determination of the 
solar variation is of great interest. 

Mr. Aldrich has been largely occupied with special secret war 
problems, and part of Dr. Abbot’s time has been thus spent also. 


1 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 9, No. 6, pp. 194-198, June 1923. 
94 


95 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 


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JUS PAE tes eee eee eee eee 
2 SAB B SS he BSe se Se aaeh eee 


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€v6/ oee/ OF6/ 


win /w2 smowo. " enntSNOO vv70s 


96 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


A major part of Dr. Abbot’s work has consisted in the study of 
solar-constant variation and associated solar changes in connection 
with the weather. A paper entitled “Weather Predetermined by Solar 
Variation” has resulted, and appeared just at the close of the fiscal 
year. In the course of these studies it was found that variations of 
the areas of clouds of calcium vapor (calcium flocculi) as photographed 
at the Spanish Observatory of Ebro since 1910 were associated in the 
same way as solar-constant changes in predetermining the weather. 
This led to an attempt to weaken the light of the sun’s disk by excessive 
spectral dispersion so far as to make visible variations of the bright 
lines of hydrogen or helium in the chromosphere. Doubtful evidences 
of such chromospheric lines were indeed recorded, but though the 
dispersion of the third order of a grating of 15,000 lines to the inch, a 
battery of prisms, and a path of 55 meters of travel of the spectrum 
rays were employed, the photospheric spectrum was still too bright 
to disclose plainly the chromospheric lines or their variation. 


’ 


DIVISION OF RADIATION AND ORGANISMS 


As in the preceding year the work of this Division was mainly 
concerned with secret problems relating to the war. However, a 
paper entitled “The Influence of Light and of Carbon Dioxide on the 
Respiration of Etiolated Barley Seedlings” was prepared and 
published by Drs. Weintraub and Johnston. 

Respectfully submitted. 

C. G. Axzor, 
Director. 
Tue SECRETARY, 
Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 9 
REPORT ON THE LIBRARY 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the ac- 
tivities of the Smithsonian library for the fiscal year ended June 30, 
1944: 

From the point of view of use, the year has been an outstanding 
one. Never before in the history of the world have books played so 
significant a part in the successful waging of war. As the war goes 
on, the potential importance of all recorded items of human know]- 
edge through integration with others becomes increasingly evident, 
and often is strikingly demonstrated. It seems a far cry from the 
bookstacks of a scientific library to the battlefields of Africa or the 
South Pacific, but this is a scientific war, and many lives have been 
saved by the exactly right bit of information about an insect, a plant, 
an animal, the shore line of a far-away island, or other natural 
features of strange lands found in little-known journals and docu- 
ments on library shelves. 

In the Smithsonian library examples of the conversion to wartime 
uses of the published results of peacetime scientific investigations and 
explorations might be multiplied almost indefinitely, for the library 
has been increasingly used by the war agencies and by individuals in 
the armed forces. In the Museum library alone, where a count of 
reference questions coming from these sources was kept, there were 
520 requests for information, many of which required a very consider- 
able amount of research to answer. The library of the Bureau of 
American Ethnology was frequently called upon, and the resources 
of the Astrophysical Observatory library were often in demand, es- 
pecially through the loan of scientific journals to other libraries. The 
staff of the Ethnogeographic Board constantly searched all the branch 
libraries for material useful to its various projects in aid of the war 
agencies. 

War use also accounts for the rise in the number of interlibrary 
loans from 687 in 1948 to 1,363 during the year just past. 

The library’s large collection of duplicates, too, has been drawn 
upon by other departments of the Government, and many publications 
no longer needed have been sent to fill gaps in sets in the older de- 
partmental libraries or to help build up special collections in the more 


recently established war agencies.. 
97 


98 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Through the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian library is co- 
operating with the American Library Association in its program of 
collecting material for aid to libraries in war areas, and has already 
contributed 20,806 parts of periodicals from its stock of duplicates. 
The ultimate destination of some of the longer runs of journals is 
known. 

The library has continued to be the collection center for books for 
service men and women, and by the kindness of members and friends 
of the Institution, has been able to send about 300 well-selected con- 
temporary books, mostly novels, to the United Nations Service 
Center, and to the Public Library for distribution. 

Whether in war or peace, the continuing purpose of the Smithson- 
ian library with its branches is primarily to serve as a tool in the 
scientific work of the Institution. The guiding principle of its 


growth is not to make it a museum of fine books, but an active working 


reference collection. Its main function is to put into the hands of 
the scientific investigator the publication containing the information 
he needs, as nearly as possible at the moment he needs it. All the 
detailed and sometimes complicated processes of book selection, ac- 
quisition by purchase and exchange, classification, cataloging and ar- 
rangement, as well as the functioning of its reference and loan services 
are planned and carried on with this ultimate objective in mind. 

Many of these processes are measurable statistically, and the num- 
ber of books purchased, received by exchange and gift, cataloged, 
circulated, and so on, can be given, like the production figures of auto- 
mobile parts. Such figures are useful indicators of material added 
and work done, but beyond this, the comparison with industrial out- 
put breaks down, for these library production figures cannot be finally 
reduced to a countable entity like a finished automobile. On the con- 
trary, the most important end-products of the library’s functioning are 
diffused and intangible. They become an integral part of the scien- 
tific accomplishment of the Institution itself, for they go into all its 
investigations in the laboratory and the field, into the identification, 
description, and exhibition of artifacts and specimens, into the books 
and papers published to advance the boundaries of scientific knowl- 
edge. The final test of successful library accomplishment is use. 
The mere numbers of books acquired and cataloged mean little unless 
the books have been discriminatingly selected for the purposes they 
must serve, and well and fully cataloged so that the information they 
contain can be easily found. 


ACCESSIONS 


Since the first abrupt drop in the receipt of publications from abroad 
after war was declared, there has been a continuous small gradual 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 99 


decline in the numbers received. In 1942 there were 425 packages 
delivered through the International Exchange Service, in 1943 there 
were 355, and during the year just past, 340. From England, the 
South American countries, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa 
the receipt of publications by mail, while somewhat fewer than before, 
was steady and continuous. From other allied and neutral countries 
mail arrived less regularly. It was especially gratifying to receive 
several exchange sendings of considerable numbers of current publica- 
tions from the Akademiia Nauk of the U. S. S. R. and its branches. 
Losses of material actually shipped were extremely few. 

The publication of domestic scientific serials declined very little. 

The reorganized accessions division functioned smoothly in handling 
both exchanges and purchases. The total number of volumes pur- 
chased was 1,448, and subscriptions for 240 different periodicals were 
entered. 

A few of the most important purchases were: 

For the Bureau of American Ethnology, William Coxe’s “Account 
of the Russian Discoveries between Asia and America,” 1780; “La 
Pérouse’s Voyage round the World Performed in the Years 1785, 1786, 
1787, and 1788 by the Boussole and Astrolabe,” 2 volumes and atlas, 
1798; ‘and the accompanying “Voyage in Search of La Pérouse... 
during the Years 1791, 1792, 1793,” by J. J. Labillardiére, 1800. 

For the National Collection of Fine Arts, J. J. Foster’s “Miniature 
Painters, British and Foreign, with Some Account of Those Who 
Practiced in America in the Eighteenth Century,” 2 volumes, 1903; 
F. Norfleet’s “Saint-Mémin in Virginia, Portraits and Biographies,” 
illustrated with 56 crayon portraits and 142 engravings by Saint 
Mémin, 1942; T. H. Ward’s “Romney, a Biographical and Critical 
Kssay, with a Catalogue Raisonné of His Works,” 2 volumes, 1904. 

For the National Museum, J. B. Jackson’s “An Essay on the Inven- 
tion of Engraving and Printing in Chiaroscuro as Practiced by Albert 
Diirer, Hugo di Carpi, & .. .” 1754; “Bibliografiia Russkii Pe- 
riodicheskoi Pechati,” 1703-1900, by N. M. Lisovskii, 1915; the third 
edition of Mare Rosenberg’s “Der Goldschmiede Merkzeichen,” 4 vol- 
umes, 1922-1928; Prince Nobusuke Takatsukasa’s “The Birds of Nip- 
pon,” parts 1-7, 1932-1939; “The Aztec and Maya Papermakers,” by 
V. W. Von Hagen, 1943. 


GIFTS 


No large gifts of special collections were received, but members and 
friends of the Institution, as always, were generous in making con- 
tributions of important books and papers. Donors were: Dr. C. G. 
Abbot, R. S. Adamson, the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, the American Association of Museums, the American 


s 
100 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Council of Learned Societies, Glenn D. Angle, Miss A. Margareta 
Archambault, Miss Mary Dorsey Ashton, the August E. Miller Labor- 
atories, Silvan F. Baldin, the Balfour Library, Dr. R. S. Bassler, 
Alexander Bierig, Miss Edna Billings, Mrs. Carl W. Bishop, Bitumi- 
nous Coal Research, Inc., Col. Lawrence B. Bixby, H. H. Bloomer, 
Dr. Gregoria Bondar, the Book Farm, Hattiesburg, Miss., Fernando 
Bourquin, Dr. Adam Béving, Dr. E. Lucy Braun, Manuel Quirés 
Calvo, the Canadian National Railway System, Senator José Manuel 
Casanova, Dr. Edward A. Chapin, Austin H. Clark, J. M. Cotelo Nieva, 
Mariano Cuevas, William F. Davidson, H. G. Deignan, The Honor- 
able Frederic A. Delano, Dr. Cecil H. Desch, Dr. Horace R. Descole, 
The Detroit News, Dr. Harold Edward Dickson, H. N. Dixon, Lauren 
R. Donaldson, Dr. C. J. Drake, the Engine Service and Mfg. Co., 
William Bacon Evans, Dr. William N. Fenton, Dr. Clarence E. Ferree, 
George E. Folk, Dr. Herbert Friedmann, Per K. Frolich, Dr. Samuel 
Wood Geiser, Haydn Thomas Giles, Ivon M. Glenne, William B. 
Goodwin, Jayme Fernandes Guedes, Dr. David R. Iriarte, Auguste 
and Edesio Irmao, Bernard Jaffe, Jewish War Veterans of the U.S., 
O. A. Jones, N. G. Kaye, Leon Kelso, Edwin Kirk, Laurence M. 
Klauber, Capt. A. M. Klum, A. J. Kupzow, Lankenau Hospital Re- 
search Institute, Gabriel Lasker, Mrs. M. P. LeRoy, H. L. Ludowyk, 
Miss Margaret C. McCulloch, the Manchester University Press, 
Ernesto Marcus, Eveline duBois-Reymond Marcus, Dr. Carlos A. 
Marelli, C. E. Marshall, Dr. William R. Maxon, Dr. Riley D. Moore, 
Pére Léo-G. Morin, W. C. Muenscher, Miss Helen Munroe, Joaquim 
Nabuco, the National Research Council, the New York Trust Co., 
F. J. North, Dr. T. L. Northup, Thornton Oakley, Paul H. Oehser, 
Dr. A. J. Olmsted, Dr. Victor Oppenheim, Dr. Charles Owens, Parke, 
Davis & Company, The Pennsylvania Railroad, the Pepperell Manu- 
facturing Co., José Perez de Barradas, William H. Phelps, the Phila- 
delphia Child Health Society, Dr. H. Pittier, Adrien Questel, Charles 
D. Radford, Dr. Frank Raw, Milton Ray, Sr. Dr. Don Adrian 
Recinos, C. F. Richter, R. Ringuelet, Alpheus J. Roberts, B. Sahni, 
F. Schmid, Dr. Waldo Schmitt, J. F. Schofield, T. J. J. See, Thorvald 
Solberg, J. M. Stanley, H. Stehlé, Carlos Stellfeld, John R. Theaman, 
Dr. J. F. Torrealba, Dr. C. H. T. Townsend, the Union Diesel Engine 
Co., the U. S. Rocket Society, Inc., Maunsell Van Rensselaer, Dr. 
Egbert H. Walker, Mrs. Fiske Warren, Dr. Alexander Wetmore, Mrs. 
Eleanor White, W. Whittard, the Willard R. Jillson Library, the 
William Mitchell Printing Co., Sgt. Henry J. Young. 


CATALOGING 


The cataloging of current material was well kept up. Some changes 
in procedure and in work distribution were effective in shortening the 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 101 


interval between the receipt of new publications and the completion of 
their preparation for use in the various libraries. 

By way of a beginning in taking accurate stock of the large amount 
of uncataloged material in the library, three small collections of 
books on miscellaneous subjects, received some years ago as gifts, and 
numbering 2,906 volumes in all, were roughly classified and listed on 
cards, 


PERSONNEL 


There were a number of changes on the staff. Miss Josephine A. 
McDevitt retired on November 80, 1948, after many years spent in the 
service of the Institution, chiefly in the office of the International Cata- 
logue of Scientific Literature, but after its discontinuance, in the 
library. Miss Elizabeth Harriet Link, the librarian’s secretary, was 
transferred to the Freer Gallery of Art on October 9, 1943, and Mrs. 
Margaret K. Young was appointed to succeed her on November 16. On 
September 1, 1943, Mrs. Margaret L. O’Keef was appointed library as- 
sistant in the cataloging division. Mrs. Daisy F. Bishop resigned her 
position as library assistant on January 25, 1944, and Mrs. Marie H. 
Boborykine succeeded to her duties at the periodical entry desk on 
March 14. 

Temporary appointees were Miss Ruth Newcomb, who served as 
library assistant in the Museum from August 24 to September 6, 1943, 
and Mrs. Carmen G. Randall who succeeded her on September 30. 

There were upward reclassifications of the positions of Miss Miriam 
B. Ketchum, librarian in charge of the Bureau of American Ethnology 
library, of Mrs. Mary A. Baer, librarian in charge of the Arts and In- 
dustries branch of the Museum library, of Miss Marie Ruth Wenger, 
in charge of cataloging in the Museum, and of Samuel Jones, 
messenger. 


STATISTICS 
Accessions 
Total hold- 
Volumes | ings June 
30, 1944 

Astrophysical Observatory (including Radiation and Organisms) ---------------- 214 11, 508 
Baresidiom Ame nicnnnMthnology se sase se tese nee ee ee een wae eee eee 190 34, 001 
recom alleny, Ol A Tiree eta sete Lene ened oleae ee ieee Bree es 105 16, 636 
ihAneleveAeronatiticalitaiprarg: 2-22. U2) Sees Bs oe Sesh see ese 5. 18 3,610 
Matinee ollechion( On WiINGTATUS =. 200k sete che aneenn Seance see aso encase Ss 651 9, 748 
National Museum __-------- SOS Be eae corn Sa ee oe ee a ee 3, 726 230, 693 
National: Zoolagical Park. 07 220 bso o2ce ee ae ae ee a ee 44 4, 087 
Sricusouiany DepOsit osteo et ot ee Dee eee Te es eae oe 812 571, 840 
SIMiGhsonian OCG. se ee ee eS anal aku ue eee eres 211 31, 493 
TRCN Ca cep ee ee ee 2 as 2 ee a SU ee oe eee ae 5, 971 1913, 616 


1 Neither incomplete volumes of periodicals nor separates and reprints from periodicals are included in 
these figures. 


: 


102 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Exchanges 
New. exchanges: arranged] stir sei ia er eat 194 
44 of these were assigned to the Smithsonian Deposit. 

SNVANES?s TCCOIVOGE | oS etek ee ee eR ee ee 4, 422 
656 of these were obtained to fill gaps in the Smithsonian Deposit sets. 
Cataloging 
Volumes and: pamphilets:cataloged= 223 2s Be eee eee 6, 673 
Cards filed inteatalogs and) shelflists: -222)2 33 ee ee 41, 929 
Periodicals 
Periodical: parts; entered 22 £<.- 222i = 2 ee ee 2 2 ee el ee eee 11, 480 

3,181 of these were sent to the Smithsonian Deposit. 
Circulation 
Loans of books and periodicals____-_-___-______ 2s oe Ds ERE EES 11, 360 


This figure does not include the very considerable intramural cir- 
culation of books and periodicals assigned to sectional libraries for 
filing, of which no count is kept. 


Binding 
Volumes sent; to: the bindery 2.222 oF ae ee 1, 683 
Respectfully submitted. 
Leia F. Cuarx, Librarian. 
THE SECRETARY, 
Smithsonian Institution. 


APPENDIX 10 
REPORT ON PUBLICATIONS 


Sm: I have the honor to submit the following report on the pub- 
lications of the Smithsonian Institution and the Government branches 
under its administrative charge during the year ended June 30, 1944. 

The Institution published during the year 4 papers in the Smith- 
sonian Miscellaneous Collections; 7 papers in the War Background 
Studies series; 1 Annual Report of the Board of Regents and pam- 
phlet copies of 20 articles in the Report appendix; 1 Annual Report 
of the Secretary; 2 special publications; reprints of 2 papers in the 
Miscellaneous Collections and 1 special publication, and additional 
copies of 1 volume of tables. 

The United States National Museum issued 1 Annual Report; 14 
Proceedings papers; 4 Bulletins; 1 separate paper in the Bulletin 
series of Contributions from the United States National Herbarium. 

The Bureau of American Ethnology issued 1 Annual Report and 
6 Bulletins. 

The Freer Gallery of Art issued 1 pamphlet. 

Of the publications there were distributed 172,027 copies, which 
included 54 volumes and separates of Smithsonian Contributions to 
Knowledge, 12,966 volumes and separates of Smithsonian Miscel- 
laneous Collections, 21,416 volumes and separates of Smithsonian 
Annual Reports, 75,749 War Background Studies papers, 4,911 Smith- 
sonian special publications, 23 reports on the Harriman Alaska Expe- 
dition, 40,817 volumes and separates of National Museum publications, 
14,903 publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 9 catalogs 
of the National Collection of Fine Arts, 2 pamphlets of the Freer 
Gallery of Art, 23 Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory, and 
1,124 reports of the American Historical Association. 


SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 


Four papers in this series were issued, as follows: 


VOLUME 104 


No. 1. The feeding apparatus of biting and disease-carrying flies: A wartime 
contribution to medical entomology, by R. E. Snodgrass. 51 pp., 18 figs. (Publ. 
3732.) July 19, 1943. 


103 
619830—45——_8 


104. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


No. 2. Cross sections of New World prehistory: A brief report on the work 
of the Institute of Andean Research, 1941-1942, by William Duncan Strong. 46 

pp., 33 pls., 1 fig. (Publ. 3739.) December 21, 1943. 

No. 8. A 27-day period in Washington precipitation, by C. G. Abbot. 4 pp., 1 
fig. (Publ. 3765.) February 3, 1944. 

No. 4. The influence of light and of carbon dioxide on the respiration of 
etiolated barley seedlings, by Robert L. Weintraub and Earl 8. Johnston. 16 pp., 
2 pls., 8 figs. (Publ. 3769.) June 28, 1944. 


The following Miscellaneous Collections papers were reprinted: 


VOLUME 86 


Smithsonian Meteorological Tables. Fifth Revised Edition. First Reprint 
(additional copies printed without change). Ixxxvi+282 pp. (Publ. 3116.) 


VOLUME 95 


No. 5. Molluscan intermediate hosts of the Asiatic blood fluke, Schistosoma 
japonicum, and species confused with them, by Paul Bartsch. 60 pp., 8 pls. 
(With description of 2 new species, 5 pp., 2 figs.) (Publ. 3384.) 


VOLUME 104 


No. 1. The feeding apparatus of biting and disease-carrying flies: A wartime 
contribution to medical entomology, by R. E. Snodgrass. 51 pp., 18 figs. (Publ. 
37382.) 


WAR BACKGROUND STUDIES 


In this new series of Smithsonian publications, there were issued 
during the year the following 7 papers: 


No. 18. Alaska: America’s continental frontier outpost, by Ernest P. Walker. 
21 pp., 21 pls., 2 figs. (Publ. 3733.) July 8, 1943. 

No. 14. Islands and peoples of the Indies, by Raymond Kennedy. 66 pp., 21 
pls., 7 figs. (Publ. 3734.) August 5, 1948. 

No. 15. Iceland and Greenland, by Austin H. Clark. 103 pp., 21 pls., 2 figs. 
(Publ. 3735.) August 19, 1948. 

No. 16. Island peoples of the western Pacific: Micronesia and Melanesia, by 
Herbert W. Krieger. 104 pp., 21 pls., 2 figs. (Publ. 3737.) September 15, 1943. 

No. 17. Burma—Gateway to China, by H. G. Deignan. 21 pp., 16 pls., 1 fig. 
(Publ. 3738.) October 29, 1943. 

No. 18. Peoples of India, by William H. Gilbert. 86 pp., 21 pls., 3 figs. (Publ. 
38767.) April 29, 1944. 

No. 19. The peoples of French Indochina, by Olov R. T. Janse. 28 pp., 25 pls., 
1 fig. (Publ. 3768.) June 12, 1944. 


War Background Studies No. 20, “China,” by Archibald C. Wenley 
and John A. Pope, was in press at the close of the fiscal year. 


SMITHSONIAN ANNUAL REPORTS 


Report for 1942.—The complete volume of the Annual Report of the 
Board of Regents for 1942 was received from the Public Printer on 
September 24, 1943. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 105 


Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution showing 
the operations, expenditures, and condition of the Institution for the year ended 
June 30, 1942. xiii+421 pp., 83 pls., 44 figs. (Publ. 3705.) 1948. 


The general appendix contained the following papers (Publs. 3706- 
3725): 7 


The 1914 tests of the Langley “aerodrome,” by C. G. Abbot. 

The problem of the expanding universe, by Edwin Hubble. 

Galaxies, by Harlow Shapley. 

Is there life on the other worlds? by Sir James Jeans. 

Solar radiation and the state of the atmosphere, by Harlan True Stetson. 

The sun and the earth’s magnetic field, by J. A. Fleming. 

Ultraviolet light as a sanitary aid, by Louis Gershenfeld. 

Trends in petroleum geology, by A. I. Levorsen. 

Meteorites and their metallic constituents, by H. P. Henderson and Stuart 
H. Perry. 

Philippine tektites and the tektite problem in general, by H. Otley Beyer. 

Chemical properties of viruses, by W. M. Stanley. 

Industrial development of synthetic vitamins, by Randolph T. Major. 

The nutritional requirements of man, by C. A. Elvehjem. 

Past and present status of the marine mammals of South America and 
the West Indies, by Remington Kellogg. 

The return of the musk ox, by Stanley P. Young. 

Inseet enemies of our cereal crops, by C. M. Packard. 

The geographical aspects of malaria, by Sir Malcolm Watson. 

The bromeliads of Brazil, by Milford B. Foster. 

Canada’s Indian problems, by Diamond Jenness. 

Dakar and the other Cape Verde settlements, by Derwent Whittlesey. 


Report for 1943.—The Report of the Secretary, which included the 
financial report of the executive committee of the Board of Regents, 
and which will form part of the Annual Report of the Board of 
Regents to Congress, was issued Decen ber 21, 19438. 

Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and financial report of 
the executive committee of the Board of Regents for the year ended June 30, 
1943. ix+95 pp.,2 pls. (Publ. 3740.) 1948. 

The Report volume, containing the general appendix, was in press 
at the close of the year. 


SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS 


Classified list of Smithsonian publications available for distribution October 
1, 1943, by Helen Munroe. 47 pp. (Publ. 3736.) October 1, 1943. 

A field collector’s manual in natural history, by members of the staff of the 
Smithsonian Institution. 118 pp., 66 figs. (Publ. 3766.) April 26, 1944. 


The following special publication was reprinted: 


Handbook of the National Aircraft Collection, by Paul E. Garber. Fifth 
Edition. 43 pp., 26 pls., 1 fig. (Publ. 3635.) 


106 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 


The editorial work of the National Museum has continued during the 
year under the immediate direction of the editor, Paul H. Oehser. 
There were issued 1 Annual Report, 14 Proceedings papers, 4 Bulletins, 
and 1 separate paper in the Bulletin series of Contributions from the 
United States National Herbarium, as follows: 


MUSEUM REPORT 


Report on the progress and condition of the United States National Museum 
for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1943. iii+108 pp. January 1944. 


PROCEEDINGS: VOLUME 91 


Title page, table of contents, and index. Pp. i-viii, 521-529. October 26, 
1943. 


VOLUME 92 


Title page, table of contents, and index. Pp. i—viii, 621-668. November 29, 
1943. 


VOLUME 93 


No. 3167. New species of buprestid beetles of the genus Agrilus from Trin- 
idad, by W. S. Fisher. Pp. 375-880. July 26, 1943. 

No. 3168. Some fungus beetles of the family Endomychidae in the United 
States National Museum, mostly from Latin America and the Philippine Islands, 
by H. F. Strohecker. Pp. 381-392, fig. 12. August 5, 1943. 

No. 3169. Summary of the collections of snakes and crocodilians made in 
Mexico under the Walter Rathbone Bacon traveling scholarship, by Hobart M. 
Smith. Pp. 393-504, figs. 138-15, pl. 32. October 29, 1943. 

No. 3170. The North American parasitic wasps of the genus Tetrastichus—A 
contribution to biological control «f insect pests, by B. D. Burks. Pp. 505-608, 
figs. 16-21. October 26, 1948. 

Title page, table of contents, and index. Pp. i—viii, 609-647. April 18, 1944. 


VOLUME 94 


No. 3171. Catalog of human crania in the United States National Museum 
collections: Non-Eskimo people of the Northwest coast, Alaska, and Siberia, by 
AleS Hrdlitka. Pp. 1-172. April 6, 1944. 

No. 3172. The catfishes of Venezuela, with descriptions of thirty-eight new 
forms, by Leonard P. Schultz. Pp. 173-838, figs. 1-5, pls. 1-14. February 11, 
1944. 

No. 3173. Revisions of two genera of chalcid-flies belonging to the family 
Eupelmidae from North and South America, by A. B. Gahan. Pp. 339-369. 
November 26, 1943. 

No. 3174. New speties of American scolytoid beetles, mostly Neotropical, by 
M. W. Blackman. Pp. 371-399, pls. 15-17. November 22, 1943. 

No. 3175. A revision of the Embioptera, or web-spinners, of the New World, 
by Edward S. Ross. Pp. 401-504, figs. 6-156, pls. 18-19. January 19, 1944. 

No. 3176. Twelve new species of Chinese leaf-katydids of the genus 
Aiphidiopsis, by Ernest R. Tinkham. Pp. 505-527, fig. 157. April 29, 1944. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 107 


VOLUME 95 


No. 3178. New American cynipids from galls, by Lewis H. Weld. Pp. 1-24, 
pls. 1-2. April 15, 1944. 


BULLETINS 


No. 183. Archeological investigations in Platte and Clay Counties, Missouri, 
by Waldo R. Wedel. With appendix, Skeletal remains from Platte and Clay 
Counties, Missouri, by T. Dale Stewart. viii+284 pp., 22 figs., 50 pls. October 
1, 1943. 

No. 184. The metallography of meteoric iron, by Stuart H. Perry. viii+206 
pp., 9 figs., 78 pls. February 15, 1944. ‘ 

No. 185, part 1. Checklist of the coleopterous insects of Mexico, Central Amer- 
ica, the West Indies, and South America, compiled by Richard E. Blackwelder. 
xii+188 pp. March 7, 1944. } 

No. 185, part 2. Checklist of the coleopterous insects of Mexico, Central 
America, the West Indies, and South America, compiled by Richard E. Black- 
welder. Pp. 189-341. June 30, 1944. 


CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL HERBARIUM 
VOLUME 29 


Part 1. Taxonomic studies of tropical American plants, by C. V. Morton. Pp. 
i-xi, 1-86. March 23, 1944. 


PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 


The editorial work of the Bureau has continued under the immedi- 
ate direction of the editor, M. Helen Palmer. During the year there 
were issued 1 Annual Report and 6 Bulletins, as follows: 


REPORT 


Sixtieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
1942-1943. 9 pp. January 1944. 


BULLETINS 


133. Anthropological papers, numbers 19-26. ix+615 pp., 34 pls., 62 figs. 
1943. 

No. 19. A search for songs among the Chitimacha Indians in Louisiana, 
by Frances Densmore. 

No. 20. Archeological survey on the northern Northwest coast, by Philip 
Drucker; with appendix, Early vertebrate fauna of the British Columbia 
coast, by Edna M. Fisher. 

No. 21. Some notes on a few sites in Beaufort County, South Carolina, by 
Regina Flannery. 

No. 22. An analysis and interpretation of the ceramic remains from two 
sites near Beaufort, South Carolina, by James R. Griffin. 

No. 23. The eastern Cherokees, by William Harlen Gilbert, Jr. 

No. 24. Aconite poison whaling in Asia and America: An Aleutian trans- 
fer to the New World, by Robert F. Heizer. 

No. 25. The Carrier Indians of the Bulkley River: Their social and 
religious life, by Diamond Jenness. 

No. 26. The quipu and Peruvian civilization, by John R. Swanton. 


108 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


136. Anthropological papers, numbers 27-32. viii+375 pp., 32 pls., 5 figs. 
1943. 
No. 27. Music of the Indians of British Columbia, by Frances Densmore. 
No. 28. Choctaw music, by Frances Densmore. 
No. 29. Some ethnological data concerning one hundred Yucatan plants, 
by Morris Steggerda. 
No. 30. A description of thirty towns in Yucatan, Mexico, by Morris 
Steggerda. 
No. 31. Some western Shoshoni myths, by Julian H. Steward. 
No. 32. New material from Acoma, by Leslie A. White. 


138. Stone monuments of southern Mexico, by Matthew W. Stirling. vii+84 
pp., 62 pls., 14 figs. 1948. 

139. An introduction to the ceramics of Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico, by 
C. W. Weiant. xiv+144 pp., 78 pls., 54 figs., 10 maps. 1943. 

140. Ceramic sequences at Tres Zapotes, Veracruz; Mexico, by Philip Drucker. 
ix+155 pp., 65 pls., 46 figs. 1943. 

141. Ceramic stratigraphy at Cerro de las Mesas, Veracruz, Mexico, by Philip 
Drucker. viii+95 pp., 58 pls., 210 figs. 1943. 


PUBLICATIONS OF THE FREER GALLERY OF ART 


The Freer Gallery of Art issued 1 pamphlet, as follows: 


The Freer Gallery of Art of the Smithsonian Institution. 12 pp., 5 pls., 2 
figs. January 1944. 


REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 


The annual reports of the American Historical Association are 
transmitted by the Association to the Secretary of the Smithsonian 
Institution and are communicated by him to Congress, as provided 
by the act of incorporation of the Association. The following report 
volumes were issued this year: 

Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the year 1942. 
Volume 1, Proceedings and list of members; Volume 2, Letters from the Berlin 
Hmbassy. 

The following were in press at the close of the fiscal year: Annual 
Report for 1942, Volume 3 (The quest for political unity in world 
history) ; Annual Report for 1943, Volume 1 (Proceedings) and Vol- 
ume 2 (Writings on American History). 


REPORT OF THE NATIONAL SOCIETY, DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTION 


The manuscript of the Forty-sixth Annual Report of the National 
Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, was transmitted to 
Congress, in accordance with law, November 15, 1943. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 109 
. ALLOTMENTS FOR PRINTING 


The congressional allotments for the printing of the Smithsonian 
Annual Reports to Congress and the various publications of the Gov- 
ernment bureaus under the administration of the Institution were 
virtually used up at the close of the year. The appropriation for the 
coming year ending June 30, 1945, totals $88,500, allotted as follows: 


Smithsonianv Institutions. se ee! 2h ee eae ee $16, 000 
ON Sa TOT Ld MET SG UEINT  ek h ah a e e 43, 000 
BuTreauvor American JOthnology oo eee 17, 480 
National'Collection: of MimerArts 225 Lie ee ee 500 
Internaionaly MxeChangsese: os. 22a oe a 200 
National Zo0lofien] Parichat Ta 2 ort aA 200 
Astrophysical’@bservatoryo2 ota ss. tea at pi esd 500 
American Historical Association________________- pte tag t be 10, 620 

EN eg) ee ee ee ae ee et ee OE PE 88, 500 


Respectfully submitted. 
W. P. Trus, Chief, Editorial Division. 
THE SECRETARY, 
Smithsonian Institution. 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF 
THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITH- 
SONIAN INSTITUTION 


FOR THE YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1944 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 

Your executive committee respectfully submits the following report 
in relation to the funds of the Smithsonian Institution, together with 
a statement of the appropriations by Congress for the Government 
bureaus in the administrative charge of the Institution. 


SMITHSONIAN ENDOWMENT FUND 


The original bequest of James Smithson was £104,960 8s. 6d.—$508,318.46. 
Refunds of money expended in prosecution of the claim, freights, insurance, etc., 
together with payment into the fund of the sum of £5,015, which had been with- 
held during the lifetime of Madame de la Batut, brought the fund to the amount 
of $550,000. 

Since the original bequest the Institution has received gifts from various 
sources chiefly in the years prior to 1893, the income from which may be used 
for the general work of the Institution. These, including the original bequest, 
plus savings, are listed below, together with the income for the present year. 


ENDOWMENT FUNDS 


(Income for unrestricted use of the Institution) 


Partly deposited in U. S. Treasury at 6 percent and partly invested in stocks, 


bonds, etc. 
Income pres- 
Investment ent year 

Parent fund (original Smithson bequest, plus accumulated savings) .-_-__-_- $728, 845. 38 $43, 700. 77 

Subsequent bequests, gifts, etc., partly deposited in the U. S. Treasury and 

partly invested in the Consolidated Fund: 

Avery, Robert S. and Lydia, bequest fund-_.............__.___-__-__-- 50, 766. 70 2, 133. 13 
Endowment, from gifts, income, etc.-....-........-.------------------ 283, 751. 87 9, 988. 86 
Habel} Dr:\8:; bequesttunds s8 see or a 500. 00 30. 00 
Hachenberg, George P. and Caroline, bequest fund_____...___________- 3, 971. 01 139. 66 
Hamilton; James, bequest tund os 7 . on) ae NI ee en eee 2, 898. 60 164. 00 
Henry, Caroline’ bequest fand 22-2 Ce a ae eee 1, 194.17 41, 98 
Hodgkins; ‘Thomas'iG_; fand (general) oo. ee ee 145, 841. 56 8, 009. 54 
Rhees! William’ Jones; bequest fund. 255) 2 es eee 1, 057. 12 51. 80 
Sanford; |Georzge: H., memorial find) 32 ae 1, 978. 97 96. 89 
Witherspoon, Thomas A., memorial fund__....___._..._.--_________-_- 127, 421. 29 4, 481. 58 
Special fund, stock in reorganized closed banks_____..-_.__.__--_______ 1, 400. 00 70. 00 
620, 781. 29 25, 207. 44 
Total cic hoe See Seach ee ee ee ee 1, 349, 626. 67 68, 908. 51 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 111 


The Institution holds also a number of endowment gifts, the income 
of each being restricted to specific use. These, plus accretions to date, 
are listed below, together with income for the present year. 


Income 
Investment present 
year 
Abbott, William L., fund, for investigations in biology--__.__.__.________- $104, 598. 38 $3, 348. 29 
Arthur, James, fund, for investigations and study of thesun and lecture on 
SONI) 42 2 ce Seeds ae eee SiS IO Se le Bee 2 39, 488.56 | . 1, 388. 87 
Bacon, Virginia Purdy, fund, for traveling scholarship to investigate 
fauna of countries other than the United States____...__.._...___________ 49, 468. 47 1, 739. 86 
Baird, Lucy H., fund, for creating a memorial to Secretary Baird__--.__.-- 23, 772. 94 841.19 
Barstow, Frederick D., fund, for purchase of animals for the Zoological 
HON ae oo ect glee SA mee ce neces ee Se ee eee Bese oe A Park oe 751. 09 26. 40 
Canfield Collection fund, for increase and care of the Canfield collection 
SNITITIORAIS hee see ee a eee eed eee Se hae ee ee oe eat 37, 764. 34 1, 328. 20 
Casey, Thomas L., fund, for maintenance of the Casey collection and pro- 
motion of researches relating to Coleoptera__...----_----------- ----___- 9, 056. 38 318. 52 
Chamberlain, Francis Lea, fund, for increase and promotion of Isaac Lea 
Pallecvoloncems and mollusks <92e= l15is (A et oe ae ee 27, 805. 06 977.94 
Eickemeyer, Florence Brevoort, fund, for preservation and exhibition of 
photographic collection of Rudolph Eickemeyer, Jr_____-___-_____________ 500. 92 4, 43 
Hillyer, Virgil, fund, for increase and care of Virgil Hillyer collection of 
Lip TIN PIO OIECtSe scone ace ee eee aL Se SL eee Dos eee ed 6, 489, 28 228. 20 
Hitchcock, Dr. Albert S., Library fund, for care of Hitchcock Agrosto- 
HORCAl eID YAry. oo) oe eee Se eee I ER ad Ce PES 1, 459, 30 51. 30 
Hodgkins fund, specific, for increase and diffusion of more exact knowledge 
in regard to nature and properties of atmospheric air_..._...--.-----__-_.- 100, 000. 00 6, 000. 00 
Hughes, Bruce, fund, to found Hughes alcove- ----.--.------ ..------------ 18, 899. 72 664. 70 
Myer, Catherine Walden, fund, for purchase of first-class works of art for 
the use and benefit of the National Collection of Fine Arts.._--_.-_____.. 18, 716. 49 658. 29 
National Collection of Fine Arts, Julia D. Strong bequest, for the benefit 
UieNavonal Collection of Mint Arts=2=) -- 224022 eee eee 9, 871. 78 347.18 
Pell, Cornelia Livingston, fund, for maintenance of Alfred Duane Pell 
COMGCHONE S22 -t 228 REA Se ES A EE eee Soe ENE? eaten 2: 7, 318. 99 257. 40 
Poore, Lucy T. and George W., fund, for general use of the Institution 
when principal amounts to the sum of $250,000.00_____---_------___-_.--- 92, 266. 68 3, 907. 33 
Reid, Addison T., fund, for founding chair in biology in memory of Asher 
AN RHTD Ese BO Oe sae eee Aaa SA ea ee ee eee 29, 868. 86 1, 390. 37 
Roebling fund, for care, improvement, and increase of Roebling collection 
GUINIHCTAUS 25 27H - SERRE SS CT ae 3 hk Sey ae ek Ne Re 119, 165, 01 4,191. 20 
Rollins, Miriam and William, fund, for investigations in physics and 
DYE TEETSY Rs al ie ae Eg a a re a eS 2 E 92, 724. 31 3, 249. 78 
Smithsonian employees retirement fund_____________.___--__-_-___-_1_--.- 45, 195. 31 1, 589. 57 
Springer, Frank, fund, for care, etc., of Springer collection and library-_---_ 17, 706. 50 622. 75 
Walcott, Charles D. and Mary Vaux, research fund, for development of 
geological and paleontological studies and publishing results thereof___-- 427, 479. 27 13, 024. 00 
Younger, Helen Walcott, fund, held in trust___._._..---_..-_-----_-_---_- 49, 628. 70 2, 396. 33 
Zerbee, Frances Brincklé, fund, for endowment for aquaria _._--__----._-- 751. 47 26. 40 
Special research fund, gift, in the form of real estate (No income)-_----_------ 20) 046100 lee Sas see 
FART) ET coe OE RE ee eee eee See ee eee eee ae .-| 1,351, 693, 81 48, 578. 50 


The above funds amount to a total of $2,701,820.48, and are carried 
in the following investment accounts of the Institution: 


U. S. Treasury deposit account, drawing 6 percent interest______ $1, 000, 000. 00 
Consolidated investment fund (income in table below) --_-_-__-__- 1, 372, 516. 41 
heal vestatewmorteages, eles. = 23 eS eee Qe tio. al 
Special funds, miscellaneous investments______________________ 51, 028. 70 

2, 701, 320. 48 


CONSOLIDATED FUND 


This fund contains substantially all of the investments of the Institu- 
tion, with the exception of those of the Freer Gallery of Art; the 
deposit of $1,000,000.00 in the U. S. Treasury, with guaranteed income 
of 6 percent; and investments in real estate and real estate mortgages. 


112 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


This fund contains endowments for both unrestricted and specific use. 
A statement of principal and income of this fund for the last 10 years 
follows: 

ESR avar nvm 8 pc CNRS YEA YN, ety ET es te 


Per- Per- 
Fiscal year Principal Income cent- Fiscal year Principal Income cent- 
age age 
OGRE Sa eye $706, 765.68 | $26, 808. 86 3270104022 2) ee $1, 081, 249. 25 | $38, 673. 29 47 
AQSG 2th. sae 728, 795. 46 , 836. 61 5 Hr Nn ee a oa 1, 093,301.51 | 41, 167.38 3. 76 
ft ae eee Ad 738, 858. 54 33, 819. 43 4.57 1042. ese 1, 270, 968. 45 46, 701. 98 3. 67 
1PaB? 25: Bee 867, 528.50 | 34, 679. 64 4.00 || 1943_..._.---.--] 1,316, 533.49 | 50, 524, 22 3. 83 
LOGO es) ae 902, 801.27 | 30, 710.53 3:40) [1944 82, Soe ee 1, 372, 516.41 | 50, 783.79 3. 69 


CONSOLIDATED FUND 


Gain in investments over year 1943 


Investments made from gifts and savings on iNCOMC 22 so eae $46, 061. 80 
Investments of gain from sales., etc., of securities______...__.________ 9, 921. 12 
55, 982. 92 


FREER GALLERY OF ART FUND 


Early in 1906, by deed of gift, Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, gave 
to the Institution his collection of Chinese and other Oriental objects 
of art, as well as paintings, etchings, and other works of art by Whist- 
ler, Thayer, Dewing, and other artists. Later he also gave funds for 
the construction of a building to house the collection, and finally in his 
will probated November 6, 1919, he provided stock and securities 
to the estimated value of $1,958,591.42, as an endowment fund for the 
operation of the Gallery. 

The above fund of Mr. Freer was almost entirely represented by 20,- 
465 shares of stock in Parke, Davis & Co. As this stock advanced in 
value, much of it was sold and the proceeds reinvested so that the 
fund now amounts to approximately three times the original value, 
or $5,881,402.17, in a selected list of securities classified later. 

The invested funds of the Freer bequest are under the following 
headings: 


Courtandy2rounds ind 32 eee $658, 864. 68 
Court and grounds maintenance fund_______________ 165, 479. 65 
Curator Livre ee Pee ETE eet SE Eee aera eee eee 670, 500. 62 
Residuaryslecacyes 28 sk ko eee ee 4, 386, 557. 22 

RG Gals ios 0S oe re eR Os 5, 881, 402. 17 


Statement of principal and income for the last 10 years 


Per- Per 
Fiscal year Principal Income cent- Fiscal year Principal Income cent- 

age age 
19852 ee eo $4, 769, 362. 53 | $257, 510. 33 B.39) e940) we $6, 112, 953.46 | $242, 573. 92 3.96 
AL oath a eh 4, 651, 867. 07 259, 420. 73 5. 57 || 1941____-_._-..] 6,030, 586. 91 233, 079. 22 3. 86 
MOS fee sooo 4, 881, 986. 96 280, 969. 53 De Ci Mh O42. sae 5, 912, 878. 64 241, 557. 77 4.08 
LOSRY ee oo 4, 820, 777. 31 255, 651. 61 tig i fb bs Se a Slo 5, 836, 772. 01 216, 125. 07 3. 70 
POU. 2 2acecce 5, 075, 976. 76 212, 751. 78 419 1 Gee eee 5, 881, 402. 17 212, 395. 27 3.61 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Hs 


FREER FUND 


Gain in investments over year 1943 


Investment of gain from sale, call of securities, ete___________---- $44, 630. 16 
SUMMARY 

Invested endowment for general purposes________-________-_-_- $1, 349, 626. 67 
Invested endowment for specific purposes other than Freer endow- 

OVE eee ep en Pe NEE I eee Pe Be pen ee, 1, 351, 693. 81 

Total invested endowment other than Freer endowment_--_ 2, 701, 320. 48 

Freer invested endowment for specific purposes_______-___-___-__ 5, 881, 402. 17 

Total invested endowment for all purposes_____________-- 8, 582, 722. 65 


CLASSIFICATION OF INVESTMENTS 


Deposited in the U. S. Treasury at 6 percent per annum, as author- 

ized in the United States Revised Statutes, sec. 5591_--_-_-____ $1, 000, 000. 00 
Investments other than Freer endowment (cost or market value 

at date acquired) : 


Bonds (15 different groups) -__-------------- $592, 791. 43 
Stocks (43 different groups) __---------_----~_ $01, 420. 91 
Real estate and first-mortgage notes______--_ 206, 604. 24 
Uninvested"capitale.- = 355 ee Suse gehen oe 503. 90 

——————_ 1, 701, 320. 48 

Total investments other than Freer endowment___-------_- 2, 701, 320. 48 
Investments of Freer endowment (cost or market value at date 

acquired) : 

Bonds) (25 different) groups) 222225 2— 2 =. $2, 617, 447. 75 
Stocks (52 different groups) -_----_---_---___-_ 3, 250, 673. 19 
Real estate first-mortgage notes______________ 7, 000. 00 
Waninvested.capiinle 2. 420 22a he vee see 6, 281. 23 

$5, 881, 402. 17 

To twletinvies tents 52 4 eee eee Salah AE A 8, 582, 722. 65 


CASH BALANCES, RECEIPTS, AND DISBURSEMENTS DURING THE 
FISCAL YEAR* 


Cash balance on, hand June!oO 194523 8 ee Se $671, 698. 43 
Receipts : 
Cash income from various sources for general 
WOLKsOL Lie wlnStituhion= oo) - se eee $85, 530. 75 
Cash gifts and contributions expendable for spe- 
cial scientific objects (not for investment)_---_ __75, 419. 86 
Cash income from endowments for specific use 
other than Freer endowment and from miscel- 
laneous sources (including refund of temporary 


BIEL GATTICCS) see eee ee 127, 460. 84 
Cash capital from sale, call of securities, etc. 
(lorminvestment)) 22 5s sek ee ee 220, 962. 85 
Total receipts other than Freer endowment_____.--_____ 509, 374. 30 


17This statement does not include Government appropriations under the administrative 
charge of the Institution. 


114 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


CASH BALANCES, RECEIPTS, AND DISBURSEMENTS DURING THE 
FISCAL YEAR—Continued 


Receipts—Continued. 
Cash income from Freer endowment__---______ $210, 663. 89 
Cash capital from sale, call of securities, ete. (for 
ATL VES LEVI) eA MAN is a Lee ir pe 710, 039. 26 
Total receipts from Freer endowment__________________ $920, 703. 15 
41g 1 RPS Se aed ie A ORI ey RENEE See Rte a eRe Ore Sete LAN Ve 2, 101, 775. 88 
Disbursements: 
From funds for general work of the Institution: 
Buildings—care, repairs, and alterations___. $3, 246. 87 
Purniture ang fixtures. 7 20 22s 33. 90 
General administration 7__.___._.___.-_______ 34, 955. 20 
Dibra ry euce Sse lies sian syste ae, se, 3, 025. 26 
Publications (comprising preparation, print- 
ing, and distribution) 3200) es oe Se 9 31, 943. 79 
Researches and explorations_____._________ 11, 703. 21 
—_ $84, 908. 23 
From funds for specific use, other than Freer 
endowment: 
Investments made from gifts and from sav- 
ings on-ineormie joule wi) woe ee 46, 061. 80 
Other expenditures, consisting largely of 
research work, travel, increase and care 
of special collections, etc., from income 
of endowment funds, and from cash gifts 
for specific use (including temporary ad- 
VAT COS) eee alte ee ee ee ae 118, 461. 61 
Reinvestment of cash capital from sale, call : 
of, seenrities: ete: 20! aa ee 2R6, 609. 13 
Cost of handling securities, fee of invest- } 
ment counsel, and accrued interest on | 
bosds ‘purchused 22s ee 2, 971. 51 
———_ 394, 104. 05 
From Freer endowment: 
Operating expenses of the gallery, salaries, 
Held expenses ete a eee 45, 764. 82 
Putchase Of art: objects_2-2 220) eee 126, 774. 81 
Reinvestment of cash capital from sale, call 
Of Securities: ete - i. remain ee ee — %09, 947.31 
Cost of handling securities, fee of invest- 
ment counsel, and accrued interest on 
bonds purchased) - 2 ee 20, 962. 18 
— 903, 449. 12 
Cash balance. June’ 80;1944 ee ee ee 719, 314. 48 | 
OU a nage 2, 101, 775. 88 


Included in the above receipts was cash received as royalties from 
sales of Smithsonian Scientific Series to the amount of $21,150.31. 


? This includes salary of the Secretary and certain others. 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 115 


This was distributed as follows: 


INGO WENO M be LIN Oe ei ee oe ce eee eee op ee bere $9, 127. 36 
Smithsonian Institution emergency fund_--___________ 2, 281. 84 
Smithsonian Institution unrestricted fund, general_____ 6, 845. 51 
AST EIS SDs Ota STNG Sr aie, eee JOR Ia eee ne 2,895. 60 

21, 150. 31 


Included in the foregoing are expenditures for researches in pure 
science, publications, explorations, care, increase, and study of col- 
lections, etc., as follows: 


Expenditures from general funds of the Institution: 


TENE ROY E CEE ETAT oF yen a i ces ON Ee pret ites ee or a $31, 943. 79 
Researches and explorations»______--____-__-_____- 11, 703. 21 
$438, 647. 00 
Expenditures from funds devoted to specific purposes: 
Researches and explorations____._.__...____________- 29, 355. 18 
Care, increase, and study of special collections______ 7, 422. 06 
TE RCH CLONE ence eee tee ae Me ne tei Les Yet 7, 984. 60 
44, 761. 84 
ENG) ee SR a ee ee See 88, 408. 84 


The practice of depositing on time in local trust companies and 
banks such revenues as may be spared temporarily has been continued 
during the past year, and interest on these deposits has amounted to 
$657.15. 

The Institution gratefully acknowledges gifts or bequests from the 
following: 


Carnegie Institution, for the support and maintenance of diatom studies. 

’ Thomas G. Corcoran, toward the purchase of portrait of George Washington 
Carver. 

Edith F. B. and George B. Engelhardt, for assistance in publication of bulletin 
by the late George B. Engelhardt. 

Friends of Dr. Albert S. Hitchcock, for the Hitchcock Agrostological Library. 

John A. Roebling, further contributions for research in radiation. 


All payments are made by check, signed by the Secretary of the 
Institution on the Treasurer of the United States, and all revenues are 
deposited to the credit of the same account. In many instances depos- 
its are placed in bank for convenience of collection and later are with- 
drawn in round amounts and deposited in the Treasury. 

The foregoing report relates only to the private funds of the 
Institution. 

The following annual appropriations were made by Congress for 
the Government bureaus under the administrative charge of the Smith- 
sonian Institution for the fiscal year 1944. 

Demure ann cnennes, 1064 03 eee a $1, 129, 040. 00 
National Zoolofical Park.) C., L0s4.2 25 270, 180. 00 


Cooperation with the American Republics (transfer to the Smith- 
BOM AN MUSULUITLON))s) MOte coe as kee Sot eS ee ae 77, 000. 00 


116 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


A deficiency appropriation of $57,000 was also made by Congress to 
pay Federal employees for overtime work. 

The report of the audit of the Smithsonian private funds is given 
below: 


SEPTEMBER 30, 1944. 
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, BOARD OF REGENTS, 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 


Sirs: Pursuant to agreement we have audited the accounts of the Smithsonian 
Institution for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, and certify that the balance 
of cash on hand, including Petty Cash Fund, June 30, 1944, to be ‘$721,214.48. 

We have verified the record of receipts and disbursements maintained by the 
Institution and the agreement of the book balances with the bank balances. 

We have examined all the securities in the custody of the Institution and in 
the custody of the banks and found them to agree with the book records. 

We have compared the stated income of such securities with the receipts of 
record and found them in agreement therewith. 

We have examined all vouchers covering disbursements for account of the 
Institution during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1944, together with the authority ~ 
therefor, and have compared them with the Institution’s record of expenditures 
and found them to agree. 

We have examined and verified the accounts of the Institution with each trust - 
fund. 

We found the books of account and records well and accurately kept and the 
securities conveniently filed and securely cared for. 

All information requested by your auditors was promptly and courteously 
furnished. : 

We certify the Balance Sheet, in our opinion, correctly presents the finan- 
cial condition of the Institution as at June 30, 1944. 

Respectfully submitted. 

WILLIAM L. YAEGER, 
Certified Public Accountant. 


Respectfully submitted. 
Frepreric A. DELANO, 
Vannevak Busu, 
CLARENCE CANNON, 
Ewecutiwe Committee. 


GENERAL APPENDIX 


TO THE 


SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1944 


117 


ADVERTISEMENT 


The object of the GrnrraL Appenprx to the Annual Report of the — 
Smithsonian Institution is to furnish brief accounts of scientific dis- 
covery in particular directions; reports of investigations made by 
collaborators of the Institution; and memoirs of a general character 
or on special topics that are of interest or value to the numerous 
correspondents of the Institution. 

It has been a prominent object of the Board of Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution from a very early date to enrich the annual 
report required of them by law with memoirs illustrating the more 
remarkable and important developments in physical and biological 
discovery, as well as showing the general character of the operations 
of the Institution; and, during the greater part of its history, this 
purpose has been carried out largely by the publication of such papers 
as would possess an interest to all attracted by scientific progress. 

In 1880, induced in part by the discontinuance of an annual sum- 
mary of progress which for 30 years previously had been issued by 
well-known private publishing firms, the Secretary had a series of 
abstracts prepared by competent collaborators, showing concisely the 
prominent features of recent scientific progress in astronomy, geology, 
meteorology, physics, chemistry, mineralogy, botany, zoology, and 
anthropology. This latter plan was continued, though not altogether 
satisfactorily, down to and including the year 1888. 

In the report for 1889 a*return was made to the earlier method of 
presenting a miscellaneous selection of papers (some of them original) 
embracing a considerable range of scientific investigation and discus- 
sion. This method has been continued in the present report for 1944. 

118 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER? 


By CuHartes G. ABBOT 
Former Secretary, Smithsonian Institution 


[With 2 plates] 


NATURE OF THE SUN 


The sun is a gaseous body 860,000 miles in diameter of about 330,000 
times the mass of the earth. Though so hot that neither solids nor 
liquids exist in it, the force of gravity due to its enormous mass com- 
presses the sun’s gaseous substance to an average density nearly 1.5 
times that of water, or nearly 1,100 times that of air at sea level. This 
density prevails, notwithstanding that the great temperature not only 
gasifies the chemical elements, but still further subdivides them by ion- 
izing them strongly. They are no longer composed of molecules, like 
gaseous substances that we find in the laboratory, or even complete 
atoms, for the atomic nuclei have lost some of the ions which at lower 
temperatures would surround them to make up complete atoms. The 
surface temperature of the sun is of the order 6,000° Centigrade, or 
10,800° Fahrenheit, nearly twice as hot as the are light. Within the 
sun the temperature rapidly rises, and at the sun’s center it is supposed 
to be many millions of degrees. At such enormous temperatures and 
with its immense surface, the sun is a tremendously powerful radiator, 
so powerful that at the earth’s mean distance, 93,000,000 miles, the 
sun’s average radiation in free space measures 1.94 calories per cm.? per 
minute. This value is called the solar constant of radiation. It im- 
plies that the earth, which is about 8,000 miles in diameter, receives 
all the time from the sun the heat equivalent to a quarter of a quadril- 
lion horsepower (1075/4 hp.) 


SOLAR ROTATION 


The sun, like the earth, rotates on an axis. The sun’s axis is not 
exactly parallel to the earth’s, but inclines toward a point halfway be- 
between the Pole Star and Vega at 26° from the North Pole. It has 


1The twelfth Arthur lecture given under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution, 
February 29, 1944. 


119 
619830-—45--9 


120 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


been observed by spectroscopic methods that the angular rotation of 
the sun’s surface is much faster at the Equator than near the Poles. 
Adams found the following times of rotation as viewed from a fixed 
star: 
Solar latitude £2: 7) Sif 0° 30° 45° 60° 80° 
Rotation) period = 24, 7 26. 7 28. 0 81.2 35. 3 
The earth revolves about the sun in 365% days, and approximately in 
the same direction that the sun rotates on its axis. Consequently the 
solar rotation appears slower as viewed from the earth, which adds over 
7 percent to the sun’s apparent time of rotation. The effective mean 
period of solar rotation viewed from the earth may be taken as 27 
days. 


FACULAE AND SUNSPOTS 


In a telescope, as shown in plate 1, the sun’s surface is seen to be 
mottled, but at some places to show decidedly brighter areas called 
faculae which are most prevalent in the neighborhood of sunspots. 
Sunspots appear as darker dots on the sun’s surface, but they are 
dark only by contrast. Langley compared the faculae to white-hot 
steel in a converter, which made the molten steel look like chocolate. 
Though sunspots appear small on the enormous disk of the sun, actually 
many of them are so large that the earth, 8,000 miles in diameter, 
would only occupy a corner of one. Sunspots are seldom within 10° 
of the sun’s equator or more than 30° away from it. They, of course, 
rotate along with the surface of the sun at such latitudes, and their 
average time of rotation is about 27 days, as viewed from the earth. 


SOLAR VARIATION AND SOLAR ROTATION 


Sunspots are like machine guns shooting electric ions into space. 
These ions plentifully strike and are captured by the earth’s atmos- 
phere. With ions from other sources they make up that high-level 
electrical reflecting surface in our atmosphere which causes radio rays 
to bounce along the surface of the earth for thousands of miles, in- 
stead of losing themselves at once into limitless space. As the sun 
rotates on its axis the conical! columns of flying ions sent out from sun- 
spots sweep through space. The columns from those spots which are 
nearly central on the sun’s apparent disk encounter the earth for the 
short time of 2 or 3 days. From certain observations we made in 
March 1920, it seems that such a column of ions, 93 million miles long 
between the sun and the earth, by scattering the sun’s rays sometimes 
reduces the intensity of the sun beam at the earth by as much as 5 
percent. Ordinarily such effects are much less, seldom exceeding 1 
percent. But it is easy to see that the rotation of a spotted sun, by ionic 
scattering, may produce successions of small variations of the solar 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 121 


constant of radiation. The presence of areas of faculae, hotter and 
more radiative than the adjoining solar surfaces, will also, as they 
march around with the sun’s rotation, produce variations of the solar 
constant. 


THE EARTH’S TEMPERATURE 


The earth as a planet is kept in its present approximately constant 
state at the mean temperature of 14° Centigrade by the balance of its 
receipt of heat from sun rays against the outgo of heat caused by the 
earth’s emission to space. This earth emission arises in the invisible 
long-wave rays which lie between the gamut of visible light and the 
gamut of rays of very great wave length, which are used in radio 
transmission. To fix ideas in terms of the centimeter, the unit of 
length in the metric system, visible light rays have wave lengths 
between 4 and 7 hundred-thousandths (0.00004 and 0.00007), earth rays 
between 4 and 40 ten-thousandths (0.0004 and 0.0040), and radio rays 
between 10 and 1 million (10 and 1,000,000) centimeters. But all of 
them are of the same fundamental nature of transverse vibrations. 

Since the earth’s mean temperature keeps within fairly definite 
bounds because the total receipt of heat from the sun is in approxi- 
mate equilibrium with the total escape of heat from the earth, it is 
plain that if the sun’s contribution should change permanently, the 
earth’s mean temperature would change to a new state of equilibrium. 
However, the sun is so immense that no considerable general change 
of this kind is to be apprehended in thousands, or even millions, of 
years. Nevertheless, in what follows it will be shown that temporary 
changes of the order of 1 percent do frequently occur in the sun’s 
output, and that these affect weather locally so much that solar changes 
must be rated as major meteorological factors. 


SMITHSONIAN SOLAR-CONSTANT WORK 


_ For many years the Smithsonian Institution has maintained ob- 
servatories for measuring the intensity of solar rays. Our best sta- 
tion is Montezuma, in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It 
is located on a mountain 9,000 feet high, where years frequently go 
by without a drop of rain. The observers must be supplied from the 
city of Calama, 12 miles away, with water, as well as all other ne- 
cessities. The sun shines from an unclouded sky on nearly 80 percent 
of all days. As it is very trying to the nervous system to live in such 
isolation under constantly cloudless skies, it is necessary to relieve the 
observers at intervals of 2 or 3 years. Indeed, great loyalty to the 
objects of the work, excellent ability as observers, much tact in dealing 
with the people of the vicinity, and conscientious honesty and industry 
are absolute requirements of the observers for the successful operation 


122 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


of the station. We have been fortunate that these qualities have so 
seldom been lacking in our representatives there. 

Solar radiation, by being absorbed on black surfaces, is converted 
into heat. Its intensity is measured by its heating effect. The ob- 
servatories for measuring the solar constant of radiation have no 
telescopes. To insure constant temperature surroundings, highly fa- 


—— wae 
aN 
———> 


Ultre-vietet 
pee Se ss a a5 


me 


wa 
3 e 
AN at 3 se Pe epee. Ate BIC! oe pea ae 
= ingrt= ee) ae ee a eee ; Visible 


H 
ty acta 
' 
ai 


=. 


--fe----- 


fa nes pom epee ee 


upper set made between early morning and noon of a very dry day; the lower set simi- 


larly made on a moist though cloudless day. 


Figure 1.—Bolographic energy curves of the solar spectrum made at Montezuma, Chile. The 


vorable to exact measurements, they consist of horizontal tunnels 
about 10 feet wide and 7 feet high driven into the mountain some 40 
feet. We located the tunnels on a south slope in the Northern Hemi- 
sphere, and on a north slope in the Southern Hemisphere. Within the 
tunnel is installed a large prismatic spectroscope, whereby the sun ray 
reflected into the tunnel by the coelostat outside (shown in pl. 2) 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 123 


is cast into an intense spectrum, which comes to focus on the bo- 
lometer. The bolometer, originally invented about 1880 by Dr. Samuel 
P. Langley, is an electrical thermometer so sensitive that a change of 
a millionth of a degree in temperature can be registered. A clockwork 
causes the solar spectrum to drift slowly across the fine hairlike re- 
ceiver of the bolometer, and at the same time causes a photographic 
plate to drop slowly past the tiny spot of light reflected from the 
mirror of the magnetic-needle system of the sensitive galvanometer 
connected to the bolometer. Thus is produced in less than 10 minutes 
a bolograph, or curve showing the distribution of energy of radiation in 
the spectrum of the sun from far up in the ultraviolet to far down 
in the infrared. Several such energy curves are taken with appro- 
priate intervals during a morning as the sun rises higher and higher. 
A group of them is shown in figure 1. Simultaneously with each bolo- 
graph the total heating effect of the rays is measured outside the 
tunnel with an instrument called the pyrheliometer (heat-of-the-sun- 
meter). Also the altitude of the sun above the horizon is taken simul- 
taneously with the theodolite to indicate the slant thickness of the 
atmosphere. From this combination of observations it is possible 
to compute the intensity of the solar radiation as it is outside our 
atmosphere in free space at mean solar distance. This is the solar 
constant of radiation. 


DAILY VARIATIONS OF THE SOLAR CONSTANT 


For 25 years the Smithsonian Institution has been collecting daily 
measurements of the solar constant, when practicable, with a view to 
determining the march of the variations of the sun’s output of radia- 
tion. These fluctuations are small in percentage, rarely exceeding 1 
percent. Figure 2 gives the still smaller variations of the monthly 
mean solar-constant values, 1920-1939. It therefore requires very 
great accuracy of observing to disclose and evaluate them, hampered 
as we are by the superincumbent highly variable atmosphere. We are 
at a disadvantage compared to astronomers who measure variable 
stars, for they can compare the star investigated with other similar 
stars nearby, all of which suffer equal percentage losses of light from 
atmospheric hindrances. The sun is unique and can be compared 
with nothing near it in the sky. One can only compare an absolute 
solar measurement of today against an absolute solar measurement of 
tomorrow, trusting altogether to the accurate determination of atmos- 
pheric transmission on each day to make the measurements comparable. 

The Institution maintains three solar-constant observatories, two 
in the Northern and one in the Southern Hemisphere, all on high moun- 
tains in desert lands. The following table and summary shows how 
well the solar-constant daily measurements at great distances apart, 


124 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


1920 21 22 23 2 2 26 27 #2 29 #19399 3! 32 33 34 3% 36 ST 38 _ 39 1940 


i | Bal 

| A VY Nita mal a 

S It 8 1) 8 EO ae aL 

& suo AE BT AT A ea a a WD 

see Ne A i N° 7 lH is ye ees 

Ils MEOPI TTA a WET EM UR APs Ee en 

~ COT RIE Th A ha a Re ee 

e CWT TE TTA IA He TY | 1d il 

a ee ft +t HA} PE a} tt tf} 

8 A 1 A A aap (PND GF WT HTS SE 
Ens ott) (SpE le ia iy isu (no EN, ad 
SEE aN |, ane MA I, WS WA RY PETE TG AT) 
ROR DP eR A DONT FTN HR P,P I 

ee 2 eee 
CEG) RD RR RAG CO I PE ERI IR PLP CG IR OT 
oe APR A PR CPN ASP FAS LO Ara ea Foe Og Fake PY Ee 
RPA PAW: eR bere Has Wa fan a ae PN ec al We ek eo 
AG SURES SA A Ms De EU ST 
sigst ea agi a pe at WM eC ee 
: G70” Na Pn RT Pea fa FI ee 


Figure 2.—March of monthly values of solar constant of radiation, 1920 to 1939. 
A, observed; B, synthesis of 14 regular periodicities, all approximately aliquot 
parts of 273 months. 


and in opposite hemispheres, agree in the 5-year interval from Jan. 
uary 1932 to December 1936. All days simultaneously observed, good 
and bad alike, are included. 

These results we arranged in groups in order of their divergence, as 
shown in the table. The unit is 1/1,000 calorie. Most of the values 
concern Montezuma and Table Mountain, but there are a great many 
in which Mount St. Katherine figures with one of the other stations. 


TaBLe 1—Numbers of daily differences between stations having certain 


amplitudes 

Amplitudes, A---_-----~ 22-28 20-22 18-20 16-18 15 14 18 12 i111 10 
Number of days__-__--_ alr 12 10 35 13) 2th yi 22n e022 iat 
Product lines 1 x 2____ 391 252 190 595 195 210 286 240 242 270 
Amplitudes, A--------- 9 8 (i 6 5 cs s 2 1 0 
Number of days.._.---~-~ 34 30 35 43 51 bo OO Ot) ULSt oe 
Product lines 1 x 2__~_ 306 240 245 258 255 220 165 74 48 0 

Total’ days saute Liss cee ee ee Se Se ee ee eee 616 

Total of products. 3-2 ee eee eee 4, 682 


Weighted, 'mesn))\ to." 2 Boek ee Se ae oe 7.6 


29 


30 


31 


NOONGPON FON OW 


eee 
aww 


+ Station 


a= 


SOLAR VARIATION 


> COOFRPPAMDIIVOPrPD A2ANAPFPHFHF WABDMIVOVGVOHPHHPRBAAVDD 290 MmamMO000RAA9NAANNAMA VYYU 
ao 


COFEFEPFANAQRAANAA AOA9AOTWWAYPY 
“ 
a 


iz) 
~ 
~ 
Nn 


388 
491 
533 
557 
587 
425 
458 
521 


217 
198 
165 


« 

3 me) Ug & 
EE Re ee ie 
es A We Ble 

1934 
1013 M 220 18A 1 499 
13 200 18A -3 515 
p 14 150 17A -2 600 
5 K 250 10A-25 483 
6 200 10 A~-27° 546 
a 150 11A-21 614 

d 45 

1114 M 150 58B 36 530 
in 14 145 58B 39 538 
d (26 14 140 61B 37 546 
16 T 250 31B-67 430 
16 200 308-74 501 
¢c a1 7 150 29B -83 568 
5 K 249 13A-31 475 
ad 639 6 199 14A-34 532 
7 150 13 A -33 602 
¢ 1213 M 220 55B 13 441 
13 200 57B 17 463 

a 4 150 54B 20 538 

¢ is 16 T 250 348-70 430 
16 200 318-75 497 

17 160 32B-72 545 

5 K 249 8A-21 499 

6 200 11A~-29 547 

Pp 7 150 16A-32 608 
c 41 1313 M 220 54B 27 440 
13 200 53 B 22 467 

14 150 54B 23 536 

€ 16 T 250 19A-13 462 
16 200 21 A -13 520 

17 150 22 A-17 583 

d 6 K 200 16A 36 520 
6 175 16A 42 553 

7 150 16A 36 579 

b 42 1413 M 220 53B 59 427 
13 200 478 48 465 

14 150 48B 41 540 

6 K 200 26B 26 475 

4 6 176.28 B 24 517 
7 150 31B 14 556 

o 1512 M 252 29A 11 432 

bp 46 13 200 30A 12 498 
14 149 27A 8 575 

< 1613 M 220 15A-l6 514 
13 200 14A-20 537 

14 50 13A-13 613 

rn 6 K 200 28B 11 493 
6 130 31B 7 517 

7 150 308 1 563 

b 4s lv, Se Kk 250: 35°18) —2 419 
6 200 378 2 483 

7 150 37B 2 556 

- 1813 M 200 27A 39 488 

SI 13 180 26A 39 519 

é ee 14 150 24A 32 568 
5 K 250 25A-17 440 
6 200 25A-12 504 
7 150 22 A ~-24 578 
c 
1913 M 220 12A-14 510 
13 200 13A-14 536 
c 14 150 11A~-10 607 
5 K 249 25A -37° 436 
6 200 24A -33 507 
yy 48 7 150 -32 A -45 567 
20 12° M 220 17A-14 505 
4 13 200 18 A-12 532 
14 150 17A .1 604 
16 T 250 98D 8 371 
ates 16 200 95D 27 439 
17 150 96D 25 509 
b 5 K 250 21A-34 451 
6 200 20A-31 516 
7 150 32A-25 566 
b 47 


Figure 3.—Facsimile of page 133, volume 6, Annals of the 


. 


Observatory. 


AND WEATHER—ABBOT 125 


Pyrn. 

c 
Grade 
Pid. S.C,* 


48 


50 


46 


82 45 ¢ St 


Astrophysical 


126 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The weighted divergence between stations being 0.0076 calorie, 
the weighted average departure of one station from the mean solar 
constant derived from two stations is 0.0038 calorie. 

Although it is not fair to Montezuma to suppose that the stations 
are of equal merit, yet if we make that assumption, and proceed as 
usual, we find the weighted mean percentage probable accidental error 
of a single day of observation of the solar constant at one station 
to be: 

100 X 0.0088 X 0.84 1.94=0.164, or 1 of 1 percent. 


In volume 6 of the Annals of the Astrophysical Observatory of the 
Smithsonian Institution are contained in table 24 nearly 19,000 meas- 
urements of the solar constant observed through the years 1924 to 1939. 
Several thousand earlier observations of the years 1920 to 1928 are con- 
tained in other publications. Figure 8 is a facsimile of a part of page 
133 of the Annals, which includes the work of September 1934. The 
several observing stations are distinguished by letters M, K, T, meaning 
Montezuma, St. Katherine, and Table Mountain. The solar-constant 
values in columns “S. C.” and “Pfd. 8. C.” are to be understood as pre- 
fixed with 1.9. Thus for “50” read “1.950.” Using the result of Monte- 
zuma and St. Katherine only, which are more accurate than those of 
Table Mountain, there was apparently an increase in the column “Pfd. 
S. C.” from the 1st to the 5th and from the 10th to the 14th of Sep- 
tember, and a decrease from the 14th to the 19th. These changes had 
an amplitude of the order of 0.5 to 0.9 percent, that is about 0.010 to 
0.018 calorie in the solar constant of radiation. 


SEQUENCES OF RISING AND OF FALLING SOLAR ACTIVITY 


I give in table 2 a summary of nearly 500 of the best supported in- 
stances of rise and of fall in the solar constant of radiation selected 
from table 24 of volume 6 of the Annals. The table is arranged by 
months and will readily be understood by an example. Thus, “Janu- 
ary, Rising, 24, 12” means that a case of the solar constant rising for 
a few days appeared to occur beginning January 12, 1924. 

It is of interest and importance to note that the solar variation 
increases in percentage toward shorter wave lengths. It is six times 
as great at 3500 A. in the ultraviolet as in the total solar constant. 


EFFECT OF SEQUENCES OF SOLAR CHANGE ON TERRESTRIAL 
TEMPERATURES 


Using this tabulation of the dates whereon sequences of rise and of 
fall of the solar constant apparently began, I have sought to determine 
whether such phenomena were associated with special behavior of the 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 127 


departures from normal temperature and normal barometric pressure 
at numerous cities. For this purpose I tabulated the departures, let 
us say of temperature, to illustrate, for 5 days before, and for 14 days 
after, each date included in table 2. Figure 4 is a facsimile of such a 
tabulation of temperature departures covering the months of 
January, February, and March for Washington, D. C. Two curves 
of temperature departures are shown for each month. One corre- 
sponds to the average influence of sequences of rising solar activ- 
ity, the other to the average influence of sequences of falling solar 
activity over the years 1924 to 1939. It is to be understood that these 
curves show temperatures only, not solar constants. One knows only 
that on the zeroth day of each line of the table a 3- to 4-day sequence 
of solar changes began. The upper curves of the figure show the 
average march of temperature departures at Washington in the months 
of January, February, and March, each associated with 19 or more cases 
of rising solar sequences, and the lower curves show the average march 
of temperature departures at Washington in January, February, and 
March, each associated with from 16 to 21 cases of falling solar 
sequences. 


TABLE 2.—Dates when sequences of rise and fall of the sun’s emission of radiation 
began 


January February March April 


Rising Falling Rising i Rising 
24 #64 27 «13 24 17 24 8 2a 62 


25 


128 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


TABLE 2.—Dates when sequences of rise and fall of the sun’s emission of radiation 
began—Continued 


September October November December 


1 
7 
8 
24 
2 
2 


bo 


NJOn 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 


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130 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


CONTROL OF TEMPERATURES BY SOLAR SEQUENCES OF VARIATION 


With this method of investigation clearly set forth, I now give 
in figures 5 to 7 results for temperatures for all months of the year at 
Washington, Albany, and Helena, and point out several characteristics 
of these curves. 

1. At every station, and in every month, the temperatures depart in 
opposite directions, attending, respectively, rising and falling solar 
activity. Thus comes about an axial symmetry of the pairs of curves 
such, for instance, as subsists with one’s right hand and one’s left. 

2. The march of the curves differs from month to month, and differs 
for the same month from station to station, yet the right and left 
symmetry always prevails. 

3. The effects are large. Differences of temperature of the order 
of 10 degrees Fahrenheit, or more, depend on whether a rising or a 
falling sequence of solar activity preceded them many days before. 

4. The effects of solar changes on temperature persist for many 
days. They may surely be traced from 8 days before to 14 days after 
the zeroth day of the solar sequence. 

5. The coefficient of correlation of these curves for the three stations 
and the 12 months of the year, and from 3 days before to 14 days 
after the solar change, is found to be r= — 61.2+1.7 percent. 

6. Since far-separated cities respond in a similar manner to the com- 
mon system of dates given in table 2, this system of dates must have 
a cosmic significance. The system of dates, in other words, betrays 
an extra-terrestrial selection, harmonious to the claim that on these 
dates changes in radiation occurred in the sun. 


SUPPORTING EVIDENCES OF SOLAR WEATHER CONTROL 


Doubters, however, may argue to the contrary as follows: 

The changes claimed in solar radiation, they may say, are so small 
in percentage that it is improbable that observation, however accurate, 
can distinguish them from accidental errors, and from the influences of 
atmospheric sources of error. May it not more probably be that the 
series of dates was selected by chance? They were, indeed, dates on 
which, in the average, large variations of temperature followed over 
periods of 17 days, but this was merely accidental. It would then 
naturally occur that sequences of dates closely following those at- 
tributed to rising solar radiation would show opposite temperature 
tendencies, since whatever goes up must come down. That far-sep- 
arated cities would react to the same systems of dates, though not identi- 
cally, is not surprising. For, as is well known, weather travels in 
waves from west toward east, so that a disturbance arrived at Wash- 
ington would have passed by stations to the west some days earlier. 


eee 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 131 


6.4 2.0 2.4 6 8 00 2M EC 22.0 2 
Gh i Fi A Te ea 
Ce i a 0 


10_12 


ae 


Be e268 
Rosa 


Ghee Dies 


a 
So 
a mig ain ie 


ou SLi 
ead PB a 


Ficure 5.—Average marches of temperature departures, Fahrenheit, at Washing- 
ton, D. C., accompanying sequences of variation of the solar constant, January 
to December. 


132 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Ny 


ree 
HF as i 
MECN 


9 NN ADA A 


= 


ma 
ix 
a AeA 
Bula 
ead 
ia 


2s 


2.4 6 8 0 2# 


hall 
HEI ise 
emia 
ia Ho 
[| 


eo hela 


N l rah | 
SAA Pe 


SAINI 
SCRE 


PMLA AT of 2 hho ee 
hd Die ihe 


FiaurE 6.—Average marches of temperature departures, Fahrenheit, at Albany, 
N. Y., accompanying sequences of variation of the solar constant, January to 


December. 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 


64 2 0 2 4 6 8 H 2s 
HARE EHH 
af pgreaisty 

An paulo fag 
Sse a 
tp ASAE 


= AN, 


64 2-0 2 4 6 6 DA & 
TOR Re PP 


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es MNT Sah CP OT | 
bs al Nee Fal 


ARVN 
LoBal- 


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bia el aled . 


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edi | | 


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2 
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af ak 8 


PEPPEEEEE 
fx 
ARE 


YY | 


AO GAH ON A D 


He 
EE 
peat VR field Vist J 
: a 
Re uh a 8 


Figure 7.—Average marches of temperature departures, Fahrenheit, at Helena, 
Mont., accompanying sequences of variation of the solar constant, January to 


December. 


134 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


These plausible arguments may be confuted, but it is doubtful if so 
complex a proposition could be made altogether clear to the lay reader. 
The simpler course is to show that these same marches of temperature, 
at these same cities, are associated with another common system of dates 
in another series of years, which system of dates has an undoubted solar 
connection. This I shali now show. 


THE SPECTROHELIOGRAPH AT THE OBSERVATORIO DEL EBRO 


The eminent astronomer, Dr. George E. Hale, in his youth invented 
the beautiful instrument which he named the spectroheliograph. This 
device photographs the clouds of vapors of individual chemical ele- 
ments, such as hydrogen, helium, iron, or calcium which float above the 
sun’s surface. Hale’s spectroheliograph found instant favor all over 
the world, and many observatories were equipped with it. Among 
them is the Observatorio del Ebro in northern Spain, which is main- 
tained by the Jesuits. Every available day from 1910 to 1987 the 
monks at Ebro photographed the calcium clouds on the solar surface 
with their spectroheliograph. And not only did they observe, but they 
measured the areas of these clouds as well as their mean distances from 
the center of the sun’s disk, and they published all the measures. 


CHARACTER FIGURES OF THE SOLAR-FLOCCULUS ACTIVITY 


With the help of my assistants, Mrs. Bond and Miss Simpson, I have 
used these Spanish measurements of every day of observation from 
1910 to 1987 to compute character figures. These represent the solar 
activity of a given day as measured by the summation, according to cer- 
tain weights, of the areas of the calcium clouds, or “flocculi,” photo- 
* graphed that day on the sun’s disk. These character figures having 
been assembled by months in 12 groups, it was seen at once that they 
showed sequences of rise and of fall, for intervals of a few days each, 
just as the solar-constant values do. 

Going over the tables with care, I selected dates in each of the 12 
months in the years from 1910 to 1937 when the best examples of se- 
quences of rise and sequences of fall occurred. The period of 28 
years is so long that there was no difficulty in finding enough excellent 
sequences without including doubtful cases. I thus tabulated the 
zeroth dates of the rising and the falling sequences of flocculus char- 
acter figures for each of the 12 months covering the years 1910 to 1937. 
Then the Washington temperature departures from 5 days before to 
14 days after each zeroth date were tabulated in the same way as for 
solar-constant correlation. 


135 


CONFIRMATION OF SOLAR-CONSTANT RESULTS BY WORK AT EBRO 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 


Mean values were taken, and often in these tabulations more than 30 


cases entered in each mean. 


I show in figure 8 a computation and 


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Figure 8.—Temperature departures, Fahrenheit, at Washington, D. C., in October, 
accompanying sequences of rise and of fall of the character figures of solar 
calcium flocculi, beginning zeroth day. 


graphical representation of the results at Washington for the month 
of October. Finally I show in figure 9 the march of temperature de- 
619830—45——10 m 


1386 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Gugsi2. Opi Able. AU Weim (6nd) 2 10ine 16) 6. eI VONeE 
ic ie i 
lA of a he olttililg HEE Ay ie} 
ASIA OCT AN clo aah AeA 

{i ee 5 
Pade Runa WA RAZA A tay 
V5) sy ci, vain VV 
Pe Pe Ap aa! 
A aL Set ae ‘Ny 
Le} | WA aaa mah Ah AfS 
ee FA 908 Ve ae DA Ay NA 
BaD ACU AN WA PE ee SOS 

PENCE BEE EHEE 

2 a ee = (2 

[| fe) AL a 

| ALIA 

a BEEN Re we oN, 

PCT RCT EY TYTN TNT - 

a en PAPAL Ese Seen 

REE ASS Se WS Hd 

|_| 4’ NEARER 

hd | RSE 2 

be] 

PECTS 

oe Ped N 

fo] i 
Pim PN is HA GS fh tba Waite al ail ea nig tact 
4 rae 4 mie ral 
ee ee a AN iP SA OR PY i 
ee AS Is AA TRIAS Ae 
Ee ie RY, WA 5 Yan : 
Sa See ed Ea Ba WT TN 
TE Pie Mites Be / 
a Spee io Pea Be Veils lt 
au eae7ane|ae2eununns|ceacear 
3 # : it / ne ee Mh 
Pa AP ts Bat aS ROW AC aDikas Vises 
MSS Oban aC | 4 a OP 

ee REEL RS Le 

4 (OI 


‘\ a 


Nm 
SET Wan 
: Seaeesae 
Le baal PLE ce 
Figure 9.—Average marches of temperature departure, Fahrenheit, at Washington, 
D. C., accompanying sequences of solar change (a) of the solar constant in 
years 1924 to 1939; (b) of character figures for solar calcium flocculi in years 
1910 to 1937, for months January to December. Ordinates are temperature 


departures; abscissae are days from beginning of solar-constant sequence. 
Flocculi area curves are displaced 2 days to right. 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 137 


partures at Washington for the 12 months, as associated both with 
solar-constant sequences and with flocculus character-figure sequences. 

It is at once apparent that similar curves of temperature resulted, 
but that the curves based on flocculus character figures show 2 days’ 
lag in phase compared to the curves based on solar constants. The two 
kinds of solar change, in other words, are not exactly simultaneous. 
The reader will see in the diagram that for comparison purposes the 
flocculus temperature curves are all moved to the right 2 days with 
respect to the solar-constant-temperature curves. This phase dif- 
ference allowed for, the correlation coefficient between solar-constant 
and flocculus temperature curves for Washington is r=59.7+1.9 per- 
cent. It will be noted that the two systems of dates used for the two 
determinations have almost nothing in common. They are spread 
over two different series of years, one interval 1910 to 1937, the other 
1924 to 1939. Owing to differences in days lost for cloudiness in Spain 
and northern Chile, only a few of the dates in the two intervals are 
adjacent. In short, in method, in the years observed, and in detail, 
the two determinations have only this in common: both purport to 
show the influence of changes of solar activity on Washington tem- 
perature. One of the methods uses photographic phenomena univer- 
sally admitted to be solar. Since the results of the two methods are 
well-nigh identical, how can critics longer reasonably deny that in the 
basis of the other method (the solar-constant variation) is also 
a truly veridical solar phenomenon ? 

I therefore claim for the Smithsonian Institution the discovery and 
measurement of variations of the solar constant of radiation, and the 
proof that these solar variations are major factors in the control of 
terrestrial temperatures. 


SOLAR SEQUENCES AND BAROMETRIC PRESSURE 


We have investigated also the dependence of barometric pressure 
on the solar variations tabulated in table2. I will not enter extensively 
into this branch of the subject, nor show further examples of the tem- 
perature effects, because I have much else to present in this lecture. I 
will only draw attention to the march of barometric pressure at Denver 
and Ebro (figs. 10, 11) for the 12 months, as associated with rising and 
falling sequences of solar-constant changes. It will be seen that the 
curves, while not so consistent as the temperature curves, already 
shown, still generally display that right-and-left symmetry which has 
been referred to in temperature. 


POSSIBILITIES OF DETAILED LONG-RANGE FORECASTING 


I now turn to the question whether these solar variations, since indi- 
vidually they apparently produce major changes of weather for inter- 


> 


o< 


: ra 
yf S 
Nd va 
P 
eS AY 
eee 


o 


B 
¥ 
ia 
q 


Z| 


AR 


i 


pian Ga" 


a 


ee SS 
Ea 


: 
a 


=e 
<< 
¢ 


Se, 
a 
~ 


oa 
< 


FIGureE 10. FIGURE 11. 


Ficures 10 Anp 11.—Barometric departures associated with sequences of solar- 
constant variation for 12 months, January to December, at Denver, Colo. (fig. 


10) and Observatory of Ebro, Spain (fig. 11). 


Full curves, rising sequences; 
dotted curves, falling sequences. 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 139 


vals of nearly 20 days, may give hope that a method of forecasting for 
many days in advance may be evolved therefrom. I have, indeed, made 
a preliminary test of this possibility. 

It will be apparent that after computing basic curves of the tempera- 
ture effects of solar variation for a given station, it may be assumed that 
when a sequence of rise of the solar constant is descried in the daily 
observations, one may write down in a column for some 2 weeks there- 
after the departures in temperature expected to follow this sequence of 
rising solar activity. As other sequences occur, some rising, some 
falling, other parallel columns of expected temperature departures are 
written down on the proper dates, appropriate to each. 


i] 243] 4|5]6]7]8 [9 opin [re] sig pee 242: ee 1|2|3|4 siclaialaiie We Jia lagi este 7 [refi] ~ 


Observed. ete 
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; Ss SU EUANOTUONGEUSEOUUESUREUENE 
LUTTE nT 4 THER 


CEN AAEM PTT TT 
SS mETALCeAn AMT TIFELSTEAMA TE HIPAIASAELANGL 
CUVEE PAGE eT 
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ane per ature Departures Washin gton. 


o[qjObserved - -20--30 


eH! 


Pceescn 12.—Forecast and verification of. Washington temperature departures. 


By the summation of all of these columns day by day, one finds an 
expression of the total influence of solar variation. This summation 
may go on continuously, always for as much as 10 days, in advance of 
the calendar. Figure 12 gives such a summation for September and 
October 1935, prepared from solar-constant basic curves for Wash- 
ington and Ebro dates. 

Unfortunately the solar-constant daily values of first-class quality 
are too scattered as yet, with only our two first-class stations observing. 
However, I have found several months in the long record of calcium- 
flocculi measurements kept at Ebro when the breaks were so rare 


140 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


that a fair estimate of the dates of changes in solar activity could be 
made. With allowance made for the difference of 2 days in phase, the 
basic curves used were those derived for Washington temperatures 
' from solar-constant work. The general result was as summarized 
below: 


Days 
Totals :predicheds 2s a te Sik 8 a Se es or eae a en ee 201 
Observed and predicted: ‘sameysign 22 oS se ee ee ee 139 
Observed and: predicted, opposite Signa ee ee 62 
Observed departures: Plus 65, minus 136. 
Predicted departures: Plus 64, minus 137. 
Num- Percent- 
bers ages 
Differences VOLO 2 eee eee le Ce ee eee eee en 66 82.7 
STAM KO Bae: aed ae Rell Paes Rec eal US eat 43 21.3'6°, 69.8% 
Be COT Oe a Ue ot 2 J Be 32 15.8 
General oa 0d 0 Yt SG) WD ae PE PR EE ee 33 16.3 
mean= aL AIA oC 014s gpk ep SE Uk SP AN Ps OE SL es a 20 10.0'6°, 30.3% 
5°.35. Oven toe Sie Pane Ua ee Ae eae 8 4.0 


Correlation coefficient=56.9+3.2 percent. 


This preliminary test, which is a forecast based on solar data alone, 
gives some ground for hope that with more accurate and continuous ob- 
servation of solar-constant values, when these are obtained every 
single day, such solar forecasts, supplemented and corrected by the ex- 
tensive knowledge of terrestrial influences now available to meteorolo- 
gists, may in that combination greatly promote longer-range weather 
forecasting. Since solar changes are a major weather factor it is 
difficult to see how long-range weather forecasts can be made if they 
are neglected as always heretofore. 


THE 27-DAY PERIOD IN WASHINGTON PRECIPITATION 


I now present a curious result of investigation of the sunspot rota- 
tion period of 27 days in connection with the precipitation at Wash- 
ington. In the year 1942 I collected values of the daily precipitation 
at Washington from 1924 to 1941. These values I arranged in cycles 
of 27 days. Since 27 such cycles fill 2 complete years, lacking 1 or 
2 days depending on leap year, it was convenient to tabulate the values 
in nine 2-year tables, and take the mean values for each of them. 

I was immediately struck by the circumstance that for the mean of 
every 2-year tabulation, the 11th day of the cycle in the earlier years 
and the 12th day of the cycle in the later years was from 2 to 3 times 
as rich in precipitation as the 6th and 7th day. The cycle, whose true 
period seems to be 27.0074 days, was always taken in the phase as of 
January 1-27, 1924. On taking the general mean of 243 cycles, the 
characteristic of high values about the 12th day was very marked, but 
other parts of the cycle also were conspicuous as high or as low in 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 141 


precipitation. I then divided the data into three sections representa- 
tive of dry years, 54 cycles; intermediate, 108 cycles; wet years, 81 
cycles. The results are given in figure 13. 


A VERIFIED PREDICTION ONE YEAR IN ADVANCE 


In March 1943 I informed the Chief of the Weather Bureau that on 
a certain list of dates the average daily precipitation would be higher 
than on the remaining dates of the year. I recently tabulated the re- 
sults: Using curve 3, applicable to years of intermediate precipitation, 
the selected dates of 1943 were expected to show 166 times the average 


aw om ms sraeeenaecea as 
rh T 
net 
6 ams t ms 
4 spat B'9 on rH 
at ib; of EH ath . 
4 dana {+ +t 
ue aa + 
“i eanageeeeaa 4 eee 
REE EN : aH HA 
a =! A PATS 
wap was Hee ease: 
2 a awaeren ro 
; = zs 
0 suusesy tet oF : 
4. + 3 4 - aa 
speuieeee' : 
+H gegsee 
2 Ht + I +-| 
gauaeeenee 
c] oorem 5 = 
ac +. 4 i ct 
2 A + 
tH £ 
ues ty we 
aa Si 
fe) 5 aanT ee Et 
abe uae shape { t 
z snaeee neo a 
2 Seupaeewe! sana 
h nage 
is fo t cot i 
if E Saesavavazedasasascfapuererasessratesieceusnessaae 
oO SEEEEE EEE eae 
/ 3 ey 7 } 4 43 15 /7 19 


Figure 18.—27.0074-day period in Washington precipitation. Curve 1, general 
mean, 248 cycles; curve 2, dry years, 54 cycles; curve 3, intermediate, 108 cycles; 
curve 4, wet years, 81 cycles. 


rainfall of the nonselected dates. The actual ratio, for the 175 selected 
dates compared to 191 nonselected (the work included December 31, 
1942) was 1.58.2. The 27-day cycle has continued so consistently for 
20 years at Washington that one is inclined to think it may be trusted 
to hold for some years to come. 


MONTHLY MEAN SOLAR CONSTANTS 


We will now consider monthly mean values of the solar constant 
of radiation, the variations they disclose, the periodicities found 


us I might add that the 2 days of large rainfall in January 1944 fell on selected dates 
also. 


142 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


therein, and the effects of these long-term solar variations on weather. 
Figure 2 gives the monthly mean solar-constant values from 1920 to 
1939. The curve shows fluctuations which appear to be wholly irregu- 
lar. If one asks, are these fluctuations really true changes in solar 
radiation, their very magnitudes give a strong presumption that they 
areso. For inthe comparison of daily values given above it was shown 
that the probable error of the result of a single day of observation 
from one station is but 14 of 1 percent. A monthly mean includes from 
30 to 80 such values. Hence, recalling that the probable error of a 
mean is the probable error of the individual value divided by the 
square root of the number of values entering into the mean, we see 
that the probable error of a monthly mean value is from a thirtieth 
to a fiftieth of 1 percent. Yet the fluctuations in figure 2 range up to 
more than 1 percent. Hence probably many of them are veridical. 


PERIODICITIES IN SOLAR VARIATION 


Although seemingly irregular, the march of solar variation shown 
in curve A, figure 2, like the characteristic voice of the violin or of 
the trumpet, comprises a long wave with many simultaneously active 
shorter waves related to it by simple ratios. However in the solar 
variation the simple relationships appear to be only approximate, 
not quite exact, to the master cycle of 2234 years, or 273 months. 
Nevertheless it is very interesting that this master period, so nearly 
a least common multiple of 13 shorter ones, is approximately double 
the well-known sunspot cycle of 1114 years, and thus equal to Hale’s 
period of magnetic changes in sunspots. Strangely enough, though, 
the sunspot cycle does not appear among the 13 submultiples of the 
solar-constant master period, for no evidence of this 1114-year period 
can be found in the variation of the solar constant.”* 

Here are the observed periods, and their approximate relationship 
to 273 months: 


1 % 1h % Ys Va % 
273 91 68 54 4514 39% 34 


% 7 Waa th Ya ths Veq 

30% 251% 21 11.87 11.29 9.79 8.12 
Curve B of figure 2 is made up by adding together the separate 
influences of these 14 periodicities as they were determined from 
curve A by numerical analysis. The fit of the observed curve by 
the synthetic one is so good that in figure 14 of the Annals, pub- 
lished several years ago, the curve B was carried on as a prophecy 
of solar variation to the end of 1945. Four years of observation 
have become available from Montezuma station, though only in a 
provisional, not the final, reduction. Figure 14 shows a comparison 
between the prophesied and actually observed solar variation. Not 


2a See, however, L. B. Aldrich, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 104, No. 12, July 2, 1945. 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 143 


A, predicted ; B, observed. 


Fiaure 14.—The solar constant of radiation. 


144 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


only in general, but in many details, there is much similarity. We 
await with very great interest the crucial test to come in the latter 
part of 1944 and 1945. If the prophecy is then verified, we may 
expect, as I pointed out occurred about 1922-23,3 unusual weather 
conditions in 1945-46. 


EFFECT OF LONGER SOLAR VARIATIONS ON WHATHER 


Among the shorter periods found in solar variation, as indicated 
by Smithsonian solar-constant measures, are periods of approxi- 
mately 8, 984, and 1114 months. I have sought to determine how 
these and the longer periods of solar variation affect temperature 
and precipitation in many cities. To fix ideas I give a tabulation 
(tables 3 and 4) for 8, 934, and 1114 months at Copenhagen to show 
how these influences are examined.* 


TABLE 3.—Copenhagen temperature departures, smoothed. Test of 8-month period 


[Values of January to August only. Unit: 1/10 degree C.; for means, 1/100 degree C.] 


Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May June July Aug 
1800____ _--.----]| —19 | —17 | —47 33 29 | —12/} — 4 15 
BOQ St a. Vac ee een) || a It 22 10 | —15 | —17 | —33 6 
DEOL I26 oes eee 18 |} —21 | —25 | — 8 11 3 5 11 
WSOG 2225 tk See ake hve 19 | — 4] —19 8 | —20} —15 9 
SOSA NE OM ap ee 8 | —11} —19 | —17 9 9 24 26 
115) I JEP sak Ry SURE wv ng es 1}—5]— 2] —16 | —27)| — 4 8 6 
i [fa] I ja een ge AE at pe | 138 | —18 | —382 | —14 | — 4] —21 2 
18142205222. 28 S2 538 — 53 je = 29 4 {| —30 | —15 10 — 2 
PG ape tat 7857. alee ey, 4| —22/} —4]|-— 6] —27| —15 2 —14 
PSB ee 2 EA anaes 14 185 20 | —21 |} — 3 11 14 — 2 
LSZ0 esse eee eee ees 1|— 4 12 0; —15}] — 7 — 3 

Mean________._| —53 | —64 |—100 | —39 | —54 | —72 | —15 +49 


1300 t6/1820- 2.2: —53 | —64 |—100 | —39 | —54 | —72 | —15 +49 
4822 to 1842... § 2 - =—71 }— 6 105 42 8 fo-| = 4 18 
1844 to 1864_______- — iG 4 e=1E [Sod b= Oia th 82 — 30 
HSG6 to Isson2 soe 2 127 115 44 85 | —27 4 35 24 
1888 to 1908202 fe 123 59 25 he 17 oy) =25 — 64 
L9LO't0. 198022 2. ees 74 108 133 96 58 | —59 46 16 


The maximum appears to shift 11 months and the minimum 19 months to the right in 110 years. With 
such large shifts one cannot exactly determine the proper correction to the period with one trial. These 


3 19X8 1 
shifts however indicate: By the maximum, we month; by the minimum, = -— month. 


110X129 
Further trials led us to fix on the correction 44 month, and to prefer the period 844 months. 


3 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., vol. 9, No. 6, June 1923. 
4In this publication I give only the tabulation for the 8-month period, and its 
correction to 8% months for Copenhagen. Others were shown at the lecture. 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 145 


TaBLE 4.—Copenhagen temperature departures, smoothed. Test of 8%-month period 
[Values of all months employed. Means only given. Unit: 1/100 degree C. throughout.] 


Years November-December beginnings 
£798 to 1833- - ._-.-- Lo 24 21 7 84 ut 18 36 
1833 to 1868_------- —153 | —55 | —48 65) TO fa eek — 66 
1868 to 1903__------ 20 85 88 | 103 33 Wah es sh) 
1908 to 1937-._----- — 102 20 36 44 29 —4 =—9 —20 
1798 to 1937______-- eit ks 22 29 65 AD bee heal Loe 2e 
1798 to 1937 
Nov. and Dec--._-_-- —79 22 29 65 41 Si = 1S ee 
Jan. and Feb---_-_-- 2 i 3\| eae 34 LS ae 0 aie at 0 
Mar, atid Apr. .___-- —29 | —29 | —64 |} —19 | —66 | —39 | —29 15 
May and June.:.__--| —1l 45 44 4h) 12 24 33 46 
July and Aug___--_-- 29 Pte Ni 8 I OI eel: 16 Su) iat 
Sept. and Oct-_-_---_-- 24 32 52 6 5 18 40 42 


That there is here no progressive secular displacement of the phases of means of groups beginning at a 
constant season of the year, is shown by the extended table for November-December. But groups begin- 
ning at different seasons of the year do show displacement of phases with respect to one another. 

I soon found that while there seemed to be some tendency to perio- 
dicities in weather corresponding to the solar changes, these weather 
periodicities, unlike their solar counterparts, fluctuated in phase. It 
occurred to me, however, that this instability of phase is but a natural 
seasonal effect for the periods of shorter duration like 8, 934, or 1144 
months. For the phase of terrestrial response to a solar cause must 
evidently depend on local terrestrial circumstances. For instance, 
there will be a longer lag with stations under oceanic control than for 
those in cloudless deserts. Pursuing this thought it occurred to me 
that the phase, for example, of an 8-month period of response to solar 
change in weather must be different if the solar cause occurs in 
summer than if it occurs in winter. I investigated this idea for several 
periods and many stations. Figure 15 shows that my surmise was 
a correct one. 

Hence terrestrial responses to solar periods of moderate lengths 
should be expected to be in the same phases only when the solar causes 
occur at the same time of the year. If a solar period of exactly 8 
months existed, we must compare its terrestrial effects 2 years apart, 
for then their solar causes would occur exactly at the same seasons of 
the year. 

I will not delay to show exactly how we make use of the calendar to 
eliminate seasonal phase changes, but will content myself with show- 
ing for three stations, Copenhagen, Vienna, and New Haven (see tables 
3 and 4), that when this complication is properly allowed for, and when 
the exact length of the solar period is determined, the terrestrial re- 
sponse is proved to be exactly in phase from the year 1700 to the present 


146 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


time. Figure 16 shows how necessary it is in such a long term 
of years to select the exact period. Using 8 months there is but small 
amplitude, even when seasonal influences are eliminated, but with 


EAE 
| Ashes 
ST De is 


iS 
/CA t 


ALIWAL, S.AFR. 
4 


bs 


zz 
MONTHS OF YEAR 
Fiaure 15.—Phase relations of periodicities in terrestrial responses to solar variations, depending on seasons of the 


> a wn » ™ ~ > gD N » %) > 
COl#7d SO SHLNOW 


8/4 months all three stations show a strong periodicity, with ampli- 
tudes of 1°.3 C., 1°.1 C., and 1°.3 F., respectively, over nearly a cen- 
tury and a half. In this way we have been able, by using tempera- 


year, 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 147 


ture records at terrestrial stations, to obtain more exact periods of the 
solar changes than could be fixed by solar-constant measurements ex- 
tending only since the year 1920. 


New Haven 


aA [ot Pa Os We OT 
ence t| Et Pohl A pode Nee 9 

SHA 
Jae eee eee 


| 
TIACACLAI Te 
PEE CEA EC ae 


ML. 


Figure 16.—A periodicity of 84% months in temperatures at Copenhagen, Vienna, 
and New Haven, Conn., since the year 1700. Seasonal phase disturbances are 
excluded. 


PERIODICITIES IN WEATHER 


Since the 14 periods® simultaneously active in solar variation are 
approximately aliquot parts of 273 months, we may anticipate that 
the many weather features occurring at a station in this interval of 
nearly 23 years will tend to repeat with some measure of similarity 
in successive 23-year cycles. Experience shows that this influence 
is more effective at some stations than at others. Figure 17 shows 
what has happened at one of the most responsive stations, Peoria, IIl. 
It will be seen that especially in the last half of the cycles the tendency 
of features to repeat in Peoria precipitation is quite marked. Two 
attempts to forecast, made in 1934 and in 1938, are shown by heavy 
dotted lines, and by light full lines, respectively, in figure 17. 

I have made use of this 273-month master period to predict 
precipitation for some years in advance at a number of limited 
regions of the United States. I reduced the prediction to a purely 
routine computation, and used the percentages of normal precipi- 
tation smoothed by 5-month consecutive means. Thus for March 


5To them must be added the sunspot cycle of approximately 723 months. For though 


it does not appear in variations of the solar constant, the ionic: bombardment of the earth 
from sunspots is not negligible as a weather factor. 


148 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Jan.+Feb.+Mar.+Apr.+ May 
5 


,etc. Then for the expected smoothed 


use the summation 


Feb. + Mar.+Apr.+May+June 
5 

percentage precipitation value for January of a future year, take the 

smoothed value for April 46 years previously, plus the smoothed value 

for February 23 years previously, and divide by 2. This simple rule 

works very well for some stations. Thus for Eastport, Maine, from 

1935 to 1942, inclusive: 


, and for April, 


For 96 months, average observed minus predicted___.___________ 16 percent. 

Number observed and predicted on same side of 100 percent______-____-__-___ 78 

Number observed and predicted on opposite sides of 100 percent___-_-___~ 18 

Number, though observed and predicted on opposite sides of 100 percent, 
their difference observed minus predicted, less than +16 percent___--____ 6 

YEARS s 

4 160 +++ Js SRD ON ND AT TR WaT, (aes ALP 

= 0 (a Ae a Gd SY A A Wl TE WB 

eee DAREN EAE PSY VERS [ND | LPS Pe dW PS Pe |] 


pe | ee ae EE a ay PH EL, a ro TAT ATI 
(hie int a OG 97) EY ek 
C72 VRE CY lS Al WR DS ODT 
iB Ie) 1 ey, | ee ee ee ee ee are, 
A TO BB, WP DP a 
LN Nha! el TAT WAN Wn fT ; 
27 A PL ON A 


tf NY 


: Le! | Lt 
SG | Pn | Ae ee ES 
A OT PN 
LWA YP AVN tg ORR od | 
RE AT TA ic P| a a | SY: 
SEA Ra (Na fae yA, a a a a FP Se 
MEERA A 0 a WE Sd A 
FO ME RF Ps | a HW |, 
7: Na i i a No AL fA \( 
WIN ATS AL TT Ve hg A eT A A | 
PTV AW WO TW ot TT he yCaRuIm IY Weyl 7 | OV 
RL aR YT a ih sie Bee) 
BE Se a Pe RS 
In Dac Gael WG a ot 


Ficurre 17.—Precipitation at Peoria, Ill., smoothed by 5-month running means, 
arranged in 23-year cycles. Letters represent similar features in successive 
cycles. Forecasts (dotted line, from 1934; thin line, from 1938) made by con- 
sideration of preceding cycles. 


1898 


1921 100 


From these figures one may fairly claim that of 96 months predicted 
84 were useful predictions, or a measure of success of 87 percent. 
For 12 New England stations similarly evaluated, 807 were useful, 
845 unsatisfactory months’ predictions. 

Several years ago, at the resquest of a Colonel of Engineers I 
made in this way from records of 10 stations a prediction for 3 
months of the expected precipitation in the Tennessee Valley region. 
My prediction of precipitation was 84 to 87 percent normal. The 
event was 87 percent normal. 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—-ABBOT 


1875-1897 


Ne 


23-YEAR PERIOD IN TREE RINGS 
FROM 5 GROUPS, SO. CALIFORNIA 
15 


YEARS 5 10 20 


Fiaure 18.—The 23-year period as found in the thickness of tree rings from five 


southern California groups, 1829 to 1920. 


150 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The double and quadruple master periods of about 46 and 91 years 
seem even more prominent than the 23-year cycle in precipitation. 
In further illustration of the effects of the 23-, 46-, and 91-year perio- 
dicities I give figures 18, 19, and 20. They show, respectively, the 23- 
year period in the growth of trees in California, the 46-year period 
in the precipitation at Bismarck, N. D., and the 23-, 46-, and 91-year 
periods in the level of Lake Huron. It seems probable that large de- 


lie ren les eae 
te ea 
Fi a Pa 
a ee Se 


ACS CIC TNA ir 
OWN TU CHEW — 
WA TT | 


My 


4 188s 6 7 8 9 


PERCENTAGE OF NORMAL PRECIPITATION 
o 


Nh AE 
WAM | VW LT Lee 
pth A a 
SS SS 
eS ale A sa a a 


20 
1930 1 1935 1940 \ 3 1944 


BISMARCK, S.DAKOTA. PRECIPITATION AT EPOCHS SEPARATED 46 YEARS. 
Ficure 19.—The dotted line in the lower curve, from 1937 to 1943, was drawn in 
1937 as a prediction. 


clines in the Great Lakes levels, accompanying great droughts in the 
Northwest, will begin about the years 1975 and 2020. 


THE 14 SOLAR PERIODICITIES REFLECTED INDIVIDUALLY IN 
WEATHER 


There is another method of making long-range weather forecasts 
based on solar variation. With strict attention to the seasonal in- 
fluences on phase already referred to, one may compute from monthly 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT Lb 


weather records of the past what are the effects of each of the 14 
solar periodicities on temperature and on rainfall for any desired sta- 
tion. Then, assuming that these influences will continue with the 
same effects in future, and still paying close attention to the seasonal 
changes of phase, one may add together all these effects, and also the 
sunspot-cycle effect, similarly detexiiinied from records of the past, 
and thus prepare a forecast for several years in the future. 

With the aid of my assistant, Miss McCandlish, I have made such 
forecasts of temperature and err iation for several cities in the 


7 73 75 77 79 8) 1683 


1837 39 4&0) 43045. .  ar a9 -) 


7 3] 65 67 
a aries fo 
ee Sess eee 
ch at Eo ae eee 
28 LP Oe a 5b 2 a ee I 
Seen ewics mene re NC Loh ee ae i 
| a Oo mn to at Oa 
1 Eas — 
hl ie a 75 (Ha NR a Wa Wa a ce cE 
© SESE (Da EG | a De PH CG La a RC OS 
89 9 13 15 17 19 2l 
(iad 
= nce a a 
Se ame 
ZA 
eae WF, a a 
Baal cS GER Os, A a ee ee 
ie oS I cg a a Wa, Sa 
SEES Poe a SS SS GU 9 a a a WO OL 
So pm tees sO cls OG ne 
| ea ocr 
! 
UU pene ee Waar ny pe nh Leste pepe 
ee ONS) So os Ba ade |e een aera | 
° 
Paina vit get. wim omit (> ie ede | 
Se Se ae ae A a 
SU aa aN Cs ae ae: 


2 ‘eal om a et ae LE ae 


FicurE 20.—Levels of Lake Huron (minus 581 ft.). Note the cycles of 28, 46, and 
91 years. (Yearly means.) Great droughts in the Northwest following 1838, 
1886, and 1929 recessions. The grand cycle is 92 years (or better, 91.2). Minor 
droughts following 1859, 1906, and to be expected following 1952. 


United States. They have been very successful in some cases, not so 
much so in others. Figure 21 shows one of the most successful, again 
dealing with the precipitation at Peoria, Ill. We employed the pre- 
cipitation records prior to 1930 to determine the outlines of the pe- 
riodic terms, and then synthesized the expected precipitation through 
1944. As will be seen, 10 years out of the 13 show both in phase and 
amplitude considerable similarity to the event. The later years betray 
an increasing tendency for the prophecy to anticipate in phase. This 
may indicate that some adjustment of length of periods is desirable. 
619830—45——11 


152 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Re tes ted hata 
HP BF We es 2 ele 
go eee | 
Sees gala heel teste college 

Epa ipa a 


es 


—| 


AA tee 


Synthesis of 15 Cet 


atl 


194/ 


1940 


fe ee ee eae 
eee eel 
A 


1939 


| 
| 


esi 
nS 
fil 
miea ar hit ees 


Fs 


Gaal 
f}—— 


determined from records for 1856 to 1929. 


ass 
CCECCCEP sere 
CU errr 

" eet 


Fisure 21.—Precipitation percentages at Peoria, Ill., predicted (dotted curve) and observed (full curve). 


SOLAR VARIATION AND WEATHER—ABBOT 153 


However, if one were content with 5- or 7-year predictions, such 
shifts of phase could be corrected from time to time. 


CONCLUSION 


I have brought together many evidences which seem to indicate 
that the small percentage changes observed in the solar emission of 
radiation are effective factors in the domain of weather. Many others 
have been published by H. H. Clayton. The solar measurements in- 
volved are exceedingly difficult and require installations on high moun- 
tains in desert regions, where the largest percentages of clear skies 
with low wind velocities prevail. Three stations maintained by the 
Smithsonian Institution are now engaged in day-to-day measure- 
ments of the solar constant of radiation. On account of the variable 
obstruction occasioned by the atmosphere, laden as it is with clouds, 
dust, ozone, and water vapor, these three stations are insufficient 
adequately to follow and record the sun’s variation. About three 
times as many mountain stations, widely separated in the most cloud- 
less and calm regions of the earth are needed. They could be installed 
for $500,000, and operated for $250,000 per annum.® 

I think there is a great probability that if such additional solar 
stations were in operation they would furnish information of major 
value to meteorology. I believe that with the solar data that would 
then be available, and using the rich store of information regarding 
terrestrial factors now familiar to meteorologists, great progress 
would ensue. The neglect of solar variation, which seems to be a 
major factor in weather, cannot continue if meteorology is to progress 
as it should. It would be like the play “Hamlet” with Hamlet’s part 
omitted. 


