Skip to main content

Full text of "Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution"

See other formats 


ata a 
FA ee RR ae 


Mra; ' ku 
ro by) | f 


yO RNR yah) 
a Pcs We Va 
Mate 


x} 


ANNUAL REPORT 
OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF 


THE SMITHSONIAN 
INSTITUTION 


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


1910 


WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1911 


ae Ry : ; 


“atv o2nTtive aur 7 
AOTPUTITeEL o# 


esx ITIOVIIKS ,2AOITARIMIO. ART OVIWOR2 - 
VOLTUTIFa4! SAT IO VOITIAKOD AvA 
of AZUL DUIIMT KAT’ ANT HOF 


= ? 


- 


vt 


LETTER 


FROM THE 


SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 


SUBMITTING 


THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE 
INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1910. 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
Washington, May 29, 1911. 
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 condition of the Smithsonian Institution for the year end- 
ing June 30, 1910. I have the honor to be, 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
Cuartes D. Watcort, Secretary. 
Tit 


i a7 7 al 


4 - . 


MOVIN TAAL ZRIZOSZHTING ANT FO YHATIE 
: 4 ba 
a ar | emrTiinal rm 2 e 
@uT tO 2Tuaoas TO MHACE BHT TO THOTER TAUHMA 
Cfet oe 2MUt OMIGKS AATY UNF AOL WOTTUTEAAE 
= | wom ran was eCRR THES AD. 


AAGL OG yo, aookgedan H : 2 

-antotaA hevinS sit Ao sevroneD Co al 
oul Yo Pain i fad heaivail eit Yo BOG -1oLins toiw soonbwoten a aS 
expel to bene off To Uadod at proaol oli avail T 29ie3 Bete 
jbusyzo enoitemge ollt To degen leucine of! corgaoD of toedie $% 
’ has reoe off tot poiintiieal aninvesdttion® oat to wolitbaoe baum a wt 
| od ot sonod oft y7ad TF OFOL08 souls Qk 


; funy ot beaaten airy Selielhineqesr wat a4 ta 
Aaee. rroo.n (CE eine ) an 
fi . : “> 

* 


CONTENTS. 


2 
Letter from the secretary submitting the Annual Report of the Regents to ‘ 


OEE Saeed de oe eee eneeeenee ss 2° 2 Beene ce srsrer | 
MBariteriaior THO FEPONG totes = 9 pcp fe sie ~ esa Ree OS nae gr sre wim tip’ < 
| Ce a ee ee ee a ae eee ee ees ee nee ee eee 

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 

(he Srathsonion flasiitution. y4).csbe 225 -Lasveerdlosbe . sdlcenetodss te osdwaree 
ithe, Wstsbbishmen tise: 5613 snap! vil ered beeeeetigesion-edd ae sash. 
The Board ou esemtat rad cco ~oo2ten!- tisietd owen avai acure eunbiuwabos 
General considerations. .:......-.-------+0055 Mia Purtherses 5248 5 S50 es 

Importance of a National Seismological Laboratory.................. 
EMAINGCS 692) ast anaia<dss eae A ee ed Sete Se uses Se 
Explorations and researches— 

Smithsonian, A rican) Hxpedition:).. +, de2ud Ja oo: aulesid: sackeoree 

Studies in Cambrian geology and paleontology ....................-- 

Geological investigations in the Far East and in Newfoundland....... 

Study of Amieriean mammals. 2255269 2 oa) et eett Je pa blidasiiad «ous 

Biological survey of the Panama Canal Zone............-.----------- 

Antiquity of man in Soauwtly Amoericat) 220 sec doc tewans ol). Sees tndece 

Researches untlerMoedgkinsifund:: 2o.02h se dco lee we woth aoe dues 

Smithsonian table at Naples Zoological Station...................... 
Pamsuemaons. ...)... eave it eporsich her bot and. O10! oSS0s - hence d.sdk 

Advisory committee on euaie and ypu bitcationeeect: ob). 85 f5ey- 
Theslibeaeyet! ngewe bw i. ad caviate ot oetarwer 2h deicg-eeliisn od? .anneslic 
Theplameley mpdal sieos ca % spose od Seamer see ime oh te ate Levee: 
The Lansley memorial tablet: ..j2a¢54 -L)aJuseubljte aeease-ad! ad: wedged 
Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.........-.-.---------------+--- 
International congresses and celebrations ..........-.-..-..------------- 
Miscellancous........-2.=<-+-05 olsen! J5byl. Seas 2 dateies 4 do oe: 

Nationals Mise tiniwite lose! atv elt ed sete enacted ae. Shite sonenis te oti Seb 
National Gallery Gi Arto. a.<5 45.544 pea Ses ok ery. SE a, Bie tee 

Bureau. of American Ethnology.........<....-saussdeteapette c= ft sreethied 3% of: 

International Ha chaages: 20212 ras ccparosieke BAe als oe aes Jone) Janids 

Wttional 2omiomioal Park: i250 5 64.22 seb asasbad 3 ten ad ae 25 OE 

airophysical Observateryee dus? . i. vet deb bane gies bes Sieve lt dw metidta rh oy 

International Catalogue of Scientific Literature............-----------+--+---- 

Appendix I. Report on the United States National Museum ..-.......--.---.. 

II. Report on the Bureau of American Ethnology........-------.--- 
III. Report on the International Exchanges............-...---.----- 
TV... Reportvon the National Zoolopical’ Park. \.-......2.--22--------=- 

V. Report on the Astrophysical Observatory.......-.--------------- 
Wie Report: onthe Iabrary eee 32. fee soe: 228 ac aho te see aen Ss = 


VII. Report on the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature - - - 
Wil, Keport.on the Pobbeations..<- 07.25 5...4.-.002 4. ast seen nee 
Vv 


a 


bo bk bh hw dw bd bt bd bo 
CONF WD eR 


oPrRWWWwW WwW 
NIDO ON D - & 


68 


SII 
~I to 


80 


oo 
bo 


vi CONTENTS. 


EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND BOARD OF REGENTS. 


Page 
Hoeport of executive committee: .... .<..1.-tesae ee eee ee cae veneer 91 
Procuecines of Board of Regenta.....4:. 8s cee eek eee ee eens serene 96 
GENERAL APPENDIX. 

Melville Weston Fuller, 1833-1910, by Charles D. Walcott................... 113 
Ornamentation of rugs and carpets, by Alan S. Cole. ...........-.....--....- 125 
Recent progress in aviation, by Octave Chanute....................00------ 145 
Progress in reclamation of arid lands in the western United States, by F. H. 

VS WCUh ye sah See oo etree eee eae eh ee 169 
Electric power from the Mississippi River, by Chester IM @lark sheet o see 199 


Safety provisions in the United States Steel Corporation, by David 8. Beyer.. 211 
The isolation of an ion, a precision measurement of its charge, and the correction 


Gt Simices mis, Dy At. A. qa ee A. Shin cs occ oe yaork a ees 231 
The telegraphy of photographs, wireless and by wire, by T. Thorne Baker.... 257 
Modern ideas on the constitution of matter, by Jean Becquerel............-.-.- 275 
Some modern developments in methods of testing explosives, by Charles E. 

AOC ere cteer new va satan eterarct orn hate tether lowing 2x tes ore SER Pate 291 
Sir William Huggins, by W. W. Campbell... .........22....2-2...00.20220-- 307 
The solar constant of radiation, by C. G. Abbot........ Suter nr sd eR 319 
Astronomical problems of the southern hemisphere, by Heber D. Curtis. ....- 329 
The progressive disclosure of the entire atmosphere of the sun, by Dr. H. 

Meslandres ess «secre rspeseereetoree SSSI SL DE VS RR! OR 341 
Recent progress in astrophysics in the United States, by J. Bosler.............. 357 
The future habitability of the earth, by Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin. . ..... 371 
What is terra firma? A review of current research in isostasy, by Bailey Willis... 391 
Transpiration and the ascent of sap, by Henry H. Dixon.................-... 407 
The sacred ear-flower of the Aztecs, by William Edwin Safford. .............. 427 
Forest preservation, by Henry S:'Gravesiis: es 0.5945 8. Se. 433 
Alexander Agassiz, 1835-1910, by Alfred Goldsborough Mayer... .......-.--- 447 
Recent work on the determination of sex, by Leonard Doncaster. ........-.-.-- 473 


The significance of the pulse rate in vertebrate animals, by Florence Buchanan. 487 
The natural history of the solitary wasps of the genus Synagris, by E. Roubaud. 507 


A contribution to the ecology of the adult Hoatzin, by C. William Beebe...... 527 
Migration of the Pacific plover to and from the Hawaiian Islands, by Henry W. 

FIGS RAW 5.5514. tcrcrarercrorateretarersroroere arses UIE RD RES SII? JPR 545 
The plumages of the ostrich, by Prof. J. E. Duerden...............20.s02..0- 561 
Manifested life of tissues outside of the organism, by Alexis Carrel and Montrose 

TD, DSSIOWE dda rc sc see dare tec cos touedosmermr crest tee OE FAO ee 573 
The origin of Druidism, by Julius Pokorny.............-.. 583 
Geographical and siisiad view of the contemporary eS peapled: by Tater 

INICO GR Bik a 13-4 t ore tt ore ee reer rere er reinee 6 ee a 599 
The cave dwellings of the old and new worlds, by J. Walter Fewkes.........- 613 
The origin of west African crossbows, by Henry PBalfour.............--------- 635 
Sanitation on farms, by Allen" W/ Freeman. sJs)2. festue Jee) 20 Jseqes: ...). 255 651 


Epidemiology of tuberculosis, by Robert Koch........-...-....----.------+--- 659 


LIST OF PLATES. 


SECRETARY’S REPORT: 
Plate I: ..... 

MELVILLE Ww. — ( Walcott): 
Plate 1.- AE 

MixMieenraTioN OF ee (Cole): 
Wintesaeae: 2.2 lose ces 
labeSta fame ec eres o- Seyere 
JUSS} Ob Oe epee ether ere ay ese 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION (Chanute): 
) 2 Ted Ee ee ee ee So ee 
WER Oo ea cnis = beeen aed 
ELPA? CoS ts See gana, See a 
latent Os Ores St Boece 
Plahes S14 7 Poe eee ciate eae 
LoL gl ot ee ee 
iPL et aa een ee ee 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS 
(Newell): 
Plaies Wyott ns tot co hae 
JET uciS Hea Le OY eine eee rene tes Aeaea t 
PICS OMG. ase cent cron ee a 
IBIAGESI(e Sent ines coe oe ace 
Blawes. 9% WOsssee: aes 2A 
Plated elm eee oa, 35 scale reer 
Exectric PowrrR FROM MuIssIs- 
sippr RIvER (Clark): 
J EA Biers 2 a Pee eae 
PIER on eos Ss. 2 eo nee ones eos 
PIstesio. Gls S422 eee eee 
RIRLeSH/ MBs) P ak eee 
SaFETy Provisions (Beyer): 
JPEN Keith Ae eee ie estes ee 
PIs es GOR ss See Bote Noe 
TEU WEIS io een = eae re oe 
alae Oral ia eens ce ye oe 
lorem Pres Le era Se es apa 
TELEGRAPHY OF 
(Baker): 
Plate 1.. Rd APR 
Plate aks SES, 
TESTING EXPLOSIVES (Mineoa): 
lates el os hes eh ee 
POR Gees cinlacee ss ene 


PHOTOGRAPHS 


Page. 


104 | 
113 


130 
134 
138 


146 
148 
150 
152 
154 
156 
158 


182 
184 
186 
190 
194 
196 


200 
204 
206 
208 


218 
222 
224 
226 
228 


260 
268 


292 
294 


Continued. 
Pipe eso 2s. ces at 
Platespititetes ssses.5 2-8 6 ers 
Sir Witt1am Hucerns (Campbell): 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN (Des- 
landres): 

Plotesdl—4a... jc5c- asdete eee 

ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED 

Srates (Bosler): 

Pistes tl Oe reece oan tet. 
Plateso7 40s = Sst cee 
Plates 408 acu Sat ee as eee 
LADS R ie (oe ae Ee ee 

Wuat ts TERRA Firma (Willis): 
Plates le Re ees gas neat ees 
Plate 3-- ere 

EAR-FLOWER OF autos (Safford): 
Platelet ees Skee aot Soe 

Forest PRESERVATION (Graves): 
Plates 2 ase ei ee ae 
IMR NGiih ye ainoaasse asec seeeoes 
Pla Ges OM Gs vem erates oN So atare ers 2 
Plate 7.. . 

ALEXANDER Neaserz iiayen) as 


Soxtrrary Wasps (Roubaud): 
Plafes 4. cata oses see ee 
Ecotoay oF Hoatzin (Beebe): 
Plates 1-7.. Ae 
PLUMAGES OF Gums (Pnerdent: 
Pitesti So se cence ae eee 
THE Stavs (Niederle): 
Plate 1 (colored map)..-..---- 
Cave Dwe.uines (Fewkes): 
Plates ee Se estiss Seale fs aa 
lates DsOMe seein ir eee 
Rlateswiposcece see oer e oe 
latest onl Obata neces eee ke 
PP ltewlil race eects ae ei eershe 
West Arrican Crossspows (Bal- 
four): 


| TestING Expiostves (Munroe)— Page. 


358 
362 


ati 


vA Tix 


‘s ie 7 bie bh: 
wy TA: Ve ORAL - 


a 


a. TYTA 


a Pt ; le 1) siren ictdeoall 
ae mete e Pe ‘ aati. 


. = 
f ‘ 7. 2 
Fe I 
& 
“i 
A | 
4 - 
8 ’ i 
' 
f ‘ 
; 
er 
< - 
‘ 
. 1 e& 
- pw 
as 
4 4 
- sn | 
et 
% 
: we 
¥ " 
L pre 
Ss * 
’ ‘» 2s 
’ a 
- > f F ] 
PAs 
r ate 
} 
Cs. 
E hw 
nil 
7 : oF 
see 
‘ F sy = 
a ve 
‘ ie 4 
te J 
¥ . * 
eons ie' 
. 
4 
A : # 
Rs z ptt : at a, 
wASET co : 
. 7A Oe cade « op aes " 
ai 5 P = 
3 § i i 
ee, toni) sh Tes 5K 
"= 68 " : os! if 
= io ane 
hei i ~ . } 
ti 
d etl 


ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITH- 
SONIAN INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 
1910. 


SUBJECTS. 


1. Annual report of the secretary, giving an account of the opera- 
tions and condition of the Institution for the year ending June 30, 
1910, with statistics of exchanges, etc. 

2. Report of the executive committee, exhibiting the financial 
affairs of the Institution, including a statement of the Smithsonian 
fund, and receipts and expenditures for the year ending June 30, 
1910. 

3. Procedings of the Board of Regents for the sessions of Decem- 
ber 14, 1909, and February 10, 1910. 

4, General appendix, comprising a selection of miscellaneous mem- 
oirs of interest to collaborators and correspondents of the Institution, 
teachers, and others engaged in the promotion of knowledge. These 
memoirs relate chiefly to the calendar year 1910. 


ail 
97578°—sm 1910——1 


erina HAs 0, 2TH Af 10 GstK0d SBD 8D nota 
i ae 1 DAG HAY BET A0% wesriyniTe va 


ne 5 2 
" aTOaiioa 


> 3 2 a —< "es 5 4 - 7 . I i 
id “UTAIC ail} to dnyouIn OL anes UTRIAI SS aj to t10a9% leunitAé. ‘ 

~~ ae a . 
a sao¢ oft sol comudiient ot to aortic bas eS 


OG saul, quibas 196% 
| nounetioxe to militate aii pas 


go F¥ cout irten’) aTitinszs 3s ta Pons 


Eh : ‘ f eee eae ers 
—. Sapneni ett puri , + 
r f vert! clon reg ifeteand gh} Yor 2 


M 
H 
yd) JB 


ee qdinowdinte adi te topetetie 6 5 | tod 
ne De “ nL = ferbits ine? vapttt sefeli x9 DMG at nai’ DEE om ih 
> ~ hae * a ‘i : i 
ie z : ; ‘ 6 

: ‘ oT 4 Irie 7. 403 5 Er gasilyoot Te 


a) * * al et eee a 
he aiew Fo enoivase 8a) Or. BAIR 8 
z ) CIR) OF vimedeTD bax ,2OCr os 


‘ 
a heat anor these mm to a ie ed ihascy o Ls 9e 4 
| aovttiten! : it To 23 reat: H no) Bet ad Stele modnlios ay ragrotne | : 

{TOE 

geal anhofyoad to mortomotg at et bergapas 21 lio bee aot 
Tt . oo we gs 
‘ OIL) tay “adraales aft ao} ffiotst is stulot ont ciesba Pe 


— 


janet a ie 


THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 


JUNE 30, 1910. 


Presiding officer ex officio.— WILLIAM H. Tart, President of the United States. 
Chancellor.—MELVILLE W. FULLER, Chief Justice of the United States. 
Members of the Institution: 
WiL~uiAmM H. Tart, President of the United States. 
JAMES 8S. SHERMAN, Vice President of the United States. 
MELVILLE W. FULLER, Chief Justice of the United States. 
PHILANDER C. KNox, Secretary of State. 
FRANKLIN MacVEaAcH, Secretary of the Treasury. 
JacoB M. Dickinson, Secretary of War. 
GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM, Attorney General. 
FRANK H. Hircucock, Postmaster General. 
GEORGE VON L. Meyer, Secretary of the Navy. 
RicHarD A. BALLINGER, Secretary of the Interior. 
JAMES WILSON, Secretary of Agriculture. 
CHARLES NAGEL, Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 
Regents of the Institution: 
MELVILLE W. Futter, Chief Justice of the United States, Chancellor. 
JAMES S. SHERMAN, Vice President of the United States. 
SHELBY M. CuLttom, Member of the Senate. 
Henry Casot Lopcr, Member of the Senate. 
Avueustus O. Bacon, Member of the Senate. 
JOHN DALzELL, Member of the House of Representatives. 
JAMES R. Mann, Member of the House of Representatives. 
WiLitiAM M. Howarp, Member of the House of Representatives. 
JAMES B. ANGELL, citizen of Michigan. 
ANDREW D. WHITE, citizen of New York. 
JOHN B. HENDERSON, citizen of Washington, D. C. 
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, citizen of Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE GRAY, citizen of Delaware. 
CHARLES F’, CHOATE, Jr., citizen of Massachusetts. 
Hzecutive Committee—J. B. HENDERSON, ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL, JOHN 
DALZELL, 
Secretary of the Institution.—CHARLES D. WALCOTT. 
Assistant Secretary.—RICHARD RATHBUN. 
Chief Clerk.—Harry W. DORSEY. 
Accountant and Disbursing Agent.—W. I. ADAMS. 
Editov.—A. HowarpD CLARK. 


4 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


Assistant Secretary in charge.—RIcHARD RATHBUN. 

Administrative Assistant.—W. DE C. RAVENEL, 

Head Curators.—WILLIAM H. HouMEs, F. W. Trug, G. P. MERRILL. 

Curators.—R. S. BASSLER, A. HOWARD CLARK, F. W. CLARKE, EF. V. COVILLE, 
W. H. Datu, B. W. EVERMANN, J. M. Fuint, U. S. N. (retired), W. H. 
HoLMES, WALTER HovucH, L. O. Howarp, ALES HRDLIGKA, GERRIT S. 
MILLER, Jr., RICHARD RATHBUN, ROBERT RIDGWAY, LEONHARD STEJNEGER, 
CHARLES D. WALCOTT. 

Associate Curators.—J. N. Rosr, Davin WHITE. 

Curator, National Gallery of Art—W. H. HoLmgEs. 

Chief of Correspondence and Documents.—RANDOLPH I. GEARE. 

Superintendent of Construction and Labor.—J. S. GOLDSMITH. 

Editor.—Marcus BENJAMIN. 

Photographer.—T. W. SMILLIE. 

Registrar._S. C. Brown. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


Ethnologist in charge—F. W. Honcer. 

Ethnologists—J. WALTER FEWKES, J. N. B. Hewitt, Francis LA FLESCHE, 
TRUMAN MICHELSON, JAMES MOONEY, PAUL RADIN, MATILDA CoxE STEVEN- 
SON, JOHN R. SWANTON. 

Philologist FRANZ Boas. 

Hiditor.—JOsEPH G. GURLEY. 

Illustrator.—DrE LANCEY W. GILL. 


INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 
Chief Clerk.—C. W. SHOEMAKER. 
NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 


Superintendent.— FRANK BAKER. 
Assistant Superintendent.—A. B. BAKER. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 


Director.—C. G. ABBOT. 
Aid.—F.. EK. Fow te, Jr. 


REGIONAL BUREAU FOR THE UNITED STATES, INTERNATIONAL 
CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 


Assistant in Charge.—lL. C. GUNNELL. 


REPORT 


OF THE 


SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 


CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 


FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1910. 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 

GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to submit a report showing the 
operations of the Institution during the year ending June 30, 1910, 
including the work placed under its direction by Congress in the 
United States National Museum, the Bureau of American Ethnology, 
the International Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, the 
Astrophysical Observatory, and the regional bureau of the Inter- 
national Catalogue of Scientific Literature. 

In the body of this report there is given a general account of the 
affairs of the Institution, while the appendix presents more detailed 
statements by those in direct charge of the different branches of the 
work. Independently of this the operations of the National Museum 
and of the Bureau of American Ethnology are fully treated in 
separate volumes. 


THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 


THE ESTABLISHMENT. 


By act of Congress approved August 10, 1846, the Smithsonian 
Institution was created an establishment. Its statutory members are 
“the President, the Vice-President, the Chief Justice, and the heads 
of the executive departments.” 


THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 


The Board of Regents consists of the Vice-President and the Chief 
Justice of the United States as ex officio members, three members of 
the Senate, three Members of the House of Representatives, and six 
citizens, “ two of whom shall be resident in the city of Washington, 
and the other four shall be inhabitants of some State, but no two 


of them of the same State.” 
5) 


6 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


There has been no change in the personnel of the Board since my 
last report, Representatives John Dalzell, James R. Mann, and Wil- 
liam M. Howard; and Hon. John B. Henderson, and Dr. Alexander 
Graham Bell, whose terms of office expired during the year, having 
been reappointed as Regents. 

Meetings of the Regents were held on December 14, 1909, and on 
February 10, 1910, the proceedings of which will be printed as 
customary in the annual report of the Board to Congress. 

Although occurring a few days after the close of the fiscal year, 
I may properly record here the death on July 4, 1910, of the Chancel- 
lor of the Institution, Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the 
United States. Adequate reference to this sad event will be made 
in my next report to the Board. 


GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 


T have called attention heretofore to the influence that the Smithso- 
nian Institution has had in the development of science in this country. 
That its usefulness is not restricted to this country is constantly 
evidenced in many ways. But the achievements that the Institution 
might accomplish, and that the scientific world expects of it, and the 
general good that it might do in the promotion of the welfare of the 
human race, continues to be greatly limited by the lack of ample funds 
to carry forward worthy lnes of exploration and research that are 
constantly being presented for consideration. 

During the past year the Institution’s activities have been increased 
to some degree by gifts for the promotion of certain special lines of 
study, particularly in biological research. 

Among the important works that might be undertaken I would 
especially call attention to the great advantage to this country and 
to the world that would result from the establishment of a national 
seismological laboratory under the direction of the Smithsonian 
Institution. 


IMPORTANCE OF A NATIONAL SEISMOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 


NEED, 


The immense destruction of life and property by certain large 
earthquakes emphasizes the importance of investigations which may 
lead to a reduction of the damage of future earthquakes. The science 
of seismology is in its infancy and it is not always evident what lines 
of investigation will yield the most important results, hence the im- 
portance of developing larger knowledge of seismology in all direc- 
tions. As an example: It was not at all realized that the accurate 
surveys of the Coast and Geodetic Survey in California would dem- 
onstrate that the great earthquake there in 1906 was due to forces 
set up by slow movements of the land which have probably been going 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 7 


on for a hundred years. We have learned that slow movements of 
the land must precede many large earthquakes, and monuments are 
now being set up in California to enable us to discover future move- 
ments of the land and thus to anticipate future earthquakes. This, I 
think, is the most important step so far taken toward the prediction 
of earthquakes. 

COOPERATION, 


Seismological work is too large to be prosecuted successfully by the 
universities, but requires some central office under government super- 
vision to encourage theoretical and observational studies and to col- 
lect and study information from all available sources. The various 
departments of the Government could offer material help. The 
Weather Bureau could furnish information regarding felt shocks 
and could maintain seismographs at some of their stations. Post- 
masters throughout the country could also report felt earthquakes. 
The Coast and Geodetic Survey could maintain instruments and 
adapt their surveys and tidal observations to the detection of slow 
earth movements. The army could give information regarding 
earthquakes felt at their outlying posts, the navy regarding 
earthquakes felt at sea. The Geological Survey could furnish infor- 
mation regarding the geological structure of earthquake regions. 


SEISMOLOGICAL CLEARING HOUSE AND FOREIGN COOPERATION. 


The seismological laboratory would collect and study all this infor- 
mation. It would serve as a clearing house for the whole country. 
It would also be the link to connect seismological work in this country 
with the work done in other parts of the world. Its director should 
represent the United States in the International Seismological Asso- 
ciation which this country has joined through the Department of 
State. 


GOVERNMENT WORK IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 


Germany, Italy, Hungary, Roumania, Bulgaria, and Japan have 
maintained for some years offices for the collection and study of earth- 
quake material. Chile and Mexico have recently established them. 
The work in England is under the direction of the Royal Society. 
Many other countries maintain stations for seismological observa- 
tions. This is the only important country subject to destructive 
earthquakes whose government does not support the study of earth- 


quakes. 
WORK OF THE LABORATORY. 


1. Collection and study of all information regarding earthquakes 
in the United States and its possessions. The preparation of maps 
showing the distribution of earthquakes and their relation to geo- 
logical structure. 


8 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


2. The study of special regions which are subject to frequent earth- 
quakes to determine as far as possible where future earthquakes are 
likely to occur. 

3. The study of the origins of earthauakes occurring under the 
neighboring oceans. 

4. An organization of commissions to study in the field the effects 
produced by large earthquakes. 

5. The study of proper methods of building in regions subject to 
earthquakes. This will require experiment. 

6. The improvement of instruments for recording earthquakes. 

7. Other theoretical studies. 

8. The dissemination of information regarding earthquakes by 
bulletins or otherwise. 

EQUIPMENT. 


There will be required an office, a laboratory, a photographic room, 
a work shop, and a special instrument house. The building of 
this latter house and the general equipment would cost about $6,000. 


ORGANIZATION AND ANNUAL EXPENSES. 


In the beginning there would be required a director, an assistant, a 
mechanic, a stenographer, and it would be necessary to purchase books, 
instruments, and material for the laboratory, etc. It is estimated that 
$20,000 would equip the laboratory and meet all the expenses for the 
first year. After that the work will probably expand and the amount 
applied to equipment for the first year would meet the requirements 
for extension for some time after. 


FINANCES. 


The permanent fund of the Institution and the sources from which 
it was derived are as follows: 


Deposited in the Treasury of the United States. 


Bequest or-smithson, U84G- = 28 5 ee ee ee eee $515, 169. 00 
Residuary legacy, of Smithson, (867... 22 eee 26, 210. 63 
Deposit trom savings Of INCOMe. 1S Oi =e ee ee 108, 620. 37 
Béquest/orf James Eamiltony 1815222583 222s $1, 000. 00 
Accumulated interest on Hamilton fund, 1895__________ 1, 000. 00 
a 2, 000. 00 
Bequest. of Simieon sHabely US80e = 500. 00 
Deposit from proceeds of sale of bonds, 1881_-___________-____-____ 51, 500. 00 
Gittot Lhomas GpHodskius, 1691 eee ee ee ee 200, 000. 00 
Part of residuary legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins, 1894_____-______ 8, 000. 00 
Deposit, from savines.of income; 190322 = ee eee 25, 000. 00 
Residuary legacy of Thomas Gabodgkings #2225 220% 7, 918. 69 
Total amount of fund in the United States Treasury___---~- 944, 918. 69 
Registered and guaranteed bonds of the West Shore Railroad Com- 
pany (par value), part of legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins________ 42, 000. 00 


Total permanent fund 2224) 226 he hee eee 986, 918. 69 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 9 


The sum of $251.95 was received during the year as the first pay- 
ment of a bequest of $500 made by the will of Mr. William Jones 
Rhees, for many years an officer of the Institution. This fund has not 
been invested. 

In addition to the above there are four pieces of real estate 
bequeathed to the Institution by the late R. S. Avery, some of which 
yield a nominal rental and all are free from taxation. 

That part of the fund deposited in the Treasury of the United 
States bears interest at 6 per cent per annum, under the provisions of 
the act organizing the Institution and an act of Congress approved 
March 12, 1894. The rate of interest on the West Shore Railroad 
bonds is 4 per cent per annum. 

The income of the Institution during the year, amounting to 
$107,483.68, was derived as follows: 

Interest on the permanent Foundation, $58,375.12; contributions 
from various sources for specific purposes, $43,230.95, and from other 
miscellaneous sources, $5,877.61; all of which was deposited in the 
Treasury of the United States to the credit of the current account of 
the Institution. 

With the balance of $32,176.70, on July 1, 1909, the total resources 
for the fiscal year amounted to $139,660.38. The disbursements, 
which are given in detail in the annual report of the executive com- 
mittee, amounted to $104,295.50, leaving a balance of $35,364.88 on 
deposit June 30, 1910, in the United States Treasury. 

The Institution was charged by Congress with the disbursement of 
the following appropriations for the year ending June 30, 1910: 


International Exchanges_____________ - oP Aa Te oe eee set Ba S32 000 
PAVENISS ot Gel Flee AG TATTOO = eee ene es SRR ete ees Tere eee Se 43, 000 
IAS Ero piysrGale OD Servacory= = Shas. 2 ee ee ee 13, 000 
National Museum: 
MUnMIture andy fix Lumestesi! tise cosht + fits eee Joel Jai ee ae 200, 000 
Heahineta nda lich tinge ts etarenos _wpret vuiisk UE WIE iy. DOES 60, 000 
Preservation} of Collections s2sesh) Jivetlereu ins Yul ee a) 250, 000 
IB0OKGH? <ssih eed Bor dt atuy MISTI ty) SHIT Ba ERC aS 2, 000 
oOStace: Sot brie 2 ye a ods ey CAs ee i We eS 500 
FS CELDT OT GJ UT See ee ye 2 ee eee 15, 000 
Mowing collectionsito new building!) eet Se eee 4, 000 
Nationale colocicall, (parks 242.131 | ene i Sear. ar Bee 95, 000 
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature______________________ 6, 000 
DG re oe RD ae A ES ee OO LO SS 720, 500 


EXPLORATIONS AND RESEARCHES. 


As far as the resources of the Institution and contributions from 
individuals has permitted, various scientific explorations and re- 
searches have been carried on during the past year, and it is gratify- 
ing to report that the Institution’s activities in these lines have been 


10 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


somewhat more extended than in previous years. Were ample funds 
available to be administered under the Smithsonian Institution, the 
scientific work of the Government might often be supplemented by 
original researches of a character that could hardly be undertaken by 
the Government, and which would be of great service to humanity and 
to science. 

Besides operations undertaken by the Institution itself, important 
biological, ethnological, and astrophysical researches have been car- 
ried on under its direction through the National Museum, the Bureau 
of American Ethnology, and the Astrophysical Observatory, which 
are discussed elsewhere in this report. 


SMITHSONIAN AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 


In my last report there was given an account of the setting out of the 
expedition to Africa in charge of Col. Theodore Roosevelt and of the 
results accomplished prior to June 30, 1909. This expedition, which 
was entirely financed from private sources through contributions by 
friends of the Smithsonian Institution, landed at Mombasa on April 
21, 1909, and arrived at Khartoum on March 14, 1910. The collec- 
tions made by it reached Washington in excellent condition and are 
now deposited in the National Museum. The series of large and 
small mammals from East Africa is, collectively, probably more 
valuable than is to be found in any other museum of the world. The 
series of birds, reptiles, and plants are also of great importance, and 
the study of the material representing other groups will furnish 
interesting results. 

Colonel Roosevelt’s report on the work of the expedition is as 
follows: 

Kuartoum, March 15, 1910. 

Str: I have the honor to report that the Smithsonian African expedition, 
which was intrusted to my charge, has now completed its work. Full reports 
will be made later by the three naturalists, Messrs. Mearns, Heller, and Loring. 
I send this preliminary statement to summarize what has been done; the figures 
given are substantially accurate, but they may have to be changed slightly in 
the final reports. 

We landed in Mombasa on April 21, 1909, and reached Khartoum on March 14, 
1910. On landing, we were joined by Messrs. R. J. Cuninghame and Leslie J. 
Tarlton; the former was with us throughout our entire trip, the latter until we 
left Hast Africa, and both worked as zealously and efficiently for the success of . 
the expedition as any other member thereof. 

We spent eight months in British East Africa. We collected carefully in 
various portions of the Athi and Kapiti plains, in the Sotik and around Lake 
Naivasha. Messrs. Mearns and Loring made a thorough biological survey of 
Mount Kenia, while the rest of the party skirted its western base, went to and up 
the Guaso Nyero and later visited the Uasin Gisbu region and both sides of the 
Rift Valley. Messrs. Kermit Roosevelt and Tarlton went to the Leikipia 
Plateau and Lake Hannington, and Doctor Mearns and Kermit Roosevelt made 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 11 


separate trips to the coast region near Mombasa. On December 19 the expedi- 
tion left East Africa, crossed Uganda and went down the White Nile. 

North of Wadelai we stopped and spent over three weeks in the Lado, and 
from Gondokoro Kermit Roosevelt and I again crossed into the Lado, spending 
eight or ten days in the neighborhood of Rejaf. In Gondokoro we were met by 
the steamer which the Sirdar, with great courtesy, had put at our disposal. On 
the way to Khartoum we made collections in Lake No, and on the Bahr-el- 
Ghazal and Barel-Zeraf. We owe our warmest thanks for the generous courtesy 
shown us and the aid freely given us, not only by the Sirdar, but by all the 
British officials in Hast Africa, Uganda, and the Sudan, and by the Belgian 
officials in the Lado; and this, of course, means that we are also indebted to the 
home governments of Ngypt and Belgium. 

On the trip Mr. Heller has prepared 1,020 specimens of mammals, the majority 
of large sizes; Mr. Loring has prepared 3,163, and Doctor Mearns, 714, a total 
of 4,897 mammals. Of birds, Doctor Mearns has prepared nearly 3,100; Mr. 
Loring, 899; and Mr. Heller about 50, a total of about 4,000 birds. 

Of reptiles and batrachians, Messrs. Mearns, Loring, and Heller collected 
about 2,000. 

Of fishes, about 500 were collected. Doctor Mearns collected marine fishes 
near Mombasa and fresh-water fishes elsewhere in British East Africa, and he 
and Cuninghame collected fishes in the White Nile. This makes in all of verte- 
brates: Mammals, 4,897; birds, about 4,000; reptiles and batrachians, about 
2,000; fishes, about 500; total 11,3897. 

The invertebrates were collected carefully by Doctor Mearns, with some 
assistance from Messrs. Cuninghame and Kermit Roosevelt. A few marine shells 
were collected near Mombasa, and land and fresh-water shells throughout the 
regions visited, as well as crabs, beetles, millipeda, and other invertebrates. 

Several thousand plants were collected- throughout the regions visited by 
Doctor Mearns, who employed and trained for the work a Wunyamvezi named 
Makangarri, who soon learned how to make very good specimens and turned out 
an excellent man in every way. 

Anthropological materials were gathered by Doctor Mearns, with some assist- 
ance from others. <A collection was contributed by Major Ross, an American in 
the government service at Nairobi. 

I have the honor to be, very truly, yours, 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

Hon. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


STUDIES IN CAMBRIAN GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 


During the field season of 1909 I continued my investigations in the 
geology of the Cambrian and pre-Cambrian rocks of the Bow River 
Valley, Alberta, Canada, and on the west side of the Continental 
Divide north of the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. 

The first camp was made on the shores of Lake Louise, southwest of 
Laggan. From this point work was carried forward on the high 
mountains east, northeast, and southwest of the lake, and side trips 
made to the valley of the Ten Peaks and across the Bow Valley in 
the vicinity of Ptarmigan Lake. Many fine photographs were se- 
cured, both of the beantiful scenery and the geological sections, which 


12 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


are wonderfully well shown above timber line on the higher ridges 
and peaks. 

The measurements of the Cambrian section were carried down to a 
massive conglomerate which forms the base of the Cambrian system - 
in this portion of the Rocky Mountains. This discovery led to the 
study of the pre-Cambrian rocks of the Bow River Valley. These 
were found to form a series of sandstones and shales some 4,000 feet 
in thickness, that appear to have been deposited in fresh-water lakes 
prior to the incursion of the marine waters in which the great bed of 
conglomerate and the Cambrian rocks above were deposited. 

Completing the reconnoissance survey of the Bow River area, camp 
was moved to the Yoho River Canyon. In the Yoho River Canyon, 
one of the most picturesque and instructive areas in the great Yoho 
National Park of Cariada, a study was made of the north side of the 
President Range and numerous pictures taken in that vicinity, also 
from Burgess Pass, north of Field. 

A most interesting discovery of unique Cambrian fossils was made 
near Burgess Pass. Quite a number of specimens were collected be- 
fore snow drove the party back to Field. Three days were spent on 
Mount Stephen at the famous trilobite beds before breaking up camp 
on September 8. 

As opportunity offered during the fall and winter, field notes were 
written up and studies made of the sections obtained during the sum- 
mer. As the results of these studies two papers are in press in the 
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, volume 53: No. 6, “ Olenellus 
and other Genera of the Mesonacide,” and No. 7, “ Pre-Cambrian 
Rocks of the Bow River Valley, Alberta, Canada.” Preliminary 
studies were also made of the unique crustacean fauna found in the 
middle Cambrian rocks of Burgess Pass. 


GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE FAR EAST AND IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 


In my last report mention was made of a grant to Prof. Joseph P. 
Iddings for carrying on geological investigations in the Far East. 
As one of the results of his work the Institution has received an 
interesting collection of Manchurian Cambrian fossils, as well as 
collections of fossils from Japan and Java. 

The Institution made a small grant to Prof. Charles Schuchert, of 
Yale University, to enable him to carry on certain geological studies 
and to obtain a collection of Cambrian fossils from the west coast 
of Newfoundland, the south shore of Labrador, and the Strait of 
Belle Isle; also collections to illustrate tue transition fauna between 
the Cambrian and Ordovician. 


STUDY OF AMERICAN MAMMALS. 


Through the generosity of a friend of the Institution, Mrs. E. H. 
Harriman, there has been provided a trust fund yielding an income of 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 


$12,000 a year, which is placed under the direction of the Smithsonian 
Institution for the specific purpose of carrying on scientific studies, 
particularly of American mammals and other animals, the donor 
specifying Dr. C. Hart Merriam as the investigator to carry on the 
work during his lifetime. 


BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE PANAMA CANAL ZONE. 


The Institution has had in contemplation for some time several 
important scientific explorations, and it is gratifying to state that it 
now seems possible that one of them—an exhaustive biological sur- 
vey of the Panama Canal Zone—will be undertaken in the winter of 
1910-11. Definite plans for this survey have not been decided 
upon at: present, but these are now under consideration and it is 
hoped that all the arrangements may be completed and the work 
put in hand in a few months. 

It is particularly important to science that a biological survey of 
the Canal Zone be made at this time, as it appears without question 
that it would yield important scientific results, both as regards ad- 
ditions to knowledge and to the collections of the United States 
National Museum and other museums. While the Isthmus is not 
so well endowed with large forms as the great continental areas, such 
as Africa, southern Asia, and some other regions, yet its fauna and 
flora are rich and diversified. The collecting which has been carried 
on there has been on such a rather limited scale, and chiefly along 
trade routes, that an extensive and thorough survey would surely 
produce new scientific information of great value. 

A part of the fresh-water streams of the Isthmus of Panama empty 
into the Atlantic Ocean and others into the Pacific Ocean. It is 
known that a certain number of animals and plants in the streams on 
the Atlantic side are different from those of the Pacific side, but as 
no exact biological survey has ever been undertaken the extent and 
magnitude of these differences have yet to be learned. It is also of 
the utmost scientific importance to determine exactly the geograph- 
ical distribution of the various organisms inhabiting those waters, 
as the Isthmus is one of the routes by which the animals and plants 
of South America have entered North America and vice versa. 
When the canal is completed the organisms of the various watersheds 
will be offered a ready means of mingling together, the natural dis- 
tinctions now existing will be obliterated, and the data for a true un- 
derstanding of the fauna and flora placed forever out of reach. 

By the construction of the Gatun dam a vast fresh-water lake will 
be created, which will drive away or drown the majority of the 
animals and plants now inhabiting the locality, and quite possibly 
exterminate some species before they become known to science. 


14 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The National Museum at present has practically no Panama mam- 
mals. The birds now in the collection are chiefiy from along the line 
of the railroad and from Chiriqui. It has comparatively few rep- 
tiles. 'The fresh-water fishes are poorly represented in the collections 
and are of special importance for comparison with South American 
forms. Land and fresh-water mollusks are much needed. The 
National Herbarium is poorly supplied with Panama plants; in fact, 
they are at present practically “a negligible quantity,” and the 
American herbariums taken together do not contain a sufficient 
amount of material to form the basis of a general flora of Panama, 
which is a work much needed. 


ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN SOUTH AMERICA. 


In March, 1910, the Institution directed Dr. AleS Hrdli¢ka, Cura- 
tor of the Division of Physical Anthropology, United States National 
Museum, to proceed to South America and Panama Canal Zone for 
the purpose of making anthropological researches, and particularly 
to undertake investigation into the question of man’s antiquity in 
Argentina. A grant was also made to enable Mr. Bailey Willis, of 
the United States Geological Survey, proceeding on his way to South 
America in the interest of the world’s topographical map, to cooper- 
ate with Doctor Hrdlicka in his researches in Argentina, for it was 
appreciated that the problems to be met with were to an important 
degree of a geological nature. 

The undertaking of the investigation was especially due to Mr. 
W. H. Holmes, Chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, whose 
observations during a visit to Argentina in 1908 made apparent the 
far-reaching importance of the data being collected bearing on human 
antiquity in South America. 

The subject of man’s antiquity in South America dates from the 
meager reports concerning the scattered remains in the Lagoa Santa 
caves in Brazil, the casual Seguin finds in the province of Santa Fe, 
Argentina, and the Moreno collection of old Patagonian material in 
the valley of Rio Negro, and it has assumed a special importance 
during the last decade through a relatively large number of reports 
by Argentinian scientists, but particularly by Prof. F. Ameghino, of 
new finds of the remains of ancient man and of traces of his activities. 
Some of these more recent finds were so interpreted that, if corrobo- 
rated, they would have a most important bearing not merely on man’s 
early presence in the South American Continent, but on the evolution 
and the spread of mankind in general. 

Under these conditions, and in view of the fact that some of the 
reports were not fully satisfactory as to their anatomical or geologi- 
cal details, it was deemed necssary to send down competent men 
who might subject the whole matter to critical revision. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 15 


It is gratifying to state that on arriving at Argentina and explain- 
ing their mission the Smithsonian representatives were afforded by 
the Argentinian Government, as well as by the Argentinian men of 
science, all facilities needed for the examination of the specimens pre- 
served in various institutions, as well as for the prosecution of their 
field work. Professor Ameghino and his brother, Carlos, gave par- 
ticular aid, accompanying Doctor Hrdli¢ka and Mr. Willis person- 
ally for over three weeks along the coast from place to place where 
the supposedly ancient remains were discovered. 

The researches occupied nearly two months. Every specimen re- 
lating to ancient man that could still be found was examined, and 
every locality of importance where the finds were made was visited 
and investigated. The evidence gathered, unfortunately, does not 
sustain a large part of the claims that have been made. The human 
bones and the archeological specimens which should represent geolog- 
ically ancient man agree in ali important characteristics with the 
bones and work of the American Indian; and the finds, while often 
in close relation with early Quaternary or Tertiary deposits, bear, so 
far as observed, only intrusive relations to these deposits. Further- 
more, there are specimens the original sources of which are not so 
well established that scientific deductions of great consequence can be 
safely drawn therefrom, even though they present some morphological 
peculiarities. 

The expedition secured numerous geological, paleontological, and 
anthropological specimens, some of which throw much light on the 
question of the antiquity of the finds to which they relate. These 
specimens are being identified and described in the National Mu- 
seum. Doctor Hrdlicka and Mr. Willis will present in due time a 
detailed report on their investigations. 

Following the researches in Argentina, Doctor Hrdlitka visited 
several of the anthropologically important localities on the coast of 
Peru and made large collections of skeletal material, which will help 
to settle definitely the racial problems of these regions, and will have 
an important bearing on the anthropology of the western part of 
South America. : 

Further explorations and collections, necessarily limited, were 
made by Doctor Hrdlicka in Panama and Mexico. In the latter coun- 
try the principal results of the visit were the opening, at the invitation 
of the Mexican authorities, of a highly interesting sepulcher in the 
ancient ruins of San Juan Teotihuacan, and the making of a series of 
casts from the remaining pure bloods among the Aztec descendants 
in Xochimilco. 

The Argentina, as well as the Peruvian and Mexican, collections 
have been transferred to the U. S. National Museum, 


16 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 
RESEARCHES UNDER HODGKINS FUND. 


Flying organs of insects and birds.——Under the direction of Pro- 
fessor von Lendenfeld, of Prague University, aided by a grant from 
the Hodgkins Fund, there has been carried on for the past ten years 
investigations on the flying organs of various insects and birds. Some 
of the results of these studies have been published in the Smithsonian 
Miscellaneous Collections in papers by Dr. KE. Mascha on “ The struc- 
ture of wing feathers,’ Dr. Leo Walter on “The clasping organs at- 
taching the hind to the fore wings in hymenoptera,” and Dr. Bruno 
Miiller on “ The air sacs of the pigeons.” 

There was received during the past year and prepared for press a 
fourth paper on “ The flying apparatus of the blow-fly.” 

These investigations were fostered by the late Secretary Langley 
with the hope that they would yield information useful to engineers 
and others interested in the problem of flight. It was the opinion of 
the investigator that of all the forms of insects, and indeed of all 
flying animals, the Diptera, such as the blow-fly, furnish the most 
promising pattern for a flying machine and that a working model 
should be built according to this pattern and experimented with. 

Mount Whitney Observatory.—The construction on Mount Whit- 
ney, California, of a small steel and stone house to serve as a shelter 
for observers and investigators during the prosecution of researches 
on atmospheric air and other cognate subjects was authorized Octo- 
ber 30, 1908, by an allotment from the Hodgkins Fund. 

This spot had been selected as an observation point by the late 
Secretary Langley as far back as 1881, and had been visited later 
by other scientific investigators, including Professor Campbell, of 
the Lick Observatory, and Director Abbot, of the Smithsonian Astro- 
physical Observatory, each of whom realized the unusual advantages 
offered by this mountain as a site for a meteorological and at- 
mospheric observatory. 