€ Very recent developments of the research, however, give hope that another approach 
to the problem not requiring additional stations may be successful. 


Ad 


Fat cree’: 


wee ys 


Libs 


i" RY te 8 ‘ a ra 
a Pion 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Abbot PLATE 1 


SOLAR PHOTOGRAPH BY MOUNT WILSON OBSERVATORY, SHOWING SUNSPOTS, 
FACULAE, AND PROMINENCES. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Abbot 


PLATE 2 


THE COELOSTAT AND THE PYRHELIOMETER JUST OUTSIDE THE TUNNEL AT 
MONTEZUMA, CHILE. 


ASTRONOMY IN A WORLD AT WAR’ 


By A. VIBERT DovGLas 
Queen’s University 
Kingston, Ontario 


I 


Science has advanced during the last 4 years both because and 
in spite of war. Some of the sciences have made tremendous strides 
as a direct result of the challenge of war necessities. Physics, chem- 
istry, metallurgy, and all the branches of medical science are in this 
category; some day the full story of their great achievements may 
be made known. Other branches of knowledge, while far from being 
unaffected by the war, have continued to advance largely in spite 
of the upheavals in the life of nations and individuals which world 
war inevitably brings. Astronomy is in this latter class. 

Astronomy and astronomers are playing an important part in the 
war chiefly along the two lines which have always presented funda- 
mentally stellar problems—direction and time. But the main ad- 
vances in astronomy in these last 4 years have been made in spite 
of the war. It is right and fitting and indeed very encouraging that 
this is the case. When so much that is of intrinsic beauty and of 
fundamental value is being destroyed by war, and when so many 
worthwhile activities have to cease, it is good indeed to know that 
there are astronomers on this continent, and even in some parts of 
Europe, and in Australia, Africa, India, and probably in Japan, 
who are able to carry on the continuity of observations on stars and 
starlight, sun and moon, planets and asteroids, comets and meteors. 

If the continuity of observation in many branches of astronomical 
work were to be completely broken, it would be an irreparable loss 
to science. Thus it is with satisfaction and great admiration that 
we read in the Reports of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, that 
damage done by enemy action to one of the buildings and to 
the Airy transit circle has been largely made good, and observations 
recommenced with that instrument upon Sun, Venus, and the stars 

1 Address of the president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, January 1944. 


Reprinted by permission from The Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 
vol. 38, No. 3, March 1944. 


155 


156 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


in the clock and azimuth lists; that parallax determinations are going 
on; that solar photography and observations of chromospheric erup- 
tions in Ha are continuing; and that the two Time Service Stations 
have operated continuously. During this period the exhaustive work 
on the solar parallax was brought to completion. 

In France solar, planetary, and stellar research have been carried 
on, and in Holland galactic problems, long-period variables, dark 
nebulosity, and theoretical astrophysics have been under investiga- 
tion even in these tragic years. In the U. S. S. R., where at least 
three observatories have been destroyed and another dismantled, plans 
are already made for resumption of activity and for the erection of 
new observatories to further the study of latitude variations and solar 
research. From two observatories east of the farthest battle front we 
know that papers have been published recently on photoelectric calo- 
rimetry and on color temperatures. 

Similar records of observations and measurements carried on des- 
pite air raids, despite reduction of staff, despite pressing war problems 
and difficulties of all kinds, could be quoted from many observatories 
in countries deeply involved in fighting for their very existence. 

‘In these and in countries like our own—at war, but far removed 
from the main theaters of conflict—there has been a very important 
contribution made by astronomers in the adaptation of astronomical 
observations and calculations to the problems of air ngvigation. The 
Director of the Glasgow University Observatory, W. M. Smart, has 
produced three books on nautical astronomy since this war began, and 
under his instruction, R. A. F. pilots and cadets are learning the art 
and science of navigation. Scores of astronomers, including Canadian 
men well known to many of us, are doing similar work, giving all 
their time, skill, and energy, and often risking their lives in the air 
with student pilots, in order to impart this so necessary instruction 
in air navigation, 

In the Koran, it is written: “God has given you the stars to be 


guides in the dark, both by land and sea.” Homer tells of Ulysses. 


on his raft that he sat at the helm and “marked the skies, nor 
closed in sleep his ever watchful eyes.” But navigation from the 
back of a camel or from the bridge of a ship can be a relatively 
leisurely performance. Not so in a modern airplane! The naviga- 
tor takes a sight on a star or planet, he reads his chronometer, and 
then if his calculations take him 5 minutes to perform, he and his 
plane are already perhaps 25 miles away from the ascertained posi- 
tion. Every minute that astronomers have been able to cut off the 
time for computation of position is of the greatest value to airmen 
flying over seven seas and six continents, across enemy lines, with 
objectives a mere dot on the map—a railway yard, a factory, an 
airfield. 


ASTRONOMY IN A WORLD AT WAR—DOUGLAS 157 


II 


Turning to the subject of time measurement, it is worthy of note 
that during these war years an accuracy never before dreamed of 
has been attained. It was in April 1938 that Essen described before 
the Royal Astronomical Society the researches at the National Physi- 
cal Laboratory which had resulted in the new quartz clock, of which 
so much was hoped. This clock makes use of the properties of the 
crystal oscillator, one of the most reliable and perfect mechanical 
systems known to man. Essen describes quartz clocks briefly as “con- 
sisting of phonic motors controlled via frequency dividers by vibrating 
quartz crystals.” In a paper presented to the Royal Astronomical 
Society last June, Greaves and Symms record the intercomparisons 
of three Greenwich free pendulum Shortt clocks, two National Physi- 
cal Laboratory quartz clocks, and three quartz clocks at the Post 
Office Radio Branch Laboratories. 

They analyze clock errors into three classes: (a) erratic varia- 
tions in phase, (b) erratic variations in rate, (c) a combination of 
phase and rate variations, producing a cumulative effect. They show 
that two Shortt clocks and two quartz clocks may indicate approxi- 
mately the same mean absolute second differences of relative clock 
error, but the distribution of errors between the three classes is differ- 
ent—the quartz clocks show very little error of (b) and (c) relative to 
Shortt clocks, and errors of class (a) do not affect the long-period 
performance of a clock. 

The famous Shortt clocks are now known to be incapable of giving 
the precision demanded, but the Astronomer Royal hastened to pay 
them a deserved tribute: 

Twenty years ago we had several papers dealing with the performance of 
the Shortt clocks, then looked upon with great expectations. In this clock was 
achieved in a simple and beautiful manner what horologists had been striving 
after for years, namely, a pendulum designed solely for the purpose of beating 
time whilst being called upon to perform no mechanical work. But if the subse- 
quent performance of this type of clock did not fully come up to our high expec- 
tations, the Shortt Free Pendulum has one thing to its everlasting credit—it 
forced the astronomers to adopt the use of Mean Sidereal Time where formerly 
True Sidereal Time had been adequate. During the intervening 20 years since 
this type of clock was installed in many observatories, new requirements have 
sprung up. In the past the main purpose of a time service was to provide absolute 
time with an accuracy sufficient for navigational and surveying requirements. 
But the new use of frequency standards has raised a demand for 24-hour intervals 
correct to the very high accuracy of a millisecond. 

It will be seen then that as absolute standards at Greenwich, Shortt clocks 
have become obsolete. Our long-range predictions are now based entirely on 
quartz clocks, free pendulum clocks being used only for extrapolation over an 
interval of 24 hours. 


158 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
III 


Let us turn our thoughts to cosmology and recall that it was during 
the first World War that Einstein’s general theory of relativity ap- 
peared. Two years later, in the war year 1917, came the first sugges- 
tion of an expanding universe. This was one interpretation of de 
Sitter’s modification of Einstein’s cosmology, implying as it did red 
shifts of the spectrum lines of faint distant objects. Incidentally, we 
may turn aside to remark that while de Sitter was then working in 
a Holland that had been allowed to remain neutral, his spirit is living 
on in the occupied and battered Holland of this war, and he, though 
dead, yet speaketh, inspiring his successors at Leiden and Amsterdam 
to carry on the tradition of astrophysical research in spite of all ex- 
ternal difficulties—thus Verweij has produced a theoretical discussion 
of Stark effect in stellar spectra which was published in Holland and 
found its way to the United States of America just before the entry 
of that country into this war. Perhaps I may add that Verweij in 
that paper dealt a hard blow at a paper by a McGill colleague and 
myself, though I do not accept it as a knock-out blow. Further re- 
search on this controversial subject is now in progress at the Dominion 
Astrophysical Observatory.? 

De Sitter had also deduced from Einstein’s theory the four con- 
clusions which offered a hope of observational confirmation. One 
of these four crucial tests was whether radiant energy passing close 
to a body with an intense gravitational field surrounding it, would be 
deflected in accordance with Newton’s law of gravitation or with Ein- 
stein’s modification of that law. It was Prof. A. S. Eddington who 
realized the great importance of making this test at the first favor- 
able opportunity, namely, at the time of the total solar eclipse which 
was to occur on May 29, 1919, with the Hyades as background. War 
or no war, all the plans and preparations were pushed ahead and thus 
it was that when the eventful day arrived, even though the Treaty of 
Versailles had not yet been signed, two British expeditions were in 
readiness to take the crucial photographs. I often reread the passage 
written by a learned mathematician and philosopher in which he 
described the meeting of the Royal Society when the results of these 
eclipse expeditions were announced, verifying as they did the theory 
of Einstein: 

The whole atmosphere of tense interest was exactly that of the Greek drama; 
we were the chorus commenting on the decree of destiny as disclosed in the 
development of a supreme incident. There was dramatic quality in the very 


staging ;—the traditional ceremonial, and in the background the picture of 
Newton to remind us that the greatest of scientific generalisations was now, after 


2? Recent work at the D. A. O. points to a confirmation of the work of Foster and Douglas 
on the interpretation of helium profiles. 


ASTRONOMY IN A WORLD AT WAR—DOUGLAS 159 


more than two centuries, to receive its first modification. Nor was the personal 
interest wanting: a great adventure in thought had at length come safe to shore. 
[A. N. Whitehead.] 

De Sitter’s expanding universe suggested an outward motion of 
the stellar bodies within the framework of space as defined by his 
modification of the Einstein equation of spacetime geometry. Ten 
years later, Lemaitre, who had fought with the Belgian army in the 
war years and afterward entered Louvain University, brought for- 
ward his theory of expanding space. This made the radius of cur- 
vature of space a function of time, and gave a new stimulus to the 
astronomers in those great observatories equipped to probe most 
deeply into space. In the following years, at Mount Wilson and 
Harvard particularly, the exploration of space was carried on with 
vigor, and methods were found of estimating the distances of the 
remote galaxies. A special lens was designed to obtain their spectra 
at Mount Wilson, and thanks to the broad, strong H and K lines of 
ionized calcium, red shifts could be measured to distances estimated 
as 250,000,000 light-years. The correlation between distance and red 
shift has provided a remarkable confirmation of the theory of the 
expanding universe. Recessional velocities up to one-seventh the 
velocity of light have now been observed. In the years between the 
wars a few voices were heard to question the interpretation of the red 
shift as a Doppler displacement, but since no alternative explanation 
suggested itself without postulating some entirely new law of Nature, 
the expanding universe remained as a working hypothesis in the back- 
ground of most astronomers’ minds. 

One of the interesting things that these recent war years have 
brought is the reopening of this question by E. P. Hubble. Is the 
universe expanding? Is the red shift actually indicative of motion? 
Or is the framework of the universe static? And if static, what is 
the explanation of the displacement of all spectrum lines to the 
red for distant galaxies? Hubble’s analysis of all available data 
based on the assumption that the universe is expanding, necessitates 
the calculation of a dimming factor due to recession. When cor- 
rection is made for this in the estimation of distances, he claims 
that a map results which is not of homogeneous density, which 
implies an increasing rate of expansion with distance, and therefore 
an “age” of the universe totally inadequate. On the other hand 
when he assumes a static framework for the universe, the analysis 
of all the data gives a map that shows a linear relation between 
red shift and distance, and a homogeneity of density. This map 
has more to commend it than has the former map, and hence the 
assumption of a static framework appears to be favored. But, as 
various astronomers have pointed out, the weakness of this result 
lies in the large probable errors of the quantities involved, so that 


160 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


even an apparent divergence of 30 percent from uniformity of den- 
sity is not evidence weighty or certain enough to overthrow the 
Lemaitre theory of an expanding universe. 


IV 


Important advances have been made recently by Gamow and 
Bethe in our understanding of the sources of energy within stars 
which permit them to radiate energy as they do. Bethe has given 
an exposition of a cyclical sequence of atomic changes and interac- 
tions whose net result leaves a star with fewer hydrogen atoms, but 
with more helium and the liberation of excess nuclear energy in the 
form of gammarays. This is now generally referred to as the carbon 
cycle and it is too beautiful not to be recorded here, for though 
published a few months before the war, it has been during the war 
years that it has become a part of astronomical thinking. Of the 
six stages, four result from collisions with hydrogen atoms in the 
deep, hot interiors of main sequence stars, and two are spontaneous 
disintegrations of unstable nuclei. 


1.C%+H! = N®+y 
2,.N8— C8 + _ positron 
3.C8+H = N¥+y 
4.N¥4+H! = OB+y 

5. 0% > N® + positron 
6, N2.-) Ht, ==. 1 OC let 


The two positrons rapidly interact with electrons to give rise to 
gamma radiation. Thus is produced the penetrating radiation, most 
of which in the course of its progress toward the boundary of the 
star becomes transformed into the heat, light, and ultraviolet radiation 
that pour out from the photosphere. The central temperatures of 
the cool giant stars are insufficient to maintain this active cycle, but 
theory can explain their radiant energy in terms of atomic collisions 
and transmutations which are, however, noncyclical. Hydrogen, 
deuterium, lithium, beryllium, boron are slowly transformed into 
helium. 

If the central regions of the hottest stars are not the crucibles of 
nature wherein the elements are built up, where and under what 
conditions were they formed? A highly speculative answer is to be 
found in an intensely interesting piece of theoretical research carried 
out during the early years of this war by Chandrasekhar and Heinrich. 
They have been inquiring under what conditions of nature the basic 
units of matter—electrons, protons, neutrons, positrons—could be ex- 
pected to come together to form, in their various proportions, the 
atoms of all the isotopes of the elements familiar to the chemist. As 


ASTRONOMY IN A WORLD AT WAR—DOUGLAS 161 


these elements compose all stellar bodies as well as all things ter- 
restrial, their synthesis is a cosmic problem. They find that such 
tremendous extremes of high temperature and high density would be 
required that it is necessary to suppose that all the matter of the 
known universe was once confined to a volume of radius only about 
twenty times that of the solar system. Such a sphere drawn around 
our sun as center does not now contain a single other star. Yet into 
such a volume there may once have been packed not’ only all the 
thousand million stars of our own galaxy, but all the millions of 
other galaxies. This is indeed a picture reminiscent of the “giant 
molecule” of Lemaitre. Since stars and galaxies are not now thus 
packed, expansion must have taken place some time very long ago. 
The present rate of expansion is such that galactic distances are 
doubled every 1,800 million years. This gives the time elapsed, since 
the expansion began, as several thousand million years which is in 
satisfactory accord with the age of the earth as determined by other 
physical lines of approach and regarded necessarily as a lower limit 
for the age of the universe. 

The last chapter on these cosmological problems is not yet written— 
indeed there may well be many chapters yet to come and still no last 
chapter in sight. It is the glory of the quest that as men seek the 
unexplored horizon the margin fades forever and forever as they 
move. 


V 


An investigation of very recent date has led to positive conclusions 
about planetlike bodies associated with stars other than our sun. 
There is strong evidence for this in the case of 61 Cygni and 70 
Ophiuchi. This may be the beginning of a new search and a new 
certainty in a field of astronomy hitherto theoretical and speculative. 
Already several astronomers on two continents are studying the im- 
plications. 

Another astrophysical problem that has been worked upon with 
considerable success during these war years, is the old backlog prob- 
lem since 1869 of the solar corona. At Uppsala, Edlén has been 
examining the X-ray and ultraviolet spectra of some very highly ion- 
ized atoms, and a year ago his 1942 paper was received in England and 
also in the United States of America. He uses his laboratory data as 
basis for calculation of forbidden lines and altogether he identifies 17 
coronal lines with lines of Fe X, XI, XIII, XIV, XV, Ni XII, XIII, 
XV, XVI, Ca XII, XIII, A X; and two other lines less certainly with 
Ca XV and A XIV. The ionization potentials required to produce 
such atoms are very high, actually 233 volts for Fe X, 655 volts for 
Ca XIII, and at first this seemed to offer an insuperable obstacle to 


162 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


acceptance of Edlén’s proposals. The age-old question of Nicodemus 
arose—how can these things be? These atoms are many thousand 
miles from the photosphere of the sun; and to produce such ionization, 
temperatures of 2,000,000 degrees are necessary. Speculation and 
calculation have followed. A few months ago an explanation was 
given in a letter to Nature by V. Vand of London. Even higher tem- 
peratures he shows to be possible in the low-density regions of the 
corona as a result of collisions of high-velocity atoms falling toward 
the sun from interplanetary space. With the greater density of the 
inner corona and consequent increase in radiation losses, he believes 
conditions may be favorable to just those transitions postulated by 
Edlén. 


VI 


The numbers 136, 137, 256 will awaken in the minds of many of 
you memories of a kindled interest, of perplexity, doubt, expecta- 
tion, and perhaps of moments of great thrill, as you think back 
over the last 15 years. One name alone stands central among these 
memories—that of Sir A. S. Eddington. This has been his play- 
ground pre-eminently. Some of us have stood fascinated at the edge 
of the field watching this illusive game played patiently, skillfully, 
brilliantly by one man, a master juggler with the elements of the 
theory of groups, with quantum mechanics, and with the basic units 
of measurement, producing, as from the proverbial hat, physical con- 
stants both atomic and astronomical. Some there have been who 
paused to watch briefly, to smile or even ridicule the Aristotelian 
tour de force. But steadily and doggedly the theory has been pushed 
forward, several papers having appeared in the last 3 years until 
now the evidence is overwhelmingly great that, with no observational 
data other than three basic constants, namely, the velocity of light 
and the Rydberg and Faraday constants for hydrogen, it is possible 
to calculate theoretically the following 13 physical constants: charge 
e; Planck’s constant; masses of electron, proton, hydrogen atom; 
gravitation constant; fine structure constant; nuclear range-constant ; 
nuclear energy-constant; mass of universe; number of particles in 
universe; Einstein radius of space; nebular speed. This is a striking 
achievement. 

Let us look briefly at just two of these constants. The recessional 
velocity of the spiral nebulae is calculated to be 572.36 km. per sec- 
ond per megaparsec. The observational value of Hubble and Huina- 
son is 560. When the great 200-inch reflector comes into action, we 
shall expect to see the observational value come closer to Eddington’s 
determination. 

The number of independent quadruple wave functions at any point 
is 2X 186 X 2” or 3.15 X10” and in his earlier work Eddington iden- 


: 


ASTRONOMY IN A WORLD AT WAR—DOUGLAS 163 


tified this with the number of particles in the universe. Since 1939 he 
has found that a question of nonintegrability in spherical space 
necessitates a reduction of 25 percent; so the number given in his 
1942 paper is 2.36 X 10”. 

This theortical approach has now reached a point where its author 
can write “I think the theory now deserves to be the accepted theory— 
my definition of an ‘accepted theory’ being that it is the theory which 
is so far right that everyone is interested in trying to discover what 
is wrong with it.” Can we wonder that he pauses in his work to refer 
to “the devastating beauty of quantum arithmetic.” This entire in- 
vestigation must surely rank as one of the great adventures of the 
human mind exemplifying Blake’s stately metaphor—“Imagination 
goes forth in its uncurbed glory.” 


vil 


This brief survey of a few fields of astronomical research, incom- 
plete as it obviously is, will serve nevertheless to indicate that pure 
science is not dormant, much less is it dead, during the terrible years 
when the vile demoniacal God of War stands astride the earth. For 
many years the International Astronomical Union has been an in- 
fluence for understanding, and for cooperation in the search for 
knowledge with mutual respect and trust. It is temporarily in abey- 
ance, but it will once again rise to carry on its good work. The 
lesson of astronomy down the centuries has been one of international 
interdependence and mutual indebtedness. 

The problems facing mankind are very complex—the dealings of 
man with man, the attitude of nation to nation. No solutions making 
for international good will and world peace will be achieved by men 
of narrow mind, myopic sight, and dwarfed soul. The far vision 
in time and space, the winged imagination that leaps the barrier 
of here and now—these are the qualities of mind and spirit needed in 
every walk of life and needed superlatively in the leaders of every 
nation if in the years just ahead of us progress is to be made toward 
the great ideal of international unity. How can the eyes of the 
blind be awakened to the dazzling vision of the City of God? For 
some it may be by the contagious enthusiasm of a great teacher or 
leader, for others the illumination from poetry, for some the spark 
is kindled by the study of history, or of philosophy, and for yet others 
it is through natural philosophy and astronomy. Mankind needs the 
perspective of the cosmic background. “The great values,” said 
Field Marshal Smuts, “retain their unfading glory and derive new 
meaning from a cosmic setting.” 

There is a challenge to the scientists and to the lovers of science 
to teach the boys and girls, the young men and women of today and 


164 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


tomorrow, the ideals, the aims, the methods, and the integrity of the 
scientific approach to facts and to problems. 

We do not forget the dictum of Rabelais, “Science without con- 
science is damnation.” Wartime drives this home with bitter and 
tragic intensity. But we may say with great assurance that science 
with conscience has an essential part to play in procuring and main- 
taining world conditions in which peace can endure. 

All who have the ideal of world citizenship at heart, all who have 
the far vision of things that have been and of things that may be, 
and the realistic grasp of things that are, must cooperate in the great 
task of bringing into the affairs of mankind upon this earth some 
semblance of the order, beauty, and harmony of the universe of 
stars. Toward this end, both directly and indirectly, astronomy and 
astronomers can play a part; and it may prove to be a part which 
no one else can play for them because they, the astronomers, are the 
people with the fullest understanding of the cosmic background. 


THE STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE! 


By CLAupE WILLIAM HEAPS 
Professor of Physics, The Rice Institute 


It may seem, at first sight, presumptuous to attempt the discussion, 
in one hour or less, of such a comprehensive topic as the structure of 
the universe. Actually the subject is not as big as it sounds. There 
are, in one sense, as many universes as there are individuals; but the 
universe in this personal sense will be ruled out of the present discus- 
sion. A tremendous simplification is at once achieved when we limit 
our topic to the physical universe. We now inquire, what is the phys- 
ical universe? 

Eddington has defined it as the “theme of a specified body of know]l- 
edge, just as Mr. Pickwick might be defined as the hero of a specified 
novel.” Such a definition emphasizes the epistemological point of 
view and therefore it suffers from lack of definiteness and simplicity. 
There is beautiful directness and decisiveness in the attitude of the 
mathematician who wrote an equation on one line in one of his pub- 
lished papers and said, “This equation contains everything we know 
about the physical universe.” ‘The conciseness of the language of 
mathematics is probably nowhere better exemplified than in this equa- 
tion. On the other hand, the universe, if it can be described in terms 
of mathematical symbols and with one equation, may not seem like 
such a big subject after all. 

To the physicist, matter, space, and time exist outside the human 
mind. The physical universe is an objective, dynamic arrangement 
of all matter, space, and time. In discussing the structure of the 
universe we merely attempt to describe some of the features of this 
arrangement. 

Before beginning such a description it seems necessary to indicate 
just how it is related to human welfare—since the general title of 
this series of lectures is “Science and Human Welfare.” I am ventur- 
ing to interpret the phrase “human welfare” in the broadest possible 
sense. There are many types of scientific investigation which do not 
appear to have any direct bearing on the pleasures or pains of the 

1Public lecture delivered at The Rice Institute in the spring of 1948. Reprinted by 
permission from The Rice Institute Pamphlet, vol. 30, No. 4, October 1943. 

165 


166 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


human race. The discovery of the planet Pluto cannot be said to have 
done very much toward raising the sum total of human welfare, in 
the ordinary sense. But in the broadest sense, it may be said that 
the welfare of a nation is closely tied up with the capacity of that 
nation for untiring search after truth. Intellectual unrest, intellectual 
curiosity is, we like to think, essential to the true growth and develop- 
ment of a people. A dairy company advertises that its milk comes 
from contented cows. A rival company is perhaps more progressive 
in its views when it advertises that its cows are not contented—they are 
always trying to do better. 

The thesis is, then, that the pursuit of pure knowledge is indicative 
of a healthy national mind; that full development of intellectual 
activity, whether it be in the matter of investigating the stars or in 
building a better radio, is essential to the true welfare of a nation. 
The Russians asked a captured Nazi why he came into their country. 
He replied, “I am just a little man, I do what the Fiihrer says.” A 
nation is facing tragedy when free speculation is discouraged, when 
science is devoted solely to control of men and machines and to the 
production of a workable mass of “little men.” 

To begin this discussion of matter, space, and time we will try first 
to systematize our ideas of space, or size, in relation to matter. Im- 
agine a long, horizontal line drawn so as to represent the “the x-axis.” 
Let all objects in the universe be placed along this line in the order of 
their sizes. The smallest objects will be placed near the beginning of 


MICROSCOPIC REGION MACROSCOPIC REGION 


Zero 

size Electron Solar Spiral 
Positron Neutron Stone Mountain Earth system nebula 

Neutrino Mesotron Proton Atom 


Figure 1 


the line, at its left end. Larger and larger objects will be placed 
farther and farther to the right. We next divide the line into two 
parts by a vertical line. All objects to the left of this vertical line 
are too small to be seen with the naked eye, so this region is called the 
microscopic region. In it are placed different kinds of particles such 
as molecules, atoms, the proton, the neutron, the mesotron, the electron, 
positron, and neutrino. These particles are placed nearer and nearer 
to the origin of the line as they become smaller and smaller. It is 
worth noting that nature seems not to have given us anything smaller 
than the electron, in spite of the fact that there is plenty of room for 
particles between the electron and the origin of the line. 

To the right of the vertical dividing line we place all objects large 
enough to be seen with the naked eye. This region is called the 
macroscopic region. We might put in here, stones, mountain, earth, 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS 167 


solar system, spiral nebulae. The farther end of the macroscopic 
region may be given a special subtitle, the astronomical region. 

We have arranged here various matter elements in a certain spatial 
relationship. The time concept is involved because this is an arrange- 
ment which may be correct only at one instant of time. It is possible 
that the position of some of these entities on the line is constantly 
changing. When an electron gets into rapid motion its mass is 
changed a little and it shortens one of its dimensions. It thus shifts its 
position on the line slightly to the left whenever it has a high velocity. 
The solar system may be slowly running down so that the planets grad- 
ually approach the sun. If this is the case the position of the solar 
system on the line is slowly shifting to the left. 

Certain segments of this line have occupied the attention of various 
specialists. Astronomers deal with everything listed to the right of 
earth. Thousands of specialists work on the section from earth to 
atom. Physicists in recent years have concentrated intensively on the 
segment from atom to zero. The discovery of the positron, the neutron, 
and the mesotron within the last decade, has opened up a most fruitful 
field of research in physics. In this region, forever beyond the reach 
of the human eye, is probably contained most of the mystery of the 
entire universe. As K. K. Darrow has expressed it, “This field is 
unique in modern physics for the minuteness of the phenomena, the 
delicacy of the observations, the adventurous excursions of the 
observers, the subtlety of the analysis, and the grandeur of the 
inferences.” 

It is not too much to say that if some American physicist could only 
make the right kind of discovery in this domain our entire oil and coal 
industries would become more or less obsolete and World War II 
would be won in a matter of days. It should also be said that such a 
discovery is possible but not probable. 

Returning now to our linear lay-out for the universe we may note 
that everything to the right of proton is constructed out of the mate- 
rial included in the range from proton to zero. All matter in the uni- 
verse exists in the form of bunches or aggregates of smaller parts. 
Protons, neutrons, electrons bunch to form atoms; atoms group into 
molecules; molecules group into stones and mountains; stones and 
mountains form the earth. In the astronomical field, planets group 
about the sun to form the solar system—a solar system which in the 
astronomical field is remarkably like the atom in the microscopic field. 

The important unit of structure in the astronomical field is a sun. 
Practically all the stars which we can see on a clear night are distant 
suns, much like our own, although it is thought that only an extremely 
small fraction of these suns have planets around them like our own. 

61983045 —12 


168 © ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


All these suns which can be recognized distinctly are grouped in a 
sort of flattened, disklike bunch which is whirling in empty space. 
Our own sun and planetary system is a member of this group, being 
located about 30,000 light-years? distant from the center, or hub, of 
this gigantic disk. When we look into space along the plane of the 
disk the stars seem to be distributed very densely. We see the milky 
way. This bunch of suns is called a spiral nebula. It is sometimes 
called a galaxy, or an island universe. The word “universe” in this 
sense has a restricted meaning because our island universe is not the 
only one in existence. There are millions of others distributed 
throughout space as far as our most powerful telescopes have been 
able to penetrate. 

The nebulae are by no means recent discoveries. Sir William 
Herschel, 150 years ago, suspected that they were distant groups of 
stars. The philosopher Kant believed that they were “systems of 
many stars, whose distance presents them in such a narrow space 
that the light which is individually imperceptible from each of them, 
reaches us, on account of their immense multitude, in a uniform pale 
glimmer.” They have been described as looking like “candlelight seen 
through horn.” A rough diagram, not drawn to scale, is given in 
figure 2 to indicate the total extent of the entire universe which has 
been observed, up to the present, with our most powerful telescopes. 

We might now indicate on the linear lay-out of figure 1 the approxi- 
mate size of the largest bunch of matter, the spiral nebula, as 100,000 
light-years. Also we might speculate as to the possibility of nebulae 
themselves forming still larger groups. Extensive surveys have been 
made by the astronomers at Harvard and Mount Wilson, of the dis- 
tribution in space of the nebulae, and there is, indeed, evidence of 
grouping of nebulae. It is legitimate to add another bunch of matter 
to the line lay-out—the supernebula, or supergalaxy. 

The supergalaxy is the largest known aggregation of matter in 
the universe. Its diameter may be of the order of a million light- 
years. At least that is the estimate made by Harlow Shapley of 
the diameter of the group of nebulae in which our own is located. 
Our local group contains perhaps 15 or 20 nebulae, but in some super- 
galaxies there are hundreds of members. 

So far, then, our picture of the universe reveals a granular, or 
atomic structure. We start near the zero point of size, with a particle 
of definite size. A fundamental law of attraction operates to cause 
the small particles to group together to form larger particles, these 
larger particles again group to form still larger particles, and so on 
until we reach the limit of observation, the enormous supergalaxy. 


2A light-year is the distance which light travels in one year. It is approximately 
6,000,000,000,000 miles. 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS 169 


We are unable to put a stop at the right-hand end of our line, as we 
have done at the left end. Space may go on into infinity—possibly 
matter may go on bunching up into larger and larger aggregates 
with no limit as to the ultimate size of any final bunch, because there 
may never be any final bunch. Speculations of this kind may be 
interesting but they are not of much significance otherwise, because 
they take us outside the realm of possible human experience. 


M = 1,000,000 
NUMBER OF NEBULAE: 100M 
STARS PER NEBULA= 100,000M 


LOU OGUMLNGA si) o 1 


AVERAGE 


FIaure 2.—Sphere of view of the 100-inch telescope. Distances are in light-years, 
L. Y., and the diagram ig not to scale. Our earth is about 30,000 L. Y. away 
from the center of the central nebula above. 


It seems probable that in detecting the supergalaxy man has reached 
the limits of observation in his probing of the depths of space. The 
new 200-inch telescope will be doing a fine job in helping to chart and 
analyze these enormous groups of matter. 

The line diagram of the universe, limited at one end by the electron, 
at the other by the supergalaxy, has given a rather simple picture in 
terms of two variables, space and matter. The third variable, time, 
must now be considered. We have to consider the relationship be- 
tween the various units of our structure as this relationship may 


170 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


change from time to time. Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation 
says that every particle of matter in the universe attracts every other 
particle. If forces of attraction cause matter to bunch up into aggre- 
gates of various sizes, why may not the various bunches themselves 
start coming together until eventually there results just one large, 
static bunch of matter floating quietly in an infinity of space? Such 
an end result seems logical, but it cannot happen until the kinetic 
energy of matter, the energy of motion, has been converted into 
radiation and transferred to infinity. Such a transfer of energy 
appears, in fact, to be going on. 

A study of the motions of the various aggregates may be expected to 
throw some light on this question. We start with the smallest par- 
ticles, electrons, for example. In addition to random motions caused 
by collisions with other particles, all electrons are supposed to spin. 
They may be thought of as being like tops which never run down. 
When an electron helps to form an atom, in addition to spinning 
it also revolves about the nucleus, just as the earth revolves about 
the sun. The aggregations of matter between atom and earth on 
the diagram of figure 1 may have various kinds of motion but when 
earth is reached we again have the spin about an axis and the revolu- 
tion about the sun. Our sun, together with all the other suns in its 
group, forms a nebula which spins with high speed about a central 
axis. The spin velocity is very high, but the size of our nebula is 
so great that it takes about 2 million centuries for it to make one 
revolution. As Shapley puts it, this is the time required to “click off 
one cosmic year.” 

The motion of the supernebula is not known in accurate detail. 
It is possible that some sort of gigantic spin is present here also, but 
so far such a spin has not been detected. Instead, a very surprising 
sort of motion has been discovered, a motion which is just contrary 
to what we expect if matter is to agglomerate into one big bunch. 
The supernebulae appear to be receding from us. The supernebula 
to which our galaxy belongs maintains its fixed dimensions, and be- 
haves more or less as a unit, but all the other supernebulae appear 
to be flying away from ours with high speeds. The farther away 
from us they are, the faster they seem to recede. There seems to be 
no good way of explaining such a phenomenon. One might assume 
that a primeval explosion started all matter out in all directions 
from an original concentration, but there are serious difficulties 
involved in such a theory. 

The whole question of the expanding universe is definitely con- 
troversial. The consequences of accepting or rejecting the theory 
are so great that it will be worth while to review briefly the evidence. 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS lw | 


Suppose the lights of a very distant city are observed at night 
through a telescope. The various spots of light all look much alike. 
However, they are not all the same in character. Some may be caused 
by incandescent lamps, some by neon signs, some, perhaps, may be 
due to the newer type of yellow sodium lamp used for illuminating 
highways. 

We now put a glass prism in front of the telescope objective. The 
telescope must be deviated sideways, if we are to see the city through 
the prism and the telescope. When we do see it, each spot of light 
appears to be smeared out into a band of color. The colors present 
in each spot of light are separated and spread out and we can see 
just what colors are present in the light from each source. The neon 
signs are characterized by definite colors in the orange and red; the 
sodium lamps can be recognized by the fact that only one cae 
yellow, is visible. 

If we were to photograph the lights of an enormous city from an 
enormous distance the whole city would appear as a small, luminous 
spot. The prism would smear out the separate lights of which the 
spot is composed, but they would all be superposed in a single 
smeared spot for the whole city. However, if there were a large 
number of sodium lamps one point in the smear would be brighter 
than the rest because there would be an excess of the yellow sodium 
light. 

A nebula, consisting of millions of suns a long distance away, be- 
haves like our hypothetical city except for one small difference. 
Light from a sun has dark absorption lines or bands from which 
color is missing as a result of absorption in the sun’s atmosphere. 
There is a dark line in the spectrum of our own sun, corresponding 
to absorption of hydrogen in the sun’s atmosphere. This dark line 
always appears at the same place in the spectrum no matter what 
kind of a source, and always means that hydrogen is present. Dark 
lines appear in the nearer nebulae about where they should be in the 
spectrum. For the more distant nebulae, however, they are shifted 
toward the red end of the spectrum. 

There is only one known explanation for such a shift of a spectral 
line. If the source is moving away from an observer the light re- 
ceived appears redder than when the source is stationary. This 
phenomenon is called the Doppler effect. It is a matter of common 
experience in the field of sound. The pitch of an automobile horn 
is lowered as the horn passes rapidly by an observer and recedes 
from him. 

The photographs of the nebulae show that the hydrogen absorption 
line is shifted farther and farther away from the normal position as 


172 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the pictures go to more and more distant nebulae. The amount of the 
shift gives the velocity of recession. Many nebulae have been ob- 
served and the conclusion is reached that for every million light-years’ 
distance from the earth the velocity of recession is increased by 
about 100 miles per second. The farthest nebulae observed are flying 
away from us with a speed of about 25,000 miles per second. 

It is well to weigh critically the evidence for results like these. As 
regards estimates of nebular distances, the methods used by astrono- 
mers seem entirely adequate. In the nearest nebula individual stars 
can be seen. Some of these stars fluctuate in brightness with a period 
of 514 days. Similar stars, known as Cepheid variables, are found in 
our own nebula, and the distances of a few of them have been deter- 
mined by ordinary engineering methods. It is found that these stars 
are all of about the same size, so that if one Cepheid variable is much 
fainter than another its faintness may be attributed solely to its greater 
distance. The distance of the nearest nebula can thus be determined 
with considerable accuracy by comparing the brightness of one of its 
Cepheid variables with the brightness of a similar star in our own 
galaxy—a star whose distance has been measured by reliable methods. 
Having a good estimate of the distance of one nebula it is legitimate to 
infer that other nebula of the same type are fainter and smaller only 
because they are farther away. It is thus possible to estimate their 
distances. The results of these estimates might give occasional large 
errors, but when a great number of observations are made the indi- 
vidual errors must average out fairly well. 

As regards the shift of the absorption line toward the red, a good 
many attempts have been made to explain it in some other way than 
by the Doppler effect. So far, all these attempts have failed or en- 
countered logical difficulties. During the last few years, however, 
certain evidence has accumulated which has brought about a para- 
doxical situation in the theory of the expanding universe. There are 
some very serious objections to the theory. First, let us suppose that 
our explosion hypothesis is more or less in accord with the facts. After 
all, if the nebulae are now observed to be scattering they must at some 
previous time have been more closely bunched. It is not difficult to 
calculate how long ago it was when the nebulae were all together and 
touching each other. We know how far away they are now, we know 
how fast they are receding, and how their velocity of recession varies 
with the distance from us. These data enable us to calculate the time 
when they must have started. According to Hubble, after all correc- 
tions have been made this starting time was about 1,000 million years 
ago. Unfortunately this is only a fraction of the age of the earth— 
indeed there is evidence that life actually existed on earth that long 
ago. It is difficult to see how our earth could exist in its present form 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS 173 


at a time when all matter in the universe was assembled and ready for. 
a cosmic blow-out of such tremendous proportions. 

So much for objection number one. The second objection arises as 
follows. When a source of light moves away from an observer there 
are two effects produced. The first, the Doppler effect, has been 
mentioned as a change of color, a reddening of the light. A second 
effect is a decrease of brightness, known as the “dimming factor.” It 
is easy to see why a light should appear to be dimmer when the source 
moves away from the observer. Suppose a stationary machine gun 
is firing bullets at a fixed target at the rate of five per second. Then 
every second five bullets hit the target. However, if the gun is moving 
away from the target, still firing five shots a second, there will not be 
five bullets hitting every second. The bullet discharged from the gun 
at the end of a given second will have had to traverse a greater distance 
than the bullet which was fired at the beginning of the second, so it 
will take a longer time to reach the target. Perhaps only four bullets 
will hit the target in one second. The extra bullet has gone to fill the 
extra space in the bullet stream—the extra space created by the reces- 
sion of the gun. The case of a hight source is exactly analogous. 

Now in estimating the distance of a nebula its brightness is taken as 
a criterion of the distance. The question arises as to whether the dim- 
ming factor should be applied when making the distance estimates. 
If the nebulae are actually moving away from us then the factor must 
certainly be applied. If the reddening of the light is not caused by 
a velocity of recession then the dimming factor must not be applied. 
With such tremendous speeds of recession this factor makes quite a 
big difference in results. 

The following discussion is very largely quoted from the annual 
Sigma Xi lecture delivered in December 1941 at Dallas by E. P. 
Hubble of the Mount Wilson Observatory. Dr. Hubble is one of the 
world’s foremost authorities on the subject of nebulae. 

Let us first suppose that the reddening of the light is not caused by a 
velocity of recession. It may be due to some hitherto undiscovered and 
unknown phenomenon. We can then estimate distances without any 
dimming factor and a survey can be made to find out how the nebulae 
are distributed throughout the region of space within our present 
range of view. Such surveys have been made at Mount Wilson and 
Mount Hamilton, out to a distance of 420 million light-years. Data 
have also been obtained and analyzed at Harvard, and the net result 
indicates a fairly uniform distribution of nebulae throughout the 
observable regions of space. There are, on the average, just as many 
per unit volume at great distances as in the immediate neighborhood 
of our own group. 


174 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


This result is intellectually very satisfactory. In fact, it agrees 
with a fundamental principle of cosmological theory, a principle 
which has been postulated by theorists for no other reason than its 
appeal to our sense of order and the fitness of things. This principle 
states that the universe, on a grand scale, will appear much the same 
from whatever position in space it may be viewed or explored, This 
principle of cosmology is satisfied, therefore, if the nebulae are not 
assumed to be receding. 

We next investigate the consequences of assuming the red shift to 
be due to a real velocity of recession of the nebulae. The dimming 
factor must now be applied in estimating distances, with the result 
that the most distant cluster is actually about 13 percent fainter than 
it would be if it were stationary. The scale of distances is thus 
altered, so that when we make our space survey to find out how the 
nebulae are distributed it turns out that they are no longer scattered 
uniformly. The number per unit volume increases steadily with 
their distance away from us. Here is a result which is intellectually 
very disquieting. The cosmological principle of no favored position 
is violated. We might be willing to accept this violation if it went 
the other way, that is, if the density of nebulae decreased with dis- 
tance. Then we would conclude, very happily, that we had discovered 
another super-supergalaxy, another big matter bunch to put out on the 
right-hand end of our linear lay-out. No such interpretation can be 
given when the nebulae are found not to thin out at big distances, but 
actually to become more dense in numbers. 

It may seem obvious to the layman that we ought to discard the 
idea of an expanding universe. It makes us worry about the short 
time which has elapsed since the original cosmic explosion occurred ; 
it bothers us with an increasing density of matter as we proceed far- 
ther and farther into the depths of space; and the only evidence we 
have to go on is a series of pictures, rather hazy, smeary pictures, in 
fact, with a light patch shifted too far to one side. 

The physicist and the astronomer, unfortunately, cannot treat these 
fuzzy pictures in such a cavalier manner. There is no denying the 
existence of the shifted light patch in the pictures, hazy though it 
may be. There is no denying the fact that all such similar shifts of 
color have been explained satisfactorily by the Doppler effect and by 
the Doppler effect alone. One is reminded of the saying of the old 
colored man, whose years of experience had developed a certain ripe 
philosophy of life. “It ain’t so much what you don’t know that gets 
you into trouble, it’s what you do know and ain’t so!” 

There are several ways, more or less unsatisfactory, of escaping 
from the dilemma of the expanding universe. The first way is not 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS 175 


a good way, but like other escapist philosophies it must be consid- 
ered and estimated for what it is worth. It involves spatial curvature. 

The idea of curved space is now quite a familiar idea to most 
people. Eddington, Jeans, Einstein, and others have written books 
for popular consumption and the sales have been very gratifying. 
Even the pulp magazines.do not hesitate to invoke the fourth dimen- 
sion as a mode of escape for the hero or the villian. A simple way 
of approaching the concept of spatial curvature is as follows. Think 
of a straight line along one dimension. Given a second dimension 
at right angles to the first, then we have the possibility of curving the 
line into the second dimension. Think of a plane surface, like a sheet 
of paper flat on a desk. Given a third dimension, at right angles 
to the desk, we have the possibility of curving the paper sheet into 
this third dimension. Think of a solid filling three dimensions. Give 
a fourth dimension at right angles to the other three, we then have 
a possibility of curving the solid into the fourth dimension. It is 
only because we have three-dimensional minds that we cannot see 
this fourth dimension. 

A mathematician may speak of space itself as being curved without 
reference to any solid matter in it. For example, consider the earth 
to be perfectly smooth. If we were two-dimensional creatures instead 
of being three-dimensional, we might draw a big circle on the earth’s 
surface, measure its diameter and its circumference, and then find 
that the circumference was not equal to z times the diameter. We 
would not know that the circle was not flat (since we are assumed 
to be two-dimensional), but we could certainly infer a curvature 
of our flat space and even determine its radius if we knew enough 
about ordinary Euclidean geometry, which would work pretty well 
for small circles on the earth’s surface. 

The mathematical description of the universe to which allusion 
was made at the beginning of the lecture involved curving of three- 
dimensional space in somewhat the same fashion as described above 
for the two-dimensional space. If space actually is curved in this 
way our ordinary solid geometry, Euclidean geometry, would not 
be quite correct. In order to find out whether it is correct, measure- 
ments of certain kinds must be made. For example, if a negative 
parallax could ever be observed for a single star, a spherically curved 
space would be implied. The mathematician Schwarzschild, a good 
many years ago, attempted to find what curvature of space would 
be possible according to certain types of non-Euclidean geometry. 
In dealing with these geometries he said, “One there finds oneself, 
if one but will, in a geometrical fairyland, but the beauty of this 
fairy tale is that one does not know but that it may come true.” 


176 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Schwarzschild’s results need not be considered here because his data 
were limited and because we have at present more detailed modes of 
procedure than he used. There are at least two mathematicians who 
have achieved the unique distinction of having a universe named 
after them. They are Einstein, and a Dutchman named de Sitter. 
Both universes are non-Euclidean and the Einstein universe appears 
to be the more popular. The curvature of the Einstein universe is 
determined by the amount of matter in it, and if it is not a static 
universe, by certain other factors. A chunk of matter produces quite 
a large local curvature, which is evidenced to us by what we call 
gravitational attraction. 

This universe is not infinite in extent. It is a closed universe with 
a finite volume but having no boundaries, just as the surface of a 
sphere is a closed surface of finite area yet has no bounding edges. 
In this universe one might expect to see a star in two directions, first 
by looking directly at it, second, by looking in the exactly opposite 
direction at light rays which have gone completely around the circuit 
of the universe in the opposite direction. Star images have not been 
seen in this way, possibly because their light is too faint after the 
long trip around the universe. There is also the possibility that the 
theory is wrong. It has, however, been seriously suggested that two 
very faint nebulae, observed in a certain direction, may actually be 
the backs of two of our nearest neighbors, as seen the long way 
around. 

The theory of a finite, closed universe is very attractive in many 
respects. We may again use the term “intellectually satisfactory” 
in this connection, largely because this universe can be given a concise 
mathematical description and in terms that explain the gravitational 
effects of matter. There is also, in many individuals, a. definite 
repugnance to the idea of infinite space. In discussing the stars 
Kant, in 1755, says, “There is here no end, but an abyss of real 
immensity in presence of which all the capability of human concep- 
tion sinks exhausted.” The finite mind likes to set up a blank wall 
somewhere, in order to end it all. It is probably intellectually satis- 
factory to know that one can start out in imagination and not have 
to get farther away forever and ever, but will eventually get back to 
the good, old, familiar region of the starting point. 

With this picture of a finite, closed universe in mind we may now 
return to the question regarding the nebulae. Why should they 
appear to be crowded together at great distances from us? The 
answer might be that the curvature of space appears to make them 
crowd into smaller and smaller volumes as their distance increases. 
If this is true it is possible to calculate what radius of curvature of 
the universe would give the observed apparent crowding of the 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS 177 


nebulae at great distances. Such calculations have been made and 
the universe turns out to be remarkably small. In fact, it is so 
small that our largest telescopes would allow us to see about one-sixth 
of the way around it. This small universe is required in order to 
explain the apparent nonuniform distribution of the nebulae. How- 
ever, if we calculate the radius of the universe in this way we are 
‘obliged to have only a certain amount of matter in it, since, according 
to Einstein, the radius is determined by this total amount of matter. 
Hubble has made surveys to find out whether the observed amount 
of matter will fit in with the radius as determined above. He esti- 
mates that if all observable stars and nebulae were smeared out 
uniformly there would be a maximum of about one hydrogen atom 
per cubic meter. This density of matter is far too small. In other 
words, there is not enough matter in the universe to give it a curvature 
great enough to spread out the nebulae uniformly. The theory of 
curvature of space has, therefore, failed to resolve the problem. 

Another way out of the dilemma is to suppose that the observa- 
tions of the astronomers are in error. Here is what Hubble has to say. 

These questions have been carefully reexamined during the past few years. 
Various minor revisions have been made, but the end results remain substan- 
tially unchanged. By the usual criteria of probable errors the data seem to be 
sufficiently consistent for their purpose. Nevertheless, the operations are deli- 
eate, and the most significant data are found near the limits of the greatest 
telescopes. Under such conditions it is always possible that results may be 
affected by hidden systematie errors. Although no suggestion of such errors 
has been found, the possibility will persist until investigations can be repeated 
with improved techniques and more powerful telescopes. Ultimately the prob- 
lem should be settled beyond question by the 200-inch reflector destined for 
Palomar. 

This telescope will have about twice the range of the best one now 
in use. Work on it has been stopped by the war, so it is impossible 
to predict just how soon it can be put to work on this problem. 

The last way which may be suggested for escaping from the 
dilemma is to suppose that in the region of astronomical magnitudes 
some new principle of nature is operative—some principle which we 
have not yet discovered in the ordinary macroscopic field. Such a 
principle would have to free us from the necessity of using the Dopp- 
ler effect, and we would no longer have to say that experimental 
observation shows the universe to be expanding. This new principle 
would, therefore, have to explain why the light from nebulae gets 
redder and redder as it travels greater and greater distances, Per- 
haps light which has been traveling for 100 million years in a straight 
line exhibits its senility by a decrease in the frequency of its vibra- 
tions. We do not know of any possible reason such as this why old 
light should be different in any way from new light. The only place 


178 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


from which we can get really old light is from the distant nebulae, 
so our chances of establishing by experiment a new principle of 
physics like this seems at present to be involved in a vicious circle 
from which there is no escape. 


It appears, therefore, that our knowledge of the structure of the 


universe at the limits of the astronomical range is unsatisfactory. 
We have to recognize that there are discrepancies between theory and 
experimental observations. Hubble says that “a choice is presented, 
as once before in the days of Copernicus, between a strangely small, 
finite universe, and a sensibly infinite universe plus a new principle 
of nature.” 

We may now go back once more for a comprehensive view of what 
we have called the linear lay-out of the universe in figure 1. The 
three components, or variables, were assumed quite simply to be space, 
matter, and time. At the right-hand end of the scale we have become 
embroiled in some rather questionable speculations regarding the 
nature of space and the behavior of light. In this region, where a 
light-year is the unit of distance and a nebula the unit of mass, we 
have good reason for suspecting that the mechanics of the universe 
cannot be described or explained in such a simple way as in the region 
of miles and mountains. 

Peculiarly enough, if we go from the enormously great region to 
the extremely small region, the region of the electron and the posi- 
tron, we encounter similar difficulties. You will remember that Dar- 
row characterized the microscopic region as unique because “of the 
adventurous excursions of the observers,” and “the grandeur of the 
inferences.” One or two of these inferences and excursions may be 
cited here, and it will appear that the simple concepts of space and 
matter have suffered in the microscopic field in much the same way 
that they have suffered in the astronomical field. As the result of 
investigations in the field of the small particles it has become neces- 
sary to broaden our ideas as to the nature of matter. Cloud-chamber 
pictures have allowed us practically to see two particles of matter 
created in space from the energy contained in radiation. 

The thing that happens is that a photon, an atom of radiant 
energy traveling with the speed of light, somehow gets itself into a 
peculiar situation in a microscopic field of:some kind. The result 
is that the photon changes into two particles with electric charges, 
a positron and an electron. 


In the macroscopic size range an equivalent phenomenon would be 


for a quantity of sunshine, passing by an iron ball, to change sud- 
denly into a couple of buckshot. 

Needless to say, no one has ever seen anything like this happen. It 
is only when sizes become so small as to prevent direct observation 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS 179 


that the event occurs. We may well say that something peculiar is 
going on in the microscopic field. Something is happening which is 
foreign to our ordinary experience. 

Technically this phenomenon is known as pair production by a 
photon. The reverse process, conversion of matter into radiation, 
can occur when an electron and a positron come together under proper 
conditions. They disappear and two photons of radiation are shot 
out with the speed of light in opposite directions. 

Matter and energy can now be thought of as practically synony- 
mous. It thus becomes possible to make certain grand inferences 
with the object of saving the universe from running down. Millions 
of suns are slowly but surely converting their matter and their 
energy into radiation and this radiation is constantly escaping into 
infinity. Perhaps somewhere in space radiation may be changed back 
into matter. Perhaps the universe is engaged in a reversible cycle, 
instead of an irreversible one, as is commonly supposed. 

As an illustration of what Darrow calls an “adventurous excursion” 
of an observer we may take the Dirac theory of the positron. Dirac 
is a brilliant young Englishman, a mathematician who has demon- 
strated a high degree of daring and originality in his handling of 
theoretical physics. 

His theory of the positron starts out with two peculiar assumptions. 
First, a particle may have a negative kinetic energy. Second, all 
space is filled with particles of negative kinetic energy. There is a 
distribution of electrons of infinite density everywhere in the world. 
A perfect vacuum is a region where all the states of positive energy 
are unoccupied and all those of negative energy are occupied. 

When an electron, by some means or other, gets knocked out of 
this state of negative energy into a state of positive energy, it is 
observed as an ordinary electron; the hole which was left is a 
positron. This hole may wander around for a short time, but there 
are so many more electrons in the universe than holes that it is not 
long before some electron drops into the hole and both hole and 
electron disappear from the view of normal people. The very short 
life of the positron is thus explained, as is also the phenomenon of 
pair production and the conversion of matter into radiation. 

I have given this hasty outline of the theory, not that I expect 
anyone to understand it—it is hardly to be expected that negative 
energy can be understood—but because it illustrates the lengths to 
which a theorist has to go in creating physical explanation in this 
field. In the microscopic range of sizes a quite perfect explanation 
of things is given by a specialized type of mathematics called wave 
mechanics. It is only when this mathematical symbolism is explained 
in terms of physical symbolism that we call it an adventurous 


180 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


excursion. Dirac showed great courage in even trying to give a 
physical picture of his mathematical theory. The fact is that in 
the microscopie field things may behave in a way entirely foreign to 
the way in which we have always seen large objects behave, hence they 
cannot be explained in the old familiar ways. 

There is in most people a strong tendency to label as “bunk” that 
which is not understood. This tendency is, on the whole, a healthy 
one. Skepticism is preferable to credulity if one is thinking in terms 
of the struggle for existence. The radio listeners who believe all the 
remarkable statements made about cough syrups, breakfast foods, 
cigarettes, etc., must certainly be struggling very hard for existence. 
However, skepticism based upon a lack of understanding is a danger- 
ous attitude of mind. Prof. P. W. Bridgman of Harvard has this to 
say in his book, “The Logic of Modern Physics”: 

It is difficult to conceive anything more scientifically bigoted than to postulate 
that all possible experience conforms to the same type as that with which we 
are already familiar, and therefore to demand that explanations use only elements 
familiar in everyday experience. Such an attitude bespeaks an unimaginative- 
ness, a mental obtuseness and obstinacy which might be expected to have 
exhausted their pragmatic justification at a lower plane of mental activity. 

The explanation of microscopic phenomena, then, utilizes concepts 
which are not familiar to everyday experience. For that reason the 
microscopic tends to undermine any smug complacency we may have 
regarding our knowledge of nature and the universe. Take, for 
example, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. This principle states 
that we can never know accurately both the position and the velocity 
of asmall particle. It is easy to see why this is true. We can see the 
small particle because light has bounced off of it into our eye. We see 
it in the direction from which the light bounced. 

But the light, in bouncing from the particle, must have given it a 
push so that either its position or its velocity will have been changed 
by the mere fact that light must be used to observe it. By the time the 
light photon gets to the eye of the observer the particle will not be at 
exactly the spot from which the photon appeared to bounce. 

This uncertainty principle has been given an exact mathematical 
formulation. It turns out that if the position of an electron is known 
to within 0.004 inch then the speed of its motion is uncertain to within 
about 3 feet per second—the speed of a slow walk. 

The tendency, at first, is to consider this as rather a superficial 
principle. I can easily imagine a particle to have both position and 
momentum simultaneously; why bother so much about a mechanism 
for determining them? “However, a thorough study of the situation, 
with an analysis of every conceivable means afforded by nature for 
making determinations, impresses one with a feeling that here is a 


STRUCTURE OF THE UNIVERSE—HEAPS 181 


conspiracy of nature to prevent man from acquiring too much detailed 
information. A conspiracy of nature is a law of nature; we cannot 
pass it over as being of no importance. It is as if nature had erected 
a wall of impenetrability around the smallest particles and forced us 
to see them only partially, as if through the cracks in the wall. 

It appears, therefore, that we are asking a meaningless question 
when we ask just where an electron is when it has a certain definite 
momentum. No possible operation can be thought of by which an 
answer to this question can be obtained without violating a law of 
nature. The conclusion is that the electron cannot have an exact 
velocity and an exact momentum simultaneously. There is an essen- 
tial fuzziness in the very foundations of nature herself. Time and 
space are a little peculiar in the microscopic region, most certainly. 

Someone has said that “the infinite, whether the infinitely large, 
or the infinitely small, seems to carry disaster in its wake.” I do 
not think the word disaster is happily chosen in this connection. 
It is true that the two infinities at either end of our linear lay-out 
have shattered the beautiful, crystal-clear mechanical system which 
described the universe during most of the nineteenth century—when 
the luminiferous ether was as definitely material as a piece of iron, 
and when a scientist could say that practically all pioneer research 
in physics was over and nothing remained except to measure things 
with increasing accuracy. This complacent attitude is fortunately 
gone forever, and the two infinities have had a great deal to do with 
its disappearance. The new problems presented, the paradoxes, the 
uncertainties, all combine to give us a picture of modern science 
once more struggling, once more growing. It seems better to change 
the quotation to read, “The infinite, whether the infinitely large or 
the infinitely small, seems to have carried renaissance in its wake.” 

In summing up the subject we may say that the small part of the 
universe, open to everyday experience, has given us a simple concep- 
tion of nature, a simple body of laws, which seems unable to cope 
with problems either in the region of the supernebulae or in the 
region of the extremely small particles. 

In the latter field we have found that, properly speaking, descrip- 
tions of phenomena must be mainly mathematical. Such descrip- 
tions are quite adequate at present, and we feel that the main prob- 
lems of explanation are well in hand. But we must be careful not 
to expect the same type of explanation that is used for objects of 
ordinary size, and we must remember that here there is a certain 
indefiniteness of behavior. We do not say that a small particle can 
never get over a high hill when it does not have enough energy to 
carry it tothe top. We say that the probability of its getting over is 


182 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


small. It actually has a small probability of doing the job with an 
insufficient amount of energy ! 

In the region of the supernebulae we are at present up against a 
paradox. We are at liberty to suppose that space is of a peculiarly 
curved character, or that it goes on to infinity; that the supernebulae 
are flying away with enormous velocities, or that some unknown 
principle of nature is deceiving us. We may be affected by a feeling 
of futility because of this state of affairs, and even have a sympathetic 
feeling for St. Ambrose, who in A. D. 389 wrote: 

To discuss the nature of the earth does not help us in our hope of the life to 
come. It is enough to know that, Scripture states that He hung up the earth 
on nothing. Why argue whether He hung it up in air or on water? The 
majesty of God constrains it by the law of His will. 

The spirit of modern science is not in agreement with St. Ambrose, 
and is not to be discouraged by apparent contradictions. This spirit 
demands continual arguing and speculating as to how the universe is 
hung up. Certainly we will always see as through a glass darkly, 
but just as certainly we will always keep on trying to polish the 
glass. 


INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE LOOKS AHEAD: 


By BRIGADIER GENERAL DAvID SARNOFF 


President, Radio Corporation of America 


Industrial science at war is shaping a new world. While the bat- 
tle lines of the United Nations encircle the Fortress Europe and the 
gigantic pincers of victory tighten on the enemy in the Pacific, civi- 
lization advances ever closer to the postwar horizon. With victory 
will come the day when the scientific instruments and processes of 
war will turn abruptly to peace. Machines and tools, as well as 
industrial and economic thinking, will be converted quickly from the 
demands of war to the needs of peace. Industry will be called upon 
to relieve the strains of war with utmost speed by ministering anew 
to human welfare, health, and comfort. Postwar planners are now 
at work in many fields of industrial endeavor. 

It is not new for American industry to be surveying and planning 
for the future. That process is always at work here, whether the 
world is at peace or at war. Only by advanced thinking, research, 
engineering, and continual pioneering, can industrial science put 
new ideas into action. By doing this, industry serves its workers 
and the people, and thereby wins the right to survive. 

We have but to consider some of the outstanding wartime develop- 
ments of industrial science to realize their widespread applications 
in all fields, from automobiles to giant turbines and diesel engines, 
from cameras to facsimile and television. Endlessly these advances 
extend into every realm of our daily lives. Among the promises of 
better living we are told of new plastics, light metals, synthetic tex- 
tiles, high-octane gasoline, artificial rubber, luminescent lighting, air- 
conditioning, dehydration of foodstuffs, and many other innovations. 
We even hear of glass flatirons and plastic lenses. We are promised 
revolutionary changes in homes, aircraft, communications, ships, 
railroads, automobiles, highways, clothing, and foods. In myriad 
ways the wartime inventions in electricity, metallurgy, chemistry, and 
physics will open new gateways for industrial science to enter and 
enrich our everyday life. 


1 Address delivered before the Lancaster Chapter of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. Reprinted by permission from Science, vol. 98, Nov. 19, 1948. 


183 
619830—45——_13 


184 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


As for the great, modern art of radio, I can promise you that as 
a service to mankind everywhere it will keep pace with the march of 
science and industry in every other field. 

Today is the anniversary of a historic event that provides us with 
a timely opportunity to review the remarkable advances of radio 
within a quarter century, to reflect upon its vital role in the war, aad 
to look into its future. 

Twenty-five years ago this morning, news flashed across the hemi- 
spheres that the first World War had ended. In retrospect that day 
appears as a fleeting moment. History lifted her pen and paused to 
dot the “i” of an empty victory that proved to be only the prelude 
to a global war unprecedented in fury, extent, and destruction. 

In that autumn of 1918, Germany’s pleas for peace had revealed the 
plight of the German people. Germany was cracking. American 
radio was entrusted to transmit to a defeated nation President 
Wilson’s Fourteen Points as a basis for the restoration of peace, and 
for a general armistice on land, on water, and in the air. Radio opera- 
tors stood by for the answer. It came on the midnight air of November 
11, when silence in the “ether” over the Atlantic was interrupted by a 
flash from Europe. At 2:45 a.m. New York time, the news broke. 
The State Department in Washington announced the Armistice had 
been signed at midnight, and hostilities would cease at 6 o’clock in the 
morning—11 a. m. in France. 

There was no radio broadcasting to spread the welcome word—“It’s 
over, over there!” 

Under the banner headline “Peace,” Americans read the news at 
their breakfast tables. The world was only a reading world at that 
time. It had not yet learned to listen. News spread slowly in 1918. 
Although powerful radio alternators relayed these tidings around 
the world to ships on the Seven Seas, homes were not yet radio 
equipped. Many days passed before news of the Armistice filtered 
into remote hamlets and farms. War correspondents were scribes, 
not eyewitness broadcasters; they had the pen but no microphone. 
Today news travels at the speed of light, in every language to every 
corner of the earth. 

In those days there were no globe-encircling short waves, no high- 
power vacuum tubes, no universal receiving sets. The radiophone 
was just learning to talk. The electron tube had not yet revealed 
its power and its unlimited possibilities. 

The radio of that day gave everything it had to win the war. Re- 
search men and engineers rushed new devices into service to main- 
tain contacts with the battle fleet, with the convoys and the American 
Expeditionary Force in France. Although ships in the mid-Atlantic 
could not maintain direct contact with American and European shores, 


INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE—SARNOFF 185 


the long waves of powerful land stations swept across the sea and 
linked America with its Allies. War bulletins moved through the air 
at the rate of 30 to 40 words a minute. Today, short waves and high- 
speed automatic machines handle news at the rate of more than 600 
words a minute. In the First World War, American newspapers had 
to wait for ships to arrive with the historic pictures of Pershing and 
the A. E. F. in France. Now radiophoto service can deliver pictures 
of Eisenhower and his forces in Italy and MacArthur and his troops 
in the South Pacific a few minutes after the camera snaps them. 

Today, largely because of radio, New York is the communication 
center of the world. In 1918, it was London. During the first World 
War the United States found itself at the mercy of foreign communi- 
cations. America learned the lesson then, that radio was the nerve 
system of war as well as of peace. Immediate steps were taken to 
safeguard the future, to give the United States supremacy in world- 
wide communications and to make sure that never again would this Re- 
public be dependent upon the wave lengths, cables, or wires operated 
and controlled by other nations. 

As a result of this determination, the direct radiotelegraph circuits 
of RCA now reach 51 countries in Central and South America, the 
West Indies, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. Radiophoto cir- 
cuits operate between New York and London, Stockholm, Berne, Mos- 
cow, Cairo, and Buenos Aires, while the terminal at San Francisco 
serves Honolulu and Melbourne. 

In this war, radio is everywhere—with soldier, sailor, marine, 
and airman. Modern warfare has put radio instruments into every 
bomber and fighter plane, into every mechanized unit, and into every 
ship. There were no walkie-talkies or handy-talkies in No-Man’s 
Land, at Verdun or at the Marne. The “cease firing” order signed 
by Foch was shouted and carried by runners along the trenches. The 
radio equipment of that day was too massive and too heavy for more 
than a limited use in airplanes. Now compact, efficient radio goes 
aloft with all planes; wave lengths are their life lints. Coordinating 
great aerial squadrons, radio guides the bombers and swarms of 
fighters over the targets, and safely back to the airports. The para- 
trooper leaps from the skies with a miniature radio transmitter—no 
larger than a cracker box—strapped to his belt. The artillery, 
through its radio, knows at all times what the infantry wants, when 
it wants it, and exactly where it wants it. 

These historic comparisons dramatize the great advances made by 
radio in a quarter of a century. Industrial science and private enter- 
prise, free and unfettered, took the war-born electron tubes, the radio- 
telephone, and the short waves, and adapted them to peaceful 
pursuits. Clues to what might be accomplished in peace were, how- 


186 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ever, in the air during those final months of the first World War. 
When a sub-chaser dashed out to sea from a port in Maine, its radio 
operator moved a portable phonograph near to his radiophone micro- 
phone to broadcast a popular wartime tune, “I May Be Gone for a 
Long, Long Time.” From the Navy station at New Brunswick, N. J., 
the “Star Spangled Banner” was broadcast up and down the coast. 
These were forerunners of the day when radio music from hundreds 
of stations would encircle the globe. 

War had revealed that new instruments could be made available 
for mass communication. The time was opportune and industrial 
science was prepared to answer the challenge. Soon after the Ar- 
mistice, America became aflame with a new national pastime—that of 
listening-in. The vast industry of broadcasting came into being. Its 
achievements as a service to America and to all the world during the 
past quarter of a century are an epoch-making and dramatic story 
of American ingenuity and enterprise at its best. 

In no other nation has radio developed as it has in the United 
States. Nowhere else are people better informed. Today this 
country is served by more than 900 broadcasting stations and 4 na- 
tional networks. There are 60,000,000 receiving sets in our land. 
The owner of every set is free to listen to any wave length from any 
country. American radio dials are symbols of freedom. 

The scientists, who worked out inventions and harnessed the wave 
lengths to equip America with this unsurpassed radio system, realized 
only vaguely that their achievements might be used in a second World 
War. Theirs were the tasks of peace. They worked to make a sym- 
phony orchestra sound with perfection hundreds and thousands of 
miles distant from its source and enable the human voice to ring true 
on the other side of the globe. 

They extended the influence of news, education, and religion to all 
parts of the earth. They made the world an open-air theater in 
which countless millions of people could enjoy free entertainment. 

Thus, scientists made American radio the Voice of Freedom, so 
interwoven with our daily lives that we have come to think of radio 
as an achievement only of the twentieth century. It is, however, a 
child of the ages. Modern radio came into existence through a long 
process of evolution. The long corridors of time through which man 
has conducted research and experiments extend far into the past. 
They lead back to ancient Greece. There the first electric sparks, 
called electrum, kindled a new science and unleashed a new force— 
electricity. 

While the men of science were seeking to explain the mystery of 
these sparks, the philosophers of Greece forsaw that if democratic 
government were to remain effective, the range of the human voice 


——— 


INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE—SARNOFF 187 


would have to be greatly extended. Aristotle argued that the best 
of states might well outgrow geographical boundaries with popula- 
tions reaching such size that well-ordered and efficient government 
could not function. He said that a democratic government required 
that the citizens keep in touch with one another; that their leaders 
know each other and that they study at first hand their common poli- 
tical problems and the policies necessary to meet them. But Aristotle 
warned that it would be impossible to accomplish this in the overgrown 
state, “for who could be the leader of the people in such a State, or 
who the town-crier, unless he have the voice of a Stentor?” It 
would seem that Aristotle even forecast the need for television, be- 
cause he believed that the people needed to see their leaders, as well 
as hear them at long range. 

Two thousand years later we have seen this come to pass, for science 
has provided government and its leaders with radio. The entire Na- 
tion has become an open forum. The leader of the modern state is 
heard at one time by more people than Aristotle and Socrates reached 
in their life time. Electricity has made the microphone the voice of 
the Stentor; our leaders talk to the people, and at the same instant 
they are heard around the world. 

We of this generation have seen men of evil intent stopped by the 
very tools of science they perverted ruthlessly to extend their power. 
We have watched science halt the tyrant and dictator as the stentorian 
voice of the United Nations cried out in defense of freedom, democracy, 
and justice. 

When this war ends, we shall be on the threshold of a new era 
in radio—an era in which man will see, as well as hear, distant events. 
The first two decades of the century belonged to wireless telegraphy. 
The second two decades featured sound broadcasting; the third two 
decades promise television. It is not too bold to predict that the fourth 
two decades will introduce international television with pictures in 
color. 

It is even possible that in the two final decades, we may complete 
the century with power transmission by radio, and its use in the 
operation of vehicles, automobiles, ships, railroads, and airplanes. 
When completed, the story of these first hundred years of radio will 
make fascinating reading. Even a Jules Verne could not tell us all 
that lies ahead in this magic realm of radio-electronics. 

The science of radio is no longer confined to communications. 
Among revolutionary accomplishments in other lines, we have the 
electron microscope, one of the most important new scientific tools of 
the twentieth century. Developed in RCA Laboratories, and based 
upon television techniques, this instrument has a high wartime prior- 
ity rating for use in scientific, medical, and industrial research. For 


188 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the first time it has made it possible for us to see and identify mole- 
cules, and to photograph the influenza virus. It has revealed, in in- 
finite detail, the true structures of fibers, crystals, and pigments. The 
submicroscopic world is now opened wide for exploration. Bacteria, 
tissues, and minute particles of matter have been brought within 
range of man’s eye, for the electron microscope, many times more 
powerful than the strongest optical microscope, permits magnifica- 
tions up to 100,000 diameters. A needle on such a scale of magnifica- 
tion would appear as huge as the Washington Monument; a blood cor- 
puscle as large as the wheel of an automobile and a football field 
five times the size of the United States. 

Wartime industrial research and engineering have rushed into use 
still another branch of radio—the art of utilizing high-frequency 
radio waves for heating. It violates no military secret to report that 
in this new field of radiothermics, a laminated airplane propeller can 
be processed in minutes compared with hours required by ordinary 
heat and pressure methods. In many cases where uniform heat under 
accurate control is necessary in industrial processes, radiothermics 
offers great promise in efficiency and time saving. The wide scope 
of its application ranges from case-hardening steel to dehydrating 
foods, from gluing prefabricated houses to seaming thermoplastic 
materials by means of a “radio sewing machine.” ‘These accomplish- 
ments are all based upon the simple fact that microwaves, in penetrat- 
ing an object, encounter resistance and create heat. 

Farther afield from communications, research men are exploring 
supersonic vibrations, far above the range of the human ear. The use 
of these ultrasonics in chemistry may open a field in which high- 
intensity sound accelerates chemical reactions. Experiments also 
indicate important possibilities in many other fields including under- 
water communication, emulsification of liquids, and precipitation of 
dust from the air. 

We attribute all these lines of progress to the science of electronics. 
The heart of that science is the radio tube. Millions and millions of 
radio-electron tubes are on duty around the world. They are being 
manufactured in the United States at the rate of 400,000 a day. The 
communities in which they are made are on the front line of pro- 
duction. The great importance of each radio tube that moves off the 
production lines can only be envisaged by considering the many func- 
tions it performs in helping to win the war. The delicate finger of 
the worker who makes the tubes has a task as vital as the finger of a 
soldier on the trigger of a rifle. 

Likewise, radio-electron tubes are as important in peace as in war. 
They are the master keys to revolutionary advances in radio. They 
have registered the sound of footprints in the past; they are the 


INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE—SARNOFF 189 


pulse of the present and the “eye” of television that sees far into the 
future. 

The day may come when every person will have his own little radio 
station tucked away in his pocket, to hear and to communicate with 
his home or his office as he walks or rides along the street. 

We have much to learn about the microwaves, in which is wrapped 
up this new world of individualized radio. Tiny electron tubes may 
make it possible to design radio receivers and transmitters no larger 
than a fountain pen, a cigarette case, a billfold, or a lady’s powder 
box. Some day people may carry television screens on their wrists 
as they now carry watches. As the useful spectrum of radio ap- 
proaches the frontiers of light, the apparatus will become simpler 
and more compact. 

Today science is leading us out of a world in which radio has been 
blind. Tomorrow we shall have radio sight. By this I do not mean 
that we shall look only at pictures in motion that travel through the 
air. Radiovision will have many uses. It will serve wherever sight 
isneeded. For instance, it will be used to prevent collisions on high- 
ways and railroads, on sea lanes and on the airways of the world. 
Radio will be the new eye of transportation and commerce. Appli- 
cations of radio optics are unlimited. With radio ear and eye to 
guide them, the great stratoliners will be superhuman in their in- 
stincts of hearing and seeing as they speed through space with 
passengers and freight. Radio, which made the world a whispering 
gallery, will turn it into a world of mirrors. 

Radio’s great responsibilties do not stop there. A formidable task 
lies ahead for communications in the restoration of peace, in the re- 
construction of the world, in the reestablishment of international 
trade. 

If American industrial science is to play its destined role in the re- 
construction period, government should not unduly restrict private 
enterprise or enter into competition with industry. On the other 
hand, it is of no avail for industry merely to point to the dangers of 
governmental restraints. Industry must give evidence of leadership 
by presenting practical alternatives. 

The day of pioneering in America has not ended. Trail blazing 
now calls for joint effort by government, labor, and industry. Their 
authority, experience, and vision must fuse harmoniously to achieve 
success. The same spirit of give-and-take must prevail in industrial 
statesmanship as in national and international statesmanship. There 
must be but one goal—the welfare of the people and the Nation. 

Industrial statesmanship can accomplish more than political states- 
manship in solving the postwar problems of employment, mass pro- 
duction, prosperity, and the continued uplift of the American standard 


190 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


of living. Industry can be the great motive power in the solution of 
these problems. The future of every American home and family 
depends upon it. Therefore, it is imperative that after victory is 
achieved on the battlefields, American industry devote the same all- 
out efforts to the peace that it devoted to the war. There can be no 
let-down. The problems of peace will be of great magnitude. After 
the devastation of war, mankind will be called upon to win the peace 
and to make that peace secure with happiness for all people. If in- 
dustrial statesmanship fails in this great opportunity, then the ap- 
proach to the postwar problems necessarily will be political instead 
of economic. 

America’s cultivation of science has proved the Nation’s salvation 
in modern warfare. It must not be otherwise in peace. Pioneering 
and research create wealth and employment. 

In considering opportunities for employment after the war we must 
lift our sights to the skies. Man, long confined in his activities to 
the surface of the earth and beneath the ground, now finds that the 
air is a new dimension, offering new adventures and pioneering by 
a new generation. The air is a universal chemical and physical lab- 
oratory in which essential elements for life on earth are created. 
Nature herself makes unlimited use of celestial space for trans- 
mission of light and heat from the sun. Only in recent years has 
man learned to use the air. Only now is he beginning to discover 
its tremendous potentialities. Literally out of thin air, chemists are 
creating new products, physicists are building new services, while 
man is talking on unseen waves and flying on invisible beams. 

On the surface of the earth, ships and railroads, automobiles and 
industrial machines have created millions of jobs. Underground 
coal, oil, and minerals provide employment for other millions. Above 
the earth aviation and radio, electronics and television can open the 
way for new opportunities in re-employment of war workers and for 
the millions of men and women who will return from service. 

It is estimated that 10,000,000 jobs which did not exist in 1940 must 
be found to solve the postwar problem of employment. One great 
hope in helping to meet this unprecedented challenge will be found in 
the fertile and unexplored frontiers of space. Science, offering new 
incentives, is beckoning capital to venture into the open skies. We 
are challenged to look upward to our future. 

Horace Greeley, if here today, might say, “Go up, young man, go 
up and grow up in space.” There, lies the unfathomed “West” of this 
century, with no last frontier; there, lies a vast wilderness rich in 
resources, opportunities, and adventure. The “Forty-niners” of the 
present decade will be prospectors in research. They will travel 
through the air to stake their claims to fame, fortune, and freedom. 


INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE—SARNOFF 191 


To assure the full attainment of these results, private industry and 
the Government must play their parts with the utmost honesty of 
purpose, encouraging individual and collective initiative. The na- 
tional growth of the United States and its contributions through 
research and invention, are historic proof that traditional American 
cooperation between industry and government promotes the best 
public interest. 

The role of government in its relationship to labor and industry 
should be that of an umpire. A wise government does not seek to 
favor either management or labor. It must be impartial, not partisan. 

When the war ends, and we enter the immediate period of transi- 
tion, the Government in fairness to both labor and industry must 
readjust its rigid wartime controls. The emergency regulations nec- 
essary in wartime, but not necessary in peacetime, should be reduced 
as speedily as practicable. Elimination of wartime restrictions will 
enable manufacturers to produce and supply the goods needed by the 
Nation, to maintain employment, and to adapt new developments in 
industrial science for the benefit of all people. 

America must be practical. Science and industry must have 
American independence if they are to succeed in the gigantic task of 
reconversion, re-employment, and world rehabilitation. 

Never again can the United States be isolated and secure within 
its own shores. In the fact that no spot on the globe is farther than 
60 hours’ flying time from any local airport, is seen the truth that 
nations must live together as good neighbors. Shriveled by radio 
and aviation, the new world is a single neighborhood. That is not a 
theoretical concept. It is a fact. 

Today man can travel by train from Chicago to New York in 17 
hours; he can fly in 5 hours. He saves 12 hours, but it is of no avail 
if he does not use that time constructively. If people achieve more 
leisure, what are they to do with the newly found hours of freedom ? 
This is one of the paramount problems that faces the postwar world. 
Recreation and entertainment are vital to a happy life. But to be 
content man must also work. Mere idleness does not produce hap- 
piness or progress. Life is measured by time; it is too fleeting and 
precious to waste. 

Entertainment can be as refreshing as sleep. The brain to gain 
new ideas and to think clearly also must have diversion. In leisure 
some of the greatest dreams of all time have been born and have 
grown into revolutionary ideas and inventions. The complete con- 
ception of the telegraph flashed into the mind of Morse while on an 
ocean voyage. The idea of wireless flashed into Marconi’s mind 
while vacationing in the Alps. Great ideas in science, art, and litera- 
ture seldom come directly to the workbench; they are released at 


192 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


unsuspecting moments when the subconscious mind has opportunity 
to come into its own. 

In broadcasting we have an outstanding example of an art that is 
measured by time and linked with opportunity. The listener may 
use the hours to good advantage, or he may waste them. It is the 
use to which he puts his radio set and his freedom in selection of pro- 
grams that reveals the inherent value of broadcasting. The program 
is the essence. If it brings laughter, if it stimulates thinking, or rests 
the tired mind, or keeps the listener informed and in touch with 
his fellowmen, then radio is an antidote for idleness and loneliness. 

Science is a mighty ally of freedom—its advance has brought much 
release from drudgery and from want. However, we must progress 
still further. For better machines are not all that is needed to make 
a better life. We shall have a better world only to the extent that our 
social thinking and our social progress keep pace with the advance 
of physical science. 

We are approaching the days in this struggle when the basic chal- 
lenge of the postwar years will become sharper and clearer. It isa 
challenge that will ring out to people in all walks of life, to brains 
and initiative, to cooperation of government and industry, to labor 
and management, to religion and education. The answer will be 
found in the minds and hearts of men and women intent upon preserv- 
ing civilization and a world at peace. 

In this month of Thanksgiving, let us be thankful that America and 
her Allies have the strength and determination to hold high the eternal 
torch of freedom. May the victory be a victory of lasting peace, so 
that out of the bombed and shell-torn earth will come a happier to- 
morrow for all mankind. 


THE NEW MICROSCOPES? 


By R. B. Srwet, M. D., and M. ELIzABETH WINTER 
Philadelphia, Pa. 


[With 5 plates] 


It is, to speak conservatively, of extreme interest to review the 
recent progress made by the scientist in his endeavor to penetrate the 
unseen world of the minute and disease-causing organisms, in particu- 
lar a world of viruses—suspected, yet lying just beyond the scope of 
human vision and the power of the microscope to reveal; for the lab- 
oratory research worker, the doctor, the technician long have been 
familiar with the effects of these unseen enemies they have been called 
upon to treat and to cope with in man, animal, and plant, and while 
their knowledge of the infinitesimal has been growing steadily, they 
were, until very recently, unable to make the slight step “beyond” 
which would enable them to “see.” But today, science is exploring— 
looking for the first time upon totally new worlds through the eyes of 
totally new types of microscopes, microscopes new in principle of 
construction and in principle of illumination. 


THE ELECTRON MICROSCOPE 


One of these new instruments, the electron microscope, has received 
considerable attention and is now being used extensively in both in- 
dustrial and medical research. Based on the principles of geometric 
electron optics, this microscope utilizes electrons as a source of illumi- 
nation instead of the light source of the ordinary light microscope. 

Electrons, practically speaking, are the smallest, lightest particles of 
matter and electricity. Like light, they behave like corpuscles guided 
by waves. Unlike light, however, they travel in a straight line in a 
vacuum where, subject to the action of electric and magnetic fields, 
their behavior coincides with the laws and principles set down by Sir 
William Hamilton who, more than a century ago, demonstrated the 
existence of a close analogy between the path of a light ray through 
refracting media and that of a particle through conservative fields of 
force. 

We know that these negatively charged particles, the electrons, re- 
volving about in their various orbits in the atom, serve to maintain the 


1 Reprinted by permission from the Journal of the Franklin Institute, vol. 237, No. 2, 
February 1944. 
193 


194. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


balance of the atom while the nucleus exerts the “positive” force which 
holds it together; and we also know that when this balance is upset, 
due to gain or loss of electrons, we think of the atom as “charged,” 
since it is this circumstance which causes the tiny particle to attract or 
repel other electrons according to the state of its unbalance. And 
science has succeeded in unbalancing the atoms to such an appreciable 
extent that the negative electricity may be withdrawn and harnessed 
for use in such instruments as the electron microscopes. 

The fact has long been established that atoms are in a constant 
state of vibration in a heated body and that the greater the heat of the 
body, the greater the agitation of the atoms. According to the electron 
theory of metals, electrons circulate about a three-dimensional network, 
or lattice, of positive ions, some of the electrons being comparatively 
free, that is to say, the attractions of the ions are practically canceled 
by the repulsions of the other electrons. It does not necessarily follow, 
however, that the same electrons consistently remain free. They may 
be controlled by the ions eventually, but regardless of this, there is 
always a fixed number of them that are free. Moreover, there is a 
critical value of speed above which the electrons are able to rise in 
metals and thus escape from their restraining positive charges, though 
at ordinary temperatures the proportion of them moving rapidly 
enough to do this is relatively small. However, as the heat applied 
to the metal is increased, not only is the thermal agitation of the 
electrons increased also, but the proportion among them possessing 
sufficiently high speeds to enable them to leave the metal. 

Thus is heat applied to the electron source of the electron micro- 
scope which, in the case of most instruments of this kind, is a tungsten 
filament surrounded by a guard cylinder. After leaving the filament, 
or cathode, the electrons enter an electric field wherein are large 
accumulations of charge which serve to speed up steadily the motion 
of these freely moving particles. Since the electrons travel in vacua, 
none of the kinetic energy gained in crossing the field is lost, the total 
kinetic energy, or energy of motion, gained in passing through this 
region being proportional to the voltage applied. We may deduce, 
therefore, that since increase of charge in an electric field means a 
proportional increase of kinetic energy of these electrons, the higher 
the voltage applied, the greater the speed of the electrons—all of 
which has been calculated mathematically and confirmed experi- 
mentally. 

After traversing the electric field and passing through the anode, 
the electrons are concentrated on the specimen under examination by 
the first of three magnetic fields which are created by currents flowing 
through coils enclosed in soft iron shields, molded so as to concentrate 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 195 


the magnetic fields on a short section of the microscope’s axis. Whereas 
in the ordinary light microscope glass lenses serve as the refractive 
media through which light rays are deflected, in the electron microscope 
it is these magnetic fields of rotational symmetry which are the refrac- 
tive media and serve as the “lenses” which deflect the beams of 


ELECTRON 
SOURCE LIGHT SOURCE 
Th 
iF 
H \ 
MAGNETIC | CONDENSER 
CONDENSER | eels 
|| | 
MAGNETIC . OBJECTIVE 
OBJECTIVE I \\ LENS /| 
| i] \ 
/ | \ / | \ 
’ \ 
} t 
INTERMEDIATE 
IMAGE PROJECTOR 
PROJECTOR LENS 


/ \ 


/ \ | \ 


OBSERVATION 
SECOND STAGE SCREEN 


MAGNIFIED IMAGE (PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATE) 


Figure 1.—Comparison of a simplified cross section of an electron microscope 
(left) with that of an ordinary light microscope. 


electrons. The first of these, the condenser lens coil, corresponding to 
the substage condenser of the ordinary light microscope, concentrates 
the beam of electrons upon the specimen. The convergence of the 
beam falling on the specimen is controlled by varying the current 
through this condenser lens. Now, having passed through the speci- 
men, the objective coil, similar in effect to the objective lens, focuses 
the electrons, and an intermediate image enlarged about 100 diameters 


196 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


is formed. Finally, the projection coil, corresponding to the projec- 
tion lens or ocular, produces a further magnified image on a large 
fluorescent screen. In some of the electron microscopes, there is a 
periscope-like attachment by means of which it is possible to locate 
and adjust for study the most interesting portion of the specimen, or 
that which it is desired should be examined, before the projection lens 
coil forms the final magnified image upon the screen, since it is some- 
times difficult to accomplish this at high magnification. Also, if it 
is desired that a photographic record be made, the screen can be 
removed and a photographic plate substituted. 

The specimen itself is supported on a thin nitrocellulose membrane 
less than one-millionth of an inch thick, and clamped in the tip of a 
cartridge which is inserted between the pole pieces of the objective coil. 
The membrane is suspended across the opening of a fine-mesh screen, 
and a plate, serving as the movable stage, supports the cartridge. The 
image is projected onto the screen according to the density and atomic 
weight of the specimen. In other words, whereas in the ordinary light 
microscope the image is seen because of refraction of the specimen or 
differences in absorption, in the electron microscope the image is seen 
through scattering of the electrons, and since electrons travel in a 
straight line in a vacuum, it stands to reason that even a fairly thin 
specimen will prove sufficient to deflect such particles. Electrons 
which strike a thick or solid portion of the specimen will, of course, 
not continue on in a straight line to the screen but will be either com- 
pletely absorbed by the specimen or scattered too far out of the beam, 
thus failing to enter the narrow aperture of the objective, so that that 
portion of the screen corresponding to the thick portion of the specimen 
will remain dark. However, those electrons which are able to escape 
complete absorption or too great deflection, because they do not happen 
to come in contact with too solid a portion of the specimen and either 
pass along on all sides of it or penetrate the thinner portions where it 
is possible they may encounter only a single heavy nucleus for consider- 
able scattering (the angle of deflection being proportional to the 
square root of the thickness), continue on to the screen where they im- 
pinge and cause the chemically treated screen to fluoresce, thus provid- 
ing a study in light and shadow. If the atoms of a particular sub- 
stance are heavy, they will also deflect more electrons than if they were 
light. It may be readily seen, therefore, that the thinner the specimen 
and its mounting, or the greater the variations in density of the speci- 
men, the more internal structure and detail which may be seen, since 
too great density tends to absorb or interrupt the straight-line progress 
of too many of the electrons. 

Focusing of the image is accomplished by varying the strength 
of the fields and thereby altering the focal length of the “lens” coils at 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 197 


will, so that the need of changing the specimen’s position in relation 
to a fixed optical system, as would be the case with an ordinary light 
microscope, is avoided. Thus, magnification in an electron micro- 
scope can be continuously varied. 

Some specimens may be mounted directly on the fine-mesh screen 
while others may be embedded in collodion, sealed between films of 
collodion, or suspended in a gelatin film, itself supported on collodion 
film. The supporting films beside being very thin must be homo- 
geneous lest an artifact be created. For the most part, no staining 
of bacteriological specimens is done since usually they exhibit suffi- 
ciently high contrast in density to reveal readily flagella and other de- 
tail without any preparation except that of suspending the specimen in 
distilled water or other liquid and allowing a drop of the suspension 
to dry on the film surface, which method is also utilized for specimens 
of colloidal particles, pigments, and other chemical preparations. At 
times, however, as Dr. L. Marton, of Stanford University, has men- 
tioned in his article on the electron microscope (written for The Jour- 
nal of Bacteriology, March 1941, when he was associated with the 
R. C. A. Research Laboratories), virus particles may show decided low 
contrast. One method which Dr. Marton mentioned for overcoming 
this is to obtain a number of electron micrographs at various focuses 
and simply select the best one for study. Or the virus may be per- 
mitted to absorb colloidal gold which would result in an image of high 
contrast. Dr. Marton points out that there may be future need for a 
staining in density and that already osmic acid has oe tried and used 
for elite’ purpose. 

In this microscope, voltages of between 30,000 and 60,000 are used. 
It has been previously stated that the higher the voltage, the greater 
the speed of the electrons. This might now be augmented to read, 
the higher the voltage, the greater the speed of electrons; hence, the 
shorter the wave length. An explanation of this may be approached 
through a brief discussion of short-wave diffraction as considered by 
Dr. Karl K. Darrow, of Bell Laboratories, in his book, “The Renais- 
sance of Physics.” In order to obtain convenient angles of refraction 
with the ordinary diffraction grating, it is necessary that the wave 
lengths of light be smaller, but not many times smaller, than the spac- 
ing between the wires or grooves. Naturally, a limit of measurement 
is reached in the region of ultraviolet light since it is impossible to 
lessen further the spacing of these gratings. However, this limitation 
was overcome when von Laue conceived the idea of substituting a 
erystal for an artificial grating since the atoms in a crystal are a 
thousand times more closely set together than are the wires or grooves 
of a grating and are arranged in precise regular order or “lattices,” 
and, like gratings, are unable to diffract waves which are longer than 


198 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the spacings between their atoms. Von Laue suggested that if a beam 
of light were directed across a crystal and made to strike a photo- 
graphic plate, there would appear a spray of narrow rays each com- 
posed of a single wave train instead of the broad fanlike arrange- 
ment of the grating, and a pattern of starlike spots where the rays 
come in contact with the plate instead of the dark irregular blot 
when a grating is used. Of course, the rays are disposed according 
to the spacings of the atoms in the lattice and according to the char- 
acter of the lattice. Von Laue confirmed this idea for waves short 
enough to be so diffracted and then advanced the theory that this 
principle might hold true for X-rays as well, which theory was almost 
immediately confirmed by Friedrich and Knipping. Shortly after 
Schroedinger began to develop De Broglie’s wave theory of electrons, 
Elsasser conceived the idea that possibly these tiny particles might 
also be diffracted by crystals, and Doctors Davisson and Germer, of the 
Bell Telephone Research Laboratories, using as part of their appara- 
tus an electron gun, set out to test and to prove this theory. Due to 
their experiments and those of G. P. Thomson, it was established 
beyond a doubt that electron beams are diffracted just as are X-ray 
beams. However, it was also demonstrated in the course of these ex- 
periments that electrons of slow speeds and feeble kinetic energies are 
unable to penetrate the crystals. It was Thomson who utilized faster 
electrons and demonstrated that not only are electrons diffracted like 
X-rays, but like X-rays also they make an imprint upon a photographic 
plate at increased speeds. These three men, together with others, then 
measured the wave lengths which they compared with the momenta 
of these electrons by their diffraction. To these experiments and 
measurements were then applied the following rules of correlation: 
“Energy (/) is proportional to frequency (v), and momentum (Pp) is 
inversely proportional to wavelength (lambda), the same constant (2) 
appearing in both relations. (Frequency is interpreted as the velocity 
(V) of the waves divided by their wavelength.)” These rules can be 
applied mathematically to the electron microscope to illustrate better 
the principles of its operation. In making use of the first rule, how- 
ever, it is necessary to substitute “voltage” for “frequency,” and in so 
doing, therefore, the rules of correlation explain the increase of energy 
in relation to the increase of voltage as well as the increase of speed of 
electrons in relation to the decrease or shortening of wave length when 
we say the higher the voltage, the greater the speed; hence, the shorter 
the wave length of electrons. It is interesting to note in passing that 
a 150-volt electron has a wave length of one Angstrom unit, this being 
more than 10-° times smaller than the wave length of visible or 
ultraviolet light. 

Because the wave lengths utilized in an electron microscope are so 
much shorter than those employed in an ordinary light microscope, 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 199 


it is possible to obtain greatly increased resolution and magnification. 
As a matter of fact, resolution up to 20,000 or 25,000 diameters may be 
realized, and increased magnifications beyond this point up to 100,000, 
even 200,000 diameters, can be obtained, such magnifications, however, 
constituting enlargement of the image. (Definitions of “resolution” 
and “magnification” discussed under “The Ordinary Microscope.”) 
This high magnification is greatly desirable since otherwise the eye 
would be unable to distinguish the fine detail of internal structure at 
a resolution of the order of 25,000. Asa result of this increase in reso- 
lution and magnification over that of the ordinary light microscope 
which is between 1,600 and 2,500 diameters and in the ultramicroscope 
between 2,500 and 5,000 diameters, many surface cells and much intri- 
cate internal structure hitherto unsuspected, or at least undetected by 
ordinary microscopes, have been revealed. To cite a few examples: 

The streptococcal cells appear, not as individual cells, that is, sepa- 
rate and apart from one another, but as chainlike groups, the cells in 
each chain being bound together apparently by the strong rigid mem- 
brane or outer cellular wall which extends over a number of these cells 
and which is so plainly evident under the electron microscope. Sub- 
jected to sonic vibraticn, these cells suffer a loss of protoplasmic mate- 
rial from their interior, causing them to become mere “ghost” cells, 
which makes them more transparent to electron beams. That there 
exists considerable difference between the surface structure and in- 
ternal composition of these cells has also been determined and 
demonstrated. 

Using the electron microscope, Dr. Harry E. Morton, of the depart- 
ment of bacteriology of the University of Pennsylvania Medical 
School, and Dr. Thomas F. Anderson, of R. C. A. Research Labora- 
tories were able to demonstrate that in at least one instance where 
chemical reaction is induced by bacteria this reaction takes place 
“inside” the cells. The fact that diphtheria bacilli reduce potassium 
tellurite to metallic tellurium has been known for some time, but 
whether this reaction occurred inside the cell or on the cell surface 
or both had never been definitely shown until the electron microscope 
was made available. Then, obtaining unstained preparations of 
Corynebacterium diphtheriae grown on blood infusion agar, Drs. 
Morton and Anderson demonstrated that the typical polar granules 
appear as dense spherical masses, or possibly plates, of a very black 
color and that in unstained preparations of this same Corynebacterium 
diphtheriae grown on potassium tellurite chocolate agar, not only the 
polar granules are in evidence but also the tiny needlelike crystals 
inside the cell which disappear along with the black color of the cell 
masses when a drop of bromine water is added to 1 ce. of a suspension 

619830—45——14 


200 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


of the cells on potassium tellurite chocolate agar. From this the 
experimenters were able to deduce that tellurium metal occurs in the 
form of needles and is the cause of the black color, and that this reac- 
tion occurs within the cells since the crystals have never been observed 
to lie totally outside the cell wall, although at times there is some 
distortion of the wall. 

The electron microscope also affords such study and observation 
as that carried out by Dr. W. M. Stanley, of the Rockefeller Institute 
of Medical Research, and Dr. Thomas F. Anderson in their recent 
investigation of plant viruses. By means of electron micrographs, 
they were able to judge the exact manner and extent of attack made 
on the tobacco mosaic virus by the protein antibodies in the blood 
stream of rabbits in which an artificial immunity to the virus had been 
produced. 

Structures like that of the spirochete of Weil’s disease, typhoid 
flagella, unusual internal structure of pertussis organisms, tubercle 
bacilli, the isolation and recognition of the influenza virus, the spores 
of trychophyton mentagrophytes, Spirochaeta pallida with its accom- 
panying flagellar appendages, and colloidal particles are but a few 
of the interesting revelations of the electron microscope for medical 
science. Industrial science, too, has found this new research tool of 
great value in the study of metals, alloys, and plastics, as well as in 
the study of size, shape, and distribution of particles in chemical com- 
pounds and elements. 

The electron microscope herein described is that manufactured by 
the Radio Corporation of America. There are, of course, variations 
in construction of the different instruments of this kind but all types 
are built along similar lines and upon the same general principles. 
In the electron microscope there is some aberration plus the additional 
disadvantages of having the specimen in a vacuum, not to mention the 
probable protoplasmic changes induced by the terrific bombardment 
of electrons, and finally, what is perhaps the greatest disadvantage 
insofar as medical science is concerned—that of being unable to view 
living organisms. Nevertheless, the disadvantages of the microscope 
are far overshadowed by its increased resolving and magnification 
powers which have combined to make it an invaluable research tool. 


RESOLUTION AND MAGNIFICATION OF ORDINARY MICROSCOPE 


We have stated that the resolving power of the ordinary light 
microscope is restricted to between 1,600 and 2,500 diameters and 
that of the ordinary ultramicroscope to between 2,500 and 5,000 
diameters, resolution in any microscope being the ability of the in- 
strument to reveal the most minute of component parts of a specimen 
so that each may be seen as a distinct and separate image. For in- 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 201 


stance, let us suppose an object is examined through which run two 
very fine parallel lines closely set together. If the two lines are visible 
under the microscope and are revealed as two separate images, then, 
apparently, no limit of resolution has been reached; but if the two 
lines are merged or revealed as only one, and upon further magnifica- 
tion the image merely becomes enlarged without separation of the 
lines, then a limit of resolution apparently has been reached and ad- 
ditional magnification would constitute only enlargement. Assum- 
ing now that the object is a point object in which case the images of 
the points would be diffraction disks, the disks should likewise be 
sufficiently resolved so that each may be distinguished as a single 
image. If, when these disks are seen to overlap, additional magnifica- 
tion fails to extend the distance between them, their size simply in- 
creasing in proportion to the increase of magnification, or, if they are 
all but completely merged and the image becomes just a spurious disk 
of light, it is evident that a definite limit of resolution has been at- 
tained and that further magnification would be useless. Resolution, 
in a broad sense, then, is the ability of the microscope to bring out or 
reveal internal structure and detail of a specimen, the shortest dis- 
tance it is possible to separate two component parts, according to 
Abbe, being not less than the wave length of light by which the 
specimen is illuminated divided by the numerical aperture of the 
objective lens plus the numerical aperture of the condenser lens, or 
about one-third the wave length of light utilized. 

The several factors which are generally acknowledged to be re- 
sponsible for the limitation of resolving power are interrelated. Now 
when light passes from one medium into another of different density— 
in the instance which we are considering that of light refracted by the 
specimen and passing from air into glass—the light rays are deviated 
from their straight-line course; that is to say, when they come to 
within a very short distance of this denser medium, they are acted upon 
by a very powerful force in such a manner that they execute a short, 
rapidly curving motion, or an angle, and are pulled into the medium of 
greater density. When the rays of light undergo such a force, the 
momentum of the corpuscles is increased and the speed of the waves 
decreased, resulting, of course, in a shortening of the wave lengths. 
Here, again, we may make use of the second of the rules of correlation— 
“Momentum (of corpuscles) varies inversely as wavelength (of 
waves).” Once well inside the new medium, however, the light rays 
straighten themselves out again (unless the medium is so constructed 
that it possesses gradation of density, in which case they follow a curved 
path). They do this in spite of the fact that the same forces are still 
acting upon them, although now these forces issue from all sides of 
them and so cancel each other out, the momentum of the photons or 


202 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


light corpuscles continuing to increase while the speed of the waves is 
proportionately retarded. If the light is refracted normally to the 
surface, however, it does not bend, but tends to cause a shortening of 
the optical path although the wave length is shortened regardless. It 
is only when it is refracted obliquely to the surface that the light is 
bent, the greater the obliquity of the incident ray and the denser 
the medium, the greater the bending of the angle of the cone of light 
and the shorter the wave length. It might therefore seem desirable to 
obtain as great an angle of refraction as possible. However, shorten- 
ing of the wave length is not in exact proportion to the amount of 
bending except in the case of the diffraction grating. And regardless 
of how great a change there is in its angle, the numerical aperture of 
the light, or angular aperture as it is more properly called, remains 
constant. 

In order, then, that the cone of light be large enough to supply the 
aperture of the objective with sufficient hight to produce an accurate, 
bright, and enlarged image of the specimen, it is first necessary that 
the specimen be refracting or emitting light of an adequate quantity, 
since both magnification and resolution are largely dependent upon the 
amount of light which the objective utilizes and receives into the tube 
of the microscope and since such hight as the objective does receive 
should be only that emitted by the specimen. It is obvious, therefore, 
that it is of primary importance for the specimen itself to be amply 
illuminated. This would seem to depend entirely on the actual light 
source, yet no matter how powerful a light source is employed, it is of 
little avail unless the condenser is of sufficient quality and aperture 
dimensions to accommodate the light which it receives from the source. 
If, for instance, the numerical aperture of the objective is 1.25, the 
width of the cone of light emanating from the specimen should com- 
pletely fill this aperture in order for the fullest powers of the micro- 
scope to be realized. Now, since the condenser supplies the light to the 
specimen, it stands to reason that it, also, should have a numerical 
aperture of at least 1.25. However, if the condenser and specimen 
slide are separated by air, the condenser can provide light of only 
1.00 N. A. to the specimen since, according to a law of optics, no aper- 
ture greater than 1.00 N. A. (this being the refractive index of air), 
can pass from a denser medium into air. To remedy this situation, 
an immersion fluid is placed between the top of the condenser and the 
lower side of the specimen slide as well as between the specimen and 
the objective lens. 

Since no optical medium has an index of refraction greater than 
3 and no immersion fluid an index of refraction greater than 1.7, to 
increase resolving power further, then, might it not be feasible to 
widen the apertures of the objective and condenser lenses, thus afford- 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 203 


ing additional illumination for utilization by both specimen and objec- 
tive? This idea would be entirely practical except for the fact that 
such enlargement of the lenses would increase aberration, both spher- 
ical and chromatic, and apparently present-day lenses are now as highly 
corrected as it is possible for human ingenuity and skillful workman- 
ship tomake them. Spherical aberration, caused by the paraxial rays 
coming to a focus at the center of the lens before those rays near the 
principal axis, is corrected by using concave and convex lenses of 
different material and, consequently, of different refractive index. In 
this manner spherical aberration of a convex lens, for instance, can be 
overcome, without its converging action being altered, by adding to 
the optical system a concave lens in which there is an equal and oppo- 
site aberration. Chromatic aberration, occurring when more than 
one wave length of light is used to illuminate the specimen, is due to the 
fact that the shortest waves of the spectrum are refracted most and 
the longest waves least, thus causing the blue-violet waves to come to 
a focus ahead of the red waves and resulting in a series of colored foci 
all along the axis. Now since, as we have said, the shortening of the 
different groups of wave lengths is not in exact proportion to their 
bending and since this circumstance varies according to the substance 
the light rays pass through, it is possible to combine lenses or lens 
systems in such a way that white light may be obtained. For instance, 
a small concave flint-glass prism produces the same amount of dis- 
persion as a large convex crown-glass prism. Thus, if these two prisms 
are placed with their edges opposite, the crown glass will bring together 
the spectrum produced by the flint glass and white light will be the 
result. However, the rays of white light will not extend parallel with 
the original direction but will bend toward the base of the crown glass 
since the mean refraction of the crown glass is greater than that of the 
flint glass. Achromatic objectives, corrected spherically for one color, 
chromatically for two ; semiapochromatic objectives, possessing moder- 
ate refractive indices and very small dispersion, in which a lens of 
fluorite is substituted for one of the glass lenses; apochromatic objec- 
tives, corrected spherically for two colors, chromatically for three; and 
also certain monochromatic lenses for use with light of one wave 
length only are available for overcoming, at least in part, one of the 
conditions which tends to interfere with better resolution. Con- 
densers, also, can be corrected for both spherical and chromatic aber- 
ration and must be achromatic-aplanatic if the light which enters the 
objective is to come only from the specimen, for condensers with spher- 
ical and chromatic aberration are unable to direct their entire cone of 
light upon the specimen. 

In addition to being as highly corrected as possible and possessing a 
large numerical aperture, an objective should also be capable of ade- 


204 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


quately magnifying the image, being aided in this by the ocular which 
also serves at times to compensate for the defects in chromatic magnifi- 
cation which cannot be managed conveniently by high-power objec- 
tives, the magnification of the final image being the product of the 
magnification of the objective multiplied by the magnification of the 
ocular. An amplifier is sometimes inserted between the objective and 
ocular which causes the rays of light from the objective to diverge to 
a greater extent, thus doubling the size of the image. Magnification 
may also be improved by increasing the tube length, by increasing the 
distance from which the image is projected, and by altering the posi- 
tions of the various lenses in an adjustable objective. In general, the 
greater the magnification, the smaller will be the specimen field, but, 
as has been stressed, high powers of magnification should always be 
accompanied by equally high powers of resolution. 

As we have seen, resolution in the ordinary light microscope is 
definitely restricted by a number of interrelated elements. Even when 
monochromatic light is employed, there is always present some spheri- 


cal aberration with which to contend. True, better visibility of speci- 


mens is provided by dark-field microscopy in which the specimen is 
viewed by the high contrast of its own scattered or reflected light 
against a dark field, although in this type of illumination objects in 
the field must be well separated. Much fine detail and brilliant color 
of specimens can be observed by means of the polarization of light. 
Further, it is possible to illuminate the specimen with shorter and 
shorter wave lengths of light, the shorter the wave length of light used, 
the more of the fine detail of the specimen which can be seen, but a 
limit is reached here, also, for ordinary glass lenses are not transparent 
to ultraviolet rays. However, in the ultraviolet microscope, having a 
resolution twice that of the instruments using “visible light,” the con- 
denser, objective, and ocular are all made of quartz and, by substituting 
the photographic plate for direct observation, many excellent micro- 
graphs of numerous varieties of organisms and cellular structures can 
be made. But when viewed directly, nothing of the nature or struc- 
ture of the specimen can be ascertained; only the light scattered by the 
specimen is distinguishable, the size of the specimen being roughly 
estimated by the amount of light refracted. 

These seemingly unsurmountable obstacles of the ordinary micro- 
scopes would appear to indicate that Abbe’s law and the contention of 
physicists that “any object which is smaller than one-half the wave 
length of light by which it is illuminated cannot be seen in its true form 
or detail” are destined to remain undefied. 


REDUCTION IN THEORETICAL LIMIT OF RESOLUTION DEMONSTRATED 


But Dr. Francis F. Lucas, of the Bell Telephone Research Labora- 
tories, and Drs. Louis Cary] Graton and E. C. Dane, Jr., of the depart- 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 205 


ment of geology, Harvard University, have very convincingly demon- 
strated a reduction in these theoretical limits of resolution and visibility 
with their instruments, designed for use in the visible light region of 
the spectrum. 
The Graton-Dane microscope is mounted on a 360-kg. steel founda- 
tion bed which, in turn, is supported by six rubber-in-sheer marine- 
engine mountings—this for the purpose of eliminating all vibration 
and insuring stability of parts, two factors upon which both men have 
laid great stress. Any type source, such as the carbon arc, metallic arc, 
incandescent filament, Point-O-Lite, mercury vapor, or any of the 
special forms of monochromators, can be used for illuminating the 
specimen with direct and dark-field transmitted, vertical and oblique 
reflected, or polarized light. The image beam itself follows a straight- 
line path in passing from the objective, the objective ranging anywhere 
from the shortest to the greatest in working distance, through the tube 
to the ocular, as few lenses as possible being placed in its way. The 
spiral-cut rack and pinion which moves the stage and substage assem- 
bly in longitudinal tracks or guides can be operated by hand or by an 
electric motor and is independent of the fine adjustment, also motor- 
driven, which moves only the objective and the carriage carrying the 
objective. Whereas manual operation of the fine adjustment which is 
100 times more sensitive than that of the ordinary instruments neces- 
sitates 500 turns of the knob to move the objective a distance of but 
1 millimeter (an adjustment calculated to require a time period of 
25 minutes), by means of the motor it is possible to move the objective 
at the rate of 0.01 mm. per second or 0.004 mm. per second, depending 
upon which of the two speeds is desired, rapid motion being used when 
the image appears considerably out of focus and decreased speed being 
used when the image seems to be reaching a point of perfection 
Resolution up to 6,000 diameters and magnification up to 50,000 
diameters have been achieved with this high-precision microscope 
which photographs or enables observation of both opaque and trans- 
parent preparations; in fact, polishing scratches measuring in width 
but one-tenth the wave length of light used have been clearly distin- 


?The mechanism governing the fine adjustment was completely redesigned after it was 
discovered that changes in the lubricant, used for gear threads and carriage bearings, 
seriously affected the precision of the instrument. Using a principle suggested to him by 
R. W. Vose, formerly of the Harvard Engineering School, Dr. Dane built and assembled 
a new fine-adjustment drive so designed that, as Dr. Graton describes it, “all that part 
of the mechanism which actuates the slowest, and therefore the most sensitive, part 
of the motion operates not through gears or screws, but through the differential flexing of a 
train of spring-bronze strips, which have the double advantage of avoiding all chance for 
play or backlash and of needing no lubrication whatever. Interferometer tests with the 
new element in place give practically ideal readings as compared with the theoretical: 
the deviations are very much smaller than those recorded in our original paper, page 372. 
The operation of the fine-focusing mechanism selectively by hand knob or by motor-drive, 
and the slowness of motion, and hence the precise control over focus are the same in the 
new design as in the old.” 


206 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


guished. It is the opinion of both Dr. Graton and Dr. Dane that 
some present-day lenses are really capable of better resolution than 
claimed for them by their manufacturers, it having been their experi- 
ence to use objectives exhibiting superior qualities of resolution over 
those of identical medium and numerical aperture, proving that not 
only have already available lenses surpassed their theoretical limits of 
resolution, indicating that it might be possible to design objectives 
with still greater numerical apertures, but that the accepted theory 
regarding this resolution is sadly in need of revision. Dr. Lucas’s 
microscope utilizing an objective with a numerical aperture of 1.60, for 
instance, in combination with monobromnaphalene immersion fluid, 
also yields resolution up to 6,000 diameters being, like the Graton- 
Dane scope, a high-precision instrument constructed with the idea of 
maintaining absolute stability of parts. Dr. Lucas also has expressed 
doubt as to the complete validity of the generally accepted theory of 
resolution. 

In working with a high-precision ultraviolet microcamera, into 
which a tricolor filter system has been incorporated, which he has just 
recently perfected, Dr. Lucas is able to obtain a minimum magnifica- 
tion of 30,000 diameters and a maximum magnification of 60,000 diam- 
eters. With this instrument it is possible to view living cells and 
organisms, no staining or killing of organisms being necessary, and 
Dr. Lucas has succeeded in obtaining excellent photomicrographs 
(both still and motion pictures). Of special significance to industry, 
for instance, is the ability of this scope to demonstrate the size, shape, 
and reactions in motion and aflinity of the tiny particles of which 
rubber is composed under varying conditions of temperature, etc., 
while its ability to reveal living rat and mouse sarcoma and carcinoma 
cells and to demonstrate the development and behavior of the syphilitic 
organism is of far more than average interest to medical science. 

England’s Dr. J. E. Barnard has succeeded in obtaining resolution 
up to 7,500 diameters with his ultra-dark-field scope in which he uses a 
combined illuminator. In this, an outer system of glass acts as the 
immersion dark-field illuminator while the inner immersion system of 
quartz makes possible the passage of a transmitted beam of light 
through the specimen. Both condensers have the same focus, one for 
visible light, the other for ultraviolet radiation, and both can be 
stopped out at will. When, for instance, bacteria are being observed, 
immersion contact is made between the condenser and quartz slide, 
the dark-field illuminator being used, thus revealing the bacteria with 
visible light. When the dark-field illuminator is closed, however, a 
beam of ultraviolet light may be directed up through the quartz con- 
denser and focused on the bacteria. The object-glass, of course, has 
to be adjusted since it does not possess the same focus for ultraviolet 


NEW MICROSCOPES—-SEIDEL AND WINTER 207 


that it does for visible light. Staining of specimens is thus unneces- 
sary, making it possible to secure photomicrographs of living minute 
organisms. 

In addition to these four microscopes, a fourth, belonging to the 
Canadian Department of Mines and located at Ottawa, and almost 
identical in principle and construction to that of Drs. Dane and 
Graton, has demonstrated ability to attain equally high resolution. 
This, like the scopes of Drs. Dane, Graton, and Lucas, is fitted 
with a tube for visual observation although intended mainly for 
microphotographical work in the field of metallurgy. It is Dr. 
Graton’s belief, however, that his instrument and that of Dr. Dane 
might also be adaptable to the purposes of biological research. Re- 
ferring, in the description of their “Precision, All Purpose Micro- 
camera” (Journ. Opt. Soc. Amer.), to the necessity or “desirability” of 
“reéxamining the classical conception of the limit of useful magnifi- 
cation,” Drs. Dane and Graton have this to say: 

So long as the makers accepted the conventional limit as valid and had already 
attained it, there was little incentive toward progress. But with that limit 
apparently surpassed, there is no present knowledge as to how far ahead the 
true limit may lie. If present-day objectives do substantially better than the 
“limit” for which they were designed, is it not reasonable to suppose that effort 
to do better stil] may conceivably be rewarded? 

To such an inquiry there can be but one logical answer—an agree- 
ment which, while perhaps not concurred in by all, must, for those 
stimulated to more intense interest and effort by the possibilities of 
uncovering new facts, pose further questions; for, if the improvement 
of one part results in the improved performance of the whole, is it not 
also reasonable to suppose that additional changes of additional parts, 
yes, even changes with respect to principle and method might likewise 
bear fruit ? 

THE UNIVERSAL MICROSCOPE 


It is not only a reasonable supposition, but already, in one instance, 
a very successful and highly commendable achievement on the part of 
Dr. Royal Raymond Rife of San Diego, Calif., who, for many years, 
has built and worked with light microscopes which far surpass the 
theoretical limitations of the ordinary variety of instrument, all the 
Rife scopes possessing superior ability to attain high magnification 
with accompanying high resolution. The largest and most powerful 
of these, the universal microscope, developed in 1933, consists of 5,682 
parts and is so called because of its adaptability in all fields of miero- 
scopical work, being fully equipped with separate substage condenser 
units for transmitted and monochromatic beam, dark-field, polarized, 
and slit-ultra illumination, including also a special device for crystal- 
lography. ‘The entire optical system of lenses and prisms as well as 


208 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the illuminating units are made of block-crystal quartz, quartz being 
especially transparent to ultraviolet radiations. 

The illuminating unit used for examining the filterable forms of 
disease organisms contains 14 lenses and prisms, 3 of which are in the 
high-intensity incandescent lamp, 4 in the Risley prism, and 7 in the 
achromatic condenser which, incidentally, has a numerical aperture 
of 1.40. Between the source of light and the specimen are subtended 
two circular, wedge-shaped, block-crystal quartz prisms for the pur- 
pose of polarizing the light passing through the specimen, polarization 
being the practical application of the theory that light waves vibrate in 
all planes perpendicular to the direction in which they are propagated. 
Therefore, when light comes into contact with a polarizing prism, it 
is divided or split into two beams, one of which is refracted to such an 
extent that it is reflected to the side of the prism without, of course, 
passing through the prism while the second ray, bent considerably less, 
is thus enabled to pass through the prism to illuminate the specimen. 
When the quartz prisms on the universal microscope, which may be 
rotated with vernier control through 360°, are rotated in opposite 
directions, they serve to bend the transmitted beams of light at variable 
angles of incidence while, at the same time, a spectrum is projected 
up into the axis of the microscope, or rather a small portion of a spec- 
trum since only a part of a band of color is visible at any one time.. 
However, it is possible to proceed in this way from one end of the spec- 
trum to the other, going all the way from the infrared to the ultra- 
violet. Now, when that portion of the spectrum is reached in which 
both the organism and the color band vibrate in exact accord, one with 
the other, a definite characteristic spectrum is emitted by the organism. 
In the case of the filter-passing form of the Bacillus typhosus, for 
instance, a blue spectrum is emitted and the plane of polarization 
deviated plus 4.8°. The predominating chemical constituents of the 
organism are next ascertained after which the quartz prisms are ad- 
justed or set, by means of vernier control, to minus 4.8° (again in the 
case of the filter-passing form of the Bacillus typhosus) so that the 
opposite angle of refraction may be obtained. A monochromatic 
beam of light, corresponding exactly to the frequency of the organism 
(for Dr. Rife has found that each disease organism responds to and 
has a definite and distinct wave length, a fact confirmed by British 
medical research workers) is then sent up through the specimen and 
the direct transmitted light, thus enabling the observer to view the 
organism stained in its true chemical color and revealing its own 
individual structure in a field which is brilliant with light. 

The objectives used on the universal microscope are a 1.12 dry lens, 
a 1.16 water immersion, a 1.18 oil immersion, and a 1.25 oil immersion. 
The rays of light refracted by the specimen enter the objective and are 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 209 


then carried up the tube in parallel rays through 21 light bends to the 
ocular, a tolerance of less than one wave length of visible light only 
being permitted in the core beam, or chief ray, of illumination. Now, 
instead of the light rays starting up the tube in a parallel fashion, 
tending to converge as they rise higher and finally crossing each other, 
arriving at the ocular separated by considerable distance as would be 
the case with an ordinary microscope, in the universal tube the rays 
also start their rise parallel to each other but, just as they are about te 
cross, a specially designed quartz prism is inserted which serves to 
pull them out parallel again, another prism being inserted each time 
the rays are about ready to cross. These prisms, inserted in the tube, 
which are adjusted and held in alignment by micrometer screws of 100 
threads to the inch in special tracks made of magnelium (magnelium 
having the closest coefficient of expansion of any metal to quartz), are 
separated by a distance of only 30 millimeters. Thus, the greatest 
distance that the image in the universal is projected through any one 
media, either quartz or air, is 30 millimeters instead of the 160, 180, 
or 190 millimeters as in the empty or air-filled tube of an ordinary 
microscope, the total distance which the light rays travel zigzag fashion 
through the universal tube being 449 millimeters, although the physical 
length of the tube itself is 229 millimeters. It will be recalled that if 
one pierces a black strip ef paper or cardboard with the point of a 
needle and then brings the card up close to the eye so that the hole is 
in the optic axis, a small brilliantly lighted object will appear larger 
and clearer, revealing more fine detail, than if it were viewed from the 
same distance without the assistance of the card. This is explained 
by the fact that the beam of light passing through the card is very 
narrow, the rays entering the eye, therefore, being practically parallel, 
whereas without the card the beam of light is much wider and the 
diffusion circles much larger. It is this principle of parallel rays in 
the universal microscope and the resultant shortening of projection 
distance between any two blocks or prisms plus the fact that objectives 
can thus be substituted for oculars, these “oculars” being three matched 
pairs of 10-millimeter, 7-millimeter, and 4-millimeter objectives in 
short mounts, which make possible not only the unusually high mag- 
nification and resolution but which serve to eliminate all distortion as 
well as all chromatic and spherical aberration. 

Quartz slides with especially thin quartz cover glasses are used when 
a tissue section or culture slant is examined, the tissue section itself also 
being very thin. An additional observational tube and ocular which 
yield a magnification of 1,800 diameters are provided so that that por- 
tion of the specimen which it is desired should be examined may be 
located and so that the observer can adjust himself more readily when 
viewing a section at a high magnification. 


210 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The universal stage is a double rotating stage graduated through 
360° in quarter-minute arc divisions, the upper segment carrying 
the mechanical stage having’ a movement of 40°, the body assembly 
which can be moved horizontally over the condenser also having an 
angular tilt of 40° plus or minus. Heavily constructed joints and 
screw adjustments maintain rigidity of the microscope which weighs 
200 pounds and stands 24 inches high, the bases of the scope being 
nickel cast-steel plates, accurately surfaced, and equipped with three 
leveling screws and two spirit levels set at angles of 90°. The coarse 
adjustment, a block thread screw with 40 threads to the inch, slides 
in a 114 dovetail which gibs directly onto the pillar post. The weight 
of the quadruple nosepiece and the objective system is taken care of 
by the intermediate adjustment at the top of the body tube. The 
stage, in conjunction with a hydraulic lift, acts as a lever in operating 
the fine adjustment. A 6-gauge screw having 100 threads to the inch 
is worked through a gland into a hollow, glycerine-filled post, the 
glycerine being displaced and replaced at will as the screw is turned 
clockwise or anticlockwise, allowing a 5-to-1 ratio on the lead screw. 
This, accordingly, assures complete absence of drag and inertia. The 
fine adjustment being 700 times more sensitive than that of ordinary 
microscopes, the length of time required to focus the universal ranges 
up to 114 hours which, while on first consideration, may seem a dis- 
advantage, is after all but a slight inconvenience when compared 
with the many years of research and the hundreds of thousands of 
dollars spent and being spent in an effort to isolate and to look upon 
disease-causing organisms in their true form. 

Working together back in 1931 and using one of the smaller Rife 
microscopes having a magnification and resolution of 17,000 diameters, 
Dr. Rife and Dr. Arthur Isaac Kendall, of the department of bac- 
teriology of Northwestern University Medical School, were able to 
observe and demonstrate the presence of the filter-passing forms of 
Bacillus typhosus. An agar slant culture of the Rawlings strain of 
Bacillus typhosus was first prepared by Dr. Kendall and inoculated 
into 6 cc. of “Kendall” K Medium, a medium rich in protein but poor 
in peptone and consisting of 100 mg. of dried hog intestine and 6 ce. 
of tyrode solution (containing neither glucose nor glycerine) which 
mixture is shaken well so as to moisten the dried intestine powder 
and then sterilized in the autoclave, 15 pounds for 15 minutes, altera- 
tions of the medium being frequently necessary depending upon the 
requirements for different organisms. Now, after a period of 18 hours 
in this K Medium, the culture was passed through a Berkefeld “N” 
filter, a drop of the filtrate being added to another 6 cc. of K Medium 
and incubated at 87° C. Forty-eight hours later this same process 
was repeated, the “N” filter again being used, after which it was noted 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 211 


that the culture no longer responded to peptone medium, growing now 
only in the protein medium. When again, within 24 hours, the culture 
was passed through a filter—the finest Berkefeld “W” filter, a drop 
of the filtrate was once more added to 6 cc. of K Medium and incubated 
at 37° C., a period of 3 days elapsing before the culture was transferred 
to K Medium and yet another 3 days before a new culture was pre- 
pared. Then, viewed under an ordinary microscope, these cultures 
were observed to be turbid and to reveal no bacilli whatsoever. When 
viewed by means of dark-field illumination and oil-immersion lens, 
however, the presence of small, actively motile granules was estab- 
lished, although nothing at all of their individual structure could be 
ascertained. Another period of 4 days was allowed to elapse before 
these cultures were transferred to K Medium and incubated at 37° C. 
for 24 hours when they were then examined under the Rife microscope 
where, as was mentioned earlier, the filterable typhoid bacilli, emitting 
a blue spectrum, caused the plane of polarization to be deviated plus 
4.8°. Then when the opposite angle of refraction was obtained by 
means of adjusting the polarizing prisms to minus 4.8° and the cultures 
illuminated by a monochromatic beam coordinated in frequency with 
the chemical constituents of the typhoid bacillus, small, oval, actively 
motile, bright turquoise-blue bodies were observed at a magnification 
of 5,000 diameters, in high contrast to the colorless and motionless 
debris of the medium. These observations were repeated eight times, 
the complete absence of these bodies in uninoculated control K Media 
also being noted. 

To further confirm their findings, Drs. Rife and Kendall next 
examined 18-hour-old cultures which had been inoculated into K 
Medium and incubated at 37° C., since it is just at this stage of growth 
in this medium and at this temperature that the cultures become 
filterable. And, just as had been anticipated, ordinary dark-field ex- 
amination revealed unchanged, long, actively motile bacilli; bacilli 
having granules within their substance; and free-swimming, actively 
motile granules; while under the Rife microscope were demonstrated 
the same long, unchanged, almost colorless bacilli; bacilli, practically 
colorless, inside and at one end of which was a turquoise-blue granule 
resembling the filterable forms of the typhoid bacillus; and free-swim- 
ming, small, oval, actively motile, turquoise-blue granules. By trans- 
planting the cultures of the filter-passing organisms or virus into a 
broth, they were seen to change over again into their original rodlike 
forms. 

At the same time that these findings of Drs. Rife and Kendall were 
confirmed by Dr. Edward C. Rosenow, of the Mayo Foundation, the 
magnification with accompanying resolution of 8,000 diameters of the 
Rife microscope, operated by Dr. Rife, was checked against a dark- 


212 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


field oil-immersion scope operated by Dr. Kendall and an ordinary 
2-mm. oil-immersion objective, X 10 ocular, Zeiss scope operated by 
Dr. Rosenow at a magnification of 900 diameters. Examinations of 
gram- and safranin-stained films of cultures of Bacillus typhosus, 
gram- and safranin-stained films of cultures of the streptococcus from 
poliomyelitis, and stained films of blood and of the sediment of the 
spinal fluid from a case of acute poliomyelitis were made with the 
result that bacilli, streptococci, erythrocytes, polymorphonuclear 
leukocytes, and lymphocytes measuring nine times the diameter of the 
same specimens observed under the Zeiss scope at a magnification and 
resolution of 900 diameters, were revealed with unusual clarity. Seen 
under the dark-field microscope were moving bodies presumed to be 
the filterable turquoise-blue bodies of the typhoid bacillus which, as 
Dr. Rosenow has declared in his report (Observations on filter-passing 
forms of Eberthella typhi—Bacillus typhosus—and of the streptococ- 
cus from poliomyelitis, Proc. Staff Meetings Mayo Clinic, July 13, 
1932), were so “unmistakably demonstrated” with the Rife microscope, 
while under the Zeiss scope stained and hanging-drop preparations of 
clouded filtrate cultures were found to be uniformly negative. With 
the Rife microscope also were demonstrated brownish-gray cocci and 
diplococci in hanging-drop preparations of the filtrates of strepto- 
coccus from poliomyelitis. These cocci and diplococci, similar in size 
and shape to those seen in the cultures although of more uniform in- 
tensity, and characteristic of the medium in which they had been 
cultivated, were surrounded by a clear halo about twice the width of 
that at the margins of the debris and of the Bacillus typhosus. Stained 
films of filtrates and filtrate sediments examined under the Zeiss micro- 
scope, and hanging-drop, dark-field preparations revealed no organ- 
isms, however. Brownish-gray cocci and diplococci of the exact same 
size and density as those observed in the filtrates of the streptococcus 
cultures were also revealed in hanging-drop preparations of the virus 
of poliomyelitis under the Rife microscope, while no organisms at all 
could be seen in either the stained films of filtrates and filtrate sedi- 
ments examined with the Zeiss scope or in hanging-drop prepara- 
tions examined by means of the dark-field. Again using the Rife 
microscope at a magnification of 8,000 diameters, numerous nonmotile 
cocci and diplococci of a bright-to-pale pink in color were seen in 
hanging-drop preparations of filtrates of Herpes encephalitic virus. 
Although these were observed to be comparatively smaller than the 
cocci and diplococci of the streptococcus and poliomyelitic viruses, 
they were shown to be of fairly even density, size, and form and sur- 
rounded by ahalo. Again, both the dark-field and Zeiss scopes failed to 
reveal any organisms, and none of the three microscopes disclosed the 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 213 


presence of such diplococci in hanging-drop preparations of the filtrate 
of a normal rabbit brain. Dr. Rosenow has since revealed these organ- 
isms with the ordinary microscope at a magnification of 1,000 diam- 
eters by means of his special staining method and with the electron 
microscope at a magnification of 12,000 diameters. Dr. Rosenow has 
expressed the opinion that the inability to see these and other similarly 
revealed organisms is due, not necessarily to the minuteness of the 
organisms, but rather to the fact that they are of a nonstaining, hyaline 
structure. Results with the Rife microscopes, he thinks, are due to 
the “ingenious methods employed rather than to excessively high 
magnification.” He has declared also, in the report mentioned pre- 
viously, that “Examination under the Rife microscope of specimens 
containing objects visible with the ordinary microscope, leaves no 
doubt of the accurate visualization of objects or particulate matter by 
direct observation at the extremely high magnification obtained with 
this instrument.” 

Exceedingly high powers of magnification with accompanying high 
powers of resolution may be realized with all of the Rife microscopes, 
one of which, having magnification and resolution up to 18,000 diam- 
eters, is now being used at the British School of Tropical Medicine in 
England. In a recent demonstration of another of the smaller Rife 
scopes (May 16, 1942) before a group of doctors including Dr. J. H. 
Renner, of Santa Barbara, Calif.; Dr. Roger A. Schmidt, of San 
Francisco, Calif.; Dr. Lois Bronson Slade, of Alameda, Calif.; Dr. 
Lucile B. Larkin, of Bellingham, Wash.; Dr. E. F. Larkin, of Belling- 
ham, Wash.; and Dr. W. J. Gier, of San Diego, Calif., a Zeiss ruled 
grading was examined, first under an ordinary commercial micro- 
scope equipped with a 1.8 high dry lens and X 10 ocular, and then 
under the Rife microscope. Whereas 50 lines were revealed with the 
commercial instrument and considerable aberration, both chromatic 
and spherical noted, only 5 lines were seen with the Rife scope, these 
5 lines being so highly magnified that they occupied the entire field, 
without any aberration whatsoever being apparent. Dr. Renner, in a 
discussion of his observations, stated that “The entire field to its very 
edges and across the center had a uniform clearness that was not true 
in the conventional instrument.” Following the examination of the 
grading, an ordinary unstained blood film was observed under the same 
two microscopes. In this instance, 100 cells were seen to spread 
throughout the field of the commercial instrument while but 10 cells 
filled the field of the Rife scope. 

The universal microscope, of course, is the most powerful Rife 
scope, possessing a resolution of 31,000 diameters and magnification 
of 60,000 diameters. With this it is possible to view the interior of the 


214 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


“pin-point” cells, those cells situated between the normal tissue cells 
and just visible under the ordinary microscope, and to observe the 
smaller cells which compose the interior of these pin-point cells. 
When one of these smaller cells is magnified, still smaller cells are seen 
within its structure. And when one of the still smaller cells, in its turn, 
is magnified, it, too, is seen to be composed of smaller cells. Each 
of the 16 times this process of magnification and resolution can be 
repeated, it is demonstrated that there are smaller cells within the 
smaller cells, a fact which amply testifies as to the magnification and 
resolving power obtainable with the universal microscope. 

More than 20,000 laboratory cultures of carcinoma were grown 
and studied over a period of 7 years by Dr. Rife and his assistants 
in what, at the time, appeared to be a fruitless effort to isolate the 
filter-passing form, or virus, which Dr. Rife believed to be present in 
this condition. Then, in 1932, the reactions in ‘growth of bacterial 
cultures to light from the rare gasses was observed, indicating a new 
approach to the problem. Accordingly, blocks of tissue one-half 
centimeter square, taken from an unulcerated breast carcinoma, were 
placed in triple-sterilized K Medium and these cultures incubated at 
37° C. When no results were forthcoming, the culture tubes were 
placed in a circular glass loop filled with argon gas to a pressure of 
14 millimeters, and a current of 5,000 volts applied for 24 hours, after 
which the tubes were placed in a 2-inch water vacuum and incubated 
at 387° C. for 24 hours. Using a specially designed 1.12 dry lens, equal 
in amplitude of magnification to the 2-mm. apochromatic oil-immer- 
sion lens, the cultures were then examined under the universal micro- 
scope, at a magnification of 10,000 diameters, where very much ani- 
mated, purplish-red, filterable forms, measuring less than one-twen- 
tieth of a micron in dimension, were observed. Carried through 14 
transplants from K Medium to K Medium, this B. X. virus remained 
constant; inoculated into 426 Albino rats, tumors “with all the true 
pathology of neoplastic tissue” were developed. Experiments con- 
ducted in the Rife Laboratories have established the fact that these 
characteristic diplococci are found in the blood monocytes in 92 per- 
cent of all cases of neoplastic diseases. It has also been demonstrated 
that the virus of cancer, like the viruses of other diseases, can be easily 
changed from one form to another by means of altering the media upon 
which it is grown. With the first change in media, the B. X. virus 
becomes considerably enlarged although its purplish-red color remains 
unchanged. Observation of the organism with an ordinary microscope 
is made possible by a second alteration of the media. A third change 
is undergone upon asparagus base media where the B. X. virus is 
transformed from its filterable state into cryptomyces pleomorphia 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 215 


fungi, these fungi being identical morphologically both macroscopi- 
cally and microscopically to that of the orchid and of the mushroom. 
And yet a fourth change may be said to take place when this crypto- 
myces pleomorphia, permitted to stand as a stock culture for the period 
of metastasis, becomes the well-known mahogany-colored Bacillus 
coli. 

It is Dr. Rife’s belief that all micro-organisms fall into 1 of not 
more than 10 individual groups (Dr. Rosenow has stated that some of 
the viruses belong to the group of the streptococcus), and that any 
alteration of artificial media or slight metabolic variation in tissues 
will induce an organism of one group to change over into any other 
organism included in that same group, it being possible, incidentally, 
to carry such changes in media or tissues to the point where the or- 
ganisms fail to respond to standard laboratory methods of diagnosis. 
These changes can be made to take place in as short a period of time 
as 48 hours. For instance, by altering the media—4 parts per million 
per volume—the pure culture of mahogany-colored Bacillus coli be- 
comes the turquoise-blue Bacillus typhosus. Viruses or primordial 
cells of organisms which would ordinarily require an 8-week incuba- 
tion period to attain their filterable state, have been shown to produce 
disease within 3 days’ time, proving Dr. Rife’s contention that the 
incubation period of a micro-organism is really only a cycle of rever- 
sion. He states: 

In reality, it is not the bacteria themselves that produce the disease, but we 
believe it is the chemical constituents of these micro-organisms enacting upon 
the unbalanced cell metabolism of.the human body that in actuality produce the 
disease. We also believe if the metabolism of the human body is perfectly bal- 
anced or poised, it is susceptible to no disease. 

In other words, the human body itself is chemical in nature, being 
comprised of many chemical elements which provide the media upon 
which the wealth of bacteria normally present in the human system 
feed. These bacteria are able to reproduce. They, too, are composed 
of chemicals. Therefore, if the media upon which they feed, in this 
instance the chemicals or some portion of the chemicals of the human 
body, become changed from the normal, it stands to reason that these 
same bacteria, or at least certain numbers of them, will also undergo 
a change chemically since they are now feeding upon media which 
are not normal to them, perhaps being supplied with too much or too 
little of what they need to maintain a normal existence. They change, 
passing usually through several stages of growth, emerging finally as 
some entirely new entity—as different morphologically as are the 
caterpillar and the butterfly. (to use an illustration given us). The 
majority of the viruses have been definitely revealed as living organ- 
isms, foreign organisms it is true, but which once were normal inhab- 

619830—45——15 


216 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


itants of the human body—living entities of a chemical nature or 
composition. 

Under the universal microscope disease organisms such as those of 
tuberculosis, cancer, sarcoma, streptococcus, typhoid, staphylococcus, 
leprosy, hoof and mouth disease, and others may be observed to suc- 
cumb when exposed to certain lethal frequencies, coordinated with the 
particular frequencies peculiar to each individual organism, and di- 
rected upon them by rays covering a wide range of waves. By means 
of a camera attachment and a motion-picture camera not built into 
the instrument, many “still” micrographs as well as hundreds of feet 
of motion-picture film bear witness to the complete life cycles of 
numerous organisms. It should be emphasized, perhaps, that invari- 
ably the same organisms refract the same colors when stained by 
means of the monochromatic beam of illumination on the universal 
microscope, regardless of the media upon which they are grown. The 
virus of the Bacillus typhosus is always a turquoise blue, the Bacillus 
coli always mahogany colored, the Mycobacterium leprae always a 
ruby shade, the filter-passing form or virus of tuberculosis always an 
emerald green, the virus of cancer always a purplish red, and so on. 
Thus, with the aid of this microscope, it is possible to reveal the 
typhoid organism, for instance, in the blood of a suspected typhoid 
patient 4 and 5 days before a Widal is positive. When it is desired 
to observe the flagella of the typhoid organism, Hg salts are used 
as the medium to see at a magnification of 10,000 diameters. 

In the light of the amazing results obtainable with this universal 
microscope and its smaller brother scopes, there can be no doubt of 
the ability of these instruments to actually reveal any and all micro- 
organisms according to their individual structure and chemical con- 
stituents. 

With the aid of its new eyes—the new microscopes, all of which are 
continually being improved—science has at last penetrated beyond 
the boundary of accepted theory and into the world of the viruses with 
the result that we can look forward to discovering new treatments 
and methods of combating the deadly organisms—for science does 
not rest. 

To Dr. Karl K. Darrow, Dr. John A. Kolmer, Dr. William P. Lang, 
Dr. L. Marton, Dr. J. H. Renner, Dr. Royal R. Rife, Dr. Edward C. 
Rosenow, Dr. Arthur W. Yale, and Dr. V. K. Zworykin, we wish to 
express our appreciation for the help and information so kindly given 
us and to express our gratitude, also, for the interest shown in this 
effort of bringing to the attention of more of the medical profession 
the possibilities offered by the new microscopes. 


NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 217 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


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ANDRADE, B. N. DAC. 
1932. The mechanism of nature. G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., London. 
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1941. Optical study of the reaction between transferred monolayers of 
Lancefield’s “M” substance and various antisera. Journ. Immunol. 
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Burton, E. F. 
1940. The electron microscope. Proc. Roy. Canadian Inst., vol. 5, ser. 3A, 
Feb. 10. 
DARROW, KARL K. 
1989. The renaissance of physics. Macmillan Co. 
Dunn, H. H. 
1931. Movie new eye of microscope in war on germs. Pop. Sci., vol. 118, 
p. 27, June. 
ELDRIDGE, JOHN A. 
1934. The physical basis of things. 
GAGE, SIMON HENRY. 
1936-1941. The microscope. 16th and 17th ed. Comstock Publ. Co., Ine. 
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1937. Precision, all purpose microcamera. Journ. Opt. Soc. Amer., vol. 27, 
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Harpy, ARTHUR C., and PERRIN, FRED H. 
1932. The principles of optics. 1st ed. McGraw Hill Book Co., Inc. 
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1941. Recent developments in the R. C. A. electron microscope. Proc. Inst. 
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1940. Telescopes and microscopes. Amer. Scholar, vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 63-73. 
KENDALL, ARTHUR ISAAC. 
1932. Filtration of bacteria; studies in bacterial metabolism. Science, vol. 
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KILLerrEr, D. H. 
1840. pupermielonenmes. Rotarian, vol. 57, p. 47, August. 
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1933. A acelelan high power metallographic apparatus. Trans. Amer. Soc. 
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MAtorf, I. G., and Epstein, D. W. 
1938. Electron optics. 
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1938. The electron microscope. Nature, vol. 142, p. 1062, Dec. 17. 


218 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Makrron, L. 

1934. Electron microscopy of biological objects. Nature, vol. 133, No. 3372, 
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1940. A new electron microscope. Phys. Rev., vol. 58, pp. 57-60. 

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Magton, L., BAncA, M. C., and BENDER, J. F. 

1940. A new electron microscope. R. C. A. Rev., vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 232-242, 
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McMmrten, J. Howarb, and Scott, Gorpon H. 

1937. A magnetic electron microscope of simple design. Rey. Sci. Instr., 
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MILLMAN, JAcoB, and SEELY, SAMUEL. 
1941. Hlectronics. 1st ed. McGraw Hill Book Co., Inc. 
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1941. A survey of research accomplishments with the R. C. A. electron micro- 
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Morton, G. A., and RAmBeERr@, HE. G. 
1939. Point projector electron microscope. Phys. Rev., vol. 56, p. 705. 
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1941. Electron microscopic studies of biological reactions. 1. Reduction of 
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Mouttin, C. M. 

1940. Whatis cancer? A biologist’s answer. Med. Press, vol. 203, pp. 512- 

514, June 10. 
MouttTon, F. R. 

1939. The electron microscope. Scientific Monthly, vol. 49, pp. 189-192, 
August. 

Mupp, Stuart, and ANDERSON, THOMAS F’, ‘ 

1941. Demonstration by the electron microscope of the combination of anti- 
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Mvupp, StuArT, and LAcKMAN, DAvip B. 

1941. Bacterial morphology as shown by the electron microscope. Journ. 
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Moupp, Stuart, PoLevitzxy, K., ANDERSON, T. F., and CHAMBERS, L. A. 

1941. Bacterial morphology as shown by the electron microscope. II. The 
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Presus, A., and HILLIER, J. 
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RAMBERG, E. G., and Morton, G. A: 
1939. Electron optics. Journ. Appl. Phiys., vol. 10, pp. soa. 
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1941. The new electron microscope. Science, n. s., vol. 93, suppl. 12, Jan. 3. 

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Rir#, RoyAL RAYMOND, and KENDALL, ARTHUR ISAAC. 

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NEW MICROSCOPES—SEIDEL AND WINTER 219 


Rogenow, H. C. 
1932. Observations on filter-passing forms of Hberthella typhi (Bacillus 
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1942. Microdiplococci in filtrates of natural and experimental poliomyelitic 
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Staff Meet. Mayo Clinie, vol. 17, No. 7, pp. 99-106, Feb. 18. 
SMITH, THEODORD A. 
1941. Theelectron microscope. Scientific Monthly, vol. 52, pp. 337-341, April. 
SOUTHALL, JAMES P, C. 
1933. Mirrors, prisms, and lenses. 8d ed. Macmillan Co. 
Stantey, W. M., and ANDERSON, T. F. 
1941. A study of purified viruses with the electron microscope. Journ. Biol. 
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VANCE, A. W. 
1941. Stable power supplied for electron microscopes. R, C. A. Rey., vol. 5, 
No. 3, pp. 293-300, January. 
Witz, Upo J., PICARD, RoBrerT G., and HBARNEY, Epna B. 
1942. The morphology of Spirochaeta pallida in the electron microscope. 
Journ. Amer. Med. Assoc., vol. 119, pp. 880-881, July 11. 
ZWORYKIN, V. K. 
1940. An electron microscope for the research laboratory. Science, n. s., 
vol. 92, pp. 51-53, July 19. 
1940a. Electrons extend the range. Electr. Eng., vol. 59, pp. 441-443, No- 
vember. 
ZWORYKIN, V. K., Hmwuirr, J., and VANow, A. W. 
1941. An electron microscope for practical laboratory service. Electr. Eng., 
vol. 60, pp. 157-162. 
1941a. Preliminary report on the development of a 300-kilovolt magnetic elec- 
tron microscope. Journ. Appl. Phys., vol. 12, No. 10, pp. 738-742, 
October. 
ZWORYKIN, V. K., and RAMBERG, EK. G. 
1941. Surface studies with the electron microscope. Journ. Appl. Phys., 
vol. 12, No. 9, pp. 692-695, September. 


PEATE 1 


Seidel and Winter 


Smithsonian Report, 1944. 


E 


ceciemateaeieeieees 


amin THPEEE a eS 


HEL 


f 


RINT 


LE ib 4 
LPI 


Wiitieay. 


R.C. A. TYPE B ELECTRON MICROSCOPE BESIDE A LABORATORY MODEL OF THE 


DESK TYPE ELECTRON MICROSCOPE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Seidel and Winter PLATE 2 


f 7 


1. GENERAL VIEW OF GRATON-DANE PRECISION, ALL-PURPOSE MICROCAMERA. 


2. CLOSE-RANGE VIEW OF GRATON-DANE PRECISION. ALL-PURPOSE 
MICROCAMERA. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Seidel and Winter PLATE 3 


CHLOROPHYL CELLS (ALGAE) (THE UNIVERSAL MICROSCOPE). 
17,000 & on 35-mm. film. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Seidel and Winter PLATE 4 


TETANUS SPORES (THE UNIVERSAL MICROSCOPE). 
25,000 & on 35-mm. film, enlarged 227,000 , 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Seidel and Winter PEATE) 5 


ese 


- IR" My, 
eS 


TYPHOID BACILLUS (THE UNIVERSAL MICROSCOPE). 
23,000 X on 35-mm. film, enlarged 300,000 X. 


_f 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING (R. A. R.) 


By ComMMANDER K. T. ADAMS 
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey 


[With 1 plate] 


Hydrographic surveying consists essentially in measuring water 
depths from a survey vessel and locating those depths in geographic 
position or with reference to the adjacent land features. The method 
almost universally used for fixing hydrographic surveys within sight 
of land is by measuring two sextant angles to three appropriately 
located visible control stations. This is the well-known three-point 
problem. In hydrographic surveying such a position determination 
is called a three-point fix. The method is sometimes used beyond sight 
of land, where the depths of the water permit, by utilizing systems of 
anchored buoys for control stations. 

Beyond the limit of visibility of shore objects and where buoys can- 
not be used, hydrographic surveys were formerly controlled either 
by dead reckoning or by celestial observations. At considerable dis- 
tances from the coast and in deep oceanic areas, such methods sufficed, 
even though both are notably inaccurate as compared with the three- 
point fix method. However, there was serious need for a more accurate 
method for use in coastal waters just beyond the range of the three- 
point fix method. Radio acoustic ranging (R. A. R.) was developed 
for use in such areas. 


HISTORY OF R. A. R. 


Subaqueous sound was first used in navigation to determine the 
direction of an underwater sound source by means of two hydrophones 
(subaqueous sound receivers) installed on a ship, one on each side near 
the ship’s bow. A patent was granted for this device in 1894. Prob- 
ably the first practical use of subaqueous sound to determine hori- 
zontal distances at sea was by means of a submarine bell suspended 
below a lightship. Such bells were in general use by the United 
States Lighthouse Service in 1906. Other experiments were made in 
connection with the use of subaqueous sound in navigation, but the 
rapid development of radio direction finding fulfilled the need for 
position determination in navigation. The sinking of the Titanic in 

221 


222 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


1912 emphasized the need for a means to detect icebergs in the track 
of a vessel and led to experiments in the use of subaqueous sound for 
this purpose. The instruments and methods developed, however, found 
their greatest application in measuring depths of water by subaqueous 
sound, resulting in modern echo sounding. 

During World War I the transmission of sound in sea water was 
intensively studied by the world’s foremost scientists in combatting 
the submarine menace. As a result, instrumental equipment for trans- 
mitting and receiving subaqueous sound was perfected, as well as 
instruments specifically designed for the measurement of sound travel. 
After World War I, the Coast and Geodetic Survey became interested 
in the possible use of the method to control hydrographic surveys. In 
collaboration with the War Department and the Bureau of Standards, 
experiments were conducted in the further development of the method 
and in the redesign of instrumental equipment. The method was first 
actually used in hydrographic surveying on the ship Guide off the 
coast of southern California in early 1924. It was an immediate 
success, although many details of procedure had to be perfected before 
it could be used with assurance. 


THEORY 


In radio acoustic ranging the position of a subaqueous sound source 
is determined with reference to two or more appropriately located 
sound receivers whose positions are known. Such a use of sound 
has also been called “phonotelemetry.” Angles are not utilized in 
this procedure—the unknown position is determined by measuring 
the travel times of the sound from its source to the sound receivers. 
If the effective horizontal velocity of sound in sea water is known, the 
distances from the sound source to the receiving stations may be 
determined by multiplying the travel times by the velocity, and 
from the distances the position of the sound source may be found. 

There are several ways in which the travel time of subaqueous 
sound can be used to determine the position of an unknown point: 

(a) Three or more appropriately located receiving units may be 
interconnected electrically or by radio and the times of arrival of the 
subaqueous sound at the several stations may be recorded at a central 
station. Knowing the velocity of sound, the differences between the 
arrival times may be used to derive the position of the source of the 
sound. This is known as the “differential method” and it is in 
general military use to determine the positions of enemy gun 
emplacements. 

(6) The subaqueous sound impulse may be synchronized at the 
source with a radio signal. If the elapsed times between the receipt 
of the radio signal and the receipt of the subaqueous sound are 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS 223 


observed at two or more receiving stations at known positions, these 
time intervals may be used to determine the position of the sound 
source. 

(c) All operations may be controlled and all measurements made 
at the sound source. A subaqueous sound signal is made near a 
survey vessel and its time recorded. The instants of arrival of the 
subaqueous sound at two or more receiving stations are then signaled 


> ngitnntaeestntannttodt sn maMLtnyyynyy ‘i & —_—-—-L 
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rae, Way 
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Figure 1.—Radio acoustic ranging. In hydrographic surveying the ship’s position 
is determined by subaqueous sound travel to sono-radio buoys anchored at 
known positions. A, the bomber throws a small TNT bomb overboard from the 
moving ship. B, the bomb explodes and the resulting sound wave travels 
toward the sono-radio buoys (g and h) via paths (C—C) and toward the 
hydrophone (e) in the bottom of the ship via the path (D—D). The sound 
wave (F) travels in all directions at a velocity of about 1.5 km. per Sec. 
Instantly on arrival at a sono-radio buoy (g) a radio signal (R) is transmitted 
which is received at the ship. In the figure the sound wave has not yet arrived 
at sono-radio buoy (h). 


automatically by radio, and received and recorded on board the 
survey ship. From these data, the elapsed time between the origin 
of the sound and its receipt at each station is known and the position 
of the survey ship may be determined. 

This is the method used by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and 
is considered the most practicable for use in hydrographic surveying 
because all operations are controlled from the survey ship and all 


224 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


data are recorded thereon and become available to the hydrographer 
in the shortest possible time. This method avoids errors made in 
transmission, which are always possible where the data are received 
elsewhere and radioed to the vessel. 


R. A. R. OPERATION 


To determine a position by R. A. R., the following data must be 
known: The receiving stations (that is, the hydrophones) must be 
established at known positions. The travel times of the subaqueous 
sound from its origin to its receipt at each receiving station must 
be measured with an accuracy of about 0.01 second. The effective 
horizontal velocity of sound must be known. (The travel path of the 
sound is not necessarily a straight line, as is explained later, but to 
determine horizontal distances by R. A. R., it is obvious that the 
velocity of sound that is required is the horizontal distance divided 
by the travel time.) 

A sheet with a projection is prepared on which the positions of the 
receiving stations are plotted. The measured travel times are multi- 
plied by the effective horizontal velocity of sound to obtain the hori- 
zontal distances between the sound source and the receiving stations. 
The position of the sound source is then at the intersection of the arcs 
drawn from the stations with the computed distances as radii. 

The following description illustrates briefly how R. A. R. is used by 
the Coast and Geodetic Survey: A subaqueous sound is produced by 
the explosion of a TNT (trinitrotoluene) bomb thrown overboard 
from the survey ship while under way. A hydrophone (subaqueous 
receiving unit) in the hull of the ship, and a radio receiver on the ship 
are connected to a chronograph. The receiving station consists of a 
submerged hydrophone connected to a radio transmitter which oper- 
ates automatically when the hydrophone is actuated by a subaqueous 
sound. 

In addition to the ordinary survey personnel, certain specialists are 
required in R. A. R. One officer is in direct charge of all operations; 
he plots the ship’s positions as determined from the R. A. R. data. 
A chronograph attendant is in charge of the chronograph and oversees 
its functioning during the time from the bomb explosion to the receipt 
of the radio signals. A radio technician is in charge of the instru- 
mental equipment on the survey ship; he attends to the proper tuning 
of the radio receiver and assists the chronograph attendant in identify- 
ing the radio signals from the receiving stations. An explosives expert, 
called a bomber, is in charge of the explosives and the preparation of 
the bombs; he lights the bomb and throws it overboard when instructed 
to do so by the chronograph attendant. 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS 225 


One minute before an R. A. R. position is desired, an electric bell 
signals the bomber to get a bomb ready. The bell signal also indicates 
the size of bomb wanted. A detonator and fuse are inserted in the bomb 
and the fuse is lighted a few seconds before the time for the position. 
When the fuse is burning, the bomb is thrown overboard from the 
ship’s quarter and a bell is rung as it strikes the water. This is the 
official time of the position. (The time of the explosion, which comes 
7 or 8 seconds later, is not the time of the position, because by that 
time the ship is some little distance away from the place of the explo- 
sion.) The electric bell is heard by the officer in charge and by the 
chronograph attendant. The time and log are read and recorded and 
a sounding is taken. Any changes in course or speed are made at this 
time. At the sound of the bell, the chronograph attendant starts the 
chronograph and connects it with the ship’s hydrophone. When the 
bomb explodes, the sound is received through the hydrophone and reg- 
isters automatically on the chronograph tape. After the explosion has 
registered on the chronograph tape, the chronograph is switched from 
the hydrophone to the ship’s radio receiver. The sound of the bomb 
explosion travels through the water in every direction and eventually 
reaches the several receiving stations. At the instant the sound arrives 
at each receiving station hydrophone, the radio transmitter connected 
to it automatically sends a radio signal, which is received on the ship’s 
radio receiver and registers on the chronograph. During this time, 
which may be from a few seconds to more than 100 seconds, a mark is 
being made each second (or each tenth second) on the chronograph 
tape. As the radio returns are registered, the chronograph attendant 
identifies them, and when the last one has been received, the time 
intervals, in seconds and hundredths of seconds, from the explosion to 
its receipt at the several receiving stations are taken from the tape. 
Each radio return and its corresponding distance must be correctly 
identified with reference to the station from which it was received. 
The time intervals are then reported by the chronograph attendant to 
the officer in charge who determines from them the position of the sur- 
vey ship at the time the bomb struck the water. This entire operation 
takes on the average about 4 or 5 minutes. 


R. A. R. RECEIVING STATIONS 


Three different types of receiving stations have been used by the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. In their chronological development they 
are: Shore station, ship station, and sono-radio buoy. Ship stations 
are no longer used; shore stations are sometimes used; but sono-radio 
buoys are used in most R. A. R. surveys. 

Shore stations.—R. A. R. was first used by the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey on the Pacific coast of the United States. Here comparatively 


226 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


deep water generally extends reasonably close to the shore and, as is 
now known, the temperature conditions of the water are favorable for 
horizontal transmission of sound. Shore stations were used at this 
time. A shore station consists of a conventional radio receiving and 
transmitting station installed on shore, connected by electric cable with 
a submerged hydrophone placed offshore in an appropriate depth of 
water where it is not shielded by shoals. The hydrophone is attached 
to an anchor, but is buoyed to float at a selected depth below the water 
surface, 

Each shore station is manned by one or more radio technicians. The 
principal advantage of shore stations is that the radio technician can 
keep the apparatus in repair, the batteries charged, and the station 
operating at maximum efficiency at all times. Surf or other uncontrol- 
lable conditions may actuate the hydrophone if it is too sensitive. 
The radio technician can vary the sensitivity of the apparatus for the 
best reception. He can also listen to the sound of the bomb explosion 
when it is received and can measure its amplitude. A knowledge of the 
strength of the received sound is valuable to the officer in charge in 
weighting the results and in determining the size of bombs to use. 

Shore stations are more expensive to establish and maintain than 
sono-radio buoys, but their efficiency is greater. Laying the cable 
from the hydrophone through the surf to the radio station is the most 
difficult part of the establishment of a shore station, and sometimes 
weather may prevent it for several weeks at a time. And unless the 
area in the vicinity of the hydrophone has been thoroughly sounded, 
one has no assurance that intervening shoals or irregular types of 
bottom will not interfere with the receipt of the sound. 

Ship stations—When R. A. R. was first used on the Atlantic coast 
of the United States, it was soon found that shore stations would not 
function satisfactorily. The Continental Shelf on this coast generally 
extends many miles seaward, and the depths of water on it are com- 
paratively shallow. Moreover, the temperature conditions of the water 
are not so favorable for the transmission of sound as they are on the 
Pacific coast. To overcome these difficulties, small ships were anchored 
offshore at known positions and used as floating R. A. R. stations. The 
receiving stations could then be placed in deeper water, thus shortening 
the distance through which the sound had to travel. The shore appa- 
ratus was placed on the ship, and the hydrophone was anchored, as at 
a shore station, a short distance from the ship so that ship noises would 
not interfere. These ship stations were then operated just as shore 
stations. They had all the important advantages of shore stations and 
in addition they were mobile. Their maintenance, however, was ex- 
ceedingly costly, and as the ships were small, they frequently had to 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS 227 


leave their stations in bad weather or be exposed to damage by storm. 
Ship stations are no longer used by the Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

Sono-radio buoys.—Soon after ship stations had been used success- 
fully, the idea was conceived of using a buoy in which was housed a 
fully automatic unit for receiving the sound impulse and transmitting 
the radio signal—hence the name sono-radio buoy. 

Two types of structures have been used for sono-radio buoys: One 
type in which a steel drum is held in a wooden framework, and the 
other a specially designed all-metal type. The latter requires more 
special fittings and parts than the former, but both are about equally 
successful. These buoys are constructed on the ship by the ship’s 
personnel, using readily available materials. 

From its long experience with the use of buoys as water signals, the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey has evolved a more or less standard type 
of wooden structure which has been used in the construction of sono- 
radio buoys. Such a buoy consists of a 50-gallon steel drum with a 
counterweight to hold it upright and a superstructure extending about 
16 feet above the water, the batteries, the radio transmitter, and the 
necessary electric circuits being placed in the drum. A vertical an- 
tenna is supported on the superstructure and the hydrophone is sus- 
pended from the counterweight at a depth of about 7 fathoms. 

The electric apparatus in the sono-radio buoy was designed espe- 
cially for automatic use in R. A. R. The principal parts of the equip- 
ment are the audio amplifier, the keying circuit, the radio trans- 
mitter, and the hydrophone. All parts must be especially constructed 
and are generally made by the radio technicians on the survey ship. 
The apparatus used in all sono-radio buoys is very similar, although 
minor differences have been incorporated depending on the conditions 
encountered. Sono-radio buoys can be used from 1 to 3 months with- 
out attention. 

The frequency of the sound of a bomb explosion is below 800 cycles. 
The electric apparatus is designed to receive and amplify sounds in 
this frequency range. The amplifier must be stable and any time lag 
in it must be small and relatively constant. The purpose of the keying 
circuit is to cause the radio transmitter to operate automatically when 
the bomb signal actuates the hydrophone. It is designed so that un- 
wanted sounds of comparatively low intensity will not operate the 
radio transmitter, but that when the sound of a bomb is received the 
transmitter operates instantly at nearly full power. 

Extra circuits are sometimes incorporated in sono-radio buoys for 
the purpose of shortening the transmitted radio signal. When radio 
returns are being received from several sono-radio buoys, it is obvious 
that an early, return which is prolonged unduly may blanket subse- 
quent returns coming immediately afterward from other sono-radio 


228 © ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


buoys. Due to reverberation, multiple reflections, and other causes, a 
radio signal in such cases may be prolonged as much as 7 seconds. 
Moreover, defects occurring in the electric circuits or unwanted noises 
may tend to make a particular sono-radio buoy transmit almost con- 
stantly. The so-called shortening circuit limits the length of radio 
transmission to a half second or less, after which the sono-radio buoy 
is rendered inactive for a period of 8 to 5 seconds. There are certain 
disadvantages in using these circuits. When all the radio signals 
transmitted are of equal length, signals caused by bombs cannot be 
distinguished from other signals, as, for example, those caused by 
water noises. Moreover, if a sono-radio buoy is actuated by an extra- 
neous cause just before the bomb signal arrives, the silencing circuit 
prevents the bomb signal from operating it. Shortening-and-silencing 
circuits, therefore, are not used where prolonged signals are not par- 
ticularly bothersome. 

To obtain constancy of radio frequency, a quartz crystal is incorpo- 
rated in the transmitter. Several radio frequencies between 2492 and 
4160 kilocycles are authorized for use in sono-radio buoys, but those 
most frequently used are 4135 and 4160 kilocycles. Using these latter 
frequencies, the minimum radio frequency power required for satis- 
factory results under normal operating conditions is about 3 watts, 
although up to 26 watts has been used. 

A hydrophone is a subaqueous sound-detecting device. It is used in 
R. A. R. to receive the sound energy from a distant underwater bomb 
explosion and to convert it to electric energy. Most hydrophones con- 
sist of a watertight housing containing an electromagnetic, piezoelec- 
tric, or other electroacoustic device, which is coupled to the housing in 
such a way that the sound impinging on the housing, or on its dia- 
phragm, is transmitted mechanically to the electroacoustic device, 
which in turn converts this mechanical energy into electric energy. 

As sound passes through an elastic medium, such as water, there is 
an alternate condensation and rarefaction of the medium at a given 
point, resulting in a corresponding increase and decrease of the pres- 
sure at this point. In addition, at any point the particles of the me- 
dium undergo regional displacement forward and backward along the 
direction of sound propagation. Hydrophones are operated by this 
pressure variation and particle displacement. Several different types 
of hydrophones have been designed especially for use in R. A. R. The 
hydrophone itself does not have to be extremely sensitive, but the 
hydrophone and the audio amplifier must be designed so that together 
they will have the required sensitivity. A hydrophone must respond 
well to the frequency of a sound caused by a subaqueous explosion. 
The hydrophone must not be directive to a marked degree, for in hy- 
drographic surveying the sound which is to actuate it may come from 


emee et a 


Se eee 


————— 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS ° 229 


almost any direction. The hydrophone or the case in which it is housed 
must be watertight. The most frequent cause of hydrophone failure is 
leakage. A hydrophone becomes inoperative if the armature of the 
electromagnetic unit is forced against one of the pole pieces and held 
there. This may result if a bomb explodes too close to the hydrophone 
or if anything strikes the hydrophone while the sono-radio buoy is 
being placed on its station. 

Before a sono-radio buoy is put on station, the gain of its audio 
amplifier must be adjusted for sensitivity. If the gain is too low, the 
unit will be insensitive and returns will not be received from bomb 
explosions more than a short distance away. If the gain is too high, 
the unit will be actuated by the action of the waves, nearby water 
noises, or by the movement of the buoy itself. In the latter case, the 
buoy transmits continuously, and the receipt of a bomb explosion 
cannot be detected. Furthermore, the continuous radio signals inter- 
fere with the receipt of signals from other sono-radio buoys which are 
operating satisfactorily. It is obvious that a sono-radio buoy placed 
on station to operate automatically for several weeks at a time must not 
be adjusted for operation in perfect conditions, for then survey opera- 
tions would often be interrupted by weather conditions. This explains 
one of the principal advantages of a shore station. The latter being 
attended, its sensitivity can be adjusted at all times for best operation. 

Abnormal performance of a sono-radio buoy is usually disclosed in 
one of two ways—either it is too insensitive to bomb explosions or there 
is an excess of stray signals. 


SHIP EQUIPMENT 


The special equipment used on the survey ship for R. A. R. is com- 
paratively simple and easily understood. It consists of a hydrophone 
in the ship’s bottom, a radio receiver, a chronograph and amplifier, and 
a break-circuit chronometer. Except for the chronograph amplifier, 
standard commercial products are used in each case. Their coordinate 
functions from the time a bomb explodes until the radio signals from 
the R. A. R. stations have been recorded on the chronograph are as 
follows: 

The bomb explosion is received on the hydrophone, after which the 
signal is amplified sufficiently to operate the stylus of a chronograph 
which makes a mark on a moving tape. The stylus circuit is then 
immediately connected to the radio receiver. Signals from the R. A. R. 
stations are received and marked on the tape by the same stylus. 
Another stylus operated from a break-circuit chronometer marks regu- 
lar time intervals on the tape during this entire period. Then the time 
intervals from the explosion of the bomb to the reception of the radio 
signals may be measured on the tape. 


230 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The hydrophone, through which the sound of the bomb explosion is 
received, is installed in a water-filled tank which is fastened to the 
inner side of the hull of the ship. It must be located where ship noises 
will affect it least. 

Any good commercial communication radio receiver may be used so 
long as it will cover the necessary range of frequencies. 

The chronograph amplifier is especially built by the ship’s radio 
technicians. Its purpose is to amplify the impulse from the hydro- 


oo ww on oe ne ny 


SS——"4 B SS aaa 


Snes 


FicurE 2.—Ship equipment for radio acoustic ranging. A bomber (a) threws 
a small TNT bomb overboard from the moving survey ship. The sound wave 
produced by the subaqueous explosion travels (CCC) to a hydrophone (d) in 
the bottom of the ship. The hydrophone converts sound energy to electric 
energy, which is led (EEE) to an amplifier which operates a chronograph (f). 
The bomb explosion is registered on a paper tape at G. The sound wave of the 
explosion travels to R. A. R. stations which it actuates and which instantly 
send radio signals (HHH) which are received (JJJ) and amplified and regis- 
tered on the same chronograph (f). The returns from three stations are shown 
at K, L, and M. Knowing the velocity of sound in sea water, the time intervals 
on the tape can be converted into distances. 


phone caused by the bomb explosion and also the output of the radio 
receiver. The amplification must be sufficient to actuate the stylus in 
the chronograph. 

A chronograph is a graphic-recording time-measuring device. It is 
connected to a break-circuit chronometer, which provides the time 
record. A narrow wax-coated paper runs through the chronograph 
beneath two sharp styluses electromagnetically operated. The tape 
moves at the rate of about 2 centimeters a second. One stylus is con- 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS 231 


nected with the chronometer and makes a mark on the tape once a 
second. Another stylus is connected with the chronograph amplifier 
and is actuated by the reception of the bomb signal and later by the 
reception of the radio signals. This record permits the scaling of the 
time intervals to the nearest 0.01 second by interpolation. 

A different instrument, called the Dorsey chronograph, designed 
and built by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, is also used for the same 
purpose. It incorporates electric time measurement, starting with a 
piezoelectric crystal, and provides much more constant and correct 
time than a break-circuit chronometer. The tape in this chronograph 
runs at a speed of about 5 centimeters a second, and a mark is made each 
tenth second and the seconds are numbered. The instrument is also 
automatic in that the electric bell signal signifying that the bomb has 
struck the water starts the tape moving and the timing stylus begins 
marking tenth seconds. When the hydrophone is actuated by the 
bomb explosion, the next tenth second is marked zero and the mark at 
each subsequent second is numbered. Time intervals to the nearest 
0.01 second can be interpolated from this record by eye. 


BOMBS 


For use in R, A. R. a sound of great intensity reaching a peak almost 
instantly and one that will travel through the water in all directions is 
required. The explosion of a trinitrotoluene (TNT) bomb has been 
found best adapted for the purpose, although any type of explosive 
suitable for use under water can be used. Dynamite has been used, but 
it is more unstable and more dangerous to handle than TNT. The 
frequency of a bomb explosion is below 300 cycles, which is lower than 
most interfering noises. 

The TNT itself does not have to be in a watertight container. For 
best results the container should be made of a comparatively strong 
rigid material so that the gases generated are contained until detona- 
tion is complete, whereupon the container bursts. The resulting ex- 
plosion produces a highly compressed sound wave that has a greater 
range than one from an explosion in a comparatively fragile container. 

For long distances and best results, hollow cast-iron spheres with 
half-inch walls, containing from 1 to 4 pounds of TNT, are used. 
These spheres have to be especially cast and are expensive and heavy 
to handle. For ordinary distances and for perhaps 95 percent of the 
cases, ordinary commercial tin cans with a friction top are used. 
Three sizes of the latter are commonly used, 14, 14, and 1 pint, depend- 
ing on the distances involved and the characteristics of the area being 
surveyed. 

Ordinary commercial detonators made of fulminate of mercury are 
used with standard waterproof fuse to detonate the TNT. Tin cans 

619830—45—16 


232 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


of various sizes are filled in advance with TNT compacted firmly. A 
hole is punched in the center of the lid of each can. Fuses of various 
lengths are attached to the detonators and this junction of the fuse 
and detonator must be watertight. Just before an R. A. R. position is 
required, the detonator is inserted through the hole in the lid of the 
can and pushed down into the TNT. The fuse is lighted on an electric 
heating element and the bomb is thrown overboard well clear of the 
ship, which is under way. 

The bombs must not be exploded too close to the survey ship. Also 
they should not explode too close to the surface of the water, for then 
part of the sound energy is dissipated into the air. Best results are 
apparently obtained with explosions at a depth of about 7 fathoms. 
To achieve these two results, the bombs are weighted to make them 
sink at the required speed, and the fuse is cut in lengths to provide the 
required delay in time. 

In 1940 the cost of a 1-pint bomb with fuse and detonator was about 
30 cents. 


VELOCITY OF SOUND IN SHA WATER 


To measure distances by subaqueous sound transmission, one needs 
to know not only the elapsed time intervals but the effective horizontal 
velocity at which the sound travels through the water. The velocity 
of propagation of sound in sea water may be calculated from the tem- 
perature and salinity of the water and the hydrostatic pressure. 
Tables have been prepared based on these three variables. The velocity 
of sound varies with these three characteristics by the following ap- 
proximate percentages: 

(a) Each 1° C. increase in temperature increases the velocity 0.2 
percent. 

(b) Each 1 part per 1,000 increase in salinity increases the velocity 
0.1 percent. 

(c) Each additional 100 fathoms (183 m.) of depth increases the 
velocity 0.22 percent. The velocity of sound in water is approximately 
1,500 meters per second at a temperature of 14° C., salinity 35 parts 
per 1,000, and at surface atmospheric pressure. ‘ 

To determine the velocity of sound from the tables, the temperature 
and salinity of the water must be measured, and the depth must be 
known, for pressure varies almost exactly with depth. The variation 
of salinity in sea water is small, and its effect on velocity, as compared 
with the effect of variation in temperature, is relatively unimportant. 
The temperature varies not only from place to place, but ordinarily 
decreases with the depth. For the average R. A. R. survey, the velocity 
of sound must be known within 4 meters per second, and to attain this 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS 233 


accuracy the average temperature of the water through which the 
sound wave passes must be known within approximately 1° C. 

During a hydrographic survey controlled by R. A. R., frequent tem- 
perature observations are made. Observations from the surface to 
the bottom are made at various places and times, supplemented by 
more frequent observations at the surface and the bottom. Tempera- 
tures are measured with one or more reversing thermometers attached 
to a sounding wire and lowered to the desired depth. The thermome- 
ter reverses as soon as it starts upward and breaks the column of mer- 
cury so that the value registered at the greatest depth can be read 
after the thermometer has been brought to the surface. 

A bathythermograph, a comparatively new instrument, is also used 
to measure water temperatures in the upper 75 fathoms, where the 
greatest variation occurs. This instrument records automatically and 
graphically the temperatures with reference to depths. 

The variation in salinity normally encountered affects velocities of 
sound only slightly as compared with temperature, but salinity does 
vary and its value must be determined. In the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey the salinity is determined indirectly by measuring with a 
hydrometer the specific gravity of a water sample. An accuracy of 
about one-tenth part per 1,000 may thus be obtained. 

Velocity of sound as determined from the physical characteristics of 
the water and from tables is obviously the velocity of propagation of 
the sound wave, irrespective of direction. The effective horizontal 
velocity is required in R. A. R. If the sound wave is refracted, or is 
reflected from the bottom one or more times en route to the receiving 
station, as is explained later, it is apparent that the theoretical velocity 
alone will not suffice for use in R. A. R. In such cases, the measured 
time intervals are greater than they would be if the sound traveled 
by a direct horizontal path. 

Under certain conditions the effective horizontal velocity of sound 
at a place can be determined experimentally. If a bomb is exploded 
at a known horizontal distance from a receiving station and the time 
interval from the explosion to its receipt at the receiving station is 
measured, the distance divided by the time interval will give the effec- 
tive horizontal velocity of sound between the source and the receiver 
for the temperature and salinity of the water at that place and time, 
irrespective of the path of the sound wave. Where the depths of water 
permit, it is customary to make such tests throughout an area being 
surveyed and at intervals during the survey. For a survey in uniform 
depths where the temperature and salinity are relatively constant, 
results of such tests can be subsequently used in determining R. A. R. 
positions. Where the temperature and salinity change frequently, 
the velocity of sound determined by tests can be modified to take into 


234 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


account the temperature and salinity differences. But where the 
depths in the area vary to a marked degree, and especially where the 
depths are too great to permit tests to be made, the velocity of sound 
values must be determined from an assumption of the path of the 
sound wave. 

There is also an indirect method for determining the effective hori- 
zontal velocity of sound under certain conditions and allowing certain 
assumptions. If the time intervals from a bomb explosion to three 
receiving stations at known positions are measured accurately, and 
the same temperature and salinity conditions and depths along the 
three paths of sound are assumed, then the effective horizontal velocity 
can be computed by means of a rather involved formula. It is obvious 
that there must be no doubt regarding the accuracy of the travel times. 
If one value is doubtful or if the conditions along the three paths are 
dissimilar, an erroneous value of the velocity of sound will result. 


PATH OF A SOUND WAVE 


In an ideal water medium with uniform characteristics and unlim- 
ited dimensions in every direction, a sound from a nondirectional 
source would be propagated along straight paths in every direction. 
The arrival time at any receiving station would be the time required 
for the sound to travel the shortest path. In such a case, the theoreti- 
cal velocity of sound would be the same as the effective velocity, and 
R. A. R. would not be complicated by uncertainties due to the path of 
the sound wave. 

Unfortunately, the ideal medium does not exist in practice, and the 
propagation of sound in water is indeed complicated. The sound wave 
is propagated through a body of water bounded above by the water 
surface and below by the ocean bottom; the horizontal dimension of 
the medium is long as compared with its vertical dimension; sound 
waves are reflected from both boundaries of the medium, and within 
the medium they are refracted by changes in the velocity of sound 
along the path. These facts complicate the path of the sound wave. 

The reception of sound is also complicated by the fact that the vari- 
ous reflected and refracted waves interfere with one another. Where 
two sound waves of the same frequency and wave form meet at one 
point, they will tend to reinforce or neutralize each other, depending 
on their directions of propagation and whether they meet in the same 
or opposite phases. 

It is apparent that, in a bounded water medium, the sound wave 
may travel an almost unlimited number of paths. There will be one 
direct path from the source to the receiver and a multitude of reflected 
paths. The sound wave that first arrives at the receiver with sufficient 


EEO 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS 235 


intensity to actuate it is, of course, the one that is used in R. A. R.-— 
other sound waves arriving later serve only to prolong the received 
signal. Unfortunately, the sound traveling via the direct path is 
almost always canceled by the sound wave reflected from the surface 
of the water. This surface-reflected sound wave is reversed in phase, 
and as the length of its path is nearly equal to the direct path, almost 
complete cancelation of the two takes place. In actual experience the 
sound via the direct path is rarely received at distances greater than 
7 or 8 miles. 

The result of this is that the useful sound wave in R. A. R. is the 
one that is reflected at least once from the ocean bottom and, depending 
on the depth of the water and its physical characteristics, the sound 
may arrive at the receiving station after having been refletced a num- 
ber of times between surface and bottom. 

Another complication is the fact that the surface boundary is hori- 
zontal, but the ocean bottom is not. A sound wave is reflected from a 
boundary in the same way as a ray of light is reflected from a mirror, 
the angle of reflection being always equal to the angle of incidence. If 
the water is deep at the bomb explosion but the receiving station is 
located in comparatively shallow water, as is the usual case in R. A. R., 
it is obvious that the bottom slopes upward along the effective path of 
propagation. In such a case, each time the sound wave is refiected 
from the bottom, its direction of propagation is changed toward the 
vertical, and if enough reflections are involved and the slope of the 
bottom is sufficiently great, the successive angles of reflection may be 
decreased until the sound wave is reflected vertically upward or it may 
actually reverse its horizontal direction of propagation, and never 
reach the receiving station. This condition is aggravated in shoal 
water where more reflections take place in a given horizontal distance 
than do in deep water of the same characteristics. This partly explains 
the difficulty encountered in sound transmission from deep water on 
the Continental Slope to shoal water on the Continental Shelf. It also 
explains the difficulty encountered in R. A. R. where there are inter- 
vening shoal areas between the bomb explosions and the receiving 
stations. 

The path of a sound wave is also affected by refraction. Wherever 
a change in the velocity of sound takes place along the path, the sound 
wave is refracted. If pressure were the only characteristic affecting 
velocity of sound, its constant increase with depth would cause a con- 
stant increase in velocity, and the sound wave would be refracted in 
the arc of a circle concave upward. It is rare, however, that pressure 
is the only variable involved. The temperature of the water varies 
and normally decreases with depth more than enough to overcome the 
increase caused by pressure, until the depths become comparatively 


236 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


great. This decrease in temperature causes a decrease in velocity 
which refracts the sound wave downward. 

Thus it is seen that for any given case in R. A. R. the path along 
which the received sound has traveled may be very complicated. It 
may have been reflected a number of times from the bottom and the 
surface, and between these reflections it may have been refracted, either 
upward or downward, or perhaps in both directions at different depths. 

The excellent results obtained in R. A. R. are due to the fact that 
water is a relatively good medium for the propagation of sound, even 
though its physical characteristics, and consequently the velocity of 
sound, vary with time, place, and depth. It is due also to the good 
reflecting qualities of the water surface and the ocean bottom. The 
sound is confined vertically and is reflected and amplified, somewhat 
as it is in a speaking tube. Little of the energy of the sound wave is 
actually lost:in reflections, although when the sea is rough or the ocean 
bottom irregular, some of the sound energy may be dissipated. 


R. A. R. IN PRACTICE 


Subaqueous sounds have been detected with instruments of only 
ordinary sensitivity at a distance of 400 nautical miles (740 km.). A 
sound propagated vertically downward by an electromagnetic oscilla- 
tor in a depth of about 200 fathoms (365 m.) has been heard after 
having been reflected 23 times alternately from the bottom and the 
surface. In R. A. R. the longest distance that has been measured is 
184 nautical miles (340 km.). This was in connection with a test 
which was concluded at that distance, but there was no observable 
diminution in the intensity of the received sound as compared with 
that received at somewhat lesser distances. In actual hydrographic 
surveying, distances of 100 miles (185 km.) or more have often been 
measured. Shore stations are much more efficient in this respect than 
sono-radio buoys, although returns have been received from sono-radio 
buoys at distances of 100 miles (185 km.). The type of area in which 
sono-radio buoys are preferred to shore stations ordinarily limits their 
range to about 30 or 35 miles (55 or 65 km.). 

The operation of R. A. R. to control hydrographic surveys is now a 
routine procedure. The position of the survey ship is fixed regularly 
by R. A. R. at intervals of 10 minutes or less with as much casualness 
as if three-point sextant fixes were being used. 

The positions of the receiving stations are plotted on a projection, 
just as the positions of triangulation stations are. Because of the long 
distances ordinarily involved, the distortion which occurs in a plotting 
sheet made of even the best drawing paper has considerable effect. 
For this reason, a number of uniformly spaced concentric circles are 


RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING—ADAMS 237 


drawn on the sheet from each R. A. R. station at the time the projection 
is made. 

The position of the survey ship can be plotted with a beam compass, 
by swinging distance or time arcs from the respective receiving sta- 
tions, but setting the beam compass with reference to the nearest of 


Figure 3.—An area surveyed in 1939 by radio acoustic ranging (R. A. R.), showing 
the sono-radio buoys and ordinary buoys used to control the hydrography. The 
lines of buoys were located by taut-wire traverses, but some of the outer- 
most sono-radio buoys were located by R. A. R. distances. Legend: @ ordi- 
nary survey buoy; © sono-radio buoy; A triangulation station; € sextant 
fix ; _ taut-wire measurement; _.. ___. R. A. R. distance. 


the concentric circles. The position of the ship is at the intersection of 
the arcs. Positions can also be plotted by using a special circular 
celluloid protractor. 

R. A. R. was originally adopted to control hydrographic surveys be- 
yond the visibility of shore signals or where survey buoys could not be 
used. Since its use, however, does not depend on visual observation, 


238 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


it is equally usable at night, or in fog. Survey ships of the Coast and 
Geodetic Survey, using R. A. R., have surveyed continuously 24 hours 
a day for periods of 10 days at a time. 

Some statistics of a survey controlled exclusively by R. A. R. may 
be of interest. They are from an offshore survey in the vicinity of 
Nantucket Shoals off the northeast Atlantic coast of the United States. 
These surveys were plotted on one 1:60,000 scale sheet and two 
1: 120,000 scale sheets. Sono-radio buoys were used for receiving 
stations at 24 different locations. The surveying was done between 
May 2 and September 25, 1939. The area surveyed was 8,562 square 
statute miles (22,176 sq. km.), and the total length of sounding lines 
was 10,496 statute miles (16,892 km.) ; 5,506 bombs of various sizes 
were used, made from 3,511 pounds of TNT and 4,170 feet of fuse. To 
obtain the required temperature and salinity data, serial temperatures 
were observed at 135 different places. The positions of the sono-radio 
buoys were determined by taut-wire traverses, in connection with 
which ordinary buoys were used at 60 different locations, in addition 
to the sono-radio buoys. The total number of working days was 101, 
including 18 days used for placing or picking up buoys and running 
the taut-wire traverses for their locations. The survey vessel ran a 
total distance of 16,481 nautical miles (30,543 km.) for all purposes 
during the survey. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Adams PLATE 1 


SONO-RADIO BUOY (ALL-METAL TYPE). 


THE DAVID W. TAYLOR MODEL BASIN? 


By Rear ADMIRAL HERBERT 8S. HOWARD, U. S. N. 
Director, David W. Taylor Model Basin 


[With 4 plates] 


The largest and most completely equipped ship-model testing and 
experimental plant in the world operates directly under the Bureau of 
Ships of the Navy Department. 

This plant, the David W. Taylor Model Basin, staffed by a highly 
trained and capable group of officers and civilian technical and shop 
personnel, has as its basic function the solving of problems concerning 
the design and operation of naval vessels by testing models in water 
under controlled conditions. Included in its work are the determina- 
tion of the speed and powering of ships, launching, stability, action in 
waves, turning and maneuvering, and propeller design. Besides ques- 
tions of pure ship design and form, the problems presented for solution 
cover the field of mine-sweeping devices, paravanes, and torpedoes; in 
fact, everything which has to do with forms which move through the 
water. 

In addition to the preceding problems, special problems of struc- 
tural design of ships comprise a major activity of the plant. These 
problems cover all manner of special questions relating to the strength 
of ships and their parts, the resistance of ship structures to underwater 
explosions, structural vibration, and the effect of shock, and the elimi- 
nation of such vibration and shock effects. 

In general, the chief function of this organization at present is to 
give the earliest possible solutions or answers to the wartime problems 
submitted to it. Research, which has been and is being continuously 
carried on, gives the background of knowledge which makes it possible 
to undertake and furnish the solution to these urgent problems. 

Although the Model Basin operates directly under the Bureau of 
Ships, work is carried on not only for that Bureau but for all branches 
of the Navy Department, whether for the Commander in Chief him- 
self or any of the technical bureaus. Work is also done for other 
branches of the Government, notably the United States Maritime 


1 Reprinted by permission from Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 15, No. 3, March 1944. 
239 


240 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Commission, and for private companies and individuals, this practice 
fulfilling the requirements of the act which created the establishment. 

The construction of the Taylor Model Basin was authorized by Act 
of Congress of May 6, 1936. This act gave authority for the purchase 
of a suitable site and the construction of a new model basin establish- 
ment for the United States Navy. This was to replace and extend the 
work of the original Experimental Model Basin which had been in 
service at the Washington Navy Yard for nearly 40 years. The old 
experimental basin had become too small to carry out its work for the 
Navy and private individuals, and its equipment was, moreover, be- 
coming obsolete. 

To commemorate the work of that officer who had been responsible 
for the original Experimental Model Basin and under whom that basin 
had operated for the greater part of its existence, the Secretary of the 
Navy directed that the new establishment be known as “The David W. 
Taylor Model Basin” in honor of Rear Admiral David Watson Taylor, 
Construction Corps, United States Navy, Retired, former Chief Con- 
structor of the Navy. 

The location chosen for the new establishment was in the valley of 
the Potomac some 12 miles from the center of Washington. This site 
was selected not only because land was available but principally be- 
cause three basic requirements were fulfilled. First, solid rock was 
at the surface in this location; this meant that the foundations for the 
rails of the towing carriages of the basins could be carried down to 
solid rock and the extremely accurate alignment needed could be prac- 
tically guaranteed. Second, an ample supply of clean fresh water 
necessary for the testing basins was available, since the main conduits 
to Washington were close at hand. Finally, the location was away 
from heavy traffic which might disturb the alignment of the towing- 
carriage rails and their foundations, but it was still fairly close to the 
Navy Department which permitted easy communication and frequent 
visits. 

The new establishment was planned and laid out by Capt. H. E. 
Saunders, who had been stationed at the old Experimental Model 
Basin for a number of years. Based on long experience there and 
reports from model basins the world over, the new model basin was 
planned to provide not only the best and most up-to-date facilities and 
equipment for model testing, but in such size and capacity as to ensure, 
as far as could be foreseen, that it would meet all needs of the Navy for 
many years to come. 

The actual design was undertaken in 1933-34 by the Bureau of 
Yards and Docks of the Navy Department and construction was 
started in September 1937. The basins were filled with water in March 
1939 and the plant was completed in July of that year. Because of the 


TAYLOR MODEL BASIN—HOWARD 241 


long time required for laying the carriage tracks and for making other 
preparations, the principal activities were not transferred from the 
Navy Yard until November 1940. 

The original conception of this establishment, as indicated by the 
authorizing act, was that it should be constructed to investigate and 
determine the most suitable and desirable shapes and forms for naval 
vessels and to investigate other problems of ship design. Thus 
primarily the establishment was designed and equipped to carry out 
experimental work on the forms of ships’ hulls and to estimate the 
power required to drive them, with a secondary interest in other fea- 
tures of design. This original conception has almost been lost sight 
of in an expansion and growth far beyond the fields originally con- 
templated. The war has naturally been principally responsible for 
this great expansion. Under the heading of “underwater forms and 
propulsion” the work has expanded until it has come to cover the 
proper form or shape of almost any body which is propelled, towed, or 
projected on or through the water; while under the secondary heading 
of “other problems of ship design” the expansion has been so broad in 
the fields of structural strength, shock, vibration, underwater explo- 
sions and related subjects that the primary and secondary objects of 
the original establishment have almost changed places. 

The outstanding features of the Taylor Model Basin are its test 
facilities, which are unusual both as to types and as to size and capacity. 
For an understanding of the work undertaken a general description of 
the physical plant and these facilities is necessary. 

As a testing establishment the Taylor Model Basin was made large 
enough to house equipment which would accomplish each of the vari- 
ous types of research on models with the greatest degree of accuracy 
and reliability. 

Physically the establishment consists of three buildings: a main 
building 871 feet by 54 feet; lying parallel to it, a basin building 1,330 
feet long; and a wind-tunnel building. The main building houses in 
its central section the offices, drafting and computing rooms, record 
storage vaults, a library, a photographic laboratory, and a museum. 

The western section of the building contains the shops where wood 
and metal models, mechanical devices, instruments, dynamometers, 
and other special equipment are made. 

The eastern end of the main building constitutes the laboratory. 
In this laboratory are located the 12-inch and 24-inch variable-pressure 
water tunnels, 30,000-pound and 600,000-pound universal static-load 
testing machines, and a 150,000-pound alternating-load testing ma- 
chine, and other equipment. 

The basin building is unique in its appearance, because of its barrel- 
arch roof 1,188 feet long. Instead of a single large model basin like 


242 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the old one at the Washington Navy Yard, there are four separate 
model basins each designed for a particular line of work. 

The principal large deep-water basin is 963 feet long by 51 feet wide 
by 22 feet deep. Here models of large ships are towed or self- 
propelled. This is the largest basin of its kind in the world. 

Joining the large basin is a shorter shallow-water basin 303 feet long 
by 51 feet wide by 10 feet deep. The depth can be varied at will to rep- 
resent rivers, canals, and channels of limited depth and width. In 
this basin models of tugboats, barges, river craft, and other types of 
shallow-water vessels are tested. 

Forming a continuation of the west end of the shallow-water basin 
is a J-shaped turning basin, for testing the maneuvering and steering 
characteristics of models. In a special enclosure over this basin, 
accurate photographic observations of the models under test are made 
with a group of cameras about 40 feet overhead. 

To the north side of the large basin there is a high-speed basin 1,168 
feet long by 21 feet wide by 10 feet deep, for the testing of models of 
high-speed motor boats and seaplane hulls. Incidentally, the site is 
large enough to permit the extension of this basin to more than twice 
its present length to meet requirements of the future. 

In the basement of the main building is a small basin, 142 feet long 
by 10 feet wide by 514 feet deep, for the testing of special models and 
for unusual research problems. 

The towing carriages, which span the basins and operate on the 
precision-laid rails atop the basin walls, furnish the means of testing 
the models. The heart of a towing carriage is the dynamometer, 
which with its related recording instruments measures the forces 
arising from the motion of a model through the water. 

Two carriages are now in operation—carriage 1 over the deep-water 
basin, and a special quiet-running carriage with wood frame and pneu- 
matic-tire wheels over the high-speed basin. Under construction, and 
to be placed in service during 1944, are carriages for the shallow-water 
basin and the high-speed basin. The last carriage will have a top 
speed of 24 knots. 

The carriage which now operates on the deep-water basin is typical. 
The specifications it must fill are exacting: a testing speed range of 
from 0.1 to 18 knots, the selected speed to be constant during an 
8-second measuring run within 0.01 knot, a rigid-frame structure to 
span the 51-foot distance between the basin walls without permitting 
disturbing vibrations or deflections at the midspan where the measur- 
ing instruments are located, absolutely straight-line motion of the 
towing point where the model is attached to the carriage, a dynamome- 
ter to measure the model resistance during the measuring run to within 


TAYLOR MODEL BASIN—HOWARD 243 


0.01 pound but rugged enough to handle the forces on large, 30-foot 
battleship models at full test speed. 

Two variable-pressure water tunnels, designed primarily for testing 
model propellers but also used extensively for special hydrodynamic 
tests, are among the unusual facilities. Each water tunnel consists of a 
closed duct circuit arranged in a vertical plane, in which water is 
circulated at a known speed. In the lower limb of the apparatus is a 
motor-driven impeller which circulates the water, and in the upper 
limb is the test section, fitted with glass ports for visual and photo- 
graphic observation of the propeller being tested in a jet of water of 
uniform velocity and turbulence. The diameter of the jet nozzle is 
12 inches for one of the water tunnels, and 24 inches for the other. 

The model propeller is mounted on a motor-driven shaft projecting 
into the test chamber. The thrust and torque of the propeller at vari- 
ous speeds of revolution are measured by a dynamometer. Water 
speeds in the 24-inch tunnel up to 35 knots are available. 

Vacuum pumps lower the air pressure above the water in the test 
chamber of the tunnel, in order to create an absolute pressure on the 
model propeller corresponding to the combined effect of atmospheric 
and water pressure on the propeller of the full-sized ship. Under these 
conditions, the phenomena of cavitation occur on the model propeller 
so that the test accurately represents the behavior of the full-scale 
propeller. Cavitation is the formation of water-vapor cavities, or 
“bubbles,” on the propeller blade surface, caused by high loading and 
consequent serious reduction of pressure on the back, or “suction side” 
of the propeller. Efficiency suffers when cavitation occurs. Cavita- 
tion effects are studied by means of stroboscopic illumination of the 
propeller being tested, and these effects are recorded by high-speed 
flash photographs, of 1/30,000-second exposure. 

In the laboratory building there are located two large machines for 
testing structural specimens, both full-size and model scale. One, the 
150,000-pound alternating-load testing machine, tests beams, columns, 
riveted and welded joints, and other structural members in alternate 
compression and tension over long periods of time, to discover the 
manner, loading, and number of cycles to failure in fatigue. 

The other large testing machine is a universal static-load testing 
machine with 600,000-pound capacity in either tension or compression. 
Stress-strain data, yield point, and ultimate strength of a wide variety 
of structural specimens may be obtained with this apparatus. 

One of the most unusual and recently completed facilities is the test 
pond for underwater explosion tests. This is a pentagonal pond, dug 
partly out of the solid rock and partly formed by built-up rock em- 
bankments. It is roughly 150 feet across and will carry water to a 


244 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


depth of 25 feet. In this pond research investigations of underwater . 
explosions and explosive tests against models of ship structures are 
carried out. 

Information can be obtained on the trajectories of model bombs and 
torpedoes after impact with the water surface by experiments made in 
the new transparent-wali tank, using high-speed motion pictures to 
record the paths of the models. The new tank has glass windows 
forming one side and one end; it is 25 feet long, 9 feet deep, and 414 
feet wide, filled with continuously filtered, crystal-clear water to insure 
clear photographs. The windows are three-quarters of an inch 
thick “tempered” glass, four times as strong as ordinary plate glass 
of the same thickness. Intense photographic illumination is necessary 
to obtain good film records of the objects moving through the water. 

The circulating-water channel, now nearing completion, is an 
unusual hydraulic testing facility, both as to type and size. Essen- 
tially it consists of an open-top test section 22 feet wide and 60 feet 
long in which a stream of water 9 feet deep flows at a maximum speed 
of 10 knots. The object under test will be held stationary in the moving 
stream and the forces exerted by the water measured by suitable dyna- 
mometers. The walls and bottom of this channel contain windows 
approximately 4 feet by 114 feet through which both visual and photo- 
graphic observations can be made. 

The chief advantages obtained by testing in the circulating-water 
channel are that the object undergoing test can be viewed and photo- 
graphed from all sides and that the tests may be carried on for an 
indefinite period without stopping as at the end of a straight towing 
run. 

The objects tested in this channel will consist of ship models, torpedo 
shapes, mines, and special devices which cannot be tested as well by 
towing in still water. The water channel will complement the existing 
turning basins and water tunnels but will not supplant them. 

In order that such a large stream of water may be circulated at con- 
stant speed with uniform flow throughout the test section, a structure 
about 150 feet long and 45 feet high is required. The water is pumped 
through the channel by two 1214-foot-diameter propeller-type pumps 
driven by direct-connected 1,250-horsepower electric motors. These 
motors rotate at constant speed and the rate of flow of the water is 
regulated by adjusting the pitch of the propeller blades while running. 

The wind-tunnel building is located to the west of the main building. 
It contains two steel wind tunnels, each with a closed rectangular test 
section 8 feet by 10 feet, and with single return passage. These tunnels 
are equipped with 4-bladed, 16-foot-diameter wooden propellers, one 
driven by a 1,000-horsepower motor, the other by a 700-horsepower 
motor. These motors are controlled by the Clymer system which per- 


TAYLOR MODEL BASIN—HOWARD 245 


mits speed control within plus or minus ¥% percent. Air velocities can 
be varied from approximately 10 to 220 miles per hour. Six precision 
scales automatically record the three moments and three forces on the 
model. A seventh scale records the wind velocity. 

Airplane models up to 8-feet wing span can be tested both for normal 
performance characteristics and for stability in yaw; two separate 
systems for supporting the model are used for these two types of test. 


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At the present time tests for the Bureau of Aeronautics are still 
carried on principally in the old wind tunnels at the Washington Navy 
Yard, but within a short time the new tunnels will be actively 
operating. 

The organization of the Taylor Model Basin is shown on the chart. 
Rear Admiral Herbert S. Howard, U.S. N., is director; Capt. Harold 
E. Saunders, U. S. N., who laid out the establishment and was in 


246 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


charge of the entire work of preparing the facilities for operation, 
is technical director and head of the technical division; and Capt. 
W. C. Mehaffey, U.S. N. R., is executive officer and production officer. 

The heart of the organization and the reason for its existence 
rest in the technical division. This division is divided further into 
three main divisions: hydromechanics, structural mechanics, and 
aeromechanics. 

Each of these divisions is headed by a senior officer, with officer 
assistants, specially trained and qualified for this particular work. 
The civil technical staff is of the same high caliber, the nucleus of this 
staff possessing a national and international reputation in this highly 
specialized work. 

In the hydromechanics division the principal work falls within the 
field of ships’ lines, propellers, and underwater forms such as mine- 
sweeping gear and torpedoes. After the technical design of a device 
is completed, a model is built to scale, in order to carry out the test 
necessary to check the form and to determine the power needed to 
propel or tow it; the test is made in one of the various model basins. 
The procedure in a typical test of a ship is as follows. 

The usual ship model is about 20 feet long, hollow, and fashioned 
from layers of wood glued together. It is carefully shaped to represent 
the outer surface of the ship’s hull, to exact scale, from keel to deck. 
The model is complete as to its underwater form, with rudder, propel- 
- lers, shafts, struts, bilge and docking keels, but without upper works. 

The model is first towed, non-self-propelled, over one of the main 
basins by the carriage which has already been described. 

In making a towing run the carriage starts from rest, and smoothly 
and gradually acquires the speed necessary for the test. When the 
carriage is towing the model at a uniform rate at the desired speed, 
and the model is producing its characteristic wave formation, the 
actual resistance of the ship model in pounds and hundredths of a 
pound is measured. 

Later a second, self-propelled test is run, in which the model is 
driven under its own power along the basin with small model propel- 
lers. Small electric motors installed in the model, one motor to each 
shaft, operate the propellers. An operator on the towing carriage to 
which the model is attached regulates the speed of the model ship. 
From the tests so made, calculations give the corresponding results for 
the full-sized vessel. 

Under the hydromechanics division is also carried out the design of 
propellers in connection with the Bureau of Ships, and the testing of 
model propellers based upon these designs. These model tests are 
made in one of the two propeller tunnels already described. 


TAYLOR MODEL BASIN—HOWARD 247 


This division also carries out full-scale special tests aboard ships of 
the fleet, usually at the time of their trials, such as turning trials to 
determine the track of a ship under different conditions of speed and 
rudder. 

The structural mechanics division is concerned with all questions of 
the strength of ships’ structure, vibration, and related subjects. 

The work in structural mechanics at the model basin had its incep- 
tion a number of years ago in the thought that if the performance of 
full-sized ships could be accurately forecast through experimental 
work with models in a model basin, it should equally well be possible 
to forecast the performance of the structure of ships by the use of 
accurately constructed models, with proper technique in carrying out 
the tests. This would permit gaining knowledge as to the performance 
of such structures long before a ship itself was finished. 

This work was started with elementary models of the hulls of ships, 
and sectional models of the hulls of submarines. Proving successful, 
it has been continued to the present time, until it now includes deck 
and bottom structures, turrets and their foundations, and similar 
projects. 

The next problem undertaken in this field was the resistance of the 
structure of ships to underwater explosions. It was soon found that, 
for this work to be effective, fundamental knowledge must be gained 
as to the nature of the underwater explosions themselves. With the 
construction of the new Taylor Model Basin an extensive research 
program was taken in hand to investigate the effect of the explosion of 
small charges against simple diaphragms, and also to study the explo- 
sions of charges themselves, by the use of extremely high-speed under- 
water motion photography. From this research, information is being 
gained as to the nature of explosions themselves, and their effect upon 
the structure of ships. 

A third most important work of this division is that of investigating 
vibration of ships’ hulls and structural foundations, including support 
of instruments and other equipment aboard ship. Some of this work 
is done at the model basin but a large part of it is carried out aboard 
newly commissioned ships of the fleet when undergoing their first 
high-speed runs and gun-firing trials. 

The work of the aeromechanics division, including the operation of 
the two new wind tunnels, is concerned principally with wind-tunnel 
tests of models of new designs of airplanes for the Bureau of Aero- 
nautics of the Navy Department, and with tests to determine the effects 
of modifications to improve the performance of existing designs. 
Wind-tunnel tests are also made for the Bureau of Ordnance, and 

619830—45——17 


248. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


other government departments, to assist them in special problems 
requiring aerodynamic information. 

To construct the various types of models which are used in the inves- 
tigations which have been described, two separate shops, one wood- 
working, the other metalworking, form an integral part of the estab- 
lishment. The former exists particularly to manufacture the wood 
models of ships, aircraft, or other forms which are tested, while the 
latter constructs all special equipment, instruments, and other gear as 
well as any metal models used in the tests in the establishment. 

In its highly technical work which, in many of its aspects, involves 
the measurement of infinitely small units of time, stress, and motion, 
the Taylor Model Basin has taken a leading place in the development 
of special instruments. As two examples in the field of instrumenta- 
tion in which the organization has become preeminent, the work in 
ultra-high-speed motion pictures and electronics should be mentioned. 
The basin has taken a leading position in the development of high- 
speed motion-picture equipment and technique to record the details of 
lightning-fast phenomena such as shock and explosion, and also in the 
development of electronic measuring instruments accurately to record 
super-high-speed events such as the pressure curve of an explosion, or 
to measure infinitesimally small changes in displacement for obtaining 
data on vibrations and strains in structures. 

From the preceding paragraphs it can be seen how large a part the 
work at the Taylor Model Basin plays in the technical side of the war 
effort. Every new design of ship, from aircraft carrier to landing 
barge, is checked and tested as to its form and power; minesweeping 
gear, insofar as its performance in water is concerned, is tested and 
run in model or full size; special weapons and devices which operate 
in or on the water are designed as to their hydrodynamic features; and 
the vibration of new ships and their ability to withstand shock are 
investigated. The list could be multiplied indefinitely. 

This general description of the work undertaken and now under way 
at the Taylor Model Basin, and the special items listed, would not be 
complete without comment upon the quality of the technical reports 
which make available for use the actual results from these tests and 
projects. No matter how thorough and complete the technical studies 
and tests themselves may be, if they are not so written up and presented 
as to be understandable and clear for the use of the officials for whom 
the tests and studies are made, they might as well not have been made 
at all. Particular effort has been made in the preparation of better 
and clearer reports by progressive development of reproduction meth- 
ods, lay-out styles, and writing technique, so that these reports may be 
readily understandable by those who desire to use them. The success 
of these efforts has been made evident in the widespread demand for 


TAYLOR MODEL BASIN—-HOWARD 249 


Taylor Model Basin reports throughout this country and abroad as 
well as by the various agencies of the Navy itself. 

At present every effort of the Taylor Model Basin staff and its facili- 
ties is being applied to the one end which is to contribute to the 
maximum of their abilities to the early winning of the war. Pure 
research must take a secondary place, but it is only through the pure 
research carried on in peacetime and the skill so developed in the 
solving of similar problems that quick and correct answers can be 
found now for the urgent problems of the war. 

The interest of the country in research has increased greatly in these 
most recent years. It is greatly to be hoped that when peace comes 
again this interest will not lag but will continue so strongly that this 
establishment may continue to operate at its full capacity, so that 
through the more extensive pure research then possible, technical 
improvements in the design and construction of our ships and naval 
weapons may increase. Thus, should war ever again be forced upon us, 
we may feel that we have kept ourselves prepared to meet the technical 
problems of that day. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Howard PLATE 2 


1. DAVID W. TAYLOR MODEL BASIN. JULY 1941. 


General view of towing carriage 1 over the deep-water basin with a ship model attached to the towing 
dynamometer. 


2. DAVID W. TAYLOR MODEL BASIN. MARCH 28, 1941. 


Large model profiling machine in operation. Arm and vertical shaft of the Daniels planer may be seen in 
the foreground. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Howard PLATE 3 


al 


BGOF 


1. DAVID W. TAYLOR MODEL BASIN. AUGUST 20, 1941. 


Weighing a ship model preparatory to ballasting it to the proper displacement, draft, and trim. All models 
as constructed are sufficiently light to permit adding ballast weights to make their weight correspond to 
the probable range of ship displacements. 


2. DAVID W. TAYLOR MODEL BASIN 
Placing ballast weights into ship model to obtain proper trim and even keel. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944—Howard 


PLATE 4 


1. ENGINEER USING DYNAMOMETER FOR MEASURING MODEL RESISTANCE. 


2. CAVITATING MODEL PROPELLER UNDER TEST IN 12-INCH WATER TUNNEL. 


Picture made with 1/30000th-second flash. 


Note heavy tip vortices, considerable laminar cavitation near 


tips, and the start of burbling cavitation of the blade face near the hub. This is a right-hand propeller 


and the water is flowing from left to right. 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—ITS PLANNING AND 
APPLICATION ? 


By W. S. FaRREN 
Director, Royal Aircraft Establishment 


INTRODUCTION 


The exceptional circumstances of the times make it impossible for 
me to observe the letter of what I know is the Institute’s wish in the 
choice of a subject, though I believe I can conform to itin spirit. The 
Institute desires that the lecturer shall deal with some scientific or 
technical subject on which he is, or has been, personally engaged, and 
shall not indulge in broad surveys. There will come a time when the 
lecturer’s chief difficulty will be to choose from the embarrassingly 
rich store of knowledge which has accumulated during this war. But 
for the time being the door of that store cannot be opened in public. 
Moreover, I doubt whether the part that I have played in a large 
number of fascinating and exciting investigations during the last 
4 or 5 years is such that I could fairly deprive those who have done 
the work of the privilege of speaking about it. This is a difficulty 
that has always faced those who hold such positions as mine, and one 
of which your Council were no doubt well aware when they invited me. 

I have long been concerned with the problems that arise in applying 
the advances in knowledge which research for aeronautics has brought 
us and with the problems of planning the course of current research 
and of providing appropriate and timely resources for future research. 
I believe that these are matters that might with advantage be surveyed 
as a whole, in a scientific spirit. Moreover, I believe that the subject 
can usefully be treated in a purely personal way, and I have through- 
out drawn on my own experience. 

From this it follows that any conclusions I draw apply only to the 
circumstances in my own country, or rather to my own interpretation 
of what they have been and may be. It will be for you, not for me, 
to say whether you find them in any way relevant to circumstances 

1The seventh Wright Brothers lecture, presented before the Institute of the Aeronautical 
Sciences in the U. S. Chamber of Commerce Auditorium, Washington, D. C., December 17, 


1943. Reprinted by permission from the Journal of Aeronautical Sciences, vol. 11, 
No. 2, April 1944. 


251 


252 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


in the United States. But the intimate relations that have existed 
between workers in America and in England, in the field in which 
my interests and responsibilities lie, give me the courage to believe that 
a summary of my experience may be of interest to you, and worthy of 
this occasion. 

THE AIM OF RESEARCH 


Research is one of the things we all understand but find difficult 
to define. In the foreword to a recent pamphlet on Industrial Re- 
search, Sir Harold Hartley defined it as “a habit of mind which makes 
us attack every problem, big or small, in an orderly, systematic way, 
using if possible the advantages that modern science can give us.” 
I remember Lord Rutherford, in a characteristically expansive and 
emphatic mood, using almost the same words. I invite you to note 
the two words “if possible.” There are limits to what “modern science” 
can do for us. In research, as in other human activities, we depend a 
good deal on our wits. There is limitless opportunity for intuition 
and initiative. 

The aim of research is to produce a theory firmly supported by 
experimental evidence. Though necessarily incomplete, it must be 
a close enough approximation to serve the man who has to make 
things work. I trust you will not infer from this statement that I am 
interested in research only for what I can get out of it. I have known 
the thrill of working solely for the fun of it. But I am interested, 
for the time being, in research with a clear and unmistakable objec- 
tive—the discovery of how to make better aircraft. It is my experience 
that, for such research to be not only fruitful but timely, it is essential 
that the practical problems involved in its eventual application shall 
always be clear to those who are doing it. This need not in any way 
restrict their freedom. Indeed, they can gain immensely from contact 
with those upon whom the burden of applying their work is placed. 

The theme I have taken is indeed that it is only by intimate and 
wholehearted collaboration between the research worker, the designer, 
the constructor, and the user that research can be intelligently planned, 
pursued, and applied. 


THE INDEPENDENT WORKER IN RESEARCH 


As a preliminary I propose to give you an example from my earlier 
experience which I feel puts the point as it appears to the independent 
research worker. 

I have been personally concerned with research in flight for nearly 
30 years. The two chief aerodynamic problems have been, and still 
are, the reduction of drag and the improvement of stability and con- 
trol. Throughout, these problems have been attacked in the light of 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN 253 


the practical questions thrown up by continuous contact, on the one 
hand, with those who design and build aircraft and, on the other, with 
those who use them. In my experience it has been this intimate rela- 
tion between the three parties which has made this work so continu- 
ously exciting and, I believe, profitable. On looking back I cannot find 
any example that convinces me that we should have moved more 
quickly or more certainly had work on the fundamentals been divorced 
from that on problems of the moment. 

It is true that at times, while we were developing our theory, we 
had the advantage—and this adds to my point—of individual work 
going on in flight, under conditions which I now believe to have been 
ideal. When I was one of the team who worked on these subjects at 
Cambridge, we often felt that we could do more, or do it more quickly, 
if only we had more of something—men, airplanes, workshops—but 
chiefly more hours in the day. In truth, I think we did as much as was 
physically possible without enlarging our organization, and, if we had 
done that, our work would have changed in character and would, I 
believe, have been less effective. That it had effect, and quickly, was 
due to our close relation with the establishments that had the necessary 
resources to exploit it for practical purposes with which they were 
intimately acquainted. They seized it and rapidly developed it. Its 
practical effect can now be seen not only in many aircraft but in the 
research equipment and programs of work. 

You will remember Sir Melvill Jones’s first Wright Brothers lecture, 
in which he described some of the work I have just referred to on the 
boundary layer. From my own share in that work I can say that we 
were profoundly excited by the problems themselves and by the fasci- 
nation of trying to solve them by experiments in flight. But we were 
stimulated, and all our discussions were illuminated, by the realization 
of the potential application of their results. This we obtained from 
our constant personal contacts with the experimental establishments 
and with aircraft designers. 

Thus my experience leads me to the conclusion that, while there 
should be no explicit attempt to divorce work on basic problems from 
that on immediate ones of narrower range, the fullest encouragement 
and practical support should be given to independent workers. What 
form this should take I hesitate to define. My own preference is not 
for large endowments to institutions in the hope that they may attract 
good men. I would rather make generous finance available through 
some semi-independent advisory organization when the need is made 
clear by the development of the work. This may be either in cash or 
in kind. We at Cambridge had very little money, but the country 
supplied us with airplanes and maintained and renewed them. My 
only concern is that the ponderous workings of the machinery of gov- 


254 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ernment, when finance is involved, may result in the essential help 
coming too late. One day we shall learn to trust our scientific advisers 
with a reasonable fraction of our money on a block-grant basis and 
ask no account except at longish intervals. 


RESEARCH ON A LARGE SCALE 


I come now to that class of research for aeronautics whose scale is 
such that success depends on planning of large experimental resources 
and on planning so that application to practice may meet the foreseen 
needs of design and its capacity to exploit new discoveries. 

We must, in my view, plan research for aeronautics in three phases. 
First, we must relate all our main effort to advances in basic theory. 
Odd pieces of information without a clear, strong framework are 
worth little. Second, we must provide the experimental information 
by which theory may be built up and its limitations recognized and 
reduced. Third, we must ensure that experimental application is 
made in such conditions that the practical value of the theory is 
confirmed. 

There are three chief parties to this undertaking: first, those who 
are by trade workers in the field of theory and those who have the 
flair for the associated exploration by experiment; second, those who 
make use of the results in the design and construction of aircraft; and 
third, those who use the aircraft and on whom we rely to exploit the 
product of the efforts of the first and second. The extent to which 
these should enter into planning of research can be illustrated by an 
example—the problem of reducing the cooling drag of power plants. 

That it is possible to reduce the power wasted in cooling an airplane 
power plant to 2 percent or less of the brake horsepower was estab- 
lished many years ago. Indeed, it was shown that at flight speeds that 
were then within sight and have now been passed the cooling could be 
made to help to propel the airplane. But the cooling of a power plant 
is a matter that goes far beyond broad conceptions of this kind. It 
involves complex flows of air and liquids, demanding regulation to 
meet the varying conditions of flight and high standards of reliability 
in functioning and of ease of maintenance, which are of the greatest 
concern to the user. 

It was not until other developments had reduced the rest of the drag 
so much that the power-plant drag was a dominating factor that the 
designer became convinced that the problem demanded his serious 
attention. He has finally succeeded in producing cooling systems that 
are no less reliable and have a much lower drag. The user accepts 
the slight additional embarrassment to maintenance in return for the 
higher speed and greater range. 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN 255 


But the practical problems of achieving the full result are still only 
partially solved. Few power plants will stand up to critical examina- 
tion on such points as low-loss ducting or airtight cowlings. It is a 
difficult engineering problem to design and make such features at the 
same time light and easily removable and replaceable without damage. 

Throughout the whole history of this development there has been 
intimate association between the three parties chiefly concerned. But 
in my view we can now see that a better planning of the enterprise as 
a whole would have saved much time and waste of work. In particu- 
lar, an earlier realization by the designer of the outstanding advance 
that was within his grasp would have brought him to a closer coopera- 
tion, on strictly practical lines, with his only source of specific infor- 
mation—the research establishments. They in turn were backward in 
that they did not provide themselves with the right material by which 
alone convincing information, directly applicable to practical prob- 
lems, could be obtained. This is a case in which I believe the enlight- 
ened user, if correctly advised, could have forced the pace. 


A SURVEY OF 25 YEARS’ ACHIEVEMENT 


The final criterion of our success in using the knowledge with which 
we have been supplied is the extent to which the product of our efforts 
has improved as time has passed. The curve of advance is not a 
smooth one. Over longish periods we often see little beyond a slow 
rise in achievement, and we tend to believe that there is little more to 
be expected. Then there comes something in the nature of a trans- 
formation. It is often ascribed to a single cause and, generally, one 
can say that there is an outstanding stimulus. But if we compare the 
final product—in this case, the airplane itself—before and after the 
event, allowing a long enough time for the situation to reach a fairly 
stable state, we can make a fair assessment of the relative weight of all 
the influences which have contributed to the change. I believe such 
an examination of the advance of the airplane between say 1917 and 
1942 is useful in providing us not only with a means of examining how 
far we have been successful in using the results of research but also a 
guide to the part played by sheer engineering skill and initiative. 
Finally, it may serve as a base from which we may survey some of the 
potential advances that are now opening out to us and judge what 
resources we shall need in order to achieve them. 

I shall take two typical aircraft that were in general and successful 
use in 1917 and compare them with two modern aircraft of similar 
duties. Naturally there are striking differences, and we shall find no 
difficulty in tracing them to their sources. But perhaps equally strik- 
ing are the characteristics that have apparently undergone little 


256 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


change. I think, however, that we shall see that the effort to preserve 
them unchanged has made as high a demand on research and engi- 
neering skill as that required to produce the more obvious improve- 
ments. 

During the last war the Royal Aircraft Factory (which became the 
Royal Aircraft Establishment in April 1918) produced many designs 
for aircraft which were constructed in large numbers. One of the most 
successful was the S. E. 5, a single-seat fighter with a 180-hp. Hispano 
Suiza engine. It had a creditable history as a fighter. I propose 
to compare it with a Spitfire. Then I shall take the Handley Page 
0/400 twin-engined heavy bomber and compare it with a Lancaster. 

I shall not be giving away any information to our enemies. They 
are well acquainted, in more ways than one, with both Spitfires and 
Lancasters. Some of them may even remember the S. E. 5 and the 
0/400. For my purpose it is quite sufficient to take examples of marks 
of the modern types whose performance has long been surpassed. 

Let us first look at them in general outline. Figure 1 shows the 
1917 fighter. In Figure 2 its specifically military features have dis- 
appeared and around it is the outline of the Schneider Trophy 
streamlined monoplane, the essential product of the period between 
the two world wars. Figure 3 shows the 1942 fighter. In Figures 
4, 5, and 6 is shown the transition from the 1917 bomber, through the 
streamlined airliner, to the 1942 bomber. The most obvious differ- 
ences are the change from biplane to monoplane and the general 
cleaning-up due to enclosing the crew, abolishing external wing 
bracing, and retracting the undercarriage. Comparing them type 
by type, the over-all dimensions are not very different. The Spitfire 
has the same wing surface as the S.E.5, about half the drag, nearly 
twice the strength, three times the speed, four times the total weight, 
four times the military load, and seven times the power. The Lan- 
caster has about half the drag of the Handley Page 0/400 on the same 
span of wings and about three-quarters the wing surface. Its total 
weight is nearly five times as great; the wing loading, over six times; 
the power, seven times; and the military load, with a 25 percent 
greater range, over eight times. Let us inquire how some of these 
improvements have been made. 


DRAG REDUCTION 


The change in drag coefficient Cp, is of first interest. I have not 
found it possible to get accurate figures for the older aircraft, but 
they are approximately 0.039 for the fighter and 0.046 for the bomber. 
The corresponding modern figures are 0.022 for the Spitfire and 0.030 
for the Lancaster. Thus, per square foot of wing surface, the total 
drag has been reduced to about 55 and 65 percent of the 1917 standard. 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN 257 


Figure 1, 


FIGURE 3. 


258 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


FIGURE 5. 


FIGURE 6. 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN 259 


Comparing the two fighters in more detail, we find first that the 
wing surface is the same for both. Disregarding induced drag (or 
assuming it to be the same fraction of the whole in each), the top 
speed at the same height will be proportional to the cube root of 
the thrust power divided by the drag coefficient. Since the pro- 
peller efficiency is near enough the same for both, we may use brake 
power. Taking ground-level powers in both cases—180 hp. for the 
Hispano and 1,250 for the Merlin—the ratio is about 7. Thus the 
contributions to increase of speed are: 


g 0.039\14 
by reduction of drag — Suleal 


by increase of power (7)? =1,92 


The product of these figures is 2.33. 

If we assume that by supercharging it is possible to keep the Merlin 
power constant up to say 25,000 feet, where the density is approxi- 
mately halved, we shall get a further rise: 

by supercharging™ (2)! = 1.26 
The total ratio of increase is therefore nearly 38. 

At this point I feel that the engine people are feeling very pleased— 
and we have good reason to acknowledge the success of their effort. 
But these figures as they stand do less than justice to the aerodynamic 
contribution. All the cooling required by the seven-times increased 
power has been provided and yet the aircraft has no more than half 
the drag per square foot of wetted surface. 

How have these improvements been made? Let us look first at 
the drag account (table 1). To the saving of 47 pounds, the most 
obvious contributions are from the elimination of wing bracing and 
undercarriage—31 pounds in all. But the body and cooling drag is 
actually reduced by over 10 percent in spite of the sevenfold increase 
of power. 


TaBLe 1 
8. E. 5 drag | Spitfire drag 

at 100 ft. at 100 ft. 

per sec. per sec. 

Pounds Pounds 
‘ey sel en ora aes Aa Su Neca ES SR ae Re il aR a 28 20 
Mynoaraninie seo oe Fe oe eae a ots os MS A UNG ea Sue RS SEAR 
iBomysand cooling *#. 2 1 2Sc uk Tote ae Se aE ieee ee ee a ae 44 38. 6 
PE RIISIITIACES Masses Ute Le ts FA eee nea ebay res a ae! 4.4 
Unt erearniagve soe eS ee a 6 LN eet Ne ae he Nn ee BP ae ee Gh) ioe Cee 


260 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


TABLE 2 

8. E.5 Spitfire FW 190 

Percent Percent Percent 
Sirueturest ost Se ee Ee Se ee ee ee 29.7 28.9 30.9 
Power plants. 2 ots 20 290. 2 Sea ey es re eee ee 37.1 38. 0 35. 7 
Ur) We CEE GST eee ST Ss ee Se SE AS 15.4 16.6 14.3 
BOSQUE oe TEE Bate “Ae tit ep. BSS 17.8 16.5 19.1 
Oba oF PES oP Sa OS A See ay Se 100.0 100.0 100. 0 
Primary load! factor 8 so aoe eee ee ee 10. }-2t2 vcs eeee 


For the bomber, the reduction in (po is rather less than for the 
fighter on account of the drag of defensive armament, but otherwise 
the influences operating have been much the same. 

Toward the end of my paper I shall say something about what 
further improvements in drag are in sight and what problems we 
have to solve in order to achieve them. 