Before erecting the shelter it was necessary to build a trail to the 
top of the peak, 14,502 feet above sea level, in order to transport the 
building material, supplies, and instruments. Many dangers and 
hardships were undergone by the men who accomplished this work, 
but finally the trail was completed and the equipment packed up the 
mountain.? i 

The actual work of construction of the shelter was begun July 28, 
1909, when the first pack train reached the summit, and was quite 
completed by August 27, 1909, when summer observations were 
begun by Director Abbot, of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observ- 


@A more detailed account of the work, “A shelter for observers on Mount 
Whitney,” by C. G. Abbot, was published January 12, 1910, in the Smithsonian 
Miscellaneous Collections, vol. 52, pp. 499-506. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 17 


atory, and Director Campbell, of the Lick Observatory, who was 
engaged in a study of the spectrum of Mars. 

The erection of the shelter has already proved a most beneficial 
undertaking, and it will undoubtedly serve for many years as such 
for observation parties not only of the Smithsonian Institution but 
of other institutions desiring to benefit by the conditions and ad- 
vantages offered to scientists by this exceptional location. Applica- 
tions for permission to use this shelter by scientific research parties 
should be made to the Secretary. 

Relation of atmospheric air to tuberculosis —In February, 1908, 
the Institution offered a prize of $1,500 for the best treatise on 
“The relation of atmospheric air to tuberculosis,” to be awarded in 
connection with the International Congress on Tuberculosis held in 
Washington in September of that year, but owing to the great work 
of translating, reading, and classifying the 81 papers submitted, the 
committee on award has not, as yet, made a final report; although 
much progress is reported and the final announcement is excepted 
shortly. 

Publications under Hodgkins Fund.—There was published during 
the year as a Hodgkins Fund publication a volume on “ Mechanics of 
the Earth’s Atmosphere,” consisting of a series of 25 papers translated 
from the French and German by Professor Abbe, and forming a con- 
nected treatise on that subject. 

Another volume issued at the cost of the Hodgkins Fund was an 
exhaustive bibliography of aeronautical literature compiled by Mr. 
Paul Brockett, and containing titles of 13,500 papers on aviation in 
all languages published previous to July 1, 1909. 


THE SMITHSONIAN TABLE AT THE NAPLES ZOOLOGICAL STATION. 


For over seventeen years the Institution has maintained at the 
Naples Zoological Station a table for the use of American biologists, 
and the lease has been renewed for a period of three years from 
January 1, 1910, at an annual rental of 2,500 francs. 

The founder and director of the station, Dr. Anton Dohrn, always 
showed a most cordial spirit of helpfulness toward the Institution in 
arranging for its appointees, and it is with particular regret that I 
report his death, which occurred on September 29, 1909. At the re- 
quest of the Institution, the Department of State designated the 
American consul at Naples to represent the Institution officially at the 
funeral. 

Doctor Dohrn has been succeeded by his son, Dr. Reinhard Dohrn, 
who has expressed his earnest adherence to the policies adopted by 
his father, and assures the Institution of his hearty cooperation dur- 
ing his administration. 

97578°—sm_ 1910—-—2 


18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


During the year the following American biologists were appointed 
to the Smithsonian Table: 

Prof. H. D. Senior, of the College of Medicine of the Syracuse 
University, who continued his researches in the angioblast of the 
trunk in Teleosts through studies of the origin of the circulation in 
Amphiowus. 

Dr. R. M. Strong, of the University of Chicago, whose work was 
confined to some general studies of chromatophores, which occur in 
two species of Cephalopods and in three species of Crustacea. 

Dr. W. D. Hoyt, formerly of Johns Hopkins University, but now 
of Rutgers College, whose studies comprehended the periodicity in 
the fruiting and cultural experiments in alternations of generations 
of marine alge. 

Prof. Charles L. Edwards, of Trinity College, who continued his 
investigations in the variations in Synapta inhoerens and other holo- 
thurians. 

Prof. Charles W. Greene, of the University of Missouri, who 
worked on the comparative physiology of fishes. 

Applications for future occupancy of the Table have been received 
during the year from Dr. S. R. Willams, of the Miami University, 
and from Dr. Sergius Morgulis, of Harvard University. 

The advisory committee on the Smithsonian Table has, as always, 
rendered invaluable aid in the examination of the credentials of ap- 
plicants, and it is desired to here record the Institution’s apprecia- 
tion of their assistance. 

During the year an important change in the personnel of the com- 
mittee took place. Dr. John S. Billings, who served for many years 
as its chairman, tendered his resignation, and it is much regretted 
that a relationship so helpful and agreeable has been thus terminated. 
The Institution is fortunate, however, in securing the cooperation of 
Dr. Carl H. Eigenmann, professor of zoology at the Indiana Univer- 
sity and director of the biological station maintained in connection 
with that establishment. The present organization of the committee 
is as follows: : 

Dr. Theodore Gill, of the Smithsonian Institution, chairman; Dr. 
C. Wardell Stiles, of the Bureau of Public Health and Marine-Hos- 
pital Service, secretary; Dr. E. B. Wilson, of the Columbia Univer- 
sity, New York; Dr. Carl H. Eigenmann, of the Indiana University. 


PUBLICATIONS. 


The principal medium for carrying out one of the fundamental 
functions of the Institution, “ the diffusion of knowledge,” is through 
its publications. The Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, the 
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, and the Smithsonian annual 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 19 


reports now comprise a library of about 150 quarto and octavo vol- 
umes covering practically every branch of scientific knowledge, and 
if to these be added the publications issued under its direction by the 
National Museum, the Bureau of Ethnology, and the Astrophysical 
Observatory, the scientific literature produced through the Institu- 
tion aggregates about 350 volumes, made up of several thousand 
memoirs and papers. 

The works issued at the expense of the Institution proper are neces- 
sarily in limited editions, but they are so distributed to the principal 
libraries throughout the world as to be available for general reference 
by all who need them. The annual reports, the general appendix 
of which is made up of selected papers reviewing progress in scien- 
tific work in all its branches, is a public document, and through the 
liberality of Congress is published in larger numbers than the other 
Smithsonian series, although the editions of this more popular work 
are each exhausted soon after publication. 

In the series of Contributions, reserved for original additions to 
knowledge, no memoir was issued during the year. 

Langley memoir on mechanical flight—Two memoirs by the late 
Secretary Langley, entitled “ Experiments in Aerodynamics” and 
“The Internal Work of the Wind,” were printed in 1891 and 1893, 
respectively, as parts of volume 27 of the Smithsonian Contributions 
to Knowledge, and several editions of each have since been published. 
A third memoir, dealing with later experiments to December 8, 
1903, to be entitled ‘“‘ Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight,” was to 
complete that volume. This work was in preparation at the time of 
Mr. Langley’s death in 1906, and the manuscript of the first part cov- 
ering his experiments down to November, 1896, had been written by 
him and partially revised for press. The further editorial revision 
of that part and the completion of part 2 to bring the work down to 
the close of the experiments on December 8, 1903, was placed in the 
hands of Mr. Charles M. Manly, who had for several years been Mr. 
Langley’s chief assistant in his experiments. The completed manu- 
script is now nearly ready for the press and it will probably be pub- 
lished within a few months. 

It is hoped that later it may be practicable to have tabulated and 
published the extensive technical data of observations of the work- 
ing of the model aerodromes and various types of engines, propellers, 
planes, and other apparatus with the use of the pendulum and whirl- 
ing-arm. | 

It is of interest here to note that on August 6, 1907, a French 
aviator made a flight of nearly 500 feet with a machine of the Lang- 
ley type.* 

*Recent Progress in Aviation. By Octave Chanute. In Journal Western 


Society of Engineers, vol. 15, No. 2, April, 1910. See also various French and 
Italian aeronautical periodicals giving some details of these experiments. 


20 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections——Thirty papers were added 
to the Miscellaneous Collections, including a number of biological 
and anthropological articles, and four volumes of considerable size 
on The Mechanics of the Earth’s Atmosphere, Landmarks of Botan- 
ical History, Bibliography of Aeronautics, and Recalculation of 
Atomic Weights, all of which are enumerated in detail in the appen- 
dix to this report. | 

Among the papers published just at the close of the year was one 
by Dr. F. W. Clarke on “ Chemical denudation” and one by Dr. 
George F. Becker on the “ Age of the earth.” 

The Smithsonian Physical Tables have been revised and extended 
to bring the work within the range of recent advances in the science 
_ of physics, and the new edition has been put to press. The several 
series of Smithsonian meteorological, geographical, physical, and 
mathematical tables continue to be in demand by students, and new 
editions are required at comparatively frequent intervals. 

As mentioned on another page, three papers have been added to the 
series descriptive of my researches in Cambrian Geology and Pa- 
leontology. . 

Harriman Alaska E'xpedition.—Arrangements are being made by 
which the publication of the series of volumes on the results of the 
Harriman scientific expedition to Alaska in 1899 will be transferred 
to the Smithsonian Institution and the work will hereafter be known 
as the Harriman Alaska series of the Smithsonian Institution. The 
remainder of the edition of the 11 volumes privately printed, as 
well as volumes in preparation, will bear special Smithsonian title 
pages, and all will be distributed under the auspices of the Institution. 

National Museum publications—The National Museum publica- 
tions during the year included the annual report on its operations, 
about 50 papers, chiefly biological, in the proceedings, 8 bulletins, and 
7 botanical papers in the series of Contributions from the National 
Herbarium. The most elaborate of these works is Bulletin No. 70, 
devoted to the National Gallery of Art, by Assistant Secretary 
Richard Rathbun. This book reviews the history of the Art Gallery 
and gives a catalogue of the collections with illustrations of some of 
the most important paintings. 

Bureau of Ethnology.—The Bureau of American Ethnology issued 
five bulletins during the year, including works on the unwritten liter- 
ature of Hawaii, by Doctor Emerson, and “Antiquities of the Mesa 
Verde National Park,” by Doctor Fewkes. 

Society publications —The annual reports of the American His- 
torical Association and of the National Society of the Daughters of 
the American Revolution were received from those organizations and 
communicated to Congress in accordance with their national charters, 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 21 


Allotments for printing.—The allotments to the Institution and its 
branches, under the head of public printing and binding, during the 
past fiscal year, aggregating $72,700, were, as far as practicable, ex- 
pended prior to June 30. The allotments for the year ending June 
30, 1911, are as follows: 


For the Smithsonian Institution for printing and binding annual reports 
of the Board of Regents, with general appendixes_________________ $10, 000 
For the annual reports of the National Museum, with general appen- 
dixes, and for printing labels and blanks, and for the bulletins and 
proceedings of the National Museum, the editions of which shall not 
exceed 4,000 copies, and binding, in half turkey or material not more 
expensive, scientific books and pamplets presented to or acquired by 
He wINatOnaeNrusetin TIDrary 1-2-2. oe ee eee ee 34, 000 
For the annual reports and bulletins of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology, and for miscellaneous printing and binding for the bureau, 
including the binding in half turkey, or in material not more expensive, 


scientific books and pamphlets acquired by the bureau library________ 21, 000 
For miscellaneous printing and binding: 
rberitanona ls hexcnan res = = anes RE See 200 
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature_______ ABS EA5 ee 100 
National. Zoological (Park 2. esas. 2h 7 Srey Qe dort Fb oy seh Ds 200 
FAN ECO DM VSI CAM OD SERVAOI Vy = ai. we eS eee 200 
For the annual report of the American Historical Association_________ 7, 000 
AOU anne eeee ter eee, ene SSSR EE ees. Senne. le ee 72, 700 


ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PRINTING AND PUBLICATION. 


The committee on printing and publication has continued to ex- 
amine manuscripts proposed for publication by the branches of the 
Institution and has considered various questions concerning public 
printing and binding. Twenty-five meetings of the committee were 
held during the year and 106 manuscripts were passed upon. The 
personnel of the committee is as follows: Dr. Frederick W. True, head 
curator of biology, United States National Museum, chairman; Mr. 
C. G. Abbot, director of the Astrophysical Observatory; Mr. W. I. 
Adams, of the International Exchanges; Dr. Frank Baker, superin- 
tendent of the National Zoological Park; Mr. A. Howard Clark, 
editor of the Smithsonian Institution; Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist, 
the Bureau of American Ethnology; Dr. George P. Merrill, head 
curator of geology, United States National Museum; and Dr. Leon- 
hard Stejneger, curator of reptiles and batrachians, United States 


National Museum. 
THE LIBRARY. 


The Smithsonian Library as at present organized includes (1) the 
Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress, (2) the Smithsonian 
office library, (3) the library of the National Museum, (4) the library 
of the Bureau of American Ethnology, (5) the library of the Astro- 


29 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


physical Observatory, and (6) the library of the National Zoological 
Park. The Bureau of Ethnology Library, together with the business 
offices of the Bureau, was during the past year transferred to the 
Smithsonian building, where it is more accessible than heretofore for 
reference. 

The total additions to these several libraries during the year aggre- 
gated more than 23,000 volumes, pamphlets, and serial publications. 

The library of the National Museum, which is subdivided into 31 
sectional libraries for the convenience of the several departments and 
divisions, now numbers 38,300 volumes, 61,858 unbound papers, and 
110 manuscripts, and the Bureau of Ethnology library contains 16,050 
volumes, 11,600 pamphlets, several thousand periodicals, and a large 
collection of manuscripts. 

The Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress was increased 
by the addition of 2,653 volumes, 2,879 parts of volumes, 1,396 pam- 
phlets, and 623 charts, the total accession entries now having reached 
the half-million mark. This library is becoming more and more val- 
uable as the sets of transactions and memoirs of the learned institu- 
tions of the world and of scientific periodicals are each year made 
more complete. 

There was published during the year a bibliography of aeronautics, 
prepared by the assistant librarian. This work contains references to 
about 13,500 books or papers on that subject, most of which are avail- 
able for reference in Washington, the collection of aeronautical litera- 
ture in the Smithsonian office library having been greatly increased in 
recent years. : 

THE LANGLEY MEDAL. 


In memory of the late Secretary Samuel Pierpont Langley and his 
contributions to the science of aerodromics, the Board of Regents on 
December 15, 1908, established the Langley medal, “to be awarded 
for specially meritorious investigations in connection with the science 
of aerodromics and its application to aviation.” 

As stated in my last report, the first award of the medal was voted 
by the Board of Regents to Wilbur and Orville Wright, “ for advanc- 
ing the science of aerodromics in its application to aviation by their 
successful investigations and by their successful demonstrations of the 
practicability of mechanical flight by man.” 

The brothers Wright were immediately communicated with in 
France and accepted an invitation to be present at the Board meeting 
of February 10, 1910, to receive the medals in person. On the date 
mentioned they were introduced to the Board and the formal presen- 
tation was made. Dr. Alexander Graham Bell reviewed the progress 
made in the science of aviation by the investigations and experiments 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 293 


of Professor Langley, culminating on May 6, 1896, in the demonstra- 
tion that a model aerodrome heavier than air could support itself 
and fly under its own power. Professor Langley thus became “ the 
great pioneer of aerial flight.” ¢ 

Senator Lodge made the formal presentation speech, in which he 
said: 

It is peculiarly the characteristic of Americans to be pioneers; pio- 
neers across the great continent on which we live, pioneers by sea, 
and now pioneers by air; and to Wilbur and Orville Wright, pioneers 
of what Doctor Langley called “the great universal highway 
overhead,” who by their achievements have added honor to the 
American name and nation, we now present the first Langley medal 
that the institution has conferred. 

After receiving the medals from the hands of the Chancellor the 
recipients expressed their great pleasure in being considered worthy 
of such distinction. Mr. Wilbur Wright called attention to the valu- 
able scientific researches by Professor Langley in matters relating to 
the physical properties of the air and to the great importance of ex- 
tending these researches, particularly to determine the coefficient of 
air pressure; that is, the pressure of wind at a certain speed on a 
plane of a certain size. 

As an indication of their early confidence in the successful solution 
of the problem of aerial navigation, the Wright brothers said: 

The knowledge that the head of the most prominent scientific institution of 
America believed in the possibility of human flight was one of the influences 
that led us to undertake the preliminary investigations that preceded our active 
work. He recommended to us the books which enabled us to form sane ideas 


at the outset. It was a helping hand at a critical time, and we shall always be 
grateful. 


LANGLEY MEMORIAL TABLET. 


In accordance with a resolution adopted by the Board of Regents 
on December 15, 1908, designs have been prepared, and are under 
consideration by a special committee, for “ the erection in the Insti- 
tution building of a tablet to the memory of Secretary Langley, set- 
ting forth his services in connection with the subject of aerial naviga- 
tion.” The committee’s recommendations are that the tablet be mod- 
eled in bronze in low relief along the lines of the work of St. Gaudens, 
to contain a bas-relief of the bust of Mr. Langley, and that in the 
background there be represented a model of the Langley aerodrome 
in full flight, with the date of its first flight. The tablet is also to 
bear the lettering “ Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1834-1906, Secretary 
of the Smithsonian Institution, 1887-1906,” and to bear also the text 


“The full addresses by Doctor Bell and others on this occasion will be 
printed in the report of the Board to Congress. 


24 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of what is known as Langley’s Law as to relation of speed to power 
in aerial motion, as follows: 

These new experiments (and theory also when viewed in their light) show that 
if in such aerial motion, there be given a plane of fixed size and weight, inclined 
at such an angle, and moved forward at such a speed, that it shall be sustained 
in horizontal flight, then the more rapid the motion is, the less will be the power 
required to support and advance it. 


COMMISSION ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 


An International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, con- 
sisting of five members, was appointed in 1895 by the Third Interna- 
tional Zoological Congress, held at Leyden, Holland, for the purpose 
of studying the various codes of nomenclature and to report upon the 
same at a later congress. At the congress at Cambridge, England, 
in 1898, the commission was made permanent and increased to fif- 
teen members. At the Berne Congress, in 1904, the commissioners 
were divided into three classes of five, each class to serve for nine 
years. 

Committees on nomenclature, to cooperate with the International 
Commission, have been organized in the United States by the Ento- 
mological Society of America, the Association of Economic Ento- 
mologists, the American Ornithologists’ Union, and the Society of 
American Zoologists. 

A code of nomenclature was adopted at the Berlin congress in 1901 
and was amended at the Boston congress in 1907. Prior to the Boston 
congress a desire had developed among zoologists that the commission 
should serve as a court of interpretation of the code, and in accord- 
ance therewith the commission presented to the Boston congress five 
opinions, which were ratified by the congress. 

Since the Boston meeting a number of questions on nomenclature 
have been submitted to the commission for opinion. Owing to the 
amount of time consumed in communicating with the fifteen commis- 
sioners it was impossible to act promptly upon these cases, but in 
December, 1909, the Smithsonian Institution gave a grant to provide 
for the clerical work for a period of three years, and since that time 
it has been possible to render the opinions more promptly. 

The commission has no legislative power. Its powers are restricted 
to studying questions of nomenclature, to reporting upon such ques- 
tions to the international congress, and to rendering opinions upon 
cases submitted to it. 

The Smithsonian Institution has also undertaken the publication of 
the opinions of the commission for a limited period and their distribu- 
tion to important libraries and to zoological specialists throughout 
the world. The first issue of these opinions was in press at the close 
of the fiscal year and included opinions 1 to 25, covering several 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 25 


important questions, making a pamphlet of 61 pages. In connection 
with the summary of each opinion there is given a statement of the 
case and the discussion thereon by the members of the commission. 

The commission has issued the following rules to be followed in 
submitting cases for opinion: 

(1) The commission does not undertake to act as a bibliographic or nomencla- 
tural bureau, but rather as an adviser in connection with the more difficult and 
disputed cases of nomenclature. 

(2) All cases submitted should be accompanied by (a@) a concise statement of 
the point at issue, (0) the full arguments on both sides in case a disputed point 
is involved, and (c) complete and exact bibliographic references to every book 
or article bearing on the point at issue. 

The more complete the data when the case is submitted, the more promptly 
ean it be acted upon. 

(8) Of necessity, cases submitted with incomplete bibliographic references 
can not be studied, and must be returned by the commission to the sender. 

(4) Cases upon which an opinion is desired may be sent to any member of the 
commission, but— 

(5) In order that the work of the commission may be confined as much as 
possible to the more difficult and the disputed cases it is urged that zoologists 
study the code and settle for themselves as many cases as possible. 


INTERNATIONAL CONGRESSES AND CELEBRATIONS. 


Congress of Americanists—The Institution was represented at 
the Seventeenth International Congress of Americanists held at 
Buenos Aires, May 16 to 21, 1910, by three delegates, Dr. Aled 
Hrdli¢ka, of the United States National Museum; Mr. Bailey Willis, 
of the United States Geological Survey; and Rev. Charles Warren 
Currier, of the Catholic University of America. Doctor Hrdliéka 
reports that the meeting was very well attended, particularly by 
delegates from the various republics of South America. There were 
read nearly fifty papers, many of them of considerable interest, and 
related chiefly to the natives of South America. Mr. Bailey Willis 
presented a communication on “ Changes in the geological environ- 
ment during the Quaternary period,” and Doctor Hrdlitka gave a 
résumé of the present knowledge on “Artificial deformation of the 
human skull, with special reference to America.” 

The Institution also appointed Dr, Ale’ Hrdlicka its representa- 
tive at the second meeting of the above congress to be held in the City 
of Mexico, September 7 to 14, 1910. 

Upon the suggestion of the Smithsonian Institution, the Depart- 
ment of State designated Doctor Hrdlicka, Mr. Willis, and Doctor 
Currier as representatives of the United States at the above con- 
gress at Buenos Aires. 

Geological Congress.—Dr. George F. Becker, of the United States 
Geological Survey, was designated as the representative of the Smith- 
sonian Institution at the Eleventh International Geological Con- 


26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


gress at Stockholm, Sweden, in August, 1910. A paper expressing 
my view on “ The abrupt appearance of the Cambrian fauna” was 
prepared to be read at this congress. 

International American Scientific Congress—Mr. Bailey Willis, 
of the United States Geological Survey, was appointed a delegate in 
behalf of the Smithsonian Institution to the International American 
Scientific Congress to be held at Buenos Aires, July 10 to 25, 1910, 
on the occasion of the Argentina centennial. 

Congress on Ornithology—Mr. William Dutcher, president of the 
National Association of Audubon Societies, was designated as the 
representative on the part of the Smithsonian Institution and United 
States National Museum at the Fifth International Congress on 
Ornithology held at Berlin from May 30 to June 4, 1910, and upon 
the nomination of the Institution Mr. Dutcher was also accredited 
by the Department of State as a delegate on the part of the United 
States to that congress. 

Zoological congress.—The following gentlemen were designated as 
delegates to represent’ the Smithsonian Institution and United States 
National Museum at the Eighth International Zoological Congress 
to be held at Graz, Austria, from August 15 to 20, 1910, and the De- 
partment of State designated them as delegates on the part of the 
United States: Dr. Charles Wardell Stiles, of the Public Health 
and Marine-Hospital Service, and custodian of Helminthological 
Collections in the National Museum; Dr. Henry Haviland Field, an 
American naturalist and director of the Concilium Bibliographicum ; 
Dr. William E. Kellicott, professor of biology in Goucher College, 
Baltimore; and Mr. Austin H. Clark, Assistant Curator of the Divi- 
sion of Marine Invertebrates, United States National Museum. 

Congress of Botany—Dr. Frederick V. Coville, of the United 
States National Museum, and Dr. Joseph C. Arthur, of Purdue Uni- 
versity, were designated as representatives of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution to the Third International Congress of Botany held at Brus- 
sels May 14 to 22, 1910. 

Aeronautical Exposition.—The Institution was invited to exhibit 
some models of the Langley flying machines at an aeronautical ex- 
position at Frankfort-on-the-Main July 10 to October 10, 1909, but 
it was impracticable to do more than send a series of photographs of 
the model machines in flight on May 6, 1896, and August 8, 1903, and 
some views of the full-size aerodrome on the launching ways near 
Widewater, Virginia. 

Inauguration of President Lowell—The President and Fellows 
of Harvard College invited the Smithsonian Institution to be repre- 
sented by a delegate at the inauguration on October 6 and 7, 1909, 
of Abbott Lawrence Lowell, LL. D., as the twenty-fourth president 
of Harvard University. It was my pleasure to attend the ceremonies 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 27 


at Cambridge as such delegate and to present in engrossed form the 
greetings and congratulations of the Institution. 

University of Oviedo.—The Institution received from the Univer- 
sity of Oviedo, Spain, a copy of an address and a medal commemora- 
tive of the third centenary of that university. 

Russian Entomological Society—The Institution found it to be im- 
practicable to send a delegate to the fiftieth anniversary of the found- 
ing of the Entomological Society of Russia at St. Petersburg March 
11, 1910, but forwarded its formal congratulations and good wishes. 

Conference of librarians—Mr. Paul Brockett, assistant librarian 
of the Institution, was authorized to accept the invitation of the 
secretary of the Institut International de Bibliographie to take part 
in and become a member of the Congrés International de Biblio- 
graphie et de Documentation to be held at Brussels, Belgium, August 
25 to 27, 1910, and he was also designated to represent the Institution 
in the Congrés International des Archivistes et des Bibliothécaires 
at the same place on August 29 to 31, 1910. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


George Washington Memorial Building.—At the February meeting 

of the Board of Regents I spoke of the movement of the George 
Washington Memorial Association to erect in Washington a memorial 
building, which would be used as a center for the scientific, literary, 
‘patriotic, and educational associations of the country. It is believed 
that such a building would afford a much-needed relief to the present 
crowded condition of the Smithsonian building, resulting in part by 
the accommodations offered to the National Academy of Sciences, the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American 
Historical Association, and others. 

The proposed building would be erected by popular subscription. 

Preservation of American antiquities—Under the requirements of 
law (act of June 8, 1906), the Institution has continued its considera- 
tion of applications for permits to make archeological excavations or 
collections on the public domain of the United States, including 
requests for researches in the Aleutian Islands, Arizona, New Mexico, 
Utah, and California. 

Gifts. —Among the gifts to the Institution during the year special 
mention may he. itn of the C. Hart Merriam collection of 5,800 
specimens of skins of mammals and about 6,000 skulls, including 100 
full skulls of mammals and 235 skulls of seals presented by Mrs. 
Edward H. Harriman. 

Additional gifts by Mr. Freer and others are referred to in con- 
nection with the National Gallery of Art. 


28 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


A summary of the operations of the National Museum is given as 
usual in the appendix to this report and full details are set forth by 
the Assistant Secretary in a separate volume, and need not therefore 
be fully treated here. 

New building—At the close of the year the exterior of the new 
Museum building had been practically completed. Several months’ 
work, however, remained to be done to finish the south pavilion or 
rotunda. Provision has been made for the improvement of the 
grounds immediately about the building, including granolithic roads 
and walks, grading, and readjustment of roadways. 

The transfer of collections, laboratories, and workshops to the new 
building has progressed as rapidly as practicable considering that the 
floor area to be provided with furniture and other new equipment is 
about 10 acres. 

The collections of the National Gallery of Art, as mentioned below, 
were transferred to the middle hall of the new building and opened 
to the public in March, and in connection therewith some of the 
more interesting ethnological groups and historical exhibits were 
installed in the surrounding hall and adjacent ranges. It was not 
practicable to open any other portions of the building to the public, 
although more than half of the natural history collections, both re- 
serve and exhibition, had been transferred to their new quarters. 

Art textiles——The removal of the paintings from the old building 
has afforded more ample space for the display of the art textiles and 
fabrics, consisting of laces, embroideries, tapestries, brocades, and 
velvets; also fans, enamels, porcelains, jewelry, etc. As mentioned 
in my last report, these objects were brought together at the sugges- 
tion of Mrs. James W. Pinchot, who has given personal attention 
to their collection and arrangement. 

Accessions—The additions to the Museum during the year aggre- 
gated 970,698 specimens, as compared with 250,000 in the year pre- 
ceding. The most noteworthy collection of the year was several 
thousand specimens of mammals, birds, reptiles, batrachians, and 
other animals, besides several thousand plants, received from the 
Smithsonian African Expedition under the direction of Col. Theodore 
Roosevelt, more fully referred to on another page. Other important 
accessions in the several departments of the Museum are enumerated 
by the Assistant Secretary in the appendix to the present report. 
About 800,000 entomological specimens, received from the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, were varieties of beetles and other insects injuri- 
ous to forest trees, which had been accumulated during investigations 
by the Bureau of Entomology. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 29 


Distribution of specimens.—The Museum has taken a special inter- 
est for many years, to as great an extent as appropriations would 
permit, in the preparation and distribution to educational establish- 
ments throughout the country of series of duplicate specimens per- 
taining chiefly to natural history. During the past year about 6,000 
such specimens were distributed. 

National Herbarium.—The removal of the archeological collections 
from the large upper hall of the Smithsonian building has afforded 
an opportunity for furnishing adequate quarters for the National 
Herbarium, which for many years has occupied crowded and unsuit- 
able space in the galleries of the National Museum. 

Growth of Museum.—The national collections have so increased in 
size and value as to make them comparable with the similar collections 
of the greater European countries, and with the occupation of the 
new building they may now be housed and arranged in an appropriate 
and converlient manner. This expansion, however, involves a much 
greater annual expenditure than heretofore, the larger portion of 
which is called for in connection with the exhibition halls, maintained 
for the benefit of the public. The extent of these halls has been 
about trebled, thus offering an opportunity for the preparation and 
mounting for display of many additional specimens, a work that will 
be pushed as rapidly as available funds will permit in order that the 
operations of the Museum may be commensurate with their impor- 
tance to the public interests and to science. 


THH NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. 


As stated in my last report the collections of the National Gallery 
of Art had then so increased that they could no longer all be accommo- 
dated in the old National Museum building, and Congress having 
failed to authorize the adaptation of the large hall of the Smithsonian 
building for their proper exhibition, it had become necessary to make 
preparations for their display temporarily in one of the halls in the 
new Museum building. The space selected was the central part of 
the middle hall, 50 feet wide and about 130 feet long, with a central 
skylight. Screen walls were constructed, divided into seven rooms. 
An informal opening of the gallery was held on March 17,1910, which 
was largely attended. 

The collections were increased during the year by the further gift 
from Mr. William T. Evans of 32 paintings and 1 fire etching on 
wood, and by a considerable number of loans from various indi- 
viduals. It became necessary at the close of the year to make prepara- 
tion for extending the limits of the gallery so as to include the entire 
space below the skylight in the middle hall. 

The history of the gallery and a catalogne of the collections was 
published during the year in a volume of 140 pages as Bulletin No. 


30 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


70 of the National Museum. This was prepared by the Assistant 
Secretary, Dr. Richard Rathbun, who has been most arduous in his 
efforts to promote the gallery’s growth. 

On the occasion of the first annual convention of the American 
Federation of Art, held in Washington May 17-19, 1910, I had the 
pleasure of presenting a brief account of the National Gallery, and a 
private view of the collections was extended to the members of the 
convention and friends on the afternoon of May 17. 

The subject is of such importance that it seems proper here to recall 
in a general way the origin of the gallery and its present condition and 
needs. 

In 1840, while the question of what should be done with the Smith- 
son bequest was under consideration in Congress, a few gentlemen 
organized the National Institute, which was in 1842 incorporated by 
Congress for a term of twenty years, at the expiration of which its 
collections were to be transferred to the Government. This institute 
collected a few works of art, which were subsequently transferred to 
the Smithsonian Institution. 

The act of 1846 creating the Smithsonian Institution provides 
that all objects of art belonging to the United States which may be 
in the city of Washington shall be delivered to such persons as may 
be authorized by the Board of Regents to receive them and that they 
shall be arranged and classified in the building erected for the Insti- 
tution. 

In 1849, under the authority of the Regents, Secretary Henry pur- 
chased the Marsh collection of engravings and works of art. 

In 1858 the collections in the Patent Office Museum were turned 
over to the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1862 the collections of 
the National Institute were transferred, on the expiration of its 
charter. These collections included a few paintings of merit and 
sundry art objects. 

In 1879 the Catlin collection of Indian paintings was presented 
“to the Institution by Mrs. Joseph Harrison, of Philadelphia. 

A few additions were made from time to time up to 1906, but they 
were relatively of little importance, and, with the collections already 
in hand, were scattered about in the Smithsonian building and the 
National Museum building erected in 1879. 

In 1903, when the will of Harriet Lane Johnston was: presented 
for probate, it was found that she had bequeathed her entire collec- 
tion of paintings and art objects to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 
under certain specific conditions and subject to the provision that 
in the event of a national art gallery being established in the city 
of Washington they should be transferred to the said National Art 
Gallery and become the absolute property of that gallery. The Cor- 
coran Gallery declined the bequest under the conditions, and the 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 31 


executors of the Johnston estate asked the courts for a construction 
of the clause in the testament providing that the collection be given 
to a national art gallery. This suit was filed on February 7, 1905, 
in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, and by an order of 
the court dated July 18, 1906, the collections were delivered to the 
Smithsonian Institution on August 3, 1906, the court deciding that 
there had been established by the United States of America in the 
city of Washington a national art gallery within the meaning of 
Harriet Lane Johnston’s will. 

In 1904, Mr. Charles L. Freer, of Detroit, offered his art collection 
to the Smithsonian Institution, under certain specified conditions, 
and also offered to furnish the means for erecting, after his death, a 
suitable building to receive the collection. This collection was for- 
mally accepted by the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution in 
1906. It includes more than 2,250 objects, including paintings in oil, 
water color, and pastel, drawings and sketches, etchings and dry 
points, lithographs, oriental pottery, and other objects. 

The action of Harriet Lane Johnston and Mr. Charles L. Freer 
called the attention of all interested in art, to the fact that there was a 
national gallery, and that under the care of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion it was making conservative and satisfactory progress. 

In March, 1907, Mr. William T. Evans, of Montclair, New Jersey, 
announced to the Institution his desire to contribute to the National 
Gallery a number of paintings by contemporary American artists of 
established reputation. In transmitting the first installment of 
paintings, he wrote: 

I have every reason to believe that you will like my selections, but should 
any of the examples not hold well, others can be substituted, as it is my desire 
to have every artist represented at his best. As already intimated, I intend 
that the present gift may not be considered as final. Additions may be made 
from time to time as opportunities occur to secure exceptional works. 

Fifty paintings were enumerated in the list which accompanied 
this letter. Up to June 30, 1910, Mr. Evans had presented 114 
selected paintings, representing 80 artists. These, with the paintings 
already in the possession of the Institution, bring the exhibit now 
installed in the large hall of the new Museum building to more 
than 160. 

The world-wide interest in the National Gallery has been increas- 
ing rapidly during the past three years, and we believe, without ques- 
tion, that the collections will grow quite as rapidly as facilities can 
be provided for their proper installation and exhibition. The col- 
lection, including the Freer collection, is particularly strong in pic- 
tures by American artists, and it is well that it should be so, in order 
that it may have a strong national tone. The Harriet Lane Johnston 
collection has given the Gallery fine examples of several of the mas- 


32 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ters of European art, and we hope that this feature will be strength- 
ened from time to time as the years go on. 

The Charles L. Freer collection contains many beautiful paintings 
by Tryon, Dewing, Thayer, and the unexcelled series of Whistler 
paintings, pastels, drawings, and sketches; also the beautiful Pea- 
cock room. In oriental art the collection representing Japanese and 
Chinese paintings from the tenth to the nineteenth century can not be 
duplicated in any single gallery in the world, and the bronzes and 
pottery are beautiful, and toa large extent unique and of great histor- 
ical and artistic value. 

The question of a suitable building for the great Freer collection 
has been happily settled by Mr. Freer, but we still have to consider 
the problem of properly housing and exhibiting the collections now 
in the new natural history museum building, as their present instal- 
lation is of a temporary character. 

I have hope that some of our strong men or women who have the 
means will see the great opportunity that is now offered to present to 
the nation a suitable building that will be an epoch-making incident 
in the development of national art and a monument to the culture 
and patriotism of the one so wise as to take advantage of the oppor- 
tunity. 

The American people, as represented by Congress, have just pro- 
vided a large and beautiful building for the collections of natural 
history, and in due time it is expected that sufficient interest will be 
taken in the art collections of the Government to provide a suitable 
home for them. This, however, is not to be anticipated in the imme- 
diate future, although the collections now in hand and what will be 
inevitably received if accommodations are provided for them will 
make a most creditable showing. 

I have been frequently asked what effect the development of a 
national art gallery would have upon the Corcoran Gallery of Art at 
Washington, and in response I have quoted the effect of the estab- 
lishment of the Leland Stanford University, in California, upon the 
State University of California. Prior to the establishment of the 
Leland Stanford University the State University was a relatively 
small affair. Its friends, realizing that they must approach the 
standard set by the proposed new university, at once cast about for 
strong leaders and strong men for their faculty, and the result in a 
few years was that California had one of the great research universi- 
ties of the country in the Leland Stanford and one of the great state 
universities, with thousands of students. The Corcoran Gallery, 
with its splendid history, fine building, and beautiful collection of 
paintings and statuary, has an international fame, and will grow 
stronger and more rapidly under the stimulus of a greater art inter- 
est, caused by the development of the national gallery. One will 


\ 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 33 


supplement the other, and anyone visiting Washington at all inter- 
ested in art will be obliged to visit both. 

The most sincere and hearty cooperation has existed in the past 
between the two institutions, and it will continue in the future, the 
only rivalry being that each will endeavor to hold to a higher standard 
and uplift the art ideals in America. 

In order to insure the maintenance of the gallery at a proper stand- 
ard there has been organized a permanent honorary committee of men 
competent to pass judgment on the quality of such works of art as 
might be presented for acceptance by the gallery and who are also 
so identified with the art interests of the country as to assure to the 
public and especially to the lovers and patrons of art the wholly 
worthy purpose of this movement on behalf of the nation. This 
advisory committee is constituted as follows: 

Mr. Francis D. Millett, president; Mr. Frederick Crowninshield, 
representing the Fine Arts Federation, of which he is president; Mr. 
Edwin H. Blashfield, representing the National Academy of Design; 
Mr. Herbert Adams, representing the National Sculpture Society, of 
which he is president; and Mr. William H. Holmes, of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, secretary of the committee. 


BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


The Bureau of American Ethnology has in the past accomplished 
much in its study of the habits, customs, and beliefs of the American 
aborigines. The results of these researches have in considerable 
measure been permanently recorded in annual reports and bulletins 
that contain a mass of valuable information on aboriginal arts and 
industries, forms of government, religious and social customs, lan- 
guages, and mental and physical characteristics. Although a large 
body of material still awaits final study and arrangement and much 
remains to be done both in field and office work, yet the investigations 
of the Bureau have reached such a stage as to render it possible to 
summarize some of the results in the form of handbooks designed 
especially for the use of schools and nonprofessional students. The 
demand for the handbooks already issued or in preparation has been 
very large. 

The Indians form one of the great races of mankind, and the 
world looks to the Government for all possible knowledge that is 
still available concerning this race before it shall have vanished by ° 
assimilation in the great body of the American people. 

The Bureau has likewise done much in the exploration and pres- 
ervation of antiquities, especially the prehistoric ruins in the south- 
ern Rocky Mountain region, and will continue work in this direction 
and press it more rapidly while there is still opportunity to save them 

97578°—sm 1910 


9 
v 


84 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


from vandalism and to preserve them for the benefit of future gen- 
erations. 

There is present need of ethnological researches among the tribal 
remnants of the Mississippi basin, since the opportunities for making 
and preserving a permanent record of the aborigines which played 
such an important part in the early history of the Middle West are 
rapidly passing. ; 

Ethnological researches should also be made in the Hawaiian 
Islands and in Samoa, Little reliable information regarding the 
ethnology of these insular possessions has been recorded, and it is 
hoped that Congress may soon provide the means for initiating among 
their natives researches of the same general character as those now 
being conducted among the American Indian tribes. 

The various lines of ethnological studies carried on by the Bureau 
during the past year are presented in detail in the appendix to the 
present report. 

The removal of some divisions of the National Museum to the new 
Museum building afforded an opportunity for the transfer in Decem- 
ber last of the offices and library of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology from rented quarters to the Smithsonian building. It was 
found desirable at the same time to reorganize the office force, Mr. 
Holmes, Chief of the Bureau for several years, having resumed the 
office of head curator of the Department of Anthropology in the 
National Museum. 

With a view to economy in the transaction of the routine business 
of the Bureau, much of the clerical and all the laboring work was 
concentrated by placing the routine correspondence and files, the ac- 
counts, the shipment of publications, and the care of supplies and 
other property in immediate charge of the office of the Smithsonian 
Institution. It was thus found possible to render a larger proportion 
of the annual appropriation available for research work. 


INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 


Several additional governments have entered into the immediate 
exchange of their parliamentary records during the past year, 26 
countries now taking part in this exchange with the United States. 
A list of the countries to which the daily issue of the Congressional 
Record is sent will be found in the appended report on the exchanges. 
The Institution is still in correspondence with other governments re- 
garding this immediate exchange, and from time to time additions 
will no doubt be made to the list of those countries participating. It 
may be stated, in this connection, that the exchange here alluded to is 
separate and distinct from the exchange of official documents which 
has existed between the United States and other countries for a num- 
ber of years. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 35 


While the number of packages handled during the past year was 
7,250 less than during the preceding twelve months, there was a gain in 
weight of 8,515 pounds. The number of packages passing through 
the service was 221,625, and the total weight 484,684 pounds. 

The total available resources for carrying on the system of ex- 
changes during 1910 amounted to $36,646.74—$32,200 of which were 
appropriated by the Congress and $4,446.74 were derived from ex- 
change repayments to the Institution. 

His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s residency-general at Seoul having 
consented to act as the exchange intermediary between Korea and the 
United States, the interrupted exchange relations with that country 

have been resumed. 

_ Under the exchange arrangements entered into in 1898, through 
the Imperial Academy of Sciences, in Vienna, with the Statistical 
Central Commission, ‘it has been necessary for the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution to bear all the expenses for freight on consignments both to 
and from Vienna. The government of Austria has now signified its 
willingness to assume its share of the cost of conducting the exchanges 
between the two countries, and in the future the Institution will, 
therefore, be relieved of this extra burden upon its resources. In 
bringing this matter to the attention of the Austrian Government, 
the Institution has had the assistance of the presidents of the Imperial 
Academy of Sciences and of the Statistical Central Commission, to 
both of whom thanks are due for their kind cooperation. 

During the past year the Institution discontinued sending ex- 
change packages to correspondents by registered mail. This step was 
taken with a view to reducing the work in the exchange office and also 
to relieving the Post-Office Department of the extra expense involved 
in handling the large amount of registered matter sent out by the 
exchanges. 

There were 975 more correspondents on the records of the exchange 
office than at the close of last year, the total now being 63,605. 

The circular containing the exchange rules has been revised during 
the year and a new edition printed. For the information of those 
who may wish to make use of the facilities of the service, the circular 
is given in full in the report on the exchanges. ° 

German bureav of exachanges.—As has been mentioned in previous 
reports, the German Government has never undertaken the distribu- 
tion of exchanges between Germany and the United States, and, in 
order to conduct the very large interchange of publications between 
the two countries, it has been necessary for the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion to maintain a paid agency in Leipzig. During the year 1907, 
Germany was again approached, through the Department of State, 
on the subject of the establishment of a governmental bureau of ex- ~ 
changes in that country. It is gratifying to note here that the repre- 


36 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


sentations of the department through the American ambassador at 
Berlin, have been given favorable consideration on the part of the 
German authorities, in connection with the establishment, under the 
direction of that Government, of the America Institute in Berlin— 
an institution for the fostering of cultural relations between Germany 
and the United States. While the Smithsonian Institution has not 
thus far received definite information of the actual establishment of 
this institute, it is learned through Dr. Hugo Miinsterberg—Harvard 
exchange professor to the University of Berlin, who is to be the first 
director of this America institute, and who has taken a very active 
interest in the whole matter—that it is intended to have the institute 
assume, as one of is functions, the interchange of publications between 
Germany and the United States. ) 


NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 


The National Zoological Park was established in 1890 “ for the ad- 
vancement of science and the instruction and recreation of the peo- 
ple.” The area covered by the park is 167 acres along the Rock 
Creek Valley, about 2 miles north of the center of Washington, in a 
region well adapted by nature for the purpose for which it is used. 
During the past twenty years improvements have gradually been 
made as appropriations have permitted by the laying out of drive- 
ways and walks and the construction of bridges to render access 
easy for visitors through connections with the city thoroughfares and 
with the roadways of Rock Creek Park to the north of the Zoological 
Park. From year to year likewise the comfort and care of the col- 
lections have been improved by the laying out of ponds and yards 
and the construction of bird cages, bear dens, and buildings suited 
to the habits of the various animals. Among the improvements of the 
past year I may mention that six new large cages were built for the 
lions and other large cats; the antelope house was enlarged by an 
extension 50 by 50 feet, furnishing 10 additional stalls with com- 
modious yards, and a new entrance to the building; and a suitable 
pool 47 by 96 feet was made for the sea lions and seals. 

There remains, however, much to be done to provide adequate 
accommodations for the collections that are gradually increasing in 
number and in value, as well as improved facilities for the great 
and increasing number of visitors to the park. 

To a large extent the animals still have to be kept in temporary 
quarters, which are insufficient and unsuitable, and are costly to 
maintain because of the repairs that are constantly required. This is 
especially true of the temporary building used for birds. The park 
has a fine series of birds, some of them of great rarity and interest, 
and they would make a most valuable exhibit if properly housed. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 87 


Only a part of the collection can now be shown for lack of room, and 
it is practically impossible to maintain the birds in a healthy condi- 
tion when kept in such unsuitable quarters. 

The collections in the park were enriched during the year by the 
addition of a number of East African animals, including five lions, 
two cheetahs, a leopard, a Grant’s gazelle, a wart hog, and several 
smaller mammals and birds, which were the gift of Mr. W. N. Mc- 
Millan, of Nairobi; also a pair each of eland and Coke’s hartebeest, 
a Grant’s zebra, a water buck, and a Lophiomys, which were secured 
in the same region. These animals were of such interest and value 
as to render it desirable to send the assistant superintendent of the 
park to Africa’to arrange for their safe transfer to Washington. 


ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 


The work of the Astrophysical Observatory during the year has 
brought two important results: 

(1) The first result is the establishment of an absolute scale of 
pyrhelometry within three parts in one thousand as the result of a 
long series of experiments with various pyrheliometers. The estab- 
lishment of this scale through Mr. Abbot’s standard pyrheliometer 
has been supplemented by the distribution abroad and at home of 
several secondary pyrheliometers constructed through a grant from 
the Hodgkins Fund. The constancy of the scale of these secondary 
pyrheliometers has been established and it is desirable to compare 
this scale with those in use elsewhere. It is hoped that finally all 
pyrheliometric observations will be made on the same scale as that 
used here. ‘ 

(2) The second result of the year’s work is the agreement within 
1 per cent of the “solar-constant” observations obtained by Mr. 
Abbot at the Smithsonian Mount Whitney station in California at 
an elevation of 14,500 feet with those obtained simultaneously at the 
Mount Wilson station in California at an elevation of only 6,000 
feet. This determination, in combination with the above-mentioned 
establishment of an absolute scale of pyrheliometry, gives 1.925 calo- 
ries per square centimeter per minute as a mean value, for the period 
1905-1909, of the rate at which the earth receives heat from the sun 
when at its mean distance. Determinations made with various forms 
of apparatus show no systematic difference in this value of the “ solar 
constant.” In 1905 this “ constant,” according to various authorities, 
was stated at values ranging between 1.75 and 4 calories. 

It is improbable that observations would have been continued since 
1902 on “ solar-constant ” work but for a suspected variability of the 
radiation sent to us from the sun. The laws governing this varia- 
bility are of extreme importance for utilitarian purposes apart from 


38 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


their interest to astronomers. While confident of the existence of 
variations of this value extending over somewhat long periods and of 
the probability of short-period variations as shown by the observa- 
tions obtained on Mount Wilson, yet, in order to establish full confi- 
dence in the minds of others of this variability of the sun’s heat, there 
is a very pressing need of observations made simultaneously at some 
other place where they could be made over a longer period than is 
possible at Mount Whitney. This new station should be so situated 
that observations could be continued there while the winter rainy 
season prevents them at Mount Wilson. A station in Mexico would 
best fulfill such conditions. 


INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC 
LITERATURE. 


The purpose of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature 
is to collect and publish in 17 annual volumes a classified index of the 
current scientific publications of the world. This is accomplished 
through the cooperation of 32 of the principal countries of the world, 
which by means of regional bureaus, one in each country, prepare the 
data necessary to index all scientific publications issued within their 
domains. The material thus prepared is forwarded to a central 
bureau in London for publication in the annual volumes. 

The various subscribers throughout the world bear the entire cost 
of the actual printing and publication by the central bureau, but each 
country taking part in the enterprise bears the expense of indexing 
and classifying its own publications. 

The 17 annual volumes combined contain from 10,000 to 12,000 
printed pages. The regional bureau for the United States furnishes 
yearly about 30,000 citations to American scientific literature, which 
is between 11 and 12 per cent of the total for the world. The bureau 
for this country was for several years maintained from the funds of 
the Smithsonian Institution, but is now supported through annual 
congressional appropriations. 

Millions of dollars are being spent each year in scientific investiga- 
tions, and many of the foremost men of the day are devoting their 
entire time to such work. The results of their labors find publicity 
through some scientific journal, of which there are over 5,000 that 
are regularly indexed by the various regional bureaus, over 500 of 
these journals being published in the United States. The titles of 
hundreds of books and pamphlets are likewise cited in this Inter- 
national Catalogue. There is thus furnished in condensed, accurate, 
and permanent form a minutely classified index to practically all the 
scientific literature of the world, for the method of classification 
actually furnishes a digest of the contents, as well as the usual bibli- 
ographical data, for each publication. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39 


It is interesting to mention that a plan for a work of this character 
was proposed by the Smithsonian Institution as early as 1855, when 
Secretary Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, called the attention 
of the British Association for the Advancement of Science to the 
great need of an international catalogue of scientific works. In 
1867 the Royal Society published its well-known “Catalogue of 
Scientific Papers,’ and the Smithsonian Institution from time to 
time has issued catalogues of the literature of special branches of 
science. In 1894 the Royal Society invited the governments of the 
world to send delegates to a conference to be held in London in 1896. 
At this and the following conferences in 1898 and 1900 a plan was 
formulated to start the work with a classified subject and author 
catalogue of all original scientific literature, beginning with January 
1, 1901. 

Respectfully submitted. 

Cuartes D. Watcort, Secretary. 


Apprnpix I. 


REPORT ON THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


Srr: I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations of the 
United States National Museum for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910: 


CONSTRUCTION AND OCCUPATION OF THE NEW BUILDING. 


The subjects of greatest concern during the past year have been those con- 
nected with the erection and occupation of the new building. By the end of the 
year essentially all of the building except the interior of the south pavilion and 
the granite approaches had been structurally finished. The last stones in the 
approaches, however, were laid toward the end of July, 1910, leaving, at the 
time of writing this report, only the pavilion, or rotunda, which will require 
several months more for its completion on account of certain decorative 
features, though these are neither elaborate nor expensive. The auditorium, 
which occupies most of the ground floor of the pavilion, is expected to be in 
readiness by October. 

In the general deficiency act passed near the close of the last session of 
Congress provision was made for the improvement of the grounds immediately 
about the building. This work includes granolithic roads and walks to the 
north entrance and along both sides of the building to the east and west en- 
trances, where coal, collections, and supplies are delivered; the grading of the 
embankment just south of the building and the construction of a narrow service 
road in the intervening area; the sodding or seeding of all surfaces intended to 
be kept as lawns; and the readjustment of one of the main roads of the Mall 
so as to cause it to pass directly in front of the south approaches. These im- 
portant matters will be attended to by the officer in charge of public buildings 
and grounds, in whose province they belong. 

The pressure for additional space on account of the emptying of the rented 
buildings and the rapid growth of collections made it imperative to begin the 
occupation of the new building before its completion. During May and June, 
1909, the contents of the rented buildings were carried over and stored on some 
of the finished floors in the exhibition halls and in one of the open courts. Two 
months later possession of the third story was obtained from the superintendent 
of construction, although at that time none of the rooms were provided with 
doors and temporary expedients had to be resorted to for the protection of such 
material as was first moved. On November 9, 1909, the Museum accepted con- 
trol of all parts of the building aside from the south pavilion, and while there 
was still much work of a minor character in progress, operations were not mate- 
rially interfered with on that account. The transfer of the collections, labora- 
tories, and workshops has proceeded rapidly, but not as satisfactorily as was 
hoped for, owing mainly to delays in obtaining furniture, an undertaking of 
great magnitude, considering that the floor area to be provided for is in the 
neighborhood of 10 acres. , 

It may be explained that the first and second floors of the building are 
designed wholly for exhibition purposes. There is one large exhibition hall 


40 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 41 


on the ground floor, which also contains the heating and power plant, and 
the wood and metal work shops. Otherwise, this floor, and the third floor and 
attic, are allotted to the immense reserve collections in all branches of natural 
history, the laboratories, preparators’ rooms and administrative offices. It is 
planned with reference to these three floors to use only metal furniture as 
far as possible, especially for the storage of specimens, since the fire risk is 
greater in the relatively small closed rooms than in the large exhibition halls, 
through which a clear view can be had at all times. The danger of fire or of 
its spread has, however, been reduced to a minimum, first through the use of 
metal doors supplementing the otherwise fireproof construction, and, second, 
through a system of alarms, fire plugs and fire extinguishers. While the metal 
as well as wooden storage cases are made in several styles to meet the re- 
quirements of different classes of specimens, the rule of construction along 
unit lines continues to be followed. The large demand created by the needs 
of the new building has given rise to a keen competition among manufacturers 
of steel furniture, and resulted in a quality of workmanship which is highly 
gratifying. 

A certain amount of fireproof storage furniture had been constructed during 
the year 1908-9, but it was not until the beginning of last year that the 
larger orders could be placed, and a considerable amount of work was also 
done in the Museum shops. As it was deemed most important to first com- 
plete the furnishing of the working quarters, very little has been done in the 
matter of exhibition cases, but the requirements of the public halls will be 
given active consideration during the current year. 

Considerably more than half of the natural history collections, both reserve 
and exhibition, were transferred during the year, and it is expected that the 
entire moving will be completed before winter. The only exhibition series 
opened to the public were those referred to below in connection with the 
National Gallery of Art, but the arrangement of other halls was in progress 
when the year closed. For the division of plants, the second story of the main 
part of the Smithsonian building is being fitted up. 

From what has been said it will be noted that with the readjustments now 
in progress all of the collections relating to natural history, including anthro- 
pology, but excluding the herbarium, will soon be segregated in the new building, 
which was specially planned for that branch of the Museum. The installation 
of the paintings of the National Gallery of Art in the middle wing of the build- 
ing, as described below, is virtually an intrusion, and it is expected that in due 
time more appropriate accommodations will be found for this important and 
rapidly growing department. 

The great difference in the amount of space required by each of the respective 
departments and their branches, dependent upon the size of their collections, 
has rendered impossible any exact division between them of the floor area of the 
building, and the claims of each has been decided according to the actual needs. 
In a general way anthropology has been given the middle part of the building, 
biology the western side, and geology the eastern side. This division of space 
extends essentially from the ground floor to the attic, and, in view of the many 
elevators and stairways provided, the arrangement is not inconvenient. It 
gives to each of the departments one of the large halls, and, as all of these halls 
open on the rotunda, a visitor entering by the main doorway may proceed 
directly to whichever department he desires. 


NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART. 


Mr. William T. Evans contributed 32 paintings and 1 fire etching to his collec- 
tion of the works of contemporaneous American artists, which now numbers 17/ 


42 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


well-selected examples by 80 painters. This important gift, which is attracting 
wide attention and receiving the highest commendation, has already done much 
toward advancing the interests of American art, and it is worthy of mention 
that one of its canvases was exhibited abroad in the early spring. It should 
also be stated that during a trip to the Orient Mr. Charles L. Freer secured 
many choice additions to his collection, still remaining in his custody in Detroit, 
the formal transfer of which, as the third supplement to the original gift, was 
made to the Institution in July, 1910. ° 

Early in July, 1909, it became necessary to move the Evans collection from 
the Corcoran Gallery of Art to the improvised picture gallery in the older 
Museum building, and this in turn required the temporary retirement from 
public view of many of the paintings which had previously been installed there. 
The importance of having the entire collection kept together and on exhibition, 
however, led to an arrangement for its maintenance in the new building, pend- 
ing the time when a more appropriate home can be found for the department of 
the fine arts. The location selected was the central skylighted part of the 
middle hall, which is 50 feet wide and has been utilized to a length of about 
130 feet. This area was inclosed with screen walls of a suitable character for 
hanging paintings and was divided into 7 rooms of varying size. Here all of the 
paintings belonging to the gallery, together with many loans, were assembled in 
time to have an informal opening on the 17th of March, 1910, which was largely 
attended. Some of the more interesting ethnological groups and historical ex- 
hibits were also installed for the same occasion in the surrounding parts of the 
hall and adjacent ranges, and the first visitors to the new building were, there- 
fore, given the opportunity to judge of its advantages for exhibition purposes. 
At the close of the year preparations had been made for extending the limits of 
the gallery so as to include the entire space below the skylight. 


ART TEXTILES. 


With the removal of the paintings from the gallery in the older Museum 
building and of the large screens except the one at the east end, this entire hall 
became available for the collection of art objects commenced two years ago at 
the suggestion of Mrs. James W. Pinchot, who has continued to give her personal 
attention to its growth and arrangement. Consisting fundamentally of laces, it 
comprises other art textiles and fabrics such as embroideries, tapestries, bro- 
cades, and velvets; and also fans, enamels, porcelains, silver work, ivory carv- 
ings, jewelry, etc. Besides many loans there were two important donations 
during the year. One was from Mrs. Pinchot and consisted of 61 pieces of lace, 
purchased abroad expressly for the collection and with a view to its needs. The 
other was from Miss Anna R. Fairchild, and comprised 12 pieces of lace and 7 
fans, formerly belonging to the late Miss Julia S. Bryant, in whose memory they 
were presented. The laces are of several varieties, mostly of large size, dating 
back to the seventeenth century, and are of great beauty and value. Just be- 
fore the close of the year additional cases were provided and the entire collec- 
tion was rearranged. It is now one of the most attractive features in the 
Museum. 

COMMEMORATIVE TABLET. 


It is especially pleasing to note the acquisition of a large bronze tablet, inter- 
esting both historically and artistically, executed by the sculptor, Isidore Konti, 
for the Hon. Truxton Beale, who has recognized the National Museum as a 
fitting place for its installation. It symbolizes an act of heroism during the war 
with Mexico, by which the two participants, whose figures appear in relief on the 
tablet, namely, Passed Midshipman (afterwards General) Edward F. Beale 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 43 


and Kit Carson, obtained succor for a band of American soldiers surrounded by 
the enemy. This tablet, which measures 11 feet high by 7 feet wide, was erected 
in the north entrance hall of the new building, and unveiled, with simple cere- 
monies, on May 31, 1910. 


ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTIONS. 


The total number of specimens received during the year was approximately 
970,698, of which 933,998 were zoologica! and botanical, 17,979 were geological 
and paleontological, and 18,721 belonged to the several divisions comprised in 
the department of anthropology. The unprecedented record for biology resulted 
from the transfer of a special large collection from one of the government depart- 
ments, as explained below. While North America was, as usual, most exten- 
sively represented in the additions, the accessions from abroad were exception- 
ally numerous and valuable, and in a notable degree furnished material for 
important contributions to science. 

The most noteworthy accegsion was that received from the Smithsonian 
African Expedition under the direction of Col. Theodore Roosevelt, who was 
accompanied by his son, Mr. Kermit Roosevelt, and, on the part of the Institution, 
by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, U. S. Army, Mr. Edmund Heller, and Mr. J. Alden 
Loring. This expedition, which was entirely financed from private sources, 
reached Mombasa on April 21, 1909, spent eight months in British East Africa, 
and thence proceeded through Uganda and down the White Nile to Khartum, 
where it arrived on March 14, 1910. Field work was energetically prosecuted 
in all parts of the region visited and ample notes were made. ‘The resultant 
collection, sent in several installments, reached Washington in excellent condi- 
tion, and constitutes the largest and most important single gift of natural history 
objects ever received by the Museum. A preliminary census indicates that it 
comprises about 4,897 mammals, 4,000 birds, 2,000 reptiles and batrachians, and 
500 fishes, besides large numbers of mollusks, insects, crustaceans, and other 
invertebrates, and several thousand plants. The series of large and small mam- 
mals from Hast Africa is, collectively, probably more valuable than is to be found 
in any other museum in the world, its importance depending not so much on the 
number of new forms as on the fact that it affords an adequate basis for a critical 
study of the mammal fauna of East Africa and the establishment or rejection of 
the large number of forms which have been described, especially in recent years, 
from insufficient material. The series of birds, reptiles, and plants are also 
exceedingly valuable, and the material representing other groups is certain to 
furnish interesting results when studied. 

An exploration of certain parts of Java by and at the expense of Mr. Owen 
Bryant, of Cohasset, Massachusetts, assisted by Mr. William Palmer, of the 
Museum staff, resulted in the acquisition of a large and valuable collection, in 
which mammals and birds figure most prominently, though reptiles, insects, and 
marine invertebrates are extensively represented. Dr. William L. Abbott pre- 
sented an important collection of ethnological objects, together with interesting 
specimens of mammals, birds, and reptiles, obtained by him in Borneo. Nearly 
400 specimens, representing 85 species of birds from the Polynesian Islands, 
were received as a gift from Mr. Charles H. Townsend, of New York, by whom 
they were collected several years ago. 

The transfers made by the United States Bureau of Fisheries, consisting 
mainly of material which had been studied and described, and containing a 
large number of types, were of great value. Of fishes there were about 30,000 
specimens, of marine invertebrates about 8,000 specimens, and of reptiles and 
batrachians about 600 specimens. Except for many fishes from the fresh 
waters of the United States, the collections were derived almost wholly from 
the explorations of the steamer Albatross in different parts of the Pacific Ocean. 


44 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


An extensive and very valuable series of crustaceans from the expedition of 
the British ship Sealark to the western Indian Ocean in 1905, and smaller series 
from the explorations of the French ship Travailleur and the German ship Talis- 
man in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, were presented to the Museum in return for 
services in working up the respective collections for publication. 

The Bureau of Entomology of the Department of Agriculture transferred 
to the Museum a most extensive and noteworthy collection, which has been in 
course of building up for a number of years in connection with investigations 
on insects injurious to forest trees. It comprises not less than 800,000 speci- 
mens, mainly beetles of the family Scotytide, and remains in charge of Dr. A. 
D. Hopkins, of the Bureau, who has been designated as its custodian in the 
Musuem. 

The division of plants received over 33,000 specimens, including about 10,000 
obtained during an expedition under the associate curator, Dr. J. N. Rose, to 
the southwestern United States and western Mexico; the material collected by 
the Smithsonian African Expedition; exchanges: from. the Philippine Islands, 
and transfers from the Department of Agriculture. 

In geology and mineralogy some interesting specimens from different parts 
of the world were secured. The accessions in invertebrate paleontology were 
not only extensive but also of special importance, having been mainly the re- 
sults of field work conducted during the year under the auspices of the Institu- 
tion, the Museum, and the Geological Survey, accompanied by stratigraphic 
observations, and furnishing material for investigations of exceptional value. 
The largest and most noteworthy collections consisted of Cambrian fossils ob- 
tained in Alberta, Canada, by the Secretary, and in Utah and Manchuria, 
China, by others under his direction. Next should be mentioned Ordovician 
and Silurian fossils from the Ohio Valley, Utah, and the island of Anticosti, 
Canada, in part collected by the curator of the division and in part secured by 
transfer and exchange. Interesting contributions were series of Tertiary fossils 
from North Carolina and the State of Washington. 

A number of remains of rare foS8sil vertebrates, some in excellent condition 
for mounting for exhibition, and valuable additions to the collection of mamma- 
lian remains from the Fort Union beds of Sweet Grass County, Montana, were 
obtained in connection with explorations by the Geological Survey and the Mu- 
seum. The types and figured specimens of Cretaceous plants from New York 
and New England recently described and published by the Geological Survey 
constituted the principal acquisition in paleobotany. 

Prominent among the accessions in ethnology was a large collection of objects 
illustrative of the Kanakas of Hawaii, gathered during a long period of years 
by Dr. N. B. Emerson, of Honolulu, and purchased by the Government. for exhi- 
bition at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. The most notable of many ad- 
ditions in prehistoric archeology were two collections from North America and 
one from South America. The former resulted from excavations by Dr. J. W. 
Fewkes, first at the “ Cliff Palace,’ Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, for 
the Department of the Interior, and subsequently at the ruins of the Marsh 
Pass region, Arizona, for the Bureau of American Ethnology. The latter repre- 
sents the ancient peoples of Argentina and was obtained by exchange. 

Through the courtesy and generosity of the officials of the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum of Art in New York Dr. AleS Hrdli¢ka was enabled to visit the excava- 
tions which that museum has for some time been conducting in Egypt and to 
secure from the tombs as they were uncovered several hundred remains of 
ancient Egyptians, which were carefully labeled and prepared for shipment 
under his personal supervision. The value of this collection, which is still to 
be worked up, is greatly enhanced by the fact that every specimen is well iden- 
tified chronologically. 


( 
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 45 


The technological collections were increased along many lines, the most impor- 
tant additions having been of firearms, including a number of historically 
interesting pieces, for which the Museum was chiefly indebted to the War De- 
partment. Also worthy of mention were series of sun dials and of watch and 
chronometer movements and the original machine, long in use, by which com- 
plete pins were first manufactured automatically. 

The division of history was greatly enriched. The bequest of Prof. Simon 
Newcomb to the nation for deposit in the Museum of many personal memorials 
comprised, besides his uniform and sword as a rear-admiral in the navy, gold 
and bronze medals, vases, including a large and fine example in jasper presented 
by the Emperor of Russia, and 118 diplomas and announcements of honors con- 
ferred on this distinguished astronomer by universities and other learned bodies 
for eminence in science. Among the gifts and loans were personal relics of 
Admiral Farragut and Rear-Admiral Charles Wilkes, and a number of pieces 
of china bearing the insignia of the Society of the Cincinnati, made in China 
in 1790 for David Townsend, of Massachusetts. 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


Of duplicate specimens from the collections of the various divisions, about 
6,000 were distributed to educational establishments in different parts of the 
country, while about 24,000 were used in making exchanges with other institu- 
tions and with individuals, whereby much valuable new material was acquired. 
The number of specimens sent to specialists for study in behalf of the Museum 
or of work in progress for other purposes was about 16,000. 

The record of visitors to the public halls showed an average attendance, the 
total number of persons who entered the older Museum building during the 
year having been about 229,000. It is to be expected that the attendance at the 
new building when its exhibition collections have been fully arranged will be 
much greater than this, but not until Sunday opening has been effected, a step 
anticipated in the near future, can the Museum hope to meet its manifest obli- 
gations in popular education. 

The publications of the year, all but one of which were descriptive of material 
in the collections, comprised the annual or administrative report for 1909, one 
volume of Proceedings, one of Contributions from the National Herbarium, 8 
bulletins, and 55 separate papers belonging to three uncompleted volumes. 

Because of the insufficient funds provided for the purchase of books the 
library of the Museum still serves very inadequately the purposes for which it 
is maintained, the classification of the collections, and important work is often 
much hindered on this account. At the close of the year it contained 38,300 
volumes and 61,858 unbound papers. 

Mr. William H. Holmes, who has served as Chief of the Bureau of American 
Ethnology since 1902, returned to the Museum in January to again take up 
the duties of head curator of the department of anthropology. It is with deep 
regret that I announce the deaths, at advanced ages, of two of the honorary 
associates of the Museum, Dr. Charles A. White and Dr. Robert E. C. Stearns, 
once active members of its staff, both of whom became widely known through 
their important contributions to science during many years, the former especially 
in paleontology, the latter in zoology. 


Respectfully submitted. 
3 RICHARD RATHBUN, 


Assistant Secretary, in Charge of U. S. National Museum. 


Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


AUGUST 27, 1910. 


Appenpix II. 
REPORT ON THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of the 
Bureau of American Ethnology during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910, con- 
ducted in accordance with the act of Congress approved March 4, 1909, authoriz- 
ing the continuation of ethnological researches among the American Indians and 
the natives of Hawaii, under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, aud 
in accordance with the plans of operations approved by the Secretary on June 1, 
1909, and January 7, 1910. 

During the first half of the fiscal year the administration of the Bureau was 
under the immediate charge of Mr. William H. Holmes, who, on January 1, 1910, 
severed his official connection with the Bureau in order to resume his place as 
head curator of anthropology in the United States National Museum and to 
become curator of the National Gallery of Art, as well as to enable him to take 
advantage of the facilities afforded by the change for publishing the results of 
his various archeological researches. Mr. F. W. Hodge was designated on 
the same date to assume the administration of the Bureau under the title 
“ethnologist in charge.” 

In view of the approaching change and of the necessity for devoting much of 
his time to affairs connected with the Department of Anthropology of the 
National Museum and the National Gallery of Art and the administration of the 
Bureau, Mr. Holmes found it impracticable to give attention to field research 
during the remainder of 1909. Good progress was made in the preparation of 
the Handbook of American Archeology, to which he had devoted much attention 
during the year and to which reference has been made in previous reports. 

The systematic ethnological researches of the Bureau were continued as in 
previous years with the regular force of the Bureau, consisting of eight eth- 
nologists, increased to ten ‘toward the close of the year by the appointment of 
two additional members of the staff, and finally decreased by the death of one 
member. In addition, the services of several specialists in their respective 
fields were enlisted for special work, as follows: 

Prof. Franz Boas, honorary philologist, with several assistants, for research 
in the languages of the American aborigines, particularly with the view of 
incorporating the results in the Handbook of American Indian Languages. 

Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mr. Francis La Flesche, for continuing the revision 
of the proofs of their monograph on the Omaha Indians, to be published as the 
“accolinpanying paper” of the Twenty-seventh Annual Report. 

Miss Frances Densmore, for researches in Indian music. 

Mr. J. P. Dunn, for studies of the tribes of the Algonquian family residing or 
formerly resident in the Middle West. 

Rey. Dr. George P. Donehoo, for investigations in the history, geography, and 
ethnology of the tribes formerly living in western Pennsylvania and south- 
western New York, for incorporation in the Handbook of American Indians. 

Mr. William R. Gerard, for studies of the etymology of Algonquian place and 
tribal names and of terms that have found their way into the English language, 
for incorporation in the same work. 


46 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 47 


Prof. H. M. Ballou, in conjunction with Dr. Cyrus Thomas, for bibliographic 
research in connection with the List of Works Relating to Hawaii, in course of 
preparation for publication. 

The systematic ethnological researches by members of the regular staff of the 
bureau are summarized as follows: 

Mr. F. W. Hodge, ethnologist-in-charge, when administrative work permitted 
devoted his attention almost exculsively to the editing of the Handbook of 
American Indians (pt. 2), which was so far advanced toward completion at 
the close of the fiscal year that it seemed very probable the volume would be 
ready for distribution within about six months. .As the work on part 2 was in 
progress, advantage was taken of the opportunity afforded by the necessary 
literary research in connection therewith to procure new data for incorporation 
in a revised edition of the entire work, which it is proposed to issue as soon as 
the first edition of part 2 has appeared. The demand for the handbook is 
still very great, many thousands of requests having been received which could 
not be supplied owing to the limited edition. 

With the exception of a brief trip, Mr. James Mooney, ethnologist, remained 
in the office throughout the entire fiscal year, occupied chiefly in the elaboration 
of his study of Indian population, with frequent attention to work on the Hand- 

_book of American Indians, and to various routine duties, especially those con- 

nected with supplying information to correspondents. The investigation of the 
former and present population covers the entire territory north of Mexico, from 
the discovery to the present time, and involves the close examination of a great 
body of literature, particularly documentary records of the various colonies and 
of the official reports of French and Spanish explorers and commanders, to- 
gether with such special collections as the Jesuit Relations and the annual Indian 
reports of the United States and Canadian governments from the beginning. 
It is also necessary, first, to fix and differentiate the tribe, and then to follow 
the wasting fortunes of each tribe and tribal remnant under change of name and 
habitat, further subdivision, or new combination, to the end. For better han- 
dling, the whole territory has been mapped into fifteen sections, each of which 
has its own geographic and historical unity, and can thus be studied separately. 
The investigation includes a summary of the Indian wars, and notable epidemics 
within the same region from the discovery. No similar investigation has ever 
before been attempted, even the official Indian reports being incomplete as to 
identity of tribes and number of Indians not directly connected with agencies. 

In January, 1910, by request of those organizations, Mr. Mooney was desig- 
nated to represent the Bureau of American Ethnology at the joint meeting of the 
Mississippi Valley Historical Association and the Nebraska State Historical 
Society, held at Lincoln, Nebraska, and delivered several addresses, with par- 
ticular reference to the utilization of the methods and results of the Bureau in 
local ethnologic and historical research. 

At the request of the Secretary of the Interior, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes, ethnol- 
ogist, continued the excavation and repair of the prehistoric ruins in the Mesa 
Verde National Park, in southern Colorado, begun in the previous year. 
Doctor Fewkes commenced work on Cliff Palace in May, 1909, and completed the 
excavation and repair of this celebrated ruin in August. He then proceeded to 
northwestern Arizona, and made a reconnoissance of the Navaho National 
Monument, visiting and studying the extensive cliff antl other ruins of that 
section, knowledge of the existence of which he had gained many years ago 
during his ethnological researches among the Hopi Indians. At the close of 
this investigation Doctor Fewkes returned to Washington and prepared for the 
Secretary of the Interior a report on the excavation and repair of Cliff Palace, 
which was published by the Department of the Interior in November. A more 


48 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 

\ 
comprehensive illustrative report on the same ruins, giving the scientific results 
of Doctor Fewkes’s studies during the progress of the excavation of Cliff Palace, 
was prepared for publication as Bulletin 51 of the Bureau of American Eth- 
nology and is now in press, forming a companion publication to his descrip- 
tion of Spruce-tree House, published earlier in the fiscal year as Bulletin 41. 
Doctor Fewkes prepared also a report on his preliminary researches in the 
Navaho National Monument, which is in type and will be published as Bulletin 
50. During the remainder of the winter and spring, Doctor Fewkes was oc- 
cupied in the preparation of a monograph on Casa Grande, an extensive ruin in 
Arizona, excavated and repaired by him during previous years. He gave some 
time also to the elaboration of an account of antiquities of the Little Colorado 
Valley, a subject to which he has devoted considerable study. This work was 
interrupted in May, 1910, when he again departed for the Navaho National 
Monument for the purpose of continuing the archelogical studies commenced 
during the previous field season. At the close of the year Doctor Fewkes was 
still at work in this region, 

Owing to the large amount of material in process of publication as a result 
of his own researches or assigned to him by reason of his special knowledge 
of the subjects involved, Dr. John R. Swanton, ethnologist, devoted the year 
entirely to office work. Much of this time was spent in proof reading (1) 
Bulletin 43, Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast 
of the Gulf of Mexico, the result of personal field investigations and historical 
study; as well as in proof reading (2) Bulletin 46, a Choctaw Dictionary, by 
the late Cyrus Byington; and (8) Bulletin 47, on the Biloxi Language, by the 
late J. Owen Dorsey, arranged and edited by Doctor Swanton, who incor- 
porated therein the related Ofo material collected by him in 1908 and added a 
brief historical account of the Ofo tribe. In connection with his researches on 
the Southern tribes or tribal remnants, Doctor Swanton has revised and rear- 
ranged the Attacapa, Chitimacha, and Tunica linguistic material collected by 
the late Dr. Albert S. Gatschet and has put it almost in final form for the 
press. With the aid of several texts recorded in 1908, Doctor Swanton has 
spent some time in studying the Natchez language, preparatory to further in- 
vestigations among the survivors of this formerly important group, now in 
Oklahoma. The remainder of his energies has been devoted chiefly to re- 
searches pertaining to the Creek Confederacy, with the aid of books and docu- © 
ments in the library of the Bureau and in the Library of Congress, in anticipa- 
tion of field investigation among the Creek tribes to be undertaken, it is 
expected, later in 1910. 

Mrs. M. CG. Stevenson, ethnologist, continued her researches among the 
Pueblo tribes of the Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico, giving special attention 
to the Tewa group. As during the previous year her studies were devoted 
chiefly to the pueblo of San Ildefonso, which offers better facilities for eth- 
nologic investigation than the other Tewa villages, although her inquiries were 
extended also to Santa Clara and Nambe. Owing to the extreme conservatism 
of the Tewa people, Mrs. Stevenson found great difficulty in overcoming their 
prejudices against the study of the esoteric side of their life, but with patience 
she succeeded finally in gaining the warm friendship of many of the more in- 
fluential headmen, and by this means was enabled to pursue a systematic 
study of the Tewa réligion, sociology, and philosophy. Like most Indians, the 
Tewa are so secretive in everything that pertains to their worship that one 
not familiar with their religious life is readily misled into believing that the 
ceremonies held in the public plazas of their villages which, with few excep- 
tions, are more Mexican than Indian in outward character, constitute the sole 
rites of these people, whereas it has been found that the Tewa adhere as strictly 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 49 


to many of their ancient customs as before white men came among them, 
although some of their ceremonies are now less elaborate than they were in 
former times. 

While the creation myth of the San Ildefonso Indians differs somewhat 
from that of the Zuni and of other Pueblo tribes, it is the same in all essentials. 
According to their belief they were created in an undermost world, and passed 
through three other worlds before reaching this one. The tribe is divided into 
the Sun or Summer, and the Ice or Winter people, the former having preceded 
the latter in their advent into this world, and their final home was reached on 
the western bank of the Rio Grande almost opposite the present pueblo. This 
place is marked by an extensive ruin. 

Every mountain peak, near and far, within aight of San Ildefonso is sacred 
to the Tewa people, and they make pilgrimages at prescribed intervals to lofty 
heights far beyond the range of their home. The names of these sacred 
mountains, with a full description of each, were procured. 

The philosophy of all the Pueblos is closely related in a general way, yet 
there are marked differences in detail. Although Mrs. Stevenson has pene- 
trated the depths of the Tewa philosophy, she has not been able to discover 
any distinctive features, it being a composite of Zuni, Sia, and Taos beliefs. 
The great desire of all these people, and the burden of their songs and prayers, 
is that rain, which in their belief is produced by departed ancestors working 
behind the cloud-masks in the sky, should come to fructify the earth, and that 
they may so live as to merit the beneficence of their deities. The entrance to 
this world is believed to be through a body of water, which the Tewa of San 
Ildefonso declare existed near their village until certain Zunis came and spirited 
the water away to their own country. Further studies, no doubt, will shed more 
light on these interesting beliefs, and render clearer the origin and relations of 
Tewa and Zufi concepts. 

There are but two rain priests among the Tewa of San Ildefonso: one per- 
taining to the Sun people, the other to the Ice people, the former taking 
precedence in the general management of tribal affairs. The rain priest of 
the Sun is the keeper of the tribal calendar and is the supreme head of the 
Sun people. The governor of San Ildefonso, who is chosen virtually by the 
rain priest of the Sun people, is elected annually, and has greater power than 
that accorded a Zuni governor. The war chief, whose religious superior is the 
war priest, who holds the office during life, is also elected annually, and also 
is a person of great power. There are three kivas, or ceremonial chambers, 
at San Ildefonso, one belonging to the Sun people, another to the Ice people, 
and one used jointly for certain civic gatherings, for rehearsal of dances, and for 
other purposes. The religion of the Tewa of San Ildefonso consists in worship 
of a supreme bisexual power and of gods anthropic (embracing celestial and 
ancestral) and zoic, the latter especially associated with the sacred fraternities. 
The fundamental rites and ceremonies of these fraternities are essentially 
alike among all the Pueblos. Their theurgists are the great doctors, whose 
function is to expel disease inflicted by witchcraft, and those of San Ildefonso 
have as extensive a pharmacopeia as the Zuni theurgists. The belief of the 
Tewa in witchcraft is intense, and is a source of great anxiety among them. 
Accused wizards or witches are tried by the war chief. 

Many of. the San Ildefonso ceremonies associated with anthropic worship are 
identical with those of Taos, while others are the same as those observed by the 
Zui, although neither the ritual nor the paraphernalia is so elaborate. Some 
of the songs used in connection with the dances at San Ildefonso are in the Zuni 
tongue. It is to be hoped that further comparative study among these people 
will reveal to what extent the ceremonies have been borrowed, like that of the 


97578°—sm 1910——4 


50 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Koh’-kok-shi of the Zuni, which is asserted to have been introduced by way of 
Santo Domingo generations ago by a Laguna Indian who had visited Zui. 

Mrs. Stevenson devoted much attention to a study of Tewa games, finding 
that those regarded as of the greatest importance to the Zufi in bringing rain 
have been abandoned by the San Ildefonso people. The foot race of the latter 
is identical with that of Taos, and is performed annually after the planting 
season. As complete a collection and study of the Tewa medicinal plants were 
made as time permitted. 

The material culture of the Tewa also received special attention. Weay- 
ing is not an industry at San Ildefonso, the only weaver in the tribe being a 
man who learned at Laguna to make women’s belts. Basketry of various forms 
is made of willow. The San Ildefonso people, like other Pueblos, have deterio- 
rated in the ceramic art, and they have now little or no understanding of the 
symbols employed in pottery, except the common form of cloud and rain. Their 
method of irrigation is the same as that observed by the neighboring Mexicans, 
who, having acquired extensive tracts of land from the San Ildefonso land 
grant, work with the Indians on the irrigating ditches for mutual benefit. The 
San Ildefonso people raise a few cattle and horses, but no sheep. Much of their 
land is owned in severalty, and their chief products are corn, wheat, and alfalfa. 
The women raise melons, squashes, and chile. 

While marriages, baptisms, and burials are attended with the rites of the 
Catholic Church, a native ceremony is always performed before the arrival of 
the priest. While their popular dances of foreign admixture are sometimes 
almost depleted by reason of intoxication, no such thing happens when a purely 
Indian ceremony is performed, for the dread of offending their gods prevents 
them from placing themselves in such condition as not to be able to fulfill their 
duty to the higher powers. 

Mrs. Stevenson not only prepared the way for a close study of the Tewa of 
Nambe by making a warm friend of the rain priest of that pueblo, but found 
much of interest at the Tigua pueblos of Taos and Picuris, especially in the 
kivas of the latter village. It was in an inner chamber of one of the Picuris 
kivas that the priests are said to have observed their rites during the presence 
of the Spaniards. Another interesting feature observed at Picuris was the 
hanging of scalps to a rafter in an upper chamber of a house, the eastern side 
of which was open in order to expose the scalps to view. At Picuris the rain 
priests, like those of Zuhi and San Ildefonso, employ paddle-shaped bone imple- 
ments (identical with specimens, hitherto undetermined, found in ruins in the 
Jemez Mountains and now in the National Museum) for lifting the sacred meal 
during their rain ceremonies. 

During a visit to Taos Mrs. Stevenson obtained a full description of an elab- 
orate ceremony performed immediately after an eclipse of the sun. 

After her return to Washington, in February, Mrs. Stevenson devoted atten- 
tion to the preparation of a paper on the textile fabrics and dress of the Pueblo 
Indians. For comparative studies it was necessary to review a large number of 
works on the general subject and to examine collections pertaining thereto. 
Mrs. Stevenson also prosecuted her studies of medicinal and edible plants. 

During the entire fiscal year Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, ethnologist, was engaged in 
office work devoted chiefly to studies connected with the Handbook of American 
Indians, especially part 2. A number of articles designed for thisswork had 
been prepared by other collaborators, but were recast by Mr. Hewitt in order 
to embody in them the latest views regarding their subject-matter. Mr. Hewitt 
also conducted extensive researches into the history of the Indians of the 
Susquehanna River during the seventeenth century, and their relations with 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 51 


neighboring peoples, resulting in the discovery that a number of important tribes 
were designated by the names Susquehanna, Conestoga or Andastes, Massa- 
womek, Erie, Black Minquas, Tehotitachsae, and Atrakwayeronon (Akhrak- 
wayeronon). It is proposed to incorporate this material into a bulletin, with 
several early maps, in order to make it available to students of the history of 
the Indians of Pennsylvania and New York, and their relations with white 
people. Mr. Hewitt also devoted about two months to the translation of Onon- 
daga native texts relating to the New Year ceremony, and began work on the 
classification of the late Jeremiah Curtin’s Seneca legends, with a view of pre- 
paring them for publication by the Bureau. 

As custodian of the linguistic manuscripts in the Bureau archives, Mr. Hewitt 
spent considerable time in installing this material, comprising 1,704 items, on 
its removal from the former quarters of the Bureau to the Smithsonian building. 
He was frequently occupied also in receiving manuscripts and in searching 
and charging those required by collaborators either for temporary or for pro- 
longed use. Much time and labor were also devoted by Mr. Hewitt to the collec- 
tion and preparation of data of an ethnological character for replies to corre- 
spondents. 

Dr. Cyrus Thomas, ethnologist, while not engaged in revising the proofs of 
Bulletin 44, Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America and their Geo- 
graphical Distribution, prepared by him with the assistance of Doctor Swanton, 
devoted his attention to the elaboration of the List of Works Relating to Hawaii, 
with the collaboration of Prof. H. M. Ballou. Toward the close of the fiscal 
year, this work having been practically finished, Doctor Thomas undertook an 
investigation of the relations of the Hawaiians to other Polynesian peoples, 
but unfortunately this work was interrupted in May by illness which terminated 
in his death on June 26. Doctor Thomas had been a member of the Bureau’s 
staff since 1882 and, as his memoirs published by the Bureau attest, one of its 
most industrious and prolific investigators. 

As the result of a special civil-service examination held March 8, 1910, the 
staff of the Bureau was increased by the appointment, as ethnologists, of 
Dr. Truman Michelson on June 1 and of Dr. Paul Radin on June 8. 

Doctor Radin immediately made preparations to resume his researches among 
the Winnebago Indians in Nebraska and Wisconsin, commenced under personal 
auspices three years before, and by the close of the fiscal year was making excel- 
lent progress toward completing his studies of this important Siouan group. 

About the same time Doctor Michelson departed for Montana with the purpose 
of studying the Blackfeet, Northern Cheyenne, and Northern Arapaho, Algon- 
quian tribes, whose relations to the other members of the stock are not 
definitely known. It is the intention that Doctor Michelson obtain a view of 
the relations of the Algonquian tribes generally, in order that he may become 
equipped for an exhaustive study of the Delaware and Shawnee tribes, so impor- 
tant in the colonial and later history of the United States. Doctor Michelson 
reached the Blackfoot country on June 16, and within a few days had recorded 
a considerable body of ethnological, mythological, and linguistic material relat- 
ing to the Piegan division. 

The special researches of the Bureau in the linguistic field were conducted, 
as in the past, by Dr. Franz Boas, honorary philologist, whose work during the 
fiscal year resulted in bringing nearly to completion the first volume of the 
Handbook of American Indian Languages. The whole matter is in type, 735 
pages were in practically final form at the close of the fiscal year, and the sketches 
of only three languages remained to be revised before paging. Besides the purely 
technical work of revising and proof reading, the most important work on the 


52 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


first volume was a thorough revision of the Algonquian sketch by Dr. William 
Jones, who had planned to make certain additions to the manuscript, but whose 
unfortunate death in the Philippine Islands left his researches on the Algonquian 
languages incomplete. The revision was assigned to Dr. Truman Michelson, 
who made a careful comparison between Doctor Jones’s description of the lan- 
guage and his published collection of texts. 

Considerable progress was made on the preparation of the second volume 
of the Handbook of American Indian Languages. Owing to the increase in size 
of a number of the original sketches, which was due to the lapse of time since 
they were first recorded, the first volume had increased so much in size that it 
became necessary to relegate the Takelma to the second volume. 

At the beginning of the fiscal year Dr. Leo J. Frachtenberg carried on investi- 
gations under the direction of Doctor Boas among the Coos Indians of Oregon. 
He succeeded in collecting a considerable body of texts from the survivors, and 
at the same time revised the material collected several years ago by Mr. H. H. 
St. Clair, 2d. Doctor Frachtenberg completed his studies of the grammar of the 
language, and the manuscript of this sketch for the second volume was deliy- 
ered and is partly in type. Toward the end of the year Doctor Frachten- 
berg made preparatory studies on the Alsea language of Oregon, based on man- 
uscript texts collected a number of years ago by Prof. Livingston Farrand on 
an expedition due to the generosity of the late Mr. Henry Villard. The comple- 
tion of the ethnological research work among the Alsea has been provided for 
by a contribution of funds by Mrs. Villard, which will make it possible to com- 
plete also the linguistic investigation of the tribe during the field season of 1910. 
In June Doctor Frachtenberg visited two survivors of the Willopah tribe who 
were said to remember the language, but unfortunately only about 300 words 
could be obtained, and practically no grammatical forms. 

Further preparatory work on the second volume of the Handbook of American 
Indian Languages was carried on by Mr. James Teit, who elucidated the 
details of the distribution of the Salish dialects of the State of Washington. 
Part of this work was supported by the generosity of Mr. Homer E. Sargent, 
of Chicago. 

The special researches in Indian music were continued in behalf of the 
Bureau by Miss Frances Densmore, who has done so much toward preserving 
the vanishing songs of the Indians. The principal new phase that has arisen 
in Miss Densmore’s work is the importance of the rhythmic unit in Chippewa 
songs. Her observations indicate that the rhythmic phrase is the essential ele- 
ment of the song; indeed Miss Densmore is inclined to think that the first idea 
of the song may be a mental rhythm assuming the form of a short unit, and that 
its expression follows the overtones of a fundamental which exists somewhere 
in the subconsciousness of the singer. The tabulated analyses show that 99 
out of 180 songs to appear in Bulletin 45 (in press) begin on the twelfth or 
fifth, and 34 begin on the octave—a total of 133 out of 180 beginning on the 
principal overtones. Of 180 songs, 120 end on the tonic, and yet the tonic 
does not usually appear until near the close of the song. 

Melodic phrases are seldom recurrent. In the oldest songs the words are 
sung between repetitions of the rhythmic unit, and have a slight rhythm and 
small melody progressions. Rhythm varies less often than earlier words or 
melody in repetition, especially when the rhythm is comprised in a definite unit. 
All these facts emphasize the importance of the rhythm, and also have a bearing 
on the problem of the development of primitive music, which it is designed to 
treat in a practical rather than in a theoretical way. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 58 


The independence of voice and drum noted by Miss Densmore in previcus 
studies was further shown by the data collected during the year; also the 
prominence of the descending interval of the minor third, and the marked use 
of overtones in the choice of melodic material. 

The songs collected comprise a group of 40 secured at Ponima, a remote 
village on the Red Lake Reservation, Minnesota, and the series of war songs 
which Miss Densmore is now completing and which she expects to finish before 
the close of the calendar year. It is the intention to combine the analyses of 
these with the analyses contained in Bulletin 45 of the Bureau, always bringing 
forward previous work, in order that the results may be cumulative. It is Miss 
Densmore’s desire, before leaving the Chippewa work, to analyze about 500 
songs collected from a representative number of localities, as the data derived 
from systematic analyses of that number of songs should be a safe basis for 
what might be termed a scientific musical study of primitive song. 

Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mr. Francis La Flesche have continued the proof 
revision of their monograph of the Omaha Indians to accompany the Twenty- 
seventh Annual Report, a part of which was in page form at the close of the 
fiscal year. 

Mr. J. P. Dunn pursued his studies of the Algonquian tribes of the Middle 
West under a small allotment of funds by the Bureau, but comparatively little 
progress was made, as it was found advisable to hold the investigations some- 
what in abeyance until two important manuscript dictionaries—one of the 
Peoria, the other of the Miami language—known to exist, could be carefully 
examined, with a view of avoiding repetition of effort. Mr. Dunn was enabled, 
however, to revise and annotate completely a text in the Miami and Peoria 
dialects recorded by the late Doctor Gatschet. 


PUBLICATIONS. 


The editorial work of the Bureau was conducted by Mr. J. G. Gurley, 
who from time to time, as pressure required, had the benefit of the aid of Mr. 
Stanley Searles. All the publications of the Bureau have passed under Mr. 
Gurley’s editorial supervision, with the exception of part 2 of Bulletin 30 (Hand- 
book of American Indians), which has been in special charge of Mr. F. W. 
Hodge, editor of the work, assisted by Mrs. F. S. Nichols. In order to facilitate 
progress in the publication of the Handbook of American Indian Languages, the 
editor thereof, Dr. Franz Boas, assumed entire charge of the proof reading in 
January, thus enabling Mr. Gurley to devote more time to the numerous other 
publications passing through press. 

In all, the manuscripts of seven publications—Bulletins 37, 44, 45, 48, 49, 50, 
and 51—were prepared for the Government Printing Office, while proof reading 
was continued on nine publications—the Twenty-seventh Annual Report and 
Bulletins 30 (part 2), 38, 39, 40 (part 1), 41, 48, 46, and 47, which were in 
hand in various stages of progress at the beginning of the fiscal year. The 
number of publications issued was five—Bulletins 38, 39, 41, 48, and 49. The 
Twenty-seventh Annual Report is in type and a substantial beginning was made 
toward putting it into page form. The proof of the “accompanying paper” on 
the Omaha Indians, by Miss Fletcher and Mr. La Flesche, was critically read by 
the authors and is in condition to be completed in a few months. Bulletins 37 
and 438 are practically ready for the bindery, and Bulletins 40 (part 1) and 45 
are nearly as far advanced. Bulletin 44 had the benefit of revision by the prin- 
cipal author, Dr. Cyrus Thomas, shortly before his death, and a second galley 
proof was received. The first galley proof of Bulletins 50 and 51 was placed 


54 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


in the hands of the author, Doctor Fewkes, for revision. Owing to the con- 
dition of the Bureau’s allotment for printing and binding, as reported by the 
Public Printer, and on his suggestion that the work for the fiscal year be cur- 
tailed, Bulletins 46 and 47 were not carried beyond the first galley stage. Ap- 
pended is a list of the publications above mentioned, with their respective titles 
and authors: 

Twenty-seventh Annual Report (1905-6), containing accompanying paper 
entitled ‘‘ The Omaha Tribe,” by Alice C. Fletcher and Francis La Flesche. 

Bulletin 37. Antiquities of Central and Southeastern Missouri, by Gerard 
Fowke. 