WEIGHT ANALYSIS 


Let us look next at the weight picture. The Spitfire weighs four 
times as much as the S. E. 5; the Lancaster, nearly five times as much 
as the 0/400. What has made it possible to carry so much additional 
weight per square foot of wing surface—for the fighter four times, 
for the bomber six times as much? In the airplane itself, first, the 
development of flaps giving higher maximum lift coefficient and higher 
drag; second, power plants of much greater power per unit weight; 
and, third, constant-speed propellers to make the power fully 
available over a wide speed range. But larger and better airfields, 
permitting higher take-off and landing speeds and better flying tech- 
nique, have contributed even more. The effective maximum lift 
coefficient has risen by about 65 percent. Even so, the touch-down and 
take-off speeds, with the higher wing loadings, are 50 to 80 percent 
higher. 

A comparison of the weight analyses and load factors of the fighters 
is given in table 2. As a matter of interest, I have given also the 
weight analysis for the FW 190. 

How has this remarkable similarity of weight distribution been 
maintained? From the structural point of view, it is essentially by 
increasing wing loading four times that it has been possible to go 
from braced biplane to monoplane with nearly double the primary 
strength, from fabric covering to a metal skin, and from a fixed to a 
retractable undercarriage with no significant changes in percentage 
structure weight. 

From the point of view of the power plant, we have to record a rise 
in the net output per pound of complete plant in the ratio of about 
7to4. The complete plant of 1942 includes both constant-speed pro- 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN 261 


peller and supercharging arrangements by which the power is main- 
tained up to heights at which the air density is half, or even less than 
half, of that at ground level. 

For the same percentage fuel weight the range is some 40 percent 
better at a much higher cruising speed. Specific fuel consumption 
is much the same in spite of the great improvement in specific per- 
formance achieved in the face of the burden of supercharging. We 
must acknowledge here the tremendous contribution of high-octane 
fuel. 

We are left in both cases with about one-sixth of the total weight 
for the man, his equipment, and armament. The weight of the man 
is the same as it was. In 1918 it exceeded that of his whole fighting 
equipment. Today it is but a fraction of it. The weight of the 
bullets alone in the modern fighter exceeds that of the whole arma- 
ment of the S. E. 5. 

For the bombers, weight analyses are strikingly different from 
those of the fighters (table 3). In 1917 we thought it natural for the 
structure weight of a large bomber to be greater than that of a small 
fighter—40.4 percent compared with 29.7 percent. In fact there was 
a view, widely held and expressed somewhat forcibly by Dr. Lan- 
chester, that aircraft of larger span than say 100 feet would be 
uneconomical because of the operation of the square-cube law char- 
acteristic of geometrically similar structures. Designers, aided by 
research, have managed to avoid the consequences of this law. They 
have been so successful that the structure weight percentage for the 
Lancaster is practically the same as that for the Spitfire. The load 
factor of the bomber is, of course, much lower than that of the fighter. 
But it is probably little different from that of the 1917 bomber. 
The progress that has been made is therefore remarkable. 


TABLE 3 
Handley 
Page 0/400 Lancaster 
Percent Percent 
PUT CUUT Es ae ee eee eres a ree te ek a eh eras St eek See ee 40. 4 31.4 
DEL \ Tere Te} EW a Se eh ea TY NE oe NS SR SE Rs eR ee ee 22.0 16. 4 
CHIL eee eek LN ARACEAE AAT Oe Cea E i ST a eS AAR A 19.3 19.8 
loyal see ee be ae ee ey eee eae oe eee 18.3 32. 4 
PI Cells ake ec eae ee eee at et dans PS LTS yo ad Sh iy 100. 0 100. 0 


In the achievements summarized above I think aerodynamic, struc- 
tural, and power-plant improvements can fairly claim about equal 
shares, and to each, I suggest, the contributions of research and of en- 
gineering skill and ingenuity have been about equal. To pursue the 
analysis would lead me away from my main theme. But I think we 
may, with advantage, examine the history of effort in the structural and 


262 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


aerodynamic fields a little further in order to show the nature of the 
difficulties that have been met and the methods by which they have been 
overcome. 

STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENTS 


In 1917 the great majority of aircraft structures were made of wood 
and steel. Light alloys were little used. Wing surfaces were covered 
with fabric, and torsional stiffness requirements were met by the bi- 
plane wing structure. Today, with few exceptions, we use light alloy 
for the primary structure, and torsional stiffness is derived in most 
cases from the light-alloy sheet wing covering. The very con- 
siderable improvement that has been made in aluminum-rich alloys 
contributes chiefly to the wing spars. There is as yet no marked sign of 
a development in their properties or application which will reduce the 
weight involved in meeting torsional stiffness requirements. This is, of 
course, because these involve stability rather than strength character- 
istics. 

I do not suggest that the enormous effort that has been put into im- 
proving aircraft materials has not contributed to the maintenance of 
structure weight at a remarkably low figure in spite of increases of 
speed, strength requirements, and size. But it is significant that the 
Mosquito airplane, which is made almost entirely of wood, has a struc- 
ture weight as low as that of the equivalent metal airplane. 

One feature of the, modern aircraft which has undoubtedly con- 
tributed to a more economical wing structure, in particular, is the great 
increase of wing loading and therefore of wing weight per unit area, 
which has made it possible to employ the material to much greater ad- 
vantage—i. e., to have a smaller percentage of relatively lowly stressed 
material. This brings me to one of the outstanding contributions of 
research to aeronautics—namely, that derived from the investigation 
of the strength of actual structures in close association with theoretic 
analysis. It is by such work that it has been possible to increase greatly 
the useful load of practically all aircraft now in use. The most 
thorough mechanical testing of aircraft structures undoubtedly pays a 
high dividend. These tests have not only shown us that our methods of 
design have led to general forms of structure well adapted to meet the 
demands on them, and fundamentally economical in character, but have 
enabled us to discover where our knowledge of the detailed distribution 
of stresses is inadequate and at the same time to improve that knowl- 
edge and to strengthen the structure against unforeseen local weak- 
nesses. 

The determination of the loads that the structure is called upon to 
bear is fundamentally a more difficult problem. We are greatly in- 
debted to such methods as the V. G. recorder, but these give us only 
over-all figures that, useful as they are, throw little light on the load 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN 263 


distrivution in flight. We have now available a method of great po- 
tency in the electrical resistance strain gauge. This is being used with 
great effect on a large scale in laboratory tests, and its application to 
measurements in flight is being rapidly developed. It will undoubtedly 
prove to be one of the greatest contributions of the research worker to 
improvement in the structures of aircraft. 

Possibly the greatest achievement of the research worker in the field 
of aircraft structures is in discovering how to avoid the dangers of what 
we comprise in the term “flutter.” In my view, there is in the whole of | 
aircraft engineering no better example of the power of mathematical 
analysis, of ingenuity in experiment, and of skill in interpretation. 
The successful attainment of very high speeds, with a remarkably small 
number of serious failures, can only be ascribed to the most skilled use 
of all these resources, guided by systematic review of the results of their 
application. Direct experiment in flight—the only satisfactory 
check—is almost impracticable. Laboratory determination of reliable 
numerical values of the essential quantities involved is extremely dif- 
ficult. Much more information on these is essential for progress, and 
here the designer can justifiably demand all that research can provide. 


STABILITY AND CONTROL 


Up to this point I have said nothing of the contribution of research 
to the production of stable and controllable aircraft. I am glad to 
say that the time is now long past when lack of stability is regarded 
by anyone as a virtue in an aircraft. In fact it is unquestionably a 
most serious defect, whatever the duty of the aircraft. But it has 
always been difficult to define the necessary or desirable margins of 
stability and the associated general stability and control character- 
istics. The designer must, however, have the requirements expressed 
in terms that can be reflected in his lay-out, both as a whole and in 
detail. He must be able to judge fairly accurately how the changes in- 
evitable as a design develops will react on the stability and control, 
and he must have at his disposal means of dealing economically with the 
consequences both of the variation of load distribution resulting from 
operational conditions and of the changes involved in the development 
of the aircraft. 

There is a good deal about the stability and control of aircraft in 
which there has been little apparent change over the period covered 
by the examples I have taken. I believe, however, that this is simply 
because the desirable general characteristics were attained by about 
1918. Since then our main problems have been, first, to preserve them 
substantially unchanged in spite of the profound changes in the form 
of aircraft and, second, to enable the same man to control much larger 
and much faster aircraft. 

619830—45——18 


264 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The foundations of stability and control theory were laid, and well 
laid, long ago. Much labor has been spent on expanding it to embrace 
new developments, such as structural distortion, and on the analysis 
of the controlled and uncontrolled motion of aircraft. A vast amount 
of experimental evidence has been accumulated. Much of this, how- 
ever, is related rather to specific problems than to the systematic devel- 
opment of an understanding of the matter. There is room here for a 
wholesale improvement, particularly by an attack on a wider front in 
flight. I am not among those who criticize our record here on the 
grounds that we did not undertake enough basic work at the time when 
the airplane, as we now know it, first crystallized. I regret that cir- 
cumstances made it impossible to give this work high priority. Had 
we been able to do so, we might have avoided many troubles and saved 
much labor. But I do not believe that, on the balance, we would have 
reached our objective—usable aircraft—more quickly. We relied on 
our past experience, on our ability to improvise, and—most significant 
of all—on our conviction that the theory available was soundly 
founded on experimental evidence. We discovered, by the attacks we 
were forced to make on troubles as they arose, much more about sta- 
bility and control than most of us believed there was to learn. Thus, 
and I believe only thus, could we have advanced at the rate we did. 
It is an excellent example of the interworking of research and 
application. 

In the field of control balance we have made tremendous advances 
in the face of difficulties that are sometimes hardly appreciated. The 
1917 bomber operated at speeds—80 to 100 m.p.h.—at which the pilot 
could provide the forces necessary for control with little or no aero- 
dynamic balance. Take the 0/400 ailerons. The maximum hinge 
moment required was probably equivalent to a force on the pilot’s 
hand of the order of 50 pounds, with ailerons on which the aero- 
dynamic balance was probably no better than one-half. In the Lan- 
caster the same movement of surfaces of about the same size is required 
at 300 m.p.h., requiring nine times the forces. The pilot is no stronger, 
so the aerodynamic balance must reduce the hinge moment to say one- 
eighteenth of that of unbalanced ailerons. This is a difficult require- 
ment but it has been met. 

Suppose we put up the weight at the same wing loading to 100,000 
pounds, one and one-half times that of the Lancaster. The linear 
dimensions will rise in the ratio 1.5/7 and the hinge moment at the 
same speed in the ratio 1.5 */?._ The aerodynamic balance must there- 
fore reduce the hinge moment in the ratio 


1/(2) (1.5)%/2(3)2=1/30 


A similar argument leads to a figure of 1/400 if the weight is increased 
to 500,000 pounds. We can certainly achieve 1/30 and possibly 1/400 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—-FARREN 265 


in ideal conditions. But it is doubtful whether this is a wise policy, 
since we can hardly expect to define or to maintain the shapes of 
surfaces sufficiently closely. Power-operated controls have been 
avoided so far, but it is unwise to assume that we can neglect them 
indefinitely. There seems to be no good reason to be doubtful of our 
ability to make them reliable. 


POWER-PLANT DEVELOPMENTS 


I do not propose to extend this survey to the two other main factors 
that have contributed to the changes we have seen in aircraft—the 
power plant and the propeller. I have already quoted some figures 
that show how remarkably the reciprocating engine has advanced. 
I have also said that there have since been further advances, which, 
however, serve rather to emphasize the comparisons I have made than 
to invalidate them. This is because there have been accompanying 
changes in weight and other characteristics that leave the main con- 
clusions substantially unaffected. Our debt to the engineers who, 
aided by research, have achieved these results is immense. 

To the constant-speed propeller the performance of aircraft must 
also acknowledge a great debt. But the flying man is even more 
grateful for what it has provided—almost complete freedom from his 
chief anxiety, namely, the liability to misuse his engine. We now look 
forward confidently to new methods of propulsion for aircraft. But 
I believe the propeller has a long and useful future before it and one 
in which research will play an outstanding part. 


SUMMARY—THE TASK OF RESEARCH 


I trust that this short survey has gone some way to show why I am 
convinced that the research worker and the engineer must work to- 
gether if we are to make significant progress. In his James Forrest 
lecture to the Institution of Civil Engineers in England, Dr. Southwell 
said that “Aeronautical engineering is ordinary engineering made 
more difficult.” If that was true in 1930, as I believe it was, it is more 
than ever true now. We can see clear prospects of great advances in 
aircraft in size, in performance, and in safety. The curve of improve- 
ment against time shows no real signs of flattening out. But we shall 
need all our ingenuity to avoid or to overcome the barriers which we 
can see ahead. 

I think the engineer has made good use of the outstanding contribu- 
tions of research for aeronautics. If at times he has appeared slow to 
appreciate the significance of new developments, he has a good excuse 
in his preoccupation with producing something on which we can rely. 
This is a sufficiently serious responsibility and one that he has borne 
with credit. But it is this very preoccupation that emphasizes the need 


266 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


for employing as part of an engineering organization men competent 
to detect those advances in knowledge which are potentially valuable 
and to work out the technique of applying them. 

The research worker himself is not blameless in this respect. We 
can call to mind the case of Mendel, the significance of whose work in 
genetics was not recognized until he had been dead many years. His 
case is an example of discovery not appreciated because it is too far in 
advance of the general state of development of the science. Dr. Lan- 
chester’s books Aerodonetics and Aerodynamics contained much 
which may perhaps be regarded in the same way. 

The instances I have mentioned may, of course, be regarded as classic 
examples of the difficulty of disseminating knowledge. As the volume 
of knowledge increases, this difficulty grows. In the hall of Trinity 
College, Cambridge, there hangs the portrait of William Whewell, 
sometime Master. It is said that he was the last man to know all 
knowledge. He died in 1866.? 

But the research worker has, in my view, a part to play in “putting 
across” the results of research. It is reasonable to ask that he should 
put his results in such a form that they can be used. To those who 
feel that this is hardly worthy of so much of their time and attention, 
as it certainly demands if it is to be well done, 1 would command 
the example of one of the greatest workers in aeronautics, Hermann 
Glauert. Every one of his outstanding contributions to aerodynamics 
was finished in such a form that the method of its application was 
made clear. I am not aware that this in any way detracted from the 
value of his work on whatever basis it may be judged. And I know, 
from my long and intimate friendship with him, that he regarded 
it as the natural method, and indeed the only one that would satisfy 
his sense of craftmanship. 


PROBLEMS OF THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE 


If this review leaves us confident of our powers to use effectively 
the results that an alliance between research and engineering ingenuity 
can provide, as I think it should, how should we shape our plans for 
the future? Let us look for a moment into what the future may hold 
for us in one field alone: still further improvement in performance— 
in speed and in range. 

Within the limits of our present knowledge the most economical 
way to fly faster is to fly higher. Let us suppose that we can extend 


2 Oxford may feel that their claim has been overlooked. It is preserved in the rhyme: 


My name is Benjamin Jowett 

Hverything that’s known, I know it. 

What I don’t know isn’t knowledge 

And I am Master of Balliol College. 
Jowett died in 1893. 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—-FARREN 267 


the range of operation of power plants so that propulsive power is 
independent of height. Taking an airplane with the characteristics 
of the Spitfire (table 1), and assuming that Cp)=0.022 under all con- 
ditions, the curve of speed against height is shown in figure 7 labeled 
A. The line of sonic speed, Mach number=1, is crossed at 65,000 feet. 
In practice the effect of the compressibility of air begins to be felt at 
about M=0.65 at 33,000 feet at a speed of about 430 m.p.h., and the 
rapid rise of Cpo with U/ brings the curve for greater heights down 
to about the level of curve A,. The loss of speed is very large. 


HEIGHT, THOUSANOS OF FEET. 


Figure 7.—True level speed vs. height, showing influ- 
ence of reduction of Cpo and of compressibility. 
Propulsive power, 4.5 T. H. P./sq. ft. wing surface ; 
wing loading, 28 lbs./sq. ft. ; aspect ratio, 5.6. 


If, by devising forms that will ensure some measure of laminar 
flow, we can halve Cp, and at the same time avoid compressibility 
effects, we get curve B. But if compressibility has the same kind of 
effect as on the original airplane, the result will be to depress the 
speed to curve B,. Similarly, reducing Cp. to one quarter of the 
original value, we get curves C and C. 

If we are to reach really high speeds economically, it is clear that 
we must devote at least as much effort to avoiding or reducing the 
effect of compressibility as to reducing the “low speed” value of Cpo. 
On the other hand, at speeds at which it is likely to be economical 


268 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


to cruise for long distances, compressibility will for some time be 
relatively unimportant and laminar-flow forms offer outstanding 
prospects. In round figures range and economical cruising speed are 
inversely proportional to the square root of Cp. If we can halve 
_@po, both range and cruising speed will rise by 40 percent. 

We must not dismiss too lightly the possibility of cruising economi- 
cally, at great height, at very high speeds—speeds at which com- 


WING LOADING LB/SQ FT 


HEIGHT, THOUSANDS OF FEET. 


Figure §8.—Critical wing loading vs. 
height. True level speed 450 m. p. h.; 
flow laminar up to 60 percent of chord; 
airfoil thickness 15 to 16 percent. 


pressibility may well have a dominating influence on design. With a 
laminar flow extending over the majority of the surface of the air- 
plane we may reasonably expect to be able to cruise at 450 m.p.h.— 
a Mach number of about 0.7. Considering the airfoil alone, because 
of necessary thickness and camber, sonic speed will occur at a point 
near the surface when the lift coefficient reaches a certain value. 
Hence, the wing loading must not exceed a figure dependent on the 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN 269 


height. At the heights at which it is likely that such speeds will be 
economical, from the power aspect, calculation suggests that rather 
low wing loadings will be required. Figure 8 shows the results of 
some preliminary calculations on this point. The wing loading cor- 
responding to the critical conditions is sensitive both to airfoil thick- 
ness and to height. For example, assuming 60 percent of laminar 
flow, 15-percent thickness, and a camber appropriate to the lift co- 
efficient, the critical wing loading at 35,000 feet is 28 pounds per square 
foot; or for a 16-percent thickness, 20 pounds per square foot. At 
30,000 feet the corresponding loadings are 44 and 35. If these calcula- 
tions are sound, the effect on the general economics of the situation 
will be marked. Here is another reason to justify extensive theoretic 
and experimental work in this field. 

Thus we see both the barriers to progress which now face us and 
the potential rewards that will be ours if we can succeed in surmount- 
ing them. I return to my main theme—the research worker, the 
designer, the constructor, and the user must join forces and, each 
fortified by the confidence and help of the others, plan the work that 
is needed to provide the information, pursue the investigations in 
the conviction that the aim is worthy of the effort demanded, and 
apply the results to produce better airplanes. 

From aerodynamics we demand not merely the bare solution of the 
problem of forms providing laminar flow, relatively immune from 
effects of compressibility. We require specific information covering 
the whole airplane, including its propulsion, stability, and control. 
It may be that the whole lay-out of the aircraft will be different from 
that to which we have been accustomed. It is for the aerodynamic 
people to say, but they must base their opinions on a sound foundation 
of experiment. 

From structural research we require to know what schemes of 
structural design are most likely to provide the necessary precision 
of form and superficial smoothness and how to cope with new strength 
and stiffness requirements. Aerodynamics must supply information 
on the loads that will be met in flight, and much thought must be given 
to the meteorologic conditions that will be encountered. 

In the future it will be impossible to consider the airplane engine 
and the airplane as separate enterprises with conflicting requirements. 
The thermodynamic problems will be aerodynamic also. Their joint 
solution will throw up more than enough of the design problems at 
which the power-plant engineer excels. 

Will the transformation of the energy of the fuel into thrust de- 
mand a propeller or a jet or a combination? There is no single 
answer. It will depend on the duty of the airplane. But the propeller 
designer will find that his task will tax all his ingenuity. 


270 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Upon the airplane designer will fall the burden of combining into 
a working proposition the contributions of all his collaborators. He 
will need to provide for pressurized cabins, ice-free surfaces, and 
the many indispensable aids to control, navigation, take-off, and 
landing. 

To the user the prospects are such that he should spare no pains in 
encouraging the research worker and the engineer in their difficult 
tasks. He must support them to the full in obtaining the resources, 
in men and material, which will be essential for solving their prob- 
lems. And he must contribute, as a member of the team, the opera- 
tional information that will guide their efforts at all stages. 

The experimental resources that such work demands are large. 
They must be generously planned to provide the greatest possible 
scope and flexibility. It will take time to devise and to create them, 
and during this time we shall inevitably meet further difficulties whose 
exact nature we cannot yet foresee. We may be confident in our ability 
to adapt and to improvise, but we must ensure that the basic equip- 
ment is on an adequate scale. 


THE MANAGEMENT OF RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS 


I have left until last such remarks as I have to make on an aspect 
of planning research for aeronautics to which you may feel I should 
have paid more attention—namely, the organization and management 
of the work on the scale that the scope and complexity of the prob- 
lems demand. In what I said earlier I have emphasized my belief 
in the value of the independent small team of workers, who necessarily 
work on a small scale with relatively small equipment, and on one 
or at most a few problems. But we must recognize, perhaps reluc- 
tantly, that we have problems to solve which cannot be handled suc- 
cessfully in that way. 

It is not merely the large size and complexity of the equipment 
required which forces us to face the task of managing large research 
undertakings. It is rather that the many problems we must attack 
are interdependent, and that success in dealing with them depends 
on assembling and coordinating the efforts not only of a team but 
of many teams of workers. As in any large undertaking we have to 
break the work down into parts. Each part is the primary responsi- 
bility of a group of specialists under a leader. But the parts must 
be welded into a whole, and in this welding lies the problem of 
management. 

I believe that the problem is best approached not from the top but 
from the bottom—from the point of view of the individual member of a 
team. What does he need in order that he may do the best that is in 
him? In my experience, he needs the following: 


RESEARCH FOR AERONAUTICS—FARREN a a | 


(1) A clear, unambiguous statement of the ultimate objective. 
This must be more than a statement of the specific problem. It must 
relate it to the general picture of which it is a part. Thus he will 
know why the work is being done. 

(2) An opportunity to give his own views on the value of the under- 
lying ideas. The basic plan must be, in part, his own. Thus he 
will start with a sound conviction that the plan is a good one. 

(3) An immediate leader in whom he has confidence, who will 
inspire him, help him, and keep him up to date in all the relevant 
parallel work on related problems. Thus he will retain the good 
spirits in which he starts. 

(4) Sufficient resources to enable his work to progress at what is, 
in his judgment, a speed commensurate with the importance of the 
objective. Thus he will feel that the value of his work is recognized 
in the only way that means anything to him. 

This formula can, in my experience, be applied to groups of work- 
ers under a central management or to separate establishments under 
a central direction. And the difficulties that one meets in applying 
it arise not from its shortcomings but from conscious or unconscious 
neglect of its essentials. 

Looked at in this way, such questions as the ideal size of research 
establishments cease to be of any great significance. Just as a team 
must have a leader who knows all about the work being done by its 
members, so a group of teams must have a leader who is recognized 
by them to know enough about their work for him to be able to guide 
it to its common objective. The limit of economical size of a com- 
plete unit is set not by some arbitrary formula but by the simple fact 
that no one man can know enough about work in more than a few 
fields to be able to inspire real confidence in his team leaders or 
their teams. The control of large equipment, the management of 
numbers of skilled industrials, and the commonplace daily problems 
of facilities are matters of consequence, but they are not the real de- 
termining factors. In any event they are well understood and can 
be broken down and shared among a properly balanced staff. 

I would summarize my views on this question as follows. There 
is no single or simple formula by which to determine the best method 
of handling research. But I believe there are a few simple prin- 
ciples in the light of which each particular situation may be reviewed 
and a good solution found. 


CONCLUSION 


You will see that my experience has led me to the view that the 
record of science and engineering in aeronautics is a creditable one. 
It justifies us in demanding the means of extending our efforts into 


272 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


those new fields that we can now clearly see. The task of organizing 


and managing the work, of devising and constructing the equipment, | 


and, above all, of leading those upon whose efforts success will in 
the end depend is one of absorbing interest. 

What the world will make of our efforts is a matter on which I 
regard it as unprofitable to speculate, at any rate here and at this 
time. I am an engineer in a world where good engineering, skillfully 
used, means survival and bad engineering means the end of what I 
believe to be a good way of living. So I am content for the time 
being to confine my efforts to the work in hand and to leave phil- 
osophic speculations on its value, on some absolute scale which I con- 
fess eludes me, to those who can find time or inclination for it. For 
this reason I have confined my attention primarily to research for 
aeronautics as used in war. There is another reason—I have spent 
the best part of my life on work with this as its first aim in the con- 
viction that it had to be done. 

But I am an incurable optimist. I believe that we shall succeed 
in our present effort—in which the share of research is to provide 
information by which aircraft and their equipment can be steadily 
improved and used to greater effect. When we have achieved our 
immediate aim, I do not doubt that much of our work will be put to 
uses that are more to my taste and to yours. 

In the end, however, it is with the scientific and technical advances 
in the means of flight that we are here concerned. So far we have 
had a mere 40 years in which to show what we can do. It has been my 
purpose to point, in the light of my experience, to what we must do 
now to discharge the responsibility that is laid on us so that those 
who will follow us may find a fair field in which to explore the end- 
less vista of opportunity which will le before them. 


HUMAN LIMITS IN FLIGHT? 


By Bryan H. C. MarrHews, C. B. E., M. A., Sc. D., F. R. S. 
Head of the R. A. F. Physiological Laboratory, Consultant in Physiology 
to the R. A. F. 


[With 3 plates] 


A modern aircraft will climb in a few minutes to heights at which 
the air is so thin that it will no longer support life. It can turn and 
maneuver so fast that the pilot may easily be rendered unconscious 
from the mechanical forces which it imposes on his body, and in an 
aircraft which is moving rapidly in three planes of space the pilot 
can be subjected to stresses beyond the limits which the human body 
can stand. 

The adaptation of which the human body is capable to new sur- 
roundings and conditions can play a considerable part in fitting man 
to these new conditions; for example, airsickness which many suffer 
on first flying in rough air or doing aerobatics, in most people soon 
passes off and they become adapted to motions which at first perplex 
and incapacitate them, though a few never become completely adapted. 
But there are several stresses placed on man in aircraft that cannot be 
met by any unconscious adaptation, which require equipment specially 
designed to meet them. Some of the necessities are obvious, such as 
windscreens to protect the man from the great wind pressures at 
high speed and a heat supply from the engine or special clothing to 
keep him warm in the Arctic cold of the stratosphere. His senses must 
be extended by a set of blind-flying instruments so that he may know 
his altitude and movement in space when in clouds or at night. He 
must learn to believe the instruments against his senses for these are 
no longer a reliable guide when he may be moving at varying speeds 
in any direction, in fact they will often be wrong. The human limit 
of visual range by day and especially by night is of paramount impor- 
tance in flying. 

But beside the stresses from wind pressure, cold, vibration, and 
noise, the pilot’s body must also be protected from other less obvious 
stresses and here I propose to deal particularly with the two greatest 


1 Reprinted by permission from the Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great 
Britain, vol. 32, pt. 3, 1943. 
273 


274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


stresses which an aircraft puts upon the pilot—those due to accelera- 
tion or rapid change of motion and those due to high flying in the 
rarefied air of the upper atmosphere. 

In the last hundred years man has increased the speed at which he 
can travel more than tenfold, but there is no reason to suppose he is 
approaching any human limit in speed for, provided that he is pro- 
tected from wind pressure by a closed cockpit and that the motion 
does not change rapidly in direction, there is no more mechanical stress 
on the pilot than if he were sitting on the ground. 

If the human body is moving uniformly there is no force acting on 
it other than that due to gravity, recognized as weight. But when the 
motion changes in either magnitude or direction, large forces come 
into play; for example, while launching an airplane by catapult. 
During this linear acceleration the pilot has the sensation of being 
driven backward against his seat by forces equaling several times his 
own weight. This is seen in the retracting of the skin of his face 
which bares the teeth like a snarling dog. In this case, the accelera- 
tion acts transversely on the body and lasts only a few seconds and in 
this direction the pilot can easily withstand many times the accelera- 
tion of gravity provided his head and shoulders are well supported. 

When a fast-moving airplane changes its direction and turns, air- 
plane and pilot are both subjected to very large forces. The phenome- 
non known as blacking-out came into prominence in the Schneider 
Trophy races; pilots found that in turning at high speed their vision 
became blurred and that for a few seconds in the turn they frequently 
became blind. This is now a common event in aircraft and is well 
understood by fighter pilots. 

When an airplane travels in a curved path in turning or pulling out 
of a dive a large centrifugal force tends to force the airplane and pilot 
away from the center of the circle. The magnitude of this force in- 
creases with the square of the speed and decreases as the radius 
increases. Subjectively, a pilot experiences a great increase in weight 
of all parts of his body as the centrifugal force tries to drive his body 
out through the bottom of the airplane. The magnitude of the acceler- 
ation acting on the pilot is expressed in terms of g, the force due to 
gravity normally acting on the body which causes it to have its normal 
weight. Thus in a turn producing 49 or four times the force of grav- 
ity, if the pilot’s seat were fixed to a spring balance it would register 
four times his normal weight and the pilot and all parts of his body 
become extremely heavy. This is seen in the sagging of the soft part 
of the face which occurs in a tight turn (pl. 1). A turn at 300 miles 
per hour and 1,000 feet radius produces 69, and a pilot in effect weighs 
about half a ton and his blood virtually becomes as heavy as molten 
iron. The blood is normally being pumped to the pilot’s head by his 


HUMAN LIMITS IN FLIGHT—MATTHEWS 275 


heart but as its virtual weight increases the heart has difficulty in 
maintaining the blood supply to the head. The brain and the eyes can 
only function for a few seconds without their normal blood supply 
and loss of vision in blacking-out is due to failure of the circulation in 
the retina of the eye. If the acceleration is still greater, the whole 
blood supply of the brain fails and the pilot becomes unconscious. 
Blacking-out is a warning that the blood pressure in the cerebral 
arteries is getting low. If the control column is eased forward, the 
airplane straightens out, the centrifugal force ceases and within a few 


ACCELERATION 


= 
eT oom Et La 


HUMAN LIMIT OF TOLERANCE OF ACCELERATION 
ACTING VERTICALLY ON A MAN SEATED 


Figure 1.—Approximate relationship between duration of vary- 
ing degrees of acceleration and occurrence of loss of vision 
(lower curve) and loss of consciousness (upper curve). 
(Data from various sources.) 


seconds the circulation returns to normal. While this happens in the 
head the deficit of blood tends to gravitate to the legs and the phenom- 
enon can be regarded as the head losing blood to the feet. 

This draining of the blood from the head takes time. The graphs 
in figure 1 illustrate the limits of tolerance of acceleration—the greater 
the acceleration the less the time that the pilot can retain his sight. 

Many measures have been taken to reduce the effect of centrifugal 
force on the pilot; much may be done by posture and seating; if the 
pilot’s attitude is crouched with his legs raised, the distance through 


276 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


which the heart has to raise the blood to his head can be reduced and 
the loss of it to his feet is again less if the feet are high. Another 
method of lessening the effect of this force which may be mentioned 
is to place the pilot in the prone position. The heart and head are 
then nearly at the same height and a man in this position can withstand 
some 10g, but this posture is a very fatiguing and inconvenient one 
for the control of an aircraft, though it is reminiscent of the very 
earliest airplanes in which the pilot frequently lay prone. The effect 
of posture on blacking-out is shown diagrammatically in figure 2. 


F 
——_—_ {tint or Lia! POS, Ss) tein me 


% 
% 


ACCELERATION ACTING UPTO 
3-4 SECONDS 


Ss 


3-4 SECONDS 


> 


——____—____—— NOI 1WY31399v JO NOILDIVIG 


UPTO 3 MINUTES 
u 


4 6 10 


UPTO 3 MINUTES 
4 6 6 10 a2 i 6 


EFFECT ON POSTURE ON BLACKING OUT 


Ficure 2.—Effect of posture on the tolerance of acceleration. (Data from Ruff.) 


The engineer has produced machines that are so strong and 
maneuverable that they can subject the pilot to forces beyond his 
tolerance and the useful limit in design for maneuverability at high 
speed changes from being an engineering limit to being a human 
limit. It would be useless for the aircraft designer to produce an 
airplane so strong and maneuverable that it could turn with a 
centrifugal acceleration of 20g because the pilot would not be con- 
scious to control it under these conditions; the ability to out-turn the 
enemy has an important tactical advantage in dog fighting, but to 
achieve this it is now necessary to look to the man rather than the 
machine. Figure 3 illustrates how the human limit makes it impos- 


HUMAN LIMITS IN FLIGHT—MATTHEWS 277 


sible for a fast airplane to follow a slow one in a tight turn; both 
pilots are subjected to 5g. 

The most important stress, however, to which man is subjected in 
aircraft is that resulting from the thinness of the air at great alti- 
tudes. The air pressure at ground level is 14.7 lb./sq. in. It has 
fallen to one-half at 18,000 feet and to only one-fifth, about 234 lb./sq. 
in., at 40,000 feet. The effects of altitude on man are those resulting 
from the lowered atmospheric pressure. 

The disabilities which a man suffers at lowered pressure first came 
into prominence on the surface of the earth as “mountain sickness.” 


Turns producin | 

5 Hiner 'g on vith ~- 
\ eae 

ad 

or 

or 


¢ 


2160 fr. 


= 
ss 


ns 
= SECONDS 
' 
+ 


Figure 8.—Showing how human tolerance of acceleration makes it impossible 
for a fast airplane to follow a slow one in a tight turn. 


Later the term “balloon sickness” was given to the troubles experi- 
enced in high balloon ascents at the beginning of the last century; 
long before airplanes had become practical flying machines, the 
problems of high altitudes had been encountered because early balloon 
ascents carried the balloonists to heights at which the air would 
hardly support life and at that time their knowledge of how to over- 
come this was lacking. 

Plate 2, figure 2, shows the first successful flight when Montgolfier’s 
balloon ascended from Versailles in 1788 carrying a sheep, a duck, and 
a cock. After the safe return of these animals to earth, Montgolfier 


278 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


himself went up some hundreds of feet. Two years later the French 
scientist Charles reached a height of 13,000 feet with a hydrogen 
balloon. 


ALTITUDE PRESSURE GRAPH 


PRESSURE CABIN | 
OR SUIT 
ESSENTIAL 


TOTAL PRESSURE 


QWALS ND LEV! 
OXYGEN PRESSURE 


\ V4 ATMOSPHERE 
ADDITIONAL 
L ie =44' OXYGEN 


ESSENTIAL 


ALTITUDE IN THOUSANDS OF FEET 


ADDITIONAL OXYGEN 
ECESSARY IF FLIGHT 


OXYGEN 
NECESSARY 


20 400 ; 
ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE IN mm.Hg. 


Ficure 4.—Relationship between altitude and atmospheric pressure. (I. C. A. N. 
seale.) 


Figure 5 shows the upward progress of man’s exploration of the 
air. 

It is necessary to emphasize the difference between rapid ascent 
from ground level, as in an airplane, and slow ascent in climbing 


HUMAN LIMITS IN FLIGHT—MATTHEWS 279 


mountains. In the latter case, weeks are spent at 15,000-18,000 feet to 
become acclimatized to the thin air. Great changes occur throughout 
the climber’s bodily processes which enable him to live at altitudes 
which are fatal to a “sea level” man. Acclimatization is soon lost on 
return to ground level, so it is not possible to make much use of this 
in flying. 

Climbers have reached 28,000 feet on Mount Everest, but in con- 
trast to this the first serious high-altitude accident occurred in 1875 
when Tissandier with two companions went up in the hydrogen bal- 


: U.S. ARMY 
@ ees 
1935 


PICCARD 
57600 
1934 
ONATI 
HS 400 1934 


Xu 


WINS 
44.000 1932 


STRATOSPHERE 


-50°c. -70%F. 102° of frost 


FESS SHROEDER 
{Jeo 36.000 1920 


° TISSANDIER 
ROBERTSON 28.500 1875 
6000 
1804 
GLAISHER 
& COXWELL 


28.000 1862 GARR 


OS 
18.000 1912 
CHARLES 


13.000 
1785 


MONTGOLFIER 


M 
14400 1909 
EARTHS SURFACE 


TEMPERATURE 


Figure 5.—Balloon and aircraft altitude records. (Heights to the nearest 100 feet.) 


loon Zenith. The balloon ascended to about 26,000 feet and the 
occupants became unconscious. ‘They became conscious again when 
the balloon descended to 20,000 feet but then threw out ballast and 
the balloon rapidly ascended to about 28,000 feet. All became un- 
conscious and when Tissandier regained consciousness the balloon was 
at about 19,000 feet, descending rapidly, but his two companions were 
dead. This accident focused a great deal of attention on the 
physiological problems of altitude, and to investigate these Paul Bert 
constructed a steel chamber from which the air could be removed by 
a pump to simulate altitude conditions at ground level. Since then 
a great deal of research has been carried out in such decompression 
619830—45——19 


280 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


chambers, both on mountains and in aircraft, on the nature of alti- 
tude sickness and the ways of overcoming it: 

Plate 3, figure 1 shows a modern decompression chamber at an 
R. A. F. Medical Service research unit. In this a man can be taken 
to a pressure equal to that at 30,000 feet in less than a minute, and it 
is capable of producing pressures down to a small fraction of a pound 
to the square inch. 

Plate 3, figure 2 shows a small type of decompression eine of 
which many are in service, which will take six men to any altitude 
required so that they can become familiar with their breathing 
apparatus and the disasters that may befall them if they do not use 
it correctly. 

For life, man needs food, water, and air. He can live without food 
for weeks, without water for days, but without air he can survive 
only a few minutes. 

At increasing altitudes, although the proportion of oxygen in the 
air remains one-fifth, the density of the mixture becomes less and a 
certain pressure of oxygen is essential for living cells to function 
normally. At an altitude of 42,000 feet if the lungs are filled with air, 
they contain less than one-sixth of the normal quantity of oxygen and 
this is insufficient to support life. Much of the Battle of Britain was 
carried out in an atmosphere in which a pilot unassisted with breathing 
apparatus would be dead in a few minutes. However, long before this 
height is reached oxygen lack makes its presence felt in the impaired 
intelligence and mental performance of the pilot. As oxygen want 
comes on, judgment is lost, gross errors are made, intelligence fails, 
muscular control is lost and this is followed by unconsciousness. 
Moreover, oxygen want is very insidious because the sufferer is often 
almost unaware of it. At 20,000 feet a man without oxygen may do 
irrational things; oxygen want resembles drunkenness both in its 
symptoms and in that the sufferer is confident that he is normal and 
much resents any suggestion to the contrary. 

It would clearly be dangerous to send an aircraft up to 25,000 feet 
unless it was ensured that the crew were protected from oxygen want. 
Much research on the practical protection of flying personnel from the 
effects of altitude has been carried out by the R. A. F., particularly by 
the Medical Branch which directs research in this very important side 
of the pilot’s welfare. The importance of this is emphasized by the 
following story of a recent incident which occurred over Ger- 
many. A pilot’s breathing apparatus became disconnected and the 
pilot thereupon told the crew that he was going to land. He put down 
his wheels and tried to land on a cloudbank at about 18,000 feet. He 
then told the crew over his intercommunication system that they were 
below ground level and he was going to get out, whereupon the navi- 


HUMAN LIMITS IN FLIGHT—MATTHEWS 281 


gator, ‘realizing what had happened, was in time to stop him from 
climbing out of the machine, take over the controls and reconnect the 
pilot’s breathing apparatus. It is easy to see that such an incident 
might not always have a happy ending. The effects of oxygen want 
may often be extremely amusing but clearly there is no place for such 
events in the dangerous and difficult work of high-altitude flying. 

There are two ways in which altitude effects can be overcome. The 
first is to increase the amount of oxygen in the air which the pilot 
breathes by mixing oxygen from gas cylinders with it, thus giving the 
pilot a mixture rich in oxygen or even pure oxygen to breathe. In this 
way when the pressure is one-quarter of an atmosphere at 33,000 feet 
if his lungs are filled with pure oxygen he will not suffer from any 
symptoms of oxygen lack. To this end the pilot always wears an 
oxygen mask, which also carries a microphone for his communication 
with the crew or ground. 

The second alternative is to increase the amount of oxygen in the 
pilot’s lungs by compressing the air in them. Im an engine the loss 
of power from oxygen lack is overcome by compressing the thin 
air with a supercharger, but it is not possible to supercharge the lungs 
so easily as the pressures required would burst them. The pilot must 
therefore be completely surrounded by air at increased pressure, 
This can be done either with a pressure suit something like a diving 
dress or, if the cabin is sealed and made strong enough for it to 
withstand a raised air pressure, produced by a pump attached to the 
engine. The air around the pilot can then be kept at 14 lb./sq. in. 
and the atmosphere he breathes can be exactly like that at ground 
level. However, it is clear that for military use such a pressure 
cabin is very vulnerable, though for civil use it is the ideal method 
in high flying because the passenger is not inconvenienced by a mask 
on his face and need not be aware, by any change in the air pressure, 
that he has left the ground. Some pressure cabins are in use in civil 
airlines in America. The pressure cabin has other advantages over 
the oxygen mask besides preventing lack of oxygen. At heights up 
to 36,000 feet a man can avoid oxygen lack by breathing pure oxygen, 
but above 44,000 feet even breathing pure oxygen he would become 
unconscious. Moreover the vapor pressure of blood equals the at- 
mospheric pressure at 63,000 feet so if a man could reach this pressure 
his blood would boil and his lungs be filled with steam. At heights 
above 40,000 feet it becomes necessary not only to breathe pure oxygen 
but also to increase the pressure acting on man. Plate 2, figure 1 
shows the machine and pressure suit in which Flight Lieutenant 
Adam broke the world’s altitude record by reaching 54,000 feet in 
1937. The suit. was blown up to some 214 lb./sq. in. pressure and 
filled with pure oxygen. In it man could survive even in a vacuum. 


282 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Thus the effects of oxygen want can be completely overcome up to 
altitudes of some 8 miles by breathing pure oxygen and this is done 
in military aircraft of all nations. Above this height pressure must 
be applied in addition. In the altitude-record balloon ascents by 
Professor Piccard and by the United States Army, closed gondolas 
at raised pressure were used. 

Figure 6 illustrates the time elapsing between cutting off the oxygen 
supply to a man and his becoming unconscious at various heights. 
From this it will be realized how quickly a pilot must act should his 
oxygen supply fail at high altitudes. 


“Oot WITHOUT O2 


feed St aes, a tee eS s 
TT SE HREM GE Oe ke Dow 


FIGURE 6.—Time between changing from breathing oxygen to 
breathing air and the occurrence of unconsciousness. (After 
Ruff. ) 


The psysiological abnormalities at altitude are not entirely solved 
by breathing oxygen as there are effects on the body at low pressure 
in addition to oxygen lack. At ground level the air pressure drives 
nitrogen into the blood which dissolves in appreciable quantity. If 
now the pressure on the man is rapidly reduced before this nitrogen 
can escape,,it will form bubbles in his blood vessels and stop the 
circulation. The possibility that something of the sort might occur 
in animals at low pressures was envisaged by Robert Boyle in 1670 
who placed a viper under a bell-jar and pumped out the air; when 
the pressure was reduced he saw a bubble within the eye of the viper. 


HUMAN LIMITS IN FLIGHT—MATTHEWS 283 


Bubbles forming in the body fluids have long been a difficulty in deep 
diving where men have been subjected to much increased pressures of 
air. The body fluids then dissolve a large quantity of nitrogen and 
if the diver comes to the surface too rapidly it cannot escape from his 
lungs in time to prevent bubbles forming and he gets decompression 
sickness or “bends” (caisson disease, compressed-air illness), with 
severe pain, cramps, occasionally unconsciousness and even death. A 
diver can get severe bends coming up from a depth where the pressure 
is 4 atmospheres to the surface where it is only 1 atmosphere, but for- 
tunately an airman does not get into such serious difficulties if he 
goes from ground-level to one-quarter ground-level pressure at 33,000 
feet. Bends as they occur in the air are rarely experienced at alti- 
tudes below 25,000 feet. They come on slowly and are rarely of a 
serious nature. Unconsciousness can result if the warning symptoms 
of pain in the joints are neglected. The pains are cured almost 
instantaneously if descent is made to about 25,000 feet where the air 
pressure compresses the nitrogen bubbles sufficiently to drive them back 
into solution in the blood. 

Much research has been carried out on men in decompression cham- 
bers to find ways of alleviating these effects. One method is to breathe 
pure oxygen before ascent, so replacing the nitrogen in the blood with 
oxygen. The oxygen is then used up in the tissues before it can form 
bubbles. This method has long been used to displace nitrogen from 

_ the blood in diving. 

There are other disturbances to man with rapid changes of altitude 
resulting from the change in air pressure. Behind the ear drum is a 
cavity filled with air which communicates through a small canal with 
the throat and it is necessary for air to leave and enter it with ascent 
and descent lest the ear drum be collapsed. The canal to the throat 
will normally open on swallowing and in a dive a pilot clears his ears 
almost unconsciously, but should he fail to do so or have severe catarrh, 
he may damage his ear drums. Enclosed gas elsewhere in the body, as 
in the sinuses surrounding the nose, has to equalize its pressure as the 
altitude changes or severe pain may result. Again on ascent the gas 
normally present in the intestines expands to a larger and larger vol- 
ume as the outside pressure falls when climbing but this is rarely a 
serious problem. 

Thus the human safety limit in height is some 10,000-16,000 feet 
breathing air and 40,000-42,000 feet breathing oxygen; heights much 
in excess of the latter are only achieved by enclosing the pilot in an 
artificial atmosphere. 

But it is clear that starting with fit pilots on the ground much must 
be done to keep them efficient in the air and the efficiency of the man 
may often be of even greater importance than that of the machine. 


284 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


We know that in the Battle of Britain quality in men and machines 
overcame weight of numbers and although always greatly outnum- 
bered, the R. A. F. by efficiency and courage were able to rout the 
Luftwaffe. To maintain that efficiency in the air and at high altitudes 
is no mean problem. That it is done is the result of scientific research 
during the last 70 years into life at great altitudes and the successful 
application of what has been discovered to the particular problems of 
the pilot. I should like this lecture to be considered a tribute to all 
those scientists from Paul Bert onward and to many officers of the 
R. A. F. who have contributed so much to the solution of high-altitude 
flying and in particular to those medical officers who have lost their 
lives in this war in flying experiments. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Matthews PLATE 1 


1. MAN DURING STRAIGHT AND LEVEL FLIGHT. 


2. IN A TIGHT TURN PRODUCING ACCELERATION OF 415g 15 SECONDS LATER, 


(jalid p[o ue UI01y) 


“SATIIVSYAA 
WOU LNSDSY NOOTIVG S.YeISIOSLNOW “2 


Ne ner = 


—— 


Crelvialicd 


4H 


“py ssoig e[duray, Jo uorsstursed Aq poonpoidey 


‘(puvlsaq) ,,eueldolesy oy,y,, 14 sl4AdoD 


“LE6L NI GHODSY AGNLILIW S,QIYOM AHL AHOYG 
HOIHM NI LINS SYNSSSYd AHL ONIYVAM WVOV LNVNALNAIT LHOMlS ‘1 


SM94}7eLA\|— ph6 | *‘juoday] UeTUOSYFIWIG 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Matthews PLATE 3 


1. INTERIOR OF AN R. A. F. DECOMPRESSION CHAMBER LOOKING IN FROM ONE 
OF THE GLASS PORTHOLES. 


~~ a me 


2 


2. R. A. F. MOBILE DECOMPRESSION CHAMBER. 


This is self-contained with an engine-driven pump, oxygen cylinders, and controls operated from the left: 
hand cab. 


TRANS-ARCTIC AVIATION + 
By ELMER PLISCHKE, LIEUTENANT (j. g.), U. S. N. R. 


Frequently it is wise and profitable to spend a few moments in 
speculation on the potentialities of the future. Many improvements 
are bound to be occasioned by the necessities of the war, not the least 
of which is the impressive development in aviation. The technological 
advancements being perfected for war purposes today doubtless will 
revolutionize commercial aviation after the termination of hostilities. 
One of the most logical results is the linking of the continents by a 
network of air routes traversing the Arctic Basin. 

Belief in the physical practicability and in the commercial value of 
trans-Arctic aviation was first manifested about the time of World 
War I, and in 1919, W. Brun, a German, proposed the organizing of 
regular flights from the European capitals via Archangel, the Arctic 
Basin, and Nome or Unalaska, to either Yokohama, Vancouver, or 
San Francisco. A few years later, in 1923, Maj. Gen. Sir Sefton 
Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation for Great Britain, enthusiasti- 
cally declared in a speech at Sheffield that the carrying of mails from 
England to Japan by way of the Arctic was a probability of the next 
10 years. In connection with the preparations for the flight of the 
dirigible Shenandoah to explore the polar “white spot” between 
Alaska and the North Pole, Rear Admiral William A. Moffett, Chief 
of the Bureau of Aeronautics of the United States Navy, stated in 
1924 that polar air routes connecting England, Japan, Alaska, and 
Siberia are possibilities of the near future. 

Many writers have since expressed their belief in the future of 
trans-Arctic flying. But perhaps the most vocal of these exponents is 
the polar explorer and publicist, Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who has been 
pointing out the positional importance of the Arctic Basin for the past 
20 years. Ona map which has the North Pole as its center, he explains, 
the Arctic constitutes a small hub from which the land masses radiate 
like spokes of a great wheel, thus lying in the central part of a circular 
region enclosed for the most part by northerly extensions of rich and 
densely populated modern countries. By the logic of its position, it 

1 Reprinted by permission from Economic Geography, vol. 19, No. 3, July 1943. All 


assertions and opinions are purely those of the author and are in no wise to be construed 
as reflecting the views of the Navy Department. 


285 


286 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


therefore should be one of the great transportation crossroads of the 
world. 

A glance at the globe is sufficient to illustrate the significance of 
these statements. Geographers also have designed a so-called “polar 
projection,” prepared by laying a geometric plane on the Pole at right 
angles to the earth’s axis, and depicting the globe with the North Pole 
as the center and with the South Pole as the outer circumference. 
Parallels of latitude are ruled off at equal intervals in concentric 
circles and meridians of longitude are straight radial lines. As a 
result, the northern continents surround the central Arctic Basin and 
the Antarctic Continent represents an outer lacy fringe. This projec- 
tion is particularly interesting if population density is indicated, for, 
with the exception of India and China, the areas of densest population 
—between which most aerial communication is likely to develop—le 
immediately around the Arctic. 


TaBLe 1.—Comparative distances* 


New York to Moscow: Miles 
Steamship and railroad—via Hamburg and Berlin__--____________- 5, 600 
Air—via London, and, Berlin. =- 222-2) ee eee 5, 000 
Arctie—via Greenland: and lceland=22- 2222 ee ee 4, 600 

New York to Tokyo: 

Steamship and railroad—via San Francisco_____--_____-_-_--____- 8, 000 

Via ean a ota oO alee es eee 11, 200 
Air—via San Francisco and Honolulus—2 2224-2282 eee 8, 800 
Arctic—via Hudson Bay, Victoria Island, and Beaufort Sea______--_ 5, 900 

San Francisco to Moscow: 

Steamship and railroad—via New York, Hamburg, and Berlin____-_ 8, 300 

: via Tokyo and Vladivostok-_-__---___--__ 15, 500 

Air—via New, York, London, and. Berlin 2322 eee 7, 600 

Via Honolulu and! Tokyo) 22 so oe eee 10, 900 
Arctic—via HBllesmere, northern Greenland, Spitsbergen, and North 

Cape) (Norway i222 se eee ee eee 5, 650 

San Francisco to London: 

Steamship and railroad—via New York__-_-----------_------------- 6, 425 
Air——via New, (Yorks... 22. 6 oe ee eee 6, 025 
Arctic—via Hudson Bay, Baffin Island, Greenland, and Iceland__-__--_ 5, 150 

San Francisco to Bergen: 

Steamship and railroad—via New York_-----__--__-__--______--_-- 7, 000 
Air—via New York and London 22222225 3° 2S ee eee 6, 750 
Arctic—via Baffin Island and central Greenland__-_-____-_---_-----~ 4, 750 


London to Tokyo: 
Steamship and railroad—via Hamburg, Berlin, Moscow, and 


Viadivostokjcs— ees: oes Fee Ses 12, 000 

via New York and San Francisco_-__----_-_ 11, 250 

Air—via: ‘Moscow .2i i225 A ee ee ee 6, 200 
via New York, San Francisco, and Honolulu______----------_--- 12, 275 
Arctic—via North Cape (Norway) and Novaya Zemlya____---------- 5, 500 


*All distances, given in statute miles, are approximate, because of the inadequacy and 
inconsistencies of available tables, maps, and charts. 


TRANS-ARCTIC AVIATION—PLISCHKE 287 
TRANS-ARCTIC FLYING DISTANCES 


The distances of air travel between many major locations through- 
out the world, especially within the Northern Hemisphere, can be 
markedly reduced if trans-Arctic air routes are pursued, as illustrated 
by the accompanying tables. 

. The distance between New York and Moscow is about 1,000 miles 
shorter via the Arctic Basin and its peripheral landed areas. From 
Seattle to Calcutta the distance is almost 5,000 miles shorter, while 
over 6,000 miles is saved along the polar route from London to Tokyo. 
Similarly, the distances between New York and Tokyo and between 
San Francisco and either Moscow or London is thousands of miles 
shorter via the Arctic. 

Further implications of polar air geography are of striking interest. 
From North Cape (Norway) it is just as far to Washington, D. C., as 
it is to Detroit, Chicago, Des Moines, or Seattle. Chicago is as close 
to every capital of Europe as it is to Buenos Aires. Milwaukee, De- 
troit, and other great midwestern war production centers, are closer 
to Russia by air than are any of the great seaports of the United States. 


Taste 2.—Trans-Arctic long-distance flying 


From— To— Miles Hours Minutes 

INIT eR eS ee PRG Si 2 2 se ee oe 4, 900 16 20 
Marae. Seis a /s. 43S Moscow... 332-242-254 5, 050 16 50 
DRIED ae ce Miumrmensk 220.02 52. 4, 150 13 50 
Heres rTa TA Ce ee eel Ra Mokyor et) Stiitial LR 5, 500 18 20 
Los Angeles.__-+.------ Murmansk... ~:=- 5, 845 19 29 
Mines polis... 1 oo Ae arabs eke aes he 8, 000 26 40 
oS SAT eo | ll pp igarietet: Teese): s 4, 650 15 30 
IN(a 7 NAGY RE a Se OE ieee oa Berlin 2422552 ee ee, Sree » 4, 000 13 20 
[Dyce eee a aa eee Chungking 6222222 7, 600 25 20 

] DY) Sek See ea aes Sid Ondons! = Lew ate 3, 475 11 35 

1D) Qe age ee fes Se pees Moscow 2255225 32) Set 4, 600 15 20 

Dc POR eet ae Bee Murmmans kee Sees 4, 000 13 20 

{DOI 5 ep eee aS SES eS Mok yous ee seas ee 5, 900 19 40 

San Francisco----------- Berpens 3.2 ceo eh. a2 4, 750 15 50 
( nee S MandOne. eames 2 5, 150 lve 10 

By Querietet) shhs 2h ek Moscowst) 222 i Ste | 5, 650 18 50 
Dieta es eed Ok yous as aS Lae 4, 500 2 ee eae ee 
“Sy CE Rao OS eo LOOKS Tip: eae eee ae 7, 225 24 50 


The saving in mileage and time by following these Arctic airlanes 
is considerable. At 300 miles per hour—which is by no means an 
impossible rate of speed in the light of recent increases in flying 
rates—transports can easily carry their passengers and cargoes be- 
tween Berlin and Tokyo, Chicago and Moscow, Montreal and Igarka, 
New York and Berlin or Moscow, and San Francisco and London or 
Tokyo in less than half the time it takes a crack train to make a 
nonstop run from New York to San Francisco at 80 miles an hour. 


288 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Planes also can bridge the gap between New York and Chungking, 
Minneapolis and Bombay, or New York and Tokyo in considerably 
less time than the special express train will require to cross our coun- 
try. Finally, at 300 miles per hour, wherever one may happen to be, 
no spot on the once wide globe is farther away than 42 flying hours. 
Unbeknown to most of us, much already has been done to utilize 
and develop these northern routes. Returning from his globe- 
girdling tour some months ago, Wendell Willkie flew from China to 
the United States, not by way of Australia and Honolulu as might 
very well be expected, but rather via Nome (Alaska) and Edmonton 
(Alberta). Strict censorship veils the full extent of the action taken 
in promoting polar aviation, but we are informed that millions of 
dollars have been spent, and that Arctic routes are constantly being 
flown. Preparations also are being made by the Government of the 
United States to sponsor and protect American interests in postwar 
aviation. 
ARCTIC FLYING CONDITIONS 


But it is frequently believed that flying conditions in the Arctic will 
prevent the establishment of dependable commercial traffic. True, 
flying conditions in the polar regions are necessarily different in many 
respects from what they are in more temperate climates. Neverthe- 
less, upon closer analysis it appears that most of the difficulties can 
be surmounted. 

It is stated that the most ardent exponents of transpolar aviation 
consider average flying conditions over the Arctic throughout the 
year to be better than they are over the North Atlantic, while the 
most pessimistic writers consider them probably worse, but con- 
querable. Stefansson, one of the most optimistic of the publicists, 
notes that scientists were virtually unanimous by 1930 in agreeing 
that Arctic flying in Alaska, to be more specific, is as safe as it is in 
Michigan. This, he alleges, is suggested by Pan American Airways 
reports to the effect that its flyers generally are as well satisfied with 
their work in Alaska as in Brazil, that over half the pilots on its 
Alaskan lines prefer January to July, and that, assuming like equip- 
ment and ground service, schedules can be maintained through the 
midwinter period with an average regularity at least as good as that in 
the northeastern part of the United States. 

Temperature seems to be no more of a flying problem in the 
Arctic than elsewhere. The reason for this is that planes now fly in 
temperatures just as severe in Temperate and Torrid Zones while 
they are at high altitudes following their established air routes. As 
a matter of fact, today effective combat is waged at much greater 
heights than was believed possible a few years ago. It is reported 
in the press that fighter planes now are regularly flying in the low 


TRANS-ARCTIC AVIATION—PLISCHKE 289 


temperatures experienced at altitudes of 30,000 and 40,000 feet or 
more, and our larger bombers repeatedly encounter temperatures of 
25° to 50° F. below zero without considering it a limitation upon their 
effectiveness. 

In the polar regions there is less diurnal change and less tempera- 
ture variation than elsewhere. Flying temperature is said to be 
hazardous neither at extreme heat nor at extreme cold, but at an 
intermediate range in the vicinity of, and especially just below, the 
freezing point of fresh water, for it is at this temperature that ice 
forms on the aircraft and weighs it down. Such freezing is not very 
troublesome in the Tropics except at high altitudes, and even in the 
polar regions icing is less of a problem than it is in the northern half 
of the Temperate Zone—where air lines function regularly according 
to well-integrated schedules. 

Various technological improvements were devised to prevent, or 
at least substantially reduce, the formation of an ice covering on 
the wings and fuselage of a plane. This is evidenced by the fact 
that fighter planes are constantly flying through the lower aerial 
zones saturated with the moisture which causes the icing, and perhaps 
especially by the fact that effective aerial warfare is being waged 
in the foggy and moist atmosphere surrounding the Aleutian Islands 
and the shipping lanes to Murmansk. Planes also are used for recon- 
naissance purposes at low altitudes by the Soviets along the Northern 
Sea Route between our northwestern coasts and the Arctic ports of 
the Soviets. 

A number of polar explorers, including Richard E. Byrd, who 
has flown in both polar regions, contend that polar flying is practi- 
cable only at certain times of the year. The spring months, from 
March to May,-are said to be best suited for aviation in the Arctic, 
because the snow is still hard and smooth and there is less fog than 
there is at other times of the year. But this objection seems to be 
concerned more with landing and taking off than with flying itself. 
and it certainly does not apply to long-range nonstop flying. 

At first glance it would seem that a genuine problem of polar avia- 
tion is the prevention of oil from freezing and the difficulty of start- 
ing the motors in severe temperatures. But oil will not freeze while 
the motor is operating and can be preheated before the motor is 
started. The problem of starting the motor in sub-zero temperatures 
was solved some 15 years ago, when it was learned that fireproof 
hoods or special coverings can be used to keep motors warm when 
a landing is made, as well as for starting a cold engine. A tube leads 
from this hood down to a heater which conducts heat up to the motor, 
or powerful warming lamps may be fitted to the motor. In this man- 
ner the motor can be preheated to. any temperature, and multi- 


290 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


motored planes are fitted with so-called “communicators,” rendering 
it possible to warm one motor by the action of another. 


The greatest obstacle to Arctic flying is poor visibility due to low- » 


lying clouds and fog. In the 46-hour flight of the Worge from King’s 
Bay (Spitsbergen) via the North Pole to the northern coast in Alaska, 
16 hours—or about 35 percent of the time—were spent in fog. Such 
fog is a common occurrence in the polar regions, especially where 
warm air, inflowing from lower latitudes over open water, meets cold 
air over pack ice or glacier-covered land, as is the case in Arctic areas 
during the summer months. Almost all floating ice is said to be ac- 
companied by fog, but when the ice is firmly attached to land, as it 
is in the wintertime, the atmosphere is relatively free from fog. 
Fog therefore seems to be a seasonal problem, but it does appear in 
winter in the region of the Bering Sea and the Aleutian Islands, where 
the warm Japan Current enters the Arctic, and along the southern 
edge of the Arctic pack north of Europe where the warm Gulf Stream 
encounters it. 

But fog in the Arctic is less dense and lower lying than it is else- 
where. Since it seldom rises to a height of over 3,000 feet, planes 
can fly over it with little difficulty. It is also thin so that planes 
can cruise at low altitudes, and because there are no obstacles like 
mountains, except over landed areas such as Greenland, Spitsbergen, 
and parts of Alaska and Siberia, the Arctic pilot can see through the 
fog and still retain sufficient horizontal vision. When Arctic areas 
are properly mapped and a greater number of radio stations are in 
operation to give reliable bearings to the polar flyer at all points 
along his route, it will no longer be necessary to fly by rivers and other 
landmarks, as is now the case. 

Opinion seems to be somewhat divided as to whether dependable 
regular and emergency landing facilities are available in the polar 
regions. On the one hand, it is believed that Arctic waters provide 
dangerous landing fields, for, although the water’s surface often 
appears clear from above, it may be filled with small lumps of par- 
tially submerged ice which can easily wreck a plane as it tries to 
land. Because of the movement of’ Arctic ice, moreover, openings 
fail to remain open, so that a plane, as it alights upon the water, 
may rapidly be hemmed in and crushed by the ice. In the summer 
months driftwood also endangers an attempt to land upon the surface 
of the water. 

As far as landing upon the pack ice is concerned, it is estimated 
that perhaps 90 percent of this surface is too rough to be used suc- 
cessfully, although there occasionally are some stretches of level 
ice upon which a plane may safely alight. But even if the landing 
is achieved without mishap, it frequently is more hazardous to take 


ee 


TRANS-ARCTIC AVIATION—PLISCHKE 291 


off from such surfaces, especially because high speeds are now neces- 
sary. 

Stefansson seems to be somewhat more optimistic concerning nat- 
ural Arctic landing facilities. He claims that the Arctic and the 
northern third of the Temperate Zone excel the rest of the world in 
number and quality of emergency landing fields, noting that there 
are millions of lakes which provide suitable spots for landing with 
pontoons or skis. These many landing fields, he continues, have given 
polar flying a greater safety percentage than exists in other zones, 
even in the Tropics. On the Arctic pack ice there are few sections 
where good landing fields are more than 20 miles apart, there gener- 
ally being a choice of two or more within the gliding range of a plane 
if its motors stop at an altitude of a mile or more. In support of this 
contention, Stefansson asserts that during a single decade at least 54 
such emergency descents were made in every sort of weather, outstand- 
ing among which was the third descent of George H. Wilkins, under- 
taken at night in a blizzard when he alighted upon the ice pack 100 
miles off the northern tip of Alaska. No life was lost in any of these 
descents, while the distance covered amounted to over 90,000 miles. 
Again, no lives were sacrificed in the search for the Russian flyer Lev- 
anevsky in 1937, in which some 50,000 miles were flown. 

Contrary points of view are held concerning the suitability of the 
ice cap of Greenland as a polar landing field. One group of writers 
contends that, despite a prolonged search undertaken by the Danish 
Government, there is no known natural landing field in all Greenland. 
The ice cap is described as an undulating plain, difficult of access be- 
cause it is girdled by a ring of mountains which must be flown over 
and which usually constitute one of the greatest hazards of aviation 
everywhere. In addition, there are steep, jagged fissures into which 
ice pours through the mountains as glaciers. Unless the plane is espe- 
cially equipped for a perilous overland journey, an emergency landing 
is apt to leave the hapless party exposed to the bitter elements on the 
ice cap. Recently two daring aerial rescues of 15 stranded American 
Army flyers were disclosed in the press, but both accounts leave no 
doubt whatever as to the dangers encountered. 

The opposite point of view argues that Greenland’s ice cap is the 
world’s largest and finest natural landing field. It is said to form a 
continuous and nearly perfect emergency airdrome 1,500 miles long 
and up to 600 miles wide. Local gales along its coasts probably can be 
offset by selecting nonwindy flying lanes. The use of the southern 
part of the island as a route by which military planes are ferried across 
the Atlantic seems to justify this opinion, at least in part. 

The majority of these hazards attending polar flying may rapidly 
be eliminated through the perfection of technological and other im- 


292 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


provements. Since most of the obstacles are mechanical, they apply to 
flying elsewhere as well. Once they are overcome, the Arctic will 
possess the inestimable advantage of shorter distances. Even the 
problem of fog can be at least partially overcome by the development 
of suitable radio facilities, supplemented with appropriate polar map- 
ping, which can itself be done by planes. 

As long-distance flying increases in both extent and security, there 
is little to gainsay the future of trans-Arctic aviation. Many aerial 
feats, which were believed to be visionary but a short time before the 
outbreak of World War II, are already looked upon as commonplace. 
Who can predict what will be possible within the next decade or two 
by a fleet of superplanes, such as the famous 82-ton B-19, with a wing- 
spread greater than the height of a 17-story building, with fuel tanks 
containing 11,000 gallons of gasoline, and with a range of almost 
10,000 miles—which can carry it on a nonstop flight from San Fran- 
cisco via New York to London and back to New York, or from Minne- 
apolis to Bombay. Current improvements in design and construction 
appear to herald fleets of mammoth 100-ton cargo and passenger planes 
possessing a size and flying range never dreamed of a few years ago. 


TERRITORIAL JURISDICTION 


It is such aerial potentialities as these that impel writers and gov- 
ernments to turn anxious eyes toward the appropriable landed areas 
that remain in the Far North. The successful establishment of trans- 
polar aerial communication will necessitate the construction of flying 
lanes, landing bases, and radio and meteorological stations. Since the 
ice in the Arctic is in constant motion and cannot be relied upon for 
the erection of permanent facilities, polar landed territory will become 
of supreme importance. The establishment of flying auxiliaries by 
the nationals of a state unquestionably will rouse their government to 
acquire the territorial jurisdiction necessary to preserve and maintain 
these facilities properly. The race for polar territory therefore prom- 
ises to be very close at hand. 

Under the recognized principles of international law, unpossessed 
territory (terra nullius) in the Arctic, as well as elsewhere, can be 
acquired juridically only by effective occupation or by prescription. 
By occupation is meant the intention to possess the territory in ques- 
tion and both the administration of state acts and the exercise of 
police power in sufficient strength to protect life and property and 
render exceptional a breach of the laws of the occupying state. Pre- 
scription means the exercise of state authority over such a length 
of time as is necessary under the influence of historical development 
to create the general conviction that the present situation is in con- 
formity with the international order. Contrary to popular belief, 


TRANS-ARCTIC AVIATION—PLISCHKE 293 


discovery does not accord a perfect title to new territory, but merely 
affords an inchoate title which must be substantiated by effective occu- 
pation within a reasonable length of time. 

A recent Soviet school of thought has proposed a new theory to 
govern the acquisition of polar territory in the Arctic. It is known 
as the sector principle, according to which a subjacent polar state 
automatically possesses all territory, discovered and undiscovered, 
lying to the north of its mainland and within the area bounded by 
an extension of its longitudinal extremities to the Pole. Thus, the 
Arctic, like a huge pie, is sliced into a small number of sectors, one 
accruing to each of the following peripheral states: Norway (Spits- 
bergen), Finland, the Soviet Union, the United States (Alaska), 
Canada, and Denmark (Greenland and Iceland). But this sector 
principle enjoys no validity under international law and has been 
recognized only in the municipal law of the Soviet Union. The other 
five Arctic states have either refrained from committing themselves 
upon the principle, denied its validity by implication, or openly re- 
jected it in their state papers. Even the Soviet Government has not 
made any attempt to rely upon polar sectorism in its international 
affairs. 

What, then, is the juridical status of the territory in the Arctic 
which is so important for the development of postwar air transport? 

In some instances the reply is relatively simple. Thus, the entire 
island of Greenland belongs to Denmark, as acknowledged in a series 
of declarations made by the United States, Great Britain, France, and 
Japan, 1916-1920, and by the Eastern Greenland Arbitration of 1933 
between Denmark and Norway which recognized the Eirik Raudes 
Land area as belonging to the former. But, according to the recent 
announcements by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Secre- 
tary of State Cordell Hull, the island lies in the Western Hemi- 
sphere and therefore comes under the aegis of the Monroe Doctrine, 
which prohibits non-American states from acquiring the island. By 
and large, the same is true of Iceland, except that it enjoys an unusual 
autonomous constitutional position with relation to the Danish 
Crown. 

Spitsbergen, together with Bear Island, was recognized as Nor- 
wegian territory by the Spitsbergen Treaty of February 9, 1920, 
following at least a quarter century of dispute involving Germany, 
Great Britain, Norway, Russia, Sweden, and the United States. Nor- 
way also possesses Jan Mayen Island, having formaily announced the 
extension of its jurisdiction over the island on May 8, 1929. 

Since 1920 the Soviets have taken a more aggressive course of action 
in the Arctic than has any other state. Despite the decree of April 
15, 1926, incorporating the sector principle into its municipal law. 


294 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the Government of the U. S. S. R. nevertheless has adopted an active 
policy of effective occupation, settlement, and administration for the 
islands to the north of its mainland. Thus, a number of important 
institutions were organized, especially the All-Union Arctic Institute 
for the scientific study of the Arctic, and the Central Administration 
of the Northern Sea Route (Glavsevamorput) which exercises eco- 
nomic, administrative, and judicial supervision in the Arctic islands. 
A scientific method of exploration, annexation, and colonization is 
being pursued. In addition, some 200 Arctic scientific radio and 
meteorological stations were erected, of which about 75 are located 
on the islands. Finally, with the assistance of an elaborate state- 
owned system of icebreaker and aerial reconnaissance service, the 
difficult Northern Sea Route, which parallels the northern shores of 
the Soviet mainland, is regularly traversed by a fleet of public cargo 
vessels, the annual shipping amounting to approximately 500,000 tons 
prior to the outbreak of hostilities between Germany and the 
WS. SOR. 

In view of this active display of jurisdictional action on the part 
of the Soviet Government, no pretensions have been raised by other 
states to territory lying within the limits of the Soviet sectoral decree, 
except those entertained by Canada and Norway with respect to 
Wrangel Island and Franz Josef Land respectively. But the 
U. S. S. R. has in any case established continuous settlements on 
Wrangel Island since 1926 and has been sending annual parties to 
Franz Josef Land to supply and maintain a network of permanent 
stations established there. 

No known territory lies to the north of Alaska, and for some years 
the United States has raised no serious pretensions to any Arctic 
possessions. But considerable interest was at one time centered in 
Wrangel Island and a number of smaller islands lying to the north 
of the eastern tip of Siberia, including especially Herald, Jeannette, 
Henrietta, and Bennett Islands. To the north of Canada, the 
American Government displayed some interest in Ellesmere Island 
and at least on one occasion refrained from applying to the Canadian 
Government for licenses to fly over the Sverdrup Islands (Axel 
Heiberg, Amund Ringnes, Ellef Ringnes, and a number of surround- 
ing smaller islands), which is required under Canadian law and 
which would have acknowledged our recognition of Canadian juris- 
diction over these islands. As far as Greenland is concerned, the 
American Government always has been actively interested. Upon 
the insistence of Secretary of State William H. Seward, a valuable 
report was prepared on the island as early as the 1860’s with a view 
to possible annexation; in 1910 there was some discussion of the ces- 
sion of the island by Denmark to the United States in exchange for 


TRANS-ARCTIC AVIATION—PLISCHKE 295 


the Philippine Islands, which in turn were to be ceded by the Danish 
Government to Germany in return for northern Schleswig; 6 years 
later the American Government agreed not to object to an extension 
of Danish jurisdiction over the entire island; and, finally, within the 
last few years Greenland was acknowledged to constitute a part of the 
Western Hemisphere and is therefore subject to our special interests 
under the Monroe Doctrine. 

The Dominion of Canada claims all the thoi! islands lying to 
the north of her mainland. This pretension has not always been 
respected, as indicated, so that for the past 15 years a serious effort 
has been made-to subject the entire island empire—as embraced within 
the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Branch 
of the Canadian Department of Interior—to-effective state adminis- 
tration. This is promoted particularly by the establishment of Royal 
Canadian Mounted Police posts on the fringe of the islands area, by 
extensive police patrols centered about these posts, by an earnest 
attempt to enforce the Canadian legal system in the vast region, and 
by the exploits of the Annual Arctic Patrols, which man and supply 
the posts. The Dominion, like the Soviet Union, therefore is seeking 
to establish an absolute juridical title to the polar territory adjacent 
to its mainland. 

In this manner, Denmark, Norway, the U. S. S. R., and the 
Dominion of Canada possess, or claim to possess, all known territory 
within the Arctic Basin. Moreover, under international law, states 
enjoy all rights of jurisdiction over the air space superjacent to their 
domains, and the air routes which traverse the Arctic will cross 
the territory of these four states. If their pretensions to the territory 
are acknowledged as valid under law, they will be in a position to 
control the major share of the trans-Arctic air lanes. On the other 
hand, if their claims are controverted, serious jurisdictional disputes 
may arise, as was the case with Spitsbergen, Wrangel Island, and 
eastern Greenland. 

To avert such controversies, it would seem advisable for the post- 
war conference of states to establish a practicable solution for the 
international control of the matter. The problem of territorial 
jurisdiction should be solved in advance by an international under- 
standing through the establishment of specific principles of law, 
as was effected at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, when the 
majority of the Powers recognized the principle of effective occupa- 
tion as essential for the juridical acquisition of African coastal lands. 
This is a matter of first magnitude and should be resolved before a 
host of jealously regarded. vested interests are created. At present, 
potential disputes are largely legal in nature and therefore are amen- 
able to justiciable solution. But if proprietary interests with exten- 

619830—45——20 


296 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


sive financial backing are permitted to develop, the matter of resolu- 
tion will be infinitely more difficult. Experience has shown beyond 
a shadow of doubt that disputes involving important economic and 
political interests are far more difficult to solve than are those of a 
purely juridical nature. 

A series of multilateral air law agreements also will have to be 
decided upon, and it might be profitable if an international body 
were established to administer such problems as reconnaissance, the 
surveying and laying out of transport lanes, the allocation of fran- 
chises, the adoption and enforcement of administrative air regula- 
tions, and the like. But these suggestions can readily be agreed upon 
if the jurisdictional issues are settled. 

On a number of occasions it has been proposed that’ remaining 
unoccupied polar territory be recognized as belonging to the Society 
of States (i.e., as res communis rather than as territory belonging to 
no state, res nullius). Then no state could legally acquire a valid 
title to the territory and no title of an individual state would be 
valid as against the others. Naturally this applies only to island 
territory, and does not include those islands already consigned to 
a particular state by international agreement—as was the case with 
Greenland and Spitsbergen—and those islands which can ‘be con- 
sidered as appertaining to a state by virtue of prescriptive rights. 
All remaining Arctic island territory should be internationalized, 
to be administered either by the League of Nations or its future 
counterpart, by some special international administrative agency, or 
by some qualified individual state as a mandate. 


OUR PETROLEUM RESOURCES? 


By WALLACE HB. PRATT 
Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) 


As “a nation on wheels” we came long ago to rank petroleum, the 
source of lubricants and liquid fuels, close to the top of our list of 
essential commodities. Recently, as a nation at war utilizing petro- 
leum as raw material for indispensable plastics and synthetics, includ- 
ing rubber, and even for the TNT of our bombs and high-explosive 
shells, we have accorded it a still more important place in our national 
economy. Barring the conquest of some new, revolutionary form of 
energy, petroleum must continue to be one of America’s paramount 
necessities. 

What, then, of petroleum for the future? We all realize that the 
petroleum resources of the earth are a waning asset; so far as the needs 
of mankind are concerned there is no renewal of supply. How large 
are the reserves available to us and where are they situated ? 

The following quotation is typical of recent press comment on the 
subject of our petroleum reserves in the United States: “This nation’s 
proved reserves of petroleum now bulk some twenty billion barrels, a 
quantity equal to our present peace-time requirements for a period of 
about 15 years. Over the last three years our discoveries of new re- 
serves have consistently failed to balance our annual consumption.” 
These oversimplified figures, though entirely accurate, lend themselves 
readily to misinterpretation. Many people conclude from them that 
15 years hence we will have no gasoline for our automobiles. They 
even fear critical shortages of petroleum products for present war 
needs. The misunderstanding might in some degree be dispelled if 
the facts were more fully revealed. 

The statement quoted leads to the assumption that our 20 billion 
barrels of proved reserves in the United States constitute our total 
remaining resources in petroleum. Yet in fact our total resources far 
exceed our proved reserves. In the first place much petroleum remains 
to be discovered in the United States. Less than half the total area 
promising for petroleum has been thoroughly explored. In much of 


1 Reprinted by permission from the American Scientist, vol. 32, No. 2, April 1944. 
297 


298 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTIIUTION, 1944 


the region already producing, only the upper layers of the petroleum- 
bearing rocks have been tapped by the wells so far drilled. Underlying 
the beds from which petroleum is now being withdrawn in many of 
our great oil fields there remain thousands of feet of rocks, still un- 
touched by the drill, which may very well yield petroleum when they 
are tested. 

Our total past discoveries of petroleum in the United States amount 
to about 48 billion barrels. We have explored great areas which most 
of us have agreed were of little promise. Yet our past experience has 
proved that from 1 to 2 percent of the total area in which we may 
reasonably hope to find petroleum actually produces when thoroughly 
tested. If our average experience in the area already thoroughly 
explored is valid, then thorough exploration of the entire area in the 
United States in which it is reasonable to expect to find petroleum 


should yield as much additional petroleum as we have already found. ° 


Moreover, the statement under consideration overlooks the fact that 
in addition to the 20 billion barrels of liquid petroleum reserves we 
have also in the United States proved reserves of natural gas equiva- 
lent in energy content to about 17 billion barrels of petroleum. Nat- 
ural gas is really petroleum in another form and with modern tech- 
nique is readily convertible into liquid fuels, although the cost of 
conversion is still somewhat higher. We should not overlook our 
reserves of petroleum in the form of natural gas. 

Again the statement ignores the fact that the American petroleum 
industry, operating abroad over the last 30 years, has developed addi- 
tional petroleum resources in other countries. The remaining proved 
reserves in these oil fields easily amount to another 20 billion barrels 
or more. These reserves in the hands of American nationals in other 
countries have always been available to the American consuming pub- 
lic in normal times, and they constitute an important supplementary 
proved reserve of petroleum. 

The current discussions of the amount of our petroleum reserves 
seldom touch on the facts that in the past we have usually recovered 
only about 40 percent, or less, of the total volume of petroleum origi- 
nally present in our oil fields, and that, on the basis of this past expe- 
rience, proved reserves are customarily estimated at about 40 percent 
of the total volume of petroleum in the natural reservoirs in which the 
estimates apply. Our estimates of reserves include only the petroleum 
that we know from experience will flow more or less spontaneously into 
the wells that are drilled. The sum of our estimates of proved reserves 
plus the petroleum already discovered in this country, some 48 billion 
barrels, represents, therefore, a total original volume of about 120 
billion barrels. After the estimated volume of our proved reserves 
has been completely recovered there will still remain underground in 


OUR PETROLEUM RESOURCES—PRATT 299 


our depleted oil fields some 70 billion barrels of petroleum. With 
improved methods of secondary recovery much of this additional re- 
serve is certain to be reduced to possession and utilized over the long 
future. 

In summary, then, the total proved reserves of petroleum in the oil 
fields already discovered by Americans, at home and abroad, are of the 
order of 40 billion barrels. Associated with these reserves of liquid 
petroleum there are proved reserves of natural gas, or gaseous petro- 
leum, equivalent in available energy to an additional 17 billion barrels, 
or more, of petroleum. Thus we have a minimum proved reserve of 
57 billion barrels of petroleum in the hands of the American petroleum 
industry. And after this entire reserve has been exhausted there will 
remain in the ground in all the oil fields in the United States from 
which our past supplies have been withdrawn an additional 70 billion 
barrels or so which we may certainly hope ultimately to reclaim in 
part by improved methods of recovery. 

As to the decline in the rate of discovery of new oil fields in the 
United States, it should be realized that our normal oil-finding effort 
has been a war casualty. The failure to discover a larger number of 
new oil fields is largely due to the fact that finding oil has been sacri- 
ficed to other objectives which we have felt were more important to 
the national welfare in time of war. Crude-oil prices were at low 
levels when we entered the war. Proved reserves had been increasing, 
there was little incentive to risk capital in exploration, a hazardous 
venture at best. In the midst of this depressed situation war broke out 
and denied to the petroleum industry the critical materials, the man- 
power, and the price increases that were essential to stimulate explora- 
tion. Except for these restrictions “wildcatting” by the thousands of 
small independent enterprises that constitute the mainstay of our oil- 
finding industry would have been multiplied and our national discov- 
ery rate would certainly have maintained a higher level. Oil finding 
is an increasingly difficult undertaking in this country at best, but 
during the recent emergency we have simply failed to sustain normal 
exploratory activities. 

A significant fact which may be deduced from the statement we 
have quoted is that our ordinary peacetime consumption of petroleum 
in the United States amounts to 450 gallons per capita annually. 
Compare this figure with the annual consumption for the average 
citizens of the rest of the world, which is 15 gallons; or with 80 
gallons for the average citizen of the United Kingdom, or 50 gallons 
for the average Russian. We use 30 times as much petroleum per 
capita as the rest of the world uses ! 

Petroleum in the modern world is potential energy. With our 
machines it is converted into mechanical work. High standards of 


300 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


living result from a large per capita production of goods. The cul- 
ture of ancient Greece was founded on the labor of human slaves. 
Our high standards of living rest largely upon the mechanical work 
done for us by petroleum. The consumption of petroleum in this 
country provides us with the work equivalent of more than 4 billion 
able-bodied men laboring 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, year in and 
year out! In effect our petroleum provides us with an average of 
36 strong, able-bodied slaves for every man, woman, and child in the 
United States; for the average American family, petroleum does the 
work of a staff of 144 servants! 

This fortunate condition, America’s abundant supply of petroleum, 
is due, we are commonly asked to believe, to the fact that our country 
has been blessed with unusually rich natural resources of petroleum. 
This is a mistaken idea and to accept it is to ignore an even more 
precious heritage with which as a nation we have been blessed. 

We have produced more than 60 percent of the petroleum the 
world has consumed so far. But this does not mean that we possess 
60 percent of the world’s petroleum. Outside the United States ex- 
ploration for petroleum has hardly begun. The fact is that most of 
the really rich petroleum resources of the earth lie outside our na- 
tional boundaries. In comparison with them the quality of our do- 
mestic resources appears rather meager. The areas of first-class 
promise for petroleum over the earth’s surface aggregate some 6 
million square miles; of this total, about 15 percent, or less than 1 
million square miles, are included within the boundaries of the United 
States. When the petroleum resources of the earth have finally been 
fully developed it will probably have been established that less than 
15 percent of the total petroleum in the earth’s crust lay beneath the 
surface of the United States. 

What we in America have been blessed with is a native genius 
which, in combination with our political and social concepts, has en- 
abled us to explore for petroleum more effectively and to discover 
the hidden resources in our country more rapidly than any other 
people on earth. Our abundance of petroleum has come to us be- 
cause we dug down into the earth all over the land until we found it. 
No other nation has made any comparable effort to develope its petro- 
leum resources. 

To the task of oil finding, in addition to the method of applied 
science and a flair for industrial organization, we have brought the 
spirit of the pioneer. To an ingenuity which enabled us to design 
and operate the ponderous mechanical equipment required to drill 
and recover petroleum from wells of unprecedented depth, we have 
added the frontiersman’s characteristic risk-taking instinct. Driven 
by this instinct, equipped with this machinery, we have gone about 


OUR PETROLEUM RESOURCES—PRATT 301 


over our country searching for petroleum, setting up hundreds of 
independent wildcatting enterprises, drilling thousands of explora- 
tory wells every year for a generation. Our geographic frontiers 
having been subdued, we have searched out a new frontier in the 
vertical dimension, beneath the surface of the earth. The conquest 
of this new frontier has brought us our abundance of petroleum and 
the high living standards that it sustains. 

Every nation has this same vertical frontier but no other nation has 
explored it as we have. Over much of the earth, where the natural 
obstacles are no more formidable than those we have surmounted, 
political and social barriers have prevented the effective development 
of petroleum resources. We, too, might have failed had we not en- 
joyed our traditional freedoms. Restrictions by the State on the 
right to drill exploratory. wells, State ownership of minerals, State 
monopoly of rights to explore—any of these restraints would have 
gravely handicapped the search for petroleum we have carried out 
in the United States. Even the presence of a landed gentry with 
unbroken ownership over large areas, in contrast to our widely 
divided ownership in small tracts, would have seriously retarded 
our efforts. Our methods could not have been employed successfully 
in any other than an atmosphere of democratic free enterprise. 

If the wells we drill into the earth are successful they usually en- 
counter petroleum in the pores and small voids of marine sedimentary 
rocks. The petroleum is derived, we believe, from the organic re- 
mains of former marine life. Sedimentary rocks are the muds, sands, 
and oozes that have accumulated on the floors of seas in past geologic 
ages. The hardening of these materials into rock has taken place 
slowly under the pressure of the load of later sediments deposited on 
top of them. 

The search for the petroleum resources of the earth, taking account 
of this theory of origin, should be directed to those regions where 
in the past marine sediments rich in organic matter have been laid 
down in great depth and volume. Marine life, the source of organic 
matter, abounds in surface waters near shore, and marine sediments 
also are deposited in greatest volume near shore, where the streams 
from the adjacent land drop their load of mud and sand. But for 
sediments to accumulate to a great depth it is necessary for the sea 
floor to subside as fast as the load of sediments is laid down upon it; 
otherwise the area fills up and becomes land, and sedimentation 
ceases. Hence the search for petroleum turns to the unstable belts of 
the earth’s crust where there is delicate, prompt response to any change 
in load. 

Also it is necessary for the organic matter that results from abun- 
dant marine life to be preserved until it sinks to the bottom and is 


302 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


actually entombed in the accumulation of sediments. It must not be 
destroyed by oxidation or devoured by the marine i peeveneens that 
normally feed upon such materials. 

There are two common environments pedis recurring in earth 
history in which organic matter, falling to the bottom of the sea, is 
effectively preserved for burial in the accumulating sediment: seas 
into which fine muds pour so rapidly that the stagnant bottom waters 
are too foul to permit the presence either of oxygen or of marine 
scavengers; and “desiccating” seas, those land-locked bodies of water 
all but cut off from the ocean proper, which are subjected to con- 
tinuous evaporation so intense that they become highly concentrated 
and the various salts nop ye dissolved in sea water are precipitated, 
settle out, and accumulate as “evaporites”—limestone, dolomite, salt, 
anhydrite, etc.—on the sea floor. ‘The waters of such seas become so 
salty that no life and very little oxygen are found in them, except 
in the surface layer which is diluted by rainfall and by constant or 
periodic inflow of fresh sea water from the adjacent ocean. 

When we survey the earth for evidence of conditions in the past 
which would best fulfill these specifications for rich and extensive 
petroleum resources, our attention is soon drawn to the unstable belts, 
covered much of the time by shallow seas, which lies around the mar- 
gins of the main continental platforms, between them and the great 
oceanic deeps. We note particularly the shallow depressions in the 
earth’s crust, which throughout much of the earth’s history have sep- 
arated the several continents at their points of closest approach. 

The best known of these troughs or depressed segments between the . 
continental masses is the region now occupied in part by the Persian 
Gulf, the Mediterranean, Red, Black, and Caspian Seas, lying between 
the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia; another conspicuous basin 
occupied by land-locked seas is the site of the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Caribbean Sea between the continents of North and South America 
in the Western Hemisphere; a third is the shallow island-studded sea 
lying between the continents of Asia and Australia in the Far East. 

Through one geologic cycle after another these intercontinental de- 
pressions have been filled with shallow, land-locked seas, teeming with 
marine life, into which sediments poured rapidly from the land on all 
sides. Frequently, too, these depressions have been the sites of “des- 
iccating” seas. The earth’s crust beneath them is unstable or mobile 
and yields readily to stresses. Altogether these depressed zones 
between the continents seem admirably constituted to serve as natural 
reservoirs for the petroleum resources of the earth; and as soon as we 
look for petroleum in these regions we find abundant evidence of its 
presence. 


OUR PETROLEUM RESOURCES—PRATT 303 


The earliest historical records of the Near East refer to bitumen, 
burning springs, eternal fires, and other phenomena which unmistak- 
ably indicate petroleum and natural gas escaping at the surface. In 
modern times this region has developed the outstanding petroleum 
reserve of the earth, Russia’s greatest oil fields are situated here, as 
are the famous oil fields of Iran and Iraq, owned largely by the British. 
Arabia, where exploration was undertaken for the first time by Ameri- 
cans only a few years ago, has already built up very large proved re- 
serves of petroleum, and undoubtedly other important discoveries will 
follow. The important oil fields of Egypt and Rumania fall within 
this area. 

Next to the Near East in importance are the environs of the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea in the Western Hemisphere. Around 
the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico are situated fully one-half 
of the total proved reserves of the United States. The tremendous 
past production of Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela has come from 
the land fringe along the western and southern margins of this region. 
Further exploration in all these countries is certain to yield many new 
discoveries. vg 

In the shallow depression between the continents of Asia and Aus- 
tralia in the Far East are the great oil fields, owned largely by the 
British and Dutch, on the large islands of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and 
New Guinea. 

If we accept the prewar estimates of the Russians that their proved 
reserves of petroleum are of the order of 45 billion barrels, the total 
proved reserves for the earth may be safely placed at somewhat more 
than 100 billion barrels. Fully 90 percent of these proved reserves 
lie in these three intercontinental depressions, and it is generally con- 
ceded that these regions also include the best territory by far for 
further exploration for petroleum. 

There is a fourth great depressed segment of the earth’s crust be- 
tween continents which, except for the forward-looking Russians, has 
escaped any real consideration so far by the world’s petroleum indus- 
try. This region lies between the continents of North America, Eu- 
rope, and Asia. It covers the North Pole and is occupied by the Arctic 
Sea, a land-locked body of water into which sediments have been 
transported by the streams draining three continents throughout much 
of geologic time. We are accustomed to think of the waters covering 
the North Pole as the Arctic Ocean and our maps commonly designate 
them as an ocean, but they are in reality a land-locked sea, a fact long 
recognized by the Russians and other European peoples. 

Evidences of petroleum are conspicuous at many places along the 
coasts which encircle the Arctic Sea. Near Point Barrow in northern- 
most Alaska there are copious oil seepages. At Fort Norman, 65° 


304 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


north latitude, on the lower Mackenzie River, in northwestern Canada, 
a major oil field has recently been developed. On the islands north of 
the mainland of western Canada seepages of petroleum from the rocks 
at the surface were noted by Stefansson during his Arctic explorations. 
At numerous localities marked by surface escapes of petroleum and 
natural gas along the Arctic coast of Siberia, over a distance of 3,000 
miles, Russian engineers have been engaged for years exploring for 
and producing petroleum. 

The geological character of the Arctic region and the evidences of 
petroleum in the rocks that make up the coasts of the Arctic Sea both 
justify the belief that this region will eventually prove to contain some 
of the important petroleum resources of the earth. 

As long ago as 1888 Edward Orton, a distinguished geologist en- 
gaged in a study of the petroleum resources of the State of Ohio 
observed: “It is obvious that the total amount of petroleum in the 
rocks underlying the surface * * * is large beyond computa- 
tion.” Since Orton’s time we have extended our exploration for pe- 
troleum much more widely over the earth and, although we have not 
as yet even begun to exhaust the possibilities, we have already learned 
much to substantiate his conviction that the total amount of petroleum 
in the rocks underlying the surface “is large beyond computation.” 
Nevertheless the belief persists that our petroleum resources are on 
the verge of exhaustion. Even though we have been obliged repeat- 
edly to revise upward our previous estimates of their probable volume, 
we still fear imminent shortages of petroleum products. Will nothing 
we have learned serve to dispel this extreme pessimism ? 

Petroleum and coal, our mineral fuels, are fossil sunlight of 2,000 
million years of earth history. In our natural resources of coal there 
is preserved for us part of the energy of the light which has bathed 
the land; in petroleum we recapture some of the energy of the sunlight 
which fell upon the adjacent waters. The coal resources of the earth 
we have measured, and we can calculate their volume with reasonable 
accuracy, a minimum quantity which runs into thousands of billions 
of tons—7,500 billion long tons. But the petroleum resources of the 
earth, which we cannot as yet measure, we refuse to think of as more 
than a few tens of billions of tons—less than one-third of 1 percent of 
our proved coal resources. Why do we believe there is so much less 
petroleum than coal in the earth? Was the life in the old seas so much 
less abundant than that on the land ? 

In recent years Parker Trask and others have made extensive inves- 
tigations of the sedimentary rocks of the earth. We know that of the 
present land surface, some 60 million square miles, more than one-third 
is composed of sedimentary rocks; that is to say, an area of 22 million 
square miles of the present land surface of the earth has been covered 


OUR PETROLEUM RESOURCES—PRATT 305 


-by seas at times in the past. Of this total area of former sea floors the 

rocks comprising about 6 million square miles are of a general charac- 
ter which make them of first-class promise for petroleum; they are 
present in great depth and are otherwise favorable for the occurrence 
of petroleum. The remaining area of 16 million square miles may 
also contain petroleum, but its general character is less promising and 
it is rated of secondary importance. 

Among other characteristics of sedimentary rocks Trask sought to 
determine the organic content. In this research he examined the rocks 
which constitute the floors of existing seas as well as those of former 
sea floors. The rocks from the floor of the deep ocean proved to contain 
but little organic matter. But rocks formed in seas, near shore, were 
found to be much higher in organic content. Of the rocks now forming 
on the floor of the Black Sea, for example, organic matter constitutes 
more than 35 percent by weight. In the rocks from the floors of former 
seas Trask found the organic content to range up to 10 percent by 
weight, averaging 1.5 percent. Trask estimated the average organic 
content of the rocks in the floors of all present seas at 2.5 percent by 
weight. 

Do these estimates promise enough organic matter to constitute 
source material for petroleum resources larger than we customarily 
reckon on? Let us confine our attention to the area of sedimentary 
rocks of first-class promise for petroleum, some 6 million square miles, 
excluding the remaining 16 million square miles entirely. Let us 
consider only that portion of the first-class area which is within easy 
reach of the oil man’s drill, eliminating all possible resources more 
than, say, 7,000 feet beneath the surface, despite the fact that a large 
proportion of our present supply of petroleum comes from greater 
depths. Let us apply to this restricted portion of the sedimentary 
rocks of first-class promise for petroleum only the average organic 
content estimated for the floors of all existing seas. 

Even on this minimum basis we obtain an estimated quantity of 
organic matter so large as to baffle comprehension—a quantity 200 
times greater in weight than the total coal resources of the earth! 
If only one-half of 1 percent of this organic matter had been con- 
verted into petroleum, concentrated and preserved for us in the 
natural reservoirs of the earth’s crust, our total petroleum resources 
would equal our total coal resources. If only one-tenth of 1 percent 
had been so preserved for us, our total petroleum resources would still 
be 60 times greater than all the petroleum we have so far discovered: 
that is, all our past consumption plus all our proved reserves. 

In view of these figures it is not unreasonable to suspect that the 
problem we face is not a dearth of petroleum in the earth’s crust so 
much as our failure to explore adequately and develop the resources 


+ 


306 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


that are as yet undiscovered. If we now set ourselves to the task . 
all over the earth as effectively as we have already done in our coun- 
try we should be able to establish tremendous additional reserves. At 
any rate, if our total petroleum resources are as limited as we fear they 
may be, the explanation does not lie in any original lack of organic 
source material in the sedimentary rocks of the earth’s crust. A very 
small fraction of the organic matter originally present in the most 
promising rocks would have sufficed as raw material for a great deal 
more petroleum than we have as yet discovered. 


REFERENCES 
GerproITz, N. A. 
1937. Outlook for oil in the Arctic sector of western and central Siberia. 
17th Internat. Geol. Congr. 
HER0Y, W. B. 
1941. Petroleum Geology. Geology, 1888-1938, Fiftieth Ann. vol., Geol. 
Soe. Amer., pp. 511-548. 
Ittine, V. C. 4 
1938. The origin of petroleum. The Science of Petroleum, vol. 1, pp. 
32-38. Oxford Uniy. Press, London. 
LInp, S. C. 
1938. On the origin of petroleum. The Science of Petroleum, vol. 1, pp. 
39-41. Oxford Univ. Press, London. 
NALIVKIN, D. V. 
1937. Oil in the Arctic. Arctica, vol. 5, pp. 3-8. 
PaigB, S., ForAN, W. T., and GILLULY, J. 
1925. <A reconnaissance of the Point Barrow region, Alaxicas U. S. Geol. 
Surv. Bull. 772. 
SMIRNOV, L. 
1935. The problem of oil occurrence in the Soviet Arctic. Arctica, vol. 3. 
TRASK, P. D. 
1938. Petroleum source beds. The Science of Petroleum, vol. 1, pp. 42-45. 
TRASK, P. D., and PATNOpDE, H. W. 
1942. Source beds of petroleum. Amer. Assoc. Petrol. Geol., Tulsa, Okla. 
WATERSCHOOT VAN DER GRACHT, W. A. J. M. VAN. 
1938a. The stratigraphical distribution of petroleum. The Science of 
Petroleum, vol. 1, pp. 58-62. 
1938b. The geographical distribution of petroleum. The Science of 
Petroleum, vol. 1, pp. 63-65. 


WOODS AND TREES? 
PHILOSOPHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOME FACTS OF SCIENCE 


By FREDERICK H. KRECKER 
Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 


Some of you, I am sure, are wondering why a zoologist should 
presume to discuss a subject which apparently lies within the domain 
of the botanist. Of course to be strictly zoological I might have 
used the words formicaries and ants, but no one before me has said, 
“One can’t see the formicary for the ants,” and I do not presume to 
establish a saying. 

I have had considerable experience instructing the general arts 
college student, the student who takes zoology as a college require- 
ment and without thought of continuing in the field beyond the limits 
of the course. Each year at about this season, after all the tumult 
and the shouting of instruction have died down, in the wee small 
hours of the fading academic year, I take stock and ask myself in 
troubled seriousness, “What have I conveyed to my charges?” Facts, 
most certainly; but facts without their significance are as food with- 
cut vitamins. One is filled but does not thrive. Hence, I query, 
have I been content to show to my students merely the trees of fact, 
each after each in all their intricacy of detail, or have I also taken 
them to a vantage point and shown them the beauty and majesty of 
the forest? Have I, in other words, taken full advantage of the 
opportunities which President Brown of Denison at our last meet- 
ing so eloquently ascribed to the instructors of science. You will 
remember that in the course of his remarks he humorously itemized 
the tongue-twisting terms that met his gaze as he reviewed the requisi- 
tions of his scientific staff. President Brown, however, saw beyond 
the terms and the facts they represent. He saw them as a means, 
not as ends. Unfortunately, some members of our scientific fra- 
ternity, not to mention the man in the street, see only the terms. 
Nothing is so revealing, so pathetically revealing, as the desperate 
efforts the casual acquaintance makes to find a common ground of 

1 Address of the retiring president of the Ohio Academy of Science delivered at the 


annual meeting of the Academy held in Columbus, Ohio, April 30, 1943. Reprinted by 
permission from the Ohio Journal of Science, vol. 43, No. 4, July 1943. 


307 


308 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


conversation once he discovers you are a zoologist. All too often he 
amusingly, likewise tragically, attempts to recall a name—oh, yes, 
he says, I studied zoology once. Let me see, what is the name for 
oysters and clams? * * * That man has seen the trees. I won- 
der whether he was ever shown the woods; whether he was trained in 
anything but bare facts. And I wonder too whether, perhaps still 
more unfortunately, the significance of significances was ever appre- 
ciated by his instructors. 

The trees and not the woods loomed large in the remarks made by 
a colleague of mine, a purveyor of the humanities, on the occasion of 
a round-table discussion between a faculty group and students on the 
ever-recurring topic of science and religion. The immediate ques- 
tion at issue was the relation of scientific facts to religion. My col- 
league was of the opinion that the two could be in no wise related. 
By way of illustration he pointed to the facts of meteorology; certain 
conditions of temperature, moisture, atmospheric movement we 
know result in rain. How can that knowledge possibly have any 
connection with religion, he queried. The answer, as we well know, 
is simple. This certainty of results which the meteorological facts 
represent takes much of the mystery and consequent uncertainty out 
of the comings and goings of the weather. To just that extent we 
feel secure and in harmony with the powers that ride the storm. 

My colleague’s query did double duty. It revealed the barren trees 
of both science and religion but the woods of neither. The funda- 
mental yearning which the appeal to religion strives to fulfill is 
the yearning for security, a yearning which grips all of us. We 
tremble before the overpowering uncertainties of enveloping fate, 
the unknowable, and strive to achieve a harmonious relationship 
through religious experience. The woods, which apparently neither 
the scientific nor the religious experiences of my colleague had 
revealed to him, were that just as the all-compelling quest manifested 
through religion is the quest for security, so the all-embracing fruit 
of science is to afford security; the security that frees from the bonds 
of uncertainty and superstition and soothes the troubled soul with 
the peace that passeth understanding. 

This doctrine of security, the teaching that we live in an environ- 
ment ordéred by dependable, understandable principles is as old as 
science itself, the leit motif that has threaded its guiding way through 
scientific thought throughout the ages from the times of the early 
Ionian teachers to the present. As F. H. Pike? reminds us in a pub- 
lished note within the year, “One great change which occurred in the 
period from Thales to Plato was the substitution of a world, perhaps 
even a universe, of law for the older world of caprice.” And with it 


3 Science, April 24, 1942. 


WOODS AND TREES—KRECKER 309 


there was born a new thing, “science,” which as Burnet* so aptly 
definies in his survey of Greek philosophy is “thinking about the 
world in the Greek way.” 

To return to my colleague and, I fear, to many others like him, 
what a woeful void there must have been in what he reaped from 
science, perhaps also in the guidance offered him by his mentors. 
One is moved to paraphrase the biblical interrogation, what doth it 
profit a man to gather the facts of science and lose its soul ? 

One group of scientific facts, its bare, gaunt trees stripped of their 
pleasing foliage, tells us that every particle of matter is attracted 
by every other particle in proportion to the product of the masses and 
inversely as the square of the intervening distances. These few 
words represent a vast number of subsidiary facts and a prodigious 
amount of painstaking effort in their formulation. It is known to all 
who mull them over that they explain the floating of a mote of dust 
to the ground and in the same breath the grand movement of the 
planets through space. 1 am wondering, however, how many of those 
who have burnt the midnight oil in mastering these facts, how many 
of our students, indeed perhaps, how many of their instructors and 
how many of our friends in the humanities like my colleague of the 
religious discussion have been taken to a mountain top from which 
they have been able to see that these same facts have served also as a 
guidepost in our quest of the ultimate, in molding man’s interpretation 
of his universe, in orienting himself in time and space; that they have 
been one of the things which has helped to satisfy man’s wonder, the 
awesome wonder that comes over one as he gazes into the depths of a 
star-studded winter sky where wonder leads to wonder and one is 
moved to breathe the thought, “What is man that thou art mindful 
of him?” 

As Sir James Jeans * points out, “The law of gravity was important 
not so much because it told us why an apple fell to the ground or why 
the earth and planets moved around the sun as because it suggested 
the whole of Nature was governed by hard and fast laws—in the light 
of Newton’s work—Man began to see that he was free to work out 
his own destiny without fear of disturbuance from interfering gods, 
spirits, or demons.” Or again to partly paraphrase Dampier,’ New- 
ton’s reduction of the phenomenon of gravity to mathematical terms, 
coupled with the work of Copernicus and Galileo, in one grand sweep 
validated terrestrial mechanics in celestial spaces and eliminated with 
_ finality the Aristotelian and medieval doctrine that “the heavenly 
bodies are divine, incorruptible and different in kind from our im- 

? Karly Greek philosophy, 4th ed., 1930. 


4 Scientific progress. 
5 Sir William Dampier, A history of science, 1938. 


310 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


perfect world.” The effect was even deeper and struck at the very 
roots of religious beliefs in that it was made “impossible any longer 
to gaze into heaven just above the sky, and to shudder at the 
rumblings of hell beneath the ground.” Consequently, as Brett * com- 
ments, “The seat of religious belief was thus moved from the heart 
to the head; mysticism was excommunicated by mathematics, * * * 
the way was opened for a liberal Christianity which might ultimately 
supersede traditional beliefs.” 

Incidentally a statement like that is indeed comforting to a zool- 
ogist. It lifts from his shoulders some of the burden placed there by 
the populace for having undermined ancestral beliefs. 

Biology’s central contribution to human thought has been the doc- 
trine of organic evolution. This doctrine has brought coherence and 
order and significance to a multitude of otherwise apparently discon- 
nected facts and theories within the field of biology itself and has 
opened up wide vistas of vision in other fields as well. It is undoubt- 
edly superfluous to mention this to a scientific assemblage such as this, 
but there are scientists, even biologists, who tend to belittle the impor- 
tance of evolution in the scheme of instruction. And here again I am 
moved to wonder whether we see the woods as we look at the trees; 
whether we consider the fact of the evolutionary origin of animals 
and plants as an end in itself and the meticulous details of evidence 
as ends in themselves or whether we look upon them as means to a 
broader end. As ends in themselves they are probably pleasant bed- 
time stories, if you like that kind of story. They are facts and add 
to one’s store of such things, if your hobby is making a collection. If 
that is the spirit in which one presents the matter embellished for good 
measure with much precise detail, I fear that in the words of the phi- 
losopher, Irwin Edman, once applied to some of the humanities, it 
will be shortly “dying of anemia, of archeological hardening of the 
arteries and will become a corpse handled conscientiously by solemn 
morticians.” 

As means to an end the formulation of the doctrine of organic evo- 
lution, like the formulation of the principles of gravity, has served as 
the factual basis for a reorientation of human conceptions. If Newton 
paved the way for a liberalized Christianity, Darwin has paved the 
way for a liberalized sociopolitical outlook. The doctrine of organic 
evolution has once and for all destroyed the concept of the immutabil- 
ity of human institutions as well as of animal bodies. It has destroyed 
finality. If man as an animal is the product of change, his institution, 
the state, as a sociopolitical organization is not immutable. What 
served the purposes of our fathers may not of necessity serve ours. 
And so also have we been conditioned to discard the concept of absolu- 


¢G. S. Brett, Sir Isaac Newton, 1929. 


WOODS AND TREES—KRECKER 311 


tism in the field of economics. With changing times come changing 
economic principles. 

Organic evolution with its handmaiden, natural selection, has de- 
stroyed the sociological equalitarianism of the French Revolution. 
All men may be equal before the law; they are not equal before the bar 
of life. Gone, too, is the categorical dictum’as a basis for morality 
and in its place has come racial experience, those standards which have 
survival value for the race. Morality in this light comes to mean 
allegiance to that code which will enable one’s countrymen to live and 
to have life more abundantly. For those who may mourn the passing 
of the categorical standard, let me say that racial survival is a far 
more exacting standard than one which, perchance, permits of com- 
pensation by doing penance. The youthful monkey merrily swinging 
from limb to limb who misjudges his mark gets no second chance and 
leaves no descendants. It is, indeed, easier for a camel to pass through 
the needle’s eye than to cheat the laws of life. 

There is tonight no time, even if this could be considered an appro- 
priate place, in which to trace all the ramifications of our racial expe- 
rience as a standard by which we may order our lives. However, I 
should like to enlarge upon one phase of our experience which does 
appear to be peculiarly applicable to the present state of world affairs. 
Julian Huxley,’ in discussing man’s achievements points out, as have 
others, that “the next step of greater control must be over man him- 
self * * * through (among other methods) doing away with 
nationalistic drives and superimposing an international form of gov- 
ernment on the world.” To a biologist there straightway comes the 
question, what evidence have we that cooperation is any more success- 
ful than isolation as a biological method? Has not the arch isolation- 
ist, Amoeba, survived for millions of years and have not thousands of 
other rugged individualists been successful among the animal hordes? 
That interrogation immediately poses another—what is success? And 
to answer one must differentiate between survival and mastery. An 
animal, all of us, may survive through a variety of devious subterfuges 
and expedients, the common mark of which is that they entail sub- 
servience. However, success in fullest measure is mastery over condi- 
tions. If organic evolution has any significance it is the story of how 
living material has, through the cooperative actions of its subdivided 
units, approached, if it has not yet attained, mastery. 

Tam fully aware of the fact that organic evolution does not of neces- 
sity proceed along a straight-line principle, that life has followed a 
thousand and one devious pathways and on occasion has even retro- 
gressed ; but the fact remains, nevertheless, that at each level on which 


™Man stands alone, 1940. 
619830—45. 21 


312 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


there has been a closer approach to mastery that approach has been 
accompanied by a greater division of labor and a closer coordination 
of the constituent units until in man, the master, they have become 
woven into an intricate pattern of cooperating parts. At the opposite 
extreme lies an ineffectual, single-celled droplet of living material 
exemplified by Amoeba. Organic evolution is thus history, as much a 
part of our history as is the history of the written word, and as such, 
in fulfilling one of its functions, it points out the road we have trod 
and lights the way that les ahead. 

I am a zoologist, but for a moment I should like to turn Tey 
that man who has been termed by Schlegel a prophet looking back- 
ward, and as such a prophet refresh your memories by briefly tracing 
the steps of this story as others have done before me. 

It can begin with Amoeba, a creature which epitomizes individual- 
ism. Not even in the commonly shared function of reproduction is it 
dependent upon another for assistance. A thousand and one changes 
have been rung on this isolationist-individualist theme among its fellow 
protozoans, each change having brought survival but no shred of 
mastery. 

One of the early mutations leading out of the protozoan doldrums 
was that which resulted in causing proliferating cells to remain clus- 
tered together, and as such clusters to cooperate in the form of tubular 
units; a condition exemplified in varying degrees by the Porifera and 


the Coelenterata. The rewards were those that come from numbers | 


and elementary divisions of function. This condition was followed 
by an innovation which resulted in dense, compact and solid masses 
of cells being able to exist as a single unit exemplified by our friends 
and tormentors, the flatworms. This state of affairs was accompanied 
by greater diversification in the constituent units and preeminently 
by rectilinear locomotion. 

The next steps—three of them—in this mutating series were par- 
ticularly significant ; the development of distance receptors, the device 
which produced essentially compound animals, and the accompanying 
delegation of authority to subcenters which thus made possible the 
rapid and efficient control so characteristic of the metameric groups. 

Metamerism is as far as life has gone in the way of physically com- 
pounding units. The compounding has continued but on the psycho- 
logical level, or social level if you wish. If we are to consider 
psychological reactions as a specialized manifestation of physiological 
states, the continued compounding which we term our social organiza- 
tion is fully as much a physiological process as were the physical 
unions just outlined and as such must be considered a direct con- 
tinuation of this compounding tendency, a continuation made pos- 
sible by the development of distance receptors. 


WOODS AND TREES—KRECKER 313 


In saying this, I am mindful of those who maintain that social 
organization is not comparable to corporate organization. I am in- 
clined to think the difference is not so much a matter of principle 
as of means. In the one case the constituent units have been held to- 
gether by bonds of physical contact, in the other they have been as 
firmly held by the influence of distance receptors. Emerson,® the 
ecologist, has recently expressed the view that, “Regardless of how 
one interprets the unity of the more complex human societies, the 
human family, and other family systems, are real cooperative, supra- 
organismic entities. * * * Society is merely a manifestation of 
fundamental life attributes which are shared with other biological 
systems (e. g., multicellular organisms) and the division between the 
social and the non-social is not sharp.” Jennings® goes further and 
points out that there is much to be said in favor of the conclusion 
that “mankind is a single great organism temporarily divided into 
pieces—the individuals.” Through this device the essential benefits 
of physical union are retained and become enriched by the advantages 
to be derived from mobile units. The study of organic evolution is, 
indeed, from one standpoint essentially a study in populations. 
Much can be said in support of the conclusion emerging from such 
a study, that in its animal phases at least unitary masses of proto- 
‘plasm, whether these units be cells or bodies, under similar conditions 
follow essentially similar principles of group organization. 

The social organization of the corporate population has, as you 
know, followed along two lines, the one illustrated by certain insects, 
the other by man. Among insects the culmination is reached by the 
ants and the termites, those individually defenseless creatures and 
toothsome morsels for many a foe which have through cooperation 
lived from the Tropics to the borders of the Arctic. 

Our own social structure is an even more intricate and widespread 
culmination of increasingly interdependent component units the 
progress of which has followed one unswerving path marked by the 
milestones of free cells, tissues, organs, organ systems, compound 
organisms, then families, tribes, kingdoms, empires, major alliances, 
and still it holds its course into the future. Faintly outlined as yet 
but apparently on our course lies some type of world union. This 
last prophecy may be branded an ultra-utopian fancy, but it must 
not be thought that the pyramiding of units I have just traced, 
whether in the field of physical union or sociopolitical associations, 
came without a struggle, without false starts that led up blind alleys 
or ended in stark failure. 


8 A. KE. Emerson, Denison Univ. Bull., December 1941. 
® Journ. Soc. Philos., January 1937. 


314 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


For those who may be faint-hearted, the fact to be kept in mind is 
that with all the difficulties that beset the way, union was eventually 
accomplished, that with each union, with each sacrifice of self, with 
each restriction of liberty, there has been a stride toward greater mas- 
tery, toward a fuller, more abundant life for the whole. At one ex- 
treme is individualism, represented by Amoeba, beholden by neither 
jot nor tittle to anyone, groveling withal in the slime and swept hither 
and yon by every whim of nature. At the other extreme are millions 
of interdependent cells united in the form of men who, in turn, through 
their combined efforts have overcome the sufferings of famine, the 
scourge of pestilence, the barriers of distance, the mysteries of the air, 
yes, even the intricacies of creative synthesis. Optimism for the future 
is well expressed in the words of the paleontologist, Lull,° who writes, 
“The great heart of nature beats, its throbbing stimulates the pulse of 
life, and not until that heart is stilled forever will the rhythmic tide 
of progress cease to flow.” 

Among the social insects the price paid to the group for the benefits 
of cooperative action is that the individual be born to a class and have 
stamped upon him unalterably the form of his station in life—worker, 
soldier, king or queen—there to remain toiling dutifully without will 
or choice that the group may survive. That is strait-jacketed, in- 
flexible efficiency, not inviting to those of us outside the pale of Nazi 
or Fascist rule. It has, moreover, fallen short of control, probably 
because its morphological inflexibility is paralleled by inflexibility of 
nervous reaction. 

There is no gainsaying that one of the most patent of biological prin- 
ciples requires that when individual and species conflict, it is the 
individual that must give way even to the extreme of life itself. For 
us the demands of society are indeed becoming more and more exact- 
ing; we are individually being held to a closer and closer accounting. 
There is ever-increasing regimentation. But we of the vertebrate line 
are fortunate in that we belong to a type of social organization which 
permits its members the opportunity of realizing their responsibility 
to the group and of doing their duty voluntarily and without compul- 
sion. If we but will, therein lies our avenue of escape from the fate of 
an enforced regimentation analogous to that of the insects. 

The responsibility which rests upon us individually arises from the 
division of labor inherent in society. Each sequence in the evolution- 
ary progress of living material from microscopic unit to dominating 
mass involved more and more detailed division of labor and with each 
advance there came increasing responsibility. For instance, in an 
unspecialized body like that of a sponge the entire body, as you well 
know, can be taken apart cell by cell and then the whole mass or any 


2 R. S. Lull, Organic evolution, 1929. 


WOODS AND TREES—KRECKER 315 


portion of it can again take on the form and function of a sponge. 
Here, it matters little whether any one or a group of cells fail. At the 
opposite extreme in man, the loss of an islet of cells in the pancreas 
means death. Clearly specialization and responsibility go hand in 
hand. 

The inexorable demands of nature that each do his duty to his kind 
need not of necessity mean that before us lies a future in which we 
shall be slaves to the State, Nazi-fashion. A slave performs his duty 
without choice, has no voice in his fate. Before us lies the opportunity 
to both exercise our choice and discharge our duty. If, however, we 
do not so choose, we shall have responsibility and no freedom, no 
chance to direct our fate. There are even now those among us who 
would impose the prototype of insect rigidity upon our form of social 
organization. Its most extreme exponents are the followers of Nazi 
philosophy. Rauschning™ reports Hitler as declaring, “There will 
be a master class * * * also a new middle class * * * and 
the great mass of the eternally disfranchized. Beneath them still will 
be * * * the modern slave class) * * * Universal education 
is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has 
ever invented for its own destruction.” Carrel? has expressed some- 
what similar views, as for instance, * * * “The democratic prin- 
ciple has contributed to the collapse of civilization in opposing the 
development of an elite. * * * modern civilization is incapable 
of producing people endowed with imagination, intelligence and cour- 
age. * * * the equality of their (man’s) rights is unequal.” 

It is true that there are biological differences among us which cause 
difficulties in a democratic state, but gene distribution is such that few 
are wholly of inferior quality and few, if any, of wholly superior stuff. 
The mechanism of transmission and interaction of genes further com- 
plicates the picture. And who is to differentiate what is good or how? 
As Jennings suggests, “One of the greatest difficulties in the way of 
effective human action lies in the lack of agreement as to the end to be 
attained. * * * perhaps the greatest difficulty of all lies in the 
lack of agreement as to the individuals or groups that should benefit 
by the action to be taken.” 

The course upon which the physically undifferentiated and mobile 
fabric of the vertebrate social organization is set does not of necessity 
demand a society strait-laced and closely regimented in which free- 
dom of action is surrendered. It does demand and will exact the 
surrender of action for self alone. It does place upon us unalterably 
responsibility to our fellow men. The failure on the part of many of 
us, most of us I fear, to realize this fact has been an important source 


4 The voice of destruction. 
2% Man, the unknown. 


316 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


of our present unrest. With a sense of allegiance to the group in the 
spirit of that larger self-interest which realizes that the greatest good 
for the individual is inextricably bound up with the good of the 
group, there need be no fear of enforced regimentation. Unlike the 
strait-jacketed insect civilization, such realization of individual re- 
sponsibility permits us freedom to pass from stratum to stratum as 
the cast of the genes may decide, and leaves us the stimulus of in- 
dividual initiative. The specializations of society without a sense of 
responsibility lead to the limited privilege of an unbridled, cancerous 
growth; specialization with a sense of the common good leads to the 
harmony of a well-ordered body. 

As I come to the end of my remarks let me mention once again 
my thoughts at the close of the academic year, my interest in the trees 
of fact and the woods of significance. I have, as you see, directed 
your attention to but a few examples. First among them was the 
very soul of science, the sense of security which scientific facts con- 
vey. Second was the influence of what may appear to be purely phys- 
ical principles upon the liberation of man from the bonds of religious 
ignorance; third, the significance of the facts of evolution as a guid- 
ing light upon our way and finally the significance of the individual’s 
obligation to the group. I have discussed them because with all the 
inimediately practical applications of fact that can be made, which 
are truly many and important, such applications alone are not suf- 
ficient. The instructor in science has not completely fulfilled his re- 
sponsibility to those who come to him for guidance unless he has 
pointed out the wider significances. These broader applications 
which carry us into the realm of ideas are required to satisfy fully 
that age-long quest which Sir William Dampier has so richly clothed 
in these words: 

At first men try with magic But Nature smiles—a Sphinx-like 
charm smile— 


To fertilize the earth, Watching their little day 
To keep their flocks and herds She waits in patience for a 


from harm 
And bring new young to birth. 


Then to capricious gods they turn 
To save from fire or flood; 

Their smoking sacrifices burn 
On altars red with blood. 


Next bold philosopher and sage 
A settled plan decree, 
And prove by thought or sacred 
page 
What Nature ought to be. 


while— 
Their plans dissolve away. 


Then come those humbler men of 
heart 
With no completed scheme, 
Content to play a modest part, 
To test, observe, and dream. 


Till out of chaos come in sight 
Clear fragments of a Whole; 
Man, learning Nature’s ways 

aright, 
Obeying, can control. 


BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE’ 


By Asa CRAWFORD CHANDLER 
Professor of Biology, The Rice Institute 


My subject this afternoon is “Biology and Medicine,” but I think 
a more accurate wording would be “Medicine and Other Phases of 
Biology,” for to my mind medicine is a branch of biology. Webster’s 
Dictionary defines medicine as the science and art dealing with the 
prevention, cure, or alleviation of disease. Biology is the science of 
life. Disease might well be defined as life out of balance, and is in a 
strict sense a biological process. Whether it be an attack by micro- 
organisms, or improper functioning of glands, or congenital mis- 
formation or maladjustment, or injury by poison or bullets, disease 
processes are in the last analysis nothing more than cells, tissues, 
or organs that have suffered injury and so not only fail to perform 
their normal functions but in most cases interfere with the normal 
functions of other parts, more often than not of the entire body. 

Of the two great divisions of medicine dealing respectively with 
treatment and with prevention, the former is much the older. It is 
far easier to observe the effects of treatment on a person suffering 
from a malady than it is to understand why someone else escaped 
it. Some knowledge of curative or alleviative medicine was possessed 
by our cave-dwelling ancestors; in fact, it is instinctive in many 
lower animals. It gradually grew up as a sort of folklore from a 
slow process of trial and error, added to the instinctive knowledge ac- 
quired from prehuman ancestors. 

With the growth of belief in the supernatural, by which man satis- 
fied his developing desire to explain things, medicine became largely 
theological. Priests and physicians were one. They conceived disease 
as the work of devils, gods, or spirits which had to be appeased by 
sacrifices, confused or circumvented by charms or incantations, evicted 
by emetics, cathartics, or bloodletting, or enticed to escape by means 
of holes in the skull, nasty medicine, or other devices. It is since the 
days of our Pilgrim Fathers that we have learned that it is more effec- 
tive to control typhoid and cholera by boiling water than by boiling 
witches. 

Although belief in the instrumentality of demons and witches in 
causing disease persisted for a long time, since Hippocrates more en- 

1 Public lecture delivered at The Rice Institute in the spring of 1943. Reprinted by per- 
mission from The Rice Institute Pamphlet, vol. 30, No. 4, October 1943. 

317 


318 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


lightened individuals have recognized at least some kinds of disease as 
natural processes. From that time to the present medicine has been 
primarily biological instead of theological or metaphysical. Some of 
the original ideas were, as would be expected, very far astray; for 
example, the theory that Hippocrates inaugurated and Galen ex- 
panded that proper proportions and relations of four humors of the 
body were responsible for health or disease. According to this theory 
people were sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholic in tempera- 
ment depending upon which of the four humors predominated. Erro- 
neous as it was, this theory was a long step forward in that it focused 
attention on natural instead of supernatural causes, and on caring for 
the patient instead of appeasing devils. 

Hippocrates was also an exponent of the great biological principle 
that nature is the greatest physician of all. Left alone, an organism 
attempts to repair damages to its parts, to adjust itself to any unbal- 
ance in structure or function that has been entailed, and to fight off 
attacks by parasites. The role of the physician is to aid the organism 
in these attempts. In many cases this involves nothing more than 
augmentation or speeding up of natural biological processes that the 
organism itself would employ, such as stimulation of immunity, sup- 
ply of additional antibodies, provision of new tissue or fluid in the 
form of grafts or blood transfusions, supply of abundant vitamins, 
regulation of hormones, removal of unhealthy tissue, and protection 
against invasion by micro-organisms. In some cases it involves meth- 
ods which are entirely foreign to the natural processes of the animal 
body, but which aid and abet these processes, such as the use of stimu- ~ 
lants, anesthetics, specific drugs, X-rays, radium, or heat. 

The speeding up of natural processes of repair or adaptation is 
applied biology. It involves a thorough knowledge of the normal 
biology of the human body—its anatomy and all phases of its physi- 
ology. Strangely enough, even knowledge of the gross anatomy of 
the human body was extremely sketchy and mostly wrong up to the 
middle of the sixteenth century. 

Galen, of the second century A. D., was the father of anatomy for 
years, but he was a very poor father and his offspring was a very 
hodgepodge anatomy, arrived at from observations on the inner 
workings of monkeys, pigs, dogs, and cattle. For over a thousand 
years man was supposed to have a segmented breastbone like a 
monkey, a liver divided into as many lobes as a pig’s, a uterus with 
two horns like a dog’s, a hipbone flared like that of an ox, and a heart 
with pores between the right and left ventricles. If in the meantime 
any errors were discovered in Galen’s descriptions the fault was al- 
ways thought to be either with the patient or with the later observer. 
When Vesalius, in the sixteenth century, showed that man’s hipbones 
certainly were not flared as Galen described them, it was thought 


BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE—CHANDLER 319 


that they had undergone a change in the intervening centuries due 
to the habit of wearing tight trousers. 

The study of anatomy was retarded greatly by religious and civic 
taboos on dissection of human bodies, but Vesalius spirited skeletons 
from beneath gallows and was not above occasional clandestine disin- 
terments. He made important contributions to human anatomy, and 
did much to start other physicians consulting nature instead of Galen. 
Vesalius even reached the threshold of the discovery of the circulation 
of the blood, but this great milestone in the history of medicine was 
planted by Harvey in the seventeenth century. Probably no other 
single physiological discovery has had such profound consequences. 
What a superlative.age that was, to produce a Harvey, a Shakespeare, 
and a Galileo! 

In the eighteenth century advances were more rapid. It was in 
that century that another great Englishman, John Hunter, discovered 
that if arteries are tied off the blood will find and develop new chan- 
nels. Prior to that discovery aneurisms, which were distressingly 
common, were treated, if at all, by amputation of limbs. John Hunter 
also learned some of the tricks of grafting skin and bones. 

In the next century, the nineteenth, two other fundamental bio- 
logical principles—the cellular structure of bodies, and evolution— 
came to light. Both of these ideas contribute so much to our knowl- 
_ edge of the human body and how it works that a full evaluation of 
their significance in medicine would be almost impossible. 

Even with all these advances in anatomy and physiology, nobody 
up to the middle of the seventeenth century had any good idea what 
disease was or whence it came. An important forward step was made 
in 1687 when two Italian scientists, Bonomo and Cestoni, showed that 
scabies was a disease caused by tiny mites burrowing and reproducing 
in the skin, and was spread by transmission of the mites. This was the 
first demonstration of a specific cause for a disease, and the first ex- 
planation of its spread, and was a clean break from the divine, 
humoral, or other ancient theories of the spontaneous origin of disease. 

A few pioneering minds, a century or two ahead of their times, 
propounded theories of contagion, and spread of disease by dessemina- 
tion of poisonous particles or gases, or even by invisible living organ- 
isms, but there was no experimental evidence, and these precocious 
ideas fell on barren ground. A true understanding of infectious dis- 
ease had to wait for the discovery of micro-organisms and some knowl- 
edge of their nature. 

Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch lens grinder of the seventeenth century, 
who invented a compound microscope capable of bringing bacteria 
within the range of visibility, is sometimes called the father of bac- 
teriology, but I think he might more properly be called its midwife. 
He was one of the greatest explorers of all time. Magellan and 


320 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Columbus are credited with discovering continents, but Leeuwenhoek 
opened the door to an entire new world. Wherever he looked—in 
soil, water, food, excretions, or decaying materials—he discovered 
a host of micro-organisms that nobody had ever seen before or even 
suspected of existing. Modern explorers with electron microscopes 
are having a great time too, but their discoveries of molecules and 
viruses and of the minute anatomy of bacteria is hardly to be com- 
pared with the new world that Leeuwenhoek found under his 
microscope. 

But I do not think that knowledge of the existence of insects makes 
an entomologist, or knowledge of the existence of stars an astronomer, 
so I hesitate to consider Leeuwenhoek the father of bacteriology. 
That honor, I think, should go to Pasteur who, within the lifetime 
of my parents, made bacteriology a science. He did it by providing 
final proof that germs, like all other forms of life, require parents, 
and come only from pre-existing germs. As long as it was thought 
that germs developed spontaneously from decomposing materials the 
bacteriologist was in as hopeless a position scientifically as a mathe- 
matician would be if the sum of two and two varied with the weather. 

From the standpoint of the control and prevention of disease this 
was undoubtedly the most momentous discovery ever made by man, 
for it alone provided a solid foundation for practically all our public 
health work. On it rests all our theory and practice concerning 
contagion and infection, quarantine, sterilization, antisepsis, aseptic 
surgery, purification of water, pasteurization of milk, and almost 
everything else on which modern practices of public health and hygiene 
are based. Pasteur is rightly revered for his great contribution in 
proving the germ theory of disease, but this would have been of little 
value or significance without the final abolition of the idea of spon- 
taneous generation, which for a long time extended even to maggots 
and mice. 

Pasteur’s fundamental discoveries led almost at once to practical 
applications. Lister in London was quick to apply them to surgery, 
and by very generous application of carbolic acid to himself, the pa- 
tient, the bedclothes, the air, and even the floor, be brought about a 
very considerable reduction in the mortality from operations, which 
had previously been about 45 percent even in his expert hands. 

During the eighteenth century Europe suffered from great epi- 
demics of childbed fever—at one time it got so bad that in Lombardy 
it was said that for a year not one woman lived after bearing a child. 
Europe’s lying-in hospitals for destitute mothers were humane in 
spirit only; in reality they were death traps. Oliver Wendell Holmes 
proclaimed childbirth fever an infectious disease, carried from patient 
to patient by physicians and midwives. Many physicians were in- 
censed at the imputation that their hands were not clean, and Holmes’s 


BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE—CHANDLER 321 


ideas didn’t make much headway. It was Semmelweis of Vienna who 
finally dealt the death blow to childbed fever as an epidemic occur- 
rence, and proved that even an eminent gentleman’s hands are not 
always clean. It is within the memory of many in this audience that 
aseptic surgery finally supplanted Lister’s heroic antiseptic measures, 
and that surgeons began paying more attention to washing their hands 
before an operation than after it. 

Some 20 years after Pasteur’s demonstrations of the germ cause of 
disease and the final putting to rest of the theory of spontaneous gen- 
eration, Robert Koch developed technical methods that made possible 
the easy isolation and study of particular kinds of germs, and then 
discovery followed discovery with almost incredible rapidity. In the 
short space of 15 or 20 years the causes of the majority of infectious 
diseases of man and animals were isolated and studied. The elusive 
and rather mysterious agents of disease that we call viruses, however, 
had to wait much longer for biologists and chemists to pry into their 
private affairs, and it is only now that very much progress is being 
made. 

An infectious disease is, however, an extremely complicated phe- 
nomenon. The interaction of a parasite and its host is not a static 
thing like the interaction of one chemical with another, capable of 
simple description, and following a well-defined course. We may be 
too prone to think, because we know what organism causes a disease 
and something about its biology, that we understand the disease it 
causes. Nothing could be farther from the truth. We are dealing 
with the interaction of two organisms both of which are capable of 
an amazing degree of adaptation to changing conditions. Every 
change or adaptation in one entails further adaptations in the other. 
A disease may be compared with an organism—it is born, it grows, it 
adapts itself to environment, and it finally dies. During its life it is 
influenced by a host of environmental factors which may profoundly 
alter its course. 

An infectious disease depends on the presence of a specific invading 
organism, but this may be only one of the necessary requisites. In 
almost every epidemic the number of healthy carriers—people who 
temporarily acquire a colony of the germs but show no evidence of 
disease—far exceeds the number of cases. In an epidemic of cerebro- 
spinal meningitis healthy carriers of the organism that we say causes 
it may outnumber the clinical cases 20 to 1. In most epidemics of 
such diseases as diphtheria, whooping cough, dysentery, and even 
cholera, the ratio is from 5 or 10 to 1. 

If disease develops in only one-fifth to one-twentieth of the people 
reached by a’particular pathogenic germ, it is evident that there are 
other factors playing very important roles in its production. Among 
these are a proper balance of the glands of internal secretion, good 


322 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


nutrition, especially with respect to vitamins, and the development 
of specific immunity or resistance. There can be no doubt that these 
same factors play a large part in determining the course and outcome 
of a disease after it has gotten a start. A physician, then, if he is to 
make the most of his effort to help in suppressing disease, must be far 
more than a dispenser of medicine. He must, indeed, be familiar with 
more phases of biology than are most biologists. He must understand 
anatomy, histology, general physiology, endocrinology, embryology, 
psychology, nutrition, immunology, and even genetics in order to have 
a proper understanding of his patient, and he must be a bacteriologist 
or parasitologist to understand the capabilities and vulnerabilities of 
the invading organism. 

Some relations of heredity and genetics to disease have been known 
for a long time, but more progress has been made in genetic control of 
disease in plants and even in domestic animals than in man. Effects 
of genetic constitution of human beings on the course of disease and 
development of resistance are still very little understood, and still less 
is known about effects of genetic constitution of pathogenic organisms 
and means of altering it. Herein lies an almost untouched field with 
vast possibilities for the future. 

Experimental breeding of mice has resulted in decreasing torte 
from a particular disease from 82 to 24 percent in six generations, and 
to 8 percent over a period of years. In six generations of chickens 
mortality from fowl typhoid decreased from 85 to 10 percent. Recent 
studies indicate that alterations in genetic constitution comparable to 
mutations in insects and plants occur also in bacteria and even in 
viruses. In a period of a few hours many kinds of bacteria and viruses 
may reproduce in such numbers that if their rate of mutation is com- 
parable with that thought true for fruitflies, each gene the bacteria 
possesses should mutate at least once. With even slightly favorable 
selection, replacement of the parent population by mutants is possible 
in short periods of time. 

Viruses have many characteristics of genes, differing principally in 
their ability to move from cell to cell. There is evidence that the 
mutation of viruses is comparable with mutation of genes. The de- 
velopment of relatively nonpathogenic varieties of viruses or bacteria 
is the real basis for the production of effective vaccines against such 
diseases as smallpox and yellow fever, and probably for the rise and 
fall of epidemics of cholera and diphtheria. It has recently been 
discovered that the virus of infantile paralysis genetically altered by 
mouse adaptation, when mixed with the parent virus, has great power 
to protect monkeys from paralysis. What causes the protection is not 
yet known, but the result of this basic discovery may be very far 
reaching. 


BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE—CHANDLER 323 


Concomitant with development of knowledge of causes of infectious 
diseases, immunology was beginning to make its contributions to the 
cure and prevention of disease. You are all familiar with Jenner’s 
discovery in 1798 of the protective value of cowpox inoculation against 
smallpox. As the result of that there is probably no one in this audi- 
ence with a pockmarked face, whereas in Jenner’s day certainly one in 
four of you would have been so marked if indeed you were alive at all. 
Jenner, however, had no notion of how his method worked; he merely 
observed that it did, and risked the ridicule of the medical world by 
saying so, and the life of his own son by testing it. 

Many decades later Pasteur, making the most of an accidental obser- 
vation, laid a foundation for modern immunology by showing that 
agents of disease can be attenuated by various means to a point where 
they are no longer capable of producing serious disease, but still possess 
the power of stimulating immunity comparable with that produced by 
recovery from a real attack. Just as bacteriology opened the gates to 
knowledge of the causes and means of transmission of infectious dis- 
eases, so the birth of immunology opened the way to knowledge of 
nature’s principal means of combatting them. 

The contributions of immunology to the cure and prevention of dis- 
ease are so numerous that [can mention butafew. Asaidsin diagnosis 
I may mention the tuberculin test for tuberculosis in cattle and man; 
the Shick test for susceptibility to diphtheria; the Dick test for sus- 
ceptibility to scarlet fever; the scratch test for allergies to pollens, 
foods, or other substances; the agglutination tests for typhoid, dysen- 
tery, cholera, typhus, and many other diseases; the Wasserman, Kahn, 
and other tests for syphilis; the typing tests for the pneumococci of 
lobar pneumonia; and many others that are less well known but no 
less useful when needed. 

As therapeutic aids I may mention antitoxins for diphtheria, tetanus, 
scarlet fever, and a number of other diseases, which have made deaths 
from some of these diseases under ordinary conditions nothing short 
of criminal negligence; the helpful injections of typed pneumococcus 
serum in pneumonia; the use of immune or convalescent. serum in 
cerebrospinal meningitis, anthrax, measles, and most recently influ- 
enza; and the life-saving properties of antivenin for snake bites. 

As preventive aids I need only call your attention to the wonderful 
records achieved by the use of vaccines against typhoid, paratyphoid, 
diphtheria, and more recently yellow fever. This once dreaded dis- 
ease is now looked upon by the United States Public Health Service 
as of less consequence than the relatively mild and tolerated dengue 
fever, merely because our Government has a bank of a million protec- 
tive doses of vaccine which it can release if ever a case occurs within 
our borders. In recent years success has also been attained in produc- 
tion of vaccines against typhus fever and spotted fever, the former of 


324 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


which has hitherto been the scourge of every great war. In the present 
war man-made implements of destruction are more deadly than ever 
before, but there is no question but that this added deadliness is more 
than compensated for by protection from diseases, which, up to the time 
of the Spanish-American war, always wrought more havoc than the 
enemy. Such diseases as typhoid, dysentery, typhus, tetanus, and yel- 
low fever have been shorn of their power by protective vaccinations. 

Closely related to the field of immunology is blood typing, which 
has placed blood transfusion on a safe and sound footing, and made 
it as routine a procedure as anesthesia or surgical asepsis. In spite 
of the accomplishments in the field of immunology in recent years, I 
think we may confidently look forward to ever greater things in the 
years to come. Within the past 12 months success has been attained 
for the first time in the artificial production of antibodies in laboratory 
flasks. This may open the door to future developments which may 
surpass anything we have yet been able to hope for. 

I wish now to turn your attention to another field of biology that 
has contributed enormously to medicine—the science of endocrinology. 
No sorcerer or magician of old ever dreamed of accomplishing the 
miracles that can be performed today by the application of knowledge 
in this field. Osler, speaking of the effect of thyroid extracts on those 
horribly misshapen, doltish creatures known as cretins, says, “Not the 
magic wand of Prospero or the brave kiss of the daughter of Hip- 
pocrates ever effected such a change as that which we are now enabled 
to make in these unfortunate victims, doomed heretofore to live in 
helpless imbecility—an unmistakable affliction to their parents and 
their relatives.” 

The science of endocrinology was born of primitive beliefs in organ 
magic. When our remote ancestors began to indulge in the art of 
thinking and had reached the stage at which they could weave together 
a number of scattered observations and come out with a general idea, 
it was a natural deduction that the kind of food you ate was a big 
factor in determining what sort of person you were. Tigers were 
thought to be fierce because they ate raw meat; it was overlooked 
that a tiger fed on lettuce and carrots would undoubtedly be fiercer 
still, and that a meat eater had to be fierce to get his meat whereas a 
vegetarian could afford to be timid and fleetfooted. Such thoughts, 
traveling along a single track, eventually reached the conclusion 
that courage could be acquired from eating the hearts of courageous 
animals or men, intelligence from eating brains, and so on. The 
psychological effects undoubtedly provided ample circumstantial evi- 
dence for the truth of the assumptions. 

Modern endocrinology began in 1889 when a famous French scien- 
tist, Brown-Sequard, claimed remarkable rejuvenating effects in him- 


BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE—CHANDLER 325 


self from injection of gland extracts. His results, too, were prob- 
ably psychological, but his prestige was such that his claims started 
a development in medicine that has had more profound significance 
than any since Pasteur’s discoveries of the bacterial origin of disease. 

The human body is a highly automatic, self-regulating mechanism. 
Nature’s primitive means of regulation of the body of an organism is 
by chemical substances secreted by its tissues. Superimposed on this, 
later in evolution, is an involuntary nervous system, useful in making 
rapid and temporary adjustments that become necessary for a body 
with ever-increasing activities and more and more complicated rela- 
tions to its environment. Still later in evolution Nature added a 
voluntary nervous system but very wisely refrained from giving it 
control over the internal regulation of the body. As Dr. Cannon 
remarks, we should be greatly bothered if in addition to attending 
to the business of other people we had to attend to our own. The 
internal affairs of the body are too important to be subject to a well- 
meaning but neglectful and incompetent intelligence, which would 
as likely as not be concerning itself with the flight of a golf ball when 
it ought to be attending to the rate of the heart beat. 

The chemical method is still the fundamental means of regulation of 
the body. Chemicals produced by tissues, which we call hormones, con- 
trol such functions as growth, development, metabolism, and reproduc- 
tion, and adapt the body gradually to climatic fluctuations, variations 
in activity, nutritional changes, pregnancy, lactation, etc. The human 
body is one of the most thoroughly integrated and communistic or- 
ganizations imaginable, every part sharing, according to need, with 
every other part, and each part influencing every other part. It is a 
prevalent view today that every tissue and organ in the body produces 
hormones or hormonelike substances that help in the integration of the 
entire organism. As bodies became more complex during the course 
of evolution, however, and the regulation more difficult, a number 
of special glands for production of particularly potent hormones were 
developed. These are what constitute the endocrine system. Some of 
the glands are completely separate organs having no other functions, 
such as the thyroid, pituitary, and adrenals. Others have developed as 
special tissues in already existing organs, as in the pancreas, liver, 
and sex glands. 

The potency of these glands is almost incredible. They very largely 
determine what we are and how we behave. They dominate our physi- 
cal stature, our mental development, our emotional status, our repro- 
ductive activity, the rate at which we live, and our ability to make 
use of our food. They are the architects of our bodies and the mould- 
ers of our character. A puppy deprived of its anterior pituitary gland 
may be converted from an aggressive, pugnacious creature to a whimp- 


326 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ering coward, and may be returned to its former state by pituitary 
injections. Injections of prolactin into rats with no trace of maternal 
instincts will fill them so full of mother-love that they will even mother 
baby squabs instead of eating them. One is led to interesting specula- 
tion as to whether injections of prolactin might not be a good alterna- 
tive to execution for despotic dictators. 

The hormones produced by the endocrine glands, some stimulating 
and some inhibitory, not only affect the body as a whole in many 
complex ways, but they interact with each other in such an intricate 
manner that we are still very far from ideal utilization of them, and 
we may look forward to a great extension in the future. Yet even 
now, only 50 years from the birth of the science, the use of hormones 
has revolutionized a large part of medical practice and has given new 
insight into many physiological processes, such as metabolic rate, 
sugar metabolism, blood pressure, menstrual disorders, psychotic mal- 
adjustments, adiposity, sexual aberrations, and reproductive difficulties. 

Now let us turn to another contribution of biology to medicine— 
knowledge of nutrition. For lack of time I will pass briefly over 
many interesting discoveries connected with metabolism of proteins, 
fats and sugars, utilization of minerals, etc., though in passing I 
must pause long enough to mention a relatively new tool in physiologi- 
cal research—the use of ions tagged by means of atoms of unusual 
weight or made radioactive in cyclotrons. By this means it has been 
found that molecules in the body, even those supposed to be relatively 
stable in bones, teeth, or fat, are forever being shifted about and re- 
placed by new ones. The body is even less stable than it was thought 
to be. 

The most significant discoveries in. nutrition, ranking close to the 
discovery of hormones in their importance to human welfare, were 
those of the vitamins. Since the days of leopard-skin dinner jackets 
and struggles with cave bears instead of dictators, man’s ways of 
life have undergone many changes and so have his foods. With the 
development.of agriculture and civilization his food became less varied 
and more highly manipulated. He began to live more extensively 
on grain, to store food for periods of famine, and to cook it. Later 
he began throwing away the vitamin-bearing parts of his cereals, 
developed a taste for refined sugar, protected himself from sunlight, 
and often lived for months without fresh fruits or vegetables. Beri- 
beri, scurvy, rickets, pellagra, and night blindness attacked whole 
populations. 

Except for the cure of scurvy by eating lemon juice or hemlock 
leaves some 200 years ago, nothing definite was known about these 
nutritional-deficiency diseases until Eijkmann began experimenting 
with diseased fowls in Java 45 years ago. Gradually during the last’ 
30 years a whole alphabet of vitamins has been discovered, but it is 


BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE—CHANDLER 327 


only within the last decade that they have been obtained in chemically 
pure form, and synthesized. Few people even today realize the im- 
portance of this. Although this country is probably the best fed in 
the world, I do not believe it is an exaggeration to say that 50 and pos- 
sibly 75 percent of the American people do not have optimum amounts 
of all the vitamins they should have. They do not have scurvy or 
beriberi or rickets, but they have a host of minor illnesses or troubles 
that they need not have. Some British authorities have gone so far 
as to say that 99 percent of so-called common illnesses are directly or 
indirectly due to vitamin deficiencies. Allowing 100 percent expansion 
for enthusiasm, the figue is still impressive. 

The common effects of vitamin deficiencies are such things as night 
blindness, susceptibility to colds, unhealthy teeth, poor appetite, 
gloominess, nervousness, and a tendency to fly into tantrums. An 
abundance of vitamins leads not only to a state of superhealth in people 
who have always considered themselves reasonably healthy, but it is of 
great help in recovery from acute or chronic diseases, repair of wounds, 
and resistance to infection. Even yet, many medical men tend to look 
upon synthetic vitamins as medicine rather than supplementary food, 
but gradually this is changing, and it is encouraging to see more and 
more foods fortified by added synthetic vitamins. Because of. this 
and the more even distribution of vitamin-bearing foods by rationing, 
the general level of nutrition in England, in spite of several years of 
war, is better than it has ever been before. It is becoming more and 
more so in this country too. 

The definition of medicine includes the prevention of disease as 
well as its cure and alleviation. Some attempts at preventive medi- 
cine were made when disease was supposed to be caused by demons, 
for it was a natural inference that if the demons could be ejected they 
might also be prevented from entering. With the development of 
the humoral theories, preventive medicine was almost completely 
forgotten, since no one had even guessed as to how the humors could 
be kept in order before they got out of balance. Prevention of dis- 
ease is a phase of ecology, and involves knowledge of normal bodies 
and their relation to their environment, including climate, atmosphere, 
and geological formations, as well as relations to such fellow creatures 
as rats, mosquitoes, lice, hookworms, amoebae, and bacteria, to say 
nothing of viruses. . 

It is only in very recent times that anything whatever has been 
known about this phase of medicine. Only in a few instances have 
the processes of trial and error that led to curative and alleviative 
procedures led to practices that prevent disease. One of the first 
great triumphs in curative medicine was the discovery, in 1640, of 
the value of extracts of cinchona bark as a cure for malaria, but it was 

619830—45——=22 


328 |= ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


not until the end of the nineteenth century that a basis for the pre- 
vention of malaria was discovered. 

A few practices of primitive people suggest attempts, probably 
unwitting, to prevent disease. In India, for instance, I found a 
primitive tribe, the Santals, who never drink water directly from a 
stream or pond, but from a little hole in the sand a foot or.so away, 
thus practicing sand filtration, one of the prime tools of modern san- 
itary engineering. The unfitness of natural water for drinking was 
recognized long ago. Cyrus of Persia carried boiled water for his 
troops 2,500 years ago. The low repute of water as a beverage even 
in the unenlightened middle ages is evidenced by a thirteenth-century 
writer who, describing the extreme poverty of Franciscan monks who 
settled in London in 1224, exclaimed, “I have seen the brothers drink 
ale so sour that some would have preferred to drink water.” The 
head-hunting, carrion-eating Nagas of the Assam hills drink only a 
rice beer, carrying starters with them when they go on trips. 

Preventive medicine as practiced at present has three principal legs 
to rest on: (1) the upkeep of natural resistance by general hygienic 
measures, including a proper hormone balance and optimum nutrition ; 
(2) the artificial stimulation of specific immunity or resistance; and 
(3) protection against access of disease germs via water, food, air, 
or insect transmission. 

The general principles involved in the first of these have been known 
for a long time, but the details have only recently been filled in by 
the discoveries with respect to hormones, minerals, and vitamins that 
I have already mentioned. I have already called your attention to 
the fact that in an epidemic only a small percentage of the individuals 
that are actually exposed develop a disease. The determining factors 
are the dosage of germs that gain access to an individual, and the 
natural resistance he has. The higher the natural resistance, the 
greater the dosage he can withstand. 

The second leg on which preventive medicine rests, artificial stimu- 
lation of immunity, I have already discussed. On it we depend very 
largely for our protection against smallpox, diphtheria, tetanus, rabies, 
yellow fever, spotted fever, typhoid fever, and many other diseases. 

The third leg on which preventive medicine rests — protection 
against dissemination of germs—I have so far said little about, but 
here enormous strides have been made within a short space of time. 

Famous in sanitary history is the case of the Broad Street pump in 
London in 1854, around which centered an explosive outbreak of 
cholera. After everything from the chemical nature of the soil to 
dust bins in cellars had been investigated, the relationship between 
drinking water from the well and attacks of cholera became clear. 
Nature had provided a grim lesson out of which grew modern sani- 
tary engineering. In the intervening 90 years modern water purifi- 


BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE—CHANDLER 329 


cation and sanitary sewage disposal have developed. Whereas in 
1900 the American death rate from typhoid was 36 per 100,000, today 
it is about 1 per 100,000, and in 1942 more than half of our large cities 
had not a single typhoid death. 

Milk and food sanitation are even more recent developments. Eyen 
95 years ago a child ran the risk of acquiring disease every time he 
drank a glass of milk; today the greater part of the milk supply in 
almost every city is pasteurized, and many cities can boast of having 
no raw milk, . 

Just 50 years ago two American workers, Smith and Kilbourne, 
laid the foundation stone for medical entomology when they demon- 
strated the transmission of a disease—Texas fever of cattle—by means 
of atick. Five years after that the mosquito transmission of malaria 
was proved and then, at the turn of the century, came the brilliant work 
of an American Army commission in Havana, proving the transmission 
of yellow fever by mosquitoes. 

Today medical entomology plays a large part in our lives. By con- 
trol of insects, ticks, or mites we are able to control, in some cases 
almost to exterminate, many important diseases, including some of 
the most.important. I need only mention the prevention of malaria, 
yellow fever, and dengue by mosquito control, of epidemic typhus and 
relapsing fever by delousing methods, of plague and endemic typhus 
by control of rats and fleas, and of dysentery by fly eradication. 

Already we have become so accustomed to the benefits from all 
these protective devices that we take them for granted. Only when 
circumstances interfere with their practice, as is often the case in war, 
do we realize how much we depend on them. It was dysentery, not 
the Turks, that defeated the British at Gallipoli, and it was dysentery 
and malaria, not the Japs, that defeated our own troops at Bataan. 

As we go on into the future, preventive medicine will play a larger 
and larger part in our lives. Instead of being a secondary and rela- 
tively unimportant part in the curriculum of our medical schools, I 
predict that we shall have many schools devoted primarily if not 
exclusively to this fast-growing branch of medical science, which is 
still so young that it is seldom allowed to stand on its own feet. The 
‘subjects taught will be very largely biological ones, such as medical 
entomology, helminthology, protozoology, bacteriology, immunology, 
the newly developed field of aerobiology, and methods of sterilization 
and disinfection which are also a branch of biology, since they deal 
with the destruction of life. 

In addition to the categories of discoveries in biology that I have 
already mentioned, there are other fields of biological research which 
are making valuable contributions to both preventive and therapeutic 
medicine. I have time only to mention in passing a few of the 
discoveries made in the year 1942. 


330 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


During the past year great advances have been made in the long- 
neglected field of aerobiology, dealing with the distribution of pollens, 
fungus spores, micro-organisms, etc., through the air; new knowledge 
of the spread of contagion through the air has been obtained, and 
new methods of control worked out, using vapors and ultraviolet rays. 
Also within the year there have been a number of new biological 
methods of controlling pathogenic organisms, including discovery 
of an enzyme-like substance in young rats, by which tuberculosis ba- 
cilli may be shorn of the waxy coats that protect them from drugs 
and phagocytes, and discovery of germ-killing substances extracted 
from molds and from various types of soil bacteria. In the field of 
nutrition, evidence for the need of particular amino acids for special 
functions in the body have been demonstrated, and may pave the 
way for better control of these functions in the future. New methods 
have been developed for the study of the ultimate connections be- 
tween nerves and muscles, which may lead to better control of paralysis 
and muscular diseases. Announcement has also been made of the de- 
velopment of germ syrups, at negligible cost, which change the bac- 
terial life of the human intestine so that, like deer and cattle, we can 
not only digest the cellulose of grass, leaves, and wood, but can also 
synthesize our own supply of B vitamins within our own bodies. In 
research on cancer, which is one biological problem that is still un- 
solved, a number of significant advances have been made. A few 
more pieces have been fitted into the mosaic, bringing the final pic- 
ture a little nearer to completion. In this field as in that of allergies, 
there is still much to be done, but there is every reason to believe that 
it will be done before very long. 

Man’s ingenuity has freed him from many phases of the struggle 
for existence to which other creatures are subject. He has gained 
an insuperable advantage over the wild beasts, and his inventive genius 
defies the attacks of climate and the elements. In his struggle against 
disease he has, as we have seen, made wonderful progress, although 
he still has far to go. There is some reason to hope that after the 
present global war has burned itself out we may be able to free our- 
selves from the one phase of the struggle for existence that man’s 
ingenuity has steadily made more terrible, the struggle of man against 
man. With all the phases of the struggle for existence well in hand 
we may then turn to a struggle for improvement of our kind by the 
application of two other branches of biological science, genetics and 
eugenics. Within our own generation preventive medicine has 
grown out of therapeutic medicine; perhaps our children may live 
to see a still newer branch of “improvement medicine,” in which en- 
docrinology, nutritional studies, problems of aging and rejuvenescence, 
and eugenics will lead to greater health, more happiness, longer life, 
and better evolutionary prospects than have hitherto been our lot. 


THE LOCUST PLAGUE? 


By B. P. Uvarov, D. Se. 
Entomologist, Anti-Locust Research Centre, British Museum (Natural History) 


THE OLDEST ENTOMOLOGICAL PROBLEM 


The locust problem has confronted man since the earliest beginnings 
of agriculture. Biblical references to locust plagues are well known, 
and Joel’s description of a locust invasion has never been surpassed for 
its dramatic picturesqueness combined with amazing accuracy of detail. 
The earliest known record of locusts is a picture of a locust on the wall 
of an Egyptian tomb of the Twelfth Dynasty, about 2400 B. C. Ref- 
erences to locusts abound in ancient Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, and 
Chinese texts, and Roman writers such as Titus, Livy, and Pliny have 
left us many data, some fantastic, but some of definite value. <A criti- 
cal examination of this information is still awaited, and it may shed 
new light on certain sides of the problem. 

The more recent literature on the locust problem is enormous, and 
the number of books and papers on the subject was estimated 15 years 
ago at about 2,000; since then this figure has been almost doubled, 
owing to intensive new research. The more important contributions 
are published in about a dozen languages, and the task of coping with 
this flood is not an easy one. 


WORLD-WIDE PROBLEM 


It is often thought that locust plagues are restricted to a few coun- 
tries and that the world at large need not be concerned about them. 
This view is largely due to the fact that central and northwestern 
Europe is now practically safe from locusts, though its southern coun- 
tries, e. g., Portugal, Spain, Italy, the Balkan Peninsula, the Ukraine 
and the Caucasus, know their depredations only too well. 

The zone where agriculture has to reckon with locusts and their 
lesser relatives, grasshoppers, becomes even wider in temperate Asia, 

1Lecture delivered before the Dominions and Colonies Section, Royal Society of Arts, 
London, December 15, 1942, and published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 
vol. 91, No. 4631, 1943. Revised and brought up to date by the author, and here reprinted 
by permission of the Royal Society of Arts. The object of the present paper is to give a brief 


account of the locust problem and to show how recent advances in its study have made it 
possible to envisage its lasting solution. 


331 


332 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


where a broad belt of the fertile Siberian lands produces not only 
grain in abundance, but also grasshoppers which take their toll of 
the harvest. South of that belt, Soviet Middle Asia, producing cotton, 
fruit, etc., is subject to ravages of the Asiatic migratory (Locusta 
migratoria migratoria) and the Moroccan (Dociostaurus maroccanus ) 
locusts. Farther east, in China, the Oriental migratory locust (Locusta 
migratoria manilensis) has repeatedly caused wholesale famines, and’ 
is actually causing untold miseries at present. The range of this 
locust extends to the Philippine Islands, where records of its ravages 
are found in the earliest Spanish chronicles, and to Borneo, Celebes, 
Indo-China and the Malayan peninsula. 

Returning westward again, we meet the vast zone where the desert 
locust (Schistocerca gregaria) holds its sway over agriculture, which 
is here carried out always under precarious conditions, making its 
products particularly precious to the population, so that a loss of 
harvest amounts to a major catastrophe. It is this desert locust that — 
has been known to man since Biblical times, and which is still as 
active as it was thousands of years ago. The area of its depredations 
is enormous, stretching from India in the east to the Atlantic coast 
of Africa in the west, and from Russian Middle Asia in the north to 
below the Equator in eastern Africa. The tropical parts of Africa also 
have to cope with two other kinds of locust, the African migratory 
(Locusta migratoria migratorioides) and the red (Nomadacris sep- 
temfasciata) locust. The latter extends its ravages to South Africa, 
which, in addition, has a very serious problem in the endemic brown 
locust (Locustana pardalina). 

Australia, the continent where agricultural development started rela- 
tively recently, but where it has made great strides, is already paying 
a heavy tax to locusts and grasshoppers. 

Turning to the Western Hemisphere, both the United States and 
Canada have to wage an almost incessant war against grasshoppers, 
while wide regions in Central and South America are periodically dev- 
astated by swarms of the American locust (Schistocerca paranensis). 

Thus, none of the five continents is free from these pests, which, in 
fact are absent only from the forest and the tundra belts in the north, 
from the equatorial forests, and from the high mountains. The regions 
either permanently infested by them or subject to their periodical in- 
cursions include no less than 77 separate countries (fig. 1). 


WHAT LOCUSTS COST THE WORLD 


Beginning with the Egyptian locust plague, described in the Bible, 
there runs through history a tragic tale of devastations caused by 
locusts, followed by famines decimating populations of whole countries. 
Thus, in the Roman colonies of Cyrenaica and Numidia no less than 


33d 


LOCUST PLAGUE—UVAROV 


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334 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


800,000 people died in the year 125 B. C. after a locust invasion. Great 
famines have been caused by locusts in India, China, and other coun- 
tries. As recently as 1930, losses of crops estimated at nearly 1,000,000 
pounds were caused by locusts in Morocco. In Nigeria, in the same 
year, 1,000 tons of grain had to be imported to prevent famine; in 
Tanganyika Territory 75 to 100 percent of native crops were destroyed 
in 1929, and in Kenya in the same year £200,000 had to be spent on 
relief from the famine caused by locusts and drought. 

These are impressive figures, but it may be argued that locust inva- 
sions occur only periodically, and that a distorted picture of their eco- 
nomic importance is obtained by considering exceptional cases. 

To assess the cost of locusts and grasshoppers to the world, the Anti- 
. Locust Research Centre attempted to collect statistical data for a 
10-year period, 1925-34, which covered both bad locust years and those 
free of them. Statistics of this kind were not easy to obtain, and only 
49 countries (out of 77 suffering from locusts) submitted them. Never- 
theless, the total was staggering, showing that crops to the value of 
£83,120,800 went to feed the locusts in 10 years. The losses would cer- 
tainly have been greater if no defensive measures had been taken, but 
the latter cost another 13 million pounds. On the basis of these figures, 
it was not an exaggeration to estimate the average cost of locusts and 
grasshoppers to the world at 15 million pounds per annum. To this 
must be added the enormous figure of unpaid labor which is used almost 
everywhere for large-scale defensive measures. The data on this point 
are very incomplete, but the number of man-days often runs into 
millions in one year and in one country. 


AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS AND LOCUSTS 


It has been argued that locusts and grasshoppers represent a danger 
only in backward countries, and that the advance of agriculture should 
inevitably lead to their disappearance as pests. A long interval during 
which the United States of America were almost free from grass- 
hoppers led some of the most eminent American entomologists to 
believe that agricultural progress had made a repetition of the grass- 
hopper plagues impossible. These hopes were rudely shattered in re- 
cent years, when grasshopper outbreaks recommenced on a truly Ameri- 
can scale. 

Moreover, there are definite cases on record where direct encourage- 
ment was given to locusts by otherwise excellent developments. The 
Danube delta, for example, had become unsuitable for locust breeding 
on a large scale toward the end of the last century, but recent regulation 
of the river channel resulted in the emergence of new areas of land 
which were quickly utilized by locusts, and an area which had not 
produced locust swarms for many years became again a source of 


LOCUST PLAGUE—UVAROV 335 


danger. In northern Borneo, locusts can breed only in areas where 
the jungle has been cleared for cultivation and abandoned after a few 
seasons; such shifting cultivation there, and probably in other similar 
areas, is a direct cause of locust outbreaks. In western Australia, 
the clearing of dry forests in the interests of sheep breeding has created 
a type of grassland admirably suited for locusts. Overgrazing of 
natural pastures is largely the cause of the great, and growing, grass- 
hopper menace in Argentina, some parts of the United States, Canada, 
and parts of Russia. Such facts led the Fourth International Locust 
Conference, held in 1936 at Cairo, to pass a resolution pointing out that 
the mass development of locusts and grasshoppers is furthered rather 
than hindered by man’s activities, and that no hopes can be entertained 
of the problem’s becoming less acute merely as a result of the general 
development of a country. 

To this must be added the consideration that the agricultural de- 
velopment of new areas, e. g., in Africa, central Asia, etc., tends to 
increase the danger from locusts in direct proportion to the increase 
in the value of crops exposed to their ravages. 


THE USES OF LOCUSTS 


It may well be asked whether it might not be possible to find some use 
for the mass of organic matter represented in locust swarms, some of 
which have been estimated to amount to hundreds of tons. Chemical 
analyses show that locusts contain protein, fats, and mineral salts, 
which would be of value in the preparation of fertilizers and of food 
for cattle and poultry. From the technical point of view the idea is 
sound, but no industry can be based on a raw material which may be 
overabundant one year and nonexistent the next. 

The use of locusts for food is well known, since John the Baptist 
lived on them, as Bedouins in Arabia still continue to do when other 
food is scarce. The Assyrians apparently considered locusts as food fit 
for kings, since a bas relief of the seventh century B. C. shows locusts 
being brought up to the table of Asshurbanipal. Locusts are still 
eaten in many countries, and the Philippine Department of Agricul- 
ture has recently published a pamphlet describing 33 different ways 
of cooking them. Some of the recipes sound rather attractive in war- 
time, perhaps, because they include such ingredients as eggs, bananas, 
lemons, and pineapples. More plainly cooked locusts were recently 
described by an entomologist as “neither repulsive nor producing any 
pleasant sensation.” 


LOCUSTS AND THEIR HABITS 


We have been speaking of locusts as a plague of agriculture, but in 
order to understand the problem, it is necessary to have a clear idea 


336 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


of what locusts are and how they live. A locust is nothing but a spe- 
cies of grasshopper, but usually larger in size and characterized mainly 
by gregarious habits. 

The life cycle of locusts and grasshoppers is fairly simple. The 
eggs are deposited by the female in the soil, in packets, or “egg-pods,” 
each containing 30 to 100 eggs. In countries with a cold winter, eggs 
lie dormant throughout this season, and in spring the young locusts, 
or “hoppers,” emerge from them onto the surface of the soil. In the 
Tropics, the eggs may hatch in 2 to 3 weeks, if there is rain or moisture 
in the soil. The difference between grasshoppers and locusts becomes 
apparent in the hopper stage; the former may be numerous, but each 
one lives independently of the others, whereas the latter congregate 
in dense groups, or bands. Further development consists in rapid 
growth, stimulated by voracious feeding on green vegetation, and in 
the periodic moulting which occurs 4 to 6 times before the adult insect 
appears; these differ from the hoppers only in size and the presence 
of two pairs of wings. The whole cycle occupies a year in temperate 
climates, but in the Tropics there may be several generations within a 
year. 

The most striking feature in the behavior of locust hoppers is their 
mass movement in bands, which may cover several square miles. The 
relentless march of hopper bands which are not stopped by obstacles, 
even by water, creates an impression of a dark purpose, of a movement 
toward an objective, and many more or less fantastic explanations 
have been offered to account for it. Recent investigations have, how- 
ever, definitely proved that the movement of hoppers depends very 
largely on temperature and occurs only on sufficiently hot days, while 
excessive heat again causes it to stop. The hopper movements are not 
caused by hunger and do not aim at finding food, since hoppers, driven 
by heat, often leave a fertile area and march into open desert. 

When hoppers become adult and acquire wings, they soon begin to 
fly about in swarms. Again, a swarm does not leave an area because 
of lack of food, and it does not necessarily fly toward more fertile 
lands, but its flight is initiated, directed, and interrupted by various 
weather factors. Swarms may reach great size and contain fantastic 
numbers of individuals. Thus, a swarm in East Africa measuring 
3 by 60 miles was estimated to consist of a million million locusts; and 
even larger swarms are on record. 

The distances covered by swarm flights may be enormous. In 1693, 
swarms of the migratory locust from the Danube delta reached Wales, 
at a distance of about 1,600 miles in a straight line, though probably 
not in a single flight. A swarm of the desert locust was encountered 
in the Atlantic midway between South America and Africa, about 
1,500 miles from the latter, whence it certainly came. This must have 


LOCUST PLAGUE—UVAROV 337 


been a single sustained flight. As will be seen later, the extent of 
migrations becomes even greater when the swarms of several succes- 
sive generations are considered. 


METHODS OF LOCUST CONTROL 


It would be impossible even to enumerate here the many methods 
used, or recommended, for locust destruction. It is of interest, how- 
ever, to point out that some of them are centuries old and are still 
in use. The destruction of eggs by digging was practiced in ancient 
China and is still widely recommended, though it is effective only in 
some special cases. Beating of hoppers by branches and driving 
them into trenches were the methods enforced by the Romans in 
North Africa, according to Pliny, and are still practiced in spite of 
being of little value and involving the use of forced labor in astro- 
nomical quantities. 

In more recent times, endless new methods have been proposed and 
tried against locusts, such as the use of flame throwers, poison gases, 
bacterial diseases, steam rollers, balloon barrages, smoke screens, and 
even artillery. Lately, the method of poison baits has come into 
almost universal use. Bran, moistened with sodium arsenite solution, 
is scattered thinly on the ground and proves to be more attractive to 
locusts than green food. When the low dosage of poison, sufficient to 
kill locusts but not grazing animals, is strictly adhered to, there is 
no danger from baits, but it would obviously be an advantage to 
eliminate all risks. This may eventually be achieved by investiga- 
tions, now in progress, with dusts which would kill locusts by contact 
and which could be sprayed from aircraft. 

However, even some of the relatively primitive methods may be 
of use for destroying locusts. Indeed, it is definitely not the lack of 
the proper technique which hampers the solution of the problem. 


ANTI-LOCUST POLICY OF THE PAST 


The main stumbling block in the way of a solution of the locust 
problem is the fact that locust depredations do not recur annually 
but in cycles of several years, separated by clear intervals. When a 
country is invaded, no effort is spared to organize defense, which is 
rarely effective, since the organization usually lags behind the inva- 
sion. As soon as the immediate danger is over, the anxiety gives 
way to wholly unjustified hopes that perhaps the invasion will not 
recur, or at least not in our time, and nothing is done until the next 
catastrophe, which again occurs unexpectedly. It is this unfounded 
optimism that should be considered as the first cause of the continual 
recurrence of locust plagues over the centuries. 


338 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The second reason for the failure to control locusts is the isolation- 
ist policy of practically every country subject to their depredations. 
History provides examples of great efforts to control locusts in 
Algeria, South Africa, Argentina, etc., but the results were always 
temporary and never led to a radical solution of the locust problem, 
simply because it is insoluble within a single country. - We have seen 
that swarms in their flights may, and do, cover great distances, and 
that they completely lack respect for any man-made boundaries. 
Swarms of the desert locusts, bred in India, usually migrate to Per- 
sia and Arabia, and their progeny proceed to Egypt, Palestine, and to 
East Africa. It is clear that control measures in any one of these 
countries, however effective, may only protect the standing crops of 
the particular season, but will have no effect on the general situation. 

Sporadic attempts to approach some measure of international 
cooperation have not been lacking. Conventions pledging each coun- 
try to control locusts within its own confines have been concluded 
between groups of adjoining countries (e. g., South American Repub- 
lics; Iraq, Syria, and Turkey; Persia and the Soviet Union, etc.), 
but most of them remained paper agreements only and had no prac- 
tical effect, because they all aimed at defense only, and no attempt 
was ever made to take concerted measures toward a lasting solution 
of the problem. 

The most spectacular failure of such attempts to solve the locust 
problem by resolutions was the Rome International Conference of 
1920. A convention pledging their countries to take all the necessary 
measures against locusts was signed by delegates of 18 countries, 
widely scattered over the globe. It appeared incomprehensible why 
Madagascar should join forces with Mexico, or Bulgaria with Uru- 
guay, since they are threatened by entirely different species of locusts, 
and the course of events in one of them could not possibly have any 
effect on the other; and the solution of the locust problem remained 
unattainable as long as it was approached without sufficient scientific 
basis, though it was certainly right to regard the problem as an inter- 
national one. 


SCIENTIFIC BASIS OF A NEW POLICY 


The irregular periodicity of locust invasions hampered scientific 
research on the problem, just as it did the organization of locust con- 
trol. It was naturally difficult to persuade governments to spend 
money on locust research in the periods when swarms were absent, 
and little could be accomplished during the locust years, when all 
efforts were concentrated on defense. Asa result, there was no answer 
to the question : “What happens to locusts when there are no swarms?” 
Since locusts matter only when they are in swarms, it appeared idle 


LOCUST PLAGUE—UVAROV 339 


curiosity to ask the question, but, fortunately, scientists are often at- 
tracted by “useless” problems. In this case, entomologists in Russia 
and in South Africa undertook investigations, and almost simultane- 
ously, and quite independently, arrived at wholly unexpected, but 
closely similar conclusions. It was found that locusts in the years 
when they are not numerous differ from the swarm locusts in appear- 
ance and in habits. The external differences between the swarming 
and the solitary phases of locusts, as they came to be known, are some- 
times so pronounced that the two phases were considered by specialists 
as belonging to different species. As regards habits, locusts of the 
solitary phase are typical grasshoppers, showing no inclination to 
form dense bands and swarms. Should, however, the numbers of 
locusts in a restricted area increase, so that crowding results, the 
locusts acquire strong gregarious tendencies. The phenomenon of 
phase variation in locusts has since been subjected to intensive studies, 
and many interesting details have been discovered, but the point of 
outstanding practical importance was that it opened up a possible 
approach to the problem of the origin of locust outbreaks. 


NEW PERIOD OF INVESTIGATIONS 


In 1928, a serious outbreak of the desert locust started to develop, and 
the British Government decided that steps should be taken to con- 
sider not only defensive measures, but also the possibility of a radical 
solution of the problem by ascertaining the reasons for the periodical 
swarming of locusts, with a view to their control. A Locust Sub- 
Committee of the Committee of Civil Research (later transformed 
into the Committee on Locust Control of the Economic Advisory 
Council) was formed on April 29, 1929, and that date may be taken 
as the threshold of a new anti-locust policy. The actual work was 
entrusted to a special research unit, under the supervision of Sir Guy 
A. K. Marshall, then Director of the Imperial Institute of Entomol- 
ogy, and under the technical direction of the present writer. A 
scheme for collecting current information on locust movements and 
breeding in all countries of Africa and the Middle East was intro- 
duced, and several field investigators were sent out to study the prob- 
lem on the spot. The organization, set up as a purely British one, 
rapidly attracted attention in other countries, and the First Inter- 
national Locust Conference at Rome in 1930 requested the British 
organization to act as the International Centre for Anti-Locust Re- 
‘search, where all the information on the subject could be centralized. 
The years 1930-38 witnessed a unique concentration of scientific effort 
on locust investigations. Parties of British, French, Belgian, South 
African, Indian, and Egyptian experts systematically explored one 
area after another; spending months in the regions which are rightly 


340 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


regarded as most inhospitable; establishing temporary field labora- 
tories; and gradually disentangling the many threads of the great 
problem. Nor was this extensive work uncoordinated, since practi- 
cally every year the experts and other representatives of the countries 
involved came together for a conference, to pool the results and to plan 
further campaigns. The accumulation of information on locusts at 
the International Centre, in the meantime, went on, with a steady im- 
provement in the unified reporting system, which by now covered the . 
entire continent of Africa and a substantial portion of Asia. All 
countries in that immense region submitted monthly reports on the 
locust situation. These reports were critically examined, summarized 
and mapped, so that all developments in the situation could be fol- 
lowed step by step. 

A feature of this international effort was its development without 
the signing of formal conventions and on a basis of direct collabora- 
tion between experts of many nations, with the ready support of their 
governments. 

The results of this teamwork, which is certainly unique in entomo- 
logical history, have justified the effort. At the outset of the investi- 
gations, practically nothing was known on the distribution of the 
different species of locusts in Africa, on their seasonal cycle and migra- 
tions, and particularly, on the origin and the course of their periodical 
outbreaks. After 8 years of intensive work, a clear picture of the 
whole problem became available, which has made it possible to formu- 
late an entirely new anti-locust policy, aiming at a radical solution 
of the locust problem. 


NEW ANTI-LOCUST POLICY 


The investigations just outlined have provided abundant evidence 
that the periodicity of locust outbreaks is closely connected with the 
periodical transformation of the harmless solitary phase into the 
dangerous gregarious one. Such a confirmation of a scientific theory 
may appear of no importance except to experts, but actually the theory 
has supplied the key to the whole problem. It was proved that the 
transformation into the gregarious phase can happen, in the case of 
each locust species, only in certain relatively restricted areas with 
peculiar natural conditions, and it is only in these outbreak areas 
that the first swarms can be formed. In the case of the African migra- 
tory locust it was shown that a few small swarms arising about 1928 
in a restricted area on the middle Niger in the French Sudan were 
the cause of an invasion which in 5 years swept over the greater part 
of the African continent (fig. 2). The outbreak areas of the red 
locust have been located in Tanganyika Territory and in Northern 
Rhodesia. With regard to the desert locust, it was found that its 


LOCUST PLAGUE—UVAROV 341 


swarms can arise from the scattered locusts of the solitary phase on 
the coasts of the Red Sea, in Baluchistan, and in Mauretania. 

The fact that the great locust invasions are due to very small be- 
ginnings has important implications, for once the original outbreak 


SES 
pared Bie iit US 


AV ANRIA 
OC as Di he 
ial 


‘Ficurp 2.—Map of Africa showing the spread of swarms of the migratory locust 
(Locusta migratoria migratorioides R. & F.) during the last outbreak. The 
outbreak commenced in 1928 in the two centers on the Middle Niger shown in 
black and spread in the same year over the area numbered 1. The areas gradu- 
ally invaded during each of the following years are numbered consecutively. 
Generally, two generations were produced each year. The arrows represent 
only the main lines of migration, smaller seasonal movements not being shown. 


areas are known, they can be put under permanent observation and 
any tendency on,the part of the solitary locusts to form incipient 


342 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


swarms can be suppressed before they have had a chance to spread 
elsewhere. The new policy of locust control aims, therefore, at pre- 
venting the outbreaks instead of allowing them to develop into in- 
vasions and then trying to devise desperate defense measures. 

This policy of prevention of locust outbreaks is clearly more 
rational than the old defensive policy. It is also more economical, 
requiring a regular annual expenditure of only a small fraction of 
the average annual cost of the defensive measures, apart from eliminat- 
ing the losses due to invasions. 

By the year 1938, the international investigations had advanced 
so well that it was possible to formulate practical plans for dealing 
with the three main locust species affecting Africa and the Middle 
East. At the Fifth International Locust Conference held at Brussels 
in 1938, definite schemes were elaborated for establishing permanent 
organizations for the control of the desert, migratory, and red locusts. 
These plans, naturally, required further discussions of administrative 
and financial details, and these extended into 1939, when the out- 
break of the war made the locust problem appear insignificant. 

Very soon, however, it became apparent that the war would demand 
a maximum production of foodstuffs and that crops must be safe- 
guarded from locusts. Unfortunately, most of the outbreak areas of 
the desert locust were near, or very close to, the war zone, and the out- 
break areas of the migratory. locust became inaccessible to outside 
experts after the fall of France. There remained only the red locust, 
and the scheme for its control, supported by the British colonies and 
protectorates in East Africa, by Southern Rhodesia and the Belgian 
Congo, was launched in 1940. Recently, it became known that an 
organization for preventive control of the migratory locust has been 
established by French authorities without waiting for international 
support, which must be given as soon as possible. Thus, in spite of 
the war, the foundation stone of permanent international locust con- 
trol was laid. 


LOCUSTS AND THE WAR 


It was a most unfortunate coincidence that, after a quiet interval 
of several years, the desert locust exhibited signs of renewed swarm- 
ing just as the war broke out and the first swarms had a chance to 
escape observation and destruction. By the time the areas in ques- 
tion had become more accessible, the swarms were not numerous, but 
sufficiently widespread to necessitate an urgent campaign for the 
protection of crops throughout the Middle East and East Africa. 
From the point of view of organization, war conditions proved to 
be, paradoxically, more favorable for an anti-locust campaign than 
normal times. The importance of safeguarding vital food supplies, 
both for the troops and the population, became a powerful factor in 


LOCUST PLAGUE—UVAROV 343 


obtaining the willing cooperation of all concerned. This made it 
possible, for the first time in the history of locust control, to organize 
not a dozen small national campaigns designed mainly for defense, 
but a unified campaign embracing the whole affected area and assum- 
ing the character of offensive operations. These operations are based 
on a knowledge of the seasonal movements of swarms, which has been 
accumulated in past years and which makes it possible to forecast 
the course of events with considerable accuracy. It is a matter of 
justifiable pride for the Anti-Locust Centre that in the present in- 
vasion every country has received a timely warning, and that these 
warnings have proved to be correct. 


THE INTERNATIONAL ANTI-LOCUST CAMPAIGN 


Seasonal movements of the desert locust cover an enormous region. 
Swarms produced during the summer monsoon rains in India fly 
in the autumn to southern Persia and Arabia; the latter country 
receives about the same time the swarms bred on summer rains in 
Africa. The winter and spring rains in Arabia and southern Persia 
enable these locusts to multiply and the new swarms produced in 
these countries move during the spring into Sinai, Egypt, Palestine, 
Syria, Iraq, Central Persia, Afghanistan, and India, sometimes reach- 
ing as far north as Turkey and Soviet Middle Asia, breeding wherever 
they meet rains. The Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and even the Arabian 
Sea are liable to be crossed by swarms migrating between Africa, 
Arabia, Persia, and India. Many swarms from Arabia cross to the 
Sudan, Eritrea, and Ethiopia, where they are able to breed again on 
summer rains. In the Somalilands, Ethiopia, and East Africa, the 
seasons are somewhat different, but the principle remains the same, 
since locust swarms always evacuate a region which becomes too dry 
and migrate to a rainy one. As a result, the whole enormous region 
stretching from East Africa to India has to be regarded as a single 
interconnected migration area. Obviously, the general strategy of 
the anti-locust campaign had to be based on the knowledge where and 
when the enemy could be best attacked. An essential principle of 
this strategy was to evolve a single plan of the campaign, with a 
view to exterminating locust swarms wherever this can be done with 
the maximum effect. 

In planning the campaign, it was essential to make full use of the 
fact that in many of the affected countries there existed efficient 
local entomological organizations. Such organizations in India, 
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and the British East African colonies could 
be relied upon to organize locust control in their own territories, 
within the framework of the general campaign. Some of them went 
further, and generously offered their assistance to the surrounding 


619830—45——_23 


344 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


territories. Thus, the Sudan supplied personnel and bait for Arabia; 
India sent a trained staff to help in Persia and Oman; Kenya has 
undertaken to supply bait to the territories of the former Italian 
East Africa, etc. In Persia where local personnel was competent to 
deal with the situation, the extent of the operations required was 
too great for the local resources, and British, Indian, and Soviet 
Governments came to their assistance by providing additional per- 
sonnel, motor transport, bait, etc. 

The chief problem, however, remained that of Arabia, a vast sub- 
continent devoid of communications, with a sparse population, which 
has little interest in locusts as agriculture is practically nonexistent. 
On the other hand, this is one of the most important locust-producing 
areas. Fortunately, most of the peninsula is under the rule of King 
Ibn Saud who is keenly interested in the development of his country 
and he not only agreed to admit anti-locust missions but offered ready 
assistance in their work. Small motorized anti-locust missions were 
sent to various parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman in 1942-43, mainly 
for the purposes of studying the conditions and acquiring experience 
in desert warfare against locusts. The next winter (1943-44) it 
became possible with the assistance of civil and military authorities 
to send into Arabia several well-equipped missions, comprising over 
350 motor vehicles and nearly 1,000 men. These missions were dis- 
tributed over all the most important locust-breeding areas and have 
accomplished a magnificent piece of work in spite of many and various 
difficulties. Most of the personnel were British, but it included also 
Americans, Egyptians, Indians, Palestinians, and Sudanese locust 
officers and technical assistants. The whole anti-locust army was 
technically directed by the Chief Locust Officer (R. C. Maxwell- 
Darling, later succeeded as Senior Locust Officer in Arabia by D. 
Vesey-Fitzgerald), and various detachments kept in touch by wireless. 
Many thousands of square miles of territory, some of it never before 
visited by Europeans, have been effectively cleared (by poison bait) 
of locusts, which were killed in quantities defying all estimation. 
Apart from the immediate achievement in reducing locust hordes, 
which would have invaded the adjoining fertile countries, the Ara- 
bian campaign had a great propaganda value, showing the population 
that locusts, which used to be regarded as Allah’s visitation, can be 
killed and crops saved from them. These crops may be few and far 
between, but this makes their local value even greater than it would 
have been elsewhere. The campaign has also demonstrated the sin- 
cerity of purpose of the United Nations in sending the anti-locust 
missions. For those who conceived the idea of the Arabian campaign 
and who participated in planning and in carrying it out, it was an 
encouragement to see that, as it was hoped, locusts can be beaten on 
their own ground. 


LOCUST PLAGUE—UVAROV 345 


Anti-locust campaigns on a similar scale had to be organized also 
in East Africa, where military authorities rendered most valuable 
help with regard to transport and personnel, while the Royal Air 
Force was everywhere playing its part, helping with communications 
and transport. In order to coordinate operations in all British terri- 
tories and the occupied Italian ones, an East African Anti-Locust 
Directorate was established at Nairobi. In Kenya efforts on a par- 
ticularly great scale have been made, with the result that the agricul- 
tural production of the country, which has greatly increased during 
the war, has not suffered to any serious extent. In the past, locust 
invasions in East Africa often entailed wholesale destruction of crops 
and famine resulted. 

A gallant fight has been put up by India, where great difficulties had 
to be overcome in order to centralize the direction of the campaign, 
since locusts were supposed to be the responsibility of each separate 
provincial government, not all of which were equally alive to the 
danger. However, good progress has been made and in 1943 a great, if 
temporary, victory over locusts was won in India, which by the end of 
the year was clear of swarms, but became reinvaded from the west in 
1944 when again a successful campaign was carried out. This rein- 
vasion served to underline the fact that no country can hope to achieve 
a lasting success by its own efforts alone, but all have to work together. 

Ethiopia presented a particularly difficult problem. As in the case 
of Arabia, many parts of Ethiopia serve for the production of locust 
swarms and it was impossible to expect that they would be controlled 
locally. Moreover, previous knowledge of Ethiopia in relation to the 
locust problem was extremely meager. Therefore, a special mission 
was sent to Ethiopia in 1942 with a view to investigate the situation, to 
organize regular locust information service, and to work toward making 
the authorities locust-conscious. By 1944, it was possible to report ex- 
cellent progress in all these directions, but there remained still large 
areas where locusts continued to breed but where it was impossible to 
organize their effective control. These areas of Ethiopia, as well as 
Yemen in Arabia, so far remain beyond the general plan of the cam- 
paign, but in both countries there are hopeful signs of improvement. 

The organization of a series of campaigns of such magnitude would 
have been impossible without the ready cooperation of all governments 
concerned, and of the many civilian, military, and air authorities of 
the Allied nations. Special credit is due to the Middle East Supply 
Centre, an Anglo-American regional economic organization based in 
Cairo, with ramifications over the whole of the Middle East. That 
Centre, advised by the Chief Locust Officer (R. C. Maxwell-Darling, 
succeeded by O. B. Lean), has undertaken to shoulder the heavy bur- 
den of organizing and administering the campaigns in Arabia and 


346 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Persia, and such successes as have been achieved are largely due to 
the efficiency of the machinery which had to translate into action the 
plans prepared by experts. 

The invasion area of the desert locust, however, is not restricted to 
East Africa and the adjoining parts of Asia, but extends across the 
French West and North African territories. Here the organization of 
control is in the hands of French authorities, and the Allied Govern- 
ments are only rendering assistance by supplies of poison. French 
experts and the administration are faced with enormous difficulties 
in organizing their anti-locust campaigns, but their efforts are meeting 
with considerable success. Great progress in the anti-locust organiza- 
tion was marked by the establishment in 1943 of the Office National 
Antiacridien at Algiers. This office, directed by the outstanding locust 
expert, Dr. B. N. Zolotarevsky, aims at coordinating anti-locust meas- 
ures throughout the French African territories. A continuous work- 
ing contact is maintained with the Anti-Locust Research Centre in 
London, and in this way the unity of the general plan is ensured. 

The great series of anti-locust campaigns just outlined is far from 
being over, and it is too early to claim their success. Nevertheless, it 
is significant that, with the invasion in its fourth year, no serious losses 
of crops occurred anywhere, in sharp contrast to what happened in 
the past invasions by the desert locust. Great efforts were needed to 
achieve this result, but their cost must be regarded in relation to the 
losses that appeared unavoidable. It should be clearly understood, 
however, that this success is only a temporary one, and any relaxation 
of effort would lead to a disaster. In fact, the year 1944-45 may see the 
peak of the present invasion which will probably continue for 2 to 3 
years more, and the campaigns will have to go on until the danger is 
overcome. The need for protecting food production in Africa and the 
Middle East was particularly urgent during the war, but it would be 
a poor introduction to the postwar world if a famine were allowed to 
develop on the conclusion of hostilities. 


THE CODLING MOTH 


By B. A. Porter 
Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine, Agricultural Research 
Administration, United States Depariment of Agriculture 


(With 6 plates) 
INTRODUCTION 


The codling moth, Carpocapsa pomonella L., is a conspicuous exam- 
ple of an insect species that has been able to maintain itself as a 
destructive pest of apple orchards for more than a hundred years in 
spite of the continuous development and improvement of control 
practices. Forty or more investigators employed by the United States 
Department of Agriculture, State agricultural experiment stations 
and other State agencies, and insecticide companies, are now devoting 
all or a considerable part of their time to this problem, and progress 
is constantly being made in the development of control measures. The 
literature has become so voluminous that no one person has ever re- 
viewed all of it. Yet with all of this progress the insect continues to 
cause serious losses to apple growers. Since similar trends have been 
exhibited by certain other insects, a review of the evolution of control 
measures for the codling moth, and the conditions that have permitted 
the insect species to maintain itself in spite of these control measures, 
may be of interest to students of insect control problems. 


BIOLOGY OF THE CODLING MOTH 


For the benefit of readers who are not well acquainted with the 
codling moth, a brief summary of its seasonal history will be given: 
The codling moth passes the winter as full-grown larvae in cocoons, 
in crevices in the bark of the tree, under loose flakes of bark, in debris 
on the ground, and in similar places (pl. 1, fig. 1). In early spring, 
as the buds begin to push out, the insect changes to the pupa (pl. 1, 
fig. 1), or stage in which the transformation from larva to adult moth 
takes place (pl. 1, fig. 2). The first moths appear about the time the 
apple trees come into bloom; and shortly begin to lay their white, 
scalelike eggs (pl. 2, fig. 1) on the leaves, chiefly around a fruit spur. 
Later many of the eggs are placed directly on the fruit. The newly 

347 


348 |= ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


hatched larvae make their way to the fruit, unless the eggs were al- 
ready there, chew their way in, and feed on the pulp and seeds until 
mature (pl. 2, fig. 2). During the first part of the season many of the 
worms enter through the calyx, or blossom end of the fruit; later most 
of them enter the fruit through the side. The minimum time required 
for a complete life cycle under the most favorable conditions is ap- 
proximately 37 days. The number of generations in a season ranges 
from one, with a negligible fraction of a second, in the more northern 
apple-growing sections, to three nearly full generations and a part of 
a fourth, in the more southern localities in which apples are grown. 
In favorable seasons in such localities, the worm population in late 
summer reaches tremendous numbers. In unsprayed orchards there 
may be five or more worms in nearly every apple, and the crop is com- 
pletely riddled; in many reasonably well-sprayed orchards losses of 
20 to 30 percent are not uncommon. Although a few growers may 
succeed, worm control is an uphill fight under such conditions, and in 
certain localities in which such conditions exist, apple production has 
undergone a serious decline 


CONTROL BY ORCHARD SANITATION 


Until late in the last century, partial control of the codling moth 
was accomplished by various practices which are often referred to as 
“orchard sanitation,” including the trapping of the mature worms 
under bands. The early writers recommended the removal of loose 
bark from the tree trunks, the destruction of rough ground debris, 
and the removal of dead wood from the tree, in order to destroy the 
insects in their hibernating quarters and to eliminate their favored 
cocooning places. The removal and destruction of infested fruit, the 
screening of packing sheds, and similar measures, were also suggested. 

For the purpose of trapping the worms, a number of ingenious types 
of bands and other traps were developed during the nineteenth cen- 
tury. Banding was first suggested about the middle of the century 
(Burrelle, 1840). One of the bands most widely used for a time was 
a hay-rope band (Trimble, 1865) (pl. 3). After a few years, however, 
this type of band gave way to materials more convenient to use, such 
as heavy wrapping paper, burlap, canvas, or flannel cloth. Some 
growers who used the cloth bands killed the worms trapped in them 
by running the bands through a clothes wringer, mounted on a wheel- 
barrow for convenience in operating it and moving it from tree to 
tree in the orchard. Then there was the Wier shingle trap which 
consisted of three shingles placed on the trunk of the tree, and held 
. just far enough apart to furnish an attractive cocooning place. The 
worms were killed by rubbing one shingle against another, or by giving 
the whole device a sharp blow with a hammer. 


CODLING MOTH—PORTER 349 


With the advent of spraying, the control measures just outlined— 
banding, the scraping of loose bark from the trees, destruction of 
debris, and similar practices—became supplementary or were dis- 
continued entirely. About 15 years ago, Siegler and associates (1927) 
devised a chemically treated band which automatically kills the worms 
that enter it. Such bands are now used by many growers. A revival 
of the various sanitary measures took place from 1926 to 1935, when 
difficulties with spray residues were the most acute. The use of such 
measures was, however, still looked on as secondary and supplementary 
to spraying. 

The predominant development in the codling moth problem has 
been the adoption and evolution of spraying. 


EVOLUTION OF CONTROL BY SPRAYING 


In 1878 the control of the codling moth was completely changed 
by the discovery made by two New York State growers that the 
recently developed use of Paris green against canker worms was also 
giving control of the codling moth. This was reported the following 
winter (Woodward, 1879), and in 1880 there were conducted in Michi- 
gan the first official experiments with an arsenical, known as London 
purple, for codling moth control (Cook, 1880). The favorable results 
obtained stimulated extensive experiments elsewhere with both Paris 
green and London purple. Early in the twentieth century these ma- 
terials gave way to lead arsenate, which in a short time became the 
standard material for codling moth control. Lead arsenate was first 
available as a paste, often prepared by the grower himself from sodium 
_ arsenate and lead acetate or lead nitrate. Soon, however, lead arsenate 
became commercially available in a powdered form, which rapidly 
displaced the paste material, because of greater convenience of han- 
dling. The effectiveness of lead arsenate has been further increased by 
the use of various accessory materials, such as fish oil or mineral oil 
emulsion. With certain accessory materials the lead arsenate con- 
tinues to build up on the fruit and foliage with prolonged spraying, 
instead of leaving the tree with the run-off. 

The spray programs followed by growers have also undergone a 
marked evolution. At first many growers obtained satisfactory con- 
trol with a single spray, applied just after the petals fell. After a 
few years, however, the need for more spray applications during the 
season became evident, and now many growers put on 8 to 10 or even 
more applications of spray for codling moth control. Many of the 
State colleges or experiment stations regularly furnish the growers 
with current information on codling moth development during the 
season, to aid them in the timing of spray applications. The use of 
traps containing baits of fermenting solutions of low-grade sugars or 


350 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


syrups, often with added aromatic chemicals, although not accom- 
plishing their original purpose of direct control, have been found 
valuable aids to the timing of spray applications, by giving informa- 
tion on moth activity and abundance in the orchard. 


SPRAY-RESIDUE PROBLEM 


In the earliest official test of arsenicals (Cook, 1880) the question 
of the effect of the material on the consumer was considered. On the 
basis of analyses which were made at that time, the conclusion was 
reached that the quantity of poison that could be carried over to har- 
vest as a result of the spraying was insignificant. With the type of 
spraying that was done in the early days this was probably a correct 
conclusion. However, as the number of spray applications increased, 
along with increases in the strength of the spray mixture, and in the 
number of gallons applied per tree, the quantities of lead and arsenic 
on the fruit at harvest constantly increased. The question of dan- 
gerous residues was raised from time to time but it was usually dis- 
missed with a statement that it would be necessary to consume an 
impossibly great quantity of the product at one sitting to obtain an 
injurious dose. During all this period the acute toxicity was the only 
consideration, but in the early 1920’s there developed a realization 
that the use of lead arsenate sprays had increased to a point where 
American fruit was carrying quantities of residue actually or poten- 
tially dangerous to human health from a cumulative standpoint. The 
situation was crystallized in 1925, when British health authorities 
rejected shipments of American apples because of excessive arsenical 
residues. This episode was followed by appropriate action by the 
United States Department of Agriculture in carrying out its responsi- 
bility for the enforcement of the Food and Drugs Act. This action 
caused consternation in the apple industry, but fortunately effective 
washing methods and machinery were promptly developed for re- 
moving the residue before the fruit is marketed, which has permitted 
the continued employment of lead arenate until other less objection- 
able insecticides or other methods of control are developed. 


SEARCH FOR NEW INSECTICIDES 


The difficulties with spray residues and with worm control in some 
localities have led to an intensive search for better and less objec- 
tionable insecticides. This search has already proved productive. 
Cryolite is effective in the Pacific Northwest, although it is undepend- 
able elsewhere, and its use involves something of a spray residue prob- 
lem and in many cases washing the fruit is necessary. Nicotine 
bentonite has been found more effective than lead arsenate in certain 
parts of the Middle West and is used to a considerable extent there 


CODLING MOTH—PORTER 351 


and elsewhere. Nicotine sulfate with oil is likewise used in some locali- 
ties. Phenothiazine, when very finely ground, has given outstanding 
control in the Northwest, but has not come into commercial use be- 
cause of the unfavorable effects on the fruit and on orchard workmen, 
and because of cost. The most recently discovered material is DDT 
(2,2-bis (parachloropheny]) -1,1,1-trichloroethane) which may outstrip 
all the others, although a final decision on its ultimate usefulness can 
be made only after more extensive tests have indicated its effects on 
the consumer, on orchard workers, on fruit trees, and on the beneficial 
insects that aid greatly in keeping orchard pests within bounds or 
that provide for the pollination of the fruit. 


DEVELOPMENT OF SPRAY MACHINERY 


Along with the evolution of materials and programs for codling 
moth control has been the development of spray machinery for the 
application of the insecticides. The original hand-operated, back- 
breaking barrel pumps soon gave way to crude power-operated outfits 
(pls. 4,5). Power spraying equipment has been steadily improved, 
coincident with the development of the automobile and airplane. The 
grower now has his choice of stationary sprayers, which pump the 
spray mixtures from a central plant through overhead or underground 
pipes to outlets placed at suitable intervals through the orchard, 
standard portable rigs (pl. 6, fig. 1), or the recently developed air- 
blast type of sprayer (pl. 6, fig. 2), which delivers the spray by means 
of the blast from a propeller similar to those used in airplanes. 
Present-day standard spray outfits give pressures up to 700 or 800 
pounds per square inch and will deliver 20 to 50 gallons per minute or 
more. A number of men can spray at the same time from the larger- 
capacity stationary sprayers. 


CONTINUED DIFFICULTIES IN CONTROL 


With the development of improved spray materials and mixtures, 
high-power, large-capacity spray machinery, and carefully worked-out 
Spray programs, which all together result in spray deposits on fruit 
and foliage that would have been unbelievable 50 years ago, it would 
be natural to expect a corresponding improvement in codling moth 
control. Actually, however, nothing of the kind has occurred. Al]- 
though in most orchards the growers are obtaining a reasonable degree 
of control, there is no indication that the worms are any less abundant 
or destructive than they were 50 years ago. In fact, in some areas 
the growers are having more difficulty than ever before in controlling 
the worms. In such areas, in which conditions favor the insect, 20 
or 30 percent of the apples are often wormy at harvest time, in spite 
of the making of 8.to 10 spray applications during the season, and the 


352 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


? 

use of supplementary control measures. It is therefore evident that 
the codling moth, instead of being a more or less fixed quantity, and 
subject to reduction in numbers, as control methods have been im- 
proved, has undergone an adaptation or evolution that has permitted 
the insect to hold its own or even to increase in numbers in spite of 
man’s efforts. 

CHANGES IN CONDITIONS 


First, the standards by which control is judged have been modified 
from time to time. With the trend toward the concentration of com- 
mercial apple production in areas remote from markets, only high- 
grade fruit is worth the cost of shipping thousands of miles, and in 
such areas moderately injured fruit, which in localities near the con- 
suming centers might bring fair prices in local markets, is now a total 
loss. Also, the American public demands a higher standard of per- 
fection in its fruit products than ever before. This all means that our 
standard of satisfactory control is much higher than it was 50 
years ago. 

Many of the practices adopted by fruit growers have given advan- 
tages to the codling moth. Apple production has passed from small, 
isolated farm orchards to more intensive production in limited areas. 
In these newer areas conditions are sometimes especially favorable for 
the apple crop, but in other cases there has been extensive promotion 
of apple culture outside the range within which the apple would nor- 
mally thrive. In either case, this trend has been an important factor 
in favor of the worms. With an abundance of its favored food avail- 
able in virtually continuous, extensive acreage, with improved varieties 
and cultural methods that have to a certain extent eliminated the 
biennial bearing habit that characterized many of the older apple vari- 
eties, a factor that automatically held the codling moth population at 
a low point, it is not surprising that the present-day grower has to 
deal with a more numerous population. As these areas have come into 
full bearing, the mature trees have often reached such size that spray 
coverage has been poor. 

The benefits derived from the extensive use of insecticides have un- 
doubtedly been offset to some extent by their unfavorable effect on the 
abundance and activities of parasites and predators of the codling moth. 
Evidence has been obtained in New York State (Cox, 1932; Collins, 
1934) that one of the most important larval parasites of the codling 
moth, namely Ascogaster quadridentatus Wesm., is adversely affected 
by lead arsenate and that in sprayed orchards the percentage of para- 
sitization is less than half of that existing in unsprayed orchards. It is 
not at all improbable that the effectiveness of other parasites and per- 
haps predators is also very much reduced by the continued use of lead 
arsenate. This factor may have been an important one in permitting 


CODLING MOTH—PORTER $50 


codling moth populations to get out of hand in certain localities. 
Closely related is the effect of other present-day orchard practices on 
the parasite population. It may well be that the intensive clean-cul- 
ture or cover-crop systems followed in many modern orchards may 
have eliminated many of the other hosts of the common parasites of the 
codling moth, thus causing the balance to swing in favor of the codling 
moth, 


ADAPTATION ON THE PART OF THE CODLING MOTH 


The factors just outlined, however, are not sufficient to explain the 
marked increases that have developed in the ability of the codling 
moth to thrive in the presence of heavy deposits of lead arsenate. 
Some change seems to be taking place in the insect itself that is modi- 
fying its ability to enter fruit in spite of the presence of a poison. 

The most extensive study that has thrown light on this problem has 
been carried on by W. S. Hough, of the Winchester field laboratory 
of the Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station. His earliest work 
(Hough, 1929 and 1934) included a comparison of codling moth stocks 
from near Grand Junction, Colo., where the insect had become notori- 
ously difficult to control, with stocks from Virginia, where control was 
much easier. Dr. Hough showed that newly hatched codling moth 
larvae from Colorado stock were able successfully to enter fruit heavily 
sprayed with lead arsenate to the extent of 15 to 40 percent or more, 
whereas the proportion of native Virginia larvae entering similarly 
sprayed apples was usually less than 5 percent. Further, this differ- 
ence persisted through 14 or more generations reared in the insectary 
under Virginia conditions. Crosses gave intermediate results. Hough 
later (1943) found that Virginia larvae from stocks from orchards 
having a history of intensive spray programs were able to enter sprayed 
fruit in much greater proportion than those from unsprayed or poorly 
sprayed orchards. Strains from various Virginia orchards fed through 
successive generations in the insectary on sprayed fruit became differ- 
entiated from the parent strains, and showed increased ability to enter 
sprayed fruit. Steiner and associates (1944) have shown similar 
wide differences in codling moth stocks from different orchards in 
the Ohio Valley with respect to their ability to enter sprayed fruit. 
Both of these investigators have found that this condition is not re- 
stricted to lead arsenate, but that differences, although not always so 
wide, exist with respect to other insecticides, including nicotine ben- 
tonite and cryolite. Hough has reached the conclusion that these 
differences are due to differences in general vigor, but Steiner’s obser- 
vations have suggested that they may result from differences in habits. 

Both of these workers believe that the different strains have been 
segregated by the elimination of those larvae that have the least 
ability to enter sprayed fruit, rather than that individuals have be- 


354 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


come immune or resistant to specific compounds and that such immu- 
nity or resistance has been transmitted to their offspring. 

Increased ability to survive in spite of insecticide treatment has 
been exhibited by a number of different insects, including the Cali- 
fornia red scale, Aonidiella awrantii (Mask.), certain strains of which 
are much more resistant than others to fumigation with hydrocyanic 
acid. The tendency toward the segregation of races within economic 
species has been thoroughly reviewed by Smith (1941). 

The evidence just cited indicates that, instead of remaining con- 
stant and static while the evolution of control measures was going on, 
the codling moth as a species has undergone considerable adaptation 
or evolution on its own account in the direction of greater ability 
to survive in the presence of insecticides. The segregation of resistant 
strains, together with certain practices on the part of the fruit indus- 
try, have permitted the insect to maintain its position as the most seri- 
ously destructive pest of the apple in spite of the development of 
control by insecticides to a high degree of efficiency, at least in the 
application and maintenance of heavy deposits of insecticides during 
the periods when needed. The codling moth is only one of the several 
insect pests known to have undergone development in this general 
direction, and many other insects may be developing in a similar 
way, but at a slower rate. It is evident that ultimately insecticides 
or other control measures that are less selective in their action will 
have to be used for the control of the codling moth, or perhaps the 
problem can be solved by occasional changes from one insecticide to 
another that is selective in a different way. Whatever the eventual 
solution of the problems that have grown out of the evolution under- 
gone by the codling moth, the entomologists will undoubtedly be able 
to meet this challenge to their ingenuity and resourcefulness, and 
any solution of this particular problem may point the way to means 
of meeting similar problems with other insect pests as such problems 
arise. 

LITERATURE CITED 
BURRELLE, JOSEPH. 
1840. On the Curculio. New England Farmer, vol. 18, No. 48, p. 398. 
CoLLINs, DONALD L. 
1934. The occurrence of Ascogaster carpocapsae in illuminated and sprayed 
areas of an apple orchard. Journ. Econ. Ent., vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 
379-382. 
Coox, A. J. 
1880. New method of fighting certain injurious insects. American Ent., vol. 
3, No. 11, pp. 263-264. 
Cox, JAMES A. 
_ 1982. Ascogaster carpocapsae Viereck, an important larval parasite of the 
codling moth and oriental fruit moth. New York Agr. Exp. Stat. 
Techn. Bull. 188, pp. 3-26. 


CODLING MOTH—PORTER 355 


HovueH, W. S. 
1929. Studies of the relative resistance to arsenical poisoning of different 
strains of codling-moth larvae. Journ. Agr. Res., vol. 38, No. 4, 
pp. 245-256. 
1934. Colorado and Virginia strains of codling moth in relation to their 
ability to enter sprayed and unsprayed apples. Journ. Agr. Res., 
vol. 48, No. 6, pp. 5383-558. 
1943. Development and characteristics of vigorous or resistant strains of 
codling moth. Virginia Agr. Exp. Stat. Techn. Bull. 91, pp. 2-32. 
SinccLer, E. H., BROwN, LUTHER, ACKERMAN, A. J., and NEWCOMER, BH. J. 
1927. Chemical treatment of bands as a supplemental control measure for 
the codling moth. Journ. Econ. Ent., vol. 20, No. 5, pp. 699-701. 
SMITH, Harry S. 
1941. Racial segregation in insect populations and its significance in applied 
entomology. Journ. Econ. Ent., vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 1-138. 
STEINER, L. F., ARNOLD, C. H., and SUMMERLAND, S. A. 
1944. The development of large differences in the ability of local codling 
moths to enter sprayed apples. Journ. Econ. Ent., vol. 37, No. 1, 
pp. 29-33. 
TRIMBLE, IsAAc P. 
1865. Apple moth—codling moth. Treatise on the insect enemies of fruit and 
fruit trees, pp. 103-139. 
Woopwapp, J. 8S. 
1879. Fighting insects. Proc. 24th Ann. Meet. Western New York Hort. 
Soe., p. 20. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Porter ; PLATE 1 


1. HIBERNATING CODLING MOTH LARVA AND SPRING PUPA IN COCOONS UNDER- 
NEATH LOOSE BARK OF APPLE TREE. 


(X2.) 


2. CODLING MOTH ADULT. 
(X3.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Porter PLATE 2 


1. EGGS AND NEWLY HATCHED LARVA. 
(X30.) 
(From drawing by R. E. Snodgrass.) 


2. FULL-GROWN LARVA IN SMALL APPLE IN WHICH IT HAD FED. 
(X2.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Porter PLATE 3 


TRIMBLE HAY BAND, A TRAP FOR FULL-GROWN LARVAE, USED ABOUT 1865 AS A 
MEANS OF PARTIALLY CONTROLLING THE CODLING MOTH. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Porter PLATE 4 


1. A HAND-OPERATED BARREL-PUMP SPRAYER. 


Extensively used for codling moth control late in the nineteenth century; still used to a limited extent in 
small orchards. 


2. PRIMITIVE TYPE OF GASOLINE POWER SPRAYER, USED IN THE EARLY 
TWENTIETH CENTURY FOR CODLING MOTH CONTROL. 


({T ‘sg ‘9 1d 90g) “queumresueire 9[Zz0U Jo edA4 ULOOIG 9Y4 Aq Jae] pue ,,‘SUNS,, JeJ10Yys Aq pedv[ded sUIL] UT 910M SpOI SULYBeIG-yoVq ‘SuOol ey, 


— so 
> 
‘eh 


AMOd 


G ALVvid 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Porter PLATE 6 


1. MODERN TYPE OF PORTABLE POWER SPRAYER. 


Because of wartime manpower shortage, the tractor driver is also applying spray to the lower parts of the 
tree by the use of a flexible broom type of nozzle arrangement. Ordinarily the spraying of the lower parts 
of the tree would be done by a man on the ground, who would apply the material from a number of direc- 
tions. (Photograph taken in 1944 by L. F. Steiner.) 


2. AIR-BLAST TYPE OF SPRAYER. 


The liquid is pumped at low pressure into an air blast produced by an airplane propeller. This outfit 
permits the application of the spray in a very speedy manner and with minimum use of manpower. 
(Photograph by L. F. Steiner.) 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND AS FACTORS IN THE 
CYCLICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EURASIAN HISTORY? 


By J. RUSSELL SMITH 


[With 1 plate] 


This paper might be called a study of equipment eras—or the inter- 
acting influences of equipment and culture in certain environments. 

Man is a tool-using animal, and there is a tendency to confuse the 
results of mental or personal qualities and the results of the equip- 
ment that we may have at hand. Consider for a moment a group of 
European primitives, so-called, who left cultural and skeletal remains 
in caves of France some 20,000 years ago. Anthropologists have 
named them Cromagnon. If they were living today most of us 
would doubtless call them savages, regard them as inferior beings. 
Sir Arthur Keith tells us that the Cromagnons had larger brain pans 
than we have. But we of this generation have inherited agriculture 
with its crops and beasts, also engines and machines, transport and 
buildings, and books, the master tool, the mother of tools. 

It is easy for us in our inherited cultural riches to lose sight of the 
scanty cultural inheritance of Cromagnon man. He and his parents 
were living in the collector stage of economics. He plucked his living 
from the natural environment with the aid of his fingers, toes, and 
teeth, and with equipment of wood, fire, flint, shells, bone, sinew, and 
skins—Stone Age we call it. He ate everything that was digestible— 
beast, birds, fish, reptile, and insect, seed, leaf, stem, and root, and 
sometimes the neighbors, but that was usually ceremonial. He prob- 
ably lived a life filled with terrors and what we would regard as 
impossible hardship. 

It is one of the greatest achievements in human history that Stone 
Age man made some sort of living in every continent except Ant- 
arctica. Archeologists and anthropologists trace Stone Age man from 
shores of the Arctic Sea in Greenland to the chill and reeking wet- 
ness of Tierra del Fuego; from Alaska to Newfoundland ; from Gibral- 
tar to Kamchatka; from the Siberian Tundra to South Africa, Tas- 
mania, and the far islands of the Pacific. Stone Age man made a living 

1 Reprinted by permission from Annals of the Association of American Geographers, vol. 
33, No. 3, September 1943. 

} 357 


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ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


308 


in every important type of environment except the glacial ice cap; he 
was even found living cheerfully at the very foot of the ice cliffs in 


Greenland. 


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Not only did Stone Age man make a living, such as it was, in every 
type of environment—he and the women supported their offspring, 


maintained the race, formed communities, developed rules of conduct 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 359 


(laws if you like), and created a literature in the form of folklore. 
They struggled with external nature, and, like the rest of mankind, 
with human nature. 

These men and women in the smoky cave, the pit house, the skin 
tent, or merely sleeping in the open by fire or without it, were vexed 
by two problems that vex us today—the struggle for possessions and 
the lust for position, preferment, power. 

Howard H. Brinton, a living Quaker writer of distinction, says: 
“Every one has within himself, a potential Hitler as well as a poten- 
tial St. Francis.” 

With these two types in mind we should note that man’s progress 
depends upon two things—first, keeping down his own potential Hit- 
ler, with the aid of education, morality, and religion; and second, 
fighting down his neighbor’s Hitler. Controlling one’s neighbor’s 
Hitler presented a social problem, and for this man probably was 
forced to invent government. 

In the Stone Age, as now, the external Hitler tendency, the bully, 
had to be kept in check. Control doubtless began as family fights 
and grew into clan, tribe, and other forms of group control. Even in 
prehistoric times, government, formal or informal, developed in all 
climes, in all societies, and in well-nigh myriad forms. 

When man lived by collecting, only a few people could live together 
in any one place. Population per square mile was limited by the 
amount of available food. One group could force another group out 
of hunting grounds, but one group had difficulty in governing other 
groups. The political group, if one may use the word, was small. 
Although government may have been invested only in family, clan, 
or tribe, or in a village group, primitive government usually was 
inclusive in the scope of its control over individual freedom. Have 
not the elders of all generations said, “We do it this way”? Anthro- 
pologists are emphatic concerning the conservatism of primitive man. 
That is certainly one reason why the Stone Age lasted so long—long 
enough to achieve its amazing uniformity of tools and economy and its 
world-wide distribution, despite difficulties of travel. 

Many anthropologists believe that this almost static period of human 
history may have existed for 500,000 years since our ancestors first 
began to use tools, and year by year the anthropologists are lengthening 
this period. 

A new era began with the use of domesticated plants and domesti- 
cated animals. When some 97 or 98 percent of the half million years 
of human history had passed, perhaps 10,000 or 15,000 years ago, 
changes began to happen. Men and women, or perhaps we should say 
women and men, began to plant seed and to grow and cultivate crops. 
It is possible that the period of primitive crop growing is much older 

619830—45——24 


360 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


than that. It was common in five continents. With amore stable and 
dependable food supply, human beings could settle down in a village 
for most of the year, or even, in rare instances, for a period of years. 
Soil exhaustion usually brought declining yields and a new patch was 
brought under cultivation. This process was repeated until finally the 
entire village had to move to fresh land. 

Patch farming was a great improvement over the collecting economy. 
It permitted a larger village group and lessened the need to move from 
place to place. Patch farming gave new leisure, more time for mind 


SEATS OF EARLY CIVILIZATION. : 
ITS SPREAD. 
r) 00 toe8 ’ 


300 wrLes 


Ficure 2.—This map makes it easier to consider the three valley cultures as one 
civilization. Why not call it the Irrigated Valley Civilization? Arrows show 
the trails of culture elements to China, Greece, and the land of the Hittites. 
(Base map copyright by Rand McNally & Company, Chicago. ) 


to play upon mind. Nevertheless, the problem of soil fertility usually 
kept the settlement from becoming a large one. It also prevented the 
group from remaining at the same place for any great length of time. 
These conditions existed on most of the soil areas of the world. 
Patch farming was followed by the domestication of animals, espe- 
cially in Egypt, the Near East, and Central Eurasia. The tough 
shoulders of the ox and donkey began to drag man’s burdens for him 
some 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. The sheep and goat gave skin 
and flesh by herding instead of hunting. These animals also gave milk, 
as did the cow. The tamed offspring of the wild boar gave roast pork, 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 361 


and the hen gave eggs without man having to seek the nests of wild 
birds in the forest. The new environment produced by the stimulus of 
crops, domestic animals, and larger residence groups seems to have pro- 
duced a mental emancipation that gave new freedom to the inventive 
type of mind. 


‘A NEW ERA, BASED ON LARGER HUMAN GROUPS, HAD ITS ORIGIN IN 
THE PERMANENT FERTILITY OF THE IRRIGATED VALLEYS OF EGYPT, 
MESOPOTAMIA, AND THE INDUS 


In Egypt, Stone Age man found that the recurring floods fertilized 
his land each year with a thin but rich crust of mud. As a result he 
could stay in the same place generation after generation. Large settle- 
ments soon developed. 

This was something new in the world. Revolutions emerged from 
it. Gradually many little governments came under one ruler, the gov- 
ernmental unit grew until finally the prowess of one ruler brought all 
Egypt, with it millions of people, under one government. For 6,000 
years the Nile Valley has continuously supported its heavy population 
by benefit of the annual automatic deposit of mud. The Nile is the 
most regular, most orderly, most easily usable large river in the world. 
It has well earned the affectionate name of “Father Nile.” Large 
areas of swamp along its upper reaches become automatic reservoirs 
that tame the sudden floods that trouble the lower valleys of most 
rivers. 

The fertility of the irrigated lands along the Tigris and Euphrates 
was replenished in somewhat the same way. But, as compared with the 
Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates are wild and disorderly rivers. They 
have no controlling reservoirs. The maintenance of irrigation in 
Mesopotamia required more labor than in Egypt, and a continuously 
effective social organization was necessary. Like Egypt, Mesopotamia 
supported heavy populations, towns, cities, kingdoms more than 5,000 
years ago. 

The recent excavations of Mohenjo-daro and neighboring cities 
on the lower Indus show somewhat similar developments about the 
same time. These three populous valleys supported themselves by ir- 
rigation on wide-spreading alluvial lands with a dry, warm climate. 
Man has not yet imagined better conditions for agricultural production. 

In these hot, dry valleys men lived under the compulsion of the need 
to work their crops in a season of flowing water, and under the near- 
compulsion of leisure in the season of drought. There was also the 
further compulsion of governments. These factors of surplus food, 
leisure time, large business enterprises, the desire for self-expression, 
and the compulsion of strong government produced writing, libraries, 
codes of laws, pyramids, and temples—cultures that were in many 


362 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


respects much like our own. Among factors of production, we should 
not minimize strong government—witness the pyramids, a burst of 
energy covering only 150 years out of 5,000. 

It is now generally agreed that the wheel and axle, the cart and the 
beast-drawn plow were first used somewhere between the Persian Gulf 
and the Syrian shore at or about 4000 B. C.—perhaps earlier. It is 
further agreed that this important invention was made only once 
in human history. The spread of the wheel and axle to all continents 
has been definitely traced from this one source. 

Archeologists are continually finding proof that commerce existed 
at this early time between Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Indus Valley. 


WHEAT CULTURE 
=-(N= 
ANTIQUITY 


——— 
am - 


~ 
- ~ 
~ 
~ 


- 
- 
<<" 


SS 6... 


FieuRE 3.—Wheat culture in antiquity. (After Carl Bishop.) Wheat had 
climatic limitations to its spread. It does not thrive in the wet Tropics. 


Because of these exchanges these earliest centers of heavy population, 
cities and city culture may legitimately be considered one civilization 
in a sense similar to our use of the term Western Civilization. 

This new culture of the three valleys with its stupendous advance 
over previous cultures was, at base, a result of the enduring soil 
fertility. For the first time in human history large sedentary popu- 
lations could depend upon the permanence of their food supply. 
Generation after generation men could live in the same place. They 
could accumulate things. They had leisure. When they learned to 
write, they soon recorded knowledge and built libraries in which to 
store it. Thus three dry valleys became the cradles of civilization 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 363 


and finally the teachers of the human race. From this base many cul- 
ture elements have spread to all parts of the world. It is fortunate 
for those of this generation that the Mesopotamians wrote on endur- 
ing tablets of clay. 

Then, as now, men who traveled carried with them ideas, techniques, 
and various culture elements. A trail of fragments of painted pottery 
leads from Shushan, near the eastern edge of Mesopotamia, and marks 
the road by which culture elements went from Mesopotamia to China. 
Through this dry land a natural road proceeds from oasis to oasis. 
Where mountain streams reach the plains at the foot of the mountains 


Equator DISTRIBUTION 


—OF the 


TRACTION PLOW 
—BEFORE THE - 


AGE OF DISCOVERY 


aoric OF CANCE 
a ag a ~ 


LA, 
Ly, 
Zp 


Ficure 4.—Distribution of the traction plow before the age of discovery. (After 
Carl Bishop.) The plow had wider spread than wheat. It was drawn by ox, 
buffalo, and donkey, and occasionally by the elephant. 


natural refreshment stations exist. No one knows how long these 
little Niles have been feeding humanity. These fertile spots en- 
courage travel across Iran, western Turkestan, and eastern Turkestan. 
Thence the trail continues eastward across Mongolia and down the 
Wei River valley, past the present city of Sian and on to the great 
bend of the Hwangho at the southwest corner of the province of 
Shansi. 

No one knows when culture elements first began to pass northeast- 
ward from Mesopotamia over these stepping stones of fertility. This 
seems to make logical the Chinese claim that Chinese civilization had 
its origin in the Sian Valley near the great bend of the Hwangho. 


364 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


This Sian Valley was the first place at which this route across moun- 
tain and desert delivered culture elements from the west to men 
living in good farmland. 

This first center of the present Chinese culture had a rare combina- 
tion of qualities. There was enough rain to support agriculture, 
and there was loess soil. This wind-blown gift of deserts that lay 
to the west is the closest approach on earth to the perennial fertility 
of the annually flooding river valley. Let a farmer plow the top foot 
of loess and let the soil wash away or blow away, it matters not— 
the second foot is as good as the first; the twentieth foot is as good as 


KNOWN DISTRIBUTION 
—OF THE— 
WAR-CHARIOT 
-IN- 
ANTIQUITY 


«tS “ime 


FicukE 5.—Known distribution of the war chariot in antiquity. (After Carl 
Bishop.) The war chariot came later than the plow. It depended upon the 
horse. The open grassland of central Eurasia and the Zungarian Gate (see figs. 
6 and 18), an opening in the mountains west of China, furnish an easy passage- 
way for men and ideas. 


the second. Here then was another basis for an agriculture that 
could endure for centuries. 

Generation after generation of men in the Wei Valley loess had the 
advantages of permanent fertility of the soil. Meanwhile the mind 
of man was fertilized by the arrival of cultural elements from Meso- 
potamia and the steppes. Still another stream of culture elements 
came to the Sian Valley from India, by way of the Burma Road. 
Sinologists say that fowls and rice were early arrivals over this route. 