Bulletin 38. Unwritten Literature of Hawaii, by Nathaniel B. Emerson, A. M., 
M. D. 

Bulletin 39. Tlingit Myths and Texts, by John R. Swanton. 

Bulletin 40. Handbook of American Indian Languages (Part 1), by Franz 
Boas. 

Bulletin 41. Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Spruce-tree House, 
by J. Walter Fewkes. 

Bulletin 48. Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast 
of the Gulf of Mexico, by John R. Swanton. 

Bulletin 44. Indian Languages of Mexico and Central America, and their 
Geographical Distribution, by Cyrus Thomas, assisted by John R. Swanton. 

Bulletin 45. Chippewa Music, by Frances Densmore. 

Bulletin 46. Choctaw Dictionary, by Cyrus Byington, edited by John R. 
Swanton. 

Bulletin 47. A Dictionary of the Biloxi Language, accompanied by thirty-one 
texts and numerous phrases, by James Owen Dorsey; arranged and edited by 
John R. Swanton. 

Bulletin 48. The Choctaw of Bayou Lacomb, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, 
by David I. Bushnell, jr. 

Bulletin 49. List of the Publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology. 

Bulletin 50. Preliminary Report on a Visit to the Navaho National Monu- 
ment, Arizona, by Jesse Walter Fewkes. 

Bulletin 51. Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Cliff Palace, by 
Jesse Walter Fewkes. 

The preparation of the illustrations for the publications of the Bureau and 
of photographs of Indian types continued in charge of Mr. DeLancey Gill, 
illustrator, assisted by Mr. Henry Walther. This material consists of 97 Indian 
portraits from life, 121 negatives and 29 drawings for the Bureau publications, 
15 copies of negatives, and 676 photographic prints. As in the past, special 
attention was devoted to the photographing of the members of visiting deputa- 
tions of Indians, since by this means favorable opportunity is afforded for per- 
manently portraying the features of many of the most prominent Indians be- 
longing to the various tribes. 


LIBRARY, 


The library of the Bureau continued in immediate charge of Miss Ella 
Leary, librarian. During the year about 1,500 volumes and about 600 pamphlets 
were received and catalogued; and about 2,000 serials, chiefly the publications 
of learned societies, were received and recorded. One thousand five hundred 
volumes were sent to the bindery, and of these all but 600 had been bound 
before the close of the fiscal year. In addition to the use of its own library, it 
was found necessary to draw on the Library of Congress from time to time for 
the loan of about 800 volumes. The library of the Bureau now contains 16,050 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ‘ 55 


volumes, about 11,600 pamphlets, and several thousand unbound periodicals. 
Although maintained primarily as a reference library for the Bureau’s staff, 
its value is becoming more and more known to students not connected with the 
Smithsonian Institution, who make constant use of it. During the year the 
library was used also by officers of the executive departments and the Library of 
Congress. 

MANUSCRIPTS. 


During the first half of the fiscal year the manuscripts were under the custo- 
dianship of Mr. J. B. Clayton, and on his indefinite furlough at the close of 
1909 they were placed in charge of Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt, as previously noted. 
Nineteen important manuscripts were acquired during the year, of which seven 
are deyoted to Chippewa music and are accompanied with the original grapho- 
phone records, five relate to the history of the Indians, and seven pertain to 
Indian linguistics. This enumeration does not include the manuscript contri- 
butions to the Handbook of American Indians and the Handbook of American 
Indian Languages, nor the manuscripts submitted for publication by the members 
of the Bureau’s regular staff. 


REMOVAL OF OFFICES. 


Quarters in the Smithsonian building having been assigned by the Secretary 
for the use of the Bureau, and funds having been provided by the sundry civil 
act for the removal of the Bureau’s property, the work of transfer was com- 
menced on December 10, 1909, by removing the library from the third floor of 
the Adams Building, 18538 F street NW., to the eastern gallery of the bird hall 
on the main floor of the Smithsonian building. The task was made difficult 
owing to the necessity of removing the old stacks and the books at the same 
time, but order was fairly established in about a fortnight and the library again 
put in service. Not only is more space for the growing library afforded by the 
new quarters, but increased light and facilities for research make the new 
library far superior to the old. The northern half of the gallery was made more 
attractive by painting and by carpeting with linoleum. It is yet lacking in neces- 
sary space, but this difficulty will be overcome when that part of the south- 
eastern gallery still occupied by the National Museum is vacated. 

The offices and photographic laboratory of the Bureau were removed between 
. December 20 and 31, the former to the second, third, and fourth floors of the 
north tower of the Smithsonian building and one room (that occupied by the 
ethnologist-in-charge) on the third floor of the northeastern range; the labo- 
ratory to one of the galleries of the old National Museum building, while the 
stock of publications was given space on the fourth floor of the south tower. 
Although the quarters of the Bureau are now somewhat scattered, the facilities 
for work are far superior to those with which the Bureau in its rented offices 
was obliged to contend, and there is less danger of loss by fire. The cost of the 
removal, including the taking down and rebuilding of the library bookcases, 
necessary painting of walls and woodwork, linoleum floor covering, and electric 
wiring and fixtures, aggregated $1,000, the sum appropriated for the purpose. 


PROPERTY. 


In addition to the books and manuscripts already referred to, the property of 
the Bureau consists of a moderate amount of inexpensive office furniture, 
chiefly desks, chairs, filing cases, and tables, as well as photographic negatives, 
apparatus, and supplies, typewriters, phonographs, stationery, and the undis- 
tributed stock of its publications. The removal of the Bureau and the assign- 


56 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ment of its members to less crowded quarters made it necessary to supply a few 
additional articles of furniture, especially for the library. The entire cost of 
the furniture acquired during the fiscal year was $248.17. 


ADMINISTRATION. 


Pursuant to the plans of the secretary the clerical and laboring work of the 
Bureau was concentrated after the removal to the Smithsonian building by 
placing the routine correspondence and files, the accounts, the shipment of pub- 
lications, the care of supplies and other property, and all cleaning and repairs, 
in immediate charge of the office of the Smithsonian Institution. This plan 
has served to simplify the administration of the affairs of the Bureau, has pre- 
vented duplication of effort, and has resulted in a saving of time and funds. 


Respectfully submitted. 
IF. W. Hopes, 


Ethnologist-in-Charge. 
Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


Apprenpix ITT. 
REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 


S1r: I have the honor to submit a report on the operations of the International 
Exchange Service during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910. 

There was given in the last report a list of the countries to which copies of the 
daily issue of the Congressional Record were forwarded direct by mail in accord- 
ance with the resolution of the Congress approved March 4, 1909, setting aside a 
certain number of copies of the Record for exchange, through the agency of the 
Smithsonian Institution, with the legislative chambers of such foreign govern- 
ments as might agree to send to the United States, in return, current copies of 
their parliamentary record or like publication. The governments of Baden, Cape 
of Good Hope, New Zealand, Transvaal, and Western Australia have since en- 
tered into this exchange. A complete list of the countries to which the Record 
is now forwarded is given below. 


Australia. Greece. Roumania. 
Austria, Guatemala. Russia. 

Baden. Honduras. Servia. 

Belgium. Hungary. Spain. 

Brazil. Italy. Switzerland. 
Canada. New South Wales. Transvaal. 

Cape of Good Hope. New Zealand. Uruguay. 

Cuba. Portugal. Western Australia. 
France. Prussia. 


There are therefore at present 26 countries with which the immediate exchange 
is conducted. To some of these countries, however, two copies of the Congres- 
sional Record are sent—one to the upper and one to the lower house of parlia- 
ment—the total number transmitted being 31. The number of copies of the 
daily issue of the Congressional Record provided for this purpose is 100, the 
same as the number of copies of official documents set apart for international 
exchange. The Institution is still in correspondence with other governments 
regarding this immediate exchange, and the list of those countries participating 
will no doubt be added to from time to time. 

The number of packages handled during the past year was 221,625—a decrease 
from the number for the preceding year of 7,250. The total weight of these 
packages was 484,684 pounds—a gain of 8,515 pounds. Regarding the falling 
off in the number of packages handled, attention should be called to the fact that 
the increase in 1909 was the largest in the history of the service. Had the 
increase for that year been normal, the total number of packages for 1910 would 
have shown a gradual increase over the preceding year. The gain in weight may, 
to a great extent, be taken as an indication that consignments containing more 
than one publication were more numerous than during the preceding year. This 
circumstance is especially true in the case of consignments for the Library of 
Congress, 38 boxes having been received during the past year for that library 
and counted as single packages. 


57 


58 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The appropriation by Congress for the support of the service was $382,200 
(the same amount as was granted for the fiscal years 1908 and 1909), and the 
sum collected on account of repayments was $4,446.74, making the total avyail- 
able resources for carrying on the system of international exchanges $36,646.74. 

The exchange office continues to render assistance to the Library of Con- 
gress in obtaining foreign government documents needed to complete its sets, 

It is gratifying to state that the exchange relations with Korea, which were 
interrupted during the late Russo-Japanese war, have been renewed, His Im- 
perial Japanese Majesty’s residency-general at Seoul having consented to act as 
the exchange intermediary between the two countries. The number of publi- 
cations exchanged between Korea and the United States was never very large, 
and it is hoped that the establishment of an official medium through which con- 
signments may be forwarded will result in a fuller interchange. 

While the K. K. Statistische Central-Commission in Vienna has been acting 
as the exchange intermediary between Austria and the United States since 
1898, it has been necessary for the Smithsonian Institution, under the arrange- 
ments entered into through the Imperial Academy of Sciences with the com- 
mission, to bear all the expenses for freight on consignments both to and from 
Vienna. The Government of Austria has now signified its willingness to assume 
its share of the cost of conducting the exchanges between the two countries, 
and in the future the Institution will therefore be relieved of this extra burden 
upon its resources, The exchange work on the part of Austria will continue to 
be carried on by the Statistical Commission. The thanks of the Institution are 
due to the president of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and to the president 
of the Statistical Commission for assistance in this matter. 

I am very glad to be able to report that it now seems assured that the Insti- 
tution will shortly be relieved of the expense of conducting the paid agency 
which it has maintained for many years in Leipsic to attend to the transmission 
and distribution of exchanges between Germany and the United States. 

It is expected that in a few months there will be established in Berlin, under 
the auspices of the German Government, an institution to further the eultural 
relations between the two countries. This establishment will be known as the 
America Institute, and it will assume as one of its functions the transmission 
and distribution of German exchanges. 

While the America Institute has not yet begun active operations, it is expected 
that it will be organized at an early day, and that it will be prepared to take 
over the work of the exchange agency by the end of the calendar year. 

Dr. Hugo Munsterberg will be the first director of the America Institute. 

It has been the practice of the Institution to forward by registered mail 
packages received from abroad for distribution in the United States. With a 
view to reducing the work in the Exchange Office and also to relieving the 
Post-Office Department of the extra expense entailed in handling this regis- 
tered matter—numbering annually about 21,000 packages, aggregating a total 
weight of over 120,000 pounds—the custom of registering exchanges was dis- 
continued on October 17, 1909, consignments now being forwarded by ordinary 
mail. It should be added in this connection, that the Institution is informed 
by the Post-Office Department that in the ordinary mail there is an average loss 
of only 1 package in 15,000. 

Exchange consignments form part of the cargo of almost every fast steam- 
ship which leaves New York for a foreign port. It is therefore not surprising 
that occasionally a case is lost through the wrecking of a steamer. During the 
year a case containing exchanges for miscellaneous addresses in the Transvaal 
was destroyed while en route to Pretoria, the steamship Norse Prince, by which 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 


59 


it was transmitted, having been burned while off the coast of South Africa. 
The loss at sea during the latter part of 1908 of a case of exchanges for dis- 


tribution in Egypt should also be noted here. 


This consignment was forwarded 


in care of the Egyptian Survey Department under date of October 22, 1908, but 
definite information concerning its loss has only recently been received. The 
senders of the packages contained in the consignments referred to were com- 
municated with, and it is gratifying to state that, except in one or two instances, 
It may be 
of interest to add here that, so far as reported to the Institution, these are 
the only instances during the past five years in which the entire contents of 


it was possible for them to supply copies of the lost publications. 


exchange consignments have been lost. 


INTERCHANGE OF PUBLICATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 


The statement which follows shows in detail the number of packages received 
for transmission through the International Exchange Service during the year 


ending June 30, 1910: 


Country. 


JNO SEEN E oe FS Ae eee 


Packages. 


From. 


41. 
178 52 

6 [eee S 

2, 692 385 
7, 847 848 
20 549 
atch eed 

i eed 

eG |Le. ates 

pail tat ee 

Biles si" be 

206 9 
iC Reep team 

1, 830 29 
Yd ane 
2, 251 352 
1,720 47 
ie eee 
1, 463 3 
1, 825 108 
| ltl ae 

(al id Sa 


Packages. 
Country. 
For. From. 
Doenmarket s. SoG wees 2, 082 377 
Poin ay Pes | 5s he pee PY fel [ea ewes tial 
Dutch Gwiands ease ee B50 | Socee ee 
Hewadors. 2s5 35.5.2 ers PA al eects miele 
IN GYD beets oe oie ne 464 3, 806 
rifeaee Me 2 ose eee A ER ees 
Falkland Islands.............. 2) eae cee 
ays sland ses. ooo Cee ee OOF petneceys 
INTanCO NMR eee as ceee eee 12, 850 4,802 
French Cochin China.......... RAGS Eee soe 
Hrenehy Guinea. e-be ae- 1 Te Sal spe eg 
German East Africa........... 32) eee eee 
Genrnignyi 22 asst ee oe 24, 057 8, 032 
Gibraltar $6 iss. o ewes: LGM eee 
Gold Coastte sas) sau Ap ies Reece 
Grenada 2. nceeceeeee cee Giieisese sos 
Great Britain and Ireland..... 22,197 6, 896 
(TCO CD Fas att sinc 2a et pe 1, 649 4 
Greenland .wc.2s eee aeneeee ol ericertent 
Guadeloupe. .25.-2. 72352-5222 (Mas etetene 
Gatitemalay ees Cree ee see AQAY Peete ims os 
Taree AT hie: AO it APA 
Hawaiian Islands.............. Q5U LSE 
Hondurasisa!. So3. eek ek S80 4. 2 Feels: 
Hongkong isos yee eek tee: LAT pte tess 
Tealand esses secrete orioe 52 325 
UN Ce Sage oe Ree eae Be eae 2, 793 633 
EDEN hip Seve 4 2 DN © ORI S 7, 282 2, 253 
Jamaicas sas. sso steer <2. 253 2 
Japanles. 2534 Soe eee Be 3, 462 63 
TED tee goes oe cigeie co msecasinic 274 85 
Kongo Free State.............- Bib abe ace ae 
d EOD Se ae ee a 71 15 
AP OS see see anise saemee ste Gilosssecaes 
PAVeriat st tosses et anneeccccee 162 1 


60 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 


Country. 


Lourengo Marquez......-..--- 
ADT ih.ceiss} a) shed: eee ee ee 
TENS bees a Ue 
Madeitvtecc: scotch can sc aac 


Martinique.......-.. Papa Ae pe ee 
Mars SooooMe sek oe cesses aoe 


Montenepro:: Ae 5522. SS2e25 
Montserrat: 23. ¢..€0..0 Sh. sense 


Philippine Islands............. 
Porto ticossseahts ese Shs 28. 


St. Pierre and Miquelon 


Santo Domingos. 3232205228. 


Society Islands 
South Australia 


62 


During the year there were sent abroad 2,033 boxes (an increase over 1909 of 
70 boxes), of which 220 contained complete sets of United States Government 
documents for authorized depositories and 1,813 were filled with departmental 
and other publications for depositories of partial sets and for distribution to 


miscellaneous correspondents. 


EXCHANGE OF GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS. 


The number of packages sent abroad through the International Exchange 
Service by United States Government establishments during the year was 
138,152, an increase over the number forwarded during the preceding twelve 
months of 15,812; while 18,017 packages were received in exchange, a decrease 
of 2,199. This disparity between the number of packages received and those 
sent may be accounted for largely by the fact that many returns for the publi- 
cations sent abroad are not made through the Exchange Service, but are for- 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 61 


warded to their destinations direct by mail. This difference is further due to 
the practice of sending consignments to the Library of Congress intact, in many 
cases a whole box of publications being entered on the records of this office as 
one package. 


FOREIGN DEPOSITORIES OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS. 


In accordance with treaty stipulations and under the authority of the con- 
gressional resolutions of March 2, 1867, and March 2, 1901, setting apart a cer- 
tain number of documents for exchange with foreign countries, there are now 
sent regularly to depositories abroad 55 full sets of United States official publi- 
eations and 33 partial sets. 

While the Statutes at Large have for some years formed part of the sets of 
government documents provided for international exchange purposes, the Ses- 
sion Laws have only been added during the past year. This addition was made 
through the efforts of the Library of Congress, a request for the laws having 
been received from one of the depositories. 

The recipients of full and partial sets are as follows: 


DEPOSITORIES OF FULL SETS. 


Argentina: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Buenos Aires. 

Argentina: Biblioteca de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. 

Australia: Library of the Commonwealth Parliament, Melbourne. 

Austria: K. K. Statistische Central-Commission, Vienna. 

Baden: Universitits-Bibliothek, Freiburg. 

Bavaria: Konigliche Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek, Munich. 

Belgium: Bibliothéque Royale, Brussels. 

Brazil: Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. 

Canada: Parliamentary Library, Ottawa. 

Cape Colony: Government Stationery Department, Cape Town. 

Chile: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Santiago. 

China: American-Chinese Publication Exchange Department, Shanghai Bureau 
of Foreign Affairs, Shanghai. 

Colombia: Biblioteca Nacional, Bogota. 

Costa Rica: Oficina de Depésito y Canje de Publicaciones, San José. 

Cuba: Department of State, Habana. 

Denmark: Kongelige Bibliotheket, Copenhagen. 

England: British Museum, London. 

England: London School of Economics and Political Science, London. 

France: Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris. 

France: Préfecture de la Seine, Paris. 

Germany: Deutsche Reichstags-Bibliothek, Berlin. 

Greece: Bibliothéque Nationale, Athens. 

Haiti: Secrétairerie d’Etat des Relations Extérieures, Port au Prince. 

Hungary: Hungarian House of Delegates, Budapest. 

India: Home Department, Government of India, Calcutta. 

Ireland: National Library of Ireland, Dublin. 

Italy: Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele, Rome. 

Japan: Department of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo. 

Manitoba: Provincial Library, Winnipeg. 

Mexico: Instituto Bibliografico, Biblioteca Nacional, Mexico. 

Netherlands: Library of the States General, The Hague. 

New South Wales: Board for International Exchanges, Sydney. 


62 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


New Zealand: General Assembly Library, Wellington. 

Norway: Storthingets Bibliothek, Christiania. 

Ontario: Legislative Library, Toronto. 

Peru: Biblioteca Nacional, Lima. 

Portugal: Bibliotheca Nacional, Lisbon. 

Prussia: K6nigliche Bibliothek, Berlin. 

Quebec: Legislative Library, Quebec. 

Queensland: Parliamentary Library, Brisbane. 

Russia : Imperial Public Library, St. Petersburg. 

Saxony: K6nigliche Oeffentliche Bibliothek, Dresden. 

Servia: Ministére des Affaires Etrangéres, Belgrade. 

South Australia: Parliamentary Library, Adelaide. 

Spain: Servicio del Cambio Internacional de Publicaciones, Cuerpo Facultativo 
de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arquedlogos, Madrid. 

Sweden: Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm. 

Switzerland: Bibliothéque Fédérale, Berne. 

Tasmania: Parliamentary Library, Hobart. 

Transvaal: Government Library, Pretoria. 

Turkey: Department of Public Instruction, Constantinople. 

Uruguay: Oficina de Depdésito, Reparto y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, 
Montevideo. 

Venezuela: Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas. 

Victoria: Public Library, Melbourne. 

Western Australia: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 

Wiirttemberg: Koénigliche Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart. 


DEPOSITORIES OF PARTIAL SETS. 


Alberta: Legislative Library, Edmonton. 

Alsace-Lorraine: K. Ministerium fiir Elsass-Lothringen, Strassburg. 
Bolivia: Ministerio de Colonizacién y Agricultura, La Paz. 

British Columbia: Legislative Library, Victoria. 

Bremen: Senatskommission fiir Reichs- und Auswirtige Angelegenheiten. 
Bulgaria: Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sofia. 

Ceylon: United States Consul, Colombo. 

Ecuador: Biblioteca Nacional, Quito. 

Egypt: Bibliothéque Khédiviale, Cairo. 

Guatemala: Secretary of the Government, Guatemala. 

Hamburg: Senatskommission fiir die Reichs- und Auswirtigen Angelegenheiten. 
Hesse: Grossherzogliche Hof-Bibliothek, Darmstadt. 

Honduras: Secretary of the Government, Tegucigalpa. 

Jamaica: Colonial Secretary, Kingston. 

Liberia: Department of State, Monrovia. 

Lourenco Marquez: Government Library, Lourenco Marquez. 

Malta: Lieutenant-Governor, Valetta. 

Montenegro: Ministére Princier des Affaires Iitrangéres, Cetinje. 
Natal: Colonial Governor, Pietermaritzburg. 

Newfoundland: Colonial Secretary, St. Johns. 

New Brunswick: Legislative Library, St. John. 

Nicaragua: Superintendente de Archivos Nacionales, Managua. 
Northwest Territories: Government Library, Regina. 

Nova Scotia: Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia, Halifax. 

Orange River Colony : Government Library, Bloemfontein. 

Panama: Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, Panama. 

Prince Edward Island: Legislative Library, Charlottetown. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 63 


Paraguay: Oficina General de Informaciones y Canjes y Commisaria General de 
Inmigracion, Asuncion. 

Roumania: Academia Romana, Bucarest. 

Salvador: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, San Salvador. 

Straits Settlements: Colonial Secretary, Singapore. 

Siam: Department of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok. 

Vienna: Biirgermeister der Haupt- und Residenz-Stadt. 


CORRESPONDENTS. 


The names of new correspondents in every part of the world are constantly 
being added to the exchange list, so that they now reach a total of 63,605, an 
inerease of 975 over those of the preceding year. These correspondents are 
subdivided as follows: 


MOneIoMe IM StIGUGLON Sea 6 chee este Pie, bert Bi Neh Be, 3, 925 
ORE Tren Cy LC Wes Se ss ee et Bad os ah Bea ne Ee eS 8, 300 
Bile raas Ten MM SRUR URL che eed ey one hk) A deme gt sep eesinen f a) 16, 700 
ID OVCESGI Cs pI Giicyd Gu BS eet ws Red oe nh ot ees Ses Ae a 34, T80 


A table showing the number of correspondents in each country at the close 
of 1907 will be found in the report for that year. 


RULES GOVERNING THE TRANSMISSION OF EXCHANGES. 


The circular containing the rules governing the transmission of exchanges 
has been revised during the year, and under date of June 30, 1910, a new edition 
was published. The circular is here reproduced for the information of those 
who may wish to make use of the facilities of the service in the forwarding of 
exchanges: 

In effecting the distribution of its first publications abroad the Smithsonian 
Institution established relations with certain foreign scientific societies and 
libraries by means of which it was enabled to materially assist institutions and 
individuals of this country in the transmission of their publications abroad 
and also foreign societies and individuals in distributing their publications in the 
United States. 

In recent years the Smithsonian Institution has been charged with the duty 
of conducting the official exchange bureau of the United States Government, 
through which the publications authorized by Congress are exchanged for those 
of other governments; and by a formal treaty it acts as intermediary between 
the learned bodies and literary and scientific societies of the contracting states 
for the reception and transmission of their publications. 

Attention is called to the fact that this is an international and not a domestic 
exchange service, and that it is used to facilitate exchanges between the United 
States and other countries only. As exchanges from domestic sources for 
addresses in Hawaii, the Philippine Islands, Porto Rico, and other territory 
subject to the jurisdiction of the United States do not come within the desig- 
nation “ international,” they are not accepted for transmission. 

Packages prepared in accordance with the rules enumerated below will be 
received by the Smithsonian Institution from persons or institutions of learning 
in the United States and forwarded to their destinations through its own agents 
or through the various exchange bureaus in other countries. The Smithsonian 
agents and these bureaus will likewise receive from correspondents in their 
countries such publications for addresses in the United, States and territory 
subject to its jurisdiction as may be delivered to them under rules similar to 
those prescribed herein, and will forward them to Washington, after which the 
Institution will undertake their distribution. 


64 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


On the receipt of a consignment from a domestic source it is assigned a 
“record number,” this number being placed on each package contained in the 
consignment. A record is then made of the entire list of packages under the 
sender’s name, and the separate packages are entered under the name of the 
person or office addressed. An account is thus established with every corre- 
spondent of the Institution, which shows readily what packages each one has 
sent or received through the Exchange Service. The books are then packed in 
boxes with contributions from other senders for the same country, and are for- 
warded by fast freight to the bureau or agency abroad which has undertaken to 
distribute exchanges in that country. To Great Britain and Germany, where 
paid agencies of the Institution are maintained, shipments are made weekly; 
to all other countries transmissions are made at intervals not exceeding one 
month. 

Consignments from abroad for correspondents in the United States and its 
possessions are distributed by mail under frank, a record haying first been made 
of the name of the sender and of the address of each package. 

The Institution assumes no responsibility in the transmission of packages, but 
at all times uses its best endeavors to forward promptly to destination exchanges 
intrusted to its care. 

The rules governing the Smithsonian International Exchange Service are as 
follows: 

1. Consignments from correspondents in the United States containing packages 
for transmission abroad should be addressed “ Smithsonian Institution, Inter- 
national Exchanges, Washington, D. C.”’ 

2. In forwarding a consignment the sender should address a letter to the 
Institution, stating by what route it is being shipped, and the number of boxes 
or parcels of which it is composed. 

3. Packages should be legibly addressed, using, when practicable, the language 
of the country to which they are to be forwarded. In order to avoid any possible 
dispute as to ownership, names of individuals should be omitted from packages 
intended for societies and other establishments. 

4, Packages should be securely wrapped in stout paper and, when necessary, 
tied with strong twine. 

5. No package to a single address should exceed about one-half of one cubic 
foot. 

6. Letters are not permitted in exchange packages. 

7. If donors desire acknowledgments, packages may contain receipt forms to 
be signed and returned by the establishment or individual addressed; and, 
should publications be desired in exchange, a request to that effect may be 
printed on the receipt form or on the package. 

8. Exchanges must be delivered to the Smithsonian Institution or its agents 
with all charges paid. 

9. The Institution and its agents will not knowingly receive for any address 
purchased books; apparatus or instruments of any description, whether pur- 
chased or presented; nor specimens of any nature except when permission from 
the Institution has been obtained, and then only under the following conditions: 

(a) Specimens in fluid will not be accepted for transmission. 

(b) Botanical specimens will be transmitted at the rate of 8 cents per pounc. 

(c) All other specimens will be transmitted at the rate of 5 cents per pound. 


LIST OF BUREAUS OR AGENCIES THROUGH WHICH EXCHANGES ARE TRANSMITTED, 


Following is a list of bureaus or agencies through which the distribution of 
exchanges is effected. Those in the larger and many in the smaller countries 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 65 


forward to the Smithsonian Institution in return contributions for distribution 
in the United States: 


Algeria, via France. 

Angola, via Portugal. 

Argentina: Comisién Protectora de Bibliotecas Populares, Calle Peru No. 655, 
Buenos Aires. 

Austria: K. K. Statistische Central-Commission, Vienna. 

Azores, via Portugal. 

Barbados: Imperial Department of Agriculture, Bridgetown. 

Belgium: Service Belge des Echanges Internationaux, Rue du Musée 5, Brus- 
sels. 

Bermuda. (Sent by mail.) 

Bolivia: Oficina Nacional de Hstadistica, La Paz. 

Brazil: Servico de Permutacgoes Internacionaes, Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de 
Janeiro. 

British Colonies: Crown Agents for the Colonies, London.@ 

British Guiana: Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society, Georgetown. 

British Honduras: Colonial Secretary, Belize. 

Bulgaria: Institutions Scientifiques de S. M. le Roi de Bulgarie, Sofia. 

Canada. (Sent by mail.) 

Canary Islands, via Spain. 

Cape Colony: Government Stationery Department, Cape Town. 

Chile: Servicio de Canjes Internacionales, Biblioteca Nacional, Santiago. 

China: Zi-ka-wei Observatory, Shanghai. 

Colombia: Oficina de Canjes Internacionales y Reparto, Biblioteca Nacional, 
Bogota. 2 

Costa Rica: Oficina de Depésito y Canje de Publicaciones, San José. 

Cuba. (Sent by mail.) 

Denmark: Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Copenhagen. 

Dutch Guiana: Surinaamsche Koloniale Bibliotheek, Paramaribo. 

Ecuador: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Quito. 

Egypt: Director-General, Survey Department, Giza (Mudiria). 

France: Service Francais des Behanges Internationaux, 110 Rue de Grenelle, 
Paris. 

Friendly Islands. (Sent by mail.) 

Germany: Karl W. Hiersemann, Konigsstrasse 29, Leipzig. 

Great Britain and Ireland: Messrs. William Wesley & Son, 28 Essex street, 
Strand, London. 

Greece: Bibliothéque Nationale, Athens. 

Greenland, via Denmark. 

Guadeloupe, via France. 

Guatemala: Instituto Nacional de Varones, Guatemala. 

Guinea, via Portugal. 

Haiti: Secrétaire d’Htat des Relations Extérieures, Port au Prince. 

Honduras: Biblioteca Nacional, Tegucigalpa. 

Hungary: Dr. Julius Pikler, Municipal Office of Statistics, City Hall, Budapest. 

Iceland, via Denmark. 

India: India Store Department, India Office, London. 


*This method is employed for communicating with several of the British 
colonies with which no medium is available for forwarding exchanges direct. 


97578°—sm 1910-——5 


66 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Italy: Ufficio degli Scambi Internazionali, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Eman- 
uele, Rome. 

Jamaica: Institute of Jamaica, Kingston. 

Japan: Department of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo. 

Java, via Netherlands. 

Korea: His Imperial Japanese Majesty’s Residency-General, Seoul. 

Liberia: Department of State, Monrovia. 

Lourenco Marquez: Government Library, Lourenco Marquez. 

Luxemburg, via Germany. 

Madagascar, via France. 

Madeira, via Portugal. 

Mexico. (Sent by mail.) 

Montenegro: Ministére Princier des Affaires Btrangéres, Cetinje. 

Mozambique, via Portugal. 

Natal: Agent-General for Natal, London. 

Netherlands: Bureau Scientifique Central Néerlandais. Bibliothéque de VUni- 
versité, Leyden. 

Newfoundland. (Sent by mail.) 

New Guinea, via Netherlands. 

New Hebrides. (Sent by mail.) 

New South Wales: Board for International Exchanges, Public Library, Sydney. 

New Zealand: Dominion Museum, Wellington. 

Nicaragua: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Managua. 

Norway: Kongelige Norske Frederiks Universitet Bibliotheket, Christiania. 

Panama: Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores, Panama. 

Paraguay: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Asuncion. 

Persia: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York City. 

Peru: Oficina de Reparto. Depdsite y Canje Internacional de Publicaciones, 
Ministerio de Fomento, Lima. 

Portugal: Servico de Permutacdes Internacionaes, Bibliotheca Nacional, Lisbon. 

Queensland: Board of Hxchanges of International Publications, Parliament 
House, Brisbane. 

Roumania, via Germany. 

Russia: Commission Russe des Echanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Im- 
périale Publique, St. Petersburg. 

Saint Christopher. (Sent by mail.) 

Salvador: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, San Salvador. 

Santo Domingo. (Sent by mail.) 

Servia: Section Administrative du Ministére des Affaires Etrangéres, Belgrade. 

Siam: Department of Foreign Affairs, Bangkok. 

South Australia: Public Library of South Australia, Adelaide. 

Spain: Servicio del Cambio Internacional de Publicaciones, Cuerpo Facultativo 
de Archiveros, Bibliotecarios y Arquedlogos, Madrid. 

Sumatra, via Netherlands. 

Sweden: Kongliga Svenska Vetenskaps Akademien, Stockholm. 

Switzerland: Service des Hchanges Internationaux, Bibliothéque Fédérale Cen- 
trale, Bern. 

Syria: Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, New York. 

Tasmania: Royal Society of Tasmania, Hobart. 

Transvaal: Government Library, Pretoria. 

Trinidad: Victoria Institute, Port of Spain. 

Tunis, via France. 

Turkey : American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Boston. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 67 


Uruguay: Oficina de Deposito, Reparto y Canje Internacional, Montevideo. 
Venezuela: Biblioteca Nacional, Caracas. 

Victoria: Public Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 

Western Australia: Public Library of Western Australia, Perth. 

Zanzibar. (Sent by mail.) 


In conclusion, it is my sad duty to record here the death, on January 27, 1910, 
of Ferdinand V. Berry, Chief Clerk of the International Exchange Service. Mr. 
Berry was appointed as clerk January 9, 1884, and became chief clerk of the 
exchanges on July 1, 1907. During the twenty-six years that Mr. Berry served 
the Institution his work was faithfully and efficiently performed, and his loss 
is deeply regretted. 

Respectfully submitted. 

C.. W. SHOEMAKER, 
Chief Clerk, International Exchange Service. 
Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


Apprenpix IV. 


REPORT ON THE NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK. 


Sir: I have the honor to present herewith a report of the operations of the 
National Zoological Park for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1910. 

The appropriation for that year was $95,000, and the estimated amount for 
current maintenance was $83,706.92, leaving but $11,293.08 from which to make 
necessary repairs and extensions of buildings, improvements of roads and 
grounds, and additions to the collection. 

The largest sum expended for any one object was that of $5,291, for the trans- 
portation of animals from Africa, a detailed account of which is appended 
hereto. For the accommodation of these animals alterations and additions were 
made to the buildings already in use. In the extension to the lion house a 
number of small and comparatively slight cages were removed and six new and 
larger ones, strong enough to hold lions and other large cats, were built in. 
The antelope house was enlarged by an extension 50 by 50 feet, thus furnishing 
ten additional stalls and a much needed new entrance. The building, although 
very simple in construction, is now admirably adapted for accommodating visit- 
ors, having three entrances with convenient approaches. The new stalls or 
cages are provided with commodious yards, which were nearly completed at the 
close of the fiscal year. 

The first work of the year was the construction of a suitable pool for sea 
lions and seals, which was established in the wooded valley occupied by the 
beaver. This pool is 47 by 96 feet, with a depth of 6 feet 3 inches. It has a 
shelter house of stone, ample banks, and a level border, the whole inclosed with 
an iron fence. 

Two watchman’s houses were placed at the park entrance and a flag pole 
was erected on the hill south of the lion house. 

This was all the new work that it was possible to execute from the limited 
amount available. 

Minor improvements and repairs were made as follows: Concrete steps and 
walk to the bird house; connecting the culvert in the beaver valley with Rock 
Creek sewer; painting fiying cage; surfacing gravel and cinder walks; making 
a serviceable road to the coal vault of the central heating plant. 

Much of this work it has been possible to carry on economically by the use of 
stone from a quarry in the park and of sand and gravel from the creek. 

The following is a tabular statement of the cost of this work: 


AITEPAtlONe LO LON) NOTUSCl === en ae oe oe ae ee eee ee ee $1, 100. 00 
Addition to antelope house, with approschs= 222) 2 22 2, 500. 00 
Sea-lion pond, including stonework, concrete construction, fencing, 

STHOIne planting and walk 2 = sess ee ee ee 2, 025. 00 
TWO Wea LCHMouUseS  (ol2o.Ca@l)\=-- 222 eee ee 250. 00 
SFUSET TDG esr a ee nS 100. 00 
Steps and svalk  towurd NOUSeY ne see oe eee eee 110. 00 
Gulvert and qcouneGiOl = so eae ee es os ae 600. 00 
TSE) oye ib OU oy YAM oh Yat (aC el Me A RP yan ap ee a 425. 00 
MUTEACING Wal seat a Ee aes Des eee ee 600. 00 
iRoaG” to “coal Wauseon eee eee ee ae 125. 00 


68 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 69 


AFRICAN ANIMALS. 


While the Smithsonian Expedition was in British Hast Africa Mr. W. N. 
MeMillan, of Nairobi, presented to the park a collection of East African animals 
which he had gathered at his place, Juja farm, about 25 miles from Nairobi. 
The collection included 5 lions, 2 cheetahs, a leopard, a Grant’s gazelle, a wart- 
hog, and several smaller mammals and birds. It was thought advisable to send 
the assistant superintendent of the park to Nairobi to attend to the shipping 
and come through with the animals, on account of the importance and value of 
this collection, and the fact, stated by the Smithsonian party, that other desir- 
able specimens, already in captivity, could be obtained in the region about 
Nairobi, and also because of the special precautions which the Agricultural De- 
partment required to be taken in order to prevent the introduction of con- 
tagious diseases, either through the animals themselves or by means of food 
or other supplies obtained for them. He left Washington toward the end of 
July, 1909, and returned with the animals December 17. Shipment from Mom- 
basa was made October 28 by a steamer of the Compagnie des Messageries 
Maritimes. At Port Said the animals were transferred to a lighter and kept 
there, without landing, for thirteen days, awaiting the arrival of a steamer going 
directly to Philadelphia. The voyage from Port Said, by a German freight 
steamer, occupied twenty-six days, but the weather was unusually favorable. 
With the exception of a few animals, very recently captured or very young, 
there was no loss between Nairobi and Philadelphia. The ruminants and wart- 
hog were held in quarantine at Philadelphia for about six weeks to allow 
thorough inspection and inoculation tests to be made to determine whether they 
carried any communicable disease. It is gratifying that all proved to be free 
from disease, since the region from which they came can furnish many im- 
portant animals which are as yet but little represented in zoological collections. 
Through the kindness of the Philadelphia Zoological Society the animals were 
kept at their gardens during the time of quarantine. The two cheetahs had 
died before shipment was made and the male Grant’s gazelle had been killed by 
accident. With these exceptions all of the animals presented by Mr. McMillan 
reached Washington safely and are still at the park. A pair of eland, a pair of 
Coke’s hartebeest, a waterbuck, a Grant’s zebra, and a bateleur eagle, which 
were purchased, reached Philadelphia in apparently good condition, but the male 
eland died of impaction of the intestine while in quarantine. A young male 
eland was presented by Lord Delamere, but, being in poor condition when 
received, lived only a few days. A pair of Thomson’s gazelle and an impala, 
all very young, and a pair of white-bearded gnu, caught just before shipping, also 
died very soon. ; 

Mr. G. H. Goldfinch, assistant game ranger of British East Africa, presented 
a hyrax and two specimens of Lophiomys, a rare and little-known rodent. 

The 21 animals which reached the United States included 15 species, of 
which 13 were species or subspecies not at any time before represented in the 
collection of the park. The lions are of the subspecies known as ‘“ Kilimanjaro 
lion” (Felis leo sabakiensis). 

In arranging for transportation it was necessary to go to London and Ham- 
burg, and, taking advantage of the opportunity, brief visits were made to 14 
zoological gardens in Hurope, and the Giza Garden, near Cairo, was visited on 
the return. 

The expenditures in connection with these animals were: 


Freight, hauling, and expenses of transshipping_______________________ $2, 555 
IP Omehaisevoleamitie ls = st 2-226 2 eo ee eee eS A ee ee 728 
CatenBiorn siiilop ics Sete eee See ene ee ee ee a Ne ee ee 450 


70 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Mood for animals.) - 2800. 5) 5 65 see ee den. $520 
Transportation and subsistence of A. B. Baker________._..___ 730 

Help with animals, including services of attendants, gratuities to ship’s 
OORT ge tn na a ee ee OTD A” GRUNT SOE eR 190 
Melesraphvand \Cxple" Messages. See eee enna eee eee ese 43 
MISCElANeO Use > Tee Sb. sae OES Sy, ee ee ies ee enone Ane AP eae nee 75 
Mota: £2. Sues a nc teks Lies Bile cree EL ehh etna eis Sees 5, 291 


Thirty-four species or subspecies new to the collection were exhibited during 
the year, including: 


Kilimanjaro lion. Defassa waterbuck. Cape hyrax. 
Clouded leopard. Grant’s gazelle. Short-tailed eagle. 
Indian tapir. Muntjae. Warlike crested eagle. 
Hast African eland. Grant’s zebra. 
Coke’s hartebeest. Northern warthog. 

The most important losses were: 
Indian tapir. Dromedary. 2 jabirus. 
East African eland. 2 llamas. Whooping crane. 
2 Rocky Mountain sheep. 2 jaguars. North African ostrich. 
3 mule deer. 2 Tasmanian wolves. : 
Reindeer. 2 leopards. 


One hundred and sixty-two dead animals were sent to the National Museum. 
Autopsies were made by pathologists of the Bureau of Animal Industry on 99 
animals, showing causes of death as follows: 


PETITION) oe er eee eae Or (ELV GOP MILO SIS eet ae 2, 
TSTIDERC IOS Sg <= te ee ere ( \WErOLeUSDaCUIOSIS: = 2.2. eee 1 
Pulmonary congestion -____-___-_ 2 | Porocephalus infestation ___-~___ 1 
TST pT gE KY ea acl tae etd 6 | Septicemia 
Gastro-enteritis ==. 3 ee 8 | Intestinal parasites —-— 22. == cE 
TOCA EY Chi SR ale a erat 127) Enterotoxis —-- =. 1 
COSTE IDS gS n= ee re ( |-Esoroptic Mange 1 
Hemorrhagic enteritis _______--__ 2 | Hiversion. of rechum — 22 == aes fi 
POTENT GE Sets ae ee eee So PAU SI 2 ne ae oe il 
Fatty degeneration of liver______- 1 | Malnutrition from faulty teeth___ 1 
STROMA DIG aa oe ee ee ORS HILOGHELOM eve = een ne ee 1 
fu (75% ov Ng pt Dk aunt | OUGCH Se Fane = ee ae 2 
Intestinal Goccidiosis) 22 === === 2—= 5H JONG Case found — 222" 222 eee = 
GeTEOMONINSIS 2222-22-22 Se 5 
VISITORS. 


The number of visitors to the park during the year was 721,555, a daily average 
of 1,977. This number is an increase over tke previous year of 156,816, and an 
increase in the daily average of 480. The largest number in any month was 
156,482, in March, 1910, a daily average for the month of 5,046. 

During the year there visited the park 155 schools, Sunday schools, classes, 
ete., with 3,888 pupils, a monthly average of 324 pupils. While most of them 
were from the city and immediate vicinity, 34 of the schools were from neigh- 
boring States, and classes came from Falmouth and Haverhill, Massachusetts; 
Stafford Springs, Connecticut; Rochester, Dover, Exeter, and Newport, New 
Hampshire; Bellows Falls, Vermont; .and Sanford, Maine. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. ct 


Statement of the collection. 
Accessions during the year: 


IB TOSCTUC Cine oe te es eae eR eS Are ee ered Wie STS aed 87 
MECRIVEGeINNe x CHa eee 2 ae or ee ae ee oy Ane 8 
IBRCHAINC Gee see a eS ee ee eee SUP tots yeree >) Flops of’ 139 
IDEDOSITEO aes fo. ee ES Ralepeegt eae tie ere F oeetl ie 8 hee Te 8 
Born and hatched in National Zoological Park________________-_--_--- 64 
Captured in National ‘Zoological; Parks. .20 22 see endo t fee 1 
1 BLO Uf a i pr Se AN a Se LAV RR ES rb as eka. 2b YS 307 
PRESENTED. 
Rhesus monkey, Miss Justine Ingersoll, Boston, Mass____________________ 2 
Common macaque: 
Wihianm heawenzer Washington): (Cask 2 esate 2) eee es i 
Geel Lompiin ss. Wale CeENbOTMs sa see ae etna kee Bt el a ee at 
Bonnet macaque: Ge i. Kompkings: Warrenton, Vao 2) ee eee il 
Baboon. We ON. Mevillan,, NAITODI, British Wast VATrich. 22" 72 se sees 1 
White-throated capuchin, Roland Davis, Washington, D. C____-_--_______ it 
HON AW eN eMC Mllat NalroObl, British’ bast Atricd = eae were ee 5 
Leopard, W. N. McMillan, Nairobi, British East Africa____________-____ al 
BayalviTKe AGA Iuxpress CO: WiSmineton, I) Cas seme wan Ae ee 1 
Mioridalynx., Howare Hlliott Washington, DiC s22 sees hs ee 1 
Covoce he Neuman: Kmelewood, Kans 22 22 2e) 2h ee eee 2 
CraiyetOx ae UM VELZdet. NVASHL STON: I). Oe teen aoe ee ee ee BONES Tere 1 
American otter, Frederic B. Hyde, Washington, D. C____________________ 2 
Kinkajou, Surg. W. H. Bell, U. S. Navy, Cristobal, Canal Zone_____________ al 
Common skunk. HC) Duehring, Washimeton sOi@© 2. 2 eee 1 
Cinnamon bear. S. bruce, W..S:;, Honest service 2-2 == ee ee i 
Virsinia deer, Thos, Blagden’ Washington; dos G2 user. cee ee oe eS al 
Common coat, gohm Re Melean, Washington): ©2292 ee 4 
Grant’s gazelle, W. N. McMillan, Nairobi, British East Africa_____________- alt 
Northern warthog, W. N. McMillan, Nairobi, British East Africa__________- te fel 
Lophiomys, G. H. Goldfinch, Asst. Game Ranger, Nairobi, British Hast 
TANiTT om ereramen ale = SUN BR Ee ee ee 2 ee a BY 
English rabbit: 
Mirse Sirsa Washi etm: ys eens Mike 2 a tas Fy ee eee al 
Nirse Stree: Washineron, ID Ciz< tr Pee ee A ee eee 2 
Common opossum: 
Charlessias Medley aVictoriay Nios 2c 3 22 eae eee eee aft 
HED rOOD: “Washinton DDN Sate ee ERS 5B SEES ae ea es ee 2 
ihheseresigent: “Washington, 1): C2. = os Soe ees ee ee ee 23 
De eCOOMEMIVAS HIN tOle Wy Os som tem take: dire) cestel) et tree wale DUS a ee een iL 
Alvitid GpiutsUln donor, UNKNOWN. 2 222k 252. eee se 1 
Sparrow hawk, Mrs. C. H. McAndrie, Washington, D. C_______________-___ 1 
Sharp-shinned hawk, By i: Burritt, Washington, Dy C222) = 2) a al 
Red-shouldered hawk, T. Hanlon, Washington, D. C_-_________________=-= 1 
Baldveasie, Col. RK: lh. Montague, Washington, Di Ca22 2 ere ee 1 
Warlike crested eagle, W. N. McMillan, Nairobi, British Hast Africa______ 1 
Hawke WeoN. MeMillan, Nairobi; British, Hast Adirical S22 => 222 eee 1 
Egyptian vulture, W. N. MeMillan, Nairobi, British Hast Africa____________ alt 
Pileated vulture, W. N. McMillan, Nairobi, British East Africa_____________ il 
Great horned owl: 
TONNER ICKELES we L TNtOns Pea ee ee eee Soe ee eee 1 


FPP) OTA Tae UT ET Lec usta ep a Se ae ee eral ok eee ee eee alt 


72 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Barn owl: 


R. “He Chappell, Washington, D. C___--— 25 4 has at SA eae 1 
Dr. iC. N. Lenman, Washington) DL C22 22 = 2 eee al 
Screech owl: 
Raymond Campbell, Washington, Oi oe ee ee eae il 
Mrs; Arthur: Iuee;, Washintgon,: 1D. Clo ee eee 1 
Red and yellow and blue macaw, D. S. Sheahan, Washington, D. C_________ 1 
Red-shouldered Amazon, Mrs. Bicknell, Washington, D. G_________________ ll 
Vellow-Lronted Amazon, B. Munoz. Hondunds= 22) 222 e ee eee 7 
Parrakeet : 
Mrs; Leigh btu Berbesda:,. Viger cee 6 ee ee ee eee 2 
M. Be ubman;. Washington 0) Ce. a8 2 eae 1 
Common canary: 
M,; Doumer, Washington; D,. ©. 2. 2s= 9 es eh ee ee af 
Mrs:H.-C. Steuart, Washington, 1)\\Co S22" 2 ee ee ee al 
Cutler Vickery, Washineton yD; Ce se a ee ne eee fi 
Java>sparrow, Miss M: Britton, Washington, BD: Ce = es 6 ee 4 
Jungle fowl, Dr. C. B. Davenport, Cold Spring Harbor, N. Y_.--._-.-..---~~ 2 
Wood ibis;“A.oMe Nicholson?Orlando, Plaw3 2 2 eee eee 2 
Whistling swan; Mrs: Eitzeerald7 Washington, 1. C54. 2.2) = ee ee f. 
iBcanieDr:. El. (Gosling Washington, gD: C= a) > eS ee eee fi 
Alligator : 
Mark Sloane. Washing lon Wi Ol. sa se 2 ee al 
NiISsuC. Erarnd on, Washinetont I) (Oo 8 2e eeeeee 1 
Dry Wes. -Harbans Wasnine One (a= a a 2 Ee 2 eee al 
Deby Larner; Washin Stony Wye Cae teres eee we eee te Ee ee 1 
Mdsanr Shreve, WaASHINe TON, cl). Cs ee eee lee Se ee il 
MrsmViary Bartlett; Wiest Miu Ore Wee V glee ee eerie eet set ee ee ee 2 
Gila. monster,Gustav. Eriebus;, Washington; D122 2 ase ee ee 1 
Rattlesnake, G; H.- White, Washington, (D4 C22 =. 3) ee eee | 
Black snake: 
WeV--ComeWashinetonssD NOs ts sities ve 2 Siete al 
Thos,.C. Johnson, *Deanwoods) Dy C4 _ el tf ee eee ee al 
Houseisnake;’Thos./CJohnson;, Deanwood;, DaCz- 222 hh25__ Se _ fs eee il 
Garter snake Hoh, Carl, Washington; 1. C224 12 e- es ee at 
SUMMARY. 
AMIMaAls On, Hand uly U1 9092 <2 a es ee ee ee 1, 416 
ANCCESSLONSOULrING: theyyear’- 3225" ess he ae eee ae 3807 
Otel k= = ee ee ee ee eee at, 25 
Deduct loss (by exchange, death, and returning of animals)_—_-_________ 299 
CB oma ys ao Wel ah ave tecs | 0 Yeegd Wo 1} NM oe cs Se ny ot aA 8 are > ae 1, 424 
Species. ieee 
Mammials...2. oop cecncncnoeeeceamn ccna coclsene Jace Dat teehee aattese eta aes Soeaeee 153 625 
BINGE. uo once casne oe neecice ss ae oe sc dep aa ct ot aes skied setece oak ida s.cbaee meee rake ones 184 692 
Reptiles’. ..j.. seccenb eRe pee See Rett oo ke Sed tae ee EPR POSE Ee cube ecee ce eeeee ees 35 107 
MMe nob ces a BSA teat, cise Su aed ot ae 372| 1,424 


Respectfully submitted. 
FRANK BAKER, 
Superintendent. 
Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 


AppEnpDIx VY. 
REPORT ON THE ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY. 