Besides the fertility base of loess vouchsafed by nature, the farmer 
adopted two fertility measures whose effectiveness is unrivaled by 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 365 


anything outside the three great valleys. The Chinese method of 
cultivating rice in the paddy fields conserves soil perfectly and adds 
a touch of fertilizing mud. The other fertility device is that of col- 
lecting human excrement and returning it to the land. The Chinese 
have systematically applied this device for many centuries. It is 
well-nigh impossible to overestimate its importance as a means of 
support to Chinese civilization. Thus, fertility, enduring or pre- 
served, stands out as the basis for the development and endurance of 
the Chinese civilization. These factors gave to these people the 
combination of time and continuity similar to that which accompanied 
the rise of cultures in Egypt and Mesopotamia. 

The Chinese received many culture aids from the outside, but they 
devised their own system of writing and made many important inven- 
tions on the basis of their own native wit and the stimuli from the 


ancyiciser 


Whi GRASSLANDD 


Ficure 6.—The Eurasian grassland, as shown by Mackinder in “Democratic Ideals 
and Reality,” Henry Holt & Company. Note the scale of miles. 


Near East and India. China may be regarded as one of three subse- 
quent cultures that leaned heavily in their beginnings on culture ele- 
ments from the three great irrigated valleys. 

Culture elements traveled northwestward as well as northeastward 
from the centers of its beginning. Between 2000 B. C. and 1400 B. C. 
the Island of Crete was one of the most highly civilized places in the 
world. There is evidence that the people of Crete learned from the 
people of Mesopotamia by way of Anatolia and the stepping stones 
furnished by the Aegean Islands. Knowledge also must have traveled 
by direct voyages to Egypt, only 340 miles distant, there is so much 
evidence of interchange between the isle and the Nile. 

The Aegean culture was spreading from island to island, and had 
produced the famous cities, Tiryns and Mitylene, on the mainland of 
Greece, whose cultural remains, so unlike those of the Classic Greeks, 


366 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


were long a puzzle to archeologists. Knossus, the ornate and learned 
capital of Crete, was destroyed about 1400 B. C., nearly 3,400 years ago, 
but that date was more than 2,000 years after the Sumerians had 
developed a complicated civilization and were filing away its amazing 
records on their durable tablets of clay. 

While culture was spreading outward from its places of origin 
something was brewing in the grasslands of central Eurasia—that vast 
unbroken plain that stretches from the Carpathians to the Altai and 


mi scyR 
1uAdOD 


wro 
"OOVIMND “ANVAMOD © CTIVNSA GHYE AG LHOIU, 


A - Early Greeks Cir. 2000 BC : 
B - Hittites 2700 t BC 
C - Hyksos 1730 BC 
D = Indo Aryans go to India 
_Cire 1200 BC 
~ ¥ou 1000 1500 MILES 


dT00P ON 


° 300 1000 $800 __ 2000 KiLOwETERS Je 


FicurE 7.—The question marks suggest the area, limits unknown, from which the 
grassland poured out its surplus sons upon their migrations, so destructive to 
the advanced cultures of the three valleys. (Base map copyright by Rand 
MeNally & Company, Chicago.) 


Tian Shan, and from the Caucasus and the mountain rim of Iran to 
the Great Northern Forest. 

This vast grassland was an inhospitable area for the Stone Age man 
before he had domestic animals. There was grass, of course, on most 
of its extent, and fleet-footed game. But wood and natural shelter 
were scarce except along the mountain and northern forest borders 
and along the banks of the few streams that crossed the plain. The 
patch farming of Stone Age man was largely limited to these spots 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 367 


in the vast plain, such as the banks of the Oxus, Syr Darya, Don, 
Volga, and other rivers that were favored with wood, water, and 
possible garden patches. 

A new and very different era began when the man of the plains got 
sheep, goats, cattle, and, lastly, the horse. The steppe people domes- 
ticated the horse (E. A. Speiser, of the University of Pennsylvania, 
concurs), and it became thoroughly integrated into every feature of 
the life of the people of the steppes. A new force, a new dynamic 
had appeared upon the Eurasian scene—the man on horseback. Here 
was revolution. It upset the affairs of man and was far reaching in 
its effects. Indeed, the man on horseback has had but two analogs in 
human affairs—steam transport and the airplane. 

Carl Bishop, of the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, says that 
the Indo-European languages were developed by these horse-using 
people on the steppes somewhere in southeastern Europe or south- 
western Asia. He further states that these people whom we call Indo- 
Europeans had the word for wheeled vehicle before they separated 
into eastern and western groups. Louis H. Gray concurs. 

These Indo-Europeans of the steppes and the horse-using Turanians 
who appeared later in the same area, have profoundly influenced the 
history of Europe and Asia, both as spreaders of culture and as de- 
stroyers of states and civilizations. It is as destroyers that they made 
their conspicuous contribution. 

The grassland nomad lives by flocks, the flocks live by grass. Ani- 
mals must move to obtain grass, and man must move with the animals. 
The nomad has mobility—here today, gone tomorrow—and mobility 
is a very important factor in warfare. It is also a sad fact that the 
grassland can produce more men than it can feed. Thus there exists 
the expulsive force of hunger. These factors make migration so easy as 
to be almost a part of the social organization. Many will be familiar 
with Ellsworth Huntington’s thesis to the effect that periods of 
drought and scanty grass made an expulsive force that sent Central 
Asian nomads to overrun surrounding lands. Farmer peoples living 
east, west, and south of the Eurasian plains had abundant and oft- 
repeated cause to mourn the fact that such a region as the Eurasian 
grassland existed. 

About 2000 B. C. bands of nomads from the steppes began working 
their way around the western end of the Black Sea and southward 
through Thrace and into Greece. They were shepherds accompanied 
by their flocks and with rude carts loaded with household goods and 
drawn by oxen. These people later became the ancestors of the Classic 
Greeks. By 1400 B. C., or in about 600 years, these shepherd migrants 


~had learned from the more cultured Aegeans to build ships. In their 


ships they sailed to Crete and conquered it. These barbarians burned 


368 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the palaces, libraries, and temples of Knossus. Those of the learned 
and cultured Cretans who could do so fled in ships to the still civilized 
shores of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. ; 


oO 
52505 y 
ERK I 
RRR RIOD 
CS 


ARABIAN seq 


Ficure 8.—Louis H. Gray, specialist in the origins of languages, presents this map 
to show the locations of various groups of Indo-Europeans after they had seized 
their lands in the plateau of Iran and Turkestan. 1, Persians; 2, Medes; 
3, Margians and Bactrians; 4, the oft-traversed route to India; 5, Drangianians 
and Anachorians; 6, Carmanians; 7, Gedrosians; 8, Hyrcanians; 9?, Indo- 
European homeland before dispersal. Note the present boundary of Iran 
(Persia). 

T, Tehran; H, Herat; M (west), Meshed; M (east), Merv; B, Bukhara; A. D., 
Amu Darya. 


While the Greeks in the second half of the first millennium B. C. 
were driving civilization back toward its center, others of the Indo- 
Europeans of the steppes had passed north of the Caspian Sea and 
entered the plateau of Iran. They lingered there for generations— 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 369 


long enough, according to Prof. Louis Gray of Columbia University, 
to produce the literature known as Vedas. They then divided, one 
group went southwestward into Mesopotamia and the other southeast- 
ward into India. This common origin in the steppes explains the 
remarkable similarity of the Greek and Sanskrit languages. 

Beginning about 1200 B. C. many waves of these Aryans went into 
India. They overwhelmed the Indus Valley cultures. Prof. Walter 
Von Brunn, of the University of Leipzig (Science News Letter, Feb. 
19, 1938), pointed out in 1938 that the remains of Mohenjo-daro, 
Chanhu-daro, and other Indus Valley cities of 3500 B. C. had no signs 
of having had walls or other fortifications. From this fact he inferred 
that continuous peace prevailed in the era before the eruption of the 
horsemen from the steppes. Perhaps this was the Golden Age. 

These cities on the Indus plain had houses of well-burned brick. 
The present inhabitants of this area live in mud villages. Fifty-five 
hundred years ago Mohenjo-daro, built of brick, had a sewer system 
equal to that of Pompeii and other Roman cities that were built more 
than 3,000 years later. 

All this the northern invaders destroyed—destroyed it so com- 
pletely that we only learned of its existence by accidental discoveries 
in the twentieth century. Imagine if you can the thoughts and feel- 
ings of the cultured people of Mohenjo-daro as these early Nazis 
destroyed a city that had stood for centuries in peaceful prosperity. 

India received many waves of these new raw men from the steppes. 
As a result Indo-European languages prevail today over large areas 
in northwestern India. The other results of these migrations can 
be observed today by anyone who passes northwest from southern 
India to the Khyber Pass and observes the gradual change in the 
color of the skin of the inhabitants. The color of native skin is black 
in southern India, white in the Khyber Pass, with various shades 
between. 

The culture that originated in the warm and fertile valleys spread 
eastward to China, westward to the Aegean, and also, at an early 
date it spread northward to the highlands of Iran and Armenia 
where, as in China and in Crete, a civilization arose in part on bor- 
rowed culture elements. 

In the third millennium B. C. non-Indo-European peoples in what 
we now call Armenia had a considerable culture, with cities and 
written language. Babylonian colonists settled among them, and 
the Mesopotamian cuneiform characters were added to their writing. 

Early in the third millennium there came among them a migra-. 
tion from the steppes, “an Indo-European conquering people called 
by us ‘Hittites.’” The invaders stayed, learned, increased, and made 
an empire. Recent excavations show that Hittite scholars mastered 


370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


six languages and were in “no way inferior to the Babylonians and 
Egyptians” (Encyclopaedia Britannica). Hittite armies conquered 
Babylon. 

In 1685 B. C. a band of people called Hyksos, whose leaders are said 
by Speiser to have come from Turkestan, organized an army in the 
Hittite area and proceeded to conquer Egypt. This expedition took 
the horse to Egypt for the first time. The horse-drawn chariot of 
the Hittites was an early kind of “blitz” warfare. It overwhelmed 
the Egyptians, perhaps with the aid of better bronze for the cleaving 
of skulls. 

At this point in our narrative the record stands as follows: four 
civilizations—Crete, Indus, Mesopotamia, Egypt—overrun by the 
horse-using Indo-European barbarians from the steppes. It was 
indeed fortunate that the seed of civilization was not destroyed by 
these conquests. , 

The Hittite empire fell before the next wave of Indo-Europeans, 
horsemen from the steppes. These were called Phrygians. These 
horsemen entered Asia Minor by way of the Hellespont. Like the 
Greeks at Knossus the Phrygians destroyed so well that it was only 
at a recent date that we knew much about them, and only in a very 
recent day that scholars deciphered the Hittite writings. Fortunately, 
these people wrote on bricks of clay, rather than the perishable and 
ephemeral rubbish on which we write so voluminously. 

This episode of the Hittites can almost be considered the West 
Asian history cycle type, a type that is repeated through several mil- 
lennia. Witness its operation in another group—the Scythians. 

Herodotus described the Scythians (sometimes called a tribe of 
Cimmerians) as being nomads of the steppes north of the Black 
Sea. The Scythians followed their flocks on the open steppes in the 
summer, back to the shelter of the wooded stream banks in winter. 
The men rode horseback with their trousers—a steppe invention— 
tucked into their boots—another steppe invention. The women rode 
in wagons. The details of their life sound strangely like those of the 
present-day Kirghiz of Central Asia. Horse flesh and mare’s milk 
were standard articles of diet. The abode was a tent of felt. 

In the seventh century B. C. there was much movement of peoples 
on the steppes. “The Scythians overran and frightfully ravaged 
wide areas of Central Asia and Eastern Europe” (Bishop). Some 
crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor, which they ravaged, and 
where they stayed for a century. Some went somewhat farther east 
and developed a kingdom in Ecbatana, within the present kingdom of 
Iran. Thus strengthened, refreshed, and multiplied, but still full of 
the barbarism of the plains, the Scythians harried the Assyrian king- 
dom, destroyed Ninevah and other cities, and advanced to the gates 


1. INDO-EUROPEAN 

2, TURCO-MONGOL-TUNGUS 

-3. FINNO-UGRIC & SAMOYED * 

4, SINO-TIBETAN 

IS, JAPANESE,AINU,COREAN - 
HYPERBOREAN 

6. HAMITE-SEMITE 

7. MUNDA-MON-KEBIER 

(8. HUNGARIAN 

____ aa __ Loner AST 


Tyce CAST 4" 


Ficure 9.—Areas of language 


The Indo-Europeans dominated) 
original Dravidian speech hj 
out in the Ganges Valley. 
corner. 

The Turco-Mongol-Tungus grou] 
pean areas in two on the we 
The Arabs left Islam in Ivar 

The Indo-European block holds 
Basque and Caucasus area} 
in the sea of migrations. ] 
languages are spoken in Tif 


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abate! baalat scp matte Ro\diune oui aT opt eis feats 4 


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ofied amew-soie almianolé auzgoosl off Agog 
amon gauul big ablekngail dont yaisino 


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Ficure 9.—Areas of language groups. (After Louis H. Gray.) They mark the extent of heavy migrations. 


The Indo-Huropeans dominated northern India and even Burma so thoroughly as to leave their language. The 
original Dravidian speech holds the south of India and an island of Munda-Mond-Khmer (Indo-Chinese) holds 
out in the Ganges Valley. The Sino-Tibetan has pushed down and crowded Munda-Mond-Khmer into a 
corner. 

The Turco-Mongol-Tungus group has pushed the Japanese group into corners on the east and cut the Indo-Huro- 
pean areas in two on the west. The Hamite-Semite has a crowded Indo-European in the Mesopotamian area. 
The Arabs left Islam in Ivan but not their language. 

The Indo-European block holds nearly all Europe except the Finnish area, the Hungarian remnant, and the 
Basque and Caucasus areas. The Caucasus Mountain area seems to have been an island of human refuge 
in the sea of migrations. It contains much linguistic and human flotsam and jetsam. It is said that 72 
languages are spoken in Tiflis. 

619830—45 (Face p. 370) 


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GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 371 


FicureE 11. 


Ficures 10 anp 11.—This record from an old Chinese tile tells us why the Chinese 

built the Great Wall. A new blitz had come from the grassland. The horse- 

man with the two-piece bow seems to have been well nigh irresistible on open 
land, hence the wall. (After Carl Bishop.) 


372 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


of Egypt. The Scythians then disappeared from history—probably 
absorbed. But note the evolutionary steps. A horde of nomads had 
left the steppes, harried the plateau. They tarried for a few gen- 
erations. Almost surely their numbers increased, and they mustered 
strength in that land of better pastures and scattered oases. They 
then moved on to a career of conquest and rapine in the fat lands and 
rich cities of the plain. Then the melting pot absorbed them. That 
is the cycle. It occurs and recurs through nearly 3,000 years B. C. 
and plenty of times later. 

The exploits of the Medes and Persians and of the Macedonians, 
conquerors all of Babylonia, fit closely into this pattern. The horse, 
the most spectacular contribution of the steppes, has played a curious 
and striking part in man’s affairs in Eurasia. Bishop thinks that the 
Scythians may have been the first effective cavalrymen. Armed with 
a compound bow, which seems to have been an invention of the 
north, a cavalryman could ride circles around a charioteer. Hence, 
the use of chariots in war declined in the Near East after the Assyr- 
ians, in the ninth century B. C., adopted cavalry from their enemies, 
the Scythians. 

Man’s experience in learning to use the horse serves to illustrate the 
stupidity of man rather than his cleverness. Perhaps most persons 
have thought of the horse in ancient history as a beast of burden, 
drawing the plow, the cart and the wagon with supplies for home or 
the army, with gentlemen and generals riding on comfortable saddles. 
Not so. It is now known that the first important use of horse in 
harness in the Near East was a thousand years at the war chariot. 
For this service it was speed that counted, not ability to draw heavy 
loads. 

The chariot was distributed to Ireland and Korea between 2500 and 
1000 B. C. After centuries of using the chariot as an instrument of 
warfare men began to fight from the back of the horse. But it was 
more centuries before the stirrup was invented. Moreover, man used 
the horse in harness for more than 3,000 years before a method was 
devised whereby a horse was fastened to a wagon by means of traces. 
Only then could a horse pull with more than a small fraction of its 
strength. 

The shoulders of the ox and donkey are higher than are the necks. 
These beasts with yokes upon their shoulders or upon the head of the 
ox, pulled the plows and wagons of antiquity. The anatomy of the 
horse does not encourage yoking. Nevertheless the ancients fastened 
the yoke to a band around the neck of the horse. If the horse pulled 
with a considerable fraction of his strength the band pressed upon 
the windpipe and jugular vein and choked him down. This harness 
also held his head high, but when a horse pulls a load he puts his 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 373 


head down. Pictures of war chariots show they did not carry much 
load, and Roman records verify. 

Early uses of the horse sift down to this—meat supply, milk animals, 
assistant to the herdsman, the pet of princes, for pageantry, religious 
ceremonies, and war—especially war. 

The horseman with a two-piece bow was the greatest “blitz” before 
gunpowder. This bow seems to have brought cavalry to the fore. 
The horseman with a lance was not so potent. This bow brought 
the horse to his Golden Age, to his zenith as an influence in the affairs 


OL 


: \ 
:f> Bane! 

THE EMPIRE OF ATTILA = ABOUT «so I 2 ee 

ae 

Ficure 12.—The lightly shaded area shows the bounds of the empire of Attila, the 


Hun, about A. D. 450. The heavily shaded area shows present area of Hun- 
garian language. (Base map copyright by Rand McNally & Company, Chicago.) 


of man. From the beginnings of cavalry with the Scythians, about 
the ninth century B. C., to the date of the effective use of gunpowder, 
more than 2,000 years later, the cavalryman of the Eurasian grasslands 
almost continuously harassed the settled cultures upon the grassland 
rim and often smashed them at will. Thus the horse, the great contri- 
bution of the Eurasian grasslands to history, had several millennia 
during which his relation to sedentary societies was not primarily in 
the field of economics, but in the field of war; not primarily at defense, 
but rather the war of offense. The horse was an instrument of con- 
quest and destruction of peoples, cities, governments, and social 
organizations. 


374 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


In the Chou kingdom in China, 1000 B. C., the minister of war was 
known as “The Master of the Horses.” 'The Chous had no currency. 
Taxes were collected in kind, and the chief tax gatherers were known 
as “bullock drivers.” For many centuries over wide areas in three 
continents kingdoms were measured by the number of chariots they 
could put in the field. (See King Solomon.) 

A recent writer, Bates, emphasizes the acute shortage of power 
among the Romans on both sea and land. This power shortage led 
to the use of the galley slave at sea and of slaves to turn the mill and 


EEE MP =) sasce 
a GA 


Mae 


SLKL 


5 
SS 


Cex S 
SSS 
CE OO 
DSSS 


SS 
eS 
SOK 


300 


Ficure 13.—The extent, A. D. 750, of the caliphate, the Arab Mohammedan empire 
founded by Mohammed. (Base map copyright by Rand McNally & Company, 
Chicago.) 


to do other drudgery on land. Bates alleges that Roman wars were 
often little more than slave-gathering expeditions. 

In the ninth century A. D., someone, apparently in France, invented 
the horse collar and traces. A horse could then pull a load. Then, 
as Mr. Bates tells us, horses could really work and enter the economic 
realm. Horsepower became cheaper than slavepower, and slavery 
gave way toserfdom. As mechanism improved, serfs became freemen. 
Inventions gave man equipment that permitted him to emerge from 
the slave age. At a much earlier time inventions had ushered in the 
Stone Age. Most important inventions change man’s relation to some 
part of the earth. 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 375 


The horse, especially the horse bearing grassland man upon its 
back, seems to have carried destruction to ancient societies in a way 
that suggests a strong resemblance to the work of the airplane today. 


CHINA AND ITS RELATION TO THE GRASSLAND 


The relations of China with the grasslands of Central Asia fall into 
two epochs. In the first epoch China received culture elements. In 
the second epoch China received conquerors and destroyers. 

Considerably before 8000 B. C. Babylonia had a well-developed 
culture which included writing and a complete mastery of work in 
bronze. Babylonia also had wheeled vehicles, ox-drawn plows, wheat, 
many other crop plants, and all the common domestic animals except 
the horse (Bishop). 

There is no evidence that China had knowledge of metals before 
2000 B. C., but 500 years later peoples ruled by the Shang Dynasty 
in the central and lower Yellow River basin had a mature and devel- 
oped system of writing, evidently homegrown. These peoples also 
had a skilled technique for working in bronze. Bishop says, “Bronze 
working was carried to a pitch of technical and esthetic excellence 
hardly if ever equalled in later times in any land.” Much of this 
craftsmanship was undoubtedly borrowed, together with many plants 
and animals, from the Near East. It had taken the Mesopotamians 
several thousand years to develop these things. 

Before Chinese contact with the Near East, the Stone Age man of 
the loessial area on which Chinese culture is believed to have devel- 
oped, was a sedentary agriculturist. He lived, at least for the colder 
part of the year, in a pit house which gave unusual opportunity for the 
preservation of archeological records. These pit dwellers had dogs 
and many domesticated pigs. As early as the fifth millennium B. C. 
they cultivated millet and some leafy plants (Goodrich). 

There is no sign of fortification about their villages until culture 
elements from the Near East appear—sheep, and bronze or copper 
arrow tips. The need for defense had come. The villages of the pit 
dwellers now have earthen walls. These tillers of the loessial lands 
are learning unpleasant things from the west whence they had de- 
rived so many useful things. 

About 1050 B. C. (according to Bishop), the Shangs were con- 
quered by the Chous, assisted by rebellious Shang subjects. The 
Chous came in from inner Asia—conquerors from the grasslands. 

Ellsworth Huntington will smile with satisfaction at the mention 
of the Chinese tradition to the effect that the Shang Dynasty came 
to its end during a period of protracted drought for which the king 
was held responsible because he neglected to observe the proper rites. 

619830—45——25 


376 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Bishop states that the conquering Chous had a culture much like that of 
the Aryans who invaded India about 1200 B. C. About this time, 
also, other outsurges of steppe peoples went into Europe, southwest 
Asia, and Egypt. 

Shang refugees fleeing before men from the grassland carried their 
culture eastward and southward to outlying regions hitherto bar- 
barous. This oft-repeated process of culture spreading is now being 
again repeated as the educated Chinese from the westernized east 
coast of China move their colleges and industries to the conservative 
western uplands to escape the Japanese destroyer. 

In the first millennium B. C. this process of grassland invasion and 
eastern culture dispersal was repeated several times. The unifica- 
tion of many kingdoms into one Chinese empire is commonly attri- 
buted to the fact that about 300 B. C. one of the western kings adopted 
a new technique of warfare from the barbarian enemies of the steppes. 
This was the mounted bowman with the two-piece bow (fig. 11)—an 
irresistible blitzkrieg much superior to the lumbering chariot, the 
preceding blitz. 

The Great Wall of China rose as a tribute to the marauding horse- 
men of the steppes. One might almost say it is a monument to the 
horse. This, the greatest structure in volume reared by man, was 
built steadily during the seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, and third 
centuries B. C. and often thereafter even as late as the middle of the 
eighteenth century A. D. Although the wall was designed to keep 
the nomad of the steppes out of the farmlands, it was only a limited 
success as is Shown by the conquests of China by Tatars, Mongols, and 
Manchus. These cavalrymen from the steppes could conquer China. 
They spread terror and rapine and made periods of chaos. The con- 
querors established dynasties. The dynasties melted away. The 
Great Wall still remains, 1,400 miles of it, in varying degrees of decay 
or ruin. But the nomad conquerors that rode through the wall in 
shouting triumph have disappeared completely, having been absorbed 
by the great mass of the Chinese people. Meanwhile the Chinese 
peasant still keeps on with his not yet so greatly modified neolithic 
type of agriculture. 


ROME AND THE NOMADS FROM THE EAST 


The unfortunate experiences of the late Roman Empire with the 
seminomadic Germans and the Huns (Turanians, not Indo- 


Europeans) of Asia and Mongolia are a standard part of school his- — 


tory. Bands of marauding horsemen, recognizing no law but the 
power of conquest, came out of the land north of the Black Sea, 
crossed the Danube, harried without mercy the eastern empire and 
collected tribute from Byzantium itself. Eastern Goths, Western 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH SLE 


Goths, Vandals, Huns, Alans, Bulgars in turn punished the provinces 
of Rome both east and west for having been prosperous enough to 
produce material worthy of pillage. 

The Bulgars remain as a name—their language has been absorbed 
by that of the Slavs whom they conquered and ruled. The Alans melted 
away as did the Scythians in the fat lands of Mesopotamia a thousand 
years earlier, and as the Mongols did in China a thousand years later. 
Many of the Huns of Attila’s empire merged with the conquered, but 
one group went back to the grasslands of south Russia. Some 400 
years later they returned to the plain of Hungary, where today they are 
the only remaining citadel of their language. 


THE ARABIAN GRASSLAND EXPLODES 


The seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian era witnessed the 
entry of the Arabian grasslands into the history of Eurasia in a large 
way. It was not the first time that Arabia had played a part in the 
history of lands beyond its border. One of the first recorded conquerors 
of Mesopotamia was Sargon the Akkadian, 3800 B. C. Sargon was a 
Semite, presumably from Arabia. Arabia is regarded as the original 
Semite nest. 

In Roman times succeeding generations of Arab horsemen harried 
the Roman Empire. As the seventh century A. D. opened, Arabia was 
a political chaos of independent oasis settlements and endlessly 
quarreling nomad tribes. 

A genius appeared upon the scene in the person of Mohammed, who 
preached patriotism and religion. He used the sword to advance his 
precepts and when he died in A. D. 632 Arabia was united. 

The followers of Mohammed started a career of wider conquest. The 
Arab horsemen and camelmen rode east, west, and north. In a few 
years they had conquered Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria, Palestine, and 
Egypt. In less than a century they had crossed the Ganges and the 
Pyrenees, conquering all the lands between. Their defeat at Tours in 
France in 732 by Charles Martel, who drove them back into Spain, is 
one of the very important turning points of history. 


THE MONGOLS AND THE TATARS 


The eruption of the Arabs from their grassland was unrelated to 
similar happenings in the greater grassland of the present Russian do- 
main. The central grassland of Eurasia kept on producing horses and 
men and marauding. In the ninth century a Russian chronicler re- 
corded one of their many pillaging raids. “Whence they came,” he 
lamented, “God. only knows, and whither they went, God only knows, 
but while they were here they were terrible.” 


378 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Unfortunately, later generations of eastern and southeastern Euro- 
peans knew more than this about the Mongols and the Turks. ‘These 
sons of the grassland came and remained to rule. 

Genghis Kahn (Perfect Warrior), 1162-1227, son of a Mongol chief- 
tain, was a supreme genius. He was probably the greatest cavalryman 
that ever lived. In 30 years Genghis the Cavalryman spread his em- 
pire eastward to the Yellow Sea and westward to the Adriatic and 
the Baltic. Medieval Europe salved its sore vanity by saying that 
Genghis overwhelmed by myriad numbers. Not so. He won by disci- 


io 


> 


Ps 


eieneers EMPIRE Pe hb. WA N ff L 
yA é big Se 
eae See MSG) Pn ee 


! 


MONGOL EMPIRE 
so, to0e ts 


eee 


‘ 
‘ 
TUDE a 


2000 KILO! Oh 


Ficure 14.—The area with NE.-SW. shading shows the Mongol empire, A. D. 1300, 
the largest block of land ever ruled by one organization. The area with 
NW.-SE. shading is the area ruled by Tamerlane, boastful of his pyramid of 
70,000 human skulls. (Base map copyright by Rand McNally & Company, 
Chicago. ) 


pline, strategy, and tactics. He was a master of speed. The armies 
he defeated were usually much larger than his own, but he had more 
men at the point of combat than had the enemy—“The mostest men 
there fustest” (Forrest, C. S. A.). In one forenoon Genghis left 
70,000 Europeans dead on the plain of Hungary, and then “reduced 
three quarters of Hungary to ashes.” 

It is reported that the strategy and tactics of Genghis Kahn have 
been most carefully studied by Hitler and company in five different 
compendious reports. Equipment may change, but the effectiveness of 
strategy and surprise remains. Genghis seems to have been a true 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 379 


Nazi. He softened up prospective victims by propaganda, got infor- 
mation by spies, and attacked because he thought he could win. De- 
tails of his equipment and effective methods stand in reference books 
for those who wish to read them. 

These Mongols conquered cities but camped without, in tents, as 
nomad warriors should. As he walked through a gutted Russian 
city a Mongol warrior kicked a bag of gold coins out of the way, re- 
marking as he walked on, “a heap of good it did him.” 


Ws; 
os 


SSS 


Figure 15.—Arrows show the trail of the Ottoman Turks out of Central Asia 
into Iran and Anatolia. Shaded area is Ottoman empire at its peak, 1683. 
V=Vienna. T=Tours, the highwater mark of Islam in western Europe, A. D. 
732. 


It is said that Genghis’ generals urged him to cleanse North China 
by massacring the millions of agricultural human vermin who in- 
habited it. Genghis said “No,” but his successor slaughtered the 
entire population of Baghdad, perhaps some 700,000 in number. 

If Russia has been somewhat backward in comparison to some other 
European countries in recent generations, we should remember its 
complete submergence beneath the Mongol horde nearly a thousand 
years after the Roman Empire had its somewhat similar but less 


380 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


thorough destruction at the hands of mobile horsemen from the steppes. 
Parts of European Russia are still inhabited by several groups of the 
descendants of these Mongoloid Asiatic invaders. Their numbers run 
into millions. We might call them, and the Hungarians and the 
Finns, Asia’s return for the settlements of Indo-Europeans in south- 
western Asia. The Turks continued this reciprocity with ferocity. 


THE TURKS 


The Hwang Valley seems to have been the center of peoples who 
are called Mongoloid. Central and north central Asia was the center 


YW WI Ui:Y 
yyy 


ey 


« 
| | ‘ACQUIRED BY 


RUSSIA 


Figure 16.—Shaded* area shows Russian conquests in Asia since 1580. Gun- 
powder and wheels quelled the horseman of the steppes. 

for peoples called Turanian. The names Turki, Turcoman, or Turk 
have been variously applied to a dozen or more ethnic groups living 
west of the Great Wall and close kin to Mongol and Hun. The mo- 
bility of these horsemen of so-called Turkish stock was so great that 
in a short period they were to be found at Lake Baikal and also in 
Morocco, 7,000 miles distant. When the Russians took Merv less than 
100 years ago, the Turcomans of the nearby steppes were known by 
their neighbors as “the man-stealing Turks.” 

The Turkish group that conquered Constantinople has repeated 
the southwest Asia historical cycle with variations. They came from 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITH 381 


Turkestan, crossed a corner of Persia, and settled in Asia Minor. 
There they increased, organized, and crossed the Bosphorus. Pass- 
ing the walls of Constantinople the invaders established themselves 
in southeastern Europe in the early 1300’s. After generations of war 
they took Constantinople in 1453 and extended their empire into 
Hungary and south Russia. In 1683 the Turkish siege of Vienna was 
raised by John Sobieski, of Poland. 

If you look at the map and locate Tours, the northernmost limit of 
the Arab invasion, and Vienna, the westernmost limit of the Turkish 
invasion, you will see that Christendom has been subjected to a men- 


Camelmen 


=< 


vigosy wou 


Ficure 17.—Human overflow from northern and southern grasslands, as shown 
by Mackinder in the book “Democratic Ideals and Reality,” Henry Holt & 
Company. Small wonder that Mesopotamia, once so fruitful, has lain almost 
idle and almost empty for centuries and centuries. 


acing pincers movement. Fortunately, the different sides pinched in 
different centuries. 

If anyone is inclined to criticize the Balkan peoples for some cul- 
tural, or especially political, shortcomings, let him remember that for 
500 years (13826-1878) the Balkan peoples were subjected to the tyran- 
nous misgovernment of the Turks, from which they but recently 
escaped. 

During much of this long era of Turkish rule there was something 
like guerilla warfare here and there in the broken area we call the 
Balkans. In such a time men think of chieftains, leaders, not such 
abstractions as democracy. In 1943 and 1944 we heard much about 
Mihailovitch and Tito—two.more chieftains. 


382 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


At the close of World War I, Michael Pupin, a Serb, and distin- 
guished physicist of Columbia University, was the head of many 
Serbian organizations in this country. When Woodrow Wilson, at 
Paris, was big in the European news, Pupin remarked one day, “I 
don’t want a college professor, I want a king and a hero.” 

The Turk ruled a wide empire of many peoples, but was able to 
establish his language only in Anatolia. 


eR 
TAA AY 
- rs 


he pit Million a 3 2 
4n People ‘ \ ff p 


‘ ° 
OCEAN: 


CG 


FicurE 18.—Topography and routes of conquest and migration. Note the Zun- 
garian Gate, opening a marauders’ road from grassland toward farmlands. 
(From Mackinder, “Democratic Ideals and Reality,” Henry Holt & Company.) 
The second route from the left is the Khyber Pass. No one knows the number 
of bands of migrants, marauders, or organized armies that have marched 
through that very favorable opening in the mountain wall. There were those 
of Alexander, Tamerlane, and George V. Today it has a strategic railway, 
and bristles with pillboxes perched high aloft on many commanding hills. 


RUSSIA TAKES THE STEPPES 


Gunpowder with muskets and cannon ended the career of the horse- 
men of the steppes after an undisturbed independence of unknown 
duration, and after about 4,000 years during which the horsemen over- 
ran almost at will their more civilized neighbors on the east, south, 
and west. In 1580 the Russians with muskets, cannon, and wagons 
crossed the Urals. In 300 years they subjugated the whole of central 


GRASSLAND AND FARMLAND—SMITEH 383 


Asia and all its horsemen right down to the mountain walls of Persia, 
Afghanistan, and the outer provinces of the old Chinese Empire. 

The tables were turned. The mobile grassland horseman found 
himself dominated by a machine-using sedentary man from beyond 
the grassland border. 

It is interesting to contemplate the almost unchanging continuity 
of two culture types: East of the Great Wall, in the good farmland 
of the Chinese plain, the man with the hoe, the mud village, the brick 
temple. This man was, and is, a peace-loving creature untempted by 
the lure of conquest, praying to be let alone in his garden. Instead 
he has been the victim of oft-repeated pillage. 

West of the Great Wall the grassland man, riding a horse, living in a 
tent, menaced by perennial uncertainty of supplies of grass and water. 
His temptation to maraud was strong and oft-repeated. The mobile 
existence of the grassland man made it easy for him to raid and pillage. 
The grain bags of the man with the hoe offered an easy objective. 
Thus, for 4,000 years grassland culture changed but little and the raid- 
ing nomad never ceased his attacks. Almost any year cavalry could 
muster on the plains and in irresistible numbers appear unannounced 
in the farmland beyond the mountain. Thus civilization after civil- 
ization and empire after empire developed in the farmlands and fell 
before the man from the grassland. 

Grassland society permitted and encouraged military power, often 
unlimited except by the whim and fancy of him who wielded it. Temp- 
tation to yield to the power lust was more frequent in the grasslands 
than in other environments. The power lust is unique among man’s 
desires. The gratification of the desire for food, drink, sex, the pleas- 
ures of the chase, of workmanship, of the intellect, of creative art—the 
exercise of all these leads to satiety and sleep. But in terrible contrast, 
the lust for power grows by gratification. It runs away with the 
human spirit. At times it unbalances the mind. The Romans with 
the pitiful record of emperors before them had a word for it—“Impe- 
rial Madness.” 

History furnishes overabundant illustrations. To read “Mein 
Kampf” and contemplate the actions of the Nazis proves the present 
and continuing menace of unchecked power. The dangerous thing is 
that the power lust is born in all individuals. It is even shared by 
some of the quadrupeds. 

If the turbulent history of the Eurasian grassland has any message 
for this generation of men it is an imperative command to so organize 
our affairs that no race, nation, or group can get into a position of 
unlimited power over other large groups. 

Gunpowder and the railway reduced grassland man to impotence. 
They made him the vassal of the man from outside whose machinery 

could outrun the horse and outshoot the horseman’s bow or rifle. 


384 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


But what about this Eurasian grassland as a stage and base of opera- 
tions in the world of tooth and fang, but equipped also with plane and 
bomb ? 

Mackinder pointed out at the end of World War I that land-based 
air power would soon make the Mediterranean untenable to any kind 
of shipping. Here he showed himself a most true prophet. History 
has vindicated Mackinder. It has also vindicated Woodrow Wilson’s 
dictum that if any people or nation is not safe, no nation is safe. 
Immensely strengthened is the argument for world organization to 
outlaw war. If our intelligence is any greater than that of the sheep 
or the cow we will strive for international organization that is 
equipped for: 

1. The removal of international tensions before they make 
explosions. 

2. The treatment of any war as we treat smallpox and rabies. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Smith PLATE 1 


1. THUS DID SHALMANESAR, KING OF ASSYRIA (MESOPOTAMIA), CELEBRATE 
HIS VICTORIES, 840 B. C., IN ‘‘IMPERISHABLE’’ STONE. 


(After des Noettes.) 


aed 


-y 
” 


+ STWR STEEN Ss I eae” yer ee eee Le - +e 8 afta & Ottery? wae yt amy 
Te, Wa"eE Soe = Set Paras +. rere ae eae td ae a 
PaaS 1 7) + 


te 


2. TIGLATHPILESAR, 745-727 B. C., LEFT THIS MONUMENT TO HUMAN STUPIDITY. 


Note the heavy tongue of the chariot higher than the horse’s back and, far up the horse’s neck, the choker 
to which the tongue is attached. (Compare fig. 1, above.) The Romans were not much better. Trajan, 
A. D. 70, celebrated his Danubian victories with a half mile or so of sculptures winding round and round 
his well-known column. There are horses there but no stirrup, no horse collar, no trace (attachment to 
horse’s shoulder). Trajan’s horses pulled less than those of Tiglathpilesar. Indeed they pulled not at 
all—according to sculpture. Men with dangling legs sat astride them. 


(After des Noettes.) 


\ aw) Meee us 7 

, 7 

Pine - 
ni ih, orn 7 
ph.) a 

jet 


) + am 


Oo 


SOUTHERN ARABIA, A PROBLEM FOR THE FUTURE? 


By CarLetron S. Coon 
Harvard University 


INTRODUCTION 


The one corner of the Asiatic continent with which archeologists, 
ethnologists, and physical anthropologists have concerned themselves 
the least, for excellent reasons, is southern Arabia. This pardonable 
neglect stands in inverse ratio to the region’s natural appeal and 
interest. The whole Arabian peninsula, from one standpoint, forms 
one of three vermiform appendices dangling from the main mass of 
Asia into the Indian Ocean. Arabia, southern India with Ceylon, 
and the Malay Peninsula, have all three served as culs-de-sac to old, 
discarded, and forgotten fragments of humanity, pressed out of circu- 
lation by the movements of more vigorous and more civilized groups 
to the north. The parallel between southern Arabia and the other 
two appendices is clear. The primitive Bedawin of the Hadhramaut, 
who form the substratum of that country’s population, and the non- 
Arabic-speaking natives of Mahra and Dhofar, serve as the western 
counterparts of the Vedda, the Semang, and the Sakai. 

But there is another facet to this comparison. Just as the brilliant 
Sinhalese civilization flourished in Ceylon, just as the Mon-Khmer 
civilization reached sculptural heights in the jungles of Cambodia 
and Siam, and Hindu culture was carried over into Sumatra and Java, 
so southern Arabia has at the same time played a second role, that of 
a hothouse of high oriental civilization in antiquity. Here flourished 


1The purpose of the author in writing this paper is to summarize the existing informa- 
tion, available to him, concerning the prehistory, archeology, and ethnology of the por- 
tions of Arabia lying south of the twentieth parallel, especially the kingdom of Yemen and 
the regions of Hadhramaut and Dhofar, and the island of Socatra, and to interpret that data 
both historically and ethnologically. In so doing the author has drawn heavily on several 
sources: Maj. H. St. John Philby’s articles in the New York Times of September 12 and 
19, 1937; Dr. Cesare Ansaldi’s book, “Il Yemen’; the sections written by Drs. Nielsen, 
Hommel, and Rhodokanakis in the ‘Handbuch der altarabischen Altertumskunde”’; Van 
den Berg’s “Le Hadhramout et les Colonies Arabes dans 1’Archipel Indien’; ‘Southern 
Arabia,” by Theodore and Mrs. Bent; and “Arabia Felix,” by Bertram Thomas. 

The bulk of the information comes from the aforementioned sources, most of the rest 
from the author’s field notes. The interpretation, unless otherwise acknowledged in the 
text, is original, 

Reprinted by permission from Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology 
and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol. 20, Dixon Memorial Volume, 1943. 

385 


386 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the famous kingdoms of the Sabaeans, Minaeans, Katabanians, and 
Hadhramautis, whose splendors were immortalized by the biblical 
account of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Under the encroaching 
sands of the Empty Quarter lie the feet of splendid temples and lofty 
skyscrapers, abandoned to the desert after the breaking of the Marib 
dam, and the shift of the frankincense trade from the overland route 
to the sea. 

The peninsula of Arabia can hardly be called a unit. The Empty 
Quarter, probably the world’s largest stretch of sheer and utter desert 
without oasis and without relief, acts as the center of a ring, about 
which are set the Arabian kingdoms, like jewels of different hue and 
luster. The Empty Quarter divides these kingdoms as no sea could, 
for one can sail across seas, and some, such as the Mediterranean, 
and the Indian Ocean, have acted in history as highroads rather than 
as barriers. There is no barrier so great as a complete desert. The 
Empty Quarter may be crossed by camels and has been so crossed 
over long periods of time; this has been proved by the personal ex- 
perience and inquiries of Bertram Thomas. Such crossings, how- 
ever, are extremely exceptional, and most of the inhabitants of Arabia 
today entertain only fabulous notions of the actual character of this 
extensive waste. 

Although it would please exponents of pan-Arabian solidarity to 
think that all the Arabs in the whole peninsula and elsewhere form a 
racial and cultural unit, the truth is quite the opposite. Arabian 
unity north and west of the Empty Quarter may well extend into Syria, 
Iraq, and North Africa, but south of the great desert the vermiform 
appendix plays its retentive role. Here, small, ringlet-haired men, 
painted blue, swear mighty oaths over the tombs of Jnun, milk their 
cattle, sleep in caves, and initiate their sons in mass ceremonies of an 
Australoid character. ‘These men are not Arabs in the modern, Islamic 
sense; they are the survivors of an earlier age. 

Southern Arabia may be divided geographically into a number of 
discrete units. Most important politically, and in reference to popu- 
lation, is its westernmost segment, the divine kingdom of Yemen, where 
approximately 3 million farmers water their terraces and reap their 
barley under the spiritual sanction of their Imam. The Yemen con- 
sists geographically of two main parts, separated by a formidable 
barrier. The first part is the Tihama, a narrow coastal strip in which 
sand dunes alternate with fields of sorghum, and occupied by a mixed 
population of Negroid serfs from Africa and small elflike, brachy- 
cephalic men, whose racial origin is still a mystery. The barrier is a 
10,000-foot escarpment, rising sheer from the coastal plain, crowned 
by a range of castellated peaks, and folded and eroded into countless 
valleys. 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 387 


This escarpment has been almost completely terraced by man. On it 
erow crops of luscious fruits, various hard grains, and the entire supply 
of the world’s finest grade of coffee. Beyond the escarpment stretches 
a vast upland plateau, sloping gently eastward and drained into the 
Wady Hadhramaut and the Indian Ocean. From the edge of the 


Miles 


— Marib 


MODERN PLACE NAMES — Sanaa 
0 50 100 150 200 
SCALE eo=——————— ees ——— 


SOUTHERN ARABIA 
ANCIENT PLACE NAMES 


Ae any 
3 anti? 
—_ gens 
soe ) 4 
Satod we SF 


pee Teri Sho Hudl’s Tom 
{Adi ffauteo*Saiwun 2 
Figure 1.—Southern Arabia 


g 


escarpment to the ill-defined border of the gradually encroaching 
Empty Quarter stretches a wide belt of terraced land on which great 
crops of grain are grown by the Imam’s subjects. The desert border- 
land, itself once the seat of garden states watered by means of huge 
dams, is now occupied by a few scattered tribes of Bedawin, who make 


388 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


their living by exploiting the natural salt deposits situated near the 
great city-sites. 

To the east of the Yemen, and to the south of the westernmost exten- 
sion of the Empty Quarter, lies the famous region called Hadhramaut, 
a country whose size diminishes as one approaches it. To the outsider, 
the Hadhramaut comprises most of Arabia east of Aden, west of Mahra, 
and south of the desert. To the Hadhramis themselves, it includes 
only the narrow valley which bears its name, and the string of towns 
built along it. The Hadhramaut, like the Yemen, is the seat of intense 
agricultural activity, but in a much more restricted sense, since only the 
river valley and the beds of its tributaries are actually productive, 
while the nearly denuded mountain region lying between the valley 
and the sea is used for camel pasture and the passage of caravans. 
The sea coast of the Hadhramaut is a negligible geographical expres- 
sion, since the cliffs which hem in this valley to the south arise almost 
directly from the water. 

East of the Hadhramaut lies what is, to most ethnologists, probably 
the most interesting section of southern Arabia. ‘This is the half moon 
of Dhofar, a small coastal plain hemmed from behind by the Qara 
Mountains, against which the full force of the Indian monsoon unloads 
seasonal rain in abundance. Dhofar alone retains the damp tropical 
climate which, the geologists tell us, at one time characterized the 
whole southern strip of Arabia. In Dhofar survive mangrove 
swamps, miniature jungles of tropical palms, and on the slopes above 
the plain, an abundance of those small, fleshy bushes from which are 
bled the frankincense tears so greatly prized in the ancient world. 
In the highlands behind Dhofar survive pre-Arabic Semitic lan- 
guages; ? and a cattle culture comparable to that of the Toda of India 
on the one hand and of the East African Hamites and Bantu on the 
other, as well as certain customs and practices of a very primitive 
character. 

When we leave Dhofar we enter the domain of Oman proper, but 
we are no longer in the strict sense concerned with southern Arabia. 
The bulk of Oman is situated in a latitude north of Mekka, and even 
with that of Medina. Except for the alleged Negrito strain in the 
population of Cape Musandam, its relationships are primarily with 
the valley of Mesopotamia and with the coast line of Iran. Southern 
Arabia, in the strict sense of the word, cannot be said to extend 
north of the twentieth parallel. 


PREHISTORY 


There can be little doubt that, during parts of the Pleistocene period, 
southern Arabia enjoyed a much more felicitous climate than it does at 


2 Thomas, 1937b. 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 389 


present. The Empty Quarter, after all, is nothing but an eastward 
extension of the Sahara, a part of the general belt of arid uplands 
extending across vast expanses of Africa and Asia. Since the climatic 
history of the Sahara is now partly known, it is possible to reason by 
analogy with some hope of justification. 

During the Pleistocene, a number of pluvial periods turned the 
Sahara, at alternate intervals, into a great plain of grass and park- 
lands, drained by huge rivers which carved its deep wadies, now water- 
less and denuded, into sculptural masterpieces of erosion. In south- 
ern Arabia, the size and volume of the dry river courses bear evidence 
that the same process took place here as well, and that during these 
periods of abundant rainfall the Empty Quarter itself formed a 
grassy plain of lesser size, offering food and shelter to herds of rumi- 
nant mammals, and to man. 

After the last pluvial maximum, Arabia, like the Sahara, began to 
dry out. The abandonment of Marib, the gradual disuse of the ter- 
races along the Yemen escarpment, and the turning of the northern 
Arabs to pastoral nomadism with dependence on the camel, may all 
have been secondary manifestations of this increasing desiccation, 
and we have no evidence that the drying-out process has yet come to 
an end. Arabia today holds somewhat less than 6 million people. 
Five thousand years ago, when agriculture was already old but lit- 
erate civilization new, Arabia might presumably have held twice that 
number. If we are to reconstruct the history of Arabia, however, we 
must turn back still farther, and postulate a time in which the whole 
southern border of the peninsula resembled the present Dhofar, and 
in which the Empty Quarter and the regions north of it were grassy 
plains. 

At that time, it is possible that Arabia was a home of human beings 
of ancestral European type, and advanced beyond their fellows in the 
glacial north. It is too early, however, to present this hypothesis with 
conviction, for at present Paleolithic archeology in Arabia may be 
said hardly to have begun. In the Nejd, Doughty * found Paleolithic 
implements, in the form of hand axes; Henry Field,‘ in a motor trip 
across Transjordania and the desert border of Iraq, established the 
presence of Paleolithic industries from the Acheulean stage upward, 
while Philby,* in his recent trip along the southern border of the 
Empty Quarter, has likewise discovered Paleolithic implements of 
nature as yet unstated. 

Miss Caton-Thompson,* however, has found paleoliths in situ in 
the Hadhramaut; these are of Levalloisian type, and poorly executed. 

® Doughty, 1923. 

‘Field, 1934. 


5Philby, 1937. 
*Caton-Thompson and Gardner, 1939. 


390 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


They seem to have been used over a long period of time. So far, none 
of the hand axes so typical of northern Arabia have been found south 
of the Ruba’-el Khali, which was perhaps as much of a refuge area 
in Paleolithic as in historic times. In other words, the geographical 
forces which divide northern and southern Arabia into separate cul- 
tural entities today may also have operated as far back in human his- 
tory as Pleistocene times. 

Southern Arabia may also hold the answer to some of the problems 
concerned with the rise of the Neolithic economy in the Old World. 
The Yemen highlands and the corresponding highlands of Ethiopia 
seem to be old centers of terraced agriculture. In Ethiopia, a number 
of unique local species of cereals have been found. So far, the Yemen 
has escaped the attention of economic botanists, but this region may be 
of great interest in this connection. It is just possible that some 
aspects of the Neolithic economy may have developed in this area. 

Megaliths, too, are present in southern Arabia. In his recent jour- 
ney through Asir and the desert borderland of Yemen, Philby’ 
noticed the presence of cromlechs similar to Stonehenge, made of 
double concentric circles of huge slabs of granite, with central corri- 
dors oriented to the east and west. He also found semicircular pas- 
sageways, and vast fields of dolmenlike tombs both with and without 
corridors. Further study on the spot will be needed to determine both 
the age of these structures and their relationship, if any, with the 
megalithic complex in the Mediterranean and western Europe. At 
present, however, it would seem that they have a strong continuity, 
at least in an architectural sense, with the historic cultures of southern 
Arabia. 

Aside from archeology, southern Arabia may contain the solution 
of an important question in the racial field: “What role did the south- 
ern coastal strip of the peninsula play in forming a connection be- 
tween the frizzly-haired, deep-pigmented peoples of Africa and 
Oceania?” In Africa the general Negroid family is represented by 
true Negroes, Pygmies, and Bushmen. In southern Asia and Oceania, 
from India to Fiji, one finds various kinds of Negritos, all occupying 
marginal areas, as well as Melanesians and Tasmanians. There is 
probably some genetic continuity between the Negroids of these two 
major areas, and since the fringe of southern Arabia lies in between, 
some traces of whatever group served as link might possibly be ex- 
pected to survive. Such a survival does actually occur. 

The population of southern Arabia, aside from the Yemen, consists 
of two major elements—Mediterranean and Veddoid. In the Ha- 
dhramaut Valley, the agriculturists are predominantly Mediterra- 
nean; among the Bedawin, and among the wilder tribes of the Dhofar 


7Philby, 1937. 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 391 


region, the Veddoid element increases in importance. There is, how- 
ever, a third element—frizzly-haired, short-statured, round-headed, 
which occurs among sporadic individuals, and which is presumably 
Negrito. Individuals possessing these traits are not to be confused 
with African Negro hybrids, who are well recognized and who are 
differentiated from the rest of the population in a social sense, nor 
with Somalis. The tribesmen of Cape Musandam, in Oman, are said 
to be predominantly Negrito.® 

The tentative identification of a submerged Negrito strain in south- 
ern Arabia, which can be confirmed only by further work on the spot, 
leads one to suggest that the connecting link between the African and 
Oceanic Negroids may be Negrito—the only type which both have in 
common. It is very likely that the Negrito is an extremely ancient 
human type, as witnessed by its marginal position, and that it antedates 
in development both the African Negro and the Melanesian, which 
latter is probably a hybrid. Southern Arabia was presumably at one 
time merely a segment of the forested belt which the Negritos of the 
world occupied, and in it the Negrito factor may well antedate the 
Veddoid. 

THE PRE-ISLAMIC KINGDOMS ® 


When we approach the problem of the literate city-states of pre- 
Islamic southern Arabia, we reach somewhat firmer, though still 
shaky, ground. We know that there were four kingdoms, from north- 
west to southeast: Ma‘an, Saba, Kataban, and Hadhramaut. Their 
capitals were, in order, Ma‘an, Marib, Tamna, and Shabwa. Of these 
four, Tamna has not even been located. Ma‘an and Marib were visited 
by furtive epigraphers in disguise, in the 1880’s, and then left unknown 
until 1935, when Hellfritz, under escort by the Imam’s soldiers, was 
hurried through the latter. The same adventurer also passed through 
Shabwa equally rapidly. In 1936-87, Philby spent a total of 8 days at 
Shabwa and peered at Marib from a distant hill. 

Under these circumstances, it is no wonder that our knowledge of 
these kingdoms is scanty. It is largely derived from Greek accounts, 
and from the translations of inscriptions—some copied in the cities 
themselves, others photographed and copied in the Imam’s Museum 
at Sana‘a, and still others brought out to the coast at Aden. Other 
objects in the Imam’s Museum: hastily examined by the author and by 
Dr. Schlobies, contribute further evidence. The Peabody Museum 
of Harvard University and the Semitic Museum of the same institution 
have small collections which await competent study. 

8 Wilson, 1928. 


® The literary evidence upon which much of this section is based is drawn largely from 
Nielsen, et al., 1927. 


619830—45——26 


392 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Despite the paucity of information and the general lack of interest 
in this most important field, linking as it does the civilizations of two 
ancient worlds, the trade of the forger flourishes. The rare visitor to 
Sana‘a is besieged by dealers in statuettes and inscribed stones, some 
blatantly poor and new, others clever and difficult to detect. Silver 
coins of the Sabaeans, however, are abundant, and a drug on the 
numismatic market, 

What do these objects so far found tell us? Their surface message 
is clear. The kingdoms of southern Arabia, like that of the Nabatae- 
ans farther north, were in contact with the entire ancient world, from 
Rome to India and perhaps beyond. Objects of Roman, Greek, 
Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indian manufacture abound. Scarabs, 
amulets, bronze statues in the Roman manner, dragon-feet and grape- 
bunch ornamentation in the Syrian and Byzantine manner, and Gre- 
cian columns all witness the especial linkage of this region with the 
Mediterranean. The names of gods monotonously repeated, the abun- 
dance of seated votive idols and ex votos, from phalli to oxen, indicate 
a devotion to religion and a belief in divine cures. Animal figurines 
show humpless cattle of the long-horned variety, like those of Hotten- 
tot and Galla, dromedaries, horses, ibexes, and gazelles. 

Bronze is the common metal, iron rare; gold and silver are not scarce. 
Microlithic flakes of ornamental greenish stone and of obsidian were 
apparently used as cutting tools and as arrowheads, along with metal. 
Palettes indicate the great use of mineral cosmetics, as in predynastic 
Egypt. Statuettes and bas-reliefs show the skirt or breechclout to be 
the common costume. The sculptural level in purely native art is 
not high enough to give us an accurate idea of the racial types 
present, except that the people were undoubtedly white, had prominent 
noses, and that the men wore beards. There is no reason to suppose 
that they were any different racially from the Mediterranean Yemeni 
highlanders of today. 

Without question a careful study of authentic South Arabian archeo- 
logical specimens, even those removed from their contexts, as all 
those available are, could do much to solve the problem of the contacts 
and influences of this civilization. But such a study is yet to be made. 
From the inscriptions, and from classical and Arabic documents, we 
may build a second picture—that of the ethnography of these king- 
doms; their boundaries in time and space, their social structures, their 
religious practices, and their economic life. With the aid of the prodi- 
gious scholarship of Nielsen and his associates, we will proceed to 
discuss these in brief. 

It cannot yet be determined with any accuracy when the South 
Arabian kingdoms were first established. It is known, however, that 
Ma‘an was probably the oldest, with Kataban perhaps nearly as old, 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 393 


while the Sabaean kingdom was, relatively speaking, young. The 
history of southern Arabia, as an important center of civilization, 
may have started, however, as early as 1300 B. C. and it continued 
until the time of Mohammed. A more conservative, but otherwise in 
no way preferable, date is 900 B. C. Whichever or whatever date one 
accepts, there can be no doubt that this cultural emergence was pre- 
ceded by centuries of preliterate, in a sense predynastic, agricultural 
civilization. 

At some chronological point between the two dates mentioned, 
southern Arabia came into prominence as a highly civilized agricul- 
tural region, flourishing near the source of the incense trade route, 
which went up from the Hadhramaut around the western edge of the 
Empty Quarter to Mekka, Medina, and the ports of the eastern Medi- 
terranean. It also served as the principal or only route by which goods 
from India were transshipped and carried overland. This trade posi- 
tion was highly artificial and depended almost wholly upon the sup- 
pression of the sea route up the Red Sea. When this was opened, in 
the second century A. D., the kingdoms of southern Arabia fell, and 
the country lost its importance to the world. 

Of the four kingdoms, Hadhramaut alone produced incense, which 
also came from Dhofar farther east. The other three lay on the trade 
route and served as carriers, thereby collecting their “cuts” from the 
rich trade profits. A tear of incense resin, of negligible value on the 
tree, had been doubled and redoubled many times in price before it 
reached the Mediterranean. This ancient racketeering was based upon 
two sound economic principles, as valid now as then: the first, that 
of the monopoly, and the second, that of bought protection, in which 
the Arabs and desert people elsewhere have long been experts. 

The Minaean kingdom, which was apparently the oldest, had passed 
its period of efflorescence before the Sabaeans began. It was also 
the northernmost, located in the Jauf and Nejran, with Ma‘an its main 
city. Nielsen believes that the basic elements of this civilization came 
from the coastal strip along the northern Persian Gulf, which the 
Arabs call Bahrain, and the Babylonians called Magan. According 
to Nielsen, Ma‘an=Magan, with the ‘ain substituted for the Baby- 
lonian G. 3 

There were 20 Minaean kings, covering, in their combined reigns, 
a period of at least 600 years. The older estimate would place the 
Minaean period from 1300 to 700 B. C.; the younger, from 900 to 300. 
If the alphabetic inscriptions from Ma‘an go back to the oldest period, 
then the younger dating is the more likely, since, in the Sinai region 
and northern Arabia, alphabetic writing does not antedate the first 
millennium. The age of the Katabanians is also in doubt, but in all 
probability their kingdom was roughly contemporaneous with that of 


394. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the Minaeans. At what time Hadhramaut changed from a trade depot 
to a kingdom is not known. 

The Sabaeans appear toward the end of the Minaean reign, perhaps, 
as Nielsen suggests, from the northern Arabian Jauf. They were 
perhaps also camel nomads, who carried the trade for the Minaeans, 
and who, later having decided to take their share of the business di- 
rectly, established a domain in the south, grafting themselves on the 
northern portion of what had been Katabanian territory. There are 
‘two Sabaean periods: the earlier, called the Mukarrib period, in which 
the king bore the title mukarrib, which indicated a primarily priestly 
office, and a later, in which he is called malik, the common Semitic 
word for king. A parallel transition took place in Kataban. The 
exact dates of these two periods are unknown, depending on a floating 
correlation. For the first Nielsen offers 1115-815 B. C., 950-650 B. C., 
and 815-510 B. C., of which he prefers the middle one. This, of course, 
goes with the early dating for the Minaeans. 

The most important Mukarrib of Saba was Karika-Ilu (the Priest 
of the God Il), who killed 4,000 men in a war against Kataban, then 
turned on Ma‘an and killed 45,000 while taking 63,000 prisoners and 
31,000 head of cattle. At the same time his army laid the Nejran 
country waste, destroying the Minaeans forever. Two Assyrian in- 
scriptions, dated 715 and 685 B. C., respectively, serve to locate this 
Kariba-Ilu accurately in time. He gave presents to King Sargon of 
Assyria, although he was in no sense a vassal of the latter monarch. 
The difficulty in pinning the entire chronology to him is that there 
were several kings named Kariba-Ilu, and it is not yet known which 
one of them was the great conqueror and Sargon’s friend. 

At any rate, this Mukarrib period was the period of rise and efllores- 
cence for the Sabaeans. They established themselves definitely as 
the principal people in southern Arabia; for after destroying the 
Minaeans and crippling the Katabanians and Hadhramautis, they 
turned to offer these two latter peace and alliance, which must have 
implied a Sabaean hegemony. The material high point of this period 
was the erection of the great dam at Marib, which provided irrigation 
water for the whole section. 

From about 650 to 115 B. C., according to Nielsen’s correlation, the 
Sabaeans continued to be the dominant people in the incense and In- 
dian trades. This was the Malik period. In 115 B. C. their nation be- 
came the dual kingdom of Saba and Dhu Raidan, with rival families 
arising ; the Hamdanis, of whom there is still an entire tribe in Yemen, 
and the Himyarites, who were only a single noble family, although 
their name has erroneously been preserved as the title of the whole 
South Arabian civilization. The Hamdanis were centered at Marib, 
the Himyarites at Dhu Raidan. From 115 B. C. to A. D. 270 these 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 395 


two families jockeyed each other about in their struggle for exclusive 
power. 

The later history of southern Arabia, until the arrival of Islam, is 
relatively well known. In 24 B. C. Aelius Gallus led an expedition 
to conquer this whole section, known to the Romans as Arabia Felix, 
but the Romans never got there. Somewhere in the sands near the 
Nejran the majority of them perished, and those who survived at 
this point turned back. About A. D. 270 the Axumite Ethiopians 
conquered Arabia Felix and ruled it—they were Christians and set up 
bishops and bishoprics. But by A. D. 378, apparently, their rule 
had come to an end. The Axumites themselves were the descendants, 
in whole or in part, of earlier emigrants from the Hadhramaut, who 
had carried Semitic civilization to Ethiopia and there become 
Christianized. 

In A. D. 449 and 450 the dam at Marib burst twice, washing out the 
valley and ruining agriculture, and at this time there must have been 
a mass exodus. Perhaps it was at this time that the region of Sana‘a 
became the nucleus of Yemen. The later kings, who ruled before the 
bursting of the dam, were in many instances Jewish in religion, and 
the strong Jewish colony of Yemen had before then been founded. 
In A. D. 525 the Ethiopians returned, and in A. D. 570, the birth year 
of Mohammed, the Ethiopian viceroy Abraha, who ruled Yemen, 
organized an expedition, mounted on elephants, against Mekka. This 
expedition soon came to grief, however, and in the same year the 
Persians conquered the country. In A. D. 628 the last Persian gov- 
ernor became a Moslem, and Arabia Felix was ruled from Mekka. By 
the time of the establishment of Islam in Yemen, southern Arabia had 
lost its earlier importance. This was due to the break-up of the over- 
land trade, caused chiefly by the establishment of ports along the 
coastal Tihama by the Ethiopians. Before this time we hear little of 
the coastal plain—it was ethnically a different country, as it is today. 

About the political and social organization of the four southern 
Arabian states, we have sufficient information to permit the recon- 
struction of at least a plausible if striking system. Since each of the 
four was organized in essentially the same way, it will suffice to de- 
scribe the functioning of the best known, Saba. Here society was 
graded and subdivided on two interlocking bases, kinship and in- 
heritable rank. These divisions were formally expressed by the pres- 
ence within the state of several parallel tribes and four graded classes. 
The tribe was both a kinship grouping and a geographical expression; 
each tribe except one was a completely parallel unit, which included 
members of the three lower classes, in approximately equivalent pro- 
portions. The one asymmetrical tribe possessed in addition the entire 
personnel of the highest class, small in number, and including the 
priest-king and his near kinsmen. 


396 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The state was named after the leading tribe, and the capital was 
situated in this tribe’s territory. The king was the representative of 
godhead on earth, the chief diety which he represented was the na- 
tional god of the state, although each tribe kept its own tribal divinity 
as well. The leading tribe was concerned with the maintenance of the 
main temple and of shrines; thus, the leading tribe maintained its 
political ascendancy through a religious sanction. 

Each tribe was bound to a certain section of land and was responsible 
for the agricultural success of this allotment. The members of the 
tribe were obliged to remain on this land and could not farm else- 
where—there was no freedom of movement from the agricultural and 
residential standpoint. For political purposes, the tribe was sub- 
divided laterally into thirds or quarters, and tribes could be recom- 
bined arbitrarily for political purposes. In this way the genealogical 
solidarity of the tribe could be broken down and must eventually have 
become secondary to the geographical tie. This organization into 
tribes and subtribes made it easy for the government to levy armies 
and collect taxes, and also to provide for the poor. 

Local landholders, belonging to the upper tribal class, were also war 
leaders and were responsible for the raising of covées to execute public 
works, particularly irrigation projects, and to maintain the highway 
along which the precious frankincense traveled. Furthermore, these 
tribal leaders were charged with recruiting warriors and overseeing 
agriculture; for if any lands were neglected or poorly farmed, the 
tribal overlords were held responsible. 

The three social classes, aside from the divine upper crust, are desig- 
nated by the as yet vowel-less words Mswd, Ksdn,and Dmwt. For the 
sake of simplicity, we shall designate these by the numbers 2, 3, and 4, 
leaving number 1 for the royal caste. Number 2 was a privileged class 
of landowners, with the feudal rights mentioned earlier; number 3 
formed the most numerous group, consisting of free landholders, the 
owners of small, individual properties, who provided the bulk of the 
working power. They were farmers, paid a land tax, did military 
service, and submitted themselves to the feudal authority of the noble 
families of the second class. Members of class number 3 were further 
subgraded into categories by occupation, since they apparently in- 
cluded in their numbers the skillful artisans responsible for the high 
level of South Arabian material culture. If the modern parallel in 
Yemenite society reflects an earlier condition, then the farmers proper 
must have been superior socially to the artisans. The members of 
class number 4 were landless serfs, without political freedom. It is not 
known whether or not they fitted into the genealogical scheme upon 
which the tribal structure was erected. 


“ a a lee 
EE 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 397 


An officer called Kebirv, in Greek rpecBirepos, presided over each 
tribe as head. The name itself implies that he was originally an elder, 
and that his position was determined by family precedence. His office 
was partly priestly, perhaps in the earlier stages of South Arabian 
social evolution largely so. It was he who brought sacrifices to the 
tribal temple and offered them to the tribal god. 

Besides the lands governed by the tribal princes, there were crown 
lands governed directly by the king, and the occupants of these terri- 
tories paid him taxes and military services. Presumably these were the 
lands occupied by members of his own tribe. Much of the land also 
belonged to the temple; on it were priestly colleges, each with its Kebir. 
Thus, the prototype of the modern zawya and its sheikh or fakih 
existed in pre-Islamic Saba. Every member of society, of whatever 
class, was obliged to do some work on the temple lands, and the gods 
were offered sacrifices, ex votos, and the tithes of all produce. The 
temples themselves were built with money given or bequeathed as 
offerings to wipe away specific sins committed by the donors. 

The dual system of national partitionment, vertically into tribes and 
horizontally into classes, produced a state held together by religious 
sanction and by a specialized common economic purpose. Exactly how 
the caravans were organized, and who had control of the road taxes, 
we do not yet know, but the technique must have fitted into the system 
already described. 

One can find a number of parallels to this tightly integrated and 
overtly stratified form of organization, in various parts of the world. 
The Inca system in Peru was basically similar, and that of the Aztecs 
was, at the time of Cortez, assuming a similar form, while the germs of 
such a system may be found in the tribal organization of the Muskho- 
gean peoples of the southeastern United States. In the Old World, 
the Sumerian and Bablyonian systems were not radically dissimilar. 
In Egypt the divinity of the king and the role of the nomes and 
nomarchs might be considered parallel. The caste system, with occupa- 
tional segregation, has its parallels in India, and may there go back to 
the time of the Indus Valley civilizations. Thus the technical perfec- 
tion of the South Arabian state, as exemplified by Saba, is not surpris- 
ing, and its form relates it to the whole string of civilized communities 
reaching from the Nile to the Indus. 

But like all other systems, no matter how perfectly adjusted, it was 
susceptible to change. As the Sabaean power grew through military 
conquest, the importance of the military element naturally increased. 
A subcaste, called by the consonantal sequence ’Khms, arose from the 
middle class, to parallel the Kshatrias in India; this was a strong mili- 
tary caste, which came in later periods to cut across tribal lines, and 
developed into a strongly unified group which wielded great political 


398 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


power. Its rise was perhaps comparable to that of the Nazi party in 
modern Germany, whose beginning was both middle class and tinged 
with military concepts. Needless to say, the rise of this fascist military 
_class was entirely a Sabaean phenomenon; the power and initiative of 
Minaeans and Katabanians had declined long before its inception, and 
we know too little about the kingdom of Hadhramaut to make com- 
parisons in that quarter. 

The Katabanians, as a matter of fact, were more democratically gov- 
erned than the Sabaeans, for each tribe had a council or assembly of 
landowners; this was distinct from the parallel council of noblemen ; 
thus, the Katabanians had a bicameral parliamentary government, 
with a House of Lords and a House of Commons, with the king in the 
supreme position, over both. This system may well have been the 
early political formula of all of the South Arabian states, lasting 
- through the Mukarrib period in Saba, and replaced during the Malik 
period by the feudal system above outlined, eventually to be thrust in 
turn into the shade by the rise of the military caste, and of the rival 
warring families of Himyar and Hamdan. 

The religion of these southern Arabian states, so intimately en- 
twined with the social and political structure, is not easy to recon- 
struct. Moslems are notoriously loath to preserve traditions of 
earlier paganism and like to garble what pre-Islamic history they 
permit to survive in anachronistic terms. Our religious sources, 
then, are confined to the body of inscriptions so far published, and a 
few superficial Greek observations. Although to competent Arabic 
scholars the reading of the southern Semitic inscriptions is not diffi- 
cult, since the alphabet may be learned in a few hours, and the gram- 
mar and vocabulary are basically the same, the knowledge of this 
writing passed out of common circulation soon after the Islamic 
penetration brought a new Semitic speech and a new alphabet. In 
the tenth century Abu Mohammed el Hamdani could still read the 
old inscriptions, so we know that the knowledge had not, in his time, 
completely died. He wrote 10 books about the olden times, of which 
only 2 survive. 

The inscriptions consist largely of the names of gods, of which 
over a hundred are known. Many of them are attribute names, such 
as Wadd, love; Sadik, truth; and Rahman, the Compassionate, which 
passed over into Islamic terminology. Besides these are a number of 
animal names: the bull, the horse, the ibex, the snake. Others are 
kinship terms: father, paternal uncle, brother, mother, etc. Still 
others symbolize the omnipotence of the god: Ba’al, the ruler; and 
Malik, the king. Personal names of individual men are often of the 
“Slave of the Compassionate” type, the pre-Islamic prototype of 
‘Abd er-Rahman, and similar dedicatory terms. There is again a 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 399 


class of god names which indicate tribal affiliation, the protector of 
such and such a tribe, or paternal uncle of such and such a tribe. 

Needless to say, this multiplication of god names does not imply 
an extensive polytheism. All the names, all the gods, have been 
reduced to three: the Sun, the Moon, and the Venus Star. These are 
respectively represented in sculpture as a disk, a crescent, and an eight- 
pointed star. Each of these three had many functions and attributes, 
each with a name, and the reduction of these to three is only exceeded 
by the Islamic heaping of all attribute names on a single divinity. 
Although there were but three gods, each might be worshiped sepa- 
rately in different aspects and under different names; thus the tribes 
were still able to possess personal divinities. The state god of the 
Minaeans was Wadd, that of the Katabanians ‘Amm, that of the Ha- 
dhramis Sin, and of the Sabaeans J? Mukah. All were the moon. 

There were no carved images of these three—the Semitic tabu 
against graven images, while by no means generally applicable, was 
in force in regard to the divinities themselves. What images we 
find are of people. These gods, however, had perches or resting 
places, in the form of crude stones, such as the Ka’aba itself. The 
sun was a woman, and the moon her husband. Once a month, at the 
time of conjunction, they had sexual intercourse; the stars are their 
children, and of these Venus is the most important. These stars 
eventually became angels; people and animals are also the children of 
the gods. Thus, a direct kinship connection exists between this di- 
vine trinity and mankind, with the head of the state acting as the 
symbol and concentration point of godhead in man. 

Among the northern Semites the sun was the most important, as 
the promoter of fertility in vegetation; in southern Arabia, where the 
sun is too hot for comfort, and scorches and withers, the night is the 
time of coolness, and, in the moonlight, the time for travel and work. 
Nomads travel much at night, and the moon with its phases gives 
them their yardstick for measuring time. Thus, whereas the sun was 
the important god to the northern Semites, the moon was supreme 
among the southern groups, including not only the southern Arabian 
peoples, but also the pre-Islamic Arabs proper, who lived farther north 
in the peninsula. 

The god J7 or JJah was originally a phase of the Moon God, but early 
in Arabian history the name became a general term for god, and it was 
this name that the Hebrews used prominently in their personal names, 
such as Emanu-el, Isra-el, etc., rather than the Ba’al of the northern 
Semites proper, which was the sun. Similarly, under Mohammed’s 
tutelage, the relatively anonymous J/7ah became Al-Jlah, The God, or 
Allah, the Supreme Being. 


400 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


We know comparatively little about the technique of sacrifice em- 
ployed in worshiping these divinities. The temple was the great 
economic nucleus of each tribal region, with sovereignty over its own 
grounds and fields, and it was ruled by its head priest with his troop 
of acolytes. To it came worshipers bearing votive offerings, little 
statuettes of gold in the forms of animals and men, brought to the 
god as instruments of supplication for future favors and as rewards 
for intervention in response to a previous oath. Models of arms and 
legs represent the divine curing of these limbs. A Greek source of 
the fifth century A. D. states that the Himyarites sacrificed the choicest 
of their war booty in the early morning light, to Venus in his role of 
Morning Star. The most important sacrificial victims were the hand- 
some young boys who had been led to the temples as prisoners. The 
same source also informs us that other tribes worshiped Venus in the 
role of the Evening Star, an old man, and consequently rendered him 
old men in sacrifice. 

It is possible, as Nielsen has done, to fit this whole religious system, 
as we now know it on the basis of incomplete evidence, into the general 
Semitic scheme, in which the four kingdoms of southern Arabia, and 
the northern Arabs as well, become the southern branch, and the Phoe- 
nicians, Babylonians, Assyrians, etc., the northern, with the Jews 
playing a mixed role. Whatever the findings of the learned school 
of southern Semitists in Denmark and Germany, we must, as these 
scholars would agree, still await excavation and a thorough strati- 
graphic and typological study of remains on the spot before any of 
the problems, religious or otherwise, which concern this civilization 
may be finally settled. 

For the present purposes it must be considered sufficient to have 
presented the foregoing brief and unscholarly resumé of the work of 
Nielsen and his associates, as a summary of present knowledge of this 
intensely interesting and important archeological problem. But even 
the short newspaper account of Philby’s journey, and Hellfritz’s uncrit- 
ical hegira, as well as the observations made from the air by the French 
aviators who, in 1935, flew over some as yet unidentified city, furnish 
their contributions, as does the equally uncritical inspection of the 
Imam’s Museum made by the author. 

We know now that the influence of the late classical world on the 
Sabaean kingdom cannot be overemphasized. Greeks or Byzantines 
must have been imported to the Sabaean state to make statues and 
carve stone. In earlier periods, Egyptian and Mesopotamian influ- 
ences were equally important. The South Arabian cities were com- 
mercial metropoles of a cosmopolitan character, grafted on a simpler 
agricultural state, in which imported goods and styles probably were 
more important than those which were more nearly indigenous. 


SOUTHERN ARABIA—COON 401 


This cosmopolitan character is revealed by the nature of the objects 
found in Sabaean sites, many of which are too large to have been 
imported and must have been made by traveling workmen. Other 
things revealed by recent findings are Philby’s discovery that Shabwa 
itself, although flanked by residential suburbs, was a small, walled- 
city nucleus, scarcely 300 to 350 yards square, in contradiction to Pliny’s 
statement that the city alone contained 60 temples. We now know 
for the first time that the salt deposits at Shabwa, which are still 
worked, formed a major incentive for the location of the city at that 
spot, and that prosaic salt shared the trade with the more romantic 
frankincense and myrrh. We also know that Marib is surrounded by 
submerged volcanic craters, which, Philby suggests, may have erupted 
at about the time of the destruction of Pompeii, thus weakening or 
breaking the famous dam. Through the diligence of this same 
explorer, we are introduced to a new city site, Ukhdud, in the Wady 
Nejran, a step farther north from the Minaean center, and the seat of 
a bishopric in Christian times. 

Much remains to bedone. The field of southern Arabian archeology 
is about to open. Let us hope that its miraculous preservation past 
the period of trial and error in archeology elsewhere may permit slow 
and careful excavation by properly qualified persons, trained in ade- 
quate techniques. Let us further hope that the princes and kings who 
control these sites will continue to be well advised and will refuse 
permits to the sensational and the incompetent, following the policy 
so ably expressed by His Excellency Raghib Bey, Foreign Minister of 
Yemen, who feels that some important remains Should be preserved 
for the archeologists of the future, who will have developed techniques 
of obtaining scientific information unknown today. 


REFERENCES CITED 
ANSALDI, C. 
1933. Il Yemen. Rome. 
BEntT, T., and Mrs. 
1910. Southern Arabia. London. 
CaTon-THOMPSON, G., and GARDNER, E. W. 
1939. Climate, irrigation and early man inthe Hadhramaut. Geogr. Journ., 
vol. 98. London. 
Coon, C. S. 
1989. The races of Europe. New York. 
Dovueurty, C. M. 
1923. Arabia Deserta. New York. 
Fier, H. 
1934. Sulle Caratteristiche Geografiche de l’Arabia Settentrionale. Rome. 
1936. Racial types from south Arabia. The open court. Chicago. 
Harris, W. B. 
1893. The Yemen. London. 
Hitt, P. 
1937. The history of the Arabs. New York. 


402 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


HogartH, D. F. 

1904. The penetration of Arabia. New York. 

1922. Arabia. Oxford. 
InGRAMS, W. H. 

1987. A dance of the ibex hunters in the Hadhramaut. Man, vol.6. London. 
JAYAKAN, A. S. G. 

1904. The Shahee dialect of Arabic. Royal Asiatic Society, Bombay 

Branch, Journ., vol. 21. Bombay. 

LAMMENS, H. 

1926. L’Islam, croyances et institutions. Beyrouth. 
LAWRENCE, T. E. 

1936. The seven pillars of wisdom. New York. 
MILES, S. B. 

1919. The countries and tribes of the Persian gulf. Vol. 2. London. 
Musi, A. 

1928. The manners and customs of the Ruwalla Bedawin. New York. 
NIELSEN, D., et al. 

1927. Handbuch der altarabischen Altertumskunde. Copenhagen. 
OMARAH AL-HAKAMI. 

1892. Najm ad-Din, Yaman. Translated by Henry Cassels Clay. London. 
Pusey, H. 

1937. Across the burning sands of ancient Arabia. New York Times Mag., 

Sept. 12 and 19. New York. 

Srark, F. 

1936. The southern gateway of Arabia. New York. 
THOMAS, B. 

19382. Arabia Felix. New York. 

1937a. The Arabs. London. 


1937b. Four strange tongues from southern Arabia, the Hadara group. 


British Acad. Proc., vol. 23. London. 

VAN DEN Bere, L. W. C. 

1886. Le Hadhramout et les Colonies Arabes dans l’Archipel Indien. 

Batavia. Imprimerie du Gouvernement. 

VAN DER MEULEN, D., and von WISSMANN, H. 

1932. Hadramaut, some of its mysteries unveiled. Leyden. 
WILSON, A. 

1928. The Persian gulf. Oxford. 


THE NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN? 


By FRANK H. H. Roberts, Jr. 
Bureau of American Ethnology 


[With 12 plates] 


Scattered finds in North, Middle, and South America over a period 
of years have added materially to the growing body of evidence for an 
occupation of the Western Hemisphere in reasonably ancient times by 
peoples who, judging from their physical characteristics, migrated 
from northeastern Asia and became the basic aboriginal population 
of the New World. In comparison with the remains of later periods, 
traces of the early Indian are far from numerous. They are sufficient, 
however, to demonstrate that more than chance occurrences are in- 
volved and to justify the belief that further investigations will increase 
knowledge about this phase of the pre-Columbian history of the 
Americas. To name and describe all the discoveries pertaining to this 
subject (Sellards, 1940) is beyond the scope of the present paper. It is 
possible to discuss only a few of the recent and more important finds 
and to consider their bearing on the problems of age and general 
cultural status. 

NORTH AMERICA 


Beginning in 1926 and continuing through subsequent years a series 
of discoveries in North America yielded evidence, now generally ac- 
cepted, for a comparatively early occupancy. These finds consisted of 
associations between stone artifacts and the bones from extinct species 
of animals, of stone implements and hearths occurring in strata of 
identifiable geologic age, of camp sites located along old terraces and on 
the shores of lakes long since dry, and of human bones incorporated in 
deposits of geologic significance. The materials from several of these 
occurrences seem to be components of complexes from the same or 
related cultural groups. In other cases the collections are from single 
sites which appear, in the light of present information, to have no con- 
nection with those found elsewhere. The evidence derived from com- 
parable artifacts occurring under similar conditions at different loca- 

1 Revised, with the addition of some new material and illustrations, from the article 


“Bvidence for a Paleo-Indian in the New World,” in Acta Americana, vol. 1, No. 2, April— 
June 1943. 


403 


404 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


tions is more convincing, of course, than that coming from only one. 
A number of the thus far unique discoveries, however, have contributed 
valuable information. 

The most widely distributed and probably the best known is the 
Folsom Complex (Howard, 1935; Roberts, 1935, 1939). The original 
find in this category was made near, and took its name from, the little 
town of Folsom in northeastern New Mexico. The Folsom Complex 
consists of a variety of stone and bone artifacts occurring in deposits 
indicative of some antiquity and in association with bones from extinct 
species of animals or from forms not now living in the regions where 
the finds are made. Three types of implements, the projectile points 
and two kinds of stone knives, are characteristic and may be considered 
criteria for the complex. The additional varieties of stone tools gen- 
erally found accompanying those three types also occur in other com- 
plexes and for the most part are too ubiquitous both in time and space 
to have significance. The points and one type of knife (pl. 1) are 
characterized by facial fluting. There are longitudinal channels on 
each face, extending from the base toward the tip, which produce 
lateral ridges paralleling the edges of the blade. The second type of 
knife, made from the flakes removed when the other forms were fluted, 
is a long, thin, plano-convex blade with approximately parallel sides. 
The knives and one series of the fluted points were given a fine, second- 
ary chipping along the edges after the channel flakes were struck off 
the faces of the blade. 

Other points, although fluted, tend to be more generalized in 
character (pl. 2). They do not show as careful workmanship, do 
not have the peripheral retouch, and are larger. The relationship 
between the two forms and the reasons for their differences have not 
yet been determined. Various explanations have been suggested. 
One is that the larger forms represent an early development of the 
type. Another takes the view that they may be a degenerate and later 
survival of the better-chipped form. Still different is the idea that 
they were used in killing large animals. Also, there is the possibility 
that they indicate a borrowed technique in the method employed in 
the manufacture of points, a technique that was never fully mastered 
by those who took it over. Any one or all of these postulations might 
apply in greater or less degree under varying circumstances. Definite 
statements, however, are not warranted without specific proof. The 
purpose of the fluting can only be surmised. It would facilitate 
hafting, make for easier penetration, would probably stimulate 
bleeding in a wound, and would tend to promote an inward working 
of the point if it was broken from its shaft. The makers may have 
had these or some other end in mind. That it was functional rather 
than notional seems likely because the fluting weakened the point 


= 


SS 


eee 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 405 


and made it more liable to breakage, hence would not have been done 
without good reason. 

Animal bones with which Folsom implements frequently are asso- 
ciated are those from bison, the mammoth, large American camel, 
antelope, extinct and living forms of the musk ox, giant sloth, and 
the native horse. The mammoth, sloth, camel, horse, antelope, and 
kinds of bison represented are no longer in North America, and the 
living type of musk ox is now far north of the area where the archeo- 
logical specimens are found. Bones from animals still present in 
various parts of the country also occur in Folsom sites. In this group 
are rabbit, fox, wolf, deer, and pronghorn, species that have changed 
so little over a long period of time that they have no bearing on the 
problem of relative age. Some of the sites also contain invertebrate 
fossils as well as mammal remains. Included in this material are 
species that either are extinct or no longer live in the districts where 
such assemblages occur. Wood, in the form of charcoal, found in 
hearths and accompanying the bones has a similar status. There is 
good indication of a climatic change and the lapse of an appreciable 
length of time in these mammal, invertebrate, and charcoal remains 
from species normally found in a colder and moister environment 
than that prevailing today. 

Good geologic evidence to augment that from the fauna and flora 
was obtained from the excavations in three main Folsom sites. The 
animal bones and artifacts at the original location in the northeastern 
corner of New Mexico (pl. 3) came from a stratum of dark clay con- 
taining gravel lenses and small concretions of lime, a deposit left by 
an old bog or water hole. Extending several feet above this layer 
were sediments consisting of highly restratified earth that have been 
identified by some geologists as belonging to the close of the Pleisto- 
cene or last ice age and by others as representing early Recent. All 
agree, however, that their age closely approximates the transition 
between the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Recent. 
In the Black Water Draw between the towns of Clovis and Portales, 
180 miles south of the Folsom site in eastern New Mexico, the as- 
semblage of bones and cultural material is found in a bluish-gray 
deposit that is believed to be the bottom of old lake beds that cor- 
relate with the high-water stage of ancient Lake Estancia located 
some distance farther west (Howard, 1935; Antevs, 19352). Gen- 
eral opinion is that Lake Estancia was at its maximum during a plu- 
vial period when there was much heavier precipitation and tempera- 
tures were lower, an era corresponding to the final stage of the Pleis- 
tocene, and the bones and implements are regarded as dating from 
that time. At the third site, the Lindenmeier, north of Fort Collins 
in northern Colorado, the situation is somewhat different. At that 


406 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


location the remains occur in the deposits of a vestigial valley bottom 
that has taken on the appearance of a terrace as a result of the eroding 
of the ridges that once bordered its southern side (pl. 4, fig. 1). 
By correlating the occupation level, which is in the bottom of, or 
just below, a dark-soil zone that was formed during a wet cycle 
(pl. 4, fig. 2), with the terraces of the main drainage streams, and 
those, in turn, with traces of glacial stages in the mountains on the 
west, it was demonstrated that the period of the archeological re- 
mains was near the close of the Pleistocene (Bryan and Ray, 1940). 
Approximately the same geologic horizon is indicated in all three 
cases and this is corroborated by evidence from several smaller sites. 
As a consequence the belief that the Folsom Complex developed 
toward the end of the Pleistocene or late glacial period and carried 
over into the beginning of the Recent is now more or less generally 
accepted. 

A majority of the Folsom remains and sporadic traces of the com- 
plex are found in the eastern part of the continent. Some have been 
reported from the Great Basin—the plateau area comprising western 
Utah, most of the State of Nevada, and southeastern California— 
lying between the Wasatch Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, and a 
few points have been found in northern California where there is 
one possible small site. Most of the material, however, is in the area 
extending from Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada on the north 
to southern New Mexico in the south, from the eastern slopes of the 
Rocky Mountains on the west to an eastern border that follows 
roughly the western boundary of the Dakotas, cuts across western 
Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and thence into Texas, where it turns 
eastward to the Mississippi River. There are indications of smaller 
centers in the region around the junctures of the Missouri and Ohio 
Rivers with the Mississippi, in Ohio, western New York, western 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and northern North 
Carolina. An old medicine man in Sonora, Mexico, is reported to 
carry two such points in his bag of fetishes. ‘There is no informa- 
tion, however, on how he obtained them or where they were found, and 
they have no value as evidence. The distribution of Folsom imple- 
ments implies that there must have been some specific relationship 
between the physical environment, the hunting economy basis of the 
cultural pattern, and the period when the spread took place. The 
latter will be considered in subsequent discussion, as it also has a bear- 
ing on some of the other types of remains. 

Papers pertaining to the general subject of the Paleo-Indian fre- 
quently link another group of points with the Folsom series (pl. 5, 
fig. 1). They are called Yuma from the county in eastern Colorado 
where the first examples were found. The two forms were at first 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 407 


believed to be related because they were observed lying together 
where the clay substratum had been exposed by the blowing away of 
the surface soils. One typological study based on this material de- 
rived the Folsom type from the Yuma, while another concluded that 
the Yuma was an outgrowth of the Folsom. As a consequence the 
terms Folsom-Yuma and Yuma-Folsom were used for a time. They 
have been dropped by most writers, however, because subsequent in- 
vestigations have shown that the two types are from different com- 
plexes. The early forms of the Yuma may have been contemporary 
with late Folsom types, but their main development was in subse- 
quent periods. Asa matter of fact they continued to be made in some 
regions until almost historic times. Because of this it is obvious that 
Yuma-type points are not as significant as was previously supposed, 
and their presence in a collection may mean little from the standpoint 
of age. 

Sandia Cave (pl. 6), located in the Sandia Mountains northeast of 
Albuquerque, N. Mex., has contributed further evidence on the Folsom 
Complex and in addition contained materials that put it in the cate- 
gory of an individual or unique type of site. Three different assem- 
blages of bones and artifacts were found in distinct levels in the 
cave (Hibben, 1941). One includes cultural objects that are probably 
pre-Columbian in age, yet are comparatively recent in origin. The 
second series consists of specimens from the Folsom Complex, and the 
third group is composed of artifacts that have been called the Sandia. 
The top stratum or upper floor level contained the recent specimens. 
This layer of dust, bat guano, pack-rat dung, and trash rested on a 
hard crust of calcium carbonate that entirely covered and sealed in 
the underlying deposits. Beneath this “floor” was a layer of cave 
breccia containing the Folsom artifacts and bones from bison, mam- 
moth, giant sloth, camel, native horse, and wolf. Below the breccia 
was a stratum of yellow ocher in which were neither bones nor arti- 
facts. Underlying the ocher was another deposit of cave breccia 
similar to that above. The Sandia type implements and bones from 
bison, camel, mammoth, mastodon, and horse came from this layer. 
On the original floor were hearths. One of them was outlined with 
small, rounded stones that must have been carried from the canyon 
below because they were the only stones of that type found in the cave. 
Charcoal, ashes, and fragments of burned bones filled the hearths, and 
alongside the stone-encircled one was a Sandia point. 

Typical Sandia points, the most characteristic artifact in the com- 
plex, are readily recognized because they have a notch at the base on 
one side only (pl. 5, fig. 2). There are two main forms with grada- 
tions between that in some cases are difficult to assign to either cate- 
gory because of their intermediate nature, but all have the basal 

619830—45——27 


408 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


notch. Sandia type 1 is lanceolate or rounded in general outline, 
has a convex base, and is lenticular in cross section. Sandia type 2 
tends to be more elongated with parallel sides, straight or slightly 
concave bases, an occasional basal thinning produced by the removal 
of a short flake suggestive of an incipient Folsom fluting, and a dia- 
mond-shaped cross section. Single-notched points of the Sandia 
types are not common in North America and only rarely are observed 
in collections, principally in those from the southern plains area. 
An example of Sandia type 2 was found early in 1944 weathering 
out of a grayel layer near Abilene, Tex.,? in a district where there are 
deeply buried sites that have yielded artifacts comprising another 
complex that is regarded as being fairly old. The latter will be con- 
sidered in some detail in subsequent paragraphs and need not be dis- 
cussed further at this place. The Sandia forms are suggestive of the 
well-known points from the Solutrean industry in the Old World— 
in fact both types have analogs there—but probably were not derived 
from, or related to, them. Besides points, the Sandia Complex in- 
cludes stone kiiives, scrapers, pieces of large blades, and a number of 
grooved stone balls. The knives and scrapers differ little from com- 
parable implements found in the cultural materials of other hunting 
peoples, but the stone balls are particularly interesting because they 
suggest the bolas of South America. The latter, attached to the ends 
of a thong or cord, are hurled at animals for the purpose of entangling 
and catching them. If used for a similar purpose by the inhabitants 
of Sandia Cave, they indicate a new trait in North America, one that 
apparently was short-lived and very restricted in its distribution. 
Where there is no direct physical connection between the deposits 
in a cave and those of known geologic age in the surrounding terrain, 
it is difficult to make correlations, and conclusions regarding their 
relationship may be questioned. Indications are that the breccia of 
the Folsom and Sandia layers and the intervening yellow ocher must 
have been formed when there was much more moisture in the region 
than has been known in recent times. The fauna, represented by the 
bones, is characteristic of a cooler climate. Since cool, moist condi- 
tions prevailed throughout this area in the pluvial period following 
the maximum of the Wisconsin glaciation and the combination has 
not occurred in sufficient degree to produce comparable phenomena in 
the intervening millennia, it seems probable that the cave was occupied 
at that time. Evidence from the Folsom sites, as previously men- 
tioned, is for a late or terminal Pleistocene horizon, and it is logical 
to suppose that the Folsom material in Sandia Cave would be of simi- 
lar age. The Sandia artifacts, underlying the Folsom as they did, 
would be somewhat older yet belong to the same general period. 


2 Information contained in a personal communication from Dr. Cyrus N. Ray, the finder. 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 409 


Gypsum Cave (pl. 7, fig. 1), in the Frenchman Mountains east of 
Las Vegas, Nev., also contained material of significance (Harrington, 
1983). Several cultural horizons were represented in its deposits. 
In the top layer were materials attributed to the modern Paiute In- 
dians. Below it were two levels in which were articles left by groups 
related to the Pueblo peoples of pre-Columbian times. These strata 
rested on a sterile layer indicative of a break in the occupation of the 
cave. In the deposits beneath the sterile bed were archeological spec- 
imens, quantities of sloth dung, bones from the giant sloth, an extinct 
species of wolf, three species of camels, and the native horse. The 
evidence appeared to demonstrate contemporaneity between the 
makers of the artifacts and all the animals except the horse. Al- 
though there was some doubt about the latter, those making the 
investigations expressed belief that the animal still survived in the 
region when the cave was occupied by men and that they were more 
or less acquainted with it even though they apparently did not hunt it. 
This opinion was predicated on the fact that projectile points similar 
to those obtained from the cave, long triangular-shaped blades with 
square shoulders merging into a stem that tapers into a rounded or 
pointed base (pl. 7, fig. 2), are found in open sites in western Nevada 
in strata that also contain horse and camel bones. Subsequent dis- 
covery of the same type points in a layer of horse dung in a cave 
(Etna Cave; Wheeler, 1942) about 100 miles north of Gypsum Cave 
considerably strengthens the argument and indicates that the original 
assumption was probably correct. 

There is some difficulty, as in the case of Sandia Cave, in dating the 
material from Gypsum Cave. In the bottom levels were water-borne 
deposits in which were camel and horse bones. Above them were 
silts left by standing water. The top surface of the latter gave 
evidence of a period in which there was considerable evaporation, and 
in places it was solidified by mineral substances that had been carried 
in solution. The earliest traces of the giant sloth were found on 
this surface and in places they were partially covered by a stalagmitic 
formation. From that level to the top of the deposits the strata were 
wholly dry and gave every indication of always having been so. The 
artifacts and other evidence of human occupation were found only 
in the dry layers. Botanical specimens obtained from the latter rep- 
resent an arid flora comprising plants that are present in the region 
today, although some of them live only at higher elevations. The 
water-deposited layers, because much moister conditions than have 
prevailed at any subsequent period would be required to produce them, 
have been correlated with the last great rise in the level of ancient 
Lake Lahontan in Nevada. This is believed to have taken place 
during the pluvial stage mentioned in the discussion of the Folsom 


410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


and Sandia remains. As the era of aridity had already set in before 
the arrival of the hunters, even though their appearance was com- 
paratively soon after its beginning, the initial occupation of the cave 
is believed to have taken place early in the Recent period. 

Evidence for a relatively ancient group in southern Arizona was 
found in Ventana Cave (pl. 8) in the Castle Mountains (Haury, 
1943). There in the bottom of approximately 15 feet of deposits 
were stone implements accompanying bones from the native horse, 
giant sloth, tapir, and bison. The artifacts were projectile points, 
_ choppers, scrapers, and gravers, a complex very similar to the Folsom 
except that the points were not fluted. They approximate the gen- 
eral Folsom shape, but no attempt was made to produce the facial 
channels (pl. 9, fig. 1). The assemblage of bones and artifacts was 
in a lime-cemented layer of volcanic debris. This conglomerate, sup- 
plemented by other indications of water action, is good evidence for 
a decidedly wet period in that part of the Southwest. The combina- 
tion of heavy precipitation and an extinct fauna again suggests a 
pluvial condition comparable to that previously discussed and, al- 
though geologic studies at the cave have not yet been completed, 
possibly a terminal Pleistocene or beginning Recent age. 

Important evidence bearing on later developments in the area was 
also found in Ventana Cave. Artifacts in the layers above the stratum 
containing the old material trace the progress of a cultural develop- 
ment from a simple hunting, food-gathering economy through the 
acquisition of agriculture and the pottery-making industry and sub- 
sequent agricultural and ceramic stages to historic times. The strata 
containing this series rested disconformably on the conglomerate, in- 
dicating a break in the continuity of occupation. The hiatus prob- 
ably represents a fairly long interval because during that period 
modern fauna replaced the old animals and there was marked change 
in the types of cultural objects. 

Recent erosion and the cutting of gullies or arroyos in the south- 
western corner of New Mexico, in southeastern Arizona, and in the 
adjacent area just across the border in northern Mexico have exposed 
hearths, artifacts, and other traces of human inhabitation. The 
materials from these sites have been called the Cochise Culture and 
have been grouped into three stages or sequent phases on the basis 
of their typological traits, the nature of their geologic provenience, 
and the associated fossils (Sayles and Antevs, 1941). The oldest of 
the phases occurs in sand-gravel deposits that also contain bones of 
the native horse, camel, bison, mammoth, and extinct wolf, prong- 
horn, and coyote. Hickory charcoal is found in the same level. This 
kind of wood no longer grows in the region as it requires much more 
moisture than is now available. The layer of sand and gravel has 
been interpreted as being a flood-plain deposit from a permanent 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 411 


stream, and this also points to the need for much heavier precipi- 
tation. Study of the general area indicated that only during the last 


' pluvial was it wet enough to support the growth of hickory and to 


supply water for such a stream. In combination with the remains 
of extinct animal forms this factor again implies a terminal Pleisto- 
cene age for the artifacts. Most of the latter are grinding or hammer- 
ing stones; there are only a few knives and scrapers and no projectile 
points. The absence of points is somewhat puzzling. It is possible 
that bone or hard wooden points were used and that these have not 
been preserved in recognizable form or have completely disappeared. 
From present evidence it seems that the culture had an economy 
based on food gathering. In the subsequent stages more flaked im- 
plements were made, and there is some indication of a certain amount 
of hunting. The second and third stages fall in the Recent period 
and material from them correlates closely with that in the levels 
in Ventana Cave lying between the disconformity and the upper strata 
containing the recent remains (Haury, 1943). 

Implements from Pinto Basin and Lake Mohave, in the desert area 
in southern California, practically duplicate those in the upper levels 
of Ventana Cave and the later stages of the Cochise. Lake Mohave 
and Pinto Basin are formations attributed to the pluvial of late Pleis- 
tocene times, and artifacts are found along their old beach and shore 
lines. From this it has been suggested that the implements must have 
been contemporaneous with the ancient lakes (Campbell, 1935; Sym- 
posium, 1937). Because this material is mainly from the surface, and 
in view of the fact that similar artifacts in the Cochise Culture and 
Ventana Cave are definitely Recent, it does not seem that they should 
be considered evidence for an early occupation of the district. That 
people actually were in the California desert area at approximately 
the same time as those who made the artifacts present in the bottom 
of Ventana Cave seems probable, however, as sporadic occurrences of 
implements suggestive of the Folsom Complex are found there and 
one supposed Folsom site has been reported although there are no data 
on it thus far. 

In north-central Texas deeply buried occupation levels (pl. 9, fig. 2), 
hearths, and graves in the banks of various streams and their inter- 
mittent tributaries yield information and specimens that suggest rela- 
tively early inhabitation of that region. The oldest appears to center 
in the Abilene district, where there are a number of stratified sites in 
which different types of artifacts are found at depths ranging from 
4 to 30 feet beneath the surface (Ray, 1930). In the lowest levels are 
charcoal, crude tools of the heavy scraper, hand-ax, and chopper types, 
and thick leaf-shaped points thinned at the base by the removal of a 
broad, short flake from one side. This treatment is suggestive of that 


412 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


noted on some of the Sandia type 2 points. There may be no relation- 
ship between the two forms, but it is interesting to note that the Sandia 
type 2 point found near Abilene apparently belongs in the same hori- 
zon as the Abilene type. In the deposits above occur a variety of 
implements and a sequence of point types that are considered compo- 
nents of a single complex, one that has been named the Clear Fork 
(Ray, 1938; Roberts, 1940, pp. 74-76). The upper strata produce 
artifacts attributable to the Texas Indians of late pre-Columbian 
times. 

The implements of the Abilene Complex are found in the top and 

_along the deeply weathered surface of an old soil or gumbo profile 
and in the bottom of an overlying series of silts laid down by wide- 
spread, successive, slack-water sheet floods. The Clear Fork Com- 
plex, beginning above the Abilene horizon, occurs in these same silts 
and shows progression from level to level toward the surface. The 
gumbo profile has been identified as Pleistocene. The first tentative 
conclusions were that it possibly correlated with the Illinoian glacial 
substage (Leighton, 1936), but subsequent evidence suggests that it 
was more likely mid-Wisconsin or even later in the period. The lower 
strata in the silts are regarded as belonging to the end of the Wiscon- 
sin substage and grading into the beginning of the Recent, whereas 
the higher levels are definitely Recent. Abilene and fluted points of 
the generalized type occur in the same horizon, and the smaller, 
better-made Folsom projectiles are found in association with older 
forms of the Clear Fork Complex. In addition, fossil mammoth, ex- 
tinct bison, other vertebrates, and Mollusca remains—generally con- 
sidered as representing a Pleistocene fauna—come from the same 
levels. Hence it seems that in this area there is further evidence for 
a late Pleistocene or possibly slightly earlier occupation. 

Various archeological finds of greater or less significance relating 
to this general problem have been made in other parts of Texas, in 
Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, northern California, 
Minnesota, parts of Canada, and Alaska (Roberts, 1940; Sellards, 
1940), but space limitations prevent their consideration. In the main 
they tend to corroborate the evidence from the discoveries already 
discussed. 


NORTH AMERICAN SKELETAL MATERIAL 


Human skeletal material from the older horizons is relatively rare, 
and the information furnished by it is not as satisfactory as that 
from the cultural objects. This is in large part attributable to the 
fact that antiquity must be determined by the geologic age of the 
strata in which the skeletal remains occur rather than by the morpho- 
logical and metrical features of the bones themselves. Associated 


. So 
i 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 413 


archeological and paleontological objects are an important aid, al- 
though they also may frequently be inconclusive. The types of men 
responsible for the Sandia Cave, Folsom, Ventana Cave, Gypsum 
Cave, and similar complexes are not known, as no human remains 
have been found in association with implements from any of those 
cultural patterns. A skeleton sometimes thought of as a possible 
example of Folsom man was discovered in a bank of the Cimarron 
River in northeastern New Mexico some 16 miles east of the original 
Folsom site. The bones were in a water-borne deposit 13 feet 6 
inches below the present surface and, from the degree of their fossili- 
zation and a tentative correlation between their situs and a nearby 
buried stream bed and the latter with the bison quarry, were believed 
to be as old as, if not older than, the artifacts and animal bones at 
that location (Figgins, 1935). This conclusion has never been con- 
firmed, however, and as there were no accompanying archeological 
specimens it cannot be said that the skeleton was that of Folsom 
man. It is unquestionably Indian, and certain characteristics of the 
skull—its definite long-headedness, heavy brow ridges, and deeply 
depressed nasal root—are rather primitive (Roberts, 1937), but the 
bones themselves give no hint of the time when the individual lived. 
On the basis of the physical features he could be late Pleistocene or 
early Recent or, on the other hand, a modern Indian. Unfortunately, 
the geologic evidence needed to reach a verdict. is not available. 

One fragmentary skeleton was recovered from the oldest level of the 
Cochise. The bones were so broken and so many pieces were missing 
that it was difficult to make a determination of the physical type. 
After careful study, however, it was concluded that the individual 
was one of the small, southwestern longheads belonging to the Basket 
Maker group. The Basket Makers were the first agricultural pottery- 
making peoples in the Pueblo area, in the period from the beginning 
of the Christian Era to about A. D. 600, and although they had some 
primitive features, they were essentially modern Indians. They are 
believed to have been in the region long enough to have made the 
transition from a simple nomadic-hunting economy to that of the 
hunting, food-gathering, and subsequent agricultural pottery-making 
stages that are well known from excavations in the Pueblo region. 
The Cochise occurrence may be considered substantiation for their 
relatively early appearance in the Southwest, although it might be 
regarded as an indication that the Cochise is not as old as has been 
suggested. 

In the Abilene district, burials are found at varying depths in 
the silts containing implements of the Clear Fork Complex. Some 
were unquestionably subsequent penetrations into the silts, but others 
seem to date from the period when they were forming. The best 


414 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


example of the latter was brought to light when high water in the 
Clear Fork of the Brazos River caved off a section of bank some 60 
miles northeast of Abilene and exposed a grave 21 feet below the 
present valley floor (Ray, 1943). Portions of the skull and all the 
hand bones were swept away by the flood. Enough remained, though, 
to give a good indication of the type of individual buried there. The 
profile of the deposits showed an unbroken series of strata extending 
across the top of the grave and rising from what had been the level 
of occupation at the time when it was dug to the present surface. 
There is no question that the burial was made in the early stages of 
the deposition of the silts and that it was as old as the lowest of the 
overlying strata. As these are in the portion of the silts identified 
as probably being late Pleistocene in origin, the skeleton would be of 
similar age. The tip end from a small stone blade was found in the 
grave but, unfortunately, it is not sufficiently characteristic to indi- 
cate its cultural affinities. The bones show that the individual was a 
tallish, moderately robust male about 40 years of age. He had excep- 
tionally heavy brow ridges, a long head, and a broad, rugged lower 
jaw. The skull in some respects might be approximated by occasional 
recent Indians, although in the main it agrees more frequently with 
the more primitive forms of morphologically modern-type man found 
in America. Since from its general features the skeleton could be 
that of a Paleo-Indian, there is nothing anachronistic in its being 
found in deposits that are late Pleistocene or early Recent in age. 
Other remains from deep burials in the Abilene region have shown 
similar characteristics and have been considered as exemplifying a 
very primitive American Indian, probably one of the earlier strata of 
the American population (Hooton, 1933). 

One of the few examples of a burial attributable to a fairly old 
horizon and accompanied by artifacts was that of the Browns Valley 
man in Traverse County, Minn. (Jenks, 1937). It was found in a 
gravel pit while material was being removed for use in highway con- 
struction work. The bones were in a grave that had been dug in late 
glacial or Pleistocene gravels subsequent to their deposition but prior 
to the formation of a thick humus layer that rested on them. Con- 
clusions based on geologic studies of the site are that the interment 
was made in early postglacial times, that is, in the beginning of the 
Recent period. The associated implements consisted of three points 
and two knife blades. In the original description they are classified 
as Yuma-Folsom because of certain features that are suggestive of 
each. In view of later information about those types, as previously 
mentioned, it seems that Browns Valley artifacts would be a better 
designation. They are good examples of one of the older patterns in 
cultural material and merit a distinct name. ‘The skeleton was that 


ws 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN-—ROBERTS 415 


of an adult male and, as in the cases already discussed, the skull was 
of the long-headed variety with strong development of the brow 
ridges, and a broad, heavy jaw. The individual was undoubtedly an 
American Indian, but he differed from the recent Indians known to 
have occupied that particular region. 

Another Minnesota skeleton, the remains of a girl about 15 years 
of age, has been proposed as an example of the physical type of the 
Paleo-Indian living in west-central Minnesota in late Pleistocene 
times (Jenks, 1986). The matter of its antiquity has been questioned 
in some quarters, however, and there has been considerable contro- 
versy over its proper status. The remains were discovered by work- 
men repairing a stretch of highway in Otter Tail County when the 
grader blade, making its deepest cut in the middle of the roadbed, 
exposed fragments of a broken clam shell. Stopping to investigate, 
the workmen found the frontal of a human skull beneath the bits of 
shell and a short distance away a piece of what they thought to be 
bone but which later proved to be the greater part of an implement 
made from antler. The road boss interrupted work with the heavy 
equipment until the find could be uncovered and within the space of 
2 hours most of the skeleton had been removed. At the start several 
of the bones were damaged by the shovels being used in the digging. 
When they were discarded for small hand tools the results were bet- 
ter and most of the material was recovered in fairly good condition. 
The skull had been crushed by the weight of the grader wheel but had 
not actually been touched by it, nor had the grader blade come in con- 
tact with any of the other bones. A shell pendant found among the 
ribs and vertebrae probably had been worn suspended from the neck. 

During the progress of the disinterment a number of the men not 
participating in it watched the process, studying and discussing the 
nature of the surrounding earth. From their statements, and from 
the profiles made by the highway engineer prior to the original con- 
struction, it was concluded that there had been no break in the over- 
lying strata, and that the body had not been buried intentionally but 
had been covered by the deposition of silts around it after it had 
come to rest at that particular spot. The repairs on the highway 
were completed, and the bones were turned over to the University of 
Minnesota. After they had been studied it was evident that they 
exhibited a number of primitive characteristics and further exami- 
nation of the place where they were found was deemed advisable. 
On two different occasions traffic was diverted and the site reopened. 
These investigations demonstrated beyond question that the skeleton 
had come from that location. Fragments of bone were obtained that 
fit pieces recovered in the initial digging, and in addition animal and 
bird bones and many segments of turtle carapace were found. While 


416 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


the pit was open, geologists studied the deposits and came to the con- 
clusion that they were varved clays of a glacial lake, subsequently 
named Lake Pelican. There is no question about the identification of 
the silts, but there has been contention over the nature of the burial. 
Many think it was contemporaneous with the clays, and the testimony 
of the workmen and the highway engineer is good basis for such 
belief, while others hold that it must have been a later penetration. 
Furthermore, there has been contention as to whether it was inten- 
tional or accidental, whether the body had been placed in a grave or, 
as has been suggested, the girl fell from a boat or through a hole in 
the ice, drowned and sank to the bottom where she was covered with 
gradually settling sediment. The problem is complicated even more 
by arguments over possible evidence for slipping and disturbance in 
the clays and the chance that the skeleton may have been intrusive. 
Unfortunately, the issue can never be settled to the satisfaction of all 
because of the manner of its discovery and its location beneath a 
highway. 

The artifacts are of little help because similar antler and shell ob- 
jects might be found accompanying any burial in that region, even 
those dating as recently as early historic times. The fragments of 
bone from muskrat, wolf, loon, and turtle carapace also present in 
the pit are from species that could be Pleistocene but also are mod- 
ern and indicate climatic conditions little different from those of 
today, hence cannot be stressed as evidence. Because of all these fac- 
tors opinion is about equally divided; some consider the age as late 
Pleistocene and others as clearly Recent. Careful review of all 
phases of the problem, however, would seem to indicate that the prob- 
ability of a late Pleistocene dating outweighs that of a Recent age. 
The skeleton has a number of primitive features, the most outstand- 
ing being in the skull. The forehead is low and sloping, with promi- 
nent glabella. There is a backward extension of the cranial vault to a 
large occiput with a large projection to the rear and evidence for a 
high area of attachment for the neck muscles. The nose is relatively 
small and narrow, lacks a nasal sill, and has a poorly developed nasal 
spine. There are deep subnasal gutters, and there is marked alveolar 
prognathism. Obvious lack of reduction is apparent in the jaws and 
teeth, a feature usually considered definitely primitive. The lower 
molars in absolute size are larger than any of those in the lower 
jaws of 10 late Pleistocene men in Europe, and this in conjunction 
with other less developed characteristics is regarded as good evidence 
for the remains being those of an early type of modern man. There 
is no reason from the standpoint of their osteology why they could 
not be as old as the silts indicate. On the other hand they do fall 
within the range of variation in the modern Sioux and are believed 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 417 


by some of the physical anthropologists to belong in that category. 
In this connection it may be mentioned that this is the only example 
among the many purported early American skeletons where the skull 
is not definitely of the long-headed type. In this case it is 
mesocephalic. 

THE MEXICAN ARBA 


There has been little evidence thus far for Paleo-Indians in the 
Mexican area. No Folsom-type points, with the exception of the 
two in Sonora about which practically nothing is known and one 
possible fluted blade from Tamaulipas (Prieto, 1912, fig. 13), have 
been found south of the Rio Grande. Some discoveries suggestive 
of certain antiquity have been made, yet none has been demonstrated 
-to compare in age with Sandia, Folsom, and similar complexes. In 
fact it is agreed that. they are much more recent (Martinez del Rio, 
1948, pp. 168-170). It seems improbable, however, that no such finds 
will be made; there is always a chance that one will come to ight. Up 
to the present so little work has been done in the northern districts 
that, with the exception of knowledge of the occurrence of some 
scattered late village sites and protohistoric ruins and a few caves that 
date within the Christian Era, there is virtually no information on 
the remains in that area. Bison roamed as far south as southern 
Durango and were in the region around Monterrey in Coahuila as 
late as the beginning of the seventeenth century (Hornaday, 1889, 
p. 882), and there is the possibility that older species may have occupied 
the area as well because there are several large deposits of bones 
weathering from the beaches around the beds of lakes that must have 
dried up several millennia before the coming of the Spaniards. Hasty 
examination of these bone beds indicated that much of the material 
was bison, but no attempts were made to collect specimens or to deter- 
mine the species. It is not improbable that some of the older forms 
are represented there, and inasmuch as the earlier peoples were mainly 
hunters and followed the game in its migrations, it would not be sur- 
prising if, eventually, bones from extinct bison accompanied by types 
of implements made by the Paleo-Indians were found there. If the 
generally accepted ideas about the peopling of the New World from 
Asia are correct, the Mexican plateau must have served as a broad 
highway to Central and South America, and although it may be 
difficult to find, there should be some evidence of the migrations passing 
that way. 


CENTRAL AMERICAN FINDS 


Finds in Central America show that the bison formerly ranged 
much farther south than Mexico. A horn identified as bison came 
from northern Nicaragua many years ago (Rhoads, 1898), and tracks 


418 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


made by bison were recently reported from west-central Nicaragua. 
The latter are of more than passing interest because of their associa- 
tion with imprints left by barefooted human beings (pl. 10, fig. 1) 
as well as with those of other animals and birds. They were un- 
covered by quarrying operations in a deeply buried volcanic stratum 
at El Cauce, in the outskirts of Managua (Richardson, 1941; Richard- 
son and Ruppert, 1942). Studies of the deposits have led to the con- 
clusion that the track-bearing layer was produced by a flow of semi- 
liquid mud from a vent on higher ground. While the surface was 
still sufficiently soft to receive perfect impressions the people and ani- 
mals passed over it. Shortly thereafter a thin fall of dry cinders 
covered the tracks, preserving and protecting them so that today they 
are as sharp and clear as when first made. Subsequently there was 
another mud flow and eruption of black cinders and then a rapid suc- 
cession of thick mud flows (pl. 10, fig. 2). In the course of time these 
layers turned to stone, a phenomenon comparable to that occurring 
at Herculaneum after its destruction by Vesuvius in A. D. 79. A 
stream forming a channel some 65 feet wide and 10 feet deep then 
cut its way through the strata thus formed. Eventually the bed of 
the stream filled with silt, gravel, and water-rolled stones. Later the 
area was covered by a heavy fall of pumice from the eruption of 
a distant volcano, and during the following quiescent interval new 
stream channels were cut and a thick soil zone developed. Again 
more ashes fell and another soil zone accumulated to be covered in 
turn by pumice from a further eruption. Finally the present topsoil 
developed to a depth of from 4 to 5 feet. The lowest portion of this 
layer is an aeolian deposit representing a period of slow growth 
(Williams, in Richardson, 1941). The sequence of events recorded in 
this series of strata required considerable time for its consummation, 
and although conclusions as to the age of the footprints await the 
completion of volcanological studies now under way, it appears certain 
that appreciable antiquity is indicated.’ 

Journals of the conquest period presumably contain no references to 
bison for this area, and everything indicates that they have long been 
extinct in Nicaragua. Since their tracks and those made by men 
are unquestionably contemporaneous, the occurrence would tend to 
signify that the human occupation should be regarded as dating from 


fairly early times. Lending strength to this assumption is the fact . 


that between the footprints and overlying archeological remains are 
approximately 10 feet of deposits. Included in the material from 
the lowest cultural level of the later manifestations are potsherds from 

The work of F. B. Richardson, of the Division of Historical Research of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington, and that of Prof. Howel Williams, of the University of Cali- 


fornia, who was cooperating in the investigations, was interrupted by the war but will be 
resumed as soon as hostilities have ceased. 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 419 


a type of ware found only in the earliest ceramic horizon in Guatemala 
and El Salvador. This argues for a relatively ancient population in 
the Managua district. As the footprints occur at a much greater 
depth and must be considerably earlier, it is possible that they consti- 
tute the oldest trace of human presence thus far noted in Middle 
America and that they will establish the period of migration at a date 
some millennia prior to that hitherto postulated. 


SOUTH AMERICA 


The situation in South America is somewhat different. Numerous 
discoveries have been proposed as evidence for an early occupation, 
but there is much disagreement over their actual import. Several 
factors contribute to conflicting opinions about the problem. In many 
portions of the continent there is difficulty in identifying and correlat- 
ing deposits. Certain animal forms appear to have survived longer 
than in the north, with a corresponding lessening of the significance 
of faunal associations. Other complications have resulted from a 
rather common tendency to place undue reliance on the typology of 
implements, picking and choosing those that suggest antiquity while 
failing to consider the remaining components in a complex. Further- 
more there has frequently been complete disregard of the situs of the 
finds, resulting in anachronic and wholly misleading conclusions. 

At the time of its discovery the Punin calvarium from Ecuador 
aroused considerable interest, and it is often mentioned as an example 
of “early” man from that area. Only the skull was found. It came 
from a deposit of volcanic ash in which also were bones from the extinct 
Andean horse, a large ground sloth, a so-called camel (the Protauch- 
enia), the Andean mastodon (Cordillerion, a “Bunomastodont” not 
to be confused with the North American mastodonts), and those from 
present-day animals (Sullivan and Hellman, 1925). There was not 
an actual association, the nearest animal bones being 50 to 100 feet 
from the skull. The discoverer, however, expressed the opinion that 
serious consideration should be given to the implied contemporaneity. 
The skull falls into the category of one of the three types generally 
believed to be characteristic of the oldest stratum of New World 
peoples. This particular form has been designated Australoid (Sulli- 
van and Hellman, 1925), Pseudo-Australoid (Hooton, 1930), Proto- 
* Australoid (Dixon, 1923), and Fuégido (Imbelloni, 1937). The ques- 
tions of nomenclature, identifications, somatological inferences, and 
true significance of the type are too varied and complex for considera- 
tion in this presentation. The Punin calvarium is admittedly an 
archaic Indian form and could be relatively ancient but, as in the case 
of the North American skeletal material, the age must be based on 
geologic—paleontologic evidence and not on the nature of the skull 


420 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


itself. The ash deposit has not been correlated with any specific geo- 
logic horizon. The faunal assemblage occurring in it is generally 
considered as Pleistocene, and were it not for the human remains, the 
layer no doubt would have been regarded as of that age. Yet other 
evidence, such as that of the “Bunomastodon” (Cuvieronius) found 
near Alangasi, Ecuador (Uhle, 1930), suggests that the animals con- 
tinued well into the Recent period before becoming extinct. The fact 
that the quantity and variety of animal life in the Punin district has 
been much poorer in modern times than it was in the period when the 
voleanic ash was being laid down indicates some antiquity, yet the 
evidence for early occupation is not as convincing as is desired. 


The Confins man from the highlands of the state of Minas Geraes, ° 


Brazil, was a more satisfactory discovery (Walter, Cathoud, and 
Mattos, 1987). This skeleton was found in 1935 in a cave in the Lagoa 
Santa region where the Danish naturalist Lund made his extensive and 
well-known collections over a century ago. The entrance to the cave 
was uncovered during the course of excavations in an Indian shelter 
and burial ground dating from about the conquest period. As the 
blocks of fallen stone and conglomerate were removed in the search for 
graves, the entrance was gradually exposed and ultimately stood en- 
tirely clear so that the cave was accessible. There were no traces of 
human occupation in the upper alluvial deposit of the floor, and, as 
careful investigation showed that the entrance had been sealed during 
pluvial times, it was quite evident that the existence of the cave was 
not known to the people who used the shelter and buried their dead at 
its mouth. It was not until the fourth year of exploration in the 
interior of the cave that the human remains were found. The bones 
lay beneath approximately 7 feet of alluvial silts that had been sealed 
in by a layer of stalagmite. Natural rather than intentional burial 
was suggested by the position of the remains. The body evidently had 
rested on the surface and gradually was covered by sediments carried in 
by successive floodings from a nearby lake. In the same stratum were 
bones from the giant sloth, large llama, an extinct horse, tapir,. bear, 
giant capybara, peccary, and mastodon. This assemblage constitutes 
what is usually regarded as a typical Pleistocene or pluvial age fauna 
in that area. No artifacts accompanied the skeleton and none were 
found in the deposits in the cave, hence there was no indication of 
cultural affinities. The skull is of the long-headed variety with low 
forehead and, although comparable to the Lagéa Santa type in its 
hypsicephaly, presumably does not belong in that category. Students 
who have examined it consider it one of the most primitive forms of 
Paleo-Indian thus far found in South America. 

Contemporaneity between the human and animal remains is in- 
disputable and appreciable antiquity is indicated both by the depth of 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 421 


the overlying silts and the thickness of their stalagmitic cover. The 
high-water level in Lake Confins, from which the silt-bearing flood- 
waters are believed to have come, at present is 65 feet below the bottom 
of the cave. Throughout historic times there has not been sufficient 
water to produce overflowing into the cave, and consensus is that only 
near the end of the Pleistocene or corresponding pluvial period was 
there adequate precipitation to cause such phenomena as the deposition 
of the silts and the formation of the stalagmite. At present knowledge 
of that period is too incomplete to provide a basis for chronological 
estimates on the age when the pluvial came to an end in the area. Some 
of the animals represented in the faunal assemblage seem to have sur- 
vived into relatively recent times and consequently are not much help 
as acriterion. The Confins man was unquestionably “early” insofar 
as his relationship with subsequent inhabitants of the region is con- 
cerned, but just how ancient he actually was is a problem still waiting 
to be solved. 

The Sambaquis, shell heaps scattered along large sections of the coast 
of Brazil and on the banks of certain rivers in the interior, should be 
_ mentioned, although their value as evidence for an early occupation is 
debatable. There is considerable variation in the size of these forma- 
tions. Some of them measure 300 to 350 feet in length and 50 to 80 
feet in depth. In most cases, however, they are not as extensive and not 
more than 10 to 20 feet deep. Many are located some distance from the 
present shore line. This indicates that they were formed when the 
sea was at a higher level, and for that reason they are regarded as 
being of considerable age. They have been referred to as evidence for 
a fairly early and dense population in the area because many people 
have believed that all were of human origin despite suggestions from 
time to time to the effect that most of the large ones probably were the 
product of natural forces. Recent investigations tend to substantiate 
the latter point of view (Serrano, 1938). None of the shells in the 
larger heaps have been opened, and such traces of human activity as 
have been discovered apparently were intrusions and not contem- 
poraneous material. Various small heaps and occasional portions of 
some of the medium-sized ones, however, consist of kitchen-midden 
deposits or refuse and definitely are man-made. The small heaps lo- 
cated farthest from the sea in the southern provinces, especially in the 
Sao Paulo district, yield the oldest-appearing artifacts. A simple cul- 
ture in strong contrast with that of historic times is represented. Stone 
and bone implements comprise most of the complex. The stone tools 
are as a rule roughly chipped, but they are polished along the edges. 
Potsherds are sometimes found on the surface or in the upper part of 
the top layer of such mounds and the evidence suggests a late pre- 
ceramic group just beginning to acquire pottery. This, in combination 


422 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


with the polished edges on the stone artifacts, points to a later horizon 
than that indicated for some of the complexes previously considered. 
Further investigations are desirable to establish more precisely, if pos- 
sible, the exact status of these manifestations because finds farther 
south furnish a basis for the assumption that a relatively old culture 
may have existed in this region. 

In Argentina there has been active interest in the subject of “early 
man” ever since the discovery of bones from extinct animals and 
stone implements in the Mar del Plata region and the announce- 
ment of a Homo pampaenus (Ameghino, 1909). This area is very 
productive archeologically. There are many sites where house re- 
mains, pottery, and metal objects are found, but in addition there is 
an older horizon which is characterized by a different human physical 
type and an implement complex containing only stone and bone tools. 
Furthermore there are sporadic occurrences of artifacts, presumably 
in association with extinct faunal material, and human skeletons that 
have been presented as evidence for varying degrees of antiquity. 
Arguments over their validity have flourished for many years, and 
they still furnish a fertile field for debate. It is not within the scope 
of the present paper, however, to review and discuss all these finds. 
Efforts to demonstrate that the cradle of the human race was in South 
America stirred a controversy that produced a voluminous literature. 
Information on the subject may be found in the numerous publica- 
tions detailing both sides of the question. Consensus is that in the 
beginning entirely too great an antiquity was proposed for these 
remains, but that some of the theories advanced in explaining them 
may have some justification when adapted to a more conservative time 
scale, 

Geologic evidence in Argentina, as elsewhere in South America and 
in many portions of North America, tends to be confusing and to 
promote errors in correlation and cross dating. Finds frequently 
are made in dune districts where artifacts are uncovered by wind 
action and are left exposed in the bottoms of large depressions or 
playas (Greslebin, 1930). The situation is comparable to that in 
the so-called blow-outs of the western plains in the United States. 
The relationship between objects lying on the top of a hard sub- 
stratum is always problematical because they may have been at 
different levels before they were dropped to a common surface when 
the surrounding earth was blown away. Also, some of the specimens 
may have weathered from the top of the lower layer, as often happens 
in the case of animal bones, and there may seemingly be an associa- 
tion between artifacts and an extinct fauna when the man-made 
objects actually belong in a later horizon. For that reason such oc- 
currences are properly open to doubt. That the degree of minerali- 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 423 


zation in human and animal bones is not a reliable criterion for 
antiquity apparently has been overlooked or disregarded by some of 
the advocates for an early occupation of this area. Reliance on the 
typology of implements also is misleading because, as has been dem- 
onstrated elsewhere, some tool forms persisted over long periods, and 
similarities between Old and New World specimens do not constitute 
proof of their contemporaneity. Artifacts may be paleolithic in type 
but not in age, a factor that has been forgotten by many arguing 
considerable age for certain specimens in this locale. However, some 
discoveries indicate that occupation of this area was not wholly a 
recent event. This is particularly true of a number made in late years, 
which suggest that while the antiquity is not as great as earlier claims 
would make it, the age probably compares favorably with that gen- 
erally recognized for North America. Because of finds made in 
southern Patagonia, evidence from future investigations in Argen- 
tina will be studied with considerable interest. 

A definite association between human remains, an extinct fauna, and 
an interesting series of artifacts has been reported from southern 
Patagonia, in Chile just south of the Argentine border (Bird, 1938). 
The evidence was found in caves and a rock shelter. One of the caves, 
named Palli Aike, was located in an old volcanic crater and contained 
deposits which in places attained a depth of 8 feet 6 inches. The upper 
5 feet of the deposits was composed of fine, dry dust with an admix- 
ture of broken and burned bones and some stones. This stratum 
rested on a layer of volcanic ash that had a maximum thickness of 2 
feet. Throughout the ash and scattered: over the original rock floor 
were large blocks of lava that had been erupted into the cave at the 
same time as the ash. The upper 18 inches of the deposits contained 
stemmed arrow points, knives, various kinds of scrapers, and bolas. 
Among the points from the top 6 inches were finely made specimens 
of the type attributed to modern Ona Indians. Larger and cruder 
stemmed forms occurred throughout this 18-inch level. Stemless 
points and other kinds of implements came from the next layer, 18 
inches to 3 feet below the top. Various types of scrapers and other 
stone and bone implements, but no points of stone (the few found 
were made of bone), came from the stratum between 3 feet and 5 feet. 
On the surface of the underlying layer of volcanic ash were tools of 
stone and bone, debris of occupation, fireplaces, and broken and burned 
bones from the ground sloth and native horse. Embedded in the top 
of the ash was the stem from a different type of stone point. Toward 
the back of the cave three cremation burials were found along the 
base of the wall in hollows in the top of the ash. This provided im- 
portant evidence of contemporaneity between human remains, extinct 
animal bones, and artifacts in what probably is the first well-authenti- 

619830—45-—28 


424 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


cated occurrence of the kind in the New World. The ash layer con- 
tained several partial sloth skeletons, and it was obvious that the ani- 
mals had used the cave as a shelter and had died there. Nothing sug- 
gested that they had been killed by Indians, but that the latter had 
been there during the early period was shown by the charcoal and 
stone flakes present in the debris on the original floor. 

Some 20 miles west of Palli Aike, in the valley of the Rio Chico, 
was a formation called Fell’s Cave, although strictly speaking it was 
a shelter rather than a true cave (pl. 11). It had been formed at 
some time when the river undercut the canyon wall. The deposits 
there were slightly over 8 feet in depth and contained another in- 
teresting sequence. The top layer consisted for the most part of 
sheep dung and produced no artifacts. The stratum below it, how- 
ever, yielded evidence of four cultural horizons. There was no 
structural change in the geologic debris, and clearly marked lines of 
demarcation were absent, but the archeological and faunal material 
was sufficiently differentiated to demonstrate the levels. In the latest 
horizon were Ona-type points and some of the larger, cruder, stemmed 
forms like those present in Palli Aike. The next level contained only 
the latter kind of points, while below it were stemless points and 
blades. Scrapers of various kinds occurred throughout the stratum, 
but it was only in levels containing stone points that bolas were found. 
Associated with this material were bones from the guanaco, fox, and 
bird. There was a marked change in the proportions from the top 
downward until at the bottom, which was the bone-point horizon, 
bird and fox bones predominated and those from the guanaco were 
only sporadic. 

Underlying the above stratum was a sterile layer, 15 to 28 inches 
thick, composed mainly of slabs, blocks, and disintegrated pieces of 
conglomerate that had fallen from the ceiling. This debris com- 
pletely sealed off from the upper levels a layer of occupation refuse 
ranging from 3 to 9 inches in depth. Numerous artifacts, stone flakes, 
and bone fragments were scattered through it, and there were four 
hearths where fires had burned. Broken and burned bones from the 
giant sloth, native horse, and guanaco were mixed with the charcoal 
and ashes. Artifacts in the layer were bone implements, various 
kinds of scrapers, cylindrical rubbing stones, chopping stones, and 14 
roughly made stemmed points of stone. These specimens show that 
the first occupants of the shelter had an entirely different material 
culture from those who used it later. The stem from a point found 
in the top of the ash layer in the bottom of Palli Aike Cave is from 
the same type as all but one of the points from the bottom stratum 
in the shelter and serves, with those from upper levels, to demonstrate 
that the same type sequence prevailed in both locations (pl. 12). The 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 425 


single differing point from the bottom level of the shelter in its out- 
line suggests a Folsom point, but actually it was not of that type. 
During the interval between occupations, that characterized by the 
rock fall, the horse and giant sloth disappeared and the guanaco be- 
came rare. The latter as a matter of fact did not return in sufficient 
numbers to become an important food item until the closing days of 
the stemless-point period or third cultural horizon. 

At no great distance from the shelter and in the side of a hill called 
Cerro Sota is a long, narrow cave. The upward-sloping floor was 
covered at the inner end with a deposit of fine, dry dust 5 feet deep. 
In the lower 3 feet of this debris were many fragments of native horse 
bones and a few from those of the sloth. There were no artifacts, 
and the only signs of fire were those associated with the cremation 
burial of a group of 8 adults, 2 children, and 2 infants. The bodies 
had been placed in a hollow at the rear of the cave, had been sur- 
rounded with grass and then burned. There were no accompanying 
artifacts to indicate the cultural affinities of the remains, but it seems 
likely they belonged to the first or oldest horizon. The fact that the 
earth above the burial contained broken horse bones suggests such a 
correlation. The skeletal material both from this cave and Palli Aike 
shows that the people were long-headed, had general Indian charac- 
teristics, and in some traits resembled those whose remains were found 
in the Lagoa Santa Cave. 

Unquestionable association with an extinct fauna indicates certain 
antiquity for these finds, but again the question of when the animals 
disappeared is all important and there still is no satisfactory answer. 
This part of Patagonia was on the edge of the extension of the Pleisto- 
cene ice sheet in that area, and a possible correlation between the 
retreat of its last advance and other phenomena suggest that people 
may have been in the region to the east prior to the recession. At the 
time the excavations were made, a relative chronology was developed 
on the basis of a correlation between evidence for marked land rises, 
a change in the level of the Rio Chico, the subsidence of Laguna 
Blanca located some 60 miles west of Palli Aike, and clear indications 
that the volcanic eruption recorded in the bottom level of that cave 
was the oldest in the sequence. The initial occupation of Fell’s Cave 
apparently preceded the eruption, and the third period seems to have 
ended with the drop in the level of Laguna Blanca. Independent 
studies have suggested that the subsidence in the lake was synchro- 
nous with the last ice retreat, and if this were the case it would tend 
to establish appreciably early inhabitation in the area. The native 
horse and the giant sloth seem to have disappeared soon after the 
volcanic disturbance, when there may have been a rather severe but 
relatively brief fluctuation in climate. These factors give no real 


426 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


date, of course, but they do furnish a basis for making estimates. This 
will be considered in more detail in connection with the discussion of 
the ages which have been assigned to all such finds. 


SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION 


It is evident, from the manifestations discussed in preceding pages, 
that man had reached the New World when large portions of North 
America were still covered by remnants of the Wisconsin ice sheet. 
The physical characteristics of such remains as have been found, as 
well as those of the later Indians, indicate an Asiatic origin and subse- 
quent migration. This spread probably did not take place as a single 
mass movement but as a series of continuing migrations by relatively 
small bodies of people over a long period of time. When this began 
and the routes followed are matters about which opinions differ. Most 
students of the problem, however, agree that the bulk of the aboriginal 
population arrived by way of the Bering Strait region and from there 
gradually spread over North America, through Middle America, and 
into the southern continent. The great central plain in Alaska and 
the lowlands bordering Bering Sea and the Arctic Coast were not 
glaciated during the last stage of the Pleistocene. Moreover, there 
was an open corridor along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains 
in the period just after the climax of the Wisconsin. As a consequence 
it was possible for men and animals to pass from central Asia to the 
tip of Siberia and across to Alaska, eastward to the Mackenzie River 
and thence southward into the northern plains. Another route by 
way of the upper Yukon and its tributaries, the Liard and Peace 
River valleys, opened subsequently, and not long after this still another 
became available. It led south along the Fraser River, between the 
Rockies and the Coast Range, and into the Great Basin. The presence 
of artifacts, old camp sites, and bones from extinct species of animals 
found in various places demonstrates that full advantage was taken 
of these several natural highways. 

The first migrants were hunters and they undoubtedly traveled in 
small groups. According to present evidence they followed two main 
lines of dispersal, one along the eastern slopes of the Rockies, some 
continuing on south toward northeastern Mexico, and others spread- 
ing out over the plains to the more southerly reaches of the Mississippi 
River and from there to eastern portions of the country. It may be 
pure coincidence, but it is interesting to note in passing that the 
northern boundary of the distribution of sites attributable to these 
people approximates the line of moraines left by the retreating glaciers 
following the climax of the last Wisconsin substage. The other 
movement seems to have been along the plateau between the Rockies 
and the Coast Range into the Great Basin, southern California, 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 427 


Arizona, and probably from there into northwestern Mexico. The 
latter movement may have continued along the strip of coast west 
of the Sierra Madre Occidental, while the groups from the eastern 
division who proceeded southward presumably traversed the plateau 
between the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra Madre Occidental. 
Eventually descendants from both must have passed through the 
Middle American funnel and into South America, where some pos- 
sibly spread along the Venezuelan Andes and into the plains of the 
Orinoco and others continued southward along the Andes to southern 
Bolivia, where they scattered southeastward across the Gran Chaco 
into Brazil, south of the Amazonian Forest, and on south into Argen- 
tina. Some may have crossed the range to the west and emerged in 
the coastal belt south of the Atacama Desert (Sauer, 1944, pp. 558-559). 
The major movements that provided most of the Indian populations, 
however, appear not to have developed until later when the Recent 
period was well established. Such accretions as may have come by 
sea were too late to affect the older groups and too small to play much 
part in the later developments. 

Although in many cases they apparently outlived the geologic 
Pleistocene, many of the animals killed by the early peoples consti- 
tute what are usually considered Pleistocene forms. They seem to 
have survived through the transition to Recent times and then to 
have become extinct rather suddenly. Causes of this widespread and 
rapid disappearance are not known. That the Paleo-Indians may 
have been a contributing factor through slaughter of the animals and 
the introduction of diseases to which they were particularly suscep- 
tible has been suggested. Other phenomena, no doubt, were also in- 
volved, and future work may produce the information necessary to 
a solution of this interesting phase of the problem. In this group of 
mammals in North America were: mastodonts, mammoths, ground 
sloths, horses, camels, and tapirs, from families now extinct; antilo- 
caprid, the giant beaver, the short-faced bear, saber-tooth cat, giant 
cat, musk ox, and bison, from genera and species now extinct but from 
families still persisting. In South America those from extinct fami- 
lies were: ground sloths, glyptodonts, “Bunomastodonts,” horses from 
the short-legged type derived from the late Pliocene immigrant, and 
the Pleistocene H'guus; while extinct genera and species from per- 
sisting families are represented by an armadillo, the short-faced bear, 
and saber-tooth cat (Colbert, 1942). The early inhabitants of both 
North and South America probably were contemporaneous with other 
animal forms, but their remains either have not been found in direct 
association or the association was too doubtful to receive consideration. 
Since many of these animals seem to have become extinct at a rela- 
tively recent date, associations between their bones and artifacts do 


428 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


not necessarily indicate any great degree of antiquity. When such 
occurrences are in deposits that can be correlated with geologic phe- 
nomena, attributable to the late Pleistocene, however, dating the as- 
semblage as of that time is justifiable. Some of the North American 
evidence indicates that the earlier migrants were in the New World 
at the end of that period and on the basis of certain interpretations of 
the Patagonian manifestations it would appear that some must have 
arrived well before its termination. 

To describe in detail the different implements comprising the various 
complexes and those occurring in sporadic assemblages of bones and 
artifacts has not been possible in the bounds of the present discussion. 
It may be said that there are examples suggestive of late Paleolithic 
tools, a few Mesolithic forms, and numerous early Neolithic types. 
Comparisons are frequently made between these implements and those 
from various European stone industries. This is misleading, however, 
as the American examples must have been derived from eastern Asia 
where the development of stone working was for the most part inde- 
pendent of that in Europe. Such similarities to European types as 
may occur have no chronological significance and should not be used 
as criteria for dating New World material. 

There has been considerable disagreement and much argument over 
the date of the arrival of the first immigrants from Asia.’ This situa- 
tion may be attributed to the basing of conclusions on such differing 
factors as the characteristics of the archeological material, the faunal 
assemblages, the nature of the human skeletal remains, and the geologic 
evidence. The latter as a rule is considered as being the most accept- 
able, and dates based on it are now regarded by many as substantially 
correct. Without going into the problems of glacial variations and 
synchronization, varve counts, fossil pollens, and related subjects, it 
will suffice to say that from these sources the ages of various phenomena 
have been determined. The opening of the corridor east of the 
Rockies, making migration southward from Alaska possible, has been 
placed at 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. There appears to have been a 
similar opening some 20,000 years earlier, but it is generally considered 
as being too ancient to have played a part in human activities. The 
termination of the last pluvial in the North American Southwest, 
which is important in the study of a number of the manifestations, has 
been dated at approximately 10,000 years ago. The Lindenmeier site 
in northern Colorado is dated at from 10,000 to 25,000 with the state- 
ment that it may have been nearer the 25,000 mark (Bryan and Ray, 
1940), although other authorities consider the 10,000 figure as more 
nearly correct (Sayles and Antevs, 1941, p. 41, note 29). The Black 
Water Draw, between Clovis and Portales, N. Mex., has been dated 
12,000 to 18,000 (Antevs, 1935a). The oldest level of the Cochise is 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 499 


put at a little over 10,000 (Sayles and Antevs, 1941). Gypsum Cave 
in Nevada is given as 8,500 (Harrington, 1933). Ventana Cave has 
not been dated as yet, but on the basis of similarities with other re- 
mains it is probable that the oldest level there would approximate the 
10,000 figure. Sandia Cave seems to fall into the same category as 
the Lindenmeier or Black Water Draw. 

No date has been suggested thus far for the human footprints and 
bison tracks in Nicaragua. The Confins man was considered as hav- 
ing lived a “few thousands of years ago” (Walter, Cathoud, and 
Mattos, 1937), and the remains in Patagonia have been estimated at 
3,000 to 5,400 (Bird, 1938b). An interesting question has developed 
in regard to the latter, however, since that estimate was made. If 
the subsidence of Laguna Blanca took place at the time of the retreat 
of the last ice sheet in that area, the cultural horizons antedating 
that occurrence would be much older. On the basis of a correlation 
between the varves in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres the 
time of the recession in the lake has been placed at about 10,000 years 
ago. Inasmuch as the deposits at Palli Aike Cave have suggested 
that the entire period of human occupation of the area may be twice 
as long as the interval since the retreat of the ice, plus a span of 
unknown duration when the debris was collecting on the original floor 
and the layer of volcanic ash was accumulating, something over 
20,000 years would be indicated.* In view of the situation in North 
America this appears to be too long a period, but it raises the question 
as to whether the remains may not be older than originally postu- 

lated. The problem is directly involved in that of the synchronization 
of ice ages in the north of the Northern Hemisphere with those in 
other parts of the world, and as there are various indications that 
simultaneous ice ages for the whole earth are not necessarily admis- 
sable it is possible the Patagonian phenomena were actually some- 
what later. There is no way of telling at this stage of the investiga- 
tions how long it took the migrants to travel from northern North 
America to the tip of South America. Some think of it as a slow 
and laborious process, others believe that it may have been relatively 
rapid. If 15,000 be taken as the maximum for North America and 
10,000 for the southern end of South America, the Nicaraguan mani- 
festations might be considered as approximating 12,000 to 13,000— 
providing, of course, they represent the earliest north-to-south drift— 
and Punin and Confins between 11,000 and 12,000. The North 
American data apparently have a better foundation than those from 
South America, and there is a possibility that the dates just postu- 

4Information received from Dr. Bird in a letter written after the appearance of the 


original article in Acta Americana. On the basis of present evidence Dr. Bird believes 
such an age far too great. 


430 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


lated for the latter are too great, although the former estimate for 
Patagonia may be somewhat too conservative. 

There is nothing in the human physical types that would conflict 
with a 10,000- to 15,000-year age for the first occupation of the New 
World. In Upper Paleolithic times throughout the Near East and 
Europe, as well as in eastern Asia, several races of modern-type man 
were in existence at an earlier stage than any thus far suggested for 
the New World. Consequently: the fact that the earliest arrivals did 
not differ greatly from modern Indians and have shown only sporadic 
primitive features should not be regarded as denying the possibility 
for such an age. However, the situation is somewhat different archeo- 
logically. Thus far there is scant information about the late Paleo- 
lithic in eastern Asia beyond the fact that there was such a stage and 
that certain types of implements correlate with it. There is little that 
compares with these older forms in the New World material, but there 
is much that is like the Neolithic artifacts of the period just preceding 
the appearance of pottery and various polished-stone tools. Because 
of this some argue, with considerable logic (Spinden, 1937), that the 
New World complexes could not possibly have originated prior to 
5,000 to 6,000 years ago, while others are willing to concede a maxi- 
mum of 8,000. The answer probably is to be found in Asia in the 
transition stage between the end of the Paleolithic and the appearance 
of the full Neolithic. At present there is no available information on 
that cultural phase, and until the results of future investigations are 
at hand there can be no decision in the matter. This seeming discrep- 
ancy between geologic dates and archeological evidence emphasizes 
the need for further study of the problem. 

Thus far there is not much basis for correlations between the older 
types of remains with those of later Indian groups. With the excep- 
tion of the Cochise, and possibly also of some of the manifestations 
in the Abilene district, all the early complexes were followed by a 
definite break. They are separated from subsequent assemblages by 
a sterile layer. The later manifestations, however, in all cases appear 
to continue through a series of cultural horizons down to historic 
times. The break in continuity is unmistakable in the Folsom sites, 
Gypsum Cave, Sandia Cave, Ventana Cave, and numerous other North 
American occurrences not described in the present article, and also at 
Fell’s Cave in South America. In view of this and because of the rela- 
tionship between some of the Ventana Cave and Cochise materials, as 
well as the difference between the oldest Cochise and other early com- 
plexes, it is possible that the bottom level of the Cochise may have been 
placed one stage too early and that it actually belongs in the phase 
beginning just after the interval which is characterized, in all other 
locations where such remains are found, by an absence of traces of 


NEW WORLD PALEO-INDIAN—ROBERTS 431 


human occupation. In fact some geologist think that the sand-gravel 
layer in which the Cochise material occurs may be a redeposition 
rather than an original flood plain and that the archeological speci- 
mens are later than the animal bones and gravel would indicate. If 
the widespread evidence for such a hiatus is correct, some explanation 
should be found for the break in continuity and for the possibility that 
the earliest migrants, like the animals they hunted, became extinct. 
On the other hand, if the first occupation was followed by uninter- 
rupted inhabitation, some good reason for the sterile stratum in so 
many sites should be forthcoming. One postulation has been that the 
break merely was in the plains and the southwestern area, where the 
increasing temperatures and progressive desiccation following the 
onset of the postglacial produced unfavorable conditions and forced 
the people on eastward and southward to other regions where they 
continued to live. Eventually, after an amelioration of the climate 
in their former habitat and an influx of new migrants who found it 
again suitable for occupation, their descendants came in contact with 
some of the later peoples and there was an intermingling that is chron- 
icled in the sporadic appearance of older physical types in recent 
groups. This is a logical explanation, but thus far the preponderance 
of archeological evidence is against it. 


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432 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Fiecrns, J. D. 
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UHLn, MAx. 


1930. Spite mastodonten in Ecuador. Proc. Twenty-third Int. Congr. Ameri- 
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WALTER, H. V., CATHOUD, A., and MATTOS, ANIBAL. 

1987. The Confins man—a contribution to the study of early man in South 
America. Jn Early Man, as depicted by leading authorities at the 
international symposium, Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, March 1937, 
pp. 841-348. Lippincott, Philadelphia. 

WHEELER, S. M. 

1942. Archaeology of Etna Cave, Lincoln County, Nevada. Nevada State 

Park Commission, Carson City. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts 


FOLSOM POINTS AND KNIVES. 


‘Top specimen in central column, a channel-flake; right-hand column, fluted knives. (Actual size.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 2 


GENERALIZED TYPE OF FLUTED 
(Actual size.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 3 


1. ORIGINAL FOLSOM SITE. 


Man standing on level at which bones and artifacts occurred. 


2. POINT AND BISON RIBS IN SITU AT ORIGINAL SITE. 


(Photograph courtesy Colorado Museum of Natural History.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 4 


1. LINDENMEIER SITE IN NORTHERN COLORADO. 


Cross indicates area of major excavations. 


2. ONE OF THE EXCAVATION PITS AT THE LINDENMEIER SITE SHOWING 
DARK-SOIL ZONE BENEATH WHICH ARTIFACTS AND BONES WERE FOUND. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 5 


1. ONE TYPE OF YUMA POINT. 
(Actual size.) 


2. SANDIA POINTS. 
a, type 1; 6, type 2. (Approximately actual size.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 6 


SANDIA CAVE. 


Arrow indicates entrance. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 7 


1. GYPSUM CAVE. 


Arrow indicates entrance. Excavation camp in right foreground. (Photograph courtesy Southwest 
Museum.) 


2. GYPSUM CAVE POINTS. 


Specimen atright is 25g inches long. (Photograph courtesy Southwest Museum.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 8 


VENTANA CAVE. 


Oldest material came from upper and deeper section behind the man with the wheelbarrow. (Photograph 
courtesy Arizona State Museum.) 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 9 


1. TWO SIDES OF VENTANA CAVE POINT. 
(Photograph courtesy Arizona State Museum.) 


2. DEEPLY BURIED HEARTH AND OCCUPATION LEVEL NEAR ABILENE, TEX. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 10 


ie oe ore SO ed 5 eg EE BT i 


1. HUMAN FOOTPRINTS IN LAVA AT EL CAUCE, NICARAGUA. 
(Photograph courtesy Division of Historical Research, Carnegie Institution of Washington.) 


FOF <3 anaes 
2. DEPOSITS OVERLYING FOOTPRINTS. 
(Photograph courtesy Division of Historical Research, Carnegie Institution of Washington.) 


VG SBN ahe| 


(AIOJSTH{ [BINJVN JO Uinesny, UvolIoury Asojinod ydeisojoyd) 
“ATIHD NYSHLNOS “AATIVA ODIHD ON ‘YSLTISHS YO SAVD S.171354 


ee alten. Bk 


sj q°U— bro | *‘jtoday ueluosyyIWg 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Roberts PLATE 12 


bascern th® 


SEQUENCE OF POINT TYPES FROM PALLI AIKE AND FELL’S CAVES. 


Earliest forms at bottom. Second from bottom is a bone point, Small points in top row are Ona. (Photo 
graph courtesy American Museum of Natural History.) 


EASTER ISLAND? 


By ALFRED M&TRAUxX 
Assistant Director, Institute of Social Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution 


[With 4 plates] 


A treeless volcanic rock, scarcely 13 miles long and 7 miles wide, 
slowly being eaten away by the waves and lost in the great emptiness 
of the Pacific Ocean—2,000 miles off the coast of Chile and 1,500 miles 
from the nearest Polynesian archipelago—this is Easter Island, the 
most isolated spot ever inhabited by man. Today it supports a mere 
handful of natives, mostly half-castes, and many of them lepers. 
These 450 people, now under Chilean rule, are the only descendants 
of the men who created there one of the most original civilizations 
that have left a trace behind. Yet they have all but forgotten their 
past. 

For two centuries, the name of the island has been almost synony- 
mous with mystery. In the world of ethnologists it occupies a place 
much like that of isles of fancy in children’s imaginations. 

The sense of mystery which still surrounds this lonely rock was 
first aroused on Easter Sunday, 1722, when the Dutch Admiral Rog- 
geveen, in command of three frigates cruising about the Pacific in 
search of the fabulous Davis Land, saw the dome-shaped peaks of its 
volcanoes jutting above the horizon. From the decks of their ships his 
sailors, as they drew nearer, could discern all along the cliffs of this 
unknown shore an army of gigantic statues, which completely over- 
shadowed a small band of naked and noisy savages on the beach 
below. The visit of the Dutch discoverers did not last long, but they 
carried back to Europe the strange tale of a solitary, desolate island 
guarded by colossal stone images, far too heavy and impressive to 
have been carved and erected by the few primitive people they found 
living there. 

Later in the eighteenth century, and afterward, Easter Island was 
visited in succession by several other great navigators: Cook, La 
Pérouse, Kotzebue, Beechey. They, too, saw with amazement the 
stone monsters, measured them, and even sketched them. To their 


1 Reprinted by permission from The Yale Review, Summer 1939, with revisions and addi- 
tions by the author. The illustrations did not appear in The Yale Review. 


435 


436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


minds also, the contrast between the monuments, indicative of a 
flourishing and skillful population, and the desolation they found 
about them was a peculiar enigma. They spoke of cataclysms, of 
volcanic eruptions, that might have changed the course of the island’s 
history, but these were pure guesses based on superficial observation. 

In the first half of the nineteenth century, a different group of visi- 
tors appeared. These were the whalers, most of them enterprising 
New Englanders in pursuit of business and adventure in the South 
Seas. A few echoes of their experiences come to us in indirect ways. 
Thus we know that the captain of one of these ships kidnapped several 
men who afterward escaped and tried to swim back to their island 
although they were 3 days out. It is not surprising that relations 
between the whalers and the natives were far from cordial. Too often 
the ships’ officers resorted to impressing the islanders into their serv- 
ice. Such incidents explain the hostility shown to some European 
navigators between 1820 and 1830 when they attempted to land. But 
these brief visits of Yankee sailors were not without benefit to the 
study of Easter Island. Thanks to their collecting instinct, numerous 
precious specimens of its early art have been well preserved in the Pea- 
body Museum at Cambridge and the Peabody Museum at Salem. In 
Cambridge, besides various wood and stone carvings, there are two 
images brought from the island, made of bark stuffed with bulrushes, 
which represent a branch of its artistic tradition otherwise entirely 
unknown. They are covered with painted designs that reproduce, 
with fine and precise workmanship, the elaborate patterns used in 
tattooing up to a hundred years ago. In this respect the old Easter 
Islanders rivaled the achievements of the Marquesans. 

In 1859 a frightful disaster befell the islanders when Peruvian 
blackbirders attacked the island and kidnapped the king, a large 
number of the nobles and priests, and many hundred commoners, all 
of whom were carried off to the guano islands of Peru to work as 
slaves. Most of the people died within a short time. When at last the 
few survivors were repatriated by a French ship, they spread among 
the remaining islanders the smallpox and tuberculosis contracted in 
Peru. Thus within a few years most of the native population and 
with them the vital links with the past were wantonly destroyed. 

The mystery of Easter Island became still deeper when, in 1864, 
the first Christian missionaries (members of the French Order of the 
Sacred Heart) arrived and tried to obtain from the natives details 
about the origin of the statues, and the methods that had been used to 
transport them—since many of them had obviously been moved from 
the place where the stone was quarried. Their answers to questions 
of this kind were unilluminating and showed that they had only a 
vague tradition of what had happened before their time. Their ig- 
norance, combined with the state of primitive poverty into which they 


EASTER ISLAND—MBETRAUX 437 


had fallen, again emphasized their enigmatic relation to the lost civi- 
lization, of which the statues and great stone mausoleums as well as 
other finely wrought remains of the past were mute evidence. 

Then scientists began to study Easter Island. At what time and 
by what manner of men, they asked, were these images made, with 
their colossal bulk, their empty eyes and scornful expressions? Was 
the island the remnant of a sunken continent? Had it been inhabited 
by a powerful earlier race which had died out, or been destroyed and 
displaced by more warlike conquerors? Had eruptions of the vol- 
canoes exterminated the skilled craftsmen, the sculptors, and the archi- 
tects, leaving only a small group of people too discouraged and weak 
to continue the work of their forefathers? These are among the 
questions that still puzzle students. 

The statues symbolize the mystery of the island and have made it 
famous. Yet their paradoxical presence on this speck of land in 
the midst of the Pacific is perhaps less difficult to understand than 
are the wooden tablets covered with small incised designs that were 
collected from the natives in the second half of the last century. The 
tablets raised the fascinating question whether their makers used on 
them a kind of hieroglyphic script which might some day be de- 
ciphered and would unveil the secret of its past. But all attempts to 
decipher them, with the help of intelligent natives, failed. 

A few years ago the study of the tablets took an unexpected turn. 
A Hungarian linguist, Guillaume de Hevesy, published a long list 
of Easter Island hieroglyphs which, it was claimed, presented very 
striking analogies with the symbols of a newly discovered script found 
in the ruins of a civilization, 5,000 years old, in the Indus Valley at 
Mohenjo-daro and Harappa. There, coetaneous with the Sumerian 
civilization, flourished large and opulent cities inhabited by people 
whose name and affiliations are totally unknown to us. They were 
wiped out probably at the time of the Aryan, and their existence re- 
mained unsuspected until the great excavations of Sir John Marshall. 
The Mohenjo-daro people have left a great many inscriptions on seals 
which have so far resisted any attempt at decipherment. If it could 
be shown that the two scripts were related, new light might be thrown 
on the obscure past of the whole Pacific area. 

The problem thus posed was of such significance for an under- 
standing of the early history of man that the French Government in 
association with the Belgian Government decided to organize an 
expedition to Easter Island to try to read its riddle. The leader of 
the expedition was a French archeologist, Charles Watelin, who, 
unfortunately, died in Tierra del Fuego. I was then asked to carry 
on the research, in association with the Belgian archeologist, Dr. Henry 
Lavachery. 


438 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


We saw Easter Island for the first time on a rainy day in winter. 
It was also my first sight of a Polynesian island. I did not expect, 
of course, to find the classic coconut palms and hibiscus, for I knew 
that the island was without trees or shrubs, but I certainly had not 
imagined that this outpost of the sunny islands in the South Seas 
would remind me, as it did at once, of the coasts of Sweden and 
Norway. When the cruiser on which we had made the voyage 
anchored off Hangaroa, the only modern village on the island, 
memories of Scandinavia came even more vividly into my mind as I 
examined through my field glasses the frame houses of the natives, 
which are of a type common in northern Europe. The capital of the 
legendary Easter Island looked, for all the world, like a humble fisher- 
men’s hamlet seen in a fog on the Baltic. 

I shall never forget that first day when we were anchored just off 
the little harbor. Gusts of wind drove long rollers against the shore 
with such force that they broke amid spouts of spray with a deep 
pounding. In front of the sandy cove, the waves piled up over a bar 
that, it seemed, nobody could cross. The natives gathered on the 
beach did not appear very eager to meet us, but the aranga, the cries 
which announce any important event, had sounded in the village, 
and from everywhere, on all the paths leading to the sea, we could 
see men on horseback coming at full speed. Near the boathouses a 
palaver was held, and on the outcome of that everything depended. 
The commander of the cruiser had decided that on no condition would 
he put us and our 90 boxes of equipment ashore. Our only hope for 
an immediate and safe landing lay with the natives. 

Suddenly we saw them rush to the boathouses, drag three canoes 
toward the sea, jump into them and disappear in the surf. We held 
our breath, expecting the canoes to capsize in their attempt to cross 
the bar. But after a short time, one, two, then all three surged up 
from the wall of water and headed toward our ship. The men were 
received with cheers, a well-deserved tribute to their courage and 
skill. 

When the canoes reached our ship we saw that they were full of 
natives wearing the most surprising disguises. The majority were 
dressed in old uniforms of the Chilean navy. In one canoe there 
were, it appeared, lieutenants, admirals, surgeons, and engineers. A 
few had also put on feather headdresses, similar to those in which 
their ancestors had received Captain Cook, but they wore them merely 
as an advertisement of the native wares of all kinds which they wished 
to trade for shirts and sailors’ caps. 

Each time I find myself using the word “natives” for the modern 
inhabitants of Easter Island, I have a hesitant feeling, just as hesi- 
tant as on that day when I first saw their faces over the railing. I 


eS 


EASTER ISLAND—METRAUX 439 


could not decide whether these men were a heterogeneous crowd of 
European beachcombers or real Polynesians, the sons of the sea 
rovers who had colonized the island. That European blood flowed in 
their veins, there was no doubt. Some of the men who came aboard 
and tried to sell their curios looked decidedly French; others might 
almost have had brothers or cousins in Hamburg or in London. Yet 
there was something exotic in all of them and traces of old Polynesian 
descent could be seen in their black, wavy hair, in the strange, viva- 
cious dark eyes, in the high foreheads. These first Easter Islanders 
whom I met impressed me as of mixed race. Later, genealogical 
investigations showed that only a third of the present inhabitants 
could claim descent from a pure Polynesian ancestry—and the claims 
were not always well attested. 

There is one misconception about these people which should be 
dispelled. It has been stated over and over again that the modern 
Easter Islanders are a degenerate population and that they can have 
nothing in common with the people who carved the statues and 
inscribed the tablets. This is not true. They appeared to me in 
many ways to be highly gifted. 

During the 6 months I spent on the island, I found myself com- 
pelled to admire their ingenuity and their remarkable talent for 
assimilation. No European village has given me the impression of 
more intelligent adaptation to a changing world. This capacity is 
doubtless responsible, in part, for the passing of the old culture. 
Though the most isolated people in the world, the Easter Islanders 
are constantly on the lookout for new ideas, new fashions—and also 
new vices. Their extraordinary faculty for exploiting any weakness 
or interest in their visitors has had some amusing results. For ex- 
ample, a few years after the missionaries came to the island, the 
natives started to speculate on the antiquities and on the mysterious 
past of their little country. Finding that foreigners were interested 
in the small wooden images of emaciated figures which had been one 
of their forefathers’ greatest artistic achievements, they proceeded 
to produce crude imitations by the hundreds. The modern craftsmen 
are without illusion as to the perfection of their work, but they excuse 
themselves by saying: “Why should we bother about beauty and 
finish when our patrons don’t discriminate between good and bad 
images and we get in exchange the soap and clothes we want?” 
Thanks to this commercial instinct, several of their old industries 
have been kept alive. 

One of their greatest and most profitable activities is palming off 
on amateur archeologists rough stones alleged to be ancient artifacts 
or well-made imitations of them. The very day of my landing a 
native cynically proposed to cooperate with me in faking old imple- 

619830—45——-29 


440 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ments and works of art. His idea was that since I had books and 
photographs showing the designs and he had the manual skill we 
might form an ideal, not to say a profitable, partnership. I must 
confess that on several occasions the islanders’ skillful imitations 
completely deceived me, and I thus acquired a beautiful collection 
of ancient stone hooks that I only gradually realized were modern 
copies. 

This continued practice of the traditional arts has a certain his- 
torical bearing. It suggests that there has never been a complete 
breach in Easter Island civilization and that the present natives, 
however mixed in blood they may be, are, nevertheless, the successors 
in direct line of the unknown men who carved the old wooden images 
that are nowadays prized specimens in our museums. 

Unfortunately, this is not the only old custom which has survived. 
From the time when the Dutch discovered the island to the present, 
its people have had the reputation of being the cleverest thieves in 
the South Seas, and quite rightly. This complaint is repeated in all 
the accounts of the early navigators, and many of the dramatic inci- 
dents on the beach of Hangaroa have arisen from the natives’ brazen 
contempt for the sanctity of private property. Only the sensitive 
and elegant French explorer La Pérouse adopted the policy of laugh- 
ing at such pilfering, and paid no further attention to it. He and 
his men were amused by the attitude of the native women who helped 
their mates pick pockets by distracting the attention of innocent 
victims through entreaties and “ludicrous gestures.” 

The natives of our day are just as thievish as their forefathers, and 
this wayward disposition is the cause of endless troubles for the Eng- 
lish company which has leased the island from the Chilean Govern- 
ment for sheep raising. To prevent constant stealing of the sheep 
the company put barbed wire across the island in an attempt to 
force the people to remain within the bounds of their village. But 
such drastic measures were of little avail, and in the year I spent there 
3,000 sheep disappeared. Though the culprits are known to the whole 
community, family loyalty protects them and makes investigation 
useless, 

Otherwise the natives are law-abiding and peaceful; there are very 
few records of murder or bloody violence among them. The only 
criminal we heard of was one of our guides, who, ironically enough, 
proved to be about the only honest man on the island. 

The people live as they did in the past, on the produce of their 
fields. Taros, sweetpotatoes, yams, bananas, and sugarcane grow 
abundantly on the fertile volcanic soil. The only wants they can- 
not supply themselves are for manufactured goods such as soap. And 
they like especially to get foreign clothing. In this matter, the men 


————EeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEeEe——e——eeaeEeEEee 


EASTER ISLAND—METRAUX 441 


do well’ for themselves by barter with the white sailors who visit the 
island, but the women cannot be so provided for. They complain 
bitterly of the difficulty they have in satisfying their coquettish taste. 

For an anthropologist, the material on Easter Island is rather 
scant. The old culture has nearly gone. No Westerner ever saw it 
while it was still functioning. The data on the past, which can be 
gathered, are limited to statements or tales which a few people have 
heard from fathers or grandfathers. Nevertheless, I was surprised 
to find a relatively rich folklore, which helped me to understand many 
aspects of the ancient civilization. Both legends and anecdotes stress 
cannibalism, which seems to have haunted the imagination of the 
Easter Islanders before the arrival of Christianity. 

Those who expect to find in these traditions any evidence for the 
existence of a civilization previous to that of the Polynesians will be 
sadly disappointed. There is not a single feature of the Easter Island 
lore that does not point toward Polynesian origin. The language 
itself is pure Polynesian, and no words now in use hint of a legacy 
from any other linguistic stock. 

These are the main facts to bear in mind as we turn to the problem 
posed by the mysterious gigantic statues and the inscribed tablets. 
But before we go into it, we must first consider what is to be said of 
the theory that the island is a peak of a sunken continent, since upon 
this assumption the classic interpretation of its mysteries has for a 
long time rested. There is no scientific evidence that Easter Island 
“is the wreckage of such a sunken continent—Lemuria or Atlantis. 
It is plainly a typical volcanic island of recent origin, formed by a 
series of eruptions originating on the floor of the ocean. Soundings 
have revealed a depth of 1,770 fathoms 20 miles from its coast. 
Moreover, when the island was settled by Polynesian migrants it does 
not seem to have been much more extensive than it is now. Its coasts 
are subjected to continual erosion from the waves, and it is true that 
during the last decades a few of the monuments which once stood on 
the top of a high cliff have been precipitated into the sea. But since 
the ancient sanctuaries were erected along the shore, if the erosion 
had been very great, all of them would have been washed away by 
now. There has also been a question about a great road which, it is 
said, ran to the shore of the island and continued under water, sug- 
gesting that the shore was once much farther out. The famous French 
writer, Pierre Loti, was, if I am not mistaken, the first to mention this 
“triumphal avenue,” which he thought would lead to the heart of the 
mystery. On a simple statement of this traveling poet visions of 
submerged glory have been based, and many good minds have allowed 
their imaginations to follow the submarine road down to enchanted 
palaces. The truth is that no such road exists. What Loti took for 


442 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


a paved highway is seen on close examination to be only a bed of 
lava that in its flow reached the sea. 

Other writers, abandoning the hypothesis of the sunken continent, 
have advanced the view that Easter Island is the center of an archi- 
pelago which vanished beneath the waves in a great cataclysm not 
so many centuries ago. They suggest further that the inhabitants of 
this supposed string of islands had used Easter Island asa burial place 
for their dead. According to this surmise, the dream Land of Davis 
would have been among the many islands that were submerged. But 
no geological facts can be found to support this theory either. We 
know, too, that the sanctuaries of Easter Island continued to be used 
as burial places by the islanders as recently as 70 years ago. Ruins 
of old villages near the monuments are added evidence that this 
speck of land was inhabited by the living in former times as it is 
today, and that it could not have been merely a mausoleum. 

However, there remains the baffling fact that such a diminutive 
island is covered with great statues, some of them 30 or 40 feet high and 
weighing many tons. Despite my skepticism about the elaborate 
theories offered in explanation of this miraculous flowering of sculp- 
ture, I must confess that I, too, like all previous travelers to the island, 
was overwhelmed by a feeling of astonishment and awe when I first 
saw them. 

There are few spectacles in the world more impressive than the 
sight of the statue quarry on the slopes of Ranoraraku. The place is 
indeed sinister. Imagine a half-crumbled volcano, a black shore line, 
and huge cliffs which rise up from the sea with smooth green pastures 
above them. Guarding the quarry, near the volcano, is an army of 
giant stone figures scattered in the most picturesque disorder. Most 
of them still stand out boldly. Successive landslides have partially 
covered others, so that only their heads emerge from the ground, like 
those of a cursed race buried alive in quicksand. Behind the rows 
of the erect statues, along the slopes of the volcano, there are 150 
figures still in the process of being born. Wherever one looks in the 
quarry, one sees half-finished sculpture. Ledges of the mountain 
have been given human shape. Caves have been opened in which 
statues rest like those on medieval sepulchers in the crypt of some 
great cathedral. Hardly a single surface has been left uncarved by 
the artists in their frenzy to exploit the soft tufa of the mountain. 

There is something weird in the sight of this deserted workshop with 
the dead giants all about. At every step, one stumbles over discarded 
stone hammers. It is as if the quarry had been abandoned on the 
eve of some holiday, and the workers were expecting on the day after 
to return and resume their tasks; indeed, in several cases, only a few 
more blows would have been needed to cut the statues finally free 
from the rock of the slope. 


EASTER ISLAND—METRAUX 443 


In my opinion, the seemingly sudden interruption of work in the 
quarry is the most puzzling problem presented by Easter Island. Such 
an abrupt stoppage in the sculptors’ activity suggests some unfore- 
seen catastrophe, some extraordinary event which upset the entire 
life of the place. The natives have always had the idea that magic 
was at the bottom of the trouble whatever it was. There is a legend 
among them that an old sorceress, forgotten perhaps at a feast, may 
in her rage have put a curse on the quarry which frightened the work- 
ers forever away. 

If we reject this fabulous story, we have no explanation of the 
phenomenon for which there is any basis however slight. Was there 
possibly some surprise attack by a hostile group on the island in 
which all the skilled stone carvers were killed? Was there an attack 
from chance invaders? Were the natives suddenly overwhelmed by 
a violent epidemic, or did something about their first contact with 
white men cause them to lay down their tools once for all? We do not 
know the answer, and I doubt if we shall ever have any light on it. 

Whatever the truth about the end of their work, it appears that 
the last of the stone carvers were under the spell of a megalomaniac 
dream. Some of the unfinished statues are of enormous size, one of 
them 60 feet tall. Others are to be found in places out of which it 
seems impossible that they could ever have been taken. Perhaps their 
sculptors never intended to move these isolated giants. 

There are two types of Easter Island statues—those which still stand 
in the crater or at the foot of the volcano Ranoraraku, and those which 
once surmounted the ahwu or burial places. Though they are of the 
same stone and of the same general style, there are differences which 
are worth stressing. 

A word must be said about the burial places, which were situated at 
frequent intervals all along the shore in a line that encircled the 
island. Most of them were huge stone structures of a peculiar 
plan developed from the primitive cairn. In these large mausoleums, 
the crude heap of stones has evolved into a real monument through 
the use of a retaining wall. This wall, which formed a facade always 
facing seaward, was built of slabs or regular blocks of stone carefully 
fitted together into beautiful, smooth surfaces. Behind this is a level 
platform, and then a gradual slope backward, filled in with coarse 
rubble. The central portion of the facade juts out, like the apron 
of a stage, and on the top of this projecting part of the platform 
stood a row of statues with their faces turned inland. In the long 
slope leading up to this sacred place the dead were buried. 

The figures of the mausoleums or sanctuaries were in the nature of 
huge busts, the head being disproportionately large in relation to what 
appears of the body. The back of the head goes straight up from the 
shoulders and, with the vertical lines of the ears, gives the head a 


444. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


flattened appearance. The eyebrows are well marked and overlap the 
elliptical cavities which represent the sockets of the eyes. The nose is 
long, the tip slightly upturned and the nostrils expanded. The thin 
lips are pursed with what seems a scornful expression. The arms, 
slightly flexed, cling to the bust with the hands joined over the ab- 
domen, below which the figure is cut off. 

The other sculptures on the island—the lonely images on the plain 
and those that guard the slope of the volcano Ranoraraku—have the 
same features except that there are no sockets for the eyes. This part 
of the face, as in some modernistic sculpture, is defined only by the 
ridge of the eyebrows and by the flat plane of the cheeks below. The 
lower part of these statues tapers to an enormous peg, which was 
sunk into the soil. 

The function of the ahu images can be surmised from analogies with 
the rest of Polynesia. The old Marquesans, close relatives and perhaps 
forebears of the Easter Islanders, adorned their stone platforms with 
statues which represented their ancestors. Among all the natives of 
central and marginal Polynesia, there is the same tendency to give 
human form to ancestral gods presiding over the sacred places. In 
the sanctuaries of central Polynesia stood huge slabs that were erected 
in the same position as the Easter Island statues. These slabs were 
receptacles for the souls of the ancestral gods, who entered them when 
they were called by the priests. The Easter Island statues are merely 
a more realistic development of this idea, favored by the existence of 
easily carved tufa deposits. Their sculptors elaborated rather than 
originated a tradition. 

Everywhere on the island statues are to be found: on top of volcanic 
hills, along cliffs, and in places which seem almost inaccessible. Their 
mass must have made their transportation difficult. As a matter of 
fact, no one has yet explained how some of them were hauled from the 
quarry and then erected on the platforms on the opposite side of the 
island. 

Of course, there are many other instances of people with rudimentary 
equipment moving objects of great size—for instance, the dolmens and 
menhirs of Europe. As the statues that the Easter Islanders 
erected on their sanctuaries were of the native tufa, they were not ex- 
ceedingly heavy for their bulk. Their weight ranges from 5 to 8 tons; 
only one weighs as much as 20 tons. But because the rock from which 
they were carved is soft, it must have been necessary to take innumer- 
able precautions not to mar or break them in transit. This would 
have been easy if abundant supplies of wood had been accessible, 
but, except for a few bushes, the island seems always to have 
lacked wood. Good material for making ropes was apparently also 
lacking. The only thing they could have been made from is paper 


EASTER ISLAND—MBETRAUX 445 


mulberry, which the natives grew in special stone-enclosed plots. Per- 
haps the wood necessary for making sledges on which the statues might 
have been hauled was lumber that floated ashore. This is frequently 
mentioned in ancient tales. If native timber or driftwood was available 
in the old days, the difficulties of transportation would not have been 
overwhelming. We know that other Polynesians transported objects 
quite as heavy as the Easter Island images. For instance in the 
Marquesas, slabs weighing as much as 10 tons were hauled along the 
slopes of the mountains. The famous doorway, or trilithon, of Tonga, 
which is one of the marvels of the world, has a lintel weighing 30 tons. 
But when the Easter Islanders of today are asked about the means by 
which the statues were transported, they only say: “King Tuu-ko-ihu, 
the great magician, used to move them with the words of his mouth.” 

Other questions have arisen about the Easter Island carvings. How, 
for instance, did the people get the manpower for such large enter- 
prises, which would have been impossible, it seems, if the population 
were as Small as it istoday? The answer is that before the Europeans 
arrived, the island had ten times as many inhabitants as it now has—4 
or 5 thousand would be a conservative estimate. We know this from 
data given by its first European visitors and the early missionaries. 

Again, are these statues as old as has been said? Certain writers have 
dated them as far back as 1000 B. C. There are even some who think 
that they might have been in existence 10,000 yearsago. But the weight 
of general evidence is against these views. Although their material is 
a relatively soft stone, they still retain sharp outlines, and the ham- 
mer marks are still noticeable on them. As the winds blow with re- 
lentless force over the island, and rains are both frequent and violent, 
if the carving had been done thousands of years ago, it could not be 
in such good condition as it is today. Tradition seems to indicate that 
the Polynesian ancestors of the present inhabitants came to the island 
and settled it in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries A. D. All things 
considered, I do not think the statues can be more than five or six 
centuries old. But no definite date can be set for them. 

The figures of stone that stood so high above the shores of Easter 
Island, and in such striking formation that it is no wonder they amazed 
the old navigators, have attracted more attention than the other myste- 
rious objects to which I have already referred—the wooden tablets 
with rows of strange signs incised on them. But these curious pieces 
of wood have also given rise to much speculation. They were bought 
from the natives by the missionaries in the early days of their work, 
and ever since they have been thought to contain a real script which, 
if it could be read, would prove a key to the island’s mysteries. 

The first white man to discover the tablets was Monseigneur Jaussen, 
French Bishop of Tahiti, in 1866. As he was looking at a piece of 


446 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


wood, wrapped around with strands of hair, which a missionary had 
brought from Easter Island as a gift from the natives to the head of 
their new church, he was puzzled by the rows of small designs he 
noticed on it. These he took to be hieroglyphs, and his view has been 
shared by all the later students of the problem. The so-called “hiero- 
glyphs,” cut in the wood with a shark’s tooth, are realistic or conven- 
tionalized drawings of various subjects, including apparently geo- 
metrical figures. Many of them represent men, animals, plants, and 
other familiar forms reduced to their essential features with no unnec- 
essary detail to blur the image. They run up and down the tablets 
in rows so arranged that when the reader arrives at the bottom of 
one row, he has to turn the tablet upside down to see the designs of 
the next one in a normal position. These images, or characters, are 
among the masterpieces of primitive graphic art that have come down 
to us. They are outlined with an exquisite grace. The symbols are 
uniform in style suggesting an established and highly developed 
aesthetic tradition. 

Unfortunately, the discovery of this remarkable work was not fol- 
lowed up by scientific inquiries at a time when they might have borne 
fruit. When, finally, in 1914 Mrs. Katherine Routledge, the distin- 
guished English anthropologist, tried to obtain a key to its meaning 
from the last native who had been trained in the old chanters’ school, 
it was already too late. He died of leprosy a few days after his first 
interview with her. The modern natives know nothing of the matter. 
They tell merely vague tales of the tablets, saying that they are magical 
objects which have the power to cause death. 

The supposed substance of the rows of designs on some of the tablets 
was dictated in the Easter Island dialect to Jaussen by a native named 
Metoro. But when Metoro’s words were translated it appeared that 
they were only a simple description of the designs, not their actual 
content, as had been hoped. 

Other attempts at interpretation have been undertaken but with 
even less success. The most serious was that of an American naval 
officer, W. J. Thomson. In 1886 he tried to obtain the text of what 
was inscribed on the tablets from an elderly native. This man un- 
doubtedly had some knowledge of the characters, but he had become 
a good Christian and was afraid of jeopardizing his chances in another 
world by touching the tablets or even looking at their pagan symbols. 
In order to resist the temptation, he ran away and hid in a cave, where 
Thomson finally captured him. There he was “stimulated” by flattery 
and a few drinks to what was thought to be a revelation of these secrets 
of the past. At any rate, he began to chant old Polynesian hymns, 
which he said were the texts of the tablets. Thomson and his col- 
leagues noticed, however, that their informant was paying no atten- 


EASTER ISLAND—METRAUX 447 


tion to the rows of designs as he chanted and did not repeat his words 
when the same tablet was put into his hands a second time. He was, 
therefore, thought to be a fraud and was dismissed. 

As I have already said, a definite clue to the enigma of this so-called 
“seript” seemed at last to have been discovered 7 years ago, when Mr. 
de Hevesy pointed out a series of analogies between some of these 
Easter Island designs and those of an old Asiatic script found on stone 
and clay seals in the ruins of two forgotten cities, Mohenjo-daro and 
Harappa, in the valley of the Indus. Now, archeologists agree in 
thinking that the civilization of the Indus region dates from about 
3000 B. C. Its people were an unknown race that knew how to build 
planned cities with a complicated sewerage system. The script they 
used is still undeciphered, but hypotheses about it have been ad- 
vanced which, if substantiated, would make it one of the earliest 
known forms of man’s writing. Some Orientalists see striking anal- 
ogies between this Mohenjo-daro script and the early Chinese 
hieroglyphs. 

Although the relationship between Easter Island “script” and that 
of the Indus has been accepted widely as a demonstrated fact, I can- 
not help being skeptical for several reasons. The Indus civilization, 
contemporaneous with that of Sumeria and Egypt, was extinct by 
2000 B.C. Easter Island culture died out only 80 years ago. Roughly 
15,000 miles of land and sea separate the Indus Valley from the island. 
Between them lie India, Indonesia, and enormous wastes of water. 
In other respects Mohenjo-daro and Easter Island have nothing in 
common: the arts of the Indus, like weaving, pottery, and metal 
working, were unknown to the remote islanders. The proud city 
dwellers of Mohenjo-daro would have looked down upon the half- 
naked people who lived in thatched huts, and indulged in cannibalism. 
How could two such different and widely separated peoples have shared 
the same form of writing? 

In order to answer this question, Mr. de Hevesy advanced the theory 
that the Easter Island tablets are many centuries, if not millenniums, 
old and were brought to Easter Island by the first immigrants. Here 
the evidence that remains is against him. The wood of the best and 
largest Easter Island tablet is that of a European oar. Besides, if 
Hevesy’s theory were to be accepted we should have to make the diffi- 
cult assumption that the Easter Islanders kept their script unchanged 
for more than 5,000 years. A careful analysis of the tablets and the 
Indus script has not borne out this theory. True, some of the signs in 
the Indus script have striking analogies with those of Easter Island. 
I am, nevertheless, still more impressed by the divergencies, and by 
the doubtfulness of parallels based only on a few cases which take no 
account of many variants of the same design. 


448 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Moreover, there is little question, I believe, that the designs on the 
tablets were created by natives of Easter Island. It would be difficult 
to explain on any other assumption the presence among them of so 
many figures of animals belonging to the local fauna and of objects 
that are found, as far as is known, in its culture only. Mr. de Hevesy 
interpreted certain of the Easter Island symbols as representations of 
monkeys and elephants, but for these suggestions of India’s jungle 
life he drew on his imagination. 

In the hope of throwing some light on the mystery, I applied to sev- 
eral tablets an analytical method. I counted their symbols and studied 
their combinations to find out whether they might constitute an actual 
script. If the symbols represented sounds, the same signs would have 
been combined in the same order whenever a word was repeated. 
But this seldom happens. The same combinations of the same sym- 
bols recur in only a very few cases. The individual designs are re- 
peated over and over again but apparently in haphazard order. No 
clue to a script.came from this study. 

If we might assume that the tablets contain an actual script, the 
question would arise whether it were pictographic or ideographic. 
To answer this there are not enough different symbols. Most of them 
are variants of about a hundred fundamental designs. On certain 
tablets the same signs form a high percentage of the total. 

Assuming that the Easter Island tablets contained a script, I thought 
it likely for a long time that this was based on the same principle 
as the designs inscribed on birchbark by the Ojibway Indians, who 
record charms by means of figures which sometimes remind us of 
the Easter Island symbols. From the images drawn on bark, the In- 
dian shaman reads a text which, to his mind, they represent. The 
Cuna Indians of Panama still use the same primitive form of writing. 

But one thing made me suspicious of such an interpretation. The 
Easter Island tablets are pieces of wood of various odd shapes which 
are always covered with designs from one end to the other And on both 
sides. If their contents corresponded to a script text, this would mean 
that the artist always knew in advance just the size and shape of the 
piece of wood his chant would fill. As this seemed highly improbable, 
I was obliged to abandon this entire hypothesis and seek for some 
better clue to the mystery. 

I found it in a link that has been kept between the tablets and the 
oral traditions, songs, and prayers of the Easter Islanders. The very 
word that the natives use for the tablets puts us on the right track. 

They are called kohau rongorongo, which means literally “orator 
staff”—that is, the stick, sometimes decorated with carved symbols, 
sometimes not—which a speaker holds in his hands while making a 
public address or reciting a piece of traditional lore, as if to give added 
significance to his words. The rongorongo were professional chanters 


EASTER ISLAND—METRAUX 449 


who formed a society, which existed not only on Easter Island but 
also on other Polynesian islands. In childhood they were taught in 
special schools to memorize and to recite the lore of their tribe. 

Everywhere in Polynesia the chanters use such an “orator staff.” 
Sometimes, as in New Zealand, the staffs are provided with notches, 
which are supposed to help in reciting genealogical tables. In the 
Marquesas, the chanters held, while chanting, a bundle made of string 
wound about with knotted ends hanging down, which was thought of 
as containing the substance of the chant though the connection be- 
tween the words and the contents of the bundle was loose. The bun- 
dles symbolized the chants and were in consequence of paramount 
importance. They were solemnly given to the young people after 
they had been initiated into the lore of their ancestors. 

These facts, I concluded, give us the best clue in the problem of 
the Easter Island tablets. To its chanters as to the chanters of other 
islands, the “orator staffs” were the accessories and the symbols of 
their function. Originally, the designs on the staffs or tablets might 
have been mnemonic, but later on they lost their exact significance 
in the minds of the natives and were looked upon merely as simple 
ornaments or magic symbols. It may be added that even now we 
can observe on Easter Island a slight relation that has been preserved 
between design and chant. The natives are in the habit of chanting 
when they make string figures or cat’s cradles. This interpretation 
of the tablets may not contain the whole truth about them. I offer 
it rather as the hypothesis which best fits the facts available today, 
and which harmonizes also with what we know of an underlying 
tendency in Polynesian civilization. 

But these are not all the questions that have been raised by Easter 
Island. Some observers have found in the well-carved and well- 
fitted stones of its sanctuaries likenesses and relations to the ancient 
remains in Peru, and to account for them have said that there must 
have been intercourse between these two parts of the world at some 
period of history. But close study has revealed that between the 
Peruvian and the island ruins the resemblances do not go beyond 
the general fact of an exact fitting of the stones. The plan and the 
structure of the Peruvian buildings are entirely different. In Peru 
the walls are all of carved stone blocks, whereas in Easter Island 
they consist of slabs set on edge outside with rubble behind. The 
only conspicuous architectural achievement of the Easter Islanders 
was to select the slabs and to dress their corners so that no gap would 
appear on the surface and impair the general appearance. This they 
could naturally have learned to do without crossing the Pacific in 
frail canoes and making the long journey inland to the site of the 
wonderful ruins in Peru. Moreover, these are certainly far older than 
the Easter Island sanctuaries. Thus it seems clear that we must 


450 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


give up hope that the remains on Easter Island will help to solve 
the problems of early American civilizations. 

The result of 3 years’ work on the island culture pursued at the 
Bishop Museum in Honolulu, with which I have been associated, 
shows that this Ultima Thule was discovered and settled by Poly- 
nesians, who arrived in a fleet of double canoes sometime, roughly, 
between the middle of the twelfth century A. D. and the end of the 
thirteenth. The time of the discovery and settlement can be estab- 
lished approximately from the lists of chiefs that have come to us. 
These the early missionaries took down from the dictation of the 
natives. I was permitted to copy another one from a list which my 
native informant had compiled himself. Many errors have, of course, 
slipped into these records, but a comparative study of them shows that 
Faster Island has been ruled by about 25 or 30 chiefs since the founder 
of the dynasty, Hotu-matua, and his people first came to its shores. 
Allowing 25 years for each ruler’s reign—the usual method of meas- 
uring time in Polynesian annals—we find that this must have hap- 
pened very close to the twelfth or thirteenth century. From other 
sources, we know also that this was a period of great sea expeditions, 
and that the settling of New Zealand and of many other islands in 
the Pacific occurred in what seems to have been a heroic age of 
ancient Polynesia. 

Curiously enough, the oral tradition of the migration to Easter 
Island has been preserved remarkably well even down to the present. 
While I was there, I was told in great detail many more or less legend- 
ary incidents of the voyage eastward of Hotu-matua and his associate, 
the noble Tuuko-ihu. These stories with their core of history were the 
glorious sagas of the first emigrants to this little lost world. 

At about the same time, the Tahitians, Maori, and Marquesans had 
a culture which was still undefined but was very similar in the different 
groups. In the course of the succeeding centuries, over each of these 
island areas a civilization developed along original lines, though still 
retaining the common background. The Kaster Island culture belongs 
to this purely Polynesian type. The ancestors of the present popula- 
tion merely improved upon the legacy they received. 

Where then did the Easter-Islanders come from? Since they are 
Polynesians in race, language, and culture, the problem of their origin 
coincides with that of the Polynesians as a whole and is as yet unsolved. 
That the Polynesians came from Asia is beyond doubt. India, Assam, 
and Indo-China have been variously given as the cradle of these sea- 
faring tribes, but sufficient evidence to validate these theories is still 
lacking. Within the Polynesian world the Easter Islanders offer 
many analogies with the Maori of New Zealand, the people of Manga- 
reva and those of the Marquesas. Actually the resemblances between 
Easter Island culture and that of the Marquesas are very striking. It 


EASTER ISLAND—METRAUX 451 


is possible that the Easter Islanders were among the early Polynesian 
emigrants who spread from central Polynesia toward the east, occupy- 
ing the Tuamotus, Mangareva, and the Marquesas. Very likely after 
a sojourn in the Marquesas some again sailed eastward and discovered 
Easter Island. At the time they left the Marquesas their culture, of 
course, had not yet developed the specific pattern which characterized 
it when the Europeans landed there in the eighteenth century. 

The genealogies of Mangareva, the nearest Polynesian island to 
Faster Island, date back to the twelfth century, but traditional history 
mentions early immigrants who settled on these islands and then left 
for other countries, leading a restless life. Similar traditions exist 
among the Marquesans. Hotu-matua, the discoverer of Easter Island, 
and his followers may well have represented a defeated tribe or a 
junior branch of the Marquesas or Mangareva. 

What remains today of their work is evidence of the beauty and 
greatness of their isolated civilization, revealing the vigor and audacity 
of these Polynesians who spread over what seem once to have been 
the happiest islands on earth. 


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Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Métraux PLATE 1 


FS 


1. SEAWARD FACADE OF AHU (BURIAL PLATFORM) TE-PEU. 
Notice in the structure pitted slabs taken from house foundations. 


2. THE SEAWARD FACADE OF AHU VINAPU, THE BEST STONE STRUCTURE OF 
THE ISLAND. 


“AMVYHVY ONVY ONVOTOA AO 3d0O1S AHL DNOIVY SANLVLS GSaIYNs-AIVH 


ce 3LV1d xnel}2[\/—'ph6l *‘qaodayy uRIuOsyyIUIG 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Métraux PLATE 3 


E : i Z ad ; P ; # . i: : at 
ie OR oe or ; _. rst AiRD A aes _ 


1. GROUP OF PETROGLYPHS ON TOP OF VOLCANO RANO-KAO, AT THE PILGRIMAGE 
SITE OF ORONGO., 


They represent the bird-man holding the sacred egg. 


2. TEPANO, THE BEST INFORMANT OF THE ISLAND, CARVING A WOODEN IMAGE 
IN THE STYLE OF THE FAMOUS MOAI KAVAKAVA. 
Modern specimens are crude as compared to the masterpieces of ancient art. 


Smithsonian Report, 1944.—Métraux PLATE 4 


1. VICTORIA RAPAHANGO, ONE OF THE LAST DESCENDANTS OF THE KINGLY 
FAMILY, PEELING PAPER MULBERRY STEM TO MAKE BARK CLOTH. 


2. NATIVE GIRL BEATING PAPER MULBERRY BARK TO MAKE A FABRIC. 


BRAIN RHYTHMS? 


By E. D. Aprian, O. M., F. R. S. 
University of Cambridge 


In 1929 Prof. Hans Berger, of the Psychiatric Institute at Jena, 
published the results of some work on which he had been engaged for 
many years. He had set out to record the electric currents devel- 
oped in the human brain, and had shown that if metal electrodes were 
fixed to the scalp, it was possible to detect a regular oscillation of elec- 
trical ‘potential which was not due to muscles or skin glands or any 
other source outside the skull, and could only have come from the 
nerve cells of the cerebral cortex. The oscillation had a frequency 
of 9-10 a second. It only appeared when the subject was at rest with 
attention relaxed and eyes closed; but it obviously represented some 
kind of continuous activity in the brain covering a fairly large area. 
What he discovered was then quite unexpected. It has made us revise 
many of our ideas about the brain and has brought us a little nearer 
to understanding what goes on in it. 

The oscillation, Berger’s a rhythm, represents a very small change 
of potential, about 50 microvolts, and a very small ebb and flow of 
current in the cerebral cortex. There is nothing unexpected in the 
fact that brain cells develop small currents when they are active, for 
all active cells do so. The unexpected thing is the regularity of the 
rhythm.. It is true that if it were not so regular it might never have 
been detected, but the regularity means that large numbers of brain 
cells must be working in unison at the same rate. We should have 
expected something much more complex and variable—activity vary- 
ing from moment to moment and from place to place—and not the uni- 
form pulsation shown in a typical record of the electroencephalogram. 

We should have expected this because the brain is a great sheet of 
nerve cells and interlacing nerve fibers, and its working must depend 
on the spatial distribution of activity in it. This is determined by 
the particular pathways which must be taken by the incoming and out- 
going messages, for the messages are all in the same form wherever 
they come from and it is because they arrive in different regions that 


1Friday Evening Discourse at the Royal Institution delivered on February 4, 1944. 
Reprinted by permission from Nature, vol. 153, March 25, 1944. 


453 


454 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


we interpret one as sight and another as sound. We know, for exam- 
ple, that if one looks at a bright cross, the initial event in the brain 
will be the activation of a more or less cross-shaped area at the back 
of the occipital lobe, and that if one hears a sound a pattern will be 
reproduced in the temporal lobe corresponding to the areas of vibra- 
tion in the cochlea. All the external events of which we are aware 
are recorded as spatial and temporal patterns of excitation in the sense 
organs. These patterns are reproduced in the brain with a good deal 
of editing, omission of details and heightening of contrasts, and it is 
from them that we reconstruct our external world. 

Now the a rhythm of the electroencephalogram comes from large 
areas in the occipital region and to some extent from the frontal area 
as well. At first sight this seems to leave little room for all these 
diverse patterns of electrical activity. But actually the regions where 
the potential change is at a maximum are not those where the messages 
from the sense organs are received in the brain, but are the neighboring 
“silent” or “association” areas. Also, to make the rhythm appear, the 


AM ewan 


1 SEC. 


ee 


Figure 1.—Normal electroencephalogram showing the a rhythm. The maximum 
potential change is 45 microvolts. 


eyes must be closed and the attention relaxed, so that the brain is rela- 
tively inactive, at least so far as vision is concerned. Thus the regular 
wave sequence is derived from certain parts of the cerebral cortex 
when these have little to do. The cells there are not concerned with 
the incoming signals and so will be free to beat in unison, and if fairly 
large areas are so beating our records from the head will show the « 
waves and will not show the small local irregularities which are prob- 
ably going on all the time so long as we are conscious. 

The cells of the cortex might beat like this when they are left alone 
because this is how they are made; because like heart muscle or cili- 
ated cells they cannot remain alive and inactive; or the beat might be 
imposed on them by rhythmically active cells in some other part of the 
brain which can act as pacemaker to the association areas. Wherever 
the pacemaking region may be, the important fact is that the rhythm 
is much the same from one person to another. For clinical purposes, 
therefore, an electroencephalographic recording can be used as an 
index to show whether the brain is working normally or not, and for 
this reason it has become an important technique of clinical neurology. 
Apart, however, from the value of. these records as a means of diag- 


BRAIN RHYTHMS—ADRIAN 455 


nosis, there is the problem of their significance in relation to the 
normal mechanism of the brain and of the mind. Do they tell us 
anything about the neural accompaniment of perception and thought ? 

The statement that one can record the electrical activity of the brain 
through the skull raises the hope that one should be able to detect all 
sorts of brain events connected with consciousness. The hope begins 
to fade when it is realized that the main feature of our records is a 
rhythm from nerve cells which are relatively inactive. But there is 
something of interest to be learned from them. It is true that we 
cannot yet record the detailed activities of different parts, but only 
the gross changes when a whole area goes into action; yet these do give 
us some novel information about the physical accompaniments of 
thought and in particular about the process of attention. 

To begin with, it seemed that the « rhythm was much less interesting. 
It might have been merely a spontaneous beat of the nerve cells in 
parts of the cortex, particularly those concerned with vision—a beat 
developing whenever the cells were not stimulated by messages from 
the eyes. Opening the eyes would break up such a rhythm in the 
receiving area, because the visual pattern there would mean that dif- 
ferent groups of nerve cells would be discharging at different frequen- 
cies. Something of this kind.can certainly happen in the regions 
where a message enters the cerebral cortex, for in records from the 
exposed brain (in anesthetized animals) the arrival of a message in 
the receiving area produces small, rapid waves in place of the slower 
and larger « rhythm. But the a waves are not confined to the 
receiving areas of the brain, and it can be shown that in fact the 
presence or absence of messages from the eyes is not the essential 
condition for the disappearance or return of the « rhythm. 

As far as vision is concerned, what really determines the presence or 
absence of these waves is not whether visual messages are or are not 
coming into the brain, but whether we are or are not attending to 
them—whether we are looking at anything. Man is a visually con- 
trolled animal, and if our eyes are open there is usually something in 
the visual field which catches our attention or some part of it. This is 
not true for all mammals; the rat and the cat seem to rely more on 
other senses and can be quite inattentive to sights. But with us the 
only sure method of shutting out sights from the mind is to close the 
eyes. Normally, therefore, opening the eyes means that we start look- 
ing, or that we become attentive to the visual field. The « waves then 
disappear, and they return when we close our eyes and cease looking. 
But shutting the eyes does not cut out all light from the retina, and the 
a rhythm appears in the brain however much or little light may be 
falling on therclosed lids. Even in a pitch-black room, if we open our 
eyes and start trying to see something, the rhythm goes, although open- 

619830—45——30 


456 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ing the eyes cannot have altered the illumination of the retina. Sooner 
or later, when we have given up the attempt to see, the waves will 
return although the eyes are still open. 

What matters, therefore, is not the excitation of the retina but the 
turning of attention to the visual field or away from it. This can be 
shown even more clearly in another way. In daylight and with the 
eyes open, the attention can rarely be abstracted completely from 
vision except for short periods; something keeps on “catching the eye” 
and coming into the mind, even though we have most of our attention 
fixed on other things, a sound or a smell, for example. The reason why 
the visual field cannot be completely ignored is that the picture of it in 
our brain has patterns and sequences which arouse interest by recalling 
memories or starting some new train of activity. But if we can make 
the visual field convey less meaning, it will cease to be so attractive 
and our attention can leave it more easily. A simple way of securing 
this is to wear spectacles which will throw everything out of focus. 


é' t 
ser ovirantsiition, etter dingy DAN ate ed arnnnl rr 


ATTENTION 

TO VISION HEARING VISION 
1 SEC. 
es 


Figure 2.—The a rhythm appears when the attention is transferred from vision 
to hearing. The visual field has been made unattractive by +10 D spectacles. 
During the middle section of the record the attention is concentrated on the 
tick of a watch. 


When this is done, although the eyes remain open, the a rhythm will 
appear much more readily than when the visual field is in its proper 
focus. With the field blurred, we have only to listen intently to a 
sound and the « waves will begin, to cease again if we transfer our 
attention back to vision. Here, too, there has been no change in the 
illumination of the retina but only the shift of attention. It may be 
noted that it is not only the intellectual interest of the field which holds 
our attention. Any movement in it or any sudden change of illumi- 
nation will do so; and there is a great variation in the ability of differ- 
ent persons to detach the attention from vision, and in the same person 
at different times. 

All this shows that the « rhythm is an activity which appears in the 
cerebral cortex when the attention is not directed to vision, and dis- 
appears when it is. The mental act of looking somehow prevents the 
a waves from developing in certain parts of the brain, parts which are 
likely to be concerned in analyzing the visual pattern. The a rhythm 
is therefore a rhythm of inattention, a positive activity which fills those 


% 


BRAIN RHYTHMS—ADRIAN 457 


parts of the cortex which are for the moment unemployed. It is not 
the basic rhythm of unstimulated nerve cells, and there must be some 
kind of competition between the message from the eyes and from the 
source of the a rhythm to decide which shall control the cortical areas. 

To examine this competition in more detail, we must have some way 
of recording the sensory activity of the brain as well as the a activity. 
All the messages which reach the cortex will produce their own elec- 
trical accompaniment, and this can be recorded well enough if elec- 
trodes can be placed on the surface of the brain. But if we can get no 
nearer than the scalp, the potential changes generated in any group 
of nerve cells will usually be obscured by those of other groups nearby, 
and the record will then show us nothing. Fortunately this difficulty 
can be overcome, in part at least, by making all the cells work in unison. 
This can be done, as far as vision is concerned, by making the field more 
or less uniform and lighting it with a flickering light. The nerve cells 
are then forced to work in unison at the frequency of the flicker, and 
we can record their electrical activity through the skull up to fre- 
quencies of about 30 a second. This gives us a method of tracing the 
visual messages in the brain, for by means of the flicker rhythm they 
can be made easy to recognize. 

Provided that the flickering area is in the center of the visual field, 
it need not subtend more than a few degrees at the eye to give a 
potential oscillation at the same frequency in the occipital region, The 
waves are more or less where one would expect them to be, in the right 
occipital region if the left half of the field flickers, and vice versa. But 
the flicker waves are not confined to the visual receiving area: they are 
found also in the neighboring areas, those from which the « waves 
come when the eyes are closed. The flicker area is not so large as the 
« area, but on occasion as much as a quarter of the brain surface seems 
to pulsate with the flicker rhythm. The retinal messages must then 
have spread widely and impressed their rhythm on some of the asso- 
ciation areas of the cortex. 

Now if the eyes are open, the flicker will keep the visual attention 
engaged and the « rhythm at bay. But if the eyes are closed and the 
flickering light is thrown on the closed lids, the subject will be con- 
scious of the flicker but the conditions will favor the « rhythm, since 
closure of the eyes is usually coupled with the withdrawal of attention 
from vision. In these conditions the two rhythms can be seen to com- 
pete for the cortex, and sometimes to cooperate if their frequencies 
allow of it. The flicker rate will sometimes appear in patches with 
the a rate in between, and if a rapid flicker is turned on suddenly the 
area of the brain giving the flicker rhythm may be large at first and 
may then shrink rapidly, giving place to the « waves but persisting 
longer in regions nearer the visual area. If the flicker is made equal 


458 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


to or twice the a rate, we may find the two summing up to give very 
large regular waves. Such a combined rhythm usually takes some time 
to build up as the two sets of waves have to be synchronized, but there 
is evidently an interaction between them and a tendency to remain 
synchronized as long as their frequencies are not too far apart. These 
wave effects vary from one subject to another and there are variations 
according to mood, time of day, etc.; in general, the sleepier the subject 
the more the « rhythm will predominate, and the brighter the flicker 
the more persistent will be the flicker rhythm. 

The interaction and interference of these rhythms shows how the 
cortex, or certain parts of it, may be put at the disposal of our atten- 
tion. If we decide to look, or if it is decided for us by something 
“catching our eye,” a change occurs which prevents the « rhythm 
from occupying the regions surrounding the visual receiving area. 


MN Ma aerial 


PSEC: 


FLICKER 


Figure 3.—Hlectroencephalogram from the occipital region, showing the change 
from the a rhythm to the flicker rhythm when the eyes are opened and the sub- 
ject looks at a screen lit by a flickering light. The rate of flicker (17 a second) 
is shown by the photoelectric cell record below. 


If we can turn our whole attention to a watch ticking, the « rhythm 
comes back. What brings this change about? 

The evidence is still rather scanty. It is likely that the whole of 
the cerebral cortex is concerned, in that it is the balance of activity 
in every part which determines where the attention will turn and 
how long it will be held in one field; but the executive act, the direc- 
tion of the attention to the particular field, is probably carried out 
by a relatively small central region in the neighborhood of the thala- 
mus and near the main incoming pathways. It is from there that 
the a rhythm seems to be controlled, and it is at least probable that it 
is the sudden disturbance of this region which causes the loss of 
consciousness after a blow on the head. This central directing 
region must act on information received from the cortex, for it will 
be all the memories and associations stirred up by a stimulus 
which will determine its interest, and these are presumably not 
aroused until the message has reached the cortex. But the central 
region must balance up the conflicting claims of different stimuli and 


BRAIN RHYTHMS—ADRIAN 459 


we 
must then decide which should have the main share of the attention, 
its function resembling that of a central university committee which 
has to decide which branch of learning should be supported by the 
next benefaction. 

The visual stimuli always get the lion’s share. If they are at all 
interesting, the central region will suppress the « rhythm over the 
occipital area, so that the visual pattern has a considerable part of the 
cortex set free for its analysis. When the visual pattern ceases to be 
interesting and the attention is directed to sounds or other sensory 
messages, the occipital lobe is not turned over to those but is filled 
again with the a rhythm. This is shown very clearly in records in 
which the visual waves are made recognizable by the use of a flicker- 
ing light, and if the flicker happens to be at twice the « rate a partial 
diversion of attention will be enough to give the large compound 
waves at the a frequency. 

Apparently the occipital part of the brain is used to analyze sights, 
and sights only. What parts deal with the patterns aroused by 
sound and touch we cannot yet say. The areas seem too small to be 
easily detected, and must certainly be much smaller than the areas 
which deal with vision. On the other hand, a concentrated mental 
effort may sometimes abolish the « rhythm although the eyes remain 
shut. Presumably in this case the whole of the « area may be turned 
over to nonvisual activities. 

There are still many gaps in the evidence, but there is much to 
support the view here put forward, namely, that there is a deep- 
seated part of the brain which contains the mechanism by which 
attention is directed one way or the other, and that the a rhythm is 
under the control of this region, if it is not directly produced by it. 
If this is so, it is not difficult to understand that abnormalities in the 
« rhythm are often associated with abnormal kinds of behavior. The 
most valuable application of the electroencephalogram in medicine 
is in the localizing of diseased regions and tumors of the brain by the 
change in the character of the waves. Another is its use in detect- 
ing the sudden explosive discharges of the nerve cells which occur in 
the brains of epileptics. But quite apart from such obvious disorder 
of the brain cells, the electroencephalogram may show an « rhythm 
which is definitely abnormal, irregular, faster or slower than usual 
or with odd-shaped waves, and in a significant proportion of the 
subjects who give such records there are abnormalities in the mental 
or emotional sphere which may be a serious handicap. There are, of 
course, many factors besides the constitution of the brain which de- 
termine whether we react like our fellows or not, but the brain is a 
not unimportant factor and the electroencephalogram seems to offer a 
means of assessing some of its deviations from the normal. It re- 


460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


mains to be seen whether its use for this purpose will have much 
practical value: at present the most that can be said is that if we 
had to appoint someone to a responsible post and had an unlimited 
field of candidates, it would be safer to exclude the 5 percent whose 
electroencephalogram showed the most unusual features. 

That is a very long way from saying that the electroencephalogram 
can tell us how the subject will think and act. In fact the information 
which it gives relates to a very limited field. But the limitation 
arises mainly from the fact that we can only record the gross effects 
and not the detailed patterns in the brain. With present methods 
the skull and the scalp are too much in the way, and we need some 
new physical method to read through them. We need the “patent 
double million magnifying gas microscopes of hextra power” with 
which Sam Weller thought he might be able to see through “a flight 
o’ stairs and a deal door.” In these days we may look with some 
confidence to the physicists to produce such an instrument, for it is 
just the sort of thing they can do; but until it is available we have to 
confess, with Sam Weller, that ‘our wision’s limited.” 


THE DEVELOPMENT OF PENICILLIN IN MEDICINE! 


By H. W. Ftorry and EH. CHain 
Ozford University 


Discovery of the chemotherapeutic effects of penicillin has excited 
widespread comment in the lay as well as the medical press. A first- 
hand account of how this substance was introduced into medicine 
may, therefore, be of interest. 

The phenomenon of the inhibition of the growth of one micro- 
organism by another has been known for more than 60 years, for 
Pasteur and Joubert in 1877 noted that anthrax bacilli were pre- 
vented from growing when certain other organisms were also present 
in the culture medium. To them is credited the first suggestion of 
using this antagonistic property of bacteria for curative purposes. 

Since this fundamental observation, many examples of the same 
phenomenon—called microbial antagonism—have been recorded. 
In many cases the inhibitory effect of one microbial species on another 
is due to metabolic products formed by the antagonist. These prod- 
ucts have recently been termed “antibiotics.” 

The earliest attempt to introduce antibiotics into medicine was 
made by Emmerich and Low in 1898. They extracted an impure 
material, which they termed “pyocyanase,” from old culture filtrates 
of Pseudomonas pyocyanea and showed that it had the property of 
causing death, or lysis, of some of the bacteria which can cause disease 
in man. They recommended pyocyanase for the local treatment of 
various infectious diseases, but it did not come into general use, 
although apparently it was on sale in Germany, until at least 1936. 

The only other serious attempt to utilize antibacterial products for 
combating infection in man has been the employment of gramicidin, 
obtained from cultures of Bacillus brevis. This powerful substance 
was discovered by Dubos in 1939, and although it is far too toxic to 
inject into the blood stream it can be used for application locally to 
infected wounds. 

In 1929 Alexander Fleming noticed that colonies of staphylococci 
growing onan agar plate were undergoing lysis in the neighborhood 
of a contaminating mold colony. Most bacteriologists would have 


1 Reprinted by permission from Hygcia, vol. 22, No. 4, April 1944. 
461 


462 © ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


passed this over, but Fleming, an acute observer with a special inter- 
est in antiseptics, subcultured the mold for further investigation. 
From its descendants all the penicillin in the world was produced 
until recently. 

The mold was identified as Penicilliwm notatum. Fleming culti- 
vated it in a liquid medium, peptone broth, and found that it pro- 
duced in the broth a substance capable of inhibiting the growth of 
many dangerous germs, even when diluted 800 times. The active 
substance he named penicillin. He noted that broth containing 
penicillin was not more toxic when injected into rabbits and mice 
than pure broth and that it did not appear to be harmful to the white 
cells of the blood. 

As a result of this, he suggested that penicillin might be a good 
antiseptic to apply to septic wounds, and indeed a few cases were 
so treated. He concluded that it certainly appeared to be superior 
to dressings containing potent chemicals. The observations, how- 
ever, were not carried further, though Clutterbuck, Lovell, and Rais- 
trick made an attempt to extract the active material. As a result 
of their work they concluded that penicillin was extremely unstable, 
and they did not pursue the matter. 

In the succeeding years no further interest seems to have been taken 
in its chemical properties or its possible application to medicine, 
though Fleming continued to use the crude culture medium in the 
laboratory as a means of suppressing the growth of certain kinds of 
bacteria in mixed cultures. 

In 1929 one of the present authors, H. W. Florey, started work on 
the antibacterial substance lysozyme—another discovery of Fleming’s. 
This substance was first discovered in egg white but is widely distrib- 
uted in nature. It has the power of dissolving or killing certain spe- 
cies of air bacteria, though it has, unfortunately, no effect against 
bacteria causing disease in man. 

The work on lysozyme was carried on until its purification (by 
Roberts in 1936) and the elucidation of its mode of action as a carbo- 
hydrate-splitting enzyme (Meyer and associates, 1936; Epstein and 
Chain, 1940). During the later part of this work, in 1938, the present 
writers decided to undertake a systematic investigation of the anti- 
bacterial substances produced by bacteria and molds, about whose 
chemical and biologic properties little was known. 

Although the reports suggested that penicillin was an unstable sub- 
stance, it was among the first chosen for investigation, since it seemed 
likely to be of considerable biochemical and biologic interest. In 
particular, it was active against many organisms causing the most 
destructive lesions in man, including staphylococcus. Fleming, 
Clutterbuck, et al., reported that under suitable conditions penicillin 


PENICILLIN—FLOREY AND CHAIN 463 


activity was retained in the culture medium for some weeks. This 
suggested that, if appropriate conditions could be found, the extrac- 
tion of penicillin from the culture medium and its purification would 
be possible. 

For work of the scope envisaged it was apparent that results would 
be obtained most quickly by a team of workers, and we have been par- 
ticularly fortunate in our collaborators. Dr. N. G. Heatley devised 
a simple and quick quantitative assay method which has proved in- 
valuable in the elaboration of purification processes for penicillin and 
in similar investigations on other antibiotics. He also designed and 
constructed the first large-scale laboratory plant for. growing the 
mold and extracting penicillin. Dr. A. G. Sanders later devised 
and built alternative apparatus for the extraction of penicillin on a 
larger scale. Prof. A. D. Gardner of the Department of Path- 
ology, Oxford, collaborated throughout on the bacteriologic aspects 
of the work. The biologic investigations were carried out by H. W. 
Florey in collaboration with Dr. M. A. Jennings of the School of 
Pathology, Oxford; the chemical and biochemical investigations by 
E. Chain in collaboration with Dr. E. P. Abraham. The therapeutic 
trials on man were conducted first by Dr. C. M. Fletcher and later 
by Dr. M. E. Florey, with the help of many physicians and surgeons. 

It was established that penicillin was an acid of low molecular 
weight, which was stable in water. In an acid medium, it was found 
to be quickly destroyed. It could, however, be extracted by various 
organic solvents, such as ether, chloroform and amyl acetate, from 
acid solution and was found to be quite stable in these solvents. 

From the organic solvents it could be re-extracted into water by 
the addition of the right amount of alkali. Little loss of antibac- 
terial activity occurred during these operations provided they were 
carried out quickly and the solutions were kept cold. This transfer of 
penicillin between solvents and water has become the basis of all the 
extraction processes used on a large scale by commercial firms. 

By repeating the process several times and varying the solvents, a 
considerable purification and concentration of penicillin is achieved. 
On drying the final solution from the frozen state a preparation of 
penicillin is obtained in the form of a yellow powder which keeps its 
antibacterial activity unchanged for a long time. Though chemically 
still very impure—these preparations contain only about 10 to 20 
percent of pure penicillin—the antibacterial power is great. They 
contain about 100-200 Oxford penicillin units per milligram, which 
means that when diluted from 1 part in 5,000,000 to 1 part in 10,000,- 
000 they prevent the growth of staphylococci. Preparations of this 
degree of purity can be used for all clinical purposes. 


464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Further purification presented a harder problem, since penicillin 
is unstable toward many reagents normally used for purification pur- 
poses. It is unstable in dilute acids and alkalis and is destroyed by 
many metals, such as copper, cadmium, zinc, and mercury, and by 
primary alcohols and oxidizing agents such as potassium permanga- 
nate. This severely limited the selection of methods for purification, 
but penicillin preparations which are almost pure have now been 
obtained. 

The purest material obtained in Oxford has an activity of about 
1,000 units per milligram, corresponding to an inhibitory power 
against the staphylococcus of about 1 part in 50,000,000. Pure crystal- 
line sodium penicillin has been obtained. It contains about 1,670 Ox- 
ford units per milligram. By international agreement the Interna- 
tional Unit is the specific penicillin activity contained in 0.6 
microgram of pure penicillin II (or G). The unique feature of 
penicillin, when compared with other antibacterial substances, is 
that it combines this astonishingly high antibacterial activity with 
a very low toxicity. An amount several hundred times greater than 
the therapeutic dose can be injected intravenously—into mice—with- 
out any noticeable toxic effect. 

This lack of toxicity is also observed with less pure preparations, 
and it may indeed be counted as extremely fortunate that none of the 
numerous contaminating substances causes harmful effects, even when 
the dose of penicillin is large—far beyond that necessary for thera- 
peutic purposes. For this reason it is unnecessary to subject peni- 
cillin to the elaborate and difficult purification processes before it can 
be used for clinical purposes. 

After the low toxicity of penicillin had been demonstrated on mice, 
a more extended study of its biologic properties was undertaken. It 
was shown that a concentration at least a hundred times greater than 
that necessary to stop the growth of sensitive bacteria was harmless to 
the white cells of the blood and to tissue cells grown in glass vessels. 
The very low toxicity of penicillin to the white cells of the blood was 
of particular importance, as these cells play an important part in the 
defense of the body against invading bacteria, which they have the 
power to ingest and destroy. 

Further research has shown clearly that when bacteria are put in 
nutrient media in which they can divide, then penicillin will kill them. 
If they are in such a condition that they cannot divide, then penicillin 
does not kill them. 

It was further shown that penicillin is readily absorbed from an 
intramuscular or subcutaneous injection and from the small intestine. 
Once absorbed in sufficient quantity, a simple test demonstrates that 
it is present in the circulating blood. Unfortunately it cannot be 
given by mouth, because the acid of the stomach would destroy it 


PENICILLIN—-FLOREY AND CHAIN 465 


before it reached the intestine. It does not pass from the blood into 
the cerebrospinal fluid. Penicillin was shown to be rapidly excreted 
in the urine, the bile, and to some extent in the saliva of animals. In 
man also, excretion in the urine is very rapid, and this explains why 
the doses have to be not only large but frequent. To keep a high con- 
centration of penicillin in the blood is like filling a bathtub with the 
plug out. 

Another important observation was that the antibacterial action of 
penicillin is not diminished in the presence of blood, pus, and tissue 
constituents. This is in sharp contrast to the sulfonamide group of 
drugs, whose activity is much lower when pus is present, and which 
therefore have relatively little effect in suppuration. 

The disease-producing bacteria which are affected by penicillin 
make an impressive list. Many of them are sensitive to just as high a 
dilution as the staphylococcus. Some are present in nearly every war 
- wound, so that the interest of the armed forces in penicillin is readily 
understood. This list is by no means complete. There have been 
some additions to the list of sensitive organisms, the most important 
of which—the 7’reponema pallidum—is that causing syphilis. This 
means that syphilis becomes one of the diseases which can be treated 
by penicillin. 

Bacteria affected by penicillin 
Sensitive : 
Streptococcus (childbirth fever and many cases of serious sepsis). 
Staphylococcus (boils, carbuncles, and serious infections of bone and other 
organs). 
Pneumococcus (pneumonia). 
Anthrax bacillus. 
Diphtheria bacillus. 
Actinomyces (“woody tongue” of cattle and sometimes human disease). 
Tetanus bacillus. 
Bacilli of gas gangrene. 
Gonococcus (gonorrhea). 
Meningococcus (spotted fever). 
Partially sensitive: 
Typhoid bacillus. 
Gaertner’s bacillus (food poisoning). 
Vibrio El Tor (cholera-like disease). 
Insensitive : 
Tubercle bacillus. 
Plague bacillus. 
Cholera bacillus. 
Brucella (undulant fever). 
Colon bacillus and related organisms. 

By all these methods penicillin was shown in the laboratory to be 
an extremely powerful antibacterial agent with low toxicity. The 
proof that it had chemotherapeutic properties, that is to say, that it 
would cure disease in living creatures, was also first supplied in the 
laboratory by what are known as “mouse protection tests.” Mice were 


466 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


infected with bacteria which would certainly cause their death unless 
some successful treatment could be given. 

Streptococcus, staphylococcus and Clostridium septicum—a gas gan- 
grene producer—were all used on a group of mice, and in each case 
adequate doses of penicillin gave complete protection without any 
toxic effect on the animals. A new chemotherapeutic drug had been 
discovered. 

The whole of the work en penicillin has been dominated by lack 
of material. The mold produces very small amounts of the active sub- 
stance, and it is a formidable job to grow it on a large enough scale. 
In addition, the penicillin may be lost if the bacteria universally 
present in the air contaminate the culture, for they produce a ferment 
which destroys penicillin. A man is 3,000 times larger than a mouse, 
and many months elapsed between the trial on mice and the first 
injection in a man, while we struggled in the laboratory to produce 
enough material. 

The first injection of a small quantity of crude penicillin into man 
showed that something was present which caused a rise of temperature. 
Fortunately, this pyrogenic substance was an impurity and not the 
penicillin itself, and further chemical purification removed it. 

In the first two patients ever treated the amount of penicillin re- 
quired was underestimated, and though improvement occurred, the dis- 
ease was not cured, and there was no more material with which to 
proceed. However, these two patients gave a good indication of the 
amount required. 

It has been possible to find out the dosage and method of administra- 
tion, and with this knowledge it has proved possible to produce striking 
results,on even the most serious cases of disease due to staphylococci 
and other organisms. 

This early work in Britain has now been fully confirmed in the 
United States, and there seems little reason to doubt that penicillin, 
with the further developmental work which is being undertaken every- 
where, will fill an important place in medicine for the treatment of 
many infections. We are only at the beginning of its exploitation; 
further progress demands greatly increased supplies. Though no 
doubt a great deal will be produced from the mold, it is to be hoped 
that chemical progress will be such that penicillin, and even better 
substances than penicillin, may be produced in real abundance by 
synthetic processes.’ 

When plentiful supplies are available it should be possible to treat 
those diseases which can be controlled by penicillin at the earliest 
possible moment instead, as is so often the case now, of using the 
drug as a last resort. When this may be done, an enormous amount 
of temporary and permanent disability, and even death, may be 
avoided. 


2 Note added by author June 1945: This position has now been reached. 


RECENT ADVANCES IN ANESTHESIA? 


By JOHN C. KRANTz, JR. 
Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, 
University of Maryland, Baltimore, Md. 


INTRODUCTION 


“Nothing in the whole realm of human effort has ever contributed so much to 
human comfort as the discovery of modern anesthesia.” 


Pain and discomfort are the arch enemies of man. To escape them 
and effectually combat them, he has ransacked the entire earth to find 
drugs to bring him a surcease of pain. During the middle of the 
sixteenth century Ambroise Paré operated without anesthesia, except 
for the administration of French wines, which would produce an 
alcoholic stupor. Only 120 years have passed since Ephraim Mc- 
Dowell removed an ovarian cyst from Mrs. Jane Crawford in Dan- 
ville, Ky., without any anesthetic agent. She was then 47 years old 
and lived to see her seventy-eighth birthday. It is difficult for man 
today to appreciate the excruciating pain suffered by surgical patients 
in the preanesthetic days and, further, no one can with certainty esti- 
mate the impediment to surgical progress that the absence of 
anesthesia produced. 

NITROUS OXIDE 

Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, prepared the first gen- 
erally accepted anesthetic. Priestley was a Unitarian minister in 
Birmingham, England. In the congregation of this brilliant scien- 
tist-clergyman were three illustrious men: James Watt, who discov- 
ered the power of steam and holds the admiration of men in all walks 
of life; Erasmus Darwin, brilliant scientist and skilled clinician 
whose grandson, Charles, established a new order in biology; and 
William Withering, “Flower of English Physicians,” discoverer of 
the use of the purple foxglove in edema of cardiac origin. In the year 
1773, Joseph Priestley made nitrous oxide. To him it was a new 
chemical compound, a gas whose physical properties should be inves- 
tigated. Priestley was unconcerned with its biological effects and died 
in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, not knowing that nitrous 
oxide would confer a blessing of inestimable magnitude upon man. 