Srr: I have the honor to present the following report on the operations of the 
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for the year ending June 30, 1910: 


EQUIPMENT, 


The equipment of the observatory is as follows: 

(a) At Washington, in an inclosure of about 16,000 square feet, are contained 
five small frame buildings used for observing and computing purposes, three 
movable frame shelters covering several out-of-door pieces of apparatus, and 
also one small brick building containing a storage battery and electrical dis- 
tribution apparatus. 

(6) At Mount Wilson, California, upon a leased plot of ground 100 feet square 
in horizontal projection, are located a one-story cement observing structure, 
designed especially for solar constant measurements, and also a little frame 
cottage, 21 feet by 25 feet, built and furnished last September for observer’s 
quarters. It is highly satisfactory to note from the decrease in probable error 
of the observations secured in 1909 on Mount Wilson, compared with those of 
previous years, that the new cement observatory there, located as it is far from 
the dust, smoke, and disturbances of the other parts of the mountain, is excel- 
lently adapted for securing the most exact results. 


WORK OF THE YEAR. 


The present year’s results are of uncommon interest, for they appear to fix 
within narrow limits the value of the solar constant of radiation. When in 1902 
the first attempts were made here to measure it, that first-rank constant of 
nature, the intensity of the solar radiation at the earth’s mean distance from the 
sun, was unknown within the wide range between 1.75 and 4 calories per square 
centimeter per minute. This range of values is given, with a preference for 
Langley’s value (8 calories), by Hann in his standard work on meteorology, 
published in 1905. 

It is improbable that this observatory would have continued since 1902 in 
solar-constant work had it not been that the results of 1903 gave strong indica- 
tions of considerable variability of the sun in short intervals and that later 
work also strongly supported this presumption. The late director, Secretary 
Langley, shared, with many others of the most competent judges on the subject, 
the impression that to determine the solar constant of radiation with any con- 
siderable degree of accuracy or certainty was, if not impossible, yet a thing 
which would probably be long deferred and would involve spectro-bolometric 
measurements at the highest possible altitudes at which men may exist. He 
did not at all believe that our results of 1903 approximated to the true value 
of the solar constant, but only that they might be so far independent of ordinary 
atmospheric changes as to be used in determining the probability of solar vari- 
ability. Hence, in 1905, he instructed the present writer to bear in mind, in 
going to Mount Wilson for the first time, that it was not the solar constant but 


73 


74 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the possibility of solar variability which was the result to be determined by the 
expedition. This inquiry has, indeed, been the primary one in all the subse- 
quent work, but not to the exclusion of attempts to fix the value of the solar 
constant itself. 

There were at that time two principal and seemingly formidable difficulties 
hindering the determination of the solar constant of radiation. First, there 
was no instrument capable of absorbing fully and adapted for measuring com- 
pletely the energy received at the earth’s surface, excepting, perhaps, the little- 
known and rarely used instrument invented by W. A. Michelson, of Russia, about 
1894. Second, there was grave doubt if a true estimate of the loss of radiation 
in traversing the air could be made. Langley has somewhere described the first 
obstacle as ‘‘ formidable,” the second as ‘‘ perhaps insurmountable.” 

As stated in previous reports, much attention was given from 1908 onward to 
devising a standard pyrheliometer, and thus establishing the absolute scale of 
radiation measurements. A considerable degree of success seemed to be attained 
in 1906, but the results obtained in that year were found, by comparison with 
instruments of the United States Weather Bureau, to differ so much from the 
generally adopted scale of Angstrém that further work, involving finally the 
construction of two additional water-flow pyrheliometers, was done. The last 
of these instruments, and by far the most perfect of them all, was completed 
and tried at Mount Wilson in October. 1909. A fairly close agreement seemed 
to hold between it and its immediate predecessor, but when the electrical con- 
stants of both instruments were determined with extreme care in February, at 
Washington, by Mr. Aldrich, the gap widened. A source of error, till then 
little regarded, was reconsidered, and painstaking comparisons of pyrheliometers 
were carried through at Washington by Messrs. Aldrich, Abbot, and Fowle. 
These were finished in June, 1910, and the two standard pyrheliometers were 
found to agree together well within the probable error of the highly accurate 
experiments. Not only so, but each instrument was found to take up and 
measure between 99 and 100 per cent of such various quantities of electrically 
introduced heat as were used as tests. Finally these definite measurements 
indicated that while the results published at page 46 in volume 2 of the Annals, 
made with standard pyrheliometer No. 1, are 4 or 5 per cent above the true 
scale, yet when all the experiments made with that instrument, at Washington 
as well as Mount Wilson, are collected their mean result is almost in exact 
agreement with the resuits obtained in 1910 with standard pyrheliometers 
Nos. 2 and 3. 

It may now be accepted that the absolute scale of radiation is established 
within three parts in 1,000, and that we may express all our measurements of 
solar radiation made since 1902 with this degree of accuracy in absolute calories 
per square centimeter per minute. 

Three secondary pyrheliometers, the cost of whose construction after my 
designs has been defrayed from the Hodgkins Fund, have been standardized and 
sent to Russia, France, and Italy. Two others have been sold by the Institution 
to the United States Agricultural Department. Thus steps are being taken to 
diffuse the standard seale of pyrheliometry. The new scale is about 5.2 per cent 
above that of new Angstrém pyrheliometers. 

The second obstacle mentioned above seems now less serious than the first. 
It was found in 1905 and 1906 that practically identical values of the solar 
constant resulted from good series of spectro-bolometric observations of the 
same day taken at Washington (sea level) and Mount Wilson (6,000 feet eleva- 
tion). But in August, 1909, Mr. Abbot ascended Mount Whitney (14,500 feet) 
with a complete spectro-bolometric outfit, and, notwithstanding many days of 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 12) 


unpromising weather, succeeded on September 38, under the most perfect sky and 
in exceptionally dry air, in making a complete and satisfactory series of solar 
constant measurements. A prism of quartz and two mirrors of magnalium were 
the only optical parts to affect the rays, so that it was possible to observe from 
wave length 0.29 » to wave length 3.0 ». This extended region includes not only 
all the visible but the ultra-violet and infra-red spectra, with sufficient com- 
pleteness to include in the discussion apparently within 1 per cent of all the 
rays which the sun sends the earth and to make the allowance for rays not 
observed practically sure. During the same day Mr. Ingersoll observed witb 
the usual complete spectro-bolometric outfit on Mount Wilson, and his results 
were in accord with what would be expected from his preceding and following 
day’s work there and agreed within 1 per cent with those obtained simultaneously 
on Mount Whitney. 

In view of the agreement of results on the solar constant of radiation obtained 
at sea level, 1 mile, and 2? miles elevation, it now seems highly probable that we 
can really by Langley’s method of homogeneous rays allow for losses in the air 
and get the same values that we would observe directly if we could take our 
instruments above the air altogether. 

The reduction of spectro-bolographie work to the absolute scale of pyrhelio- 
metry enables us to give as the average value of the solar constant of radiation 
for the epoch 1905 to 1909, 1.924 calories per square centimeter per minute. It 
is probable that observations at sun-spot minimum will tend to raise this value 
by rather more than 1 per cent, so that we may suppose the mean value of the 
solar constant for a complete sun-spot cycle will be about 1.95 calories. 

Experiments made in 1909 at Mount Wilson with various optical systems 
agree within their probable error with one another, and with the results obtained 
on Mount Whitney in fixing the distribution of energy in the spectrum of the 
sun outside the atmosphere. In the Mount Whitney work the curve of energy 
distribution was followed to a wave-length estimated (not very accurately) as 
0.294 and it there practically reached zero intensity, although the quartz and 
magnalium apparatus would have been capable of transmitting the rays, had 
they existed, of much shorter wave-lengths. In the spectrum of the “ perfect 
radiator,” corresponding to the apparent temperature of the sun, the intensity 
of the ultra-violet rays would be of some importance for a considerably farther 
stretch of wave-lengths beyond this. It therefore appears that either the earth’s 
atmosphere, even above Mount Whitney, or else the sun’s envelope, effectually 
hinders the solar rays. If it is the former, then it may be that the above-men- 
tioned value of the solar constant should still be raised a few per cent. But the 
known powerful selective absorption of vapors in the sun’s envelope seems quite 
reasonably competent alone to produce the observed weakness of the solar 
spectrum in the ultra-violet. This view is confirmed by experiments of Miethe 
and Lehmann, who found no extension of the solar spectrum with increasing 
elevation, although they shifted their observing station from Berlin (50 meters) 
to Monte Rosa (38,500 meters), thus greatly diminishing the layer of air 
traversed. Their shortest wave-length was 0.2911, closely agreeing with ours. 

From our experiments of 1909 the apparent average solar temperature is 
6430°, 5840°, or 6200°of the absolute, according as we follow Wien’s displace- 
- Inent law, Stefan’s law, or Planck’s law as the method of computation. But the 
temperature of the sun, apart from the uncertainty of terms when dealing with 
such high values, is probably a quantity which has very various values, from 
the center to the limb of the sun’s disk, depending on the depth within the sun 
at which the radiation originates. 

At Washington Messrs. Fowle and Aldrich have continued experiments on 
the transmission by moist columns of air for long-wave radiation, though with 


76 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


many interruptions due to the difficulty of the research. The work has been 
carried to wave-length beyond 15y in the infra-red, and for columns of air 800 
feet long. It is not yet possible to summarize the results. 

Messrs. Fowle and Aldrich and Miss Graves have made rapid progress with 
the reduction of solar-constant work of 1909. 

Experiments have been begun for the purpose of devising economical means 
of utilizing solar energy for domestic purposes. 


PERSONNEL. 


Dr. L. R. Ingersoll served as temporary bolometric assistant on Mount Wilson 
to September 6, 1909. 

Mr. L. B. Aldrich was given a temporary appointment as bolometric assistant 
at Washington beginning September 1, 1909. He passed a competitive exami- 
nation and was reappointed provisionally on January 10, 1910. His appoint- 
ment was made permanent, to begin July 1, 1910. 


SUMMARY, 


The work of the year is notable for the determination of the absolute scale 
of pyrheliometry and for the success of spectrobolometric observations of the 
solar constant of radiation on Mount Whitney. These agree with simultaneous 
observations of the same kind on Mount Wilson. Reducing these and other 
results to the absolute scale of pyrheliometry, we may fix the average value of 
the solar constant of radiation at 1.925 calories per square centimeter per minute 
for the epoch 1905-1909. Making allowance for the higher values which must 
prevail at sun-spot minimum, the solar constant may be estimated at 1.95 cal- 
ories aS an average value for a sun-spot cycle. No reason has been found 
for departing from the view heretofore held that short-interval variations 
of 5 per cent or more from this value occur. The energy distribution in 
the solar spectrum outside the atmosphere has been determined with the 
bolometer on Mount Whitney between wave lengths 0.294 in the ultra violet 
and 3.0u in the infra red. This region appears to contain full 99 per cent of all 
the solar energy outside the atmosphere. The apparent temperature of the sun 
as computed by three different methods comes out 6430°, 5840°, and 6200° of 
the absolute scale. Researches on the transmission of moist columns of air for 
long-wave rays, such as the earth emits, have been continued to wave lengths 
beyond 15x”, and for columns of air 800 feet in length. Secondary pyrhelio- 
meters, standardized to the absolute scale, have been sent to Russia, France, 
and Italy, and also furnished to the United States Weather Bureau and Depart- 
ment of Agriculture. 


Respectfully submitted. 
C. G. ABsBot, Director, 
Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 


Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


Apprnpix VI. 
REPORT ON THE LIBRARY. 


Sir: I have the honor to present the following report on the operations of the 
library of the Smithsonian Institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910: 

The accessions recorded for the Smithsonian deposit, Library of Congress, 
numbered 2,653 volumes, 2,879 parts of volumes, 1,396 pamphlets, and 623 charts, 
making a total of 7,551 publications. The accession numbers run from 495,195 
to 500,000. These publications were forwarded to the Library of Congress 
immediately upon their receipt and entry. In their transmission 270 boxes 
were required, containing approximately the equivalent of 10,800 volumes. The 
actual number of pieces sent, including parts of periodicals, pamphlets, and 
volumes, numbered 36,526. This statement does not, however, include about 
2,948 parts of serial publications secured in exchange to complete sets and trans- 
mitted separately. 

The Institution has continued the policy of sending public documents presented 
to it to the Library of Congress without stamping or entering. The number of 
publications given above does not include these, nor does it include other publi- 
cations for the Library of Congress received through the International Exchange 
Service. 

The libraries of the Smithsonian office, of the Astrophysical Observatory, and 
the National Zoological Park have received 478 volumes and pamphlets and 253 
parts of volumes and charts, making a total of 626 publications, and a grand 
total, including the publications for the Smithsonian deposit, of 8,177. The 
actual decrease in the number of publications entered for the Smithsonian 
library is not as great as would at first appear, owing to the fact that in the 
present report a statement has been made of the number of completed volumes 
accessioned, rather than, as was formerly the custom, of the number of parts 
constituting a volume. Special attention has been given to the checking up and 
completing of the Smithsonian deposit sets of publications of scientific societies 
and learned institutions of the world, together with the series of scientific 
periodicals contained in the library. 

The parts of serial publications entered on the card catalogue numbered 
26,772, and 1,605 slips for completed volumes were made; 277 cards for new 
periodicals and annuals, together with 418 donor cards and 1,114 catalogue cards 
for separate publications were made and filed. 

Inaugural dissertations and academic publications were received and acces- 
sioned from universities at the following places: 


Basel. Halle an der Saale. St. Petersburg. 
Berkeley. Leipzig. Utrecht. 
Berlin. Liege. Vienna. 
Breslau. Lund. Wiirzburg. 
Graz. Paris. 


The establishing of new exchanges and the securing of missing parts to com- 
plete sets of publications in the Smithsonian library required the writing of 


17 


78 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


3,251 letters, resulting in the addition of about 277 periodicals and in the 
receipt of about 2,948 missing parts. 

The library has again cooperated with the International Exchanges in sending 
to foreign countries lists of government documents and serial publications of 
that class needed to complete the sets in the Library of Congress. In addition 
to the countries already enumerated in previous reports, lists have been sent to 
Natal, New Zealand, Spain, and Venezuela. 

The publications in the reading room being in the main of a class not to be 
found elsewhere, a yearly increase is to be noted in the number of persons 
consulting them. The readers include scientific workers not only from Wash- 
ington, but from other American and foreign cities. The staff has withdrawn 
for office use 52 bound volumes of periodicals and 3,336 parts of scientific 
periodicals and popular magazines. In addition, the various bureaus of the 
Government continue to avail themselves of the opportunity to use these pub- 
lications as well as those in the sectional libraries of the institution. 

The mail receipts numbered 48,222 packages, and 7,117 package&S were received 
through the International Exchange Service. The publications contained therein 
were stamped and distributed for entry from the mail desk. About 5,111 ac- 
knowledgments were made on the regular forms in addition to the letters which 
were written in acknowledgment of publications received in response to the 
requests of the institution for exchange. 

The employees’ library.—The books added to this library by purchase num- 
bered 30, and by binding 300 volumes of periodicals were made available for 
circulation. The total number of books borrowed was 2,092. The sending of a 
selected number of books from this library to the National Zoological Park has 
been continued, but the sending of books to the Bureau of American Ethnolog 
was discontinued when the Bureau moved into the Smithsonian building in 
January, 1910. 

Bibliography of aeronautics—The manuscript for the Bibliography of Aero- 
nautical Literature to July 1, 1909, was completed during the summer of that 
year, and the work, forming volume 55 of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Col- 
lections, was published during the month of April, 1910. Numerous accessions 
have been made to the collection of aeronautical literature in the office library. 
The volumes have been bound and are now available for reference. 

At the request of the American committee on cooperation with the Inter- 
national Congress of Archivists and Librarians, the assistant librarian prepared 
an answer to the question “Dans quel sens y a-t-il lieu de réorganiser et 
détendre le service des échanges internationaux?’ The reply was sent in the 
latter part of January for presentation to the congress convening in Brussels 
August 27 to 31. 

American Historical Association.—The arranging of new exchanges of the 
annual reports of the American Historical Association from the allotment agreed 
upon for that purpose has resulted in a number of publications of historical 
societies throughout the world being added to the Smithsonian deposit at the 
Library of Congress. 


UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


The library of the Museum has suffered from congestion and is handicapped 
in its work by lack of space. While it has continued to grow during the last ten 
years, no additional room has been available owing to the overcrowded condition 
of the Museum building. As the new building is now ready for the collections 
it will be possible in the near future for the library to have all the room neces- 
sary for expansion and proper classification. Many gifts of importance have 
been received, those deserving special mention being the publications presented 


¥ 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 79 


by Dr. Theodore N. Gill, Dr. Charles W. Richmond, Dr. Charles A. White, Dr. 
BE. A. Schwartz, Dr. O. P. Hay, and Dr. Marcus Benjamin. The publications 
are scientific and of value in completing sets and filling in of the series of authors’ 
separates. 

In the death of Dr. Charles A. White the Museum library has lost one of its 
valued benefactors. Doctor White was at all times ready to forward the 
interests of the Museum library and gave material assistance in the work of 
completing its series of authors’ separates and its sets of periodical publications. 
His gifts have been numerous and are of special value along the lines of the 
work upon which he was engaged. 

Lists of the publications in the sectional libraries of the Museum have been 
made, and an experienced cataloguer has been checking them up with the 
publications on the shelves in the sections. The work of checking is uncompleted 
at the close of the fiscal year, but will be continued. 

In the Museum library there are now 88,300 volumes, 61,858 unbound papers, 
and 110 manuscripts. The accessions during the year consisted of 2,056 books, 
5,541 pamphlets, and 307 parts of volumes; 1,001 books, 1,055 complete volumes 
of periodicals, and 6,294 pamphlets were catalogued. 

Attention has been given to the preparation of volumes for binding, with the 
result that 485 books were sent to the government bindery. 

The number of books, periodicals, and pamphlets borrowed from the general 
library amounted to 28,272, including 4,148 from the collections which were 
assigned to the sectional libraries. 

The sectional libraries established in the Museum have remained unchanged, 
the complete list now standing as follows: 


Administration. Geology. Mollusks. 
Administrative assistant. History. Oriental archeology. 
Anthropology. Insects. Paleobotany. 

Biology. Invertebrate paleontol- Parasites. 

Birds. ogy. Physical anthropology. 
Botany. Mammals. Prehistoric archeology. 
Comparative anatomy. Marine invertebrates. Reptiles. 

Editor. ‘Materia medica. Superintendent. 
Ethnology. Mesozoic fossils. Taxidermy. 

Fishes. Mineralogy. Technology. 


SUMMARY OF ACCESSIONS. 


The following table summarizes all the accessions during the year except for 
the Bureau of American Ethnology, which is separately administered : 


Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress, including parts to 


COMPLETE LSE Sire te tt ser ee ole oe ip cme hh a ree See ED SES 10, 499 

Office, Astrophysical Observatory, National Zoological Park, and Inter- 
TP ULOV eI PC Pra Sy Sa ee ah ee ee EE 626 
United States: National Museuny library = = ee eee 7, 904 
DY C2 ls 8 a tas a ES en Ee ES Oe ee 19, 029 


Respectfully submitted. 
PAUL BrRocKEtTtT, Assistant Librarian. 
Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


Apprenpix VII. 


REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC 
LITERATURE. 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations of the 
United States Bureau of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature 
for the year ending June 30, 1910. 

The International Catalogue of Scientific Literature is an international co- 
operative enterprise having at present 32 regional bureaus scattered through- 
out the world, supported by the countries taking part in the work. The duties 
of these regional bureaus are to collect, index, and classify all contributions to 
pure science published within the several countries they represent. The mate- 
rial thus prepared is forwarded to the Central Bureau in London, there to be 
assembled and published. 

The catalogue consists of 17 annual volumes, one for each of the follow- 
ing sciences: Mathematics, mechanics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, meteor- 
ology, mineralogy, geology, geography, paleontology, general biology, botany, 
zoology, anatomy, anthropology, physiology, and bacteriology. 

The Central Bureau is maintained entirely by the funds received from the 
subscribers to the catalogue. The regional bureaus are in every case sup- 
ported by the countries taking part in the enterprise, in the great majority 
of cases by direct govermental grants. 

Since the beginning of the undertaking in 1901 the annual volumes have in- 
creased in size to such an extent that the cost of publication at one time 
exceeded the sum received from subscriptions, and it was necessary to cur- 
tail somewhat not only the methods of classifying the various subjects, but 
also the citation methods used in the subject catalogues. This is now being 
done without detracting in any way from the value of the catalogue as a work 
of reference, although the laber of preparation is in most cases much greater. 

The allotment for the present fiscal year was $6,000. Five persons are regu- 
larly engaged in the Bureau, and occasionally, when funds permit, the assistance 
of a specialist in some one of the sciences is temporarily employed. 

There were 25,082 cards sent from this Bureau during the year as follows: 


Initera tre no fed QO tet et 2 jy a A A. ee Le Oe eee V2 
terabureion 190222" 222 eee pete Rate et. Se eee 173 
Literare.or 190g. fants ey ee eee ee ee Pe oe eee 248 
HOPE Rey oes BLU w= gk 0 Bel A 0 ABs gal iad ad ah SS SR Lat i Se eB a i lat 465 
Terawurevol 1905. 2 ee. ee ee ee ee 1, 1638 
tera bUre’ Ol LOO. ss ok ee eh ee eee es a ee ee 15502 
Hiteratwre Of UDO ee ae ws ei ee 3, 160 
Titerabure (Of 1908: 222 f.25 2 Meee Se ee ee ee ee ee 6, 3805 
hiteraturetot $1909 .—e oie) see i Es So a tien ee eS 11, 994 

AW 0) fi Sep sc oy ae Oe ee ee nO Tee ye ee eRe ney fete SB eal 25, 082 


This number does not represent the actual number of citations sent, for on 
account of a new ruling of the Central Bureau some of the biological cards 
contained a number of citations each. However, the actual number of cita- 


80 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 81 


tions has been reduced to approximately 28,000 for the year, which is about 
6,000 less than was sent in for the previous year. This decrease is not entirely 
due to the new methods of classifying, for as the work is each year being 
brought more nearly up to date fewer old papers are indexed, consequently 
fewer citations are required. It is estimated that when the work is entirely 
up to date only about 25,000 citations will be needed to completely index the 
yearly scientific literature of the United States. 

The following-named volumes of the catalogue were received and delivered 
to the subscribers in this country : 

Seventh annual issue: Meteorology, General Biology, Botany, Anatomy, 
Anthropology, and Bacteriology. 

Highth annual issue: Mathematics, Mechanics, Astronomy, Mineralogy, and 
Zoology. 

For a number of years it has been the aim to eventually prepare this cata- 
logue not only through the cooperation of the various countries, but through 
direct cooperation of authors and publishers of the papers indexed. This method 
was actually tried during the present year in the preparation of the volume 
on zoology, and though it required writing about 517 letters, the result was so 
satisfactory that it is proposed to gradually extend the method to other sciences. 

As has been pointed out before, the London Central Bureau is maintained 
solely by means of the funds obtained from subscriptions to the catalogue, and 
the necessary cost of editing and printing is so great that $85 per year has to be 
charged for the complete set of 17 volumes. This large figure places the work 
beyond the reach of many who would undoubtedly purchase individual volumes, 
if not the complete sets. The cost of doubling the edition of the catalogue would 
be comparatively small, the outlay representing only the cost of press work and 
paper, and it is felt that if the edition could be doubled and the price reduced 
one-half, the work could be placed at once within the reach of many small 
libraries and scientific workers who need such works of reference. 

At present the available funds prevent any such course being adopted, but a 
comparatively small endowment would not only render this move possible, but 
would enable the present restricted scope of the catalogue to be extended to 
include at first the applied sciences and then gradually the other records of 
human progress. A yearly income of $5,000 or $6,000 from a permanent endow- 
ment would enable the central bureau to take the necessary steps to first in- 
crease the circulation and then broaden the scope of the catalogue, and it is 
earnestly hoped that in the near future such an endowment may be obtained. 

There have been no losses of property during the year, excepting those caused 
by ordinary wear and deterioration. 

In the sundry civil bill approved June 25, 1910, $7,500 was appropriated to 
carry on the work for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911. This sum is an 
increase of $1,500 over the appropriation of the present year. 

Respectfully submitted. 

LEONARD C. GUNNELL, 
Chief Assistant. 
Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


97578°—sm 1910——6 


Apprenpix VIII. 


REPORT ON THE PUBLICATIONS. 


Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the publications of 
the Smithsonian Institution and its branches during the fiscal year ending 
June 30, 1910: 

There was distributed a total of 801 volumes and separates in the series 
of Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 17,560 in the series of Smith- 
sonian Miscellaneous Collections, 28,879 in the series of Smithsonian Annual 
Reports, and 2,179 in the series of Special Publications. In addition, there 
were 959 publications not included in the Smithsonian series distributed by 
the Institution, and 5,274 publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology 
sent out during the six months from January 1 to June 30, 1910. This makes a 
grand total of 55,652, an increase of 11,489 over the previous year. 


I. SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE, 


No memoirs of the series of Smithsonian Contributions. to Knowledge were 
issued during the year, although progress was made in preparing for press the 
Langley Memoir on Mechanical Flight which was begun by the late Secretary 
Langley in 1904 and continued by Mr. Charles M. Manly, assistant in charge 
of experiments. 


Il. SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, 


In the series of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections there were published 
during the year (1) fifteen papers in the Quarterly Issue, which was discon- 
tinued December 31, 1909, completing volume 52 of the regular series; (2) 
one paper in volume 51; (8) seven papers in volume 54, completing that 
volume; (4) volume 55, Bibliography of Aeronautics; (5) and seven papers 
in volume 56. The Quarterly Issue papers were as follows: 

1872. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. Volume 52, part 4 (Quarterly 
Issue, vol. 5, part 4) containing Publications, 1873 to 1887. Published Janu- 
ary 20, 1910. Octavo. Pages vii, 403-514, with plates 38 to 66. (The 
Quarterly Issue ends with this volume.) 

1878. Prehistoric Ruins of the Gila Valley. By J. Walter Fewkes. Published 
August 4, 1909. Octavo. Pages 403 to 436, with Plates 38 to 42. 

1874. Description of a New Frog from the Philippine Islands. By Leonhard 
Stejneger, Curator, Division of Reptiles and Batrachians, U. S. National 
Museum. Published August 4, 1909. Octavo. Pages 487-489. 

1875. A New Genus of Fossil Cetaceans from Santa Cruz Territory, Patagonia ; 
and Description of a Mandible and Vertebre of Prosqualodon. By Frederick 
W. True, Head Curator of Biology, U. S. National Museum. Published 
August 7, 1909. Octavo. Pages 441-456, with Plates 48 to 45. 

1876. Notes on Certain Features of the Life of the Alaskan Freshwater Sculpin. 
By Barton A. Bean and Alfred C. Weed, of the Division of Fishes, U. 8. Na- 
tional Museum. Published August 19, 1909. Octavo. Pages 457-460. 

82 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 83 


1877. The Geologic Work of Mangroves in Southern Florida. By T. Wayland 
Vaughan, Custodian of Madreporarian Corals, U. S. National Museum; Super- 
vising Geologist in Charge of Coastal Plain Investigations, U. S. Geological 
Survey. Published September 15, 1909. Octavo. Pages 461-464, with 
Plates 46 to 52. 

1878. Crystallographic Notes on Calcite. By J. E. Pogue, Assistant Curator, 
Division of Mineralogy, U. S. National Museum. Published September 24, 
1909. Octavo. Pages 465-468, with Plates 53 and 54. 

1879. A New Rodent of the Genus Georychus. By Edmund Heller, Field 
Naturalist, Smithsonian African Expedition. Published September 24, 1909. 
Octavo. Pages 469-470, with Plate 55. 

1880. Two New Rodents from British Hast Africa. By Edmund Heller, Field 
Naturalist, Smithsonian African Expedition. Published November 13, 1909. 
Pages 471-472, with Plate 56. 

1881. A Heretofore Undescribed Stony Meteorite from Thomson, McDuflie 
County, Georgia. By George P. Merrill, Head Curator, Department of Geol- 
ogy, U. S. National Museum. Published December 2, 1909. Octavo. Pages 
473-476. Plates 57 and 58. 

1882. On a Remarkable Cube of Pyrite Carrying Crystallized Gold and Galena 
of Unusual Habit. By Joseph EH. Pogue, Assistant Curator, Division of 
Mineralogy, U. 8. National Museum. Published December 22, 1909. Octavo. 
Pages 477-484, with Plate 59. 

1885. A New Carnivore of British Hast Africa. By Gerrit S. Miller, jr., Curator, 
Division of Mammals, U.S. National Museum. Published December 18, 1909. 
Octayo. Pages 485-487, with Plates 60 to 62. 

1884. Description of Fossil Plants from the Mesozoic and Cenozoic of North 
America. I. By F. H. Knowlton. Published January 11, 1910. Octavo. 
Pages 489-496, with Plates 63 and 64. 

1885. Two New Genera of Murine Rodents. By Gerrit S. Miller, jr., Curator, 
Division of Mammals, U. 8. National Museum. Published January 12, 1910. 
Octavo. Pages 497-498. 

1886. A Shelter for Observers on Mount Whitney. By ©. G. Abbot, Director of 
the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Published January 12, 1910. 
Octavo. Pages 499-506, with Plates 65 and 66. 

1887. List of Publications, continued from list in Quarterly Issue, volume 5, 
part 8. Published January 21, 1910. Octavo. Pages 507-509. 


In the regular series of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections the following 
were published, during the year: 

1869. The Mechanics of the Earth’s Atmosphere (a collection of translations). 
Third Collection. By Cleveland Abbe. Hodgkins Fund. Published. 1909. 
Octavo. Pages 1v, 617. Volume 51, Number 4. 

1870. Landmarks of Botanical History, Part I, Prior to 1562 A.D. By Edward 
L. Greene. Published 1909. Octavo. Pages 329. Part of volume 54. 

1920. Bibliography of Aeronautics. By Paul Brockett. Hodgkins Fund. Pub- 
lished 1910. Octavo. Pages xiv, 940. Volume 55. 

1922. Development of the Brain of the American Alligator; The Paraphysis and 
Hypophysis. By Albert M. Reese. Published March 1, 1910. Octavo. Pages 
20, with 5 plates. Volume 54, Number 2. 

1923. Constants of Nature. Part 5, A Recalculation of Atomic Weights. Third 
edition. By Frank Wigglesworth Clarke. Published May 6, 1910. Octavo. 
Pages iv, 548. Volume 54, Number 3. 

1924. Five New Rodents from British East Africa. By Edmund Heller. Pub- 


lished February 28, 1910. Octavo. Pages 2+4, with 2 plates. Volume 54, 
Number 4. 


84 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 5 


1925. A New Rodent of the Genus Saccostomus from British East Africa. By 
Gerrit S. Miller, jr. Published February 28,1910. Octavo. Pages 2+2, with 
1 plate. Volume 54, Number 5. 

1926. A New Sable Antelope from British East Africa. By Edmund Heller. 
Published March 3, 1910. Octavo. Pages 2+2. Volume 54, Number 6. 

1927. Description of a New Species of Hippopotamus. By Gerrit S. Miller, jr. 
Published March 28, 1910. Octavo. Pages 2+3, with 4 plates. Volume 54, 
Number 7. 

1929. The Seales of the African Characinid Fishes. By T. D. A. Cockerell. 
Published May 7, 1910. Octavo. Pages 2+10, with 2 plates. Volume 56, 
Number 1. 

1930. Mammals Collected by John J. White in British Hast Africa. By N. Hol- 
lister. Published March 31, 1910. Octavo. Pages 2+12, with 2 plates. Vol- 
ume 56, Number 2. 

1931. The Seales of the Mormyrid Fishes, with Remarks on Albula and Elops. 
By T. D. A. Cockerell. Published May 7, 1910. Pages 2+4. Volume 56, 
Number 8. 

1933. Upper Yukon Native Customs and Folk-Lore. By Ferdinand Schmitter. 
Published May 26,1910. Octavo. Pages 2+380. Volume 56, Number 4. 

1935. A Preliminary Study of Chemical Denudation. By Frank Wigglesworth 
Clarke. Published June 29, 1910. Octavo. Pages 2+19. Volume 56. Num- 
ber 5. 

1936. The Age of the Earth. By George F. Becker. Published June 29, 1910. 
Octayo. Pages 2+28. Volume 56, Number 6. 

1937. Description of a New Subspecies of African Monkey of the Genus Cercopi- 
thecus. By D. G. Elliot. Publishd June 11, 1910. Octavo. Pages 2--1. 


~ 


Voiume 56, Number 7. 


Of the regular series of Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections in press at the 
ciose of the year, there were: 


1934. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology. Number 6: Olenellus and other 
Genera of the Mesonacide. By Charles D. Walcott. Volume 53, Number 6. 

1939. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology. Number 7: Pre-Cambrian Rocks 
of the Bow River Valley, Alberta, Canada. By Charles D. Walcott. Volume 
53, Number 7. 

1940. Cambrian Geology and Paleontology. II. Abrupt Appearance of the Cam- 
brian Fauna on the North American Continent. By Charles D. Walcott. 
Volume 57, Number 1. 

1941. Notes on a Horn-feeding Lepidopterous Larva from Africa. By August 
Busck. Volume 56, Number 8. 


Ill. SMITHSONIAN ANNUAL REPORTS. 


The Annual Report for 1908, though partly in type at the beginning of the 
fiscal year, was not published until late in the fall. 


1917. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, showing Operations, Expenditures, and Conditions of the Institution 
for the year ending June 30, 1908. Octavo. Pages x, 801, with 101 plates. 
Containing publications 1855, 1856, and 1888 to 1914. 


The following papers, forming the General Appendix of the Annual Report 
of the Board of Regents for 1908, were issued in pamphlet form: 
1888. The Present Status of Military Aeronautics. By Maj. George O. Squier, 
U. S. Army. Pages 117-144, with 23 plates. 
1889. Aviation in France in 1908. By Pierre-Roger Jourdain. Pages 145-159. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 85 


1890. Wireless Telephony. By R. A. Fessenden. Pages 161-195, with 20 plates. 

1891. Phototelegraphy. By Henri Armagnat. Pages 197-207. 

1892. The Gramophone and the Mechanical Recording and Reproduction of 
Musical Sounds. By Lovell W. Reddie. Pages 209 to 251, with 2 plates. 

1893. On the Light Thrown by Recent Investigation on Electricity on the Rela- 
tion between Matter and Ether. By J. J. Thomson. Pages 233-244. 

1894. Development of General and Physical Chemistry During the Last Forty 
Years. By W. Nernst. Pages 245-253. 

1895. Development of Technological Chemistry During the Last Forty Years. 
By O. H. Witt. Pages 255-262. 

1896. Twenty Years’ Progress in Explosives. By Oscar Guttmann. Pages 263- 
300, with 9 plates. 

1897. Recent Research in the Structure of the Universe. By J. C. Kapteyn. 
Pages 301-319. 

1898. Solar Vortices and Magnetism in Sun Spots. By C. G. Abbot. Pages 321- 
338, with 5 plates. 

1899. Climatie Variations: Their Extent and Causes. By J. W. Gregory. Pages 
339-354. 

1900. Uranium and Geology. By Prof. John Joly. Pages 355-384, with 1 plate. 

1901. An Outline Review of the Geology of Peru. By George I. Adams. Pages 
385-480, with 5 plates. 

1902. Our Present Knowledge of the Earth. By E. Wiechert. Pages 431-449. 

19038. The Antarctic Question—Voyages to the South Pole since 1898. By J. 
Machat. Pages 451-480, with 1 plate. 

1904. Some Geographical Aspects of the Nile. By Capt. H. G. Lyons. Pages 
481-503, with 5 plates. 

1905. Heredity, and the Origin of Species. By Daniel Trembly MacDougal. 
Pages 505-528, with 1 plate. 

1906. Cactaceze of Northeastern and Central Mexico, together with a Synopsis 
of the Principal Mexican Genera. By William Edwin Safford. Pages 525- 
563, with 15 plates. (A separate edition with index was also published.) 

1907. Angler Fishes: Their Kinds and Ways. By Theodore Gill. Pages 565- 
615. 

1908. The Birds of India. By Douglas Dewar. Pages 617-639. 

1909. The Evolution of the Elephant. By Richard 8S. Lull. Pages 641-675, with 
2 plates. 

1910. Excavations at Boghaz-Keui in the Summer of 1907. By Hugo Winckler 
and O. Puchstein. Pages 677-696, with 10 plates. 

1911. Malaria in Greece. By Ronald Ross. Pages 697-710. 

1912. Carl von Linné as a Geologist. By A. G. Nathorst. Pages 711-748. 

1913. Life and Work of Lord Kelvin. The Kelvin Lecture. By Sylvanus P. 
Thompson. Pages 745-768, with 1 plate. 

1914. The Work of Henri Becquerel. By André Broca. Pages 769-785, with 1 
plate. 


The report of the executive committee and Proceedings of the Board of 
Regents of the Institution, as well as the report of the Secretary, for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1909, both forming part of the annual report of the Board 
of Regents to Congress, was printed in pamphlet form and published at the 
December meeting of the Board of Regents, as follows: 


1915. Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for the year 
ending June 30, 1909. Pages iii, 95. 

1916. Report of the Executive Committee and Proceedings of the Board of 
Regents for the year ending June 30, 1909. Pages 19. 


86 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The Smithsonian Report for 1909 was partly in type at the close of the fiscal 
year. In the General Appendix are the following papers: 


The Future of Mathematics, by Henri Poincaré. 

What Constitutes Superiority in an Airship, by Paul Renard. 

Researches in Radiotelegraphy, by J. A. Fleming. 

Recent Progress in Physics, by Sir J. J. Thomson. 

Production of Low Temperatures, and Refrigeration, by L. Marchis. 

The Nitrogen Question from the Military Standpoint, by Charles E. Munroe. 

Simon Newcomb, by Ormond Stone. 

Solar-radiation Researches by Jules César Janssen, by H. de la Baume 
Pluvinel. 

The Return of Halley’s Comet, by W. W. Campbell. 

The Upper Air, by E. Gold and W. A. Harwood. 

The Formation, Growth, and Habit of Crystals, by Paul Gaubert. 

The Distribution of Elements in Igneous Rocks, by Henry S. Washington. 

The Mechanism of Voleanic Action, by H. J. Johnston-Lavis.. 

Conservation. of Natural Resources, by James Douglas. 

The Antarctic Land of Victoria, by Maurice Zimmermann. 

Some Results of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-9, by H. H. Shackleton. 

The Oceanography of the Sea of Greenland, by D. Damas. 

From the Niger, by Lake Chad, to the Nile, by Lieut. Boyd Alexander. 

Mesopotamia: Past, Present, and Future, by Sir William Willcocks. 

Albert Gaudry and the Evolution of the Animal Kingdom, by Ph. Glangeaud. 

Charles Darwin, by August Weismann. 

Present Problems in Plant Ecology: Problems of Local Distribution in Arid 
Regions, by Volney M. Spalding. 

The Instinct of Self-concealment and the Choice of Colors in the Crustacea, 
by Romuald Minkiewicz. 

The Origin and Development of Parasitical Habits in the Cuculide, by C. L. 
Barrett. 

Some Remarks on the Protective Resemblance of South African Birds, by 
Alwin Haagner. 

An Inquiry into the History of the Current English Names of North American 
Land Birds, by Spencer Trotter. 

Condition of Wild Life in Alaska, by Madison Grant. 

Recent Discoyeries Bearing on the Antiquity of Man in Europe, by George 
Grant MacCurdy. 

European Population of the United States, by W. Z: Ripley. 

The Republic of Panama and its People, by Eleanor Yorke Bell. 

Ceramie Decoration: Its Evolution and Applications, by Louis Franchet. 

Some Notes on Roman Architecture, by F. T. Baggallay. 

The Relation of Science to Human Life, by Adam Sedgwick. 

Intellectual Work among the Blind, by Pierre Villey. 

The Relation of Mosquitoes, Flies, Ticks, Fleas, and other Arthropods to 
Pathology, by G. Marotel. 

Natural Resistance to Infectious Disease and its Reinforcement, by Simon 
Flexner. 


Iv. SPECIAL PUBLICATIONS. 
Only one special publication, in the form of a small pamphlet, was issued 
during the year: 


The Smithsonian Institution, at Washington, for the Increase and Diffusion of 
Knowledge among Men. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 87 


There were two special publications nearly ready at the close of the year: 


1932. Classified List of Smithsonian Publications available for distribution 
May, 1910. 

1988. Opinions Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomen- 
elature, Opinions 1 to 25. 


VY. PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


Ihe publications of the National Museum are: (a@) The annual report, form- 
ing a separate volume of the report to Congress by the Board of Regents of the 
Smithsonian Institution; (0) the Proceedings of the United States National 
Museum; (c) the Bulletin of the United States National Museum; and (d) the 
Contributions from the United States National Herbarium. ‘The editorship of 
these publications is in charge of Dr. Marcus Benjamin. 

The publications issued during the year are enumerated in the report on the 
National Museum. These included volume 37 of the Proceedings, containing 
Museum papers numbered 1695 to 1724, and volume 388, papers numbered 1725- 
1749. 

Hight Bulletins were issued, as follows: 


No. 65. Dendroid Graptolites of the Niagaran Dolomites at Hamilton, Ontario. 
By Ray S. Bassler. 

No. 66. A Monographie Revision of the Twisted Winged Insects comprising the 
Order Strepsiptera Kirby. By W. Dwight Pierce, 

No. 67. Directions for Collection and Preserving Insects. By Nathan Banks. 

No. 68. A Monograph of West American Pyramidellid Mollusks.. By William 
Healy Dall and Paul Bartsch. 

No. 69. The 'Tzenioid Cestodes of North American Birds. By Brayton Howard 
Ransom. : 

No. 70. The National Gallery of Art, Department of Fine Arts of the National 
Museum. By Richard Rathbun. 

No. 71. A Monograph of the Foraminifera of the North Pacific Ocean. Part I, 
Astrorhizide and Lituolide. By Joseph Augustine Cushman. 

No. 72. Catalogue of Nearctic Spiders. By Nathan Banks. 


In the series of Contributions from the National Herbarium there appeared: 

Volume 12, Part 10. Miscellaneous papers, by J. N. Rose, N. L. Britton, John M. 
Coulter, and G. N. Collins. 

Volume 18, Part 2. Three New Species of Echeveria, by J. N. Rose and J, A. 
Purpus. 

Volume 18, Part 3. The Grasses of Alaska, by F. Lamson-Scribner and Elmer D. 
Merrill. 

Volume 138, Part 4. New or Noteworthy Plants from Colombia and Central 
America—2, by Henry Pittier. 

Volume 18, Part 5. Relationships of the Ivory Paims, by O. F. Cook. 

Volume 14, Part 1. The Lichens of Minnesota, by Bruce Vink. 

Preliminary pages and index of volume 12, Systematic Investigations and Bib- 
liography. 


VI. PUBLICATIONS OF THE BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY. 


The publications of the Bureau are discussed in detail in another appendix 
of the Secretary’s report. The editorial work is in charge of Mr. J. G. Gurley. 
The following five bulletins were published by the Bureau during the year: 


Bulletin 38. Unwritten Literature of Hawaii. The sacred songs of the Hula, 

- compiled and translated, with notes and an account of the Hula, by Nathaniel 
B. Emerson, A. M., M.D. 1909. Octavo. Pages 288, with 24 plates, 3 figures, 
and 14 musical pieces. 