A quarter of a century passed. Sir Humphry Davy, brilliant Eng- 
lish chemist and physicist, made “Priestley’s gas.” It was then desig- 
nated in chemical reports as ‘‘dephlogisticated nitrous gas.” Davy 

1 Reprinted by permission from the Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, 


Scientific Edition, yol.'82, No. 11, November 1943. 
pre 467 


468 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


inhaled nitrous oxide and observed a period of great exhilaration 
with an increase in pulse rate. In a letter to one of his friends he 
wrote: “I danced around my laboratory ikea madman.” But further 
than this Davy observed that continued inhalation of the gas would 
produce insensibility to pain. In fact, Davy anesthetized certain of 
his friends to unconsciousness with nitrous oxide. On Jtuly 3, 1798, 
Mr. Wedgewood called on Davy and he used nitrous oxide on him. 
He recorded in great detail his experiences, which read, in most re- 
spects, like a patient’s account of losing consciousness under nitrous 
oxide. Davy suggested the use of nitrous oxide in medicine, but 
nothing was done about it. 

The scene shifted to America. In Hartford, Conn., on December 
10, 1844, G. Q. Colton was delivering a lecture on popular science. 
Among the experiments performed by Colton was the apparent hyp- 
notism of certain members of the audience, presumably by means of 
his gesticulations. Meanwhile one of Colton’s associates engulfed the 
individual in nitrous oxide. This made effective the hypnotic art of 
Colton. That same afternoon, a dentist whose name was Horace Wells 
was in the audience. He saw one of the people swoon, fall and hit his 
leg violently against a chair, without apparent sensation of pain. 
Through his scintillating intellect flashed the era of painless dentistry. 
The next day Wells persuaded one of his dental colleagues, Dr. Riggs, 
to extract one of his teeth, while under the influence of “laughing 
gas.” Wells did not whimper. The first step in man’s redemption 
from pain had been taken. Wells did not succeed in establishing 
the widespread use of his new anesthetic agent. In Boston, where he 
endeavored to employ it, the gas bag failed most inopportunely, and 
Wells was hissed out of the room as a mountebank and charlatan. 
When death came prematurely to Wells, he did not realize what a 
tremendous and far-reaching influence his observations would have 
upon the comfort and even the destiny of the race. 

This present decade, therefore, marks 100 years of use of nitrous 
oxide as a general anesthetic. During this period its popularity has 
waxed and waned, and during the last two decades the gas has defi- 
nitely established itself for the smooth induction of ether-oxygen 
anesthesia. 

Nitrous oxide is a colorless, odorless gas which is alleged to possess 
a sweet taste. The gas supports combustion only after the disinte- 
gration of the molecule into oxygen and nitrogen. Seeds cannot ger- 
minate or plants grow in an atmosphere of nitrous oxide. Nitrous 
oxide is very soluble in water, from two to three volumes of nitrous 
oxide dissolve in one volume of water. It is, however, like other gen- 
eral anesthetics, more soluble in oil than it is in water. Blood will 
dissolve a large volume of the gas. The gas does not combine with the 
hemoglobin. Owing to its greater solubility in oil than in water, 


ANESTHESIA—KRANTZ 469 


the gas as it is carried by the blood to the central nervous system par- 
titions itself out of the blood into the lipids of the central nervous 
system producing narcosis. Induction is prompt, narcosis occurring 
within 1 to 2 minutes. Anesthetists have set forth the following effects 
from the inhalation of various concentrations of nitrous oxide: 


N20, 2 
Effect Percent Percent 
SUDCONSCIOUS /ANALSCS Take ee tees Cee ees es eee 80 20 
Conpletet analeesl ane ees Pee Re ee Cee eee eee 84 16 
hight anesthesia =.2- =. So aay Sere eyes ots ae ee ee 89 11 
Complete anesthesia) dangerous hypoxia with incomplete 
Relax alOnye ws wee ee ae ee a ee oe eee 94 6 


Like many other volatile anesthetics, nitrous oxide enters the body 
and leaves it unchanged. In other words, it is refractory to catabolism 
by biological processes. Its anesthetic action according to modern 
concepts is apparently due to the production of a reversible oxygen- 
want in the central nervous system. By means of drugs, hypoxia of 
the central nervous system can be produced by at least three 
mechanisms. 


1. Formation of carbonyl hemoglobin (carbon monoxide 
poisoning). 

2. Inactivation of the cytochrome oxidase in the cells (cyanide 
poisoning). 

3. Inactivation of the cytochrome reductase in the cells (narcosis- 
nitrous oxide, ether, chloroform, etc.) 


Substances used clinically as anesthetics affect the cells of the central 
nervous system according to the third concept but, in addition, they 
exhibit the property of affecting, first, the cells of the cerebral cortex; 
second, those of the spinal centers; and, last, the cells of the vital 
medullary centers. 

Inexplosibility, safety, and availability are factors which give 
nitrous oxide a place of pre-eminence among the volatile general 
anesthetics. 

ETHYL ETHER 


Crawford W. Long of Georgia used ether as a general anesthetic 
in 1842. He was familiar with some of the pharmacologic effects 
of ether and in Jefferson County there were many “ether frolics” 
which resembled modern parties of inebriates. He used ether also 
to deaden pain in the reduction of fractures and on James W. Venable 
to permit the surgical removal of a growth on the back of his neck. 
Unfortunate it is indeed that Long did not publicize his observa- 
tions for apparently the first paper published by Long on ether ap- 
peared in 1849, 5 years after Wells’ work with nitrous oxide, and 
3 years after Morton’s demonstration of the use of ether in Boston. 

In Boston, a chemist named Jackson suggested the use of ether 
to a dentist named W. T. G. Morton, who was a pupil of Horace 


470 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


Wells. Morton persuaded Dr. J. C. Warren, son of Dr. J. M. Warren, 
associated with General Putnam at the Battle of Bunker Hill, 
to permit him to use ether on one of his patients. On October 16, 
1846, in Massachusetts General Hospital, Morton began the admin- 
istering of ether to Dr. Warren’s patient. From that operating room 
reverberated that memorable statement which has echoed down 
through the decades, “Dr. Warren, your patient is now ready.” Dr. 
Warren commented that this was no humbug. Mr. Abbott, the patient, 
was fast asleep. Ether had found its place. 

Shortly after this, Oliver Wendell Holmes, in a letter to Morton, 
conveyed the fact that he had assigned a generic name to ether and 
all such agents. He commented on the importance of a proper selec- 
tion of a name, for Holmes held that it would be on the lips of 
every person of all races who in time to come would dwell on this 
planet. He coined the word “anesthesia” from the Greek aoAnors, 
perception, and the av negative, namely, without perception. Ethyl 
ether is the most generally used of all volatile anesthetics. Its mode 
of action is like that of nitrous oxide. It is not decomposed in the 
body, but its presence in the cells of the central nervous system pro- 
duces insensibility to pain and a hiatus in consciousness. Ether re- 
quires 6 to 8 percent concentration in the inspired air to produce 
anesthesia. During surgical anesthesia the concentration in the blood 
is approximately 150 mg. percent. The blood pressure remains es- 
sentially normal, respiration full and regular during ether anesthesia. 
The relaxation of abdominal musculature is complete with ether. 
The administration of the anesthetic agent in the circuit with oxygen 
instead of air seems to reduce the incidence of postanesthetic nausea 
and vomiting with ether. Postoperative abdominal distress and too 
great a degree of volatility appear to be the principal drawbacks 
to ethyl ether as an anesthetic. 

Ether, when exposed to light and air, has a tendency to develop 
peroxides. These are explosive and also serve as pulmonary irritants, 
when ether containing them is employed as an anesthetic. The struc- 
ture of ether peroxide, according to Wieland, is: 


H H 
cHy—c—o—0-b—cn,. 
bx bn 


Dihydroxydiethyl peroxide 


The Pharmacopeia requires that ether used for anesthetic purposes 
must be peroxide-free. The test is carried out as follows: “Shake 10 
ce. of ether occasionally during 1 hr. with 1 cc. of a freshly prepared 
aqueous solution of potassium iodide (1 in 10) in a 25-ce. glass-stop- 
pered cylinder of colorless glass, protected from light: when viewed 


| 


ANESTHESIA—KRANTZ 471 


transversely against a white background, no color is seen in either 
liquid.” 
CHLOROFORM 


When the news of this important discovery of ether bridged the 
Atlantic, James Simpson of Edinburgh, began an assiduous search for 
substances as good as, or perhaps better than, the American ethyl 
ether. It seems strange indeed that scientists in England did not pre- 
cede those in America in the use of ether because Michael Faraday, 
distinguished pupil of Sir Humphry Davy, was one of the first chem- 
ists to produce ether. Simpson’s experiments were fraught with many 
failures. Ether was better as a general anesthetic than most every 
substance that he and his associates tried. One day, as he was fum- 
bling through the papers on his desk, he found a vial of a colorless 
liquid which had been sent to him by the German apothecary, Justus 
von Liebig. And Simpson tried it—the liquid was chloroform. Sey- 
eral times did he anesthetize himself and his associates, Keith and 
Duncan, to unconsciousness with at least apparent impunity. It is 
recorded that immediately Simpson recommended the use of chloro- 
form to alleviate the pain of childbirth. To this the clergy of England 
objected. They contended that this pain was a penalty pronounced 
upon Eve for her transgression in the garden of Eden and in conse- 
quence all subsequent generations of women should endure it with 
patience and complacence. Simpson was a careful investigator, but 
also was astute at repartee. To this criticism he very aptly replied, 
“The Lord caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep before appropriating 
his rib; out of which he created Eve.” God administered the first 
anesthetic. Queen Victoria, that pioneer of English customs, broke 
the spell of superstition by permitting Simpson’s chloroform to be 
used in her seventh confinement. 

Chloroform is about five times more potent than ether as an anes- 
thetic. Itisalsomuch more toxic. The decline in the use of chloroform 
in general anesthesia is due to its striking toxic action upon the heart 
and liver. Ether does not exhibit this. Most deaths under chloroform 
anesthesia occur in the induction stages. The mechanism of the acute 
intoxication probably takes place in the following manner. Chloro- 
form stimulates the vagus centrally and slows the heart. Through the 
excitation of induction endogenous epinephrine stimulates the cardiac 
accelerator, thus the simultaneous effect of stimulation and depression 
of the heart rate produces fibrillation of the auricles and ventricles. 
In addition, chloroform is carried from the alveolar air to the left 
chambers of the heart in concentrations which are cardiotoxic. Before 
this has been diluted by the general circulation, cardiac stoppage is 
produced. The approximate mortality under chloroform anesthesia 
is of the order of magnitude in 1 in 2,500; with ether, 1 in 10,000. It 

619830—45——31 


472 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


is of interest to note that the fluorine analogue of chloroform, namely 
fluoroform, is neither anesthetic nor toxic. 


ETHYLENE 


After the discovery of chloroform there followed several barren 
decades in the field of general anesthesia and at the turn of the century 
the armamentarium of the anesthetist contained only nitrous oxide, 
ether, and chloroform augmented in a small measure by ethyl] chloride, 
Through the first two decades of the present century no substantial 
gains were made. However, in 1922, ethylene was introduced by Luck- 
hardt of the University of Chicago. It had been observed that traces 
of ethylene caused the fading of flowers and this observation had come 
to Luckhardt’s attention. He was curious about it. He wondered what 
effect ethylene would have upon animal protoplasm. Systematically he 
tested the gas on lower animals and observed its anesthetic effects. 
Ascending in the scale of development, he observed that the anesthetic 
properties held for monkeys and finally he permitted himself to be 
anesthetized many times to unconsciousness and ethylene took its place 
among the general anesthetics. Perhaps this discovery illustrates the 
characteristics of a scientist, “one who has the simplicity to wonder, the 
ability to question, the power to generalize and the capacity to apply.” 
High concentrations of ethylene are required to produce anesthesia 
(85 to 90 percent) and, to avoid hypoxia, the gas must be administered 
with oxygen. The gas mixture is extraordinarily explosive, and many 
tragic accidents have occurred owing to the explosion of the gas 
through ignition by static electric sparks. Undoubtedly this has mili- 
tated against the widespread use of the gas in many places. 


AVERTIN 


In 1927, Willstitter prepared a general anesthetic, tribromethanol, 
marketed and employed as avertin, dissolved in amylene hydrate. 
The principle involved in this discovery is based upon the theory of 
narcosis announced by Meyer and Overton in 1900. Essentially this 
theory holds that the greater the oil/water solubility is, the more 
potent is its activity on the central nervous system. Alcohol 
has anesthetic properties. The alcohols of the aliphatic series of hy- 
drocarbons of higher molecular weight such as amyl and octyl alcohols 
are less water soluble and more oil soluble, and their potencies as 
anesthetic agents are greater than that of ethyl alcohol. In avertin, 
three of the hydrogen atoms of the ethyl alcohol molecule having a 
combined atomic weight of 3 have been replaced by three bromine 
atoms, the sum of whose atomic weight is approximately 240. This 
increase in molecular weight increases the oil/water coefficient and 
simultaneously enhances the anesthetic potency of the compound. 
Avertin is administered rectally. Its anesthetic index or safety mar- 


ANESTHESIA—KRANTZ 473 


gin is narrow, i. e., the anesthetic and fatal doses do not vary by a 
great degree of magnitude. Therefore, most anesthetists prefer to 
use the drug in amounts equal to three-quarters of its anesthetic dose 
as a basal anesthetic and to complete the relaxation with nitrous oxide 
or ether. The drug is contraindicated in patients suffering with 
hepatic or kidney diseases. It is unfortunate that all of our data on 
the efficacy and safety of tribromethanol are befogged by the fact 
that it is employed dissolved in another anesthetic agent, namely, 
amylene hydrate. Furthermore, avertin is a fixed anesthetic, and 
threatened collapse under agents of this kind is much more difficult to 
combat than it is under volatile anesthetics. Under the latter, removal 
of the mask initiates the immediate course of removal of the agent 
from the circulating blood. Obviously, when a fixed anesthetic agent 
is used, this safety factor is unavailable. 


DIVINYL OXIDE 


It occurred to Chauncey Leake (1) of the University of California 
in 1930 that it would be of great interest to prepare a hybrid molecule 
between ethyl ether and ethylene, i. e., a molecule which contained the 
essential features of the molecules of each of these anesthetics. Fol- 
lowing this suggestion Major and Ruigh (2) prepared divinyl oxide, 
“Vinethene.” The relation of these compounds to ethyl alcohol can 
be seen from the formulas. 


C:Hs 
C:H;0H 
oO 
Yo 
C2H; 
Ethyl! Alcohol Ethyl Ether 
136 18k H H 
| ! | | 
ih Hipage 
1S fy ise lef jat 1eG st 
Ethylene Divinyl Oxide 


Divinyl oxide is more powerful than ether. It is a liquid of very 
low boiling point. With it, anesthesia is rapidly induced, but owing 
to hepatic injury which may occur upon prolonged inhalation of this 
anesthetic agent, its use is confined to operations of short duration. 
One must not pass over the production of this new agent without pay- 
ing due tribute to the fertility of the mind that conceived it. In its 
conception a molecule was designed, synthesized, and anticipated 
properties were later discovered to be inherent in it. 


CYCLOPROPANE 


In 1930 Lucas and Henderson (3) of the University of Toronto 
announced the anesthetic properties of the hydrocarbon, cyclopropane. 
The structure of cyclopropane is seen in the following formula: 

CHa 
H,c2_Scu; 


474. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


The gas is more potent than ethylene and hence permits the admix- 
ture during anesthesia of a larger percentage of oxygen. Relaxation 
of abdominal musculature is good during cyclopropane anesthesia. 
During the decade of its use the gas is now established as an impor- 
tant and dependable agent. Recognition of it in the United States 
Pharmacopeia XII bespeaks its growing field of usefulness. A 
brochure by Robbins (4) of Vanderbilt University on cyclopropane 
reviews the entire field. 


CYPROME ETHER 


At the Medical School of the University of Maryland in 1939, 
Krantz, Evans, Carr, and Forman (5) succeeded in developing a 
chemical reaction for the convenient preparation of aliphatic cyclo- 
propyl ethers. Four of these ethers have been prepared already, and 
three of them have had preliminary trial. One of these agents is 
cyclopropyl methyl ether known as cyprome ether; its structure can 
be seen by the following formula: 

CH; 
H,c<Sc—o—CHs 
i 

The pharmacologic studies conducted in the University of Mary- 
land show cyprome ether to be more potent than ethyl ether and pos- 
sibly safer. Its boiling point is 10° C. higher than ethyl ether which 
should be a distinct advantage for anesthesia in the Tropics. Black, 
Shannon, and Krantz (6) in 1940 reported the first 25 human cases 
of anesthesia with cyprome ether in “Anesthesiology.” ‘The compound 
appears to be promising. 

Other new anesthetics which have been produced by these investiga- 
tors and are under study at the present time are: 


CHa CH: 18h 13! 
07 c—o—c.: H2C c-o—bad 
i i i 
Cypreth ether Cyprethylene ether 
H 
and ¢=c—o-c=t 


Bimal oat 
H CH; H H 


Propethylene ether 
PENTOTHAL SODIUM 


Many years ago Frinkel prepared certain thiobarbituric acid com- 
pounds. Based upon insufficient evidence upon a very limited number 
of animals these compounds were discarded as not being worthy of 
therapeutic merit. Within the past 5 years these compounds have been 
reinvestigated and found to be very prompt-acting barbiturates, yet 


ANESTHESIA—KRANTZ 475 


the action is of very short duration. The one most extensively used in 
this country is pentothal sodium. Structurally this compound is 
pentobarbital in which the oxygen atom of the urea group has been 
replaced by a sulfur atom. 


Te see 
CH: ied 
in in 
CHs—C—H C:2H; CH:—C—H C:oH; 
NZ 
Cc Cc 
te rae hee 
HN | UN HN ON 
C—SNa 
C—ONa - 
Pentobarbital sodium Pentothiobarbital sodium 
(Nembutal sodium) (Pentothal sodium) 


The widest use of this compound very recently has been in producing 
anesthesias by intravenous injection for surgical procedures of short 
duration. For this purpose 2 to 3 cc. of a 5-percent solution is injected 
in about 15 seconds. The injection is then discontinued to permit 
the complete effect to become manifest, which requires about 35 sec- 
onds. If relaxation has not occurred, an additional 2 to 3 cc. may be 
slowly injected. 

The importance of pentothal sodium as a combat anesthetic cannot 
be overestimated. The mortality statistics with pentothal sodium are 
favorable and this agent appears to have warranted a permanent and 
enviable position among the anesthetic agents. 


SPINAL ANESTHESIA 


The use of local anesthetic agents in the spinal fluid to produce 
anesthesia dates back to the turn of the century. In the early days of 
this form of anesthesia, the deaths were so numerous that the popu- 
larity diminished. In more recent years, with more skillful technique 
and more numerous new synthetic local anesthetic agents to select from, 
this type of anesthesia has received a new impetus and is at present 
enjoying much popularity. 

When a local anesthetic is injected into the spinal fluid impulses over 
all types of nerve fibers are blocked—sensory, motor, somatic, and 
autonomic. The sensory block occurs in 6 to 8 minutes which is fol- 
lowed by motor paralysis. The duration of the insensibility to pain 
and the motor paralysis is a function of the character and the concen- 
tration of the local anesthetic agent. Procaine hydrochloride in safe 
concentrations produces an anesthesia of 1-hour duration. Tetracaine 
hydrochloride, (pontocaine) can be successfully used for a period of 
3 hours. 


476 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


There are many side reactions that may occur after the injection 
of an anesthetic agent intrathecally. There is a loss of motor tone 
which follows the paralysis of the vasoconstrictor fibers in the anterior 
nerve roots. The blood pressure consequently may fall to a very low 
level requiring the use of such drugs as ephedrine. Radiculitis, neuri- 
tis, meningitis, and palsies are some of the undesirable anesthetic 
sequelae that have occurred with the use of spinal anesthetics. 


OUTLOOK FOR THE FUTURE 


Perhaps there is no field in medicine where achievements have been 
as great and as far reaching as have been the advances in anesthesia. 
The scope of this review purposefully excluded advances in the tech- 
niques of anesthesia such as the invention of the anesthetic rebreath- 
ing machines, the endotracheal tube, the use of moist soda lime 
and conducting rubber devices for the grounding of static sparks. 
All of these have made definite contributions to anesthetic success and 
safety. 


Future researches are certainly to be directed toward the end of de- 
veloping a better volatile anesthetic agent than ether. It appears 
indeed to be possible. Intravenous anesthesia needs to be made safer. 
Other agents need to be investigated further and better antidotes than 
are now available must be found. The future must investigate further 
and understand more clearly, from the point of view of cellular 
physiology, what is meant by that profound hiatus in consciousness, 
so glibly referred to as surgical anesthesia. 


REFERENCES 


(1) Leaxst, CHAuNcey D., and CHEN, MEI-YU. 
1930. The anesthetic properties of certain unsaturated ethers. Proc. Soc. 
Exp. Biol. and Med., vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 151-154. 
(2) RuieH, Wirm1rAM L., and Magor, RANDOLPH T. 
1931. The preparation and properties of pure divinyl ether. Journ. Amer. 
Chem. Soc., vol. 58, No. 7, p. 2662. 
(3) Lucas, G. H. W., and HENDERSON, V. E. 
1929. A new anaesthetic gas: Cyclopropane. Canadian Med. Assoc. Journ., 
vol. 21, No. 2, pp. 173-175. 
(4) Rossrns, B. H. 
1940. Cyclopropane anesthesia. 1st ed. Williams and Wilkins Co., Balti- 
more, Md. 
(5) Krantz, JoHN C., Jz., CARR, C. JELLEFF, FoRMAN, SyLvAn E., and Evans, 
WILLIAM E. Jr. 
1940. Anesthesia. I. The anesthetic action of cyclopropyl methyl ether. 
Journ. Pharmacol. and Exp. Therap., vol. 69, No. 3, pp. 207-220. 
(6) Brack, ConsTance, SHANNON, GrorGE E., and Krantz, JoHN C., JR. 
1940. Studies with cyclopropyl methyl ether (cyprome ether) in man. 
Anesthesiology, vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 274-279. 


ASPECTS OF THE EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS? 


By LELAND W. PARR 
The George Washington University 


Despite the difficulty the American Public Health Association had a 
short time ago in settling upon a definition of an epidemiologist, I 
believe it is not impossible to say what epidemiology is. Epidemiology 
is the ecology of disease. It is the life history and environmental re- 
lationships of disease. It places less emphasis on how disease acts on 
the individual and more on its mass manifestations; little on symptoms, 
much on how it spreads and is influenced by all possible variant factors. 

The study of tuberculosis is tremendously complex, and the results 
that have been obtained are confusing. This is not because the organ- 
ism causing the disease is difficult to obtain and study. True, Mycobac- 
terium tuberculosis grows slowly, but we have long had satisfactory 
culture mediums and suitable experimental animals are readily avail- 
able. There is, however, no disease concerning which there are more 
disputed concepts and theories. Shortly after the tubercle bacillus 
invades the body successfully the tissues take on a new and specific 
capacity to react. If into the skin of such a person a tiny bit of the 
soluble protein of the tubercle bacillus is injected, there is a decisive 
response. The area becomes inflamed, slightly raised, unusually firm, 
and somewhat painful. It is, in fact, a typical area of response in in- 
flammation. This reaction reaches its height on the second and third 
day and thereafter slowly fades away. This is a positive tuberculin 
test. By contrast, a person who has not been successfully invaded by 
the tubercle bacillus will give no reaction to a similar injection or in- 
deed to one many times stronger in its tuberculin content. 

The condition of the individual that causes him to react to the injec- 
tion of tuberculin is the “tuberculin type of hypersensitivity.” It 
would seem simple to determine whether it is better to be tuberculin 
positive or tuberculin negative, but it is not. Is this tuberculin type 
of hypersensitivity the same thing as immunity? It is not easy to 
decide, and any answer given will be disputed. Woodruff and Kelly 
(1942) observed: “Before tuberculosis can be controlled successfully 

1 Address of the retiring president of the Washington Academy of Sciences delivered at 


the 324th meeting of the Academy on February 17, 1944. Reprinted by permission from 
the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, vol. 34, No. 6, June 15, 1944. 


477 


478 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


fundamental concepts concerning reactions of the host to the infectious 
agent must be clarified. Perhaps the most important of these concepts 
is the relation between the hypersensitive or allergic response and im- 
munity.” Shall we immunize our children against tuberculosis? We 
immunize them against diphtheria; why not against tuberculosis? In 
1940, 60,428 persons died of tuberculosis in the United States and only 
1,457 of diphtheria. It may be objected that tuberculosis is not a child- 
hood disease. It is not, and it is much less so now than it was in 1900, 
but in 1940 a total of 2,787 children under 15 years of age died of 
tuberculosis, almost twice the total number dying of diphtheria. 

When we have clinical tuberculosis where do we get it? Is it from 
within—the lighting up of an old arrested focus—or is it from without 
by contact, often repeated, with open cases of tuberculosis? We now 
favor the latter view, exogenous infection, but it has not been many 
years since the former view, endogenous infection, was our gospel. 
Years ago we used to speak of the childhood type of tuberculosis. Now 
we call it “first infection phase.” In this form of infection the tubercle 
bacillus localizes in the outer parenchyma of the lower- or mid-lung 
field, and there is developed an area which, when it later becomes en- 
capsulated, calcified, or perhaps even ossified, is known as a Ghon 
tubercle. Before this happens, however, the little colony of tubercle 
bacilli, often too small to be seen with the naked eye, establishes con- 
nection with functionally adjacent lymph nodes and there sets up a 
focus of tuberculous infection that in time usually becomes calcified 
and, if large enough, visible in X-ray plates. The tubercle and its 
involved lymph node form the Complex of Ranke. As a usual thing 
an individual harboring this pathology suffers, particularly if he is not 
a very young or a weakly person, few if any clinical symptoms. Some 
years ago it was believed that almost every child had such a “primary 
infection.” Now it is known that most children escape any form of 
tuberculous infection and that “first infection phase” tuberculosis 
comes in both adults and children. Is it the same usually benign 
disease in adults that it used to be in children, or is it much more seri- 
ous? We have a debatable proposition. 

Years ago we used to speak also of the “adult” form of tuberculosis. 
Now we call it “reinfection phase” tuberculosis. This is tuberculosis 
developing in an individual who has had “first infection phase” tuber- 
culosis and is thereby a different host from the individual never con- 
tacted successfully by the tubercle bacillus. In this form of disease 
the lesion usually appears in the upper third of the lung and does not 
involve the functionally connected lymph nodes. When such lesions 
heal they show less of calcification and more of resorption and fibrosis. 
Spread of this type of disease, which frequently occurs, is by caseation, 
liquefaction, and excavation. This “adult” type of disease can, of 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 479 


course, occur in a child provided it is an individual who has had “first 
infection phase” tuberculosis. It was formerly thought that such dis- 
ease arose chiefly from one’s own reservoir of tubercle bacilli held over 
from an arrested “first infection phase” attack. The fact that over- 
work, worry, undernourishment, and other untoward socioeconomic 
factors predispose to tuberculosis fitted in very well with the idea that 
each man carried about his own potential tuberculosis and might light 
it up as an adult by lowering his personal resistance. 

The following quotation from the American Review of Tuberculosis 
(Dobbie, 1920) is not the point of view held today: 

In adults the problem of preventing infection requires very little attention. 
The great majority of adults have already been infected before reaching adult 
life. What adults have to fear most is not further infection from without, but an 
extension of the infection which they already have, leading to the development 
of a group of Symptoms which we are pleased to call the disease tuberculosis. All 
adults should of course avoid prolonged and intimate contact with the grossly 
careless tuberculous person ; but there is little to be feared through ordinary con- 
tact. It has been said that the careful consumptive is not a danger to anyone. 
This might be modified to read the consumptive is a grave menace to infants, less 
dangerous to children, and no danger at all to adults if reasonable care be 
exercised. 

Let me emphasize again. We should not be afraid of the tubercle bacillus. For 
ourselves, as adults, as a rule we need fear no attack except from those that are 
now in our bodies. For the children, since we cannot permanently protect them 
from invasion, let us wisely choose the time when the bacilli are first to be met. 
If this be done, the tubercle bacilli may be transformed from a menacing enemy 
into a protecting friend. This is what should be taught to every adult, as com- 
prising the knowledge in accordance with which he should live and act as an 
individual. 

Today we favor the view that tuberculosis may be contracted from 
continued contact with open cases and that its incidence may be 
reduced by eliminating sources of infection from milk or meat; by 
minimizing contact with open cases through early and accurate diag- 
nosis and isolation; and by proper care of those having tuberculosis 
including full attention to proper nutrition and conditions of living. 
What a change of point of view within a generation! Some areas are 
even working on the hypothesis that all tuberculosis can be prevented. 
Certainly one cannot develop tuberculosis without first becoming 
tuberculin positive. Hence, in certain parts of the country where 
conditions are favorable an effort is being made to place tuberculosis 
on the county accreditation basis. In 1940 the death rate for tubercu- 
losis in the continental United States was 45.9 per 100,000, one of the 
finest rates anywhere in the world. It is a reasonable estimate that in 
that year about 50 percent of our total population were tuberculin 
positive. Minnesota has established county accreditation for tubercu- 
losis. This “new idea in human tuberculosis control” provides that a 


480 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


county shall be accredited in which there is an average annual death 
rate of 10 or less per 100,000 and a tuberculosis infection rate, as evi- 
denced by a positive tuberculin test, of less than 15 percent among 
high-school seniors. At least 7 of Minnesota’s 97 counties have already 
qualified for this honor. 

Casual reference to tuberculous infection as something quite time 
extensive has probably been confusing to the reader. Reference to 
figure 1 should assist in the understanding of the early stages in the 
host-parasite relationship of the tubercle bacillus and man. 

Some diseases are short-lived and decisive. The patient is sick 2 or 3 
days and then is about his work. Such a disease is a mild attack of 
influenza. In typhoid fever, on the other hand, the patient may be ill 
6 weeks or more, and there is a further period of convalescence to add 


Infiltration resulting in a 
positive X-ray diagnosis 


Sensitization. 


Entrance of 


bacilli into 


bodye = = 
In the great majority of 
cases no clinical symptoms 
appear and indeed in man 
such it is impossible to 
Failure of find any visible X-ray 
bacilli to evidence of tuberculous t 
establish infection;i.e.,the 
themselves sensitizing lesion is 
in the obscures 


body. 
Figure 1.—The result of the invasion of the body by tubercle bacilli. 


to the 6 weeks’ loss of time from work. In tuberculosis there may be a 
very gradual onset involving 2 or 3 years before the patient has any 
symptoms at all. Probably every person in the United States has 
swallowed or inhaled at least one living tubercle bacillus even in this 
day of allegedly fine progress in the elimination of tuberculosis. In 
half, or more than half of us, the microbe did not successfully invade 
the body. (Some of the points involved in the host-parasite relation- 
ship bearing on this point are fascinating to contemplate but difficult 
to set in order, and they are graphically suggested in figure 2.) 

Shortly (2 to 7 weeks) after the tubercle bacillus has invaded the 
body the tissues become sensitized and the host is altered profoundly, 
just how profoundly we do not yet know. The elicitation of a posi- 
tive tuberculin test from such a person is only one aspect of the mat- 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 481 


ter. The sensitized individual possesses a new reaction pattern, which 
he will keep as long as viable tubercle bacilli remain in his body. 
Fortunately, the great majority of sensitized individuals do not 
progress farther toward clinical tuberculosis. Such individuals are 
harmless to others in their environment, for the tubercle bacilli caus- 
ing the sensitization are locked within their bodies. Indeed, as Long 
has so well pointed out, the tuberculous individual does not enter into 
the epidemiological picture until his pathology is well advanced. 
Large lesions caseate, liquefy, and erode into bronchi where bacilli 
are spread farther within the lung of the hapless patient or expecto- 
rated to the outside world. Interestingly enough, the number of 
tubercle bacilli becomes very great in an area of just this type, whereas 
they might have been rather few in the same area a month earlier. 


Invasiveness 


Aggressive weapons of the 
microbe 


Virulence 


Correlation of Avenue of 
Approach with Tropism 


Frequenoy of Attack 


Magnitude of Assault 


Rapidity.of Progress of Astio 


v L 
Resistant Susceptible 


Ficure 2.—Some of the factors entering into the host-parasite relationship, which 
have much to do in determining the outcome of an infection. 


Only a few of those who become tuberculin positive for the first time 
will progress to the point where roentgenological evidence can be 
obtained that they are ill, and of these by no means all will advance 
farther to the point where clinical symptoms can be noted. Further- 
more, if taken at the stage of minimal tuberculosis, the disease is easy 
to arrest. Even if arrested the individual will still, for a long time, 
likely for life, harbor some of the tubercle bacilli that multiplied 
within his body. It may seem odd that one can be in good health and 
play host to pathogenic organisms. Such a healthy arrested case 
should not be a source of danger to others, but it is important to point 
out that every extensive survey of adults reveals some of these indi- 
viduals who are not satisfactorily arrested cases and who continue to 
work or even attempt to enlist in the Army or Navy while really suf- 


482 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


fering from moderately advanced or even far advanced tuberculosis. 
Ironically, many of them are not even aware of the seriousness of their 
condition. The tubercle bacillus is not a vicious pathogen despite the 
fact that it causes the most important single disease from which man 
has ever suffered. It is therefore all the more important that the 
facts about tuberculosis be known, so that medical practice and science 
can continue adequately in the effort to solve the tuberculosis problem. 

What is the present status of tuberculosis as a medical problem ? 

First of all, it is worthy of note that there has been a very marked 
decrease in this country in the number of deaths from tuberculosis. 
In 1900 the rate was 194.4 per 100,000; in 1940 it was 45.9; in 1942 it 
was 48.1. There was only 1 death in 1940 where there were 4.2 deaths 
in 1900. Not only has the number of deaths decreased but the distri- 
bution of those deaths has changed both within the total mortality 
picture and within the mosaic of tuberculosis itself. Table 1 will make 
some of these changes clear. 


Taste 1—Change in death rates (per 100,000) from 1900 to 1940 for tuberculosis 
and some other diseases 


Ratio 
Disease cain 1900 1905 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 1935 1940 
194 

ANU Geaths-seccrscere oe 1. 59/1, 719.1 |1, 588.9 |1, 468.0 {1,317.6 |1, 298.9 |1, 168.1 |1, 132.1 |1, 094. 5 |1, 076. 4 
Tuberculosis_--------- 4.2 194. 4 179.9 153.8 140.1 113.1 84.8 (algal 55.1 45.9 
Percent of all__.__- 2.6 11.3 11.3 10. 4 10. 6 8.7 7.2 6.2 5.0 4.2 
Typhoid.-2-2se2= 42-52 31.3 31.3 ; 22. 4 22. 5 11.8 7.6 7.8 4.7 PONT 1.0 
Malaria: == gees 5.6 6.2 2.5 ee 1.6 3.4 2.0 2.9 3.5 La 
Miessios2 = ae 26.6 13.3 7.4 12.4 5:2 8.8 2.3 3.2 3.1 0.5 
Scarlet fever__.-------- 19.2 9.6 6.8 11.4 3.6 4.6 rar 1.9 raat 0.5 
Whooping cough----_-- 6.5 1232 8.9 11.6 8.2 12.5 6.7 4.8 3.7 2.2 
Diphtheria -=--5-.- 2 36. 6 40.3 23. 5 Pale 15. 2 15.3 7.8 4.9 3.1 Ti 
Totals see 17.6 112.9 71,5 80.1 45.6 52.2 29.3 22. 4 18.2 6.4 

Diarrhea in babies sal 
(2) -case See eS 15. 2 115.9 98. 4 98.4 55.7 43.4 30.8 19.4 10. 4 7.6 


Data from the Bureau of the Census, based on the expanding Registration Area. Since 1933 this area 


includes all continental United States. Vin i : LB 
The rate for tuberculosis was 4.2 times as high in 1900 as it was in 1940. This is for allages. The change 


has not been the same for all age groups: 


Under 1 year-__------------- 12/6'~26-84 yeare! Mid GALS 5.2 “65-74 years is 00 3.1 
pL 7-5: ne es 8\2. 35-44 years. .2 = 2-5 = 8S 43) “75-84 Wears oe oo 355 seats 3.4 
bate veatse. 22256 see see ee 625; 45=b4-years) 2228. 4 2 3.2 85 years and up-_--_-.-------- 3. 2 
16-24, NOaIB- = So oe Boia 00-O% VOOIS. on 4 2 eccn este 2.9 


Tt will be noted that in 1900 tuberculosis accounted for 11.3 percent of 
all deaths. By 1940 this figure had fallen 2.6 times, to 4.2 percent. 

Another significant point not shown in the table is that the disease 
is becoming pulmonary in type. In 1940, of the 60,428 deaths from 
tuberculosis, 55,576 deaths were pulmonary tuberculosis. Just over 8 
percent were tuberculosis of the central nervous system, gastrointesti- 
nal tract, the bony structures, the skin, the lymphatics, the genitourin- 
ary system, generalized tuberculosis, and infection of other organs. 
Forty years ago this figure would have been much higher. Other 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 483 


changes we may note are a great decrease in the proportion of deaths 
from tuberculosis in infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and even in 
early married life. There has been a relative increase in tuberculosis 
deaths in the middle and later years of life, and there is no longer for 
Whites a peak in the curve representing deaths from tuberculosis. It 
is rather a plateau extending over three or four of the most important 
decades of life. 

Tuberculosis mortality is much higher among males than among 
females. In the States Relations Division of the United States Public 
Health Service there is now a Tuberculosis Control Section headed by 
Dr. H. E. Hilleboe. Tuberculosis mortality in the United States, 1939- 
1941, was reviewed by three Public Health Service workers in Public 
Health Reports for October 1, 1943. They point out that for these 3 
years, 1939-1941, the male death rate (53.6) was 41 percent higher than 
the female rate (38.1). This excess in mortality among males is higher 
for tuberculosis than that from deaths from all causes. For these 
3 years tuberculosis was seventh in numerical importance among the 
leading causes of death. There are very large racial differences in 
tuberculosis mortality, the rate for Negroes in 1940 (123.5) was nearly 
three and one-half times that for Whites (36.6). The rate for Indians, 
Chinese, and other races was about double that for Negroes. Among 
non- Whites tuberculosis was third in numerical importance as a lead- 
ing cause of death. Another point, hotly disputed in the epidemiology 
of tuberculosis, is whether the Negro tuberculosis experience is the re- 
sult of the less favorable socioeconomic conditions under which they 
live or is due to inherent biological racial differences between Whites 
and Negroes. 

Tuberculosis is still among the three leading causes of death for a 
relatively large portion of the life span (15 to 49 years of age). It 
holds first place at ages 15 to 34, second at 35 to 39, and third at 40 to 49. 
For males tuberculosis is among the first three leading causes of death 
at ages 15 to 54, and for females at ages 10 to 44. For Whites only, it is 
among the first three leading causes of deaths at ages 15 to 49 for both 
sexes, ages 20 to 54 for males, and 15 to 44 for females. 

Table 1 reveals the fact that though we have made worth-while prog- 
ress in the fight against tuberculosis this progress compares unfavor- 
ably with advances made in the control of such diseases as typhoid and 
diphtheria, and indeed for the whole group listed together in the table, 
viz, typhoid, malaria, measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, and diph- 
theria. In 1900 tuberculosis caused only 1.7 times as many deaths as 
this arbitrarily selected group. In 1940 this figure became 7.1 by virtue 
of the more perfect control of the selected group of diseases. Signifi- 
cant, too, is the more marked diminution in the deaths that occur in chil- 
dren under 2 years of age from diarrhea and enteritis. That improve- 


484 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


ment in the tuberculosis picture has occurred is, of course, true. Our 
chances of dying of tuberculosis are now computed at a much more 
favorable level. It is also of interest to note that the percentage of per- 
sons tuberculin positive has been falling. For instance, one of the 
earliest reports on the results of tuberculin testing of a student group 
was based on a study conducted at the University of Minnesota in 1928. 
Thirty-one percent of 2,000 students were found to be tuberculin posi- 
tive. In 1941-1942 only 17 percent of 5,481 students were positive. 
Thus in 18 years there was a reduction of 45 percent in the number of 
tuberculin reactors. Similar information gathered from school surveys 
all over the country is much more significant than may on first thought 
occur to one. Weare fast becoming a nation of unsensitized individuals 
with respect to tuberculosis. There has long been a considerable school 
that has maintained that sensitization in the sense of tubercularization 
without progression is protection. What, they ask, will be the outcome 
as more and more tuberculin-negative children become adults and first 
meet the tubercle bacillus under wartime and reconstruction condi- 
tions? It is possible that the medical-school tuberculosis problem may 
cast light upon this matter, but before that point can be presented it is 
logical to consider the effect of war on tuberculosis morbidity and 
mortality. 

What was the effect on the tuberculosis rate of World WarI? Dr. 
Long describes the situation in Europe by observing: “After years 
of continuous drop, the rate began rising in 1915 and by 1918 had 
reached a figure in all countries about 25 percent higher than at the 
beginning of the war.” Wolff has described the privations of the 
period as “ an involuntary mass experiment . . . of more epidemio- 
logical importance than endless theorizing on the pathology of tuber- 
culosis.” These statements may be amplified in the words of an August 
1941 article in the Statistical Bulletin of the Metropolitan Life In- 
surance Co., in part as follows: 

The experience of the World War of 1914-18 affords an indication of what 
is likely to occur. None of the belligerent countries escaped an increase in 
tuberculosis then, and practically all of the neutral countries of Europe suffered 
either an increase in tuberculosis or a slowing up of the prewar rate of de- 
cline. The most reliable data for the period relate to the trends among women 
and children in England and Germany. Among English women the mortality 
from pulmonary tuberculosis rose steadily during the war to a peak in 1918, 
when it was over 25 percent higher than in 1913. Among German women the pul- 
monary tuberculosis death rate rose slowly at first, but after 1916 the increase was 
very rapid, so that by 1918 the rate was nearly 75 percent above that of 1913. 
Indeed, in Germany the death rate from tuberculosis among women did not 
return to the prewar level until 1921; and this improvement was not main- 
tained for a few years following. The rate of increase among German females 


was greatest at ages under 20 years. Among children the rate in 1919 was 
even higher than during the war. 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 485 


Far worse was the situation among the other belligerent countries of the 
Continent, but only fragmentary statistical data are available to show the 
frightful increases in some of these areas. The statistics of tuberculosis 
mortality in France during the war are defective because of the absence of facts 
for the invaded regions, where the situation was at its worst. The data for the 
uninvaded portion show a sharp increase, particularly in 1917 and 1918. In 
the latter year the recorded rate was about 20 percent higher than in 1914. The 
aceuracy of these statistics is doubtful, and the actual increase was probably 
larger. To some extent the same observation probably holds for Italy, but in 
that country even the recorded deaths from tuberculosis in 1918 were over 40 
percent in excess of the 1914 rate. 

A few examples will show the extremely bad conditions in Belgium and in 
eastern and southeastern Europe. In Brussels the death rate from tuberculosis 
doubled during the war, from 177 per 100,000 in 1914 to 390 in 1918. In Vienna 
the rate in the period 1915-18 was 20 percent higher than in 1911-14, and in 
the early postwar years it increased to 50 percent above the prewar rate. In 
Budapest the number of deaths from the disease in 1917 was nearly double 
that of 1913, and it was but little less in 1918. In Warsaw the rate in 1917 
was 840 per 100,000, as compared with 306 in 19138; in Cracow during the same 
period the rate increased from 487 to 908 per 100,000. In Belgrade the tubercu- 
losis death rate in 1918 reached the almost incredible figure of 1,400 per 100,000. 

Typical of the trend of tuberculosis in the neutral countries of Europe dur- 
ing the World War are the experiences of the Netherlands and Switzerland. 
In the former, the death rate from the disease rose steadily, until in 1918 it 
was nearly 50 percent above the 1914 figure. In Switzerland, where the trend 
was Sharply downward before the war, the rate continued to fall at first, but 
rose in the latter part of the war to a peak of 207 per 100,000 in 1917, or 6 
percent above the rate in 1914. 

In our own country the mortality from tuberculosis showed little change 
during the World War period as a whole, but even here there was a slight 
increase in the death rate during the period of our active participation in the 
war. Thus the death rate in the original Registration States declined from 
148.6 per 100,000 in 1914 to 148.8 in 1916, but then rose to 147.1 in 1917 and 
further to 151.0 in 1918. 


These increases come about through break-down in resistance to 
disease on the part of the host, to increase in opportunities for infec- 
tion, and to a decrease in or, indeed, collapse of facilities available 
for proper recognition, isolation, and treatment of disease. Spe- 
cifically some of the factors for tuberculosis are: 

1. The entrance of women into heavy and fatiguing industry. 

2. The return of the older age groups to active employment. 

3. The return to work of persons of either sex or any age physically 
unfit to work. 

4, Long hours of work often emotionally compensated for by long 
hours of strenuous or injudicious relaxation—“burning the candle at 
both ends.” 

5. Relocation in areas of intense war-industry activity resulting in 
congested living conditions without adequate sanitary facilities. 


486 § ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


6. Relocation in areas of intense war-industry activity where tuber- 
culosis rates may be high by persons coming from areas where tuber- 
culosis rates are low. 

7. Congestion in concentration camps, war prisoners’ camps, evacua- 
tion depots or camps, and air-raid shelters. 

8. Use of hospital beds formerly allocated to the tuberculous for 
more urgent war needs or actual destruction of hospital facilities by 
the bombings or bombardments of “total” warfare. 

9. Loss of trained personnel to the war need—physicians, nurses, 
attendants, laboratory workers, and social workers—all needed to care 
for an increasing load of tuberculosis patients. 

10. Food shortages, both qualitative and quantitative. 

11. Impossibility for perfect rest conditions so necessary for the 
tuberculous and the pretuberculous. 

12. Worry and anxiety over the fate of one’s relatives or even of 
one’s country. 

One of these points deserves particular emphasis as far as this 
country is concerned. As pointed out in an editorial in the New 
England Journal of Medicine for January 27, 1944, “it is estimated 
that 25,000 had been diagnosed (at induction) to have a disease that 
neither they nor their friends would have suspected under prewar 
conditions. And how are these patients, many of whom need sana- 
torium treatment, going to be accommodated by the currently re- 
stricted personnel of the sanatoriums?” Early in 1942 the number of 
beds for tuberculosis patients in this country totaled 97,726, or 1.62 
per annual death, which is at best well below the minimum standard 
set at 2 beds per annual death and far below the more ideal standard 
of 3. In 1942 only seven States and the District of Columbia had met 
the minimum standard. It is quite possible that under present con- 
ditions of personnel shortage the paper figure of 97,726 beds available 
for tuberculosis patients must be considerably discounted. Where 
fighting is actually going on the condition is, of course, much worse. 

Just what has happened thus far in the present war? Hilleboe 
states that by the last half of 1942 in the United States the Bureau of 
the Census, by a sampling process, had sensed an increase in tubercu- 
losis in the “critical areas,” although the total figure for 1942 repre- 
sents an all-time low rate of 43.1 per 100,000. In England he notes a 
13 percent increase in deaths from all forms of tuberculosis in 1941 
as against 1938. This represents more than 3,000 additional deaths 
each year from a preventable disease. Recently in the British Medi- 
cal Journal (January 8, 1944) it is stated that in Belgium the regis- 
tered cases of tuberculosis increased from 69,079 in December 1941, to 
109,511 in February 1943, an increase in rate from the high figure of 
§30 per 100,000 to the startling figure of 1,330 per 100,000. If there 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 487 


are 10 clinical cases of tuberculosis for every annual death, we have in 
the United States less than 600,000 cases at the present time or only 
six times as many as now exist in little Belgium, which has perhaps 
only one-twentieth of our population. Many of our people are in, or 
shortly will be in, these unfortunate European countries. It would 
seem a safe prophecy to venture that the tuberculosis rate in this 
country may be slightly increased for a short period, but it should 
within a very few years again resume its downward trend. 

In view of the very low rate now obtaining (43.1 in 1942) it would 
be reasonable to expect a greater set-back relatively than we experi- 
enced at the end of World WarI. The magnitude of this set-back may 
not be so much one of significantly increased rate as of slowness to get 
under way again on the downward trend. For a disease as widely 
seeded in our population as tuberculosis and for a population more 
completely involved in abnormal war activity than was the case in 
World War I, it would not be surprising if this were to be so and the 
very favorable rates now attained would seem to be advanced posts 
we may have to abandon for some time. One factor in this slightly 
pessimistic prediction is our closeness to and commerce with the rest 
of the world in many parts of which tuberculosis is rampant. 

At one time the hope was expressed that we might be able to eradi- 
cate tuberculosis by a given date—say 1960. It should be understood 
that any such statement was merely a slogan, a cry behind which to 
rally the forces fighting the great white plague. As Frost ably 
pointed out in one of his last papers, entitled “How Much Control of 
Tuberculosis?” it “is not necessary that transmission be immediately 
and completely prevented. It is necessary only that the rate of trans- 
mission be held permanently below the level at which a given number 
of infection-spreading (i. e., open) cases succeed in establishing an 
equivalent number to carry on the succession. If, in successive periods 
of time, the number of infectious hosts is continuously reduced, the 
end result of this diminishing ratio, if continued long enough, must 
be the extermination of the tubercle bacillus.” I am not aware that 
Frost ever set any date for this millennium. As a very humble stu- 
dent of epidemiology I am sure I cannot. I doubt though if under 
present war conditions we have any reason to anticipate any lowering 
of the death rate for the entire country from 43.1 to even 10 per 100,000 
for several decades. Many millions of Americans are already tuber- 
culin positive; thousands of unrecognized advanced cases of tuber- 
culosis exist today; Europe and indeed most of the rest of the world 
is heavily tubercularized. It is too much to expect tuberculosis death 
rates to continue to drop as rapidly as they have in the past. To reduce 
194.4 by 10 percent is not so difficult as to reduce 43.1 by 10 percent. 

619830—45——32 


488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


One other point that Frost makes deserves our attention. He states: 
“It is highly probable that the cyclic changes in prevalence which 
are observed in some diseases are brought about chiefly by evolutionary 
changes in the characteristics of the specific microorganisms, the causes 
of which are to be found in uncontrolled natural forces.” Frost men- 
tions scarlet fever and diphtheria as two of the diseases that within 
the past 100 years have greatly changed, although in the case of 
diphtheria the change reversed itself and diphtheria is again a prob- 
lem of some significance in parts of the world. Smallpox, since the 
Spanish American War, has been relatively mild when it has occurred 
in this country, and in 1942 caused but two deaths. It could be pos- 
sible that cyclic changes may be taking place in the nature of the 
tubercle bacillus making it less invasive, but whether this is so, how 
long it will continue, or whether it will reverse are propositions very 
difficult of proof. Again, case finding among medical students and 
physicians yields results with suggestive implications for this point. 

Case finding means looking for cases of a given disease. It is done 
to discover unrecognized cases that should be brought under treatment 
for their own good and isolated or educated so that the public health 
may be protected by removing active sources of infection. Although 
useful for several diseases such as malaria and hookworm, even syphilis, 
case finding is particularly adapted to tuberculosis. It is possible 
through tuberculin testing to discover those belonging to the tuber- 
culin-positive group of persons who can have tuberculosis and, by 
X-ray examination, to detect which of these have physical signs almost 
certain before long to produce clinical symptoms. Such individuals 
may be satisfactorily arrested with a minimum of treatment and loss 
of time whereas if the minimal case is not discovered in its incipiency 
a moderately advanced or even a far advanced case may result which 
is difficult or impossible to arrest. The great advantage to the careful 
examination of the would-be soldier or sailor is that tuberculosis is 
discovered, as never before, in the stage in which it is possible to do 
something about the matter. From the first approximately 400,000 
men appearing for the Canadian Army, 1 percent were rejected for 
tuberculosis. Of 3,530 of these rejectees, there were 1,970 with minimal 
tuberculosis, 1,298 moderately advanced cases, and 262 far advanced 
cases. This ratio of the different clinical types (and the same is true 
for all other large-scale screenings) is the exact reverse of what occurs 
when we let nature take its course. In the past, minimal cases have 
been a minority in the treatment program with moderately advanced 
and far advanced cases constituting the great majority of cases coming 
to the attention of the physician and the care of his sanatorium. It 
is to be hoped that although we are at war care will be taken that the 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 489 


young men and women found to have tuberculosis will be adequately 
cared for. 

Tuberculin testing is time consuming and costly and, I regret to 
say, is sometimes omitted from the case-finding set-up. Celluloid 
films, 14 by 17 inches are also very expensive, and several substitutes 
have been worked out making it possible to examine the lungs of all 
members of a group (a good case-finding team can do 500 persons a 


All new students 


Minor focus of attention as long as 
healthy. X-ray half way through 
course and at graduation* 


Intradermal 
iTuberculin Test, 
using PeFsDe 

(a) 0.00002 mg 
(b) 0.005 mg 


Major focus of attention. Tuberculin 
retest each semester. Positives 
sent to X-ray at once and each 
term thereafter for at least two years, 


If found “not significant” follow 

closely with 

X-rays ,etc eas 
ordered. 


No 
lung 
pathology 


Full and 
careful study, 
diagnosis anc 

advice by Special- 
ized Chest 
Physician, 


Full 14 x 17 ins a, 


antero-posterior 
view,celluloid 

plate ,with expert 
interpretation, 


Suggestive 
Findings 


laboratory aid 
in making diag- 
nosis ,-sputum 
search,blood 
counts ,sedimen= 
tation tests, 


Significant 
#indings 


* In practice every 
student is tuberculin 
tested whether + or -, 
each semester the first 
three semesters but 
thereafter only if 
negative or weakly 
positive. 


at home or better 
in sanitorium 

until satisfacto 
arrest is at- 
tained, 


Figure 3.—Tuberculosis case-finding program at the School of Medicine, The 
George Washington University. 


day) at a reasonable cost. While this expedient works and is there- 
fore justified, from the epidemiological point of view it is distinctly 
faulty because the tuberculin test gives information we must have for 
the proper understanding of the disease, and the large plate provides 
a permanent record unequaled by most of the less costly substitutes. 
At George Washington University Medical School, through the in- 
terest and cooperation of the dean, a proper and complete case-finding 
program has been in progress almost 5 years. The organization and 
operation of this program are graphically indicated in figure 3. 


490 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


It will be seen from figure 3 that five different agencies must be 
integrated in the program. ‘These are the tuberculin-testing group, 
the X-ray group, the chest-physician group, the laboratory group, 
and the sanatorium group. Coordination is best effected by that 
agency having most student contact, which in our institution is the 
tuberculin-testing agency represented by the writer. When there is 
sufficient interest in the program on the part of the coordinator the 
cooperation of the other agencies is easily obtained and cheerfully 
given. In addition to the value of such a program to the health of 
the student body the tuberculosis case-finding program is an admirable 
laboratory experiment in preventive medicine. 

When it was realized that exposure to open cases of tuberculosis had 
to be considered as an important factor in the etiology of the disease 
it was only natural that thought turned to medical personnel—phy- 
Siclans, nurses, hospital attendants, and students of medicine and 
nursing—as persons having an industrial hazard with respect to 
tuberculosis. Three examples will illustrate the validity of this 
assumption. Diehl and Myers reported in 1940 that at Minnesota it 
had been possible to check effectively on the careers of 1,673 of 1,894 
medical students graduating from 1919 to 1936. Among these there 
were 107 cases of tuberculosis, 5 occurring before college, and 47 after 
college. It was found that 46 deaths had occurred among the 1,673, 
of which 11 had been from tuberculosis. 

Again it is well known that inmates of our mental hospitals form 
a group among whom tuberculosis is especially important. A recent 
study of such individuals in New York revealed that on the average ~ 
tuberculosis deaths in such groups in this State were relatively twelve 
times more numerous than for the State as a whole. In certain such 
institutions in this country where careful case-finding programs have 
been carried out on the attendants, rates of infection and actual evi- 
dence of disease much higher than occurs for other individuals in the 
same area have been found. 

Thirdly, the early experience at the University of Pennsylvania 
revealed the significance in that institution of tuberculosis for medi- 
cal students. Less than 10 years ago among 514 Pennsylvania stud- 
ents 5.8 percent of significant tuberculosis was found. Happily, re- 
sults in most other schools are much better, and in fairness to Penn- 
sylvania it should be pointed out that subsequent studies there have 
revealed a very much lower rate. Nevertheless, there seemed to be 
much logic to the statement made in 1930 by Stiedl of Trudeau when 
he said: “Tuberculosis might be called an industrial hazard for the 
medical profession. It is the most important chronic disabling dis- 
ease for the medical student, the young physician and the nurse.” 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 491 


In 1939, a case-finding program at George Washington University 
School of Medicine was instituted. For many years prior to this, as 
I shall show presently, we had been making tuberculin surveys of all 
students, but a complete case-finding program had not, prior to 1939, 
been in existence in our institution. It is greatly to the credit of my 
former colleague, Dr. John H. Hanks, now in the Philippines, and 
Dr. David James, then president of the junior class, that they fur- 
nished much of the initial enthusiasm needed to get the program 
under way. The interest from the first of Dean Walter A. Bloedorn 
and the whole-hearted cooperation of the roentgenological and chest- 
physician group insured the success of the project. We have already 
indicated in a diagram how tuberculosis case finding works. It 
remains merely to give some of the results and to make a few 
observations. 

The percentage of tuberculin-positive reactors among 14 consecu- 
tive classes totaling 1,007 students at George Washington University 
School of Medicine is shown in table 2. With so many tuberculin- 
negative students in school, a situation true in most other schools also, 
it was only natural to expect that many of them would become tuber- 
culin positive. A good many of these tuberculin-negative students 
did become tuberculin positive but not nearly so many of them as one 
might expect. Washington is in an area of high tuberculosis mortal- 
ity (1940 figures, entire U. S. A., 45.9 per 100,000 population; District 
of Columbia, 64.4; Maryland, 79.1; Virginia, 58.1), and our students 
certainly come into contact with tubercle bacilli. We were particu- 
larly impressed by the large number of those who were originally 
tuberculin negative and who remained negative through a complete 
medical education in Washington, D. C. Data on this point are 
presented in table 3. 


TaBLe 2.—Tuberculin tests on 14 consecutive medical classes at the 
George Washington University 


Percent 

Class Status Number positive 
POSH ieree ae Ses: Ses DNase eee Sophomore 2 9) ouch oe oe ee ae 62 82.2 
NOSGRETE 795 Ue PT ee Cece ee eee Hreshman-et erp se tet Lede eg 71 98.5 
Spy e nee eS a ee es ao ea OGr ace eee Read 69 78.2 
NGoe ies oe ete Ue aie EIS eee. Ee: Goesteaie eee eat ee aire 74 54.0 
TUB ss Se Sea Re ee ee ey eee (6 PoE SE See ee NEE Eile ease 65 55.3 
0 ea ONE A Cs 2 eee a Ce ERTS R ALS [Eee 2 gees Seize yl Se La ee a eel 64 60.9 
QAR ou or UES oe 2 eee 0 YES oa ra eee eae? ee 69 69.5 
UDG eG kk See ne Sepa eas Se meh ed yt o Oo Ea oes Soaps am dee Oe a 42.2 
Tt ee oe ee ee ee ee er eee Ore ke aire een et teen ee tae 44.6 
AC Vo Bay A SSE ey een eeewt Ae be 2 We Se Gover ite ks ee ee ee es 65 46.1 
TCLS Uk ea eh ee 55 ae 2 PR Ee Oe a Ps aS 78 34.6 
OSG NTE? ihe A ee aise eee ee Go yssarees S15 sie ys age ae eh 77 40. 2 
SAE Ge EI Se a OE aa Pea re eT GOP eso cae wlan scnew see eee 83 53.0 
TORRE AEE ROLE ee CSO ee ree ee OR aist ps Ae Rona ee ee ee gs Fes eee 85 43.5 


*This school has been on the accelerated plan since before Pearl Harbor; the entering classes no longer 
require 4 years for graduation. 


492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


TABLE 3.—Tracing medical students, originally tuberculin negative 


Total 
Of these, 
patel Number | Number | number 
- | of these | who com-} graduat- 


Class tubereulin| who left | pleted all] ing tu- | Percent 

rs cake school 4years | berculin 

men negative 
Graduating November 1943____.....-___--...-.--____- 35 5 30 22 73 
Graduating. February 1943... .00-22-!_-.- 2-2-2 42 6 36 21 58 
Gradtintine 1042) 2 oer eRe 5 ee Le eae ed 40 3 37 23 62 
Gredchin ge POAT ai ees ee) ieee ae Oe 21 5 16 tf 44 
GYradaating 1940 Oe fe he ee Oe ae VO 24 6 18 13 72 
Grdgunbine OSA Fes he Re pes a ee 30 6 24 ll 46 
Totaly sehe Whee ah Nk Boe es Se ae 192 31 161 97 60 


Of the 64 students, originally tuberculin negative, who became tuberculin positive, 4 developed clinical 
tuberculosis—1 man losing 2 years, 1 losing 1 year, and 2 no time loss. All 4 at present are in fine physical 
condition. 

We were further impressed by the fact that a considerable number of 
medical students who gave weakly positive tuberculin tests later be- 
came negative. Students were not followed prior to 1939 through all 
semesters; hence the figures on this point do not include all our ap- 
proximately 1,000 students. Of those followed (666), however, 134 
have reacted only to the strong dose of purified protein derivative. 
This represents a low grade of sensitivity due perhaps to an almost 
negligible original sensitizing lesion or to a lesion almost completely 
sterilized or possibly, in an occasional case, to a nonspecific reaction. 
Nine classes are included in this aspect of the study, four of which are 
still in school, on whom obviously the data are not yet complete. In 
the five classes concerned that have graduated 56 showed weakly 
positive reactions as freshmen. Of these, 18 showed stronger reac- 
tions as they progressed through school, indicating some sort of sensi- 
tizing or immunizing process at work. Six became entirely negative 
and one became weaker in tuberculin reactivity, 22 remained the same, 
and a few of the original freshmen did not graduate. Among the 666 
students of these nine classes 319 were positive to some strength of 

tuberculin as freshmen (47.9 percent). Of these, 134 (42.0 percent) 
were weak reactors. Among the 323 students of the last four classes 
there were 139 reacting to tuberculin (48.0 percent), of whom 78 were 
only weakly positive (56.1 percent). Among the 348 students in this 
series who have graduated there were 180 tuberculin reactors (52.4 
percent), but of these only 56 were weak reactors (31.1 percent). 

Several points may be made regarding these data. An environ- 
ment containing tubercle bacilli does not prevent a certain number 
of weakly positive tuberculin reactors from becoming negative. These 
individuals may be thought of as resistant strains of the human race. 
Our newer students are showing not only a lower total tuberculariza- 
tion rate but also a tubercularization of less intensity. Tubercle ba- 
cilli in the environment are doing less to medical students than 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—PARR 493 


formerly. This is susceptible to three interpretations. The tubercle 
bacilli in the environment are becoming fewer; they are losing in- 
vasiveness and virulence; or, thirdly, the resistance of the young white 
American to tuberculosis is increasing. The first point is obvious 
but can hardly be the whole explanation. I believe we miss the full 
significance of the data if we do not also allocate some importance 
to each of the other two explanations. 

Weight is added to this suggestion when we consider that the total 
number of tuberculin-negative students in the school, all presumably 
susceptible to successful invasion by the tubercle bacillus, is increasing. 
This number is the census made up each semester after the tests are’ 
done. In November 1941 there were 147 tuberculin-negative students 
in the school. In June 1942 this number was 157. In November 1943 
it was 166 among 313 students, or a student body only 46.9 percent 
tuberculin positive. There has been a slight increase in the total 
number of students in the school, but this has been balanced off by the 
fact that our last two classes, though the initial tuberculin-positive 
rate was low, had higher percentages than the average of the preceding 
four classes (48.3 as against 41.3 percent). Furthermore, since this 
program was started in 1939, only nine students have been found with 
minimal tuberculosis, although three others were detected shortly 
following graduation. At the present time, with 313 students in 
attendance, not one has minimal tuberculosis. This fine record sur- 
passes that revealed in almost any mass survey of adults. Among 
28,098 United States Government employees recently surveyed, 1.1 
percent had recognizable tuberculosis (60.7 percent minimal; 35.3 
percent moderately advanced; 4.0 percent far advanced). 

It has been our purpose in presenting these observations to empha- 
size that, although remarkable progress has been made in combating 
tuberculosis, that progress has not equaled advance achieved in con- 
trolling other well-known diseases. We must believe that tuberculosis 
is still a major problem. Its eradication may be set back by the war 
but not irrevocably. Tuberculosis morbidity and mortality can be 
reduced to a satisfactorily low level, but I do not expect to see in my 
lifetime, the absolute elimination of the disease. Our evidence sug- 
gests that the tuberculosis problem is not at present unduly significant 
for medical students and that there is some ground for considering 
either that the young white adult has more resistance to the tubercle 
bacillus than his father possessed or that the Mycobacterium tubercu- 
losis is losing some of its virulence. Possibly a little of both is true. 


REFERENCES 


ALTSHUEER, S. S., and BAILey, L. J. 
1941. Control of tuberculosis in an institution for the mentally ill. Amer. 
Rey. Tuberc., vol. 44, pp. 335-345. 


494. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 


BUREAU OF THE CENSUS. 
1948. Vital statistics rates in the United States, 1900-1940. 16th Census 
of the United States, 1940. 
Dima, H. S., and Mynurs, J. A. 
1940. Tuberculosis prevention, immunization and periodic health exami- 
nations among medical students. Journ. Assoc. Med. Colleges, 
vol. 15, pp. 104-114. 
Dogsir, W. J. 4 
1920. The prevention of tuberculosis: What we should teach today. Amer. 
Rey. Tubere., vol. 4, pp. 23-31. 
Frost, W .H. 
1987. How much control of tuberculosis? Amer. Journ. Publ. Health, vol. 
27, pp. 759-766. 
Hixerso0n, H. E. 
1948. Opportunities in the newer methods of tuberculosis case finding. 
Publ. Health Rep., vol. 58, pp. 1094-1101. 
Lone, E. R. 
19385. From pathology to epidemiology in tuberculosis. Journ. Amer. Med. 
Assoc., vol. 104, pp. 1883-1888. 
1941. Constitution and related factors in resistance to tuberculosis. Arch. 
Path., vol. 32, pp. 122-162, 286-310. 
Parr, L. W. 
1948. Factors in resistance to tuberculosis as revealed by a case finding 
program. Southern Med. Journ., vol. 36, pp. 306-312. 
Soper, W. B., and AMBERSON, J. B. 
1939. Pulmonary tuberculosis in young adults, particularly among medical 
students and nurses. Amer. Rey. Tuberc., vol. 39, pp. 9-32. 
Wotrr, G. 
1936. Tuberculosis mortality as an index of hygienic control. Amer. Rev. 
Tubere., vol. 34, pp. 734-748. 
Wooprurr, C. E., and KeEtty, R. G. 
1942. The correlation between anatomical changes and the allergic state 
in tuberculous guinea pigs. Journ. Immunology, vol. 45, pp. 79-85. 
YERUSHALMY, J., HILLEBOH, H. E., and PALMnnr, C. HE. 
1943. Tuberculosis mortality in the United States, 1939-41. Publ. Health 
Rep., vol. 58, pp. 1457-1482. 


INDEX 


A Page 
Abend Po Btoeres sae so. 2 (eee tt Jot bo aise) ou Pot 68 
Abbot, Charles G., Secretary of the Institution_-_ v, viii, ix, 9, 10, 12, 29, 30, 94, 96 
Solar variation and weather_.._-.____-__.__---___-----..._-_____ 119 
Adams, K. T. (Radio acoustic ranging (R. A. R.))_________-___________- 271 
Administrative assistant to the Secretary (Harry W. Dorsey)__________- Vv 
ee a stait.of the National. Museam os. o 25s Vii 
Maran (sD. (Bram: rhythma)eue se. ./) Beagle Aes bei) oy asa 453 
Aeronautics, Research for—its planning and application (Farren)________ 251 
MiGrichs: Woy aloes pe eco ool OS AE 21) cpl | Sa era ix, 94 
American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and 
iaastoric: Wionuments im. War Areas. 222222025... 5 0 lath ee 30, 36 
ye ATES pea Nee ape Cala Na eee er ane! Und OA? Seg aes OR Let et La eC EEES © vi 
Amesthesta, Recent advances) in (Krantz)... 2 2  -2  e h e 467 
Arabia, Southern, A problem for the future (Coon) _-_-________________ 385 
PSPS) 21ST Ca SSG" AS a Pe A i AS Oe ROS Pay 2 og 1) 6s 8 PO 25 
Pit Me GIMMIBSIOM (SE HHAQMIAR a) se 6, 39 
Arthur lecture, tpelEth conse UME Ps Peet) LD Te eA ae 10 
Assistant Secretary of the Institution (Alexander Wetmore) _______-_ We sek Le ee 
Associate Director of the National Museum (John E. Graf)_____________ 
Astronomy,in. a, world atiwar) (Douglas)s5 2 2 ee Pe on Oe 155 
(RECOGNI Men CIDSEIWALOEY 2 eG pee eee Shek tae cee kek) ee ix, 8, 94 
Astropnysical. Research, Division Of... 2 2.22..222....-6.09I¥ vs. 94 
Rublicationd sas ao. sue ee Oe Temi an TO Cait e) a ee 96 
Radiation and Organisms, Divasion: of 02 oe tol ee 94 
LECT EG) 4 AER ALS SR ee) Ae Piet ene ery ec Re MR Le Cae OPI 96 
Attorney General (Francis Biddle, member of the Institution)___________ Vv 
AvighionemuransoAretic(PHSChKe) =. s08s eet ey oe ee 285 
LESTE EATS. A ie CET ot RE Aan A a a Cf vi 
B 
Barkley, Alben W. (regent of the Institution) .__________________-___-- v, 9 
RABE APE fos ee eit ee PE ce a Ss ees vi 
IPR up EECOTIMET Cg een 2 ote bea pret ae Sa ls ie cg aa viii, 7, 54 
ESrrrtseby, crrelt lS i Sos Sey Dee Nd ee ee eet a a ees vi, vii, 14, 23 
1 ESS: S1 7 NG Be aR en ae STATES Pe eT A eect 2) NE TAK Me aneea RIOT 20 vii, 24 
LEC) 0H ETT Ce at, Ci pM ia SE RPC MEE SCARE, SUE NCTE Re eee Pop Praca gs vii 
esi beeltoia Dies 2 el Se ee Bie ae ae Bee DAL pe ee Le oe 3 
Belin, Ferdinand Lammot, Vice President, National Gallery of Art_ viii, 29, 30, 38 
Belek. Meee a aches MS BS al Aa RE ta Pk or he op 2 SS vii 
Bem Art lis © oy aber ais) ene ple Le OI Bh ald Sele ah vi 
Ley riesl VOSA ed mies LRM inal gee oat ayy a ee eyes, Ny cle raged tell SA be A Sieh eM SEA NN 29 
Biddle, Francis, Ritonied General (member of the Institution)__________ Vv 
Biology and medicine (Chandier tet ese ca ned) ae ah ome eh 317 
URAC Ge OU Tag seth 9 Bg & [LES A day ape pea ees OB NS dS Si Cn el ies Sei a il 67 
Blackwelder, | Rag © ites Miata 4 Ee gs Pte 1 a et Oi tke Ak ade 2S ob vi, 24 
RRISRNOes CECE Ret oto cnt) is I er hates A eee ee hae 13 
"STULL 1 ASI Geel cea a eR ag ay? Saree BR. a 94 
Apres PCIE EA a het 558 BA PU AS So ee I NE Ne ae ot a vii 
CELIAC EEE i Ula 6 i aliety yb 2 el gy alegeemteet clean ey veoh (bea ik abd Lh leh PE oak gD eM lg ly et vi 
eure nl er GET CANUTE) 5 or or eee eeu menn en eRe See ap 8) or eet! EN ee 453 
EES ween) at] 8) eorrnrsa CLD) 8 are eA re rr A Tere dee ae eC ren Hebe sf ee ae a 
Brown, AVE Lip el 0S Skies ore) sa een a ate eee ee LN NAPE 
Bruce, David K. E., President, National Gallery of Art________- viii, 29, 30 
Bryant, RELIES Ste eh ate e492 reanig a) sere mn ne MB emer Tht BAM apy deen Ne Peas 2 2 vii 
Buchanan, Ean oe re eh ora a Mat ad ene eee Deen a at rent ten she Oe vi 
Bush, Vannevar (regent of the Institution)__-.._.._.--..----_------ vee On 116 


496 INDEX 


Cc 
Page 
Cairns, Huntington, Secretary-Treasurer, National Gallery of Art______ viii, 29 
Cannon, Clarence (regent of the Institution) ._--__-_..._.._-..-______- v, 9, 116 
Carey, (Charlese:)4:hitc depen | Teel aia oe Nee eieraes Sane vii 
Carriker, Mi Ay JR 22 on, ilps ee Re ee ee ae ae eg 23 
Carwithen, B. T., personnel officer of the Institution__._____.___________ Vv 
assed y 35, Gly oe eke Pe Bee Se) ee eee eee viii, 58 
Gentenary celebrations. . 2200 Jo 2 oo SAR ee oe he ae ee 10 
Chain, E. (The development of penicillin in medicine)__________________ 461 

Chanceller of the Institution (Harlan F. Stone, Chief Justice of the United 

States) ee el 2 pr al eae tongs ain eee ag v, 9 
Chandler, Asa Crawford (Biology and medicine)_______________________ 317 
Chapin, H.Au 20. cok evel Oe a 4 eh Ge a) hee el eee ae vi, 24 
@hase, Agmess 2... 152 to ed 2 erent WE fee a ae le te ts eyes vi 
Chief Justice of the United States (Harlan F. Stone)___________ vV, viii, 9, 29, 30 
Clark, Austin Hios<100) achesilecs bop eGbeuilaceora) ete Se Sait vi, 24 
Clark, Bennett Champ (regent of the Institution)____________________-_ v,9 
Clark, Leila .F;; libratian: of the: Instifution:.0. 20) edb eh: eevee eee v, 102 
Glare) Leland: Boo... 3.30222 LS eee eee et Be ee ee ee is ix 
@lark, obert eterlmg 202 28 eyo il ed ee ee vii 
@Cechran, Doris M.7* 2020 So leer a ft panne ie ieee vi, 14, 23 
Codling moth; The. (Porter) .22 a0) 4050-1 odh4ed qusiiows A ieee 347 
Coline) Henry, Bay dre ae) Ss Oats kee oy oa Eanes viii, 7, 53 
@onamerford, Ta. Bo. 25 foe ns ee ee Sn pee pee 3 ae eeeaneee vii 
Compton, Arthur H. (regent of the Institution) _____________..__- ____ v,9 
@onger, Paul 8.2) 22 Jot. gta¥l rolirecal sl reborn vi, 14 
Cook} O, Feo. ooh aaah Ek aed 5 Beye Ur Bb es A Te eit ae oe vi 
Coon, Carleton §. (Southern Arabia, a problem for the future) _________- 385 
Cooper; GustavisAls oo2t ee Soe bee eee ee ee eee ee ee vii, 5, 15, 25 
@ooper,, Myron No eo eae Cet 25 
Gox, Edward E. (regent of the Institution) -_—-- "= = ee v,9 
Cross, Whitman¢ 250 02% 1 PU YS. UN etter be hs CSC): boeg ae pees eee vii 
(iishinian, Josepl: Aloo > 5 2k ny ee eee vi 
Cushman, Robert, Avs iiediie_ ale Seles BE err C Lovesey 8 a vi 

D 
Teles, Shes ber ee ee er ie ee ere 0 Ps ee ce oe viii, 29, 30 
Dayid) W .: Laylor Model/Basin = The (Howard) 2 027 oo ae eee 239 
Davis, Harvey N. (regent of the Institution)... 1.2... .2--s.-----..- v,9 
Deipman’: Ele Geo ase oe ser h tN ea eer er On ets ae et Se ae eee vi, 23, 14 
Delano, Frederic A. (regent of the Institution)_._.___.__.._.___._._.-__--- Viioy DG 
Wenamore, "Puram ceg =o a se rae we hee ee nr © ees er na 7, 56 
Director of the National Museum (Alexander Wetmore)_______________-_ Vv 
Dorsey, Harry W., administrative assistant to the Secretary___________- Vv 
Dorsey,Nicholas\ We, Dreasurer of the lmstitution == 2220 =e eee Vv, viii 
Douglas, A. Vibert (Astronomy in a world at war)______________-______~- 155 

E 
aster Island, (Métraux)c-0 8 See oe ye oe eee ne eee ee ea 435 
Editorial division, Chief,( Webster P. True) _.> 2.2.2.5) 223) te Le v, 109 
Bdimundson> Wy S222. ooo see Soke Bee Oe ee ee 25 
Fillis, ‘Mia IMC 5 oo ols Sea ce oe ie ee ee ee eee eas vi 
Epidemiology of tuberculosis, Aspects of the (Parr)__.___-------------- 477 
Betaplisument, The. jo: 525.25 soci ce So ee ee 8 
Ethnogedgrapbic Board. 2s 100 eo i eee 2 
Hthnology: (Buresuof Americans oes oo ae oan ee ee ee ee viii, 6, 51 
Editorial work and publicntions oe oo ee 56 
Handbook of South American Indians 2_.. 2 U2 = a es 56 
Tihustrationa. 72. SoS eee ee ee ree ee 58 
Institute of Social Anthropology =~ = oa eee eee 55 
GDP AT Yo ae os eg ee 58 
Miscellaneous. oul ol ooo eee wee ee ee eee eee 58 
Personnel. oe ee een ee ee i 58 
Report. a ae a 51 
Special Teséarchies oe ee ee ee 56 
Stare a ee a viii 


ee 


INDEX 497 


Page 
Executive Committee of the Board of Regents__-_________-_-____-_- v, 110, 116 
1 S{3) 00) ope ae y= Petort © a eee, a Pe ey eh yess NE Cerys ep em oe ee) 110 
AT DLO P BIG UIO TSS oe al NMR AM a ALI deh ii el AS) See a he 115 
BTS rae ARSE NE ata OB nef De A Sha 116 
Cash balances, receipts and disbursements______________.----- 113 
Classification jofinvestmentssees- 2* ete ape Beh 113 
Consolidatedifund’. 306 wo. cous cee hep Med ee gh oe Bebe th ie 111 
IPMGOWMENt PUN GS! sae ky ee eee Bays ae ee et eed a 110 
HreeriGallenynoneArt era cae ge Te) eee a eS eee ee ee 112 
RISER ATIC DAG LCR hess til Nap ahh) slates as ee ye 115 
Sulithsonian- endowmentitund sae hi. 2s jb. es aes ee 110 
SS UU TM Saray ee ah | NN es pd ot haa AR a aa i INE, 113. 
F 
CEST LET CB] Dp Oe yg gl Re pl ag aA rn yc vi 
Farren, W. 8. (Research for aeronautics—its planning and application).._ 251 
Hederal a WORKS PAG Gye ae on een ee men ee he ae aie eee eRe See 31 
Pe nraner veniam ene a ae eae ie ore eee eee ee eee viii, 7, 53, 54 
ODETTE S Th eaten enlace cattle ha oe aah a ig ele A eg gaged er yt 10, 110 
Finley, David E., Director, National Gallery of Art_______--------- viii, 29, 30 
SIS EV PAATT CLO VVALL TRE Se TeV CG aera © eens trom ey Si driay hse Aer SLATS BAY tne eh eoape eee ce 17 
TERS ONS y als and & Sagat pa enc A at in aa Ri lid ee EMO dB np ane ED ER bit iid UAE, Lipa vii 
UCL TE ie lO AS Nae yy a er a ag een a al a IN ga SA of vi 
Bivehis himan Memstecdn (Matthews sco. os Pee 273 
Florey, H. W. (The development of penicillin in medicine) -_______-_-_-- 461 
Forrestal, James V., Secretary of the Navy (member of the Institution) -- Vv 
rere mA LISL TEN et Sere werner nae oy ee ie tee ea ee vii, 15, 24, 55 
ETeorallonyrciwcriee © hm ey hea aes 9 dbl De hale en eee a nee vili, 6, 44 
PAUUCTICL ATTIC OSM ere oan wan Se pane Da 2 Wiehe AON hr ain SR Os 48 
Changes in exhibition and repairs to collection_-__._-------------- 47 
rath oye ah Ui oy, NR A ORL, 2 ISRO ge le peer een TE ene ye ee a 44 
Wiitntinlcwa pices a een Ce ITN en tee erereaae 46 
Woeeniiservices lectures: Stes to oa PO a ae ee 48 
| ECSU S(Cpohn ey LER ALON EA, "le Tae Sei Cs pk A Dp adel pn a gee econ DPE ee 49 
a Rests ee oar eas ee Oe a oat ele ai ho Oe 4 
Sea penne A ely rie ecere tty pene See Wt 7S WNT 2 FSR er a ea vill 
Dire arin canes re os ee ll bd ka et ss OS. Se a 46 
racenanthn ie msert 2 ite hn vee na a soe eee vi, 23 
G 
PLCS Sk EST Mong cn ESPANA Se I ah RT: rae A ap IRAs Re | of vii 
Gass, F. E., Acting Chief Clerk, International Exchange Service - ------ viii, 66 
meen. Lewis. MI Gs Sede OA ds Ee NEN obey BE Pa 9 vii 
zi ess bebh be! See eae et wah ie Wael Sb eae viil 
Crautieceres: soins ford toate th hes Dee An 2 Ye Soper 68 
|S OUUN TENG es 10 eho aM ono ga eal 20 Lana yl enna amet Ca LIE bes 4p 8A a 55 
Con Vay 0.208 | OLAESS Fig RRR EI akc MESS CS nO ee ee ini By ESTES vii, 25 
CeEOEC DDN GAC oe ge ee eee ek ce ee Ue ET ear es ae 29 
CSL CTS OSG) 2 a ab eae ia ale aes Sh WE, SPL eg Ene nee ce esine Remar). At 5 8 2 vi, 23 
Graf, John E., Associate Director of the National Museum-_----_-------- v 
eam Dayna oer swe ee a ee i cat eek ae oe ee wie vii 
Grassland and farmland as factors in the cyclical development of Eurasian 
firstory: (Onith) 20.06 202 eee Soe cue J aE ae Dee 357 
ipreuipy. Mrs. 2.0 2 See ke OL li Dh etal pits gat 94 
PreGHe NC HAMIES Lyn ae n. A heen ets Le) ie Scam ae ot oe vl 
Guest, Grace Dunham, Assistant Director, Freer Gallery of Art_-------- viii 
H 
tiptoe Peacdicnete NTN ess a aL Ue eee viii, 7, 52 
Heaps, Claude William (The structure of the universe) -_--.------------ 165 
USOT S18 ORL ON IAD AUR SRI 1D ASN Ds A eke eB ne Dy eet igen} eA Eo vii, 24 
AISI Sean ig fol 201 aR Oe aeoaadt 2 SANS Delis eee tall partmanmty oye red ME dash a bee: © 17, 23 
LAREDO E ESR Ee. Ria tpaies ee aria ad Ate baled ately hy De 02S AB Bip, 1M Rani te ete vii 
Blan an eek > ee ee eeu Lat ee ee Le viii 
Hill, James H., property clerk of the Institution. _~._--_.------------- v 


ET peaviesr WU ti ikee taal et a, cece eee ee SS eC ES oe ei ix, 94 


498 INDEX 
Page 
Hopkins, A; D..~ 2-20-22-2 cen SE Oe a 7 Ete vi 
Howard, Herbert S. (The David W. Taylor Model Basin) -_--_-_-------- 239 
Howard, Dy Ole: sie ee AR ae a eR vi 
Howell, A: -Bragieri.. os ee ee vi 
Mrdli¢ka, sAle®i= 252 2s oo 2 SEU OU TORS AIMEE CDOS Se 5 aT EOS AORN Ape Pe 22, 
Hull, Cordell, Secretary of State (member of the Institution)____ v, viii, 29, 30 
Human limits in flight: (Matthews) =. . 2221-2 2 Pee? : 273 
I 
Ickes, Harold L., Secretary of the Interior (member of the Institution) -__-- v 
Industrial science looks ahead (Sarnofi)/2. 4255) 2 ee 183 
Institute of Socisl Anthropolopy: j.2...i42i25-8.2 2-3. ee ee viii, 3, 55 
Inter-American cooperationcr eS ee SE A as ae ee ee ee 3 
Inter-American ‘Ofiieety: betel on Jas ck” ee Wie oe ae ee 30 
Interdepartmental Committee for Cooperation with the American Re- 
Dubos e eke 2 en ee Whe ky eel a ed Pana Oe 55 
International Exchange Gerviees/icculs.ic222 220-422. ee ee viii, 6, 59 
SAT TOEO PELE CLOT ssc Nee eek ht iio RO ace ea 59 
Foreign depositories of governmental documents________---------- 60 
Depositories :ortull sets. vero... = ae 60 
Depositoniesioipartialisetse 2-5 uo =e ee ee 62 
Horeign exehanpe, activities. v.24. sa eee ee see 64 
ist Ob agencies see! aa ees 5 eb aes Me One 65 
Interparliamentary exchange of the official journal_____----------- 63 
Packages isentiyant® Teceiveduat so. 2\2- ds Sc ee bao eet ae 59 
PETS OMNES) eee yeh es a sea eh pe ete 66 
Reportuc:) ss es BURY Ss Sr Fo er eg cy ee ee 59 
J 
James, Macgill, Assistant Director, National Gallery of Art_-_---------- viii, 29 
shaban: HED. re he Ser ee Te eg ee vi 
DOWNSTOM, WH aR Se ee ee sae A rar ee eas ee On mea ee ee ix 
Jones, Jesse H., Secretary of Commerce (member of the Institution) -____ Vv 
FLITE 5 Co MRNAS = 9 Ul il tei ala pen nage Bap Pele pcan ye a esipyne ln Beara St vi 
K 
Keeper ex officio of the National Museum (Charles G. Abbot) -___-__--__- Vv 
Kellogg: Remingtoness.6 hae is eee ce) ed ee ee vi, 14, 23 
Heppel. Brederick: Pia Serve 0/8 VERE Sk Ce oe oe eee 2 Bile ee 6, 39 
Ketehum,, Miriam Bee sesmuins ) tees tetera) Satellite ee ae viii 
AGlip: Ps worth Pies ee eee ea BA Ae oe Seem ees a eee ee vi, 22 
Krantz, John C., Jr. (Recent advances in anesthesia) _________-___-_---- 467 
Krecker, Frederick H. (Woods and trees: Philosophical implications of 
somel facts Of SCIENCE) ee ee eee ee, ie guia NG ea FA ee 307 
Pineae, Sane) eee rs UA a a eee viii, 9, 29, 30 
Kress: Samnel 1.) Paundation: 2-05 ek Ue ee 9 
bailar -a2) geo kau ees Re PRY ae aay UNM une nei ot tS vi 
L 
Leonard: Wmery' Cli qae yoy, PhO) OE UE LOTS ee AE Le vi 
Lewton, ‘Frederick Doo) o2ce se be eo ee vii 
Librarian of the Institution (Leila F. Clark) 22 222 S29) 8 ee v, 102 
BADTArY oS oa ed a ee ot Sa he de A aS ee 12, 97 
Accessions 22062, (TUT eT ROWE, NOLO Lys DEB e pel | COLE ss SR 98 
Cataloging) o. Ste re ee ot ee ree en oe 100 
C71 kid ARGUE Mines) eee hess AREA Ie 99 
Personnel! 2). otc) Se i ee Pee ye eae te ee ee ee 101 
Report. 2 2 ie Pa aii ie pe desiree ait aa aE peers Pe 97 
SS PADISET CR 2 te ag aye th eg 101 
Wartime Setivities ts say ee ye ie ye eee ee 97 


ee eed eee oe ae er La) hee 


INDEX 499 


M Page 
MacCurdy, George Grantley 02. oe pete y Yo Siaidd Iwieiwoty vi 
MOIOMey WAIMe Cewek i By ele Sor del netted YO vi 
Mann, William M., Director, National Zoological Park______________ Vi, ix, 93 
em eenthecnemi ret RENEE OF run Osan, Oe ne wii 
Minstiodll, Wyllie te ee ae LD creat vil 
Matthews, EL, (human) limite inflight) 28 Se earl nl tens. san To aka 273 
Winxaniny lesa. Ose nAuatiliakevinjsiw. otleerengh) ty vi 
MeAlister, Edward 1D TP OT I eS eed ee OE i 
McBride, i. A., Administrator, National Gallery of Art_______________ viii. 29 
McClure, eg Te UR eg SE LCS, og Bae RT) fe vi 
IRI PE OT CORAL is sole eas i el ee RE OU LOR at 29 
Re Nery sO lmao seat ose an ae ee aS DRI 9 
Medicine. biology and. (Chandler) 22.0502 2h gos et 
Members Of Ther ingtiuplOn Soa oe Te Te testo ob pau 
Métraux, Alfred, Assistant Director, Institute of Social dnahecpaiaded viii, 7, 53 
(Easter Island) ee ee ee eae eet SP BLES Eos ee RVES OM TCTOTOUR AAT 435 
Microscopes, The new (Seidel and Winter)___________________s..__ 1. 193 
Pieler MGC. Sap Boao Se ies penne rei ae EA Epa vi 
Mitman, Carl Was bach GEN GAL he)... mila Hua phonmolie vii 
Les e TUR a De lat ye Oa SS Eas ee SRS Pe Cae aies Ce e e  S ee 0157 94 
Dipl she tie 0) Fes S.No eee meen che rete ty i 
Morgenthau, Henry, Jr., Secretary of the Treasury (member of the Insti- 

SCI N (2 ME7  ee ae oe SE ee EL Viii, 29, 30 
Morris, Roland S. (regent of the Institution) _........__.__.________. v,9 
eeeaiienl Open Vise Bae) pie nee a MOL dep ieniggs Vi 
POMPE UIST COTUB RW cs e ce ERh ey nae HLINE DoED Jay weigh Hw 06 vi 

N 
National Collection: of me Arts #2! Soe o oes ee Se oe viii, 6, 39 
PPEONFIAUIOUS: oe te eee See See er nl TE OT OR ROE 39 
CATUETING WW Sten Wi yer Turtles te a wis Me pS eile Fo wo lle yn gb 39 
Henry Ward: Ranger tund spurchasese 7-2 eet) LE en) etn 42 
UE UP AL) Ci ee a et a lp lk My Sena A em 40 
Loans to other museums and organizations_______________________ 40 
Wiaerise tivitica’ (= ao eee eet ee eka e eens Yh See a SIO Obg 42 
Bao lie ation sya eee Sees a ee re re Raa le ee ae oe eae we are ty A 43 
PreterenrerWarseyyoeel erm er eta aN tna < - BOMB INE TOOTH a 42 
EMA ieee COR eet ve Ca ate hl ee sn 2 EA Te RO 39 
PiiGROnIAN ATH COMMISSION 25 (m6 nig ls en oe oe wl POTTY SONS 39 
Ppecial CMMtlg brome: = -erits = Ake ST TED OOPS SAS eee 42 
MWathorawalsi by ownersds= =~ +l sils a CPRO0k Ook EN ORAS L4 41 
ninenGaNery Or nry: <r 2s eee ee pe eee ee ee See viii, 5, 29 
PROC MIBUONGer eset oe es 1s 4 oe ee ae 32 
ACCMIAIIONS CENNEINGbEG. oa ie ote ee ek a Sau e 30 
ISTO TO EEA GUO ge Ne ee 31 
PIPORO ANE Gy teed oe see cee eee At a OSU LL SS JO 31 
AvVGinvet private tunds ofthe Gallery. foo Ue ag 38 
Curatoriaitdepantmenve 2.298. Selon ee ne ee ee ey 36 
EiGaWOlNAL PrOREAMN 22. 22 yak fae cee Se eee 37 
He CUDIVEI COMM TCO %s Are neu eae UC ee 30 
LEE PEC STATO fe SUMO 5 28 apa RE a 2 OR nc Nag) RC EE UU 34 
Expendittires and encumbrances: 2. = 22h544..0) fete oo ee te 31 
PRPRTRINCE) CRYEAUINDDIOG = hat: eee ee Cee it ee hi 30 
OT ISRCON GCF CEC AY 2 RN SS eee eye Pee 33 
Gifts of prints ang. drawangs 14 28e otf ot: on ese be bey 32 
LUG oh ag2h ah alee teens oar greece as Le RR ne eS TR on carpe Oe aoe eS 37 
Laan ot works.ofart.by the Gallery eo oe De ee Y 34 
RoanvorworksioL arti tojtne\Galleryss-we ie oT ae 8 33 
lieaned works (of art returned imag “8. fe pote ees Se ee et 34 
[CETTE SO aS eae EN AD RS SAEs eee a ee See Ue ee eee viii, 29 
ener Atien ANG Stall. 8s ee ee ee ee 29 
SIAL gs ST ER eS ee MOE AR IR 38 
Bip ep apna Ge pATWIMNeM bs 2.2 tee eb te 38 
11 CITED 0) 1s i le ee A ne en DOE eSNG S SON Me eC MR, 2) ES 32 


500 INDEX 


National Gallery of Art—Continued. Page 
Restoration and repair of works) of art?) 2-2) eee a a, 37 
Sale or exchange of works of artis... 2232245350 i eee oe 33 
Traveling exhibitions.22. 41. Gulwalwad Tanah Aether ete 35 
Mruetece 2 o.oo eS. Bh eS ke ee ee ee eee Maer & viii, 29 
Various, Gallery activities. 022222522) o 2 ee ee eenays, 78 36 
Works of art stored in place of safekeeping. _-____.________________ 32 

National Geographic Society-Smithsonian Institution expedition to 

1h >| 79 Ma Mae aa Oe BA pan Ree Eman NIre rayne CaN PENLP Ape, AR Male PST ST a 6, 51 

National Museum... 272. Ws yaotlol) annc hs nape oie ee v, 4, 13 
PCCOSSONE iit LS a ne See ee 16 
Administrative: atalb 2. 8 oe es ee a aR vii 
Alr-raid protection, 123 0 M8. ..c eS lS See Oe eee 13 
Appropriations. == 522.494... 5.~-4/eihtet bak eee 13 
Changes in organization and staff_. .....i2..5. caljssliand ait ta 26 
Collectiona!scnsiaas. leiehe). ta od vi oul seit: Supe dade 8 ht oe 16 
Explorations, and research..." 2.5. .2445.25:5--8 25 ieee alien 22 
Miscellaneous... 2-2 =. .2. Se Bae obey a Ba pane 25 
Museum: in wwartime soe. 32 a i133 
Poblieations- and pring ee ey ee 26 
WReDOM ie = oars a ee is ae Lies og teak oe 13 
SCIONGIAG jRnAM a ete es ek ee ee a vi 
Special) exhibits oateeues waeia bobs 5. eae OS) waht eee 26 
BAD. PUES RERVIGe the 2 re LL ee ke 2 ee 13 
Visitors ..2 sanentee nt + psn tea! Sele ee deve) et Bee ae 13, 16 

National: Zoological Park... = 4. necetat aot she sees OP ern ix, 8, 67 
Acquisitions. Of Specimens... t005 2203200 eee ae a eee 69 
Animals in the National Zoological Park June 30, 1944_____________ 74 
AIDDTOPTIAGION {2 oe 252 2) na Ste athe Se ee re ee 67 
AtpenG@ance:. | > a5 fs aos 2 SS he ee a 68 
Donors and ‘their gifts. 220 02.0250. So ee 69 
Gifts. 222 oo ees eo a ee Site eG ee 69 
Grounds; buildings; sand enclosures 2 a ees oe ee ee ee 67 
| as S72: BE a ee oa aoe a Meee PN SERINE Be OM SY TAN ORS So es eS 73 
Watural neprodetton 220g et ree ie pees a re ee eee 72 
Personnel’ = 6s Aceh sh aks cae Lat told tee elt ye rd Sean yy Ly ee ed ne eer 67 
Report ae to eo Ae es 67 
Statement; Of accessionss] 2s fe hs eee Ne eee er eee ae 74 
Status oricollee tions Sects. = Dee a eae eC a ye 74 
Wartime problems...) be ee a ee 68 

New microscopes, The (Seidel and Winter) ______._______-_-___-____-_- 193 

New ‘World Paleo-Indian, ‘The (Roberts). 22-22). /2 p24 24s eae ee 403 

Newmans Mo ai eae Doe woe SU Li ea eee Vi 

O 

ensayo ee pea ee ee a ee viii, 106 

Oimeiais.of the Institution... 22 ee ee ee See v 

Qliver, Te oo oe eee) ae ie eater ae ee viii 

Olsnsted, A.J. i ee ee ee ee vii 

i 

Paine, Ry Guuw-saskscenecceke be eccetoeenate = ae ee eee eee eee vi 

Paleo-Indian, The New World (Roberts) _______-__.--_____-_.-_______- 403 

Palmer, M,) Helen... 2. =) Ss :che sisi ssbscties +. pass eee viii, 56, 107 

Palmer, ‘Theodore S20... 6.222 bo eeectt hs ss s2= li tee see Se ee vi 

Parr, Leland W. (Aspects of the epidemiology of tuberculosis)_________-_- 477 

Penicillin in medicine, The development of (Florey and Chain)__________ 461 

Perkins, Frances, Secretary of Labor (member of the Institution)________ v 

Perry, 8. Hen Se oon 2 oes ee ere De eae eee vii, 24-25 

Personnel officer of the Institution (B. T. Carwithen)____________-______- Vv 

Petroleum resources, Our\(Pratt) 2 22222255 2S she ee See ee ea 297 

Phillips, Duncan =: <222222220 stclecesoeicses sels ee eee viii, 29, 30 

Pichetto, Stephen: 8S: s2\-2 so) Sue hohe seek sees ae be eee Se ee ie 37 

Bittier, Henri: = 2-5 s2.sso2522.seseete riled Se = eee vi 

Plischke; Elmer (Trans-Aretic-aviation) =o. 2222265225222 2 eee 285 

Pope, J.Acsevesssckouces fe beee lec aeak sy nk bases Sea eeee ee ean viii 

Porter, B; A. (The. codling moth) 2522.2 252% So ee ee 347 


——— 


INDEX 501 


Page 
Postmaster General (Frank C. Walker, member of the Institution)_______ Vv 
Post Olies Departments jo. teu Sedo il. Dine) selieluet alt do te 21 
Pratt, Wallace W. (Our petroleum resources)___-________._____________ 297 
President of the United States (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Presiding Officer ex 
Omcie or the: Instiquweny st. sult Lacuna bl elie) mare lay ns v, 19 
Presiding Officer ex officio (Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United 
ETS 1 MA AEDS OSB RARE SN SEAT PRE RMP, SSSR RON aD CE OO NR Vv 
Price, eonards toc Uuer tee) JOO MOR OT Cane Le NOON 2s te ix 
Price Wi bernGune we COMPANY. 3 be ee CEL PU ay 9) 38 
Property clerk of the Institution (James H. Hill)_-____________________ v 
PANS NON ION 25-2 eee sese Wea a ee er nek eos DO, 11, 103 
AOtMentselorsprintin geese ae. eee ee ee ees 109 
American Historical Association, Reports_________________________ 108 
Bureaw,of American Ethnology. 30s ee 107 
Ne ab yo rot isl ie) fo) 1 ens Anees a aeanaae ay en ae a Oe MRI? ER 4 107 
BS UC UR a teeter ame Acerca oth ae cn os a eo ae SL BD Ee 107 
Daughters of the American Revolution, Report of the National 
POelety ah: Ms Rt toae: ee AE DU i ihete ei LN. Jieeaee oe 108 
St SET a ah alt eet nt gs SOS Oa eh IG snentyo 103 
AOE ooh ETS ake 0) a na eee RY AOD Fess 1 2 ale BOMettS Dye 108 
IN tO SL SUES io pee Ei? CEL Bie ress eTy 106 
Ammual Reports 2 Sue) Fd ere Ol mg ee ey ee vee 106 
CBr es Crna ee ay ea ch ae SA cence EASE eo SE 107 
Contributions from the U. 8. National Herbarium_____________ 107 
Proceed snes a 2 Sle I SUR Sy Ht Tey pe tea ae Te 106 
TOE atti reg  ye cerhee tne ed rashes erate ee de SO I 103 
PIMMnsenian (FOU ees Fe Me ee alpen i aire de 103 
PAVE NP Ta hg finan Seana DVO aN eer atee a NRC | 27 ae APES 104 
Miscellaneous Collections: 22 2a 1 9200 ve ioe, ol vane bb 103 
ppecial publications. (ou es wee Seek lov vo egdalk 4 105 
WeariBacksraundsStudies tt J. 9g) 30 ootlol. Toul ov ae 104 
R 
Radiosacoustic ranging (R.A. FR.) (Adams) ois oi reat ee 221 
iteberholt, B. Oe saeat ute h. Sota wed at SA ett og ose ele as er vii 
TCE 1 CRE SSSR EGS AIRCR a hy as pe n RARn a « P OM GPE vii 
WS DBSTO tl M SIS [Ses le ocala See ea me eNO OES 5 Zip HE vii 
Meee Mier PEMLEC ON aes a eat Se ee at nn oe se nD oY tae v,9 
Ln 31S saa i a ed AAR i Ce ee te RP ge re a v, 9 
LEST) Cr E23 8 BRT CaS ACR Sa elt en de: 7) ER ae ge gle gc PN 
UT FELLUT ey irl a So Be, Ue geo Dae ele, Sake 22 5 pa len a oy eI CR vi 
1k UL aN" oh Bins in elnino kl, Ya naa eat a ERO eA vi, 23 
Research for aeronautics—its planning and application (Farren)_________ areal 
LEV ETS cya Gel a 9 sh 2 Re i gl i eb iy Oe ys Ce nae ee 5, 25 
Retirement, Smithsonian employees’.2-_ 2 2522520 eee ee 9 
ULUEE S060 Fg Sg ae eh Ae ee BF ada e Be  ctek age nag” pan a ed er vi 
PG eniA: erate elves ity Sa a es fer ieee goes et et ce ees ee viii, 7, 52, 53 
Cine: New World Paleo-Indian) ca eo ee he Re 403 
LERTLOCS AST Me IE eh Be oie ap lie ct 8 cv tl a ea en, 1 Se ae vi 
Roosevelt, Franklin D., President of the United States (Presiding Officer 
Gx amc ob the Pughiapiom) so Gee ek ee i ieee v, 19 
LSS gl ZEN 6 1010 RR OS RRNA topes = [acc Se ee a LS See ae ee PES a vii 
Pompeell onl ONWMSeIG A. os ee PN ie Ne eed a ie ET vi 
S 
RPOWIY: OLOTOS fi ashi eee lee ee oe ee cit 68 
Sarnoff, David (Industrial science looks ahead)_______________________- 183 
Bigs ER WV ee ao 2 ot ae eat Re oo ee wet mE chee BS Aa lh vii 
Semraltns, Wall Wize CRP DORN ey SORE Cr Meiha AMAR ES Ftd Uh 8 hod vi 
enulen eonere Peet 2 oa ee ee ee to a ee VO vi, 23, 24 
PeetiwAed rye 25s a) AOU a, eg A tah os ONC vi 
rs G12) 9 To en ee ne e202 OD era Pe ee mee 78 1 vi 
fe SENS (2) ME oe Fe) RRM DE ECE SE WY ee poe aS vi 
Secretary of Agriculture (Claude R. Wickard, member of the Institution) _ Vv 


Secretary of Commerce (Jesse H. Jones, member of the Institution)______ v 


502 INDEX 


Page 
Secretary of the Institution (Charles G. Abbot) -_- v, viii, ix, 9, 10, 12, 29, 30, 94, 96 
Secretary of the Interior (Harold L. Ickes, member of the Institution) _-__ Vv 


Secretary of Labor (Frances Perkins, member of the Institution)___-___-- Vv 
Secretary of the Navy (James V. Forrestal, member of the Institution).___ v 
Secretary of State (Cordell Hull, member of the Institution) -_-___- Vv, viii, 29, 30 
Secretary of the Treasury (Henry Morgenthau, Jr., member of the Institu- 

16) 6 ee ane Rie np er Pane eh Nel Ge RAMEE ES US Sor Sse eS een v, viii, 29, 30 
Secretary of War (Henry L. Stimson, member of the Institution) __-----~_- Vv 
Secretaryship,/change in.....-.2-.._--- =... -Sseuesee hh eee ee 1 
Seidel, R.:.E, (The new, microscopes) 21 22242). -s4ieites bebe see 32 193 
Seizler: Wramkk. j MeL 28h) 2.) ee ee vi, 13 
Shamel. Harold His. 6 et ee ees vi 
Shepard, Donald. D...- 3 ae. de eee At tee ed Re ee 29 
Shoemaker: CO, Reso oe pi oa = ent AS eae Ao ae vi 
Simpson,’ Wiss. ek ee ee 94 
Singlasns CharlesiG2 on iste. Sk ee eee eee viii 
Sirlouis, J.) Rupselks. ts. seaced susie le ect. ~aenieeet - aed. te eee vii 
Smith, J. Russell (Grassland and farmland as factors in the cyclical 

development, of Eurasian: history)... ...-----2---4-~<-=-=--aeseeenee 
Smithsonian Art, Commission....- 0.2. 25-4206 640 Io ee eee 6, 39 
Solar'vaniation and weather (Abbot)... 0-92 = ere Oe eee 119 
Southern Arabia, a problem for the future (Coon) --------------------- 385 
SOME G UNTO TS eae te ee ees ee 21 
Stanton, T..W..-..-suseedeal baied LL ads eps aanieaee vii 
Stearns, Foster (regent'of the Institution). ......_---..__ <2 ¢i2seus5_ + v,9 
Stevenson, John: Ano) oo ene eae aaa see eee vi 
Steward, Julian H., Director, Institute of Social Anthropology__-_ viii, 3, 7, 53, 55 
Stewarts Tidele.- eee Bere vi, 15, 22 
Stimson, Henry L., Secretary of War (member of the Institution) -______ -- v 
Stirling, Matthew W., Chief, Bureau of American Ethnology-_-__- viii, 6, 51, 58 
Stone, Harlan F., Chief Justice of the United States (Chancellor of the 

Tonohatantiepr) 2 ie pects. cota of SS 2 oa ee V, viii, 9, 29, 30 
Strategie information to Army and Nawy.-..2--- 3-2-2} spe eee 2 
Strong, Willian Duncan, Director, Ethnogeographice Board_---_--------- 3, 51 
Structure of the universe, the (Heaps)-_---_--------.-------=---------- 165 
Summary of the year’s activities of the branches of the Institution_______- 4 
SSyereka ich, aa AE Rh pyc ote se ne a no aid ne ear ee reo viii, 6, 51, 52 
Swarzenski, Hanns ont 25-8 ee eee eee eee cee ee Stee eee 29 
DBwiriele Wis Di fees tn eee ee ee se ae vi 

- 
Maylory Brak Aci: Sect ee es BES See ee ne ee ee vii 
Tavise Color Card Assotistion: 62> = 22S 8 nee ee eee ee 19 
PETUGIO; WY BRET an ne ne a cate a ty ce eR wae ce 20 
Tolman, R. P., Acting Director, National Collection of Fine Arts__-vii, viii, 43 
THANS-ATChICl aviation (CE liscHke)in a ee ek ee eee el eee es 285 
Treasurer of the Institution (Nicholas W. Dorsey)--------------------- Vv 
True; Webster P:, Chief, Wditorial Division... = ate v, 109 
Tuberculosis, Aspects of the epidemiology of (Parr) _---_-------------- 477 
"ucker:” Mise Wy ese ae a ean ee ee 54 
U 
Wniverse, The structure of the-(Heaps)-----_-_- 222s] eee Ieee 165 
Pan 0 Reece te ether e ye, Loe separa eymer ne eye k a VURAL Ee 13 
Dvarov, BD. P. (The locust plague)" __ 212-2. 2 331 
V 
Vauehan,. "TW ote os Se ae ee ee vii 
Vice President of the United States (Henry A. Wallace, member and regent 
oftthenstitution) \22 5 2isc o-oo Se v, 9, 16, 20 


VOKS (Soviet Russian Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign 
Countries) ..2- 2 eee. ens ee ee ee ee 20 


INDEX 503 


WwW 
i Page 
Walcott, Frederic C. (regent of the Institution) __._...........--._---- v,9 
CETL or G1 2g rg eo CSR a a ES pe vi, 14, 24 
Walker, Ernest P., Assistant Director, National Zoological Park_________ ix 
Walker, Frank C., Postmaster General (member of the Institution) __-____ Vv 
Walker, John, Chief Curator, National Gallery of Art__-.._..._._-_-- viii, 29 

Wallace, Henry A., Vice President of the United States (member and 
Repeeinon wae TiSsmhtIMIOn) oe ee ele eee eee V; 9) 16,,°20 
Walter Rathbone Bacon traveling scholarship_____.__.__.________--_--_-- WAP} 
Wire OMG LeClair eee eee eae ee Senha SE Se eee Sut 4 
Pepe orope Ve Thee Weed ees eee See eee Co i ee 21 
Winner Wins*.tt atop eee tee te eee Shs poe eee eee ee ae 94 
Reset e Nera eek ene ee ee eee ea ek A ee etl 25 
Wartime activiiies of the Institution. .-- 2-2-2522. 20.6 cee sae 2 
yer atisy Si VIII Nn te eee eet re ee ee Soe oa vii 
Weather, colar yariavioncana (Abbot)o 52 25.2225 bet ee oe oe 119 
NCCE VAIO. Bigs ke meme Meee ere ee eat ee Sia IS oo Oe eS vi, 15 
BMeILTAUD OUSti tae Ate. eee ee SM ee ee ee ix 
Wenley. A. G., Director, Freer Gallery of Art... --_ . 52-2 ose viii, 50 
Wetmore, Alexander, Assistant Secretary of the Institution-_______-_-- v, vi, 1, 28 
WVinitebreads Chanlesmas. i =e ane esa eo kt SE ee vii 
Wickard, Claude R., Secretary of Agriculture (member of the Institution) _ v 
PNR Ctn Ose UE Ae omens eee mene le at Se es SS oe 29 
Vivi hae, JUV oe BA ea Lape ae ea Re Ace ee ee ge eee viii 
Winter, Mi. Blizabeth (The new microscopes) - ......--....-..~-.-...--< 193 
Woods and trees: Philosophical implications of some facts of science 

(USE CHET, een eres ee Lp eee earn eek, 8) oe aE Ap oe ee De ee 307 

Y 
Bites Or enV inne ae ee a ee ee oe eee ied 116 

Z 
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