88 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Bulletin 39. Tlingit Myths and Texts, by John R. Swanton. 1909. Octavo. 
Pages VIII, 451. ‘ 

Bulletin 41, Antiquities of the Mesa Verde National Park: Spruce-Tree House, 
by J. Walter Fewkes. 1909. Octavo. Pages VIII, 97, with 21 plates and 37 
figures. 

Bulletin 48. The Choctaw of Bayou Lacombe, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, by 
David I. Bushnell, jr. 1909. Octavo. Pages 37, with 22 plates and 1 figure. 

Bulletin 49. List of the publications of the Bureau of American Ethnology, with 
index to authors and titles. 1910. Octavo. Pages 32. 


VII. PUBLICATIONS OF THE SMITHSONIAN ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY, 


There were no new publications issued by the Astrophysical Observatory 
during the year. 
VIIl. AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. 


The manuscript of Volumes I and II of the Annual Report of the American 
Historical Association for 1907 was sent to the Public Printer on September 10, 
1908, and the volumes were published in July, 1909. 

Volume I contained the following papers: 

Report of the Proceedings of the Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the American 
Historical Association, by Charles H. Haskins, corresponding secretary. 

Report of the Proceedings of the Pacific Coast ranch, by Clyde A. Duniway. 

Report of Conference on the Relation of Geography and History, by Frederick J. 
Turner. 

Report of Conference on the Work of State and Local Historical Societies, by 
Evarts B. Greene. 

Reports on special conferences on Medieval European History, on Modern Huro- 
pean History, on Oriental History and Politics, on American Constitutional 
History, and on United States History since 1865, by the respective chairmen 
of the conferences. 

Proposals for an Indian State, 1778-1878, by Annie H. Abel. 

The Pacific Railroads and the Disappearance of the Frontier in America, by 
Frederic L. Paxson. 

The Sentiment of the People of California with Respect to the Civil War, by 
John J. Earle. 

The Relation of the U. S. to Latin America, by Bernard Moses; 

Legazpi and Philippine Colonization, by James A. Robertson ; 

Report of the Public Archives Commission ; 

Francisco de Miranda and the Revolutionizing of Spanish America, by William 
S. Robertson. 


Volume 2 contained the report of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, 
comprising Diplomatic Archives of the Republic of Texas, I, edited by George 
P. Garrison. 

The manuscript of Volume I of the report for 1908 was sent to the printer 
on June 17, 1909, and the manuscript of Volume II was received from the secre- 
tary of the association and sent to the Public Printer in April, 1910, but neither 
volume had been completed at the close of the fiscal year. 


Ix. DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 


The manuscript of the annual report of the National Society of the Daughters 
of the American Revolution for the year ending October 11, 1909, was received 
on April 18, 1910, and communicated to Congress in accordance with the act of 
incorporation of that society. 


REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 89 


X. SMITHSONIAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON PRINTING AND PUBLICATION. 


The editor has continued to serve as secretary of the Smithsonian advisory 
committee on printing and publication. To this committee have been referred 
the manuscripts proposed for publication by the various branches of the Institu- 
tion as well as those offered for printing in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous 
Collections. The committee also considered forms of routine blanks and various 
matters pertaining to printing and publication, including the qualities of paper 
suitable for text and plates. Twenty-five meetings were held and 106 manu- 
seripts were acted upon. 

Respectfully submitted. 


A. HOWARD CLARE, Editor. 
Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, 


Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


duil's Sana 


arm ona mies 
nm a 


ante Ox” Mota 

mm at “@ nots at ii 
| ; slisescett PER ng ai at wsstdeelary wid H. 

= : aire waar Ph hits wanna 1 at TO hy Hane bihrabihe Ba ” eS bid at : 

wa ate . ve sift hb at: Srrpistoat si tiofl oe. x mY ea ae 


; pals fat ih) f Sit mp silt Haw ghtioat Cid : = ee z \ "he : 
; x. POR re “loqir, babi be 


nae saeceiis ais ‘ecee wc 
SOSA GOT aa Ort Ae el 
’ f Siete 
a 
“¥ 
; 
er 
4 . 
3 Bed in 3 
: 
od t 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF 
REGENTS OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 


For THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1910. 


To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 

Your executive committee respectfully submits the following 
report in relation to the funds, receipts, and disbursements of the 
Institution, and a statement of the appropriations by Congress for 
the National Museum, the International Exchanges, the Bureau of 
American Ethnology, the National Zoological Park, the Astro- 
physical Observatory, and the International Catalogue of Scientific 
Literature for the year ending June 30, 1910, together with balances 
of previous appropriations. 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
Condition of the fund July 1, 1910. 


The permanent fund of the Institution and the sources from which 
it has been derived are as follows: 


DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY OF THE UNITED STATES. 


equed: Or smaineon, IAG. = ¢ siti tr ee $515, 169. 00 
IReeidGary jceicyreroniinson:s LSGy* S50 en aor eee ae 26, 210. 63 
Deposit ror savines of mcomes 1867-25-50. eee ee ee 108, 620. 37 
Bequest of James Hamilton, 1S7oe. i327 0i 22. $1, 000. 00 
Accumulated interest on Hamilton fund, 1895.............-- 1, 000. 00 
——— 2, 000. 00 
Beagtiesnen pumesnsbtiabel- (8805 2: 2255.05 2... J atc cmeerere sn tans sa 500. 00 
Deposits from proceeds of sale of bonds, 1881...........----.....------ 51, 500. 00 
Gilt of Thomas G- Hodgkins: 160bi 2.4 e SSE ee 200, 000. 00 
Part of residuary legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins, 1894..............--- 8, 000. 00 
Deposit fromna wane or Income, 1903: 22:2... settee ee tnt hae 25, 000. 00 
Residuary lecacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins: .. 2... 22.0. sp ons see e sees s = 7, 918. 69 
Total amount of fund in the United States Treasury..........-.-- 944, 918. 69 


91 


92 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 


OTHER RESOURCES. 


Registered and guaranteed bonds of the West Shore Railroad Company, 


part of legacy of Thomas G. Hodgkins (par value)..............------ $42, 000. 00 
A Ota erRHAMOD fy LURES ore oh el oe ee eis a2 986, 918. 69 


Also four small pieces of real estate bequeathed by Robert Stanton Avery, of Wash- 
ington, D, C. 

That part of the fund deposited in the Treasury of the United States 
bears interest at 6 per cent per annum under the provisions of the 
act of August 10, 1846, organizing the Institution, and act of Congress 
approved March 12, 1894. The rate of interest on the West Shore 
Railroad bonds is 4 per cent per annum. The real estate received 
from Robert Stanton Avery is exempt from taxation and yields only 
a nominal revenue from rentals. 


Statement of receipts and disbursements from July 1, 1909, to June 30, 1910. 


RECEIPTS. 
CARE EPO bmnLy be COUO tae a. Pace oped oti obo cae tec cin eee $32, 176. 70 
Interest on fund deposited in United States Treasury, due 
duilyalesS09 cand Jamuanyet a0 OLG Lies Ree ae ed $56, 695. 12 
Interest on West Shore Railroad bonds to January 1, 1910... ... 1, 680. 00 
Repayments, rentals, publications, etc...-...5-..25-)..---+. 5, 877. 61 
Contributions from various sources for specific purposes..-.-.- - 43, 230. 95 
—_——— 107, 483. 68 
139, 660. 38 
DISBURSEMENTS. 
(imlines (Care ona FepAitd.. ogous. wd seach eee Be Dee ee $4, 701. 28 
Suruahire and HapUreds a5 es oe Ree Rees oan Dee ES Cate aie 420. 75 
General expenses: 
SET AVES, ae alee ates Qe Rl AR car) Sy Pe ged See Ses $14, 125. 86 
1s TET FV A a a a eae aera ai ae, eee 237. 00 
PSULECH E/T) Ua ee a oa a peerage ence ope F SNR Bae 745. 60 
Postage, telegraph, and telephone.......-....-.-..------ 459. 96 
LEA 26a, Ms eal A tN ath cs NPs SIE SI GEO Si FES eee 29. 97 
Tinerdentalss ters Soc cose ee ane ee en eae et oe 1, 066. 93 
Ce ie Ft ea ata yaa Sh Aad oie Beet ERE coe 1, 899. 75 
Buehand Monies sds ike oo. cn soci Gace oe ce eRe gues 180. 03 
———— 18, 745. 10 
TARY as Seen saat Be Nee eel Each Sec ee aie ee 2, 055. 50 
Publications and their distribution: 
Miscellaneous collections... .>........:-.<cie.22-.gp8e" 3 5, 262. 61 
Renontii. Sons hic Sacto es Sole ced es ee eee ee toe 2 544. 07 
Specialipublications.....%.........--.....2-25 PRE -nee 26. 75 
Eubincation supplies..: .-..: sae ¢- <ehtatoft--D-enmuptt hk 214. 50 
Leet Eh Vets eerste eet Rone Fe ee age ene e neers ee ays == ages 6, 092. 34 
—_———— 12,140.27 
Wxplorations, researches, and collections. ./. =. .2...-22.22:2Sse- sean = 54, 004. 03 
Hodgkins specific fund, researches and publications. ............-..------ 6, 301. 08 
Peoria DXChomgeds ot. oo wow nc. Scns me eee weno ee Dee eee 4, 761. 74 


TiPoay Ex PGHSOE: | 6 eco. Mea epee so se-~+ menos aaeee eee teere a aes 100. 00 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 93 


(plier yrah, Met ers Keyes 2 ho Seog SA ncdh. ci dS 3 A i $215. 75 
Ad vancesdor held exwensede cs 225023225 oee WO PUES oe a dyes. 850. 00 
104, 295. 50 


Balance June 30, 1910, deposited with the Treasurer of the United States.. 35, 364. 88 
139, 660. 38 


By authority, your executive committee again employed Mr. 
William L. Yaeger, a public accountant of this city, to audit the 
receipts and disbursements of the Smithsonian Institution during the 
period covered by this report. The following certificate of examina- 
tion supports the foregoing statement, and is hereby approved: 

402 Wrstory BuILpIne, 
Washington, D. C., August 15, 1910. 
Executive Commirtre, BoarD OF REGENTS, 
Smithsonian Institution. 

Srrs: I have examined the accounts and vouchers of the Smithsonian Institution 

for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, and certify the following to be a correct state- 


ment: e 

Total receipts.......- Be ete eel toa iat’ rains ote 2 2 bo ae ha Ee oe $107, 483. 68 

aiam Gis POROUS: Hee oo oe ches sien Sec sig sb osc. cuit PE potter oe ot 104, 295. 50 
ipeceipis exceed disbursements. _. ool. 2.22 dS a ~ ead ssl moss ees 3, 188. 18 

PUR MMat TE MIE ALE Uy OU acme. 2 alae act ide Sinise. a 3 tc hee ees SoBe Bae 32, 176. 70 
alates om nae sume sh; TOO Ss. os ese ee oe ee 35, 364. 88 

Balance shown by Treasury statement June 30, 1910.......-.....--2-... 39, 016. 94 

LG outstanding checks. 2:22... -5...523-0220-8 SIGS fee Soren nee 3, 652. 06 
True wakes June 30, WIG: 5 coche sctns eres enue spataced MOE 35, 364. 88 


The vouchers representing payments from the Smithsonian income during the year, 
each of which bears the approval of the Secretary, or, in his absence, of the Acting 
Secretary, and a certificate that the materials and services were applied to the purposes 
of the Institution, have been examined in connection with the books of the Institution 
and agree with them. 

WiitiiAM L. YAEGER, 
# Public Accountant and Auditor. 


All moneys received by the Smithsonian Institution from interest, 
sales, refunding of moneys temporarily advanced, or otherwise, are 
deposited with the Treasurer of the United States to the credit of 
the Institution, and all payments are made by checks signed by the 
secretary. 

The expenditures made by the disbursing agent of the Institution 
and audited by the Auditor for the State and other Departments are 
reported in detail to Congress, and will be found in the printed 
document. 

Your committee also presents the following summary of appro- 
priations for the fiscal year 1910, intrusted by Congress to the care 
of the Smithsonian Institution, balances of previous appropriations 


94 REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 


at the beginning of the fiscal year, and amounts unexpended on 
June 30, 1910: 5 


Available 
Balance June 
after July 1, 
190 30, 1910. 


Appropriations committed by Congress to care of the Institution: 


International Hxchanges: 3908: see eee ee eee ee SSeS $1.17 a$1.17 
Tnternational Pxehanges, 1909. 5-8 tee ee ee 2,232.17 .34 
iIniterna tional Excnanres 190. ee mics sg neice casaci- mene = aes ae ee 32, 000. 00 5, 506. 23 
Amisnican Hthnolopy, W008s2-2 -seeene ne nee Senco ose c wees eco ece = eer ee 1.78 a1,78 
American Mthnolopy ,1900-c28 52 2 24. pss fe eee 1,175. 47 1.15 
UNseeTey eos teh Oy ne Te) cat ted ee os se SE Se Oe emcisiocr ins sous ae 43, 000. 00 3,890. 50 
ASTTOPUYySICH) O DSORVAUOLY: LOWS in == nana mo on = oe cie meine see siniene ee 1 81.19 a81.19 
AStropitysical Observatory 900s steeo.- 22s one eee ss ween scence nee 1, OVLsOL 314. 50 
Astrophysical Observatory, 1010-522. oe eee ee re eee ae eee ee eee 13, 000. 00 699. OL 
Tmternational Catalogue, 1908: - . aeSsebr ees. Sts IS. 2s ee 6. 44 a6. 44 
International Catalogue Q00bs t-sesasieeseisc fot hee a. ek Use J5.11 2.97 
International Catalocie. 1 910%.» << -tecetesw cet Sa ces- 432 23+. Se eppeeet 42 6, 000. 00 212. 51 
Rovio Cass Grand@n tose. astern eae MOREE ee weciLcascnioe ta etic ee Seas 7.98 a7.98 
Natiofal Museum— 
Furniture and! fixtures; 1908: 2.52 2. ..-- 5.2 ee ee fe eee ete . 30. 98 230.98 
MGEnIbETe ANG ect Tes: A ODD! 68.2 F8 aot ow ae ee mete tee mee 22,397.16 66. 61 
Furniture and fixtures: 1910: . 2.2 s.h occ ae me cw bs eae an a Ee 200, 000. 00 87, 885. 97 
iSkeryrealn eras | bbe ay nat ppl MS Oise eae ai eerie ipa) as eh ae oe eee eee 43. 80 @ 43. 80 
Mean Se ANGE HEME OUG. c ne cee cee tae eee ee met cinenin tn ote= a8 2,967. 48 137.16 
Heatne and lighting, 19L02- os cee. ne. eee nee ee ere 60, 000. 00 14,526. 90 
IPEsGrvalOw OL CONCCTIONS 1908. ue ance nee ee om anew ens eee ene ee 496. 78 a 446.17 
Breservation/ot collections, L900 se 1 22t. 68: seen. Sapssce tee. Sere 4, 869. 31 322. 30 
Ipreservarlon/ ol collections WOO = nese ree es eit aise ae ie See relia 250, 000. 00 23, 790. 15 
1e\efe) ich IN ee as sore ceeesen So Senricrennancsacicecesser see 92. 21 a58.77 
ESO KeSeil GUG meee cre eo ne tena ernie ose = aise eee eee 1,083. 34 77.05 
BOT TMU aes Se ee ae eS eS ee eae eS Sebo meres Sc 2,000. 00 1,302. 08 
[POS EAC ORE AL OSES EEE ARR ENR Aen en nane oe ee tah aoa te Se eo 500: 00! |e cesee ese 
Buldine repairs TOOSU Se . 2) eels aie. Seen son eee eae oe 5. 83 a5. 83 
iBinldime repaints lOO ese Seuss ew eet eee eh Seek See Se 6, 028. 68 26. 62 
Building repairs, 190. -f: 2 stes- ae e eos seee-5- te Sebs ses -e ee 15, 000. 00 6, 486. 30 
Rent iol wWobkShops, O08) cea. aceon = onan ae anemone one ee inn al - 08 a.08 
Ban OL WOLkSRO MS. Op saete eae aime a imi ia alcatel einem elaine -09 . 09 
Transfer of Greenough statue of Washington.........--...-.-------- 409. 74 409.74 
Temporary occupancy of government buildings for tuberculosis con- 
STOSG) oes eo dea ak ete ee a Soa eS aren ice 15, 678. 92 15, 678. 92 
Moving collections, etc., to new building >........-.-.-..------------ 4,000. 00 24.73 
JNati¢nal/ AovlopicalwParks TOOBILE: YEE. . “eC SSE SEP ee eS Sees cee 11. 41 @11.18 
National Zoological Park,)1909-. - v.22. -b. sash 4. - 2-2 - Seep e teste} ---- 2, 443. 69 13.25 
National Zoological Bark, VOLO. oe re ose ao ins ne ae alm = 95, 000. 00 5,276. 60 


a Carried to credit. of surplus fund. 
b Act of March 4, 1909, immediately available. 


REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 95 


Statement of income from the Smithsonian fund and other revenues, accrued and pros- 
pective, available during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911. 


Batce uae con Vole. BAe. 252 0 sot. SESSA Sess AE Le gL $35, 364. 88 
Interest on fund deposited in U.S. Treasury, due July 1, 1910, 
SOUR STP goa SA | 1H Ee a ele $56, 695. 00 
Interest on West Shore Railroad bonds, due July 1, 1910, and 
Bommiaryi Ss MOUS S? . Cts chi si. wee 8s LP SL oe 1, 680. 00 
Exchange repayments, sale of publications, rentals, etc... .-.- 5, 600. 00 
MGposisiorspecifie purposes. 25228 5oo-. See: Le ow. Se 8, 000. 00 
FT 97500 
Total available for year ending June 30, 1911....................- 107, 339. 88 


Respectfully submitted. 
J. B. HENDERSON, 


JoHN DawzzEL, 
Execute Committee. 
Wasuineton, D. C., November 25, 1910. 


PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS OF THE SMITH- 
SONIAN INSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 
1910. 


At a meeting of the Board of Regents held February 10, 1909, the 
following resolution was adopted: 

Resolved, That hereafter the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution shall 
hold their annual meeting on the Tuesday after the second Monday in December, 
and another meeting on the second Thursday in February. 

In accordance with this resolution the board met at 10 o’clock a. m. 
on December 14, 1909, and on February 10, 1910. 


ANNUAL MEETING, DECEMBER 14, 1909. 


Present: Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the United 
States (chancellor) in the chair; Hon. James S. Sherman, Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States; Senator Shelby M. Cullom; Senator Henry 
Cabot Lodge; Senator Augustus O. Bacon; Representative John 
Dalzell; Representative James R. Mann; Dr. James B. Angell; 
Dr. Andrew D. White; Dr. Alexander Graham Bell; Mr. Charles F. 
Choate, jr., and the secretary, Mr. Charles D. Walcott. 


RESOLUTION RELATIVE TO INCOME AND EXPENDITURE. 


Doctor Bell offered the following resolution, which was adopted: 


Resolved, That the income of the Institution for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, 
be appropriated for the service of the Institution, to be expended by the secretary, 
with the advice of the executive committee, with full discretion on the part of the 
secretary as to items. 


ANNUAL REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 


Doctor Bell presented the report ot the executive committee for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1909, which, on motion, was adopted. 


PERMANENT COMMITTEE. 


In behalf of the permanent committee Doctor Bell reported con- 
cerning the Andrews estate that since the last annual meeting a writ 
of error had been allowed by Mr. Justice Peckham, of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, to the supreme court of the State of New 


96 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 97 


York, on the ground that the court of appeals did not give full faith 
and credit to the constitution of Ohio, in respect to prohibiting the 
general assembly of that State from passing such acts conferring cor- 
porate powers. The Supreme Court of the United States decided 
against the contention of the Smithsonian counsel, under date of 
May 17, 1909. 

Doctor Bell also reported that no change had occurred in the con- 
ditions existing in connection with the Avery estate and the Sprague 
and Reid bequests at the time of the last report. 

On motion the report was accepted. 


ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 


The secretary submitted his report for the fiscal year ending June 
30, 1909, explaining that it had been transmitted to the members of 
the board prior to this meeting. 

On motion the report was accepted. 


THE LANGLEY MEDAL. 


The secretary stated that at the meeting of the board held February 
10, 1909, the Langley medal had been awarded to Messrs. Wilbur and 
Orville Wright. Notification of this action was transmitted to them 
in France through the American ambassador, and the following 
acknowledgment was received: 

Pau, March 15, 1909. 

Dear Sir: We have received through the American ambassador, Mr. White, your 
letter of February 18, 1909, informing us of the action of the Board of Regents awarding 
to us the Langley medal. The honor of such recognition at the hands of an institution 
of such high standing and unique character is one which we naturally appreciate most 
highly. 

We beg that you will communicate to the board our very sincere thanks and remain, 

Yours truly, 
WILBUR WRIGHT. 


ORVILLE WRIGHT. 
Mr. Cuas. D. Watcort, 


Washington, D. C. 


The secretary added that the Wright brothers had accepted an 
invitation to be present at the board meeting of February 10, 1910, 
and receive these medals in person. 


THE LANGLEY MEMORIAL TABLET. 


The secretary said that at a previous meeting Senator Bacon 
suggested that a tablet in memory of Secretary Langley be erected 
in a suitable portion of the Smithsonian building, and the board had 
requested a report upon the subject. 

He presented a report which contained a recommendation that a 
committee be appointed with power to select the tablet and assign a 

97578°—sm 1910——7 


98 PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS, 


position for it. On motion, the recommendation was adopted, and 
the chancellor appointed as the committee Senator Lodge, Senator 
Bacon, and Secretary Walcott. 


B STREET MARKET PLACE. 


The secretary said: ‘“‘The board adopted a resolution in relation to 
the objectionable features incident to the use of B street north of 
the National Museum as a market place. The wishes of the board 
to have this condition remedied were conveyed to the Board of 
Commissioners of the District of Columbia, and I have to report that 
they have acted favorably, and that the sidewalk immediately north 
of the new building is now free from hucksters, who have been moved 
over to the north side of B street in front of the vacant lot known 
as ‘Haymarket Square.” 


DARWIN CELEBRATION. 


The secretary said: ‘‘By resolution of the board I attended the 
ceremonies in commemoration of the centenary of Charles Darwin’s 
birth, which were held at the University of Cambridge from June 22 
to 24, when I presented the Institution’s greetings in a formal address. 
I was honored by having conferred upon me the title of doctor of 
science.” 

CHANGE OF DATE FOR ANNUAL MEETING. 


The secretary brought up the matter of a suitable date for the 
annual meeting, stating that difficulty was experienced in selecting 
a day of the week that would be most convenient for all the members 
of the board. 

After discussion Senator Cullom offered the following resolution, 
which was adopted: 


Resolved, That hereafter the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution shall 
hold their annual meeting on the second Thursday in December and a supplementary 
meeting on the second Thursday in February. 


THE SECRETARY'S STATEMENT. 


Progress on the new building for the National Musewm.—The failure 
on the part of several contractors to properly fulfill their agreements 
has not only greatly delayed the completion of the building, but has 
so increased the cost of construction that it has been necessary to 
proceed with extreme caution in the effort to keep within the limits 
of the appropriation. 

The entire exterior of the building has been finished, except the 
laying of the main approaches, for which, however, the granite has 
been cut and delivered, Of the interior practically all the halls and 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 99 


ranges for the exhibition and storage of collections and for the labo- 
ratories and workshops are now in use. The moving of the col- 
lections was begun last summer, and the occupation of the ground 
floor and third story should be completed by the end of the winter. 
The fitting up of the two great exhibition floors will require a much 
greater length of time, but it is expected that some parts of the 
exhibition collections can be made accessible to the public before 
the year is ended. 

The heating and electrical plant already installed has developed 
sufficient capacity to also meet the requirements of the two older 
buildings. The economy thus effected will be very appreciable. 
Congress failed to supply means for adapting the upper hall of the 
Smithsonian building to the purposes of the National Gallery of Art, 
and a portion of one of the skylighted halls in the new building will 
be temporarily assigned to the paintings. 

Art collection.—After discussion Senator Lodge offered the follow- 
ing resolutions, which were adopted: 

Resolved, That the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution hereby author- 
ize the Secretary of the Institution to issue in their name invitations for a private 
view of the paintings of the National Gallery of Art upon the completion of their 
temporary installation in the new building for the National Museum. 

Resolved, further, That the expenses connected with this reception be charged 
against the funds of the Institution. 

Mount Whitney and Mount Wilson operations.—Under an allot- 
ment from the Hodgkins fund for the building of a stone and steel 
hut or shelter on Mount Whitney, California, at an elevation of 
14,502 feet, the structure has been completed for the use of scientific 
observers who desire to avail themselves of the unusually favorable 
atmospheric conditions on that summit. On September 3 Mr. Abbot, 
director of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, made suc- 
cessful observations there for the determination of the solar constant 
of radiation. A small cottage has also been erected on Mount 
Wilson, close to the Smithsonian observatory shelter on that moun- 
tain, to be used as quarters for the observers. 

Inauguration of president of Harvard University—In connection 
with the inauguration of Dr. Abbott Lawrence Lowell as president 
of Harvard University on October 6 I visited Cambridge as the 
representative of the Smithsonian Institution and presented its 
formal greetings. 

International Congress on Hygiene and Demography.—The secretary 
stated that the International Congress on Hygiene and Demography 
would be held in Washington from September 26 to October 1, 1910, 
and he had received a communication from the secretary-general of the 
congress, Dr. John S. Fulton, stating that a committee of three had 


100 PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 


been appointed for the purpose of arranging for the housing of the 
congress, of which committee the Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution had been designated chairman.. 

This brought up the question of a suitable building for such pur- 
poses. There was no place now convenient, and it had become nec- 
essary, if the United States Government were to continue inviting 
foreign bodies to hold their conventions in Washington, that provi- 
sion be made for their reception in suitable quarters of a permanent 
character. In accordance with the policy announced in the secre- 
tary’s report of June 30, 1907, the Smithsonian Institution was doing 
what it could to help in this manner. 

Senator Cullom remarked that if the Government were not willing 
to provide suitable accommodations for its guests it ought not to 
invite them. 

Representative Mann agreed with this view and said that the Gov- 
ernment was saved from disgrace at the time of the tuberculosis con- 
gress only by the fact that the new building for the National Museum 
was sufficiently far advanced in construction to permit its use for 
meetings and exhibits. He asked if the Government should provide 
for the erection of such a building as was being discussed and placed 
it under the control of the Smithsonian Institution, would it be possi- 
ble to prevent it from being used permanently by the various organi- 
zations. 

The secretary replied that that would depend entirely upon the 
policy of the Board of Regents; that if they decided against such 
permanent occupation the secretary would undoubtedly see that 
their wishes were regarded. 

Death of Dr. Anton Dohrn.—For over sixteen years, as detailed in 
the annual reports of the secretary to the board, the Institution has 
supported a table at the Naples Zoological Station for the use of 
American biologists. The founder and director of the station, Dr. 
Anton Dohrn, has extended many courtesies to the Institution in this 
connection and has always shown entire sympanthy with the wishes 
of the Institution in arranging for the convenience of its appointees. 

It has seemed fitting, therefore, to announce to the board the death 
of this gentleman, which occurred on September 29 last. At the 
request of the Institution the Department of State designated the 
American consul at Naples to represent the Institution officially at 
the funeral. 

Ihave already communicated the Institution’s sympathy to the son 
of Doctor Dohrn, and have received from him a letter announcing his 
ee to succeed his father and his hope to continue the rela- 

tions which have existed between the Institution and the station for 
so many years. 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 101 
SMITHSONIAN AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 


The secretary said that he was glad to report that the Smithsonian 
African expedition in charge of Colonel Roosevelt was proceeding on 
the plan originally adopted, and that it would continue until the expe- 
dition reached Khartoum, probably about May, 1910. He said that 
funds had been secured from 25 subscribers to the amount of $40,500 
and that he expected to obtain about $10,000 more. 

The total number of skins of large and small mammals and birds 
taken up to December 10, was 6,663. In addition, there were many 
skulls and skeletons, and about 2,500 sheets of plants. 

Up to the present time four shipments of specimens had been 
received from the expedition, numbering over 3,000. The material 
yet to come comprised rather more than half of the collections made 
to date and included about 6 elephants, 2 Somali giraffes, a complete 
eroup of ostriches (young and eggs, as well as adults), and also many 
antelopes and other animals not previously taken. 

Iive animals for the National Zoological Park.—As a result of the 
expedition, Mr. W. N. McMillan, of Juja farm, near Nairobi, had 
presented the National Zoological Park with a collection of living 
lions and other African animals. A representative of the park was 
sent to Nairopi to receive this gift, and to arrange for the transfer 
and care of these valuable animals. 


RESEARCH FUNDS FOR THE INSTITUTION. 


The secretary stated that he was making earnest efforts to increase 
the research funds of the Institution; that there were various lines of 
work which the Government would hardly feel justified in taking up, 
but which would come within the scope of the Institution’s activi- 
ties, and which it would assume, provided funds could be had for 
them. 

REGULAR MEETING, FEBRUARY 10, 1910. 


Present: Hon. Melville W. Fuller, Chief Justice of the United 
States (chancellor), in the chair; Hon. James S. Sherman, Vice-Pres- 
ident of the United States; Senator Shelby M. Cullom; Senator Henry 
Cabot Lodge; Senator Augustus O. Bacon; Representative James R. 
Mann; Representative William M. Howard; Hon. George Gray; Hon. 
John B. Henderson; Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, and the secretary, 
Mr. Charles D. Walcott. 


REAPPOINTMENT OF REGENTS. 


The chancellor announced that on December 14, 1909, the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives had reappointed Representatives 
John Dalzell, James R. Mann, and William M. Howard as Regents. 


102 PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 


He also stated that Hon. John B. Henderson and Dr. Alexander 
Graham Bell had been reappointed Regents by joint resolution of 


Congress. 
LANGLEY MEMORIAL TABLET. 


The secretary, on behalf of the committee on a memorial tablet 
to commemorate the work of Samuel Pierpont Langley in connection 
with aeronautical science, reported that the committee recommends 
that there be modeled in low relief a tablet along the lines of Saint- 
Gauden’s work, cast in bronze, in general rectangular shape, to con- 
tain a bas relief of the bust of Mr. Langley, and that the last model of 
the Langley aerodrome, in full flight, be suggested in the background; 
the tablet to bear the lettering: 


SAMUEL PIERPONT LANGLEY 
1834-1906 


SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
1887-1906 
and to bear also the text of what is known as Langley’s Law as to 
relation of speed to power in aerial motion, as follows: 


These new experiments (and theory also when viewed in their light) show that if 
in such aerial motion, there be given a plane of fixed size and weight, inclined at such 
an angle, and moved forward at such a speed, that it shall be sustained in horizontal 
flight, then the more rapid the motion is, the less will be the power required to support 
and advance it. 


The committee further recommends that the tablet be placed in the 
vestibule of the Smithsonian Institution, at the left of the entrance. 

A suggestion was made that the tablet also carry the date of the 
first successful flight of the Langley model. After discussion, Judge 
Gray offered the following resolution which was adopted: 

Resolved, That the report of the committee be accepted; that the committee be 
increased by the addition of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, and that the report be 
referred back to the committee with power to act, with the request that the tablet 
contain an inscription showing the date of the first flight of the Langley aerodrome 
model. 

SMITHSONIAN AFRICAN EXPEDITION. 


The secretary read the following letter: 


Narrosi, December 15, 1909. 
To the SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 
Srr: I have to report that the Smithsonian expedition under my charge has now 
finished its work in British East Africa and is about to leave for Uganda. The collec- 
tions made in British East Africa include: 


Mammals, larecs in galt. oc to oc... se ee eee attics mai 550 
Mammals, spialls:. Sin: 5,16 BORER Jet TA ECE, on oe dc ee 3, 379 
| Sia Fg eter tence ey and MMi seh Retype Mr Sel 6 Rye i Gene Oe eee Sr 2, 784 
Reptiles and! batrachians, ‘abouti2-28.. 2.52-02 2k T209 OE a 1, 500 
Fresh-water and marine fish;,about:.{.. 22 ca sj4sckiesoeeee aes = - sie eise ae 250 


Totals vertebrates sas. s2ts LASNAEe CT SIRIAR CARAREe OE Senco eee een 8, 463 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 1038 


In addition the collections include a large number of mollusks and other inverte- 
brates, several thousand plants; in the neighborhood of two thousand photos; anthro- 
pological materials, etc. 

Very respectfully, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

The secretary stated further that the Associated Press dispatches 
indicate that the expedition had secured five specimens of the white 
rhinoceros, a very rare animal. This had been accomplished through 
the concession of the King of Uganda who had given permission for 
the party to hunt in his domain. The collections included many 
duplicates which would be useful for comparative study. 


SECRETARY'S STATEMENT. 


National Museum.—The secretary stated that it was hoped to 
open a portion of the new building to the public by March 1, but that 
the opening of the entire building would probably not take place 
until the close of the year. The question of opening the Museum 
at night and on Sundays was discussed, and after a full interchange 
of views, the Vice-President offered the following resolution, which 
was adopted: 

Resolved, That the secretary be authorized and directed to prepare proper regula- 
tions for the opening, on Sundays, for a period not longer than five hours, of such 
portions of the National Museum as he may deem expedient, provided that the appro- 
priations for the maintenance of the Museum will permit. 

George Washington memorial building.—The secretary spoke of the 
proposed movement of the George Washington Memorial Association 
to erect in Washington a memorial building, which would be used 
as a center for the scientific, literary, and other educational associa- 
tions. He mentioned the meeting to be held in this connection at 
the Hall of the Daughters of the American Revolution on February 
19, and said that among the speakers would be President Taft, 
Senator Lodge, and Senator Burton. 

The secretary said that his purpose in bringing the matter before 
the board was merely to show that there was a prospect of securing 
such a building as would afford a much needed relief to the present 
crowded condition of the Smithsonian building, brought about in 
part by the accommodations which the Institution had offered to the 
National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, the American Historical Association, and 
others. 

The secretary added that there was great need of a building of the 
kind referred to; for instance, at the International Congress on 
Hygiene and Demography there would be 3,000 persons, and it would 
be necessary to scatter them through possibly eight or ten buildings. 
In answer to an inquiry, he said that the George Washington memorial 
building would be erected by popular subscription, and that it 
would be entirely independent of the George Washington University. 


104 PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 


Death of Ferdinand V. Berry.—The secretary announced with regret 
the death, on January 27, 1910, of Mr. Ferdinand V. Berry, chief 
clerk of the International Exchanges of the Institution. Mr. Berry 
entered the service of the Institution in January, 1884, as a clerk, 
and was advanced from grade to grade to the position he held at the 
time of his death. He was a capable and valuable employee. 

Oldroyd collection.—The secretary said that at various times bills 
had been introduced in Congress providing for the purchase of what 
was known as ‘‘The Oldroyd collection of Lincoln relics,’ now located 
in the building No. 516 Tenth street, NW., the house in which 
Lincoln died; his object in bringing the matter before the board was 
to call attention to the proposal to organize what might be described 
asa ‘‘National’’ museum for this collection; he thought that the estab- 
lishment of such independent ‘‘National” museums should be 
discouraged by the board which had under its charge the legal 
National Museum; he was not asking for any definite action as he 
thought that his object could very well be accomplished if he could 
enlist the interest of the congressional Regents when matters of this 
kind were brought before Congress. 

Andrews will case—Senator Henderson said that he had requested 
Mr. Frank W. Hackett to make a personal statement to the board 
in relation to the present condition of the Andrews will case, par- 
ticularly with regard to a proposed action for testing the validity of 
the Andrews bequest in Ohio. 

Mr. Hackett submitted his statement, and, after discussion, the 
Vice-President offered the following resolution, which was adopted: 

Resolved, That in view of the statement made by Mr. Frank W. Hackett to the Board 


of Regents, the entire matter of the Andrews will case be referred back to the executive 
committee with full power to act. 


PRESENTATION OF LANGLEY MEDAL TO MESSRS. WILBUR AND ORVILLE 
WRIGHT. 


The chancellor said that the next business before the meeting was 
the presentation of the Langley medals to the Wright brothers. 
Accordingly, these gentlemen were escorted to the Regents room 
and introduced to the board. 


HISTORICAL ADDRESS BY DR. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL. 


Doctor Bell said: 

Mr. Chancellor, the award of the Langley medal to the Brothers 
Wilbur and Orville Wright emphasizes the fact that we are living in 
an age of great achievements. 

The twentieth century had hardly dawned when the world was 
startled by the discovery of radium, which has opened up an entirely 


"Wa3I. ASTON] 3HL 


shi BHE/are| "sjuadey Jo sduIp9900/4—"Q16| ‘Hoday ueiuosy}iwsS 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 105 


new field to science, and which has led us to modify profoundly our 
conceptions regarding the constitution of matter. 

Another new field has been revealed to us through the development 
of wireless telegraphy and telephony; and we now utilize the vibra- 
tions of the etherial medium of space for the transmission of thought. 

Then again we may note the most revolutionary changes going on 
before our eyes relating to methods of transportation. 

The appearance of the hydroplane boat probably foreshadows a 
revolution in marine architecture and propulsion. On land we see 
motor cycles, automobiles, and electric cars displacing the horse. 
Petroleum and electricity have become powerful rivals of steam, and 
we seem to be on the eve of a revolution in our methods of railroad 
transportation, through the application of the gyroscope to a monorail 
system. And now aerial transport has come, dispensing with rails 
and roads altogether. The air itself has become a highway, and 
dirigible balloons and flying machines are now realities. 

How well the predictions of Langley have been fulfilled. We now 
recognize that he was right when he said a few years ago (1897) that— 

The world indeed will be supine if it does not realize that a new possibility has come 
to it and that the great universal highway overhead is now soon to be opened. 

It has been opened, and who can foretell the consequences to man ? 

One thing is certain: That the physical obstacles to travel have 
been overcome, and that there is no place on the surface of the globe 
that is inaccessible to civilized man, through the air. 

Does this not point to the spread of civilization all over the world 
and the bringing of light to the dark continents of the earth ? 


THE PIONEERS OF AERIAL FLIGHT. 


Who are responsible for the great, developments in aerodromics of 
the last few years? Not simply the men of the present, but also the 
men of the past. 

To one man especially is honor due: Our own Dr. S. P. Langley, late 
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. When we trace backward 
the course of history we come unfailingly to him as the great pioneer 
of aerial flight. 

We have honored his name by the establishment of the Langley 
medal; and it may not be out of place on this, the first occasion for 
the presentation of the medal, to say a few words concerning Langley’s 


work. 
LANGLEY’S WORK. 


Langley devoted his attention to aerodromics at a time when the 
idea of a flying machine was a subject for ridicule and scorn. It was 
as much as a man’s reputation was worth to be known to be at work 
upon the subject. He bravely faced the issue, and gave to the 
world his celebrated memoir entitled ‘‘ Experimentsin Aerodynamics.” 


106 PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 


In this work he laid the foundations for a science and art of aero- 
dromics, and raised the whole subject of aerial flight to a scientific 
plane. 

The knowledge that this eminent man of science believed in the 
practicability of human flight gave a great stimulus to the activities 
of others and started the modern movement in favor of aviation that 
is such a marked feature of to-day. 

Everyone now recognizes the influence ted by Langley on the 
development of this art. The Wright brothers, too, have laid their 
tribute at his feet. 

‘The knowledge,” they say, ‘‘that the head of the most prominent 
scientific institution of America believed in the possibility of human 
flight was one of the influences that led us to undertake the preliminary 
investigations that preceded our active work. He recommended to 
us the books which enabled us to form sane ideas at the outset. It 
was a helping hand at a critical time, and we shall always be grateful.” 


CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SCIENCE OF AERODROMICS. 


Langley’s experiments in aerodynamics gave to physicists, perhaps 
for the first time, firm ground on which to stand as to the long dis- 
puted questions of air resistances and reactions. Chanute says: 


(a) They established a more reliable coefficient for rectangular pressures than that 
of Smeaton. 

(b) They proved that upon inclined planes the air pressures were really normal to 
the surface. 

(c) They disproved the ‘‘Newtonian law’’ that the normal pressure varied as the 
square of the angle of incidence on inclined planes. 

(d) They showed that the empirical formula of Duchemin, proposed in 1836 and 
ignored for fifty years, was approximately correct. 

(e) That the position of the center of pressure varied with the angle of inclination, 
and that on planes its movements approximately followed the law formulated by 
Jéessel. 

(f) That oblong planes, presented with their longest dimension to the line of motion, 
were more effective for support than when presented with their narrower side. 

(g) That planes might be superposed without loss of supporting power if spaced 
apart certain distances which varied with the speed. 

(hk) That thin planes consumed less power for support at high speeds than at low 
speeds. 


The paradoxical result obtained by Langley that it takes less power 
to support a plane at high speed than at low, opens up enormous pos- 
sibilities for the aerodrome of the future. It results, as Chanute has 
pointed out, from the fact that the higher the speed, the less need be 
the angle of inclination to sustain a given weight, and the less there- 
fore the horizontal component of the air pressure. 

It is true only, however, of the plane itself, and not of the struts 
and framework that go to make up the rest of a flying machine. In 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 107 


order, therefore, to take full advantage of Langley’s law, those por- 
tions of the machine that offer head resistance alone without con- 
tributing anything to the support of the machine in the air, should 
be reduced to a minimum. 


CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ART OF AERODROMICS., 


After laying the foundations of a science of aerodromics, Langley 
proceeded to reduce his theories to practice. 

Between 1891 and 1895 he built four aerodrome models—one driven 
by carbonic acid gas, and three by steam engines. 

On the 6th of May, 1896, his Aerodrome No. 5 was tried upon the 
Potomac River near Quantico. I was myself a witness of this cele- 
brated experiment, and secured photographs of the machine in the 
air, which have been widely published.? 

This aerodrome carried a steam engine and had a spread of wing 
of from 12 to 14 feet. It was shot into the air from the top of a 
house boat anchored in a quiet bay near Quantico. 

It made a beautiful flight of about 3,000 feet, considerably over 
half a mile. It was indeed a most inspiring spectacle to see a steam 
engine in the air flying with wings like a bird. The equilibrium 
seemed to be perfect, although no man was on board to control and 
guide the machine. 

I witnessed two flights of this aerodrome on the same day and 
came to the conclusion that the possibility of aerial flight by heavier- 
than-air machines had been fully demonstrated. The world took the 
same view and the progress of practical aerodromics was immensely 
stimulated by the experiments. 

Langley afterwards constructed a number of other aerodrome 
models which were flown with equal success, and he then felt that he 
had brought his researches to a conclusion, and desired to leave to 
others the task of bringing the experiments to the man-carrying stage: 

Later, however, encouraged by the appreciation of the War Depart- 
ment, which recognized in the Langley aerodrome a possible new 
engine of war, and stimulated by an allotment of $50,000 from the 
Department, he constructed a full-sized aerodrome to carry a man. 

Two attempts were made, with Mr. Charles M. Manly on board as 
aviator, to shoot the machine into the air from the top of a house 
boat, but on each occasion the machine caught on the launching 
ways and was precipitated into the water. 

The public, not knowing the nature of the defect which prevented 
the aerodrome from taking the air, received the impression that the 
machine itself was a failure and could not fly. 


@ A photograph of this flight was here shown. 


108 PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 


This conclusion was not warranted by the facts; and to me and to 
others who have examined the apparatus, it seems to be a perfectly 
good flying machine—excellently constructed and the fruit of years 
of labor. It was simply never launched into the air, and so has never 
had the opportunity of showing what it could do. Who can say 
what a third trial might have demonstrated? The general ridicule, 
however, with which the first two failures were received prevented 
any further allotment of money to give it another trial. 


CONCLUSION. 


Langley never recovered from his disappointment. He was humil- 
iated by the ridicule with which his efforts had been received, and 
had, shortly afterwards, a stroke of paralysis. Within a few months 
a second stroke came and deprived him of life. 

He had some consolation, however, at the end. Upon his death- 
bed he received the resolution of the newly formed ‘Aero Club of 
America,’ conveying the sympathy of the members and their high 
appreciation of his work. 

Langley’s faith never wavered, but he never saw a man-carrying 
aerodrome in the air. 

His greatest achievements in practical aerodromics consisted in the 
successful construction of power-driven models which actually flew. 
With their construction he thought that he had finished his work; 
and, in 1901, in announcing the supposed conclusion of his labors he 
sald: 

I have brought to a close the portion of the work which seemed to be specially 
mine—the demonstration of the practicability of mechanical flight—and for the next 
stage, which is the commercial and practical development of the idea, it is probable 
that the world may look to others. 

He was right, and the others have appeared. The aerodrome has 
‘reached the commercial and practical stage; and chief among those 
who are developing this field are the brothers Wilbur and Orville 
Wright. They are eminently deserving of the highest honor from 
us for their great achievements. 

I wish to express my admiration for their work and believe that 
they have justly merited the award of the Langley medal by their 
magnificent demonstrations of mechanical flight. 


PRESENTATION ADDRESS BY SENATOR HENRY CABOT LODGE. 


Senator Lodge said: 

Mr. Chancellor, founded for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 
among men, the Smithsonian Institution has always considered that 
one way in which it could most appropriately fulfill the purposes of 
its founder was by the recognition of great achievements in science. 


PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 109 


Identified with the science of aerodromics through the work of its 
eminent secretary, Doctor Langley, it has had a peculiar interest in 
what has been done in that field. 

We have just heard of the results achieved by Professor Langley, 
and I think it is not too much to say that his life in a measure was 
sacrificed to the work which he did in the establishment of the scien- 
tific principles of aerial flight, to which he gave so much of his life 
work and for which recognition is now given throughout the entire 
world. Nothing, therefore, could have given Mr. Langley more 
pleasure than to recognize the men who have successfully demon- 
strated the soundness of his principles by their application to actual 
flight in machines heavier than the air. I repeat that nothing could 
be more appropriate than that such a demonstration should receive 
the recognition of the Smithsonian Institution. We are glad to do 
this in the case of the Wright brothers, not only on account of their 
courage, their energy, and the ability they have shown, but also 
because we feel, I think I may say, a not unreasonable pride in the 
fact that they are Americans. It is peculiarly characteristic of 
Americans to be pioneers; pioneers across the great continent on 
which we live; pioneers by sea, and now pioneers by air; and to 
Wilbur and Orville Wright, pioneers of what Doctor Langley calls 
‘‘the great universal highway overhead,” who by their achievements 
have added honor to the American name and nation, we now present 
the first Langley medal that the Institution has conferred. 


REMARKS BY WILBUR WRIGHT. 


The chancellor then presented the medals to Messrs. Wilbur and 
Orville Wright, saying that it gave him particular pleasure to do so. 

Mr. Wilbur Wright addressed the board as follows: 

Mr. Chancellor, at different times my brother and myself have re- 
ceived recognition for the work which we have attempted to do in the 
line of aerial research, but in no instance has such recognition given 
us greater pleasure than that which we now receive from the Smith- 
sonian Institution. This is particularly the case because the Insti- 
tution, through the studies and work of Professor Langley, has always 
taken especial interest in scientific research in matters relating to the 
physical properties of the air, and this interest has extended to prac- 
tical attempts to fly. We are very much gratified, therefore, that the 
Institution has thought our work worthy of this honor, for which we 
desire to express our sincere thanks. A subject of research which 
has not yet been completed, and one to which Doctor Bell has called 
attention in the work of Professor Langley, is the coefficient of air 
pressure; that is, the pressure cf wind at a certain speed on a plane 
of a certain size. A great many investigations have been made by 


110 PROCEEDINGS OF REGENTS. 


Professor Langley, and other people have also experimented in this 
art, but for the most part the results have not yet been brought into 
shape to be presented to the public. Our own work in this particular 
investigation we have been obliged to set aside for a while on account 
of the press of business matters, but it is our intention, as soon as these 
business details are arranged, to take it up again and present the 
results to the world. There is a great deal of work to do in this line, 
and a great many other researches to be taken up, which will keep a 
large number of investigators busy for a lifetime, and I venture to 
express the hope that the Smithsonian Institution will continue to 
encourage the labors of those engaged in these fields. 


GENERAL APPENDIX 


TO" Re 


SMITHSONIAN REPORT FOR 1910 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


The object of the Grenerat Apprnprx 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 this purpose has, during the greater part of 
its history, been carried out largely by the publication of such papers 
as would possess an interest to all attracted by scientific progress. 

In 1880 the secretary, induced in part by the discontinuance of an 
annual summary of progress which for 30 years previous had been 
issued by well-known private publishing firms, had prepared by com- 
petent collaborators a series of abstracts, showing concisely the prom- 
inent 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 dis- 
cussion. This method has been continued in the present report for 1910. 

112 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Walcott. 


MELVILLE WESTON FULLER. 1833-1910. 


Chancellor of Smithsonian Institution, 1889-1910. 


PLATE 1. 


MELVILLE WESTON FULLER—1833-1910. 


[With 1 plate.] 


By CHARLES D. WALCcorTT, 


Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 


Melville Weston Fuller, doctor of laws, Chief Justice of the United 
States, chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution, was born at Au- 
gusta, Me., February 11, 1833, and died at his summer home, Sorrento, 
Me., on the morning of July 4, 1910. He became a statutory member 
of the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution, and also a mem- 
ber of the Board of Regents on October 8, 1888, by virtue of his 
appointment as the Chief Justice of the United States. He was 
elected chancellor of the Institution by the Board of Regents at its 
annual meeting January 9, 1889. 

The chancellors who preceded Chief Justice Fuller were: Vice 
President George Mifflin Dallas, 1846-1849; Vice President Millard 
Fillmore, 1849-1850; Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, 1850-1864; 
Chief Justice Samuel Portland Chase, 1864-1873; and Chief Justice 
Morrison Remick Waite, 1874-1888. 

For 22 years, until his death in 1910, Chief Justice Fuller was most 
deeply interested in the general welfare of the Institution. He pre- 
sided over the meetings of the Board of Regents most wisely and 
judiciously. With one exception, there was not a meeting of the 
regents during that entire period when he failed to be present. 

The Regents of the Institution expressed their sorrow in the fol- 
lowing words of tribute to his memory, adopted at the annual meet- 
ing of the board on December 8, 1910: 

Whereas the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution have 
received the sad intelligence of the death, on July 4, 1910, of Melville 
Weston Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States, and for twenty- 
two years chancellor of the Institution; therefore be it 

Resolved, That we desire here to record our profound sorrow at the 


severing of the tie that has bound us to him for so long a period of 
honored service; that we feel keenly the loss of a wise presiding officer, 


97578°—sm 1910——8 118 


114 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


whose vast store of learning and gracious dignity have proved so in- 
valuable in the deliberations of this board, and whose loyal interest 
in the Smithsonian Institution has been a source of inspiration to his 
colleagues. 


Resolved, That we share in the grief of the nation at the passing . 


away of one who was at once a distinguished leader of the greatest 
legal tribunal of our land, an eminent jurist, a patriotic citizen, a 
shining example of Christian gentleness, and who also possessed so 
charming a personality as a man and as a friend. 

Resolved, That we respectfully tender to the members of the family 
of our late associate, our sincerest sympathy in their great bereave- 
ment. 

Resolved, That an engrossed copy of these resolutions be trans- 
mitted to the family of the late chancellor. 

An adequate review of the life of that eminent jurist would re- 
quire more space than can be devoted to the subject in the present 
report of the board to Congress. Numerous eulogies in his memory 
have been delivered by members of the bar of the Supreme Court 
and by jurists throughout the land. It is fitting that selections from 
some of these tributes should here be recorded. 

At a meeting of the bar of the Supreme Court and of its officers on 
December 10, 1910, Mr. Richard Olney, chairman of the meeting, and 
formerly an associate of Chief Justice Fuller on the Board of Regents 
of the Smithsonian Institution said :1 

“Gentlemen of the bar: The death of the Chief Justice of the 
United States is an event of the first importance. Undoubtedly it 
does not impress the general public as does the demise of a President 
in office. It does not elicit the same manifestations of general sor- 
row, it is not marked by the same profusion of funeral pageantry 


and funeral oratory. It is nevertheless an occurrence of much: 


greater moment by reason both of the longer tenure of the Chief 
Justice’s office and of the unique character of its functions. No 
single Presidency, probably no number of Presidencies combined, 
has ever infiuenced the destinies of this country so vitally and so 
largely as did the single Chief Justiceship of John Marshall. In 
adding Melville W. Fuller to the roll of the country’s Chief Justices, 
therefore, one of our great Presidents exercised his highest preroga- 
tive and performed the act of his official life most far-reaching and 
enduring in its consequences. That President Cleveland’s choice 
was fortunate has long been generally conceded. It put at the head 
of the national judiciary a well-educated scholar and a well-trained 
lawyer; a man who had won distinction at the bar on his merits and 
by his own efforts; who was not the lawyer of but one client or in but 
one field, but was expert in all varieties of professional work; who, 

1The extracts herein are from ‘‘ Proceedings of the bar and officers of the Supreme 


Court of the United States in memory of Melville Weston Fuller, December 10, 1910.” 
Washington: 1911, pp. 1-108. 


cell ne 


MELVILLE WESTON FULLER—WALCOTT. 115 


starting in the extreme northeastern corner of the Union where 
he indulged himself in such various activities as being president of 
the city council, city solicitor, and newspaper editor, soon took 
Horace Greeley’s advice to young men, and three years after’ his 
admission to the bar established himself in the metropolis of the 
West; who from the beginning and as long as he remained at the 
bar took the good citizen’s interest in politics, and thus put himself 
in touch with the currents of popular thought and sentiment; and 
who from the outset of his career was in thorough sympathy with 
the democratic principles which underlie our political institutions. 
Once inducted into his great office, he from the beginning acquitted 
himself so judiciously and ably and yet so modestly as both to increase 
the esteem of friends and to forestall the cavils of would-be critics. 
The limits of this occasion do not permit any adequate analysis of 
his merits as a judge or any satisfactory estimate of those labors on 
the Supreme Bench which occupied nearly 23 years of his life and 
are only partially shown in over 90 volumes of United States Su- 
preme Court Reports. It is, however, only just and proper to say 
that, large and novel and momentous in their aspects and conse- 
quences as are many of the legal issues constantly presented to the 
Supreme Court of the United States, Chief Justice Fuller never 
failed to rise to the height of the occasion, and, whether as one of 
a minority or a majority of the court, to worthily deal with them. 
Many of his opinions are models of ied statement, of exhaustive 
research, of close and conclusive reasoning. * * * 

a Besides doing his share of the legal work of the Supreme Court, 
the Chief Justice is its executive and presiding officer. His qualities 
in both capacities have always received unstinted commendation. 
He was anxious to keep the docket moving, to prevent any conges- 
tion of the business of the court, and to avoid all delays in the dis- 
position of causes not absolutely essential to the due administration 
of justice. That he accomplished those purposes with great success 
was due largely to his native tact and his invariable good temper. 
Over the public deliberations of the court he presided with a dignity 
and grace all his own. He was a patient and attentive listener and 
was content that counsel should have full opportunity to develop 
his case in his own way without interruption. He was specially 
considerate of the debutant, whether young or old, and many a 
first appearance at the bar of the court at Washington has been saved 
from wreck by the encouraging nod and smile of the Chief Justice. 
For those of us to whom the zest of life is largely in memories, few 
things can be more gratefully recalled than the spectacle of the 
Chief Justice sitting with his colleagues to listen to the opening of 
some newcomer, and by every word and tone and gesture expressing 


116 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the assurance that, whether his case or his presentation of it was 
good, bad, or indifferent, he had a well-wisher at the head of the 
court. It must not be understood that these occasions elicited any- 
thing unusual or exceptional.in the bearing of the Chief Justice. 
On the contrary, the same considerate and gracious demeanor marked 
his entire administration of his duties as chief of his court. No one 
was snubbed, no one left the court with a right to feel that for some 
occult reason he was not persona grata. During his Chief Justice- 
ship the court at Washington has been universally acclaimed as the 
most agreeable tribunal in the country to appear before. Members 
of the bar found there a forum in which the height of dignity was 
combined with the height of simplicity, in which ceremony did not 
degenerate into fussiness, and in which form was not exalted over 
substance. All can not fail to miss the central figure, in whom perfect 
kindliness of manner was joined to equal inflexibility in all essentials. 
They who knew him more intimately, and as the man as well as the 
magistrate, can not but grieve for the passing of a friend and comrade 
whose unique and personal charm mere words are inadequate to ex- 
press. Fortunate in his life and in the opportunities of a great career 
clearly apprehended and worthily utilized, the Chief Justice was 
also fortunate in the circumstances of his death, which found him 
still in harness and still charged with the responsibilities of his 
great office. ‘ When,’ says Lord Bacon, ‘a man hath obtained worthy 
ends and expectations, the sweetest canticle is “ Vune Dimittis.”’” 

At the meeting referred to above the following resolutions were 
adopted: 


Resolved, That the members of the bar of the Supreme Court 
desire to express their profound regret at the death of Melville 
Weston Fuller, eighth Chief Justice of the United States, and to 
record their high appreciation of his life and character and of his 
conspicuous and faithful service to his country. 

Born in the State of Maine, he went to Chicago at the age of 23, 
when that great city was in its infancy, and there entered upon his 
long and distinguished professional career, which culminated in his 
elevation to the most exalted judicial station in our Government. 

He secured the advantages of an academic and classical education 
at Bowdoin College, and always retained the habits and tastes of the 
student and scholar. 

He was a man of the most extensive and varied reading in the pro- 
tession, in governmental and political discussion and in general 
literature. 

He rapidly achieved a commanding position at the then exception- 
ally brilliant bar of the city of his adoption, and for 32 years carried 
on an extended and diversified practice in the courts of his State; nor 
did he infrequently appear before the great tribunal over which he 
afterwards, and for 22 years, presided with such marked ability and 
distinction. 

He was a man of singular beauty and purity of character. 


MELVILLE WESTON FULLER—WALCOTT. Ti 


While he was at the bar no one harbored a suspicion that the 
exigency of forensic controversy, in which he was almost constantly 
engaged, could ever tempt him to aught that was unfair or unworthy 
of the highest ideals of a noble and honorable profession. 

As Chief Justice, it is enough to say that with conspicuous fidelity 
he fully and consistently maintained the best traditions of that high 
office. He took a deep interest in the efforts to secure peace between 
nations by international arbitration, and was appointed by our 
Government to membership in the permanent court established in 
1899 by the first peace conference, and served in that capacity. 

His character was marked by a gentle courtesy and consideration 
which constantly illuminated and attended upon the discharge of his 
important public duties, always marked his relations with the bar, 
and earned that popular confidence which goes out to him whom the 
people believe to be a merciful and considerate, as well as a just and 
impartial judge. 

All this he was; and, endowed by nature with talents not inferior 
to those of his predecessors, possessed of attainments, training, and 
experience adequate to the exacting requirements of his great office, 
he filled it at all times in such a manner as to command the admira- 
tion and respect of the bar and the grateful appreciation of his 
countrymen. 

On the morning of July 4 last, at his beautiful summer home, on 
the soil of the State in which he was born, and to which he remained 
always deeply attached, his long, useful, and honorable life ended; 
and when the sad announcement was made, we who had practiced in 
the great tribunal where he so long presided felt a deep sense of 
personal loss and personal bereavement that he had gone from us 
forever. 

Resolved, also, That the Attorney General be asked to present these 
resolutions to the court and to request that they be inscribed upon 
its permanent records. 

And that the chairman of this meeting be requested to transmit a 
copy of the resolutions to the family of the late Chief Justice and an 
expression of our sincere sympathy with them in the great and 
irreparable loss which they have sustained. 

In seconding the resolutions Mr. Lee S. Overman said: 

“The people of this country, Mr. Chairman, have the greatest re- 
spect for the law for its own sake, and there is no country in the 
world which honors and respects its great expounders and adminis- 
trators more than does ours; and the reputation of a great and 
upright judge is one of the greatest inheritances of a free and happy 
people. Our country has been blessed with a Supreme Court whose 
able, just, and upright justices have added to her history a crown 
of glory and been to the Republic and its people a shield of pro- 
tection. 

“ With untiring labor, with a broad grasp of the principles which 
underlie the structure of our Government, in the light of their genius 
they have traced back the principles of the law to their fountain 
springs, and then, running them forward to their logical conclusion, 
with their expansiveness and flexibility, they have so applied them to 


118 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the great problems arising continually under new conditions inci- 
dent to our progress and higher civilization that our republican in- 
stitutions and the affairs of the people have not suffered. 

“Chief Justice Fuller was among the greatest of these great and 
illustrious lawyers and judges, and it is therefore most fitting that 
we should do honor to his memory and hold these appropriate exer- 
cises. By so doing we not only honor him, but we foster that spirit 
which always exists among a free people, and which tends to con- 
serve our highest ideals and uphold our free institutions. Great men 
make great history, and love, veneration, and respect for them make 
a great people. ; 

“The great Italian poet, speaking of the mighty presence which 
he met in that mystic realm of departed spirits, paid a great tribute 
to him when he said, ‘ His was a life so round and full that when 
it rolled out of time into eternity the world knew not how great 
a void was left until a generation has passed away.’ This thought 
is applicable to him whom we meet to honor to-day. 

“ He was not a young man, dying in the fullness of his strength and 
power with unfilled possibilities. This is no place for sorrow. This 
man died after a full, well-rounded, completed life. He died when 
age was ripe, with the harness of his great official position yet upon 
him, and after maintaining the best traditions of his great office and 
of a great lawyer. Crowned with honor, ripe with age, respected 
by a great people, he leaned his white head beneath the soft touch 
of death—a death befitting such a life. 

“*Why weep ye, then, for him, who, having run 
The bounds of man’s appointed years, at last, 
Life’s blessings all enjoyed, life’s labor done, 
Serenely to his final rest has passed?’ ” 

Mr. Charles E. Littlefield, on the same occasion, said: 

“* * * He came from a family of able preachers and lawyers. 
With Mr. Chief Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts, one of the greatest 
justices that ever sat on the Massachusetts bench, he had a common 
ancestor in Rev. Habijah Weld, called in his time ‘a perfect 
Boanerges in the pulpit.’ Rev. Habijah Weld was the fourth in a 
succession of four generations of preachers. Mr. Fuller’s paternal 
and maternal grandfathers were both lawyers of note. Hon. Nathan 
Weston, his mother’s father, was one of the first associate justices of 
the Maine supreme court and its chief justice for seven years, and 
a lawyer and judge of unusual ability. His father and mother each 
had a brother who was a lawyer. He graduated from Bowdoin Col- 
lege when 20 years of age, destined to become one of the most dis- 
tinguished of an alumni which has a larger percentage of men of 
eminence and note than that of any other educational institution in 
the country. He had by inheritance an aptitude for the law. Ad- 


MELVILLE WESTON FULLER—WALCOTT. 119 


mitted to the bar in Maine, desiring a wider field, in 1856 he went to 
Chicago, where, with gratifying success, he practiced his profession, 
attaining a high rank, until his appointment as Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, April 30, 1888. His practice 
was general, varied, and extensive, involving much important litiga- 
tion. With great abilities, a ripe classical scholar, learned and pro- 
found in the law, diligent, industrious, conscientious, courageous, 
and patriotic, of the highest personal character, he brought to the 
discharge of the duties of the great office the abilities, qualities, and 
characteristics that enabled him to achieve his signal success. The 
dignity, urbanity, kindness, consideration, and gentle courtesy with 
which he presided over the deliberations of the Supreme Court of the 
United States endeared him not only to his associates on the bench 
but won for him the love and respect of a great profession. Of him 
it could be truthfully said, ‘And they shall judge the people with 
just judement.) Fit) *?” 

_ Mr. George E. Price said: 

* * * “No other court in the world is intrusted with such 
powers as this court. It deals not only with great questions of 
controversy arising between individual citizens of different States 
and between citizens of foreign countries and our own people, but 
to it is intrusted the ultimate interpretation of the laws and Consti- 
tution of the United States, with power to declare null and void not 
only acts of the legislatures of the different States, so far as they 
come in conflict with the Federal Constitution, but also the acts of 
Congress, the highest lawmaking power of the Federal Government. 
In additiontothese great powers, this court is also given jurisdiction 
to settle controversies between the sovereign States of this Union, 
and in the past it has been called upon to settle controversies which 
involved the very autonomy of the States concerned, the integrity of 
their territory and their governmental jurisdiction and power. It 
is the first great instance of what is in effect modern international 
arbitration. In the settlement of these controversies between the 
States this court has no statute law to govern it and seldom any 
provision of any written constitution, but it is obliged to invoke and 
apply the eternal principles of an elevated and perfect justice, un- 
fettered by technical subtleties and petty forms, the same funda- 
mental doctrines of international law, which by the common consent 
of mankind are the basis of the intercourse of the civilized world. 
To its great credit it can be said that in these controversies between 
the States its judgments have always been acquiesced in and respected 
and carried out without question. 

“Such are the powers of this great court over which the late 
Chief Justice presided for nearly a quarter of a century. ‘To-day we, 


120 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the members of the bar of this court, are assembled to pay tribute 
to his memory, and all of us here assembled, as well as other mem- 
bers of the bar of this court from all sections of the country, those 
who have taken part in the great contests before it on the one side 
or the other, those whose interests or the interests of whose clients 
have been affected by its judgments, with one accord declare and 
bear testimony that he discharged the great duties of his position 
with becoming dignity, uniform courtesy, with signal ability and 
unquestioned fidelity and integrity; discharged these duties in such 
manner as to reflect great credit not only upon himself but upon 
the court and the Nation at large. Speaking for myself and, in some 
measure, for the bar of the State of West Virginia, I am here to 
unite with the other members in paying this just tribute to the mem- 
ory of the late Chief Justice; and, having said this, there seems to 
be nothing more to say. I know of no way to pay greater honor to 
the memory of any man. 

“Chief Justice Fuller met the responsibilities arising out of the 
great questions presented to this court in his day, and this is all 
that can be said of his predecessors in this great office. Marshall 
exercised a great influence in deciding the questions that arose dur- 
ing the constructive period of our Government. They were far- 
reaching questions, and the influence of his decisions is felt in the 
administration of the Government to this day. Chief Justice Taney, 
his successor, was confronted with the burning questions that arose 
in the great controversies preceding and during our terrible Civil 
War. Chase and Waite dealt with the important questions which 
arose out of the war—the reconstruction period, requiring the read- 
justment of many things which had been considered settled; the 
readjustment of the relations between the two sections which had been 
at war with each other, and the interpretation of the amendments 
to the Constitution which grew out of the war. And Chief Justice 
Fuller has been obliged to grapple with the great questions arising 
out of the stupendous industrial development which has taken place 
in the last quarter of a century—questions of interstate commerce 
and transportation, questions of great trusts and combinations of 
capital, questions of the mutual rights of capital and labor, questions 
relating to the regulation of railroads, besides the perplexing ques- 
tions arising out of the development of this Nation into a world 
power since the Spanish War, involving our relations to our colonies 
acquired by reason of that war. No one can say that these questions 
are of any less importance than those which arose in any former 
period of the Government. He and his associates on this bench have 
met and disposed of many of these questions as they have arisen in 
such manner as to command the respect of the whole country and 


MELVILLE WESTON FULLER—WALCOTT. 121 


to escape serious criticism. This is just what Marshall, Taney, 
Chase, and Waite, and their associates did with the great questions 
of their days; and so Chief Justice Fuller will stand forth in history 
as a worthy successor of the great Chief Justices who preceded him. 

“ The labors of the judge are along lines that make for peace—for 
the security of life, liberty, and property. It is his work to settle, in 
a peaceable manner, controversies that would otherwise result in the 
triumph of fraud, violence, and oppression and lead to war. The 
judge is essentially a peacemaker, and when we reflect that Chief 
Justice Fuller devoted 22 years of his life to this work may we not 
with propriety apply to him the beautiful beatitude which fell from 
the lips of Him who is the Judge of all the earth, in His sermon on 
the mount: ‘ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the 
children of God’ ?” 

The Supreme Court, on January 9, 1911, adopted resolutions 
identical with those adopted by the bar of that court on December 10, 
1910. On that occasion the Attorney General of the United States, 
Mr. Wickersham, in presenting the resolutions, reviewed the more 
important decisions of the court under Chief Justice Fuller, and in 
conclusion said: 

« * * * The Talmud compares the study of the law to a 
huge heap of dust that is to be cleared away. ‘The foolish man says, 
“ Tt is impossible that I should be able to remove this immense heap. 
I will not attempt it.” But the wise man says, “ I will remove a litle 
to-day, some more to-morrow, and more the day after, and thus in 
time I shall have removed it all.”’ It was in this spirit that Chief 
Justice Fuller toiled during the years that he presided over this 
court. Much of the work of all courts is of but transitory importance, 
save in so far as it keeps ever burning the sacred lamp of justice to 
lighten the footsteps of men. But the labors of this tribunal are 
essential to the preservation of the liberties of a free people. In the 
largest proportion of causes submitted to its judgment every decision 
becomes a page of history and may become a part of a rampart 
against anarchy. To this court men look for the maintenance of 
those rights which our forefathers wrung from a reluctant monarch 
at Runnymede 800 years ago, which are now embodied in the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and which are as essential to the pro- 
tection of the citizen against the tyranny of a hydra-headed tyrant of 
the future as they were against the monarchs of the past. 

“The labors of the eighth Chief Justice are over, and his work in 
this court is submitted to the judgment of men. As he said of Jus- 
tice Brewer, ‘he died suddenly, but not the unprepared death from 
which we pray to be delivered, and having finished his course in 
faith he doth now rest from his labors.” 


122 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Chief Justice White, in responding to the words of the Attorney 
General, said: 

“Mr. Attorney General: The resolutions which you present are 
consoling, since they show how poignantly our brethren of the bar 
share with us the sorrow caused by the death of our cherished and — 
venerated Chief Justice. When the shadow which the bereavement 
resulting from his loss casts upon the path of duty which lies before 
us is considered, the resolutions are additionally consoling, since they 
strengthen our conviction that, whatever may be our infirmities, we 
may always rely upon the generous judgment of our brethren of the 
bar if only we bring to the discharge of our duties the singleness of 
purpose which ever characterized the judicial labors of our late 
Chief Justice. 

“Those labors find an enduring memorial in the reported deci- 
sions of the court rendered during the long period of his service. 
Their potency, whether in enforcing and protecting individual right 
or in perpetuating representative government by upholding our con- 
stitutional institutions, has passed beyond the influence of praise or 
blame. They have become the heritage of his countrymen, for 
whose good he labored with untiring devotion. 

“The darkness of the valley of the shadow of death yet so ob- 
scures vision as to render it impossible for me to attempt now to fix 
the result of the labors of the Chief Justice or to define with accuracy 
the scope of the blessings to his countrymen and to mankind which 
have arisen from his work. I therefore do not attempt to supplement 
the brief statement on that subject which you, Mr. Attorney General, 
have so eloquently made. So, also, I shall forbear to comment upon 
the wide attainments of the late Chief Justice, his engaging literary 
fancy, his great familiarity with precedents, and his grasp of 
fundamental principles. I leave these special attributes, as well as 
the wider considerations which would be required to be taken into 
view in order to symmetrically analyze the judicial work of the late 
Chief Justice, not only because some other occasion would be more 
appropriate and some more masterful hand than mine be required 
to do justice to those subjects, but also because my purpose now is 
only briefly to refer to some of the more endearing and admirable 
personal traits of the Chief Justice which were manifested to those 
associated with him in judicial labor, and at the same time to mark 
the attributes from which those traits were derived and sustained. 

“ Briefly, those qualities were his untiring attention to his judicial 
duties and the dedication which he made to the efficient and wise 
performance of those duties of every intellectual and moral power 
which he possessed ; his love of justice for justice’s sake; his kindness, 
his gentleness, associated, however, with a courage which gave him 
always the power fearlessly to do what he thought was right, without 


MELVILLE WESTON FULLER—WALCOTT. 123 


fear or favor. The source whence these endearing and noble qualities 
were derived was not far to seek. It was faith in the power of good 
over evil; faith in the capacity of his fellow men for self-govern- 
ment; faith in the wisdom of the fathers of our institutions; faith, 
unshaken faith, in the efficiency of the system of constitutional gov- 
ernment which they established and its adequacy to protect the rights 
and liberties of the people. And, above all, there was an abounding 
faith in Divine Providence, the faith of a Christain, which domi- 
nated his being and welded all his faculties into a harmonious whole, 
causing his nature to be resonant with the melody of hope and charity, 
which made him what he was—a simple, kindly, generous, true, brave, 
and devoted public servant, treading with unswerving step the path 
of duty, until the tender voice of the All-Wise and Merciful Father 
called him from labor to rest, from solicitude to peace, and to his 
exceeding and enduring reward. | 

“Mr. Attorney General, the resolutions of our brethren of the bar 
will be made a part of the records of the court. In making this order 
the thought comes unbidden to the mind that if there be in the future, 
by either the bench or the bar, a failure to discharge duty because of 
the want of an honest effort to do so, the resolutions will become the 
test of our moral insufficiency and be a relentless instrument for our 
condemnation. But the shadow created by these misgivings is at 
once dispelled by our conviction that although the Chief Justice has 
gone before, yet doth he abide with us by his precept and example, 
which I can not refrain from hoping will be a spiritual beacon lead- 
ing both bench and bar to a perfect dedication of all their powers to 
the complete discharge of their whole duty. Ah! In the luminosity 
afforded by that example and precept, and with the benign vision 
given by that faith which is the proof of things unseen, may the 
hope not be indulged in that the result of such a consecration to duty 
will enable us to behold a continued righteous administration of 
justice, a preservation of our constitutional government, the fructifi- 
cation of all the activities of our vast country for the benefit of the 
whole people, the abiding of tranquility and happiness in all the 
homes of all our land, and the continued enjoyment by all our 
countrymen of individual lberty restrained from license and safe- 
guarded from oppression.” 

Other touching tributes to Chief Justice Fuller might be cited. 
They all portray an earnest, efficient jurist, a man true to the wise 
principles that guide the daily life of an upright American citizen 
who holds the exalted position of Chief Justice of the United States. 


ORNAMENTATION OF RUGS AND CARPETS.* 


[With 6 plates. ] 


By ALAN SxConEi Ca B: 


In preparing this course of lectures, which the Royal Society of 
Arts has kindly invited me to give on textile ornament, I find the 
range of subjects covered by the title much wider than I expected.? 

Of textiles alone there are several distinct sorts: (1) Shuttle 
weavings, with ornament special to brocades, velvets, damasks, and 
figured silk stuffs, to say nothing of kindred ornament in woolen, 
linen, and cotton fabrics; (2) tapestries, with their decorative pic- 
tures of religious, mythological, historical, and domestic subjects; 
(3) carpets, with a number of simple and highly complex patterns; 
(4) embroidery, which is suitable to render almost any sort of orna- 
mental and pictorial designs; (5) lace, with its textures and ornament 
distinctly different from those of the foregoing; and (6) stamped, 
dyed, and printed textiles with a still further variety of pattern and 
design. 

The ornament of these different classes of textiles is but a chap- 
ter—an important one, certainly, but still only one chapter—in the 
story of all ornament, and as textile ornament during, say, 5,000 
years has derived almost as many of its phases from ornament in 
other materials as it in turn has contributed to them, I find it neces- 
sary to take these latter also into some account. In order, then, to 
keep within the appointed limits, the choice of one or two central 
or rallying points becomes desirable, and in view of my previous 
Cantor lectures upon lace, tapestry, and embroidery, I have fixed upon 
ornament in carpets and in stamped, dyed, and printed textiles for 
my present course. This ornamentation has successive styles. Style 
is a convenient word to apply to the results of reviewing ornament 
designed by historic peoples, of determining various peculiarities or 
salient features in it, then of grouping them together and naming each 
group after some nation, locality, or period. In this way rough and 

1Reprinted, by permission, from Journal of the Society of Arts, London, No. 3008, 
vol. 58, July 15, 1910. 


2Lecture 1 (delivered Jan. 17, 1910) of series of three lectures on textile ornamen- 
tation. Lectures 2 and 3 are on stamped, dyed, and printed textiles. 


125 


126 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ready classifications can be made and spoken of as Egyptian, Chinese, 
Mesopotamian, Greek, and other styles. Underlying all these styles 
are certain common factors of design. For instance, the arrangement 
of their particular ornamental details or devices is subject chiefly to 
balance, to repetition, and to symmetry. Again, ornamental details 
or devices in all historic national styles are either representative of 
actual things, such as plants, human and animal beings, etc., or are 
inerely abstract shapes presenting no likeness to any of these things; 
although some apparently abstract forms are symbols to convey some 
idea just as others are found to have descended, through many 
changes or distortions of drawing, from an original which repre- 
sented an actual thing. These changes or distortions occur to a 
marked extent in the ornament of people whose ethnography is more 
readily studied than their history. Take, for instance, Papuans, who 
produce plentiful ornament that is of the distorted character. They 
seem to have no regulated methods of design; at least, none so evident 
as those of historic nations like the Chinese, the Egyptians, the 
dwellers in Mesopotamia, and the Greeks, all of whom had culture, 
organization, manufactures, and commerce in a high degree. These 
great nations possessed neither aeroplanes nor telephones, but they 
appear to have paid better regard than many of us do nowadays to 
the suitable ornamentation of ordinary and ceremonial objects of use, 
including costumes and floor and furniture coverings. 

Leaving this digression, I come now to carpets and their ornamen- 
tation. I use the word carpet in the sense of an ornamental textile 
to be used under foot. Broadly speaking, there are two sorts of car- 
pet—one with a flat texture and the other with a definitely raised 
texture. It appears that in Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, and Greece 
flat-textured materials were manufactured long before those with 
raised texture. Ornament in the ancient flat-surface stuffs was pro- 
duced by inweaving, needlework, painting, and stamping. In pre- 
vious lectures I have touched upon the antiquity of methods of in- 
weaving and embroidery as practiced by famous historic nations 
hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of years before the Christian 
era. The inweaving corresponded precisely with tapestry weaving 
by hand of the present day. Its texture was therefore the same as 
that of a huge Gobelins tapestry and of a Kurdish rug. 

Here is an ordinary specimen of such a rug, which illustrates the 
flat texture we are considering. The style of its ornament has prob- 
ably endured for some centuries. The scheme or plan of its design 
is a field of small repeated devices inclosed within a border. This 
scheme or plan in connection with rugs and carpets is an old one; 
older indeed than most of the devices in the field which are weavers’ 
renderings of sprays of blossom and leaves; the ornament of the 
border is effective by reason of the repetition of its details. These 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. 127 


are almost unintelligible, though the original of them probably was 
a dragon’s head; the dragon was invented by the Chinese almost as 
early as the Sphinx was invented by the Egyptians, and apparently 
some centuries before Perseus encountered any similar creature. 

The next slide shows a simple but adequate frame of the sort 
which has been in use from old times by wandering families or 
groups of carpet makers in Turkestan, farther east, and south. 
In such a frame flat or raised surface rugs could be made. These 
wandering weavers have inherited, as it were, the designs they work 
in their rugs; and, unless they come into the service of some merchant 
or patron who furnishes them with other designs, they continue to 
produce with scarcely any intended, but with a good deal of acci- 
dental, variation of their own traditional patterns and designs. And 
this condition has lasted amongst such peoples for many centuries. 

This slide is from the carving of a floor covering which was prob- 
ably of tapestry weaving, as indeed was the greater number of orna- 
mented textiles made by Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, and Greeks 
before the Christian era. This carving was discovered in the ruins 
of Kouyunjik and is of Assyrian workmanship, eighth century B. ©. 
The plan of its design, as fully displayed in the whole of the floor 
covering, originally corresponded with that of the Kurdish rug, hav- 
ing its field of pattern inclosed within a border. In this case the 
ornamental features of the border are well shaped, and are based 
upon plant forms. The outer ones are alternately buds and ex- 
panded flowers, those in the next series are full daisy blossoms, and 
then come repeated palm or radiating palmette forms. The pattern 
of the field is formed with intersecting circles, and is a truly abstract 
pattern, being unrepresentative of any actual things and not sym- 
bolical in any way. ‘The texture of such a carpet was, as I have 
said, probably that of tapestry weaving and not of raised or cut pile. - 
Indeed, the manufacture of this latter and more complicated material 
does not seem to have been known by the old Egyptian, Assyrian, 
Persian, and Greek weavers. The nearest approach to raised surface 
textiles made by them were linen cloths faced with loose loops. 
These give a shaggy-faced material resembling modern bath towels. 
Several pieces of it have been found in disused Egyptian cemeteries, 
dating probably from the first century B. C. or A. D., and it is con- 
sidered by various authorities that they are identical with a fabric 
called by Aristophanes “ Persis,” and reputed as a manufacture of 
barbarians. The Greeks, however, also manufactured similar tex- 
tures, and called them “ kaunakes” and “ phlocata.” Pliny, writing 
500 years later, mentions corresponding stuff as “ amphimalla ” when 
the shagginess was on both of its sides, and “ gausapa ” when woven 
on one side only. This shaggy material was apparently as common 
in use as tapestry weavings, but it does not seem to have lent itself 


128 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


well to ornamental expression. And this I gather from specimens of 
it made probably by Copts, who decorated it with close loops of wool. 

Here is an exceptionally good example of a shaggy-faced floor or 
couch cover treated in this manner. The style of the design may be 
called Egypto-Roman. The center is surrounded by a bordering of 
rectangular corner shapes linked together with intervening star 
forms. It is interesting to note the interlocked device within the 
left-hand star—a device which I think is of Chinese origin. We 
find it in Turkestan and Asiatic rugs, as well, of course, as the 
swastika or crooked cross—another constantly occurring emblem in 
Chinese ornament. 

Of more distinctly Roman character is the design in this next ex- 
ample of looped worsted weaving or embroidery produced possibly 
by Copts in the second or third century. Here we have but a corner 
of a floor covering of the period, enough, however, to indicate that the 
whole of the field was covered with groups, like the single one here, 
of cupids in a boat. The border was narrow and of overlapping 
leaves, and a medallion, containing a face, in each corner of the whole 
rug. 

Such a textile may represent the “ Sardian pile carpets” mentioned 
by the Egypto-Roman writer, Atheneus, of Naukratis, a place now 
identified with Tell-el-Bareet, near the Rosetta branch of the Nile. 
Sir George Birdwood, in his treatise on the “ Antiquity of Oriental 
Carpets,” gives several interesting quotations from the “ Banquets of 
the Learned,” by Athenzeus, to prove the considerable use in the third 
century A. D. of floor coverings—but judged by the light of fabrics 
discovered in the disused Egyptian cemeteries, already referred to, 
none seems to indicate in a convincing way that cut-pile carpets or 
any carpets of distinctly Eastern design were amongst the usual 
household goods of either Greeks or Romans. We have, I think, to 
look elsewhere for the earliest of such things. 

Cut-pile fabrics were, I think, first produced by the Chinese. For 
more than 2,000 years before Buddhism reached them, they had pre- 
served to themselves a monopoly in the cultivation, spinning, and 
employment of silk. It is the most delicate of all fibers or filaments 
for textile purposes. In the possession of this monopoly, and of a 
prolonged skill in the ornamental arts, the Chinese seem to have de- 
veloped every sort of known process of ornamental and complicated 
weaving—so, at least, one must infer from their traditions and rec- 
ords. The evil of seclusion which had hidden these things from the 
rest of the world was gradually lifted by the trade started by Asiatic 
peoples living outside the Great Wall, who were the means of com- 
municating to the northern districts of the old Persian Empire, two 
centuries or so B. C., some knowledge of Chinese manufactures and 
ornamental design. The trade in its course affected Asiatic crafts- 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. 129 


men and weavers; and they seem to have been the pioneers, as it were, 
in imitating fabrics similar in texture to that of Chinese velvets and 
the like. These Asiatics had boundless supplies of wool, camel and 
goat hair, long before they learned how to rear silkworms and cul- 
tivate them. Rulers of districts along the Chinese trade route recog- 
nized the value of this Asiatic enterprise in industry at places like 
the ancient Karakoram, Khotan, Samarcand, Bokhara, Herat, and 
thus cut-pile manufactures passed on to India and Persia, whose 
dominion had extended from Turkestan to Asia Minor and Syria, 
and included, of course, the territories previously governed by Baby- 
lonians and Assyrians; but there these goods were retained—the 
Persians being very jealous of them and preventing textile manu- 
factures from China from passing westward over to the Romans. 

The ornament in the Asiatic and Parthian rugs and carpets, such 
as they then were, consisted probably of geometric and abstract forms 
interspersed with adaptations of Chinese emblems. But about the 
fifth or sixth century A. D., or even a little earlier, they were com- 
bined by the Persians with devices of their own Sassanian, Roman, 
Persian, and older Assyrian styles. When, therefore, the Emperor 
Heraclius took possession of the royal castle of Dastagerd in 627 
A. D., he found, among other treasures there, carpets, and most of 
them no doubt were of geometric and abstract ornament, and a less 
number of realistic ornament. But this ornamentation can have 
borne few, if any, direct traces of either old Egyptian or Grecian 
styles of ornament. It had a style of its own, and was alive in 
Persia up to the time when Mahomet and his conquering Arabs 
overran that country, Egypt, and elsewhere. It. served as a base 
from which gradually the Saracenic or Mohammedan styles arose. 

Now, for a far longer time than the life of the style we are consid- 
ering, the Chinese style had been gradually influencing ornamentists 
with some, at least, of its variety and ingenuity of design that must 
have proved stimulating to all who came across it. In both abstract 
and realistic ornamental forms the Chinese style has always been 
exceedingly rich, as may be gathered from ornament on ancient 
Chinese bronzes. These have, of course, outlived contemporary 
weavings and embroideries, which would have been decorated with 
as much, if not greater, variety of ornament. To put before you a 
suggestion only of what I mean by the variety and ingenuity of old 
Chinese ornament such as has lasted with little intrinsic modification 
for 4,000 years, I have had a slide made from two Chinese bronze 
vases. 

The vase on the left (pl. 1, fig. 1) is a wine vase made in 780 or 
769 B. C., and is symmetrically decorated with highly conventional- 
ized dragon and bird forms adapted to fit into given spaces. These 


97578°—sm 1910——9 


130 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


forms vary in size with that of their spaces, and are distributed 
within them with the skill of sound and well-established ornamental 
design. A slight obliteration has taken place in course of time and 
interferes a little with the definition of them, but there is nothing of 
haphazard or barbaric art about them. The strange forms given to 
the birds and dragons on the wine vase were meant as ornament; 
more graceful realistic forms were designed and modeled at this 
period, so that the strangeness is by no means due to want of ability 
to do better, and does not therefore imply barbaric or primitive 
performance. The other vase (pl. 1, fig. 2), with elephants’ heads 
and rings, is of another phase of treatment, but one just as old as 
that of the conventional ernament on the wine vase. The ornament 
in this second vase is freer and more dainty, and some of the details 
are much more naturalistic. In the upper broad band about the 
neck are graceful, slim dragons upon a background fretted with the 
key pattern. About the bowl of the vase the background is of small 
continuous stems with spirals, upon which are large conventional 
forms, which, by the way, are arranged rather like those of our own 
seventeenth century strap ornament. Authorities say that this old 
Chinese conventional ornament is one of many which are intended to 
be emblematical of the dragon. Above it occur two Vandyke panels 
filled with a pointed device, which is suggestive, at least, of a lotus 
blossom, a detail very frequent in Mohammedan ornament done by 
Persians centuries later. Around the base is a band of swirling and 
foaming waves. These two bronzes give us at least some idea of 
unusual versatility in ornamental design. But besides such examples 
as’ these of the great technical skill and mature power of design 
jpossessed by the Chinese in the eighth century B. C. and much earlier, 
too, there are still older traditions and records of what they were 
doing in the ornamental arts. Some 2000 B. C., for instance, some 
500 years before Joseph introduced his brethren to Pharoah, who 
would have been wearing a long flax tunic spotted with simple lotus 
buds inwoven with colored wools, the Emperor Shun’s silken robes 
had been woven and embroidered with the 12 chang or ornaments. 
These consisted of (1) a solar disk upon a bank of clouds, a three- 
legged bird within the disk; (2) a lunar disk containing a hare with 
pestle and mortar pounding the elixir of life; (3) a constellation of 
three stars; (4) mountains; (5) five-clawed dragons; (6) variegated 
pheasants; (7) a pair of temple vases somewhat like one of those we 
have seen, but ornamented with a tiger and a monkey; (8) grass in 
sprays; (9) fiery scrolls; (10) grains of millet grouped in a medal- 
lion; (11) a warrior’s ax, and (12) a symbol resembling two E’s 
back to back. 

It would take up too much time to go on reciting the number of 
other different representative and fanciful ornaments that enter into 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Cole PLATE 1. 


1. ANCIENT CHINESE BRONZE 2. ANCIENT CHINESE BRONZE 
VASE, WITH DRAGON ORNA- VASE, WITH DRAGON AND 
MENT. OTHER ORNAMENT. 


CRNT@E ORNAMERY 
(et asec ceree ee 
GQetvea 


ANCIENT CHENESE SWASTIKA KEY PATTERNS raom 


: 


“ TURSOMAN Rued 


is 


Davee PRS JURRE STAN Ane KRURDIOM 


Roget. 


3. ABSTRACT AND SYMBOLICAL ORNAMENTAL DETAILS IN CHINESE AND OTHER 
ASIATIC RUGS. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Cole. PLATE 2 


Chm Eee. 


CENTRE OF A AVE 
8 


aoe. 


Ss 
és 


ERKTAE of ARGO 


Bike Aue wancce bur ner Bhenreet 


ra Boncin 
iz 
ja 
; ge 37 a DRAGON AG RENDERED INA KURDISH Woe ? 
| > . 0% TURCOMAR Rus 
: 
iN : 
CARAATIOA z 
severe stn vee cance { 
f . ene aay. Gorest 
. rh Kaa AR 
ah” k a) Rubs > 


1. REALISTIC AND SYMBOLICAL ORNAMENTAL DETAILS IN CHINESE AND OTHER 
ASIATIC RUGS. 


2. CHINESE CUT-PILE Ruas. 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. 131 


designs of the very ancient Chinese. Their complex rectangular 
ornaments of abstract and symbolical character, as well as the counter- 
version of them rendered in curves and spirals are, I think, even 
more remarkable and intricate than anything based on corresponding 
elements in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Grecian ornament. In all like- 
Jihood textiles ornamented with all the familiar devices were then 
made in China, though none probably is in existence now. Still, in 
view of the conservative habits of the Chinese, I think we can get 
from modern examples some fair idea of the appearance of ornament 
in old Chinese cut-pile carpets, such as are likely to have been used 
in north China, Manchuria,*and Mongolia—as well as of modified 
ornament made by Asiatics along or in touch with the trade route 
across the Western Chinese Empire. 

Plate 1, fig. 3 is from some rough sketches I have made of details 
in cut-pile Chinese and other Asiatic rugs. The two first are a 
central ornament or disk shape and a border of key pattern devised 
upon the swastika emblem (the crooked end cross). The same orna- 
ment is to be seen on Chinese bronzes of 1000 B. C., as well as in old 
Chinese enamels, where it sometimes is terminated with a dragon’s 
head; variants made with curved instead of rectangular winding 
forms are similarly terminated. Swastika and dragon ornament is, 
I think, a possible parent of Mohammedan arabesques, which we shall 
come to later on. Below the Chinese details are others that I took 
from rugs made by weavers in Turkestan, Bokhara, and Caucasia, 
some in tapestry, some in close short stitch embroidery, and some in 
cut-pile material. The first of them is not peculiarly characteristic ; 
the one below it with incipient key devices seems to have a Chinese 
flavor; near it are various cross forms, some of which are Chinese 
swastikas; others with scrolled limbs, as in the octagon, are perhaps 
of Tibetan descent. Below an S shape is the knot or interlocked de- 
vice which we found in the Coptic Egypto-Roman floor or couch 
cover, and it may be symbolical of a recommendation, said to have 
been made by Confucius, that Taouists would do better if they gave 
up writing and took to making knots on strings. I am not quite 
clear if Confucius was satirical and poking fun at his pupils. A 
large panel or seal-shaped ornament contains what may be imitations 
of the eight trigrams of Chinese divination (Pa-Kua). The long 
narrow ornament, with two hexagons, may be an adaptation of a 
form of band that was often woven into Syrian and Egypto-Roman 
linen tunics about the sixth or seventh century A. D., and the last 
panel of later date is of semiabstract shapes and of conventional lotus 
buds. 

The upper ornaments in the next slide (pl. 2, fig. 1) are from Chi- 
nese cut-pile rugs, and are both realistic and symbolical. The circu- 
lar forms-may reflect veneration for the disk; one to the left contains 


132 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


an emblem of longevity, which is surrounded by bats typifying “ Fe- 
licity; ” the other consists of four birds—beak converging to beak; 
below this is part of a border that contains dragon forms like the one 
given here. Such ornaments existed in China long before other 
people knew them or tried to imitate them in any such way as that 
indicated by the sketches below them, which are of details in cut-pile 
and other rugs from Turkestan, Persia, and Kurdish districts. None 
of the rugs is of great age, still the ornament on them represents many 
conventions in rendering dragons, birds, flowers, human and animal 
forms, the archetypes of which were more realistic in appearance and 
better drawn. The part of a rug border to the left, in the lower set 
of details, has a conglomeration of dragon and bird forms; the bird 
immediately below is from another part of the same border; next to 
it is a bit of a carnation border—a rude version, probably of a Per- 
sian fourteenth century border; next to it is a device—perhaps a 
double-headed eagle, although its counterpart in other rugs looks 
more like a conventional fruit or flower. The childishly drawn man 
and horse, with many other similar creatures, frequently occur in 
flat and raised surface Caucasian and Kurdish rugs; and so does the 
curious device to the right, which, with several others, was sent me by 
a friend. 'The half hexagon panel with a dragon derivative is from 
a Persian cut-pile rug which has its weaver’s name on it in Persian 
characters. 

It seems to me to be within the bounds of reasonable supposition 
that some of these Asiatic rug ornaments are as old as the first and 
second century A. D., though they may have been scarcely known 
beyond Syria and Asia Minor. The same style of rug ornaments 
has continued to the present day, and I suggest that the next few 
slides may be representative of varieties of rug designs which have 
been used during the last 2,000 years perhaps. 

The first (pl. 2, fig. 2) is from two cut-pile rugs of Chinese design 
and manufacture—stout white, blue, and gray-black wools have 
been used. The plan of design is a field with central circular device 
or disk and corner devices within the inclosing border. Such circular 
panel or disk (solar or lunar) placed at the center of the field appears 
to be a particular feature in Chinese rug design. 

The next slide is from two rugs, one made in Assam and the other 
at Patna. Both designs show Chinese influence. The Assam rug 
(pl. 3, fig. 1) is covered with a swastika key pattern. The scheme 
of the Patna rug (pl. 3, fig. 2) is Chinese with its central disk and 
corner pieces, but the ornament within them as well as in the border 
is Assyrian in a style more than 2,500 years old. 

The next slide gives a design of fuller ornament. The disk or cir- 
cular device at the center is surrounded with repeated Chinese em- 
blems; the corners have Chinese key pattern; the bold forms in the 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. Bae 


outer border show near affinity to ornament on old Chinese bronzes; 
the smaller details in the field are derived for the most part from 
plant form. This cut-pile rug was probably made in the neighbor- 
hood of Yarkand. 

Two rugs are shown on the next slide. That on the left (pl. 3, 
fig. 3) is of cut pile and has three disks, each of which is surrounded 
by curved and spiral versions of the swastika. The-border has a 
variety of circular blossoms or emblems. This rug comes from 
Yarkand. The second one (pl. 3, fig. 4) has three octagonal panels 
instead of disks occupying the larger part of the field, which is else- 
where filled in as the border is with various more or less abstract 
details like those we have already discussed. Amongst them are a 
few Chinese symbols of simple type. The rug is of closely-stitched 
needlework, and is considered to be a Soumak rug, which is, I believe, 
a corruption of Semaka, a town in Caucasia. The work corresponds 
with that of some of the saddlebacks from this district. 

Of less interest in the history of carpet design is that of the familiar 
red and green modern Turkey carpets. In these comfortable cut-pile 
floor coverings, the unintelligible forms are, I think, remotely related 
to those of the Asiatic rugs mingled with others distantly derived 
from patterns that were being designed before or about the time when 
Marco Polo traveled in Asia Minor and noted the fine carpets made 
there. These were doubtless of a type of Mohammedan style, the 
gradual development of which in Egypt on the one hand, and the 
Mesopotamian districts of Persia on the other hand, commenced soon 
after the eighth century. About then and for some time later on, 
Asiatic rugs such as we have seen were used at the courts of the 
Khalifs and Mohammedan governors in Egypt, Syria, Sicily, and 
Spain, whence germs only, of the later taste for rugs and carpets, 
were sparsely diffused in Europe. 

I have already said that at a period shortly preceding the Moham- 
medan conquest, the ornamentation in Syria and western parts of 
Persia, and to some extent in Egypt, was largely of a degenerate 
Roman character with occasional traces of ancient Assyrian feeling. 
Tt had but little Chinese flavor, and to give you a bare impression of 
its character I have a few slides made from Coptic and Perso-Roman 
specimens. 

The first is from a Coptic tapestry weaving, with an Egypto-Roman 
style of ornament of the fifth or sixth century A. D. picked out in 
needlework. It may have served as a couch or stool cover. The 
greater part of its ornament consists of ingenious variations of the 
Roman Guilloche. The intertwistings fall into repeated circles, 
within which are blossoms, and from such may have descended the 
fully developed plan of pattern seen in silk weavings of the period, 
in which the repeated circles were much larger and more widely sep- 


134 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


arated, and inclosed fanciful griffons, lions, hunters on horseback, 
parrots, etc. Such patterns prevailed in Sassanian and Byzantine 
silks. 

The next slide is from a linen fragment of Coptic or Syrian tapestry 
weaving. Here we have a rather rude rendering of an old Assyrian 
device, a tiger or lion springing on the back of an ibex or gazelle. 
Improved representations of it occur in Mohammedan ornament, and 
in Persian carpets of later date. 

The next slide is from a golden bottle of the sixth or seventh 
century. Its main ornament, Perso-Roman in style, consists of large 
roundels, connected together, and inclosing such groups as the one 
we see of a griffon pouncing on a gazelle, which again is a reminis- 
cence of the Assyrian device. 

How handicraftsmen and designers working in this style blended 
it with Chinese ornament and Chinese feeling, which was so prevalent 
in Asia during the Tang Dynasty (seventh to tenth century), and 
invented much of what has become Mohammedan ornament, is the 
next suggestion I have to make with a view to offering some explana- 
tion of the ornamental designs in famous Persian carpets which are 
generally regarded as preeminent amongst all carpets. The Moham- 
medan Conquest dates from the beginning of the seventh century. 
One of the reputedly oldest Mohammedan buildings, having orna- 
ment on it, is the ninth century mosque of Tulun, in Cairo. It was 
doubtless the work of Copts, and I think that Coptic-Sassanian ele- 
ments as well as others closely resembling in effect modified tradi- 
tional Chinese patterns—those usually about an ogre’s mask—underlie 
a good deal of the internal ornamentation of the mosque. The inven- 
tion of the intricate Mohammedan geometric tracery, and interlacing 
ornament, including the curved arabesques that terminate in conven- 
tional foliations, seems to throw back to influences of Chinese designs 
having the same character of line and general scheme. The flow 
of Chinese influence must have become stronger than ever, when 
Arabs, in the ninth century A. D., were not only pushing trade with 
the Chinese by both overland and oversea routes, but also had busi- 
ness settlements at Canton and other seaport towns in China. Arab 
rule at this period was most extensive. Their khalifs and governors 
in ail parts—Asia, Egypt, Spain, etc.—possessed themselves of all 
the material luxuries that resources and native industry could supply. 
Their luxurious indulgence is the topic of many of their records; 
and from a single instance such as that of Ahmed Tulun’s son, who 
had in his palace at Cairo a lake of quicksilver, upon the surface of 
which “lay a feather bed inflated with air fastened by silver bands 
to four silver supports,” one can imagine how superbly they had 
the best of things; and, as history tells us, were rightly looked upon— 
not only in Europe but in China and amongst the Hindus and Tar- 


PLATE 3. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910,—Cole. 


ELC MMM Ae 
Rieweonveneme 


CA 


AY 


on 


vas 


,*. 


bo, 


‘ 


as 


*: “6 ated ee f f 3 
G{ eriasiasissusiasusiasie ses sie za 
BoA ARIA IS Ae 


es 


> 
“O% 


2. RUG WITH CHINESE SCHEME 
OF DESIGN FROM PATNA 


vs 


tah 


b -40 Gr Vey, Re Bee ee ed 
LNT SZ EOS AELSWITIT NE TORE BRST ELS ON SP 
Daa F At ea 


a 
> 


“8% 


fas ah 
2s 6 
Ss 

= 


+ Pq Mn ra oe: 


iF 


& 


x 
~~ 


tte 


Te tee 
RUG WITH SWASTIKA KEY PATTERN 
FROM ASSAM. 


ile 


4. NEEDLEWORKED RUG FROM SHEMAKA, IN 
CAUCASIA. 


PILE RUG FROM YARKAND. 


3. CuT- 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Cole. PLATE 4, 


1. PERSIAN METAL BOWL, WITH MOHAMMEDAN ORNAMENT. 


2. PERSIAN METAL EWER, WITH 
MOHAMMEDAN ORNAMENT. 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. 135 


tars—as the richest princes in the world. Their religious tenets 
formed the basis of that uniformity of taste with which they required 
the art craftsmen who served them to comply, and the earlier of these 
artificers and ornamentists appear to have been Copts in Egypt, and 
Persians in Mesopotamia. The Arabs themselves were not, during 
the first periods of Mohammedanism, artistic craftsmen, although 
they were builders. As regards the output of carpets about this time 
we have, I think, to look to the weavers in Syria, Armenia, Mesopo- 
tamia, Persia, Bokhara, and Turkestan, whose ornament was chiefly 
of a geometric style, with Kufic inscriptions. About the beginning 
of the thirteenth century the Mogul ruler, Jenghis Kahn, “a true 
leader of man,” deported thousands of men of arts and crafts from 
their homes at Samarkand to work in distant part of his realm for 
his princes and nobles. “This,” the historian writes, “was the be- 
ginning of the Mogul system of recruiting by force, of compelling 
the service of artisans, of confiscating industries for the benefit of 
the nation.” Besides his military exploits and his zeal in public 
works, he gave new impulse to the trade with China. Soon after, 
his great nephew, Mangu, became Kahn, and lived in splendid com- 
fort in his capital at Karakoram (long since gone to ruin) in south- 
east Turkestan—where in front of his throne was placed a silver 
tree having at its base four lions from whose mouths there spouted 
into four silver basins, wine, kumis, hydromel, and terasine. At the 
top of the tree a silver angel sounded a trumpet when the liquors 
ran short—another instance of Mohammedan luxury which is hard 
to beat even now. Halagu Kahn, also a great nephew of Jenghis 
Kahn, undertook big expeditions, and amongst other places captured 
Bagdad, which still retained fine traditions of Haroun-al-Raschid’s 
flourishing times. Accompanying Halagu were hundreds of Chinese 
artificers, who are sometimes spoken of as engineers only, but for 
all that I think it more probable that amongst them were workmen 
proficient in branches of ornamental industries, and that they intro- 
duced some fine Chinese ornament into the metal mounting of the 
spheres, astrolabes, and globes which Halagu’s astronomer set up at 
Bagdad. 

At this time we get indications of high achievements in branches 
of Mohammedan art—notably so in the metal work, the earlier bits 
of which are considered to have been made at Mosil, on the Tigris, 
some 200 miles northwest of Bagdad, whose glory was then on the 
wane. The ornament of this metal work has a considerable bearing 
upon that of rather later Persian carpets. With its arabesque key 
patterns, scrolls, hunters, animals, inscriptions, and floral devices, it 
is the exemplar of a Mohammedan style that passes on from phase 
to phase between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, with so 
little change that it is difficult to classify them according to locality 


136 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910, 


or period. Some are more restrained and simpler than others, though 
all have the same air de famille. The simpler ornament was in ac- 
cordance with the tenets of orthodox Mohammedans. At an early 
date in the spread of their religion the Prophet’s followers had 
divided themselves into two parties. Persians belonging chiefly to 
the Shi-ite and more easygoing sect, while the Sunnite or orthodox 
sect comprised Egyptians, Copts, and Moors, as well as some of the 
peoples in Asia Minor and farther east, who in the making of their 
rugs and carpets inclined almost exclusively to semiabstract and geo- 
metric ornament such as we have seen. The existence of the two 
sects helps, no doubt, to explain the maintenance in oriental carpets 
of the two divisions of style in Mohammedan ornament. In both we 
find traces of Chinese influence. 

And now let me put before you two slides made from examples of 
the metal ornament, and point to Chinese details in them. 

The first example is from a casket rich in symmetrical ornament 
of delicate stems that intertwine and form panels, the most of which 
are filled with an interlocking angular pattern, the basis of which is 
a developed swastika device. The intertwisting stems may be de- 
scended from Coptic interlacements, but the swastika patterning is 
surely Chinese. The leafy scrollwork, with birds here and there, 
throws back to Chinese and Perso-Roman origins. The two winged 
figures on the feet of the casket are Perso-Roman or Sassanian, 
though the idea of such fantastic creatures may have come into 
Mesopotamia from China or Egypt centuries earlier. 

The next slide is from a bowl and ewer, also of the thirteenth 
century, possibly from the hands of art craftsmen farther east in 
Persia, as at Ispahan. The ornament on each of these objects includes 
figures, and thus is more to the taste of unorthodox Mohammedans. 
Sportsmen hunting all sorts of strange creatures, mostly winged, 
and these in turn attacking others, together with griffons back to 
back, are to be seen in repeated four-lobed panels, between which is a 
ground of Chinese key pattern. Bands of foliated arabesque scroll- 
work run under the rim, round the center, and at the base of the bowl. 
(Pl. 4, fig. 1.) 

The ewer (pl. 4, fig. 2) is decorated with kindred ornament though 
different in design, especially the shaping of the compartments on the 
lower part. These are formed by intercrossing bands of rope orna- 
ment, and resemble some of the enrichments in the ninth century 
mosque of Tulun, but their shape is also akin to that of the pointed 
device which we saw in one of the Chinese bronzes of much older 
style. The spout is a Chinese dragon head, whilst the head on the 
handle is that of a hound. But I will not encroach on your attention 
to expatiate upon the delightful cross-breeding in ornament which 
these objects exhibit. 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. RST 


The contemporary richly colored illuminations of Mohammedan 
MSS. and of book covers reflect the style of the engraved and dama- 
scened metal work. And from both are directly descended the com- 
positions of color and form which are woven in the more magnificent 
cut-pile carpets that were manufactured in Persia from the fifteenth 
century onward. They practically superseded the carpets of simpler 
design during the fourteenth century and earlier. 

The first of my slides, to illustrate a few of these finer types, is 
from a carpet possibly of fifteenth-century manufacture. Silver 
threads are inwoven with the colored cut pile of fine wool. The 
border of cartouches inscribed with Persian characters incloses the 
field, at the center of which is a circular device which, as we have 
seen, is a feature of Chinese and Mongolian rug designs. At each 
of the inner corners of the borders are segments of Persianesque 
panels shaped and treated so as to suggest the shape of a conven- 
tional lotus flower. Within the central circular band is a four-lobed 
ornament—each lobe containing a peacock, which is a favorite subject 
of Persian and Mogul Indian ornament. Over the main part of the 
field are many long and short wavy devices usually identified as 
Tatar cloud devices and of frequent occurrence in Chinese ornament. 

The next slide (pl. 5, fig. 1) exhibits a carpet with a border of 
cartouches having inscriptions of which an interpretation, as given 
in the great Viennese work on oriental carpets, mentions the Shah, 
for whom the carpet was made, and states that “within the fair 
border of this field you see a flowery bed, refreshing and lovely as 
the paradise in Eden. To Chinese art its beauty is an object of envy.” 
(This is clearly an indirect though palpable acknowledgment of the 
superiority of Chinese art, as known to the Persians.) And then fol- 
lows a good deal more about the garden, and turtledoves and nightin- 
gales. But on looking into the design itself, at the center of the 
field we see a group of four lions, nose to nose, surrounded by fine 
spiral stems and Tatar clouds. At the top and bottom of this group 
is a pomegranate inclosed by two serrated long narrow leaves, charged 
with small sprays of flowers precisely like those on so-called Rhodian 
plates, and inside the pomegranate are a pair of peacocks. Beyond 
is a symmetrical distribution of fanciful floral ornament, lions, tigers, 
or cheetahs springing on antelopes—nothing in fact to suggest the 
serenity of flowers and birds referred to in the inscription, which 
may have been by chance the handiest, though not the most apposite, 
for the weaver to use. 

The next slide (pl. 5, fig. 2) is from a carpet made in 1540 for the 
mosque at Ardebil—a town in the northwest of Persia and not far 
from Caucasia and the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea. The 
wider part of the border is designed with alternating circular cusped 
panels and elongated panels, not inscribed but decorated with flowers 


~ 


138 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


and Tatar clouds. In the center of the field is a large cusped 
medallion or roundel, containing dainty arabesque ornament; around 
the medallion is a series of pointed oval-shape panels, each filled in 
with floral and arabesque or Tatar cloud devices of different design. 
From the central pointed oval panel hangs an elaborate mosque lamp 
amidst flowered blossoms growing on delicate stems arranged in 
spirals, straying symmetrically all over the chief part of the field. 
Close to the lower border is a white rectangular panel with the mame 
of the maker of the carpet. At the corners within the border are 
segments as of the great central ornament. The narrow light bands 
of the whole border are enriched with repeated Tatar cloud devices. 
Of its kind this is probably the most remarkable carpet, and was 
made nearly 50 years before the accession of the great Shah Abbas 
to the throne of Persia. During his reign the arts were much 
encouraged at his capital of Ispahan and at other important towns of 
eastern Persia. It is hardly possible now to identify the manufacture 
of carpets of Perso-Mohammedan style with any particular town of 
central and eastern Persia. Several fine carpets were made from 760 
to 1258 in western Persia or Mesopotamia—at Bagdad for instance, 
for luxury-loving Abbasid Caliphs. The ornament of these, however, 
was chiefly geometric (as in pl. 3, fig. 4), if one may judge from 
Persian miniatures in the British Museum, of which I find a number 
quoted by Mr. Martin in his big work on “ Oriental Carpets.” 

This is part of a Persian carpet perhaps, from Herat, with a border 
designed in a different style from what we have hitherto seen. The 
large arabesque curved forms between the pairs of varied pointed 
oval panels remind one of Chinese forms sometimes used in that 
ancient ornamentation composed with goggle-eyed ogre masks, which 
IT have mentioned already in connection with the mosque of Tulun. 
The field of this carpet contains the wavy Tatar cloud shapes and 
several animals, the design of which seems to be Chinese in char- 
acter—as, for instance, the beast on the left with curious almost 
dragon head and @ lashing tail; there is a smaller version of him 
within a pomegranate form below. Still lower down is a black 
panther, perhaps springing across a similar dappled beast. Above, 
on the right, is a dappled stag with antlers. Stags and fawns are 
favorite animals in Chinese porcelain of the Ming dynasty 
(1368-1644). 

Here is another variety of design in which Chinese influence seems 
to me to be very strong. The border is of delicate arabesque design ; 
within the counter-changing and almost lotus-shape compartments 
the group of the leopard or cheetah seizing an antelope or goat is 
repeated. But on the field are many devices, the like of which our 
previous designs have not given us; for example, the highly decorated 
vase or bottle toward the center with a pair of Kylins at its foot, 


PLATE 5. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Cole. 


2, PART OF THE CUT-PILE CARPET MADE IN 1540 FOR THE 


1. PERSIAN CUT-PILE CARPET OF LATE FIF- 


MOSQUE AT ARDEBIL, NW. PERSIA. 


TEENTH OR EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY 


DESIGN, WITH INSCRIPTIONS. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Cole. PLATE 6. 


1. SPANISH CARPET OF LOOPED WoRK, 2. SPANISH CUT-PILE CARPET, 
SIXTEENTH CENTURY. SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 


3. ITALIAN CARPET, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY; WOVEN 
AT PESCOCOSTANZA. 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. 139 


the minute serrations to the pointed oval and circular cusped shapes 
inclosing birds or fishes, the cone shape, and the minute floral forms 
throughout, all these seem to tell of a Chinese Mohammedan 
designer. 

This carpet is less strong in Chinese influence, but even so we do 
not lose it. As compared with what we have seen, the design of the 
field is remarkable for cypresses, almond trees in blossom, rose trees, 
birds perched amongst their branches, hares by their trunks, at the 
center ducks apparently, and at each corner a flying phcenix—the 
mystical Chinese bird with elaborate tail. All these are brought 
into ornamental effect by symmetrical arrangement chiefly. The 
border, like that of the immediately previous carpet, is of counter- 
changing, semilotus-shaped compartments, within which is delicate 
conventional flower ornament. 

Here, again, is part of a carpet of somewhat similar design, with 
trees and animals—the dragon is by the trunks of the cypresses, a 
flight of cranes amidst Tatar cloud devices fills the cusped center 
panel. It is a pity that the upper part of this carpet, which came 
from a synagogue in Genoa, has been so cut as to destroy practically 
a corner panel, in. which there was the figure of a man apparently 
in Chinese dress, and by him some unusual ornament of Chinese 
style—quite different from the arabesques of the border. The flight 
of cranes recalls the class of subject for which the Chinese painter, 
Hsieh Chi, of the seventh century, was renowned. The carpet was 
probably designed and woven in north Persia about 1450. 

With the Persian carpet designs fresh in our eyes, I may now show 
a slide from one of the several so-called Polish carpets. Its design 
is of a purely Persianesque type, but somewhat angularized and stiff- 
ened in appearance. The materials are silk pile or velvet inter- 
mixed with gold and silver threads. The question of its Polish 
origin is one of many raised for discussion which does not lead any- 
one far on the road toward understanding material and artistic 
excellences. As far as I can find out, there were certainly some 
Persian or Turkish weavers in Poland in the eighteenth century 
who made golden brocades for a short time. The specimen before 
us is apparently of earlier manufacture, and may perhaps be, Dr. 
Bode, of Berlin, has suggested, of Turkish manufacture—one of the 
rich Damascus carpets in which the Venetians traded in the sixteenth 
century. 

Rather poor in character of design is this cut-pile carpet, which 
may be of Moorish manufacture, to conform to the taste of some 
orthodox Mohammedan customer. The cruciform panel is poorly 
shaped when compared with Persian panels. The ground is covered 
with inscriptions of the ninety-nine names of Allah. The stars in 


140 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the border are suggestive of Cairene and Moorish titles of indifferent 
quality. The carpet came from a mosque at Aleppo. 

In the same class of debased ornament, derived from finer origi- 
nals, we may place this carpet. Most of the forms are undecipher- 
able. A cypress tree is fairly evident; below it to the left is a queer 
and somewhat entangled device, which I think we may call a dragon; 
still lower down, to the left, is a pair of shapes which faintly resemble 
those of animals, and to the right of them is an equally faint re- 
semblance of a long-necked bird—possibly a crane. The carpet is 
called Persian of the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Another 
specimen elsewhere is described as being made before the fifteenth 
century. The scheme of the design is usually found in woven stuffs 
of the fifteenth century, with details and devices of intelligible 
beauty. I think that the indications are in the direction of estab- 
lishing such carpets as the one before us as ambitious attempts by 
careful weavers far removed from properly drafted designs and 
relying, therefore, upon elusive memories for their ornamentation 
which does not call for much admiration. 

The strenuous itinerant instrumentalist seated on the pavement, 
and diligently twanging the strings of his harp with some rhythm, 
much discord, and uncertain melody is surely a kind of confrére of 
these weavers of distorted patterns. 

This slide is from two carpets of Indian manufacture at Malabar, 
the modest patterns of which—especially that on the right hand— 
- are directly borrowed from inlaid work of the fifteenth century, done 
by Mohammedans at Broussa, in Asia Minor, and in Venice, ete. A 
similar style of pattern occurs on carpets made at Tanjore. 

A considerable number of Persian carpets were made in the six- 
teenth century from designs, of which the leading feature was a 
covering network or framing. Here this feature is carried out so as 
to produce a succession and series of interchanging panels, each of 
which is filled in with plant forms, Tartar clouds, arabesques, or 
pairs of birds. Schemes of net pattern, but in other variations may 
be traced in Roman mosaics contemporary with Coptic tapestry 
Weavings, as well as in Byzantine shuttle weavings, thence they pass 
into medieval European textiles and embroideries, and architectural 
enrichments, before appearing’ in carpets. 

Another and simpler example of this scheme of design is shown in 
this next slide from an Indian or Persian carpet of the sixteenth or 
seventeenth century. The border is much narrower; the net or frame- 
work is defined in delicate spiral stems, and at their junctions are 
variously shaped panels, the network itself does not form such recur- 
rent panels as in the previous specimen, but is independent of those 
here shown. 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. 141 


From these I pass to specimens of another type of design. That 
on the left is probably of Caucasian or Kurdish weaving, and in the 
style of fiteenth century carpet designs, whilst that on the right is of 
Spanish or Moorish work. , Its field is covered with a diaper pattern 
of small foliated crosses, and toward the middle there are two eight- 
cusp circular panels containing a shield of arms. The outer border 
has Kufic characters mixed with small animal, bird, and blossom 
devices, which are repeated in the squares of the narrower inner 
border. The border pattern of the left-hand rug seems to be of orna- 
ment developed from Kufic writing, and such borders are seen in 
Persian miniatures dating even from the end of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and more often in later miniatures as well as in paintings by 
such artists as Hans Memling (1425-1490), Raphael (1483-1520), 
and many more at this time. Such carpets, with others coming into 
general use by the well to do in Europe, served more often as table 
than as floor coverings, and it is claimed that some of them were 
made even in England. 

Here, for instance, is one of these carpets. The design of the bor- 
der corresponds with that we have just discussed; at the sides and 
bottom of it are shields with the arms impaled on them of two 
English families, and on the lowest part of the carpet are the words, 
“Weare God and keep His commandments. Made in the year 1603.” 

At this time East India merchants caused carpets to be made to 
their order at Lahore and elsewhere, and their coats of arms and 
initials would be introduced into the designs. A very fine specimen 
of such carpets belongs to the Girdlers’ Company, and has been illus- 
trated in recent books about carpets. 

On the ornamental side of carpets made in Europe from the six- 
teenth century onward, there is much to say. On the gradual devel- 
opment of European methods of carpet manufacture there is still 
more to say; but in these lectures I can give an extremely brief 
résumé only of a few incidents that stand out. The oldest of them 
has to do with those French corporations of tapissiers whose thir- 
teenth century regulations are well known and have been much dis- 
cussed with the object of determining which of the two bodies—the 
“Tapissiers Sarrasinois” and the “Tapissiers Nostrez” were con- 
cerned with the manufacture of flat-surface floor covering and that of 
raised pile. Their weavings were employed for seats and hanging on 
walls, or placing on tables, and this more often probably than as floor 
coverings—rushes or mats being then ordinarily strewn on floors. 
Illuminated MSS. supply indications of their patterns, which were 
generally diapers and spottings; patterns of fuller design were dis- 
played upon imported Oriental carpets. With the early years of the 
sixteenth century the manufacture of tapestries in France begins to 

be organized, under the patronage of the Government, but it is not 


142 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


until the seventeenth century that pile-carpet making, under this pat- 
ronage, is well started at a disused soap factory known as the Savon- 
nerie of Chaillot, on the outskirts of Paris. Here were made the 
tapis veloutés—pile carpets as distinct from the tapis ras, or flat-sur- 
face carpets that were being produced at several of the tapestry weav- 
ing centers—the Gobelins, Beauvais, Tournai, etc. The manufacture 
of the two sorts was not combined at the Gobelins works until early 
in the nineteenth century. Aubusson carpets were first made early in 
the eighteenth century from designs that reflected the Louis XY. 
style—naturalistic floral garlands, ribbon knots, all shown with lights 
and shades, and entirely distinct in style from that of any Oriental 
rugs and carpets. 

In Spain some rugs are likely to have been made at many of the 
old Moorish towns, Malaga, Almeria, and Granada, perhaps as early 
as the middle of the ninth century, when their ornamentation would 
have been probably of the geometrical and abstract character, inter- 
mixed with inscriptions that appealed to Sunnite Mohammedans. 
Toward the end of the fifteenth century Spain had much to do with 
Flanders, where tapestry weaving was flourishing; it appears that 
at this time the making of Spanish carpets as distinct from Moorish 
carpets began. Specimens of them have come lately into collectors’ 
hands, some with cut pile, others with looped surface similar to those 
Egypto-Roman stuffs that we saw at the beginning of this lecture, 
and others wrought in a sort of cross-stitch embroidery. 

Here are now two of the Spanish rugs I have in mind, made prob- 
ably in the sixteenth or seventeenth century, one (pl. 6, fig. 1) with 
a surface of loops has an ogival net or frame of vine stems with sym- 
metrical groups of leaves and grapes alternately placed in the ogival 
panels. The scheme of the design is Byzantine originally, and be- 
came finely developed in Italian velvets of the fifteenth century. The 
border of this carpet is of a continuous stem scroll with offshoots of 
conventional plant shapes. The other carpet (pl. 6, fig. 2) is of cut 
pile of fair quality, its field of three octagonal panels or wreaths 
inclosing scroll ornament with a slight resemblance to Saracenic 
arabesque disposed on the plan of a cross, has a border of Italian- 
esque scrolls, griffons, and baskets. In both carpets the corners of 
the borders are not well managed in design—a defect which is seen 
constantly in Oriental carpets other than Persian, and runs through 
ornamental textiles woven from insufficient drafts, the completion 
of which is left to chance that the weaver can supply the deficiency 
of design. 

The weaving of pile and other carpets in European countries from 
designs by Europeans arose more or less simultaneously in Spain, 
Italy, France, Flanders, and England, about the middle of the six- 
teenth century. The English industry was stimulated a great deal 


ORNAMENTATION OF CARPETS—COLE. 143 


through commerce with the East Indies and by the employment of 
Flemings here. But, besides this, a few enterprising Englishmen 
sent trusted workmen to Asia Minor to learn the methods of making 
“Turkey carpets.” Nowadays, when museums expound technical 
and artistic efforts, progressive and otherwise, material facts are be- 
coming available in an almost unexpected way to illustrate allusions 
and records, and thus give reality to much that has been speculative. 

Unquestionably of English manufacture, or, more correctly, of 
manufacture in England, is the pile carpet shown on the screen. 
Details of its ornamentation may throw back to Oriental sources, but 
the coats of arms are distinctively British. In the center are the 
royal arms, with a date 1570 and E. R.—Elizabeth Regina. On the 
left are the arms of the borough of Ipswich and on the right the arms 
of a Suffolk family. Other equally interesting examples have lately 
become available for consultation, so that no doubt we shall soon learn 
a good deal more of English carpet ornament than we know at pres- 
ent. Carpet making at Wilton and Axminster dates from the end of 
the seventeenth century, and its history from: that time forward can 
be pretty clearly traced. Many Frenchmen were employed there and 
elsewhere in England during the eighteenth century, and introduced 
much of the French taste in carpet ornamentation. The Society of 
Arts, as early as 1758, gave prizes for English-made carpets, “ in 
imitation of those brought from the East, and called Turkey car- 
pets;” and the Transactions of the Society of 25 years later record 
how the manufacture of these was then established in different parts 
of the kingdom, and “brought to a degree of elegance and beauty 
which the Turkey carpet never attained.” 

It is not difficult to make a pretty close guess of what large Geor- 
gian carpet designs were like. Some of them at least had a flavor 
of the French taste, and of that I have one interesting design, made 
at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Robert de Cotte, for a 
pile carpet woven at the Savonnerie. It is rather like a ceiling 
decoration and apropos to a style that the machine-made patent 
Axminster and other carpets have been affecting during the last few 
years, presumably to the content of some people, who do not care for 
the restrained treatment of ornamental forms and harmonious colors 
in Oriental carpets. 

As to Italian carpets I have not collected much information. Shut- 
tle weaving by peasants in the Abruzzi continues to the present day 
and is responsible for most of their bright-colored woolen aprons with 
stripes that are broché or woven with floating threads. This same 
character of work has been done for some centuries. In the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries Perugia was notable for white linen table- 
cloths and towels, broché with blue threads in a considerable variety 
of interesting patterns. Farther south Pescocostanza appears to have 


144 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


been noted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for similar 
shuttle-woven woolen rugs, of one of which I have a slide. 

The style of the broché ornament is virtually the same as that of 
the Perugia linens. In the specimen now before us we have a field 
broken by garlands into repeated compartments, in which are, respec- 
tively, fountains, lions, horses, or perhaps unicorns, lambs of God 
bearing the cross and a flag, double-tailed mermaids with mirrors in 
their hands, and double-headed eagles, of a seventeenth century type, 
though almost all of them are emblems with traditions behind them, 
that, in some cases, spring from Gnostic sources of more than a thou- 
sand years earlier. Emblematical ornament, however, is far too big 
a subject to discuss now. The border of the carpet is a woven imita- 
tion of Italian lace points or Vandykes of the late sixteenth century. 

The last slide is from two pile rugs made at Merton from designs 
by the late William Morris. In both of them we trace his regard for 
Oriental symmetrical arrangement and flatness in treating orna- 
mental devices. 

In conclusion I must mention my indebtedness to important publi- 
cations, amongst which are the late Dr. Bushell’s handbook on Chi- 
nese Art, Mr. Martin’s admirable work on Oriental Carpets, and 
the great Viennese publications also on Oriental Carpets. This 
latter work contains illustrations of a hundred carpets or rugs, each 
of which Dr. Alois Reig] has described in detail with unsparing care. 

I do not think that either of these two last-named authorities, or 
even Dr. Bode, of Berlin, and others, who have a profounder erudi- 
tion than I can pretend to, have paid enough consideration to the 
enlivening effect which Chinese ornamental design must surely have 
had for the last 2,000 years at least upon that of other nations west 
of China, and especially in regard to its share in the invention of 
Mohammedan ornament. In offering a few hints upon that matter I 
hope that I have not made too great a call upon your attention. 
Mohammedan ornament, whether to the Sunnite or Shi-ite taste, plays 
a very important part in carpet ornamentation. The more it can 
be investigated and appreciated the less likely are we to manufacture 
carpets with quasi Oriental patterns that are at times really ludicrous 
in their simple-minded imitations of distorted devices. 

It is extraordinary what modern machinery can do in producing 
carpets of any sort of design. Certainly the daintiest that I have seen 
recently were manufactured at Glasgow and are reproductions of 
some of the finest and most intricately patterned Persian rugs. 

Messrs. Maple and Messrs. Warings have kindly lent the specimens 
of English machine-made rugs, as well as interesting portions of 
handmade carpets, not only from England, but from other European 
countries as well. 


RECENT PROGRESS IN AVIATION.? 


[With 19 plates. ] 
By OcTAavE CHANUTE,’ 


Honorary member of Western Society of Engineers. 


[Remarks by President Allen introducing Mr. Chanute: It is a 
remarkable coincidence that just 12 years ago this evening—October 
20, 1897—Mr. Chanute gave his first paper before this society on 
the subject. of aviation, the paper being entitled “ Gliding Experi- 
ments.” <A few years later, in 1901, and again in 1903, Mr. Wilbur 
Wright appeared before the society, at Mr. Chanute’s invitation, and 
gave an account of the experiments then being made by himself and 
his brother Orville. The opportunity comes to very few men, I 
think, to appear before the same body 12 years after their predictions 
had been made, and be able to point to the fulfillment of those pre- 
dictions, as can be done by Mr. Chanute to-night. 

It is our privilege to listen to him now, at a time when aviation 
has become a matter of great public interest, and when he can point 
to the fulfillment of his own prophecies, and the launching of the 
aeroplane as a practical machine on the ideas that he enunciated in 
our rooms 12 years ago. Mr. Chanute is well known to us all and 
needs no introduction from me. We are proud to number him among 
our members as, perhaps, the foremost living authority on aviation 
to-day in this country or in any other country. | 

I shall endeavor, with the aid of some lantern slides, to talk to you 
about what has lately been accomplished with flying machines. As 
your president has said, on the 20th of October, 1897, I had the 
honor of presenting to you an account of some gliding experiments 
that were carried on at Dune Park, near this city. Those experiments 
were made solely to study the question of equilibrium and to deter- 
mine if it was reasonably safe to experiment. We had the good 
fortune to make about 2,000 flights (Mr. A. M. Herring, Mr. W. 

1 Reprinted by permission from Journal of the Western Society of Engineers, Chicago, 
April, 1910. Presented before the society October 20, 1909. Journal copyright 1910 


by the Western Society of Engineers. 
“Mr. Chanute died November 23, 1910, 


97578°—sm 1910——10 145 


146 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Avery, and myself) without any accidents—not even a single sprained 
ankle. The only thing we had to deplore was the fact that my son, 
in making one flight, tore his trousers. An account of these experi- 
ments was published in the journal of this society for October, 1897, 
and subsequently an account was also published in the Aeronautical 
Annual, Boston, in 1897. That publication contained the statement 
that it was thought that these experiments were promising, and I 
gave an invitation to other experimenters to improve upon our prac- 
tice. That invitation remained unaccepted until March, 1900, when 
Wilbur Wright wrote to me, making inquiries as to the construction 
of the machine, materials to be used, the best place to experiment, 
etc. He said that he had notions of hisown that he wanted to try, and 
knew of no better way of spending his vacation. AI] that information 
was gladly furnished. Mr. Wright wrote me an account, subse- 
quently, of his experiments in 1900, which gave such encouraging 
results that each year thereafter the brothers carried on further ex- 
periments in North Carolina and at Dayton, Ohio. 

On the 18th of September, 1901, Wilbur Wright read a paper be- 
fore this society, in which he gave an account of what he had done 
up to that time. 

Again, on the 24th of June, 1903, Mr. Wright read a second paper 
before this society, giving an account of his progress since 1901. Late 
in the year 1903 the Wrights applied a motor to their gliding ma- 
chine, which by that time they had under perfect control, and they 
made their first flights on the 17th of December, 1903. (I might 
mention that I was present on each of the years during part of the 
experiments.) At that time Wilbur Wright expressed his intention 
of giving to this society the first technical paper on the subject which 
he furnished to anyone. He said he had already promised to give 
a popular account in the Century Magazine, but that a technical 
paper, giving an account of the results and the laws which had been 
observed, would be reserved for this society. 

In 1905 Mr. Wright told:me it had dawned upon him that there 
was some money to be made by selling the invention to governments 
for war purposes, and that he would defer giving a technical paper 
to our society. He considered that his invention would be more 
valuable if, with the machine, he could give the secrets of construc- 
tion and laws which have been observed. I do not know whether the 
paper has been written, but I hope you will get it some day. 

Of the early flying experiments which had been made previous 
to that time I will mention but two. 

Plate 1, figure 1, represents the Maxim machine of 1894. Mr. Maxim 
built an enormous apparatus, weighing 8,000 pounds and spreading 
4,000 feet of surface, moved by a steam engine of 360 horsepower. 
That machine was run upon a track of 9 feet gauge a good many 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 1. 


1. MAxim’s MULTIPLANE 1894—FRONT VIEW. 


Propeiled by 363-horsepower steam engine. Span, 126 feet; 


Weight, 8,000 pounds. 
area, 4,000 square feet; cost, $200,000. 


2. Maxim's MULTIPLANE, 1894—SIDE VIEW. 


y 31, 1894, at 36 miles an hour, 
j so much more than its weight that it broke a set of rails 
provided to hold it down, and thus demolished itself. 


When run on rails at Baldwyn’s Park, England, Jul 
this machine liftec 


199} OT NOG” Jo YASUI, B YIM ‘dy o1 dy 
WOIF JOoF GLAOAO OFT] BSBA [OPOUT IOTAVOT, OY} JO OZIS OY, “paAoTYyOR SV INOY UB SOUT Og NOGR 4B IWS o[rurt Ja}1enb 
901} B ‘spunod 0g JHOGw SUTYSIOM JOPOUT TBPTULIS B YYTA ‘906 ‘gz IaqMIDAON UO ‘A}quonbesqng ‘imMoy UB salut OZ NOGe 
JO poods B YB ‘IOATY OBULOJO OY} IOAO [IU B J[VY UBY} o1OUL AOF MAT ‘9G8T ‘9 ABI UO [OPOUL SIT, ‘opsuB [BIPSYTp 1B SSUTAA 


"9681 ‘ANVIdONOM] WSGNVL GNNOd-GZ S:ASZTONV 


S alvid ‘ayNnueYO— 0161 Hodey ueluosy}|Ws 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—CHANUTE. 147 


times, and on one occasion it undertook a vagabond flight on its own 
account; its equilibrium was bad, however, and the steam was shut 
off; the machine alighted somewhat broken. Mr. Maxim saw clearly 
that it would be necessary to change the design, and he has never 
rebuilt that machine. 

Another view of the same machine is shown in plate 1, figure 2. 
It had a large aeroplane at the top and two propelling screws 17 
feet 10 inches in diameter, which imparted a speed of 45 miles an 
hour running over the track, and it was held from rising by wooden 
rails of 35 feet gauge which engaged outrigger wheels as soon as the 
machine left the sustaining track. 

Maxim is now said to be building another machine, which it is 
expected will be completed soon. 

The next experiments ‘were made in 1896 by Prof. S. P. Langley. 
After devoting some years to experimenting, he devised a working 
mode] which he started from a launching scow. The model machine 
flew perfectly on the 6th of May, 1896, in the presence of Alexander 
Graham Bell. This machine, shown in plate 2, flew about three- 
quarters of a mile, alighted safely in the Potomac River, and was 
ready to fly again. » 

On the 28th of November, with a similar model, Langley made 
another successful flight, and further launches were privately made 
subsequently. [For flights of 1899 and 1903 see plate 3.] 

He was then urged by the United States Government to build a 
full-sized machine, capable of carrying a man, and he spent three 
or more years in doing so. That man-carrying machine was com- 
pleted in 1903, and on the 7th of October of that year the launch 
was attempted. The machine, however, caught a projecting pin 
of the launching rail and was cast down into the Potomac. The 
operator, Mr. Manly, was upset, carried down into the river, and 
came very near drowning. Another effort was made December 8 
and the same mishap occurred. Part of the launching ways caught 
the machine, and it never entered upon flight. There is no doubt, 
however, that if the machine had been properly launched it would 
have flown. The machine is still in existence. It was broken when 
alighting, and in picking it up afterwards, but has been repaired. It 
is most unfortunate that further effort was not then made to launch 
that machine, and that Langley was so severely criticized in Congress 
and by the newspapers. He was grievously balked of deserved suc- 
cess, and he died of apoplexy two years afterward. 

The next attempt to fly with a man-carrying machine was in 
North Carolina on the 17th of December, 1903, when the Wright 
brothers effected three successful flights, the first to alight safely in 
history. The longest flight covered 852 feet and occupied 59 sec- 
onds, in the face of a 20-mile wind. The weather was so inclement 


148 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


that they then took the machine down and abandoned experimenting 
for that year. There had been unfortunately some previous delays © 
and breakages. When I went there in November to see the launch- 
ing of the machine, it was postponed first by the twisting off of the 
shaft, and then by the breaking of the propeller, which required 
sending it back to Dayton in order to repair the work in the shop, 
but full success was attained at last. In 1904 they operated in a 
field about 8 miles from Dayton, Ohio, and it took them most of that 
year to learn how to turn a corner. The machine was slightly 
broken a number of times, repaired, and finally, in October, 1905, 
they got their apparatus under perfect control, and succeeded in 
making a flight of 24 miles in 38 minutes. They made 105 flights 
in 1904 and 49 flights in 1905. The system which they have adopted 
in order to avoid carrying too powerful and heavy a motor is shown 
in plate 4, figure 1. The machine is placed on a single rail, weights 
are hoisted on a derrick, and a rope is carried from the derrick with 
a return pulley to the machine. Upon the dropping of the weights 
the machine is given an impulse, this method being found to be 
preferable to the catapult which Mr. Langley had devised and which 
failed him on two occasions when trying to launch his machine. In 
plate 4, figure 2, is shown the machine at the inner end of the launch- 
ing rail, just before it gets under motion. The launching rail is 
60 feet long, and with the aid of the falling weights the machine 
quickly acquires the necessary velocity for rising in the air. 

The years 1906 and 1907 were spent by the Wright brothers in an 
effort to sell their machines to various Governments. They had taken 
out patents in eight different countries, and they hoped to sell flying 
machines to war departments, together with the secrets, the tables 
of resistance, and all the elaborate calculations which they had made, 
but in each and every case the Government wanted to be shown the 
apparatus before buying. The Wrights refused to exhibit the ma- 
chine until such time as they had a contract contingent upon their 
performing certain feats—notably, to fly with two passengers and 
with enough fuel to carry it 125 miles; that it must attain a speed 
of at least 36 miles an hour, maintained over a distance of 5 miles, 
and must fly continuously for one hour. 

None of the Governments would thus contract with them. They 
were offered at one time $120,000 by the French Government, but 
they refused. They were then offered $200,000 if they would per- 
form their feats 1,000 feet in the air. To this they said that they 
had no doubt that they couid get up 1,000 feet but they had never 
done so and would not agree to the proposition. 

In 1908 they changed completely their plan of operation and de- 
cided to show their machine with the risk of its being copied and 
getting themselves into litigation. Plate 5, figure 1, shows the ma- 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 3. 


1. HOUSE-BOAT AND LAUNCHING APPARATUS FOR LANGLEY AERODROME, 1899. 


2. QUARTER-SIZE LANGLEY AERODROME IN FLIGHT, AUGUST 8, 1903. 


Smithsonian Report, 19!10.—Chanute. PLATE 4. 


1. WRIGHT MACHINE ON STARTING RAIL, WITH STARTING DERRICK IN THE BACKGROUND. 


2. WRIGHT MACHINE ON STARTING RAIL 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 5. 


a NAY ¢ 


BT INA 


‘ 


1. SIDE VIEW OF WRIGHT MACHINE. 


Sieh 
4 Ne y ) 


2. THREE-QUARTERS VIEW OF WRIGHT MACHINE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 6. 


1. WILBUR WRIGHT FLYING AT DUSK. 


2, WILBUR WRIGHT AT LE MANS. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—CHANUTE. 149 


chine of the 1908 design, at Le Mans, where Wilbur Wright first ex- 
hibited it to the French, while a contract had been made in this coun- 
try with the United States Government to furnish a similar machine, 
and figure 2 represents a three-fourths front view of the machine. 
There is at the front a double-decked horizontal rudder. It will be 
noticed that these inventors have modified the make-up of a bird by 
putting the tail in front. Behind are placed vertical rudders, but it 
is the front rudder which elevates and gives horizontal direction to 
the machine. The rear rudder guides the machine to the right or left. 
Back of the main surfaces are the two screws revolving in opposite 
directions. 

The machine is equipped with a pair of skids for alighting, while 
the French people have equipped their machines with wheels. The 
wheels weigh more, catch more air, and are not as safe as the skids, 
but the skids require a rail and a starting weight in order to get the 
machine into the air, unless there is a brisk head wind. Plate 6, 
figure 1, is from a remarkable photograph sent to me by Wilbur 
Wright, which was taken just at dusk. 

Mr. Wright had extraordinarily good fortune in carrying on the 
experiments in France, his machine falling only once. One other 
accident occurred in the breaking of one of the sprocket chains in 
mid-air; but he then operated the machine as a glider and came down 
safely. The French people at first made all sorts of comments, criti- 
cisms, and caricatures of Wilbur Wright, and even published a num- 
ber of amusing songs, but finally he triumphed, won their esteem and 
admiration, and they acknowledged that he was the master of all the 
aviators. Plate 6, figure 2, shows one of the flights at Le Mans. 
From Le Mans he went to Auvours in order to get better ground, and 
there made over 100 flights. 

The more remarkable performances which he made I have under- 
taken to tabulate, but I will not inflict those statistics upon you this 
evening. Mr. Wright established great records, however. On the 
18th of December, 1908, he flew 62 miles in 1 hour and 54 minutes, 
this being at that time the world’s record, and he beat this directly 
afterwards, on the 31st of December, by flying 77 miles in 2 hours 
20 minutes and 23 seconds, thus winning the Michelin prize and 
establishing a world record, which was only beaten in the tournament 
at Rheims three weeks ago. In Rome he took up a great many pas- 
sengers, and on one occasion he started without the use of starting 
weights, simply facing a wind of sufficient intensity and going up 
straight from the ground. Plate 7 shows one of these flights. On 
the 25th of September, after returning to America and after he had 
been universally acclaimed in this country and overwhelmed (modest 
man that he is) with public dinners, receptions, and medals, he 
encircled in flight the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor and 


150 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


made a magnificent flight of 21 miles, from Governors Island to 
Grant’s Tomb and return. 

Meanwhile we may go back to September, 1908, and note some of 
Orville Wright’s performances. He had at Washington the same 
general arrangement, consisting of a launching rail, launching der- 
rick, and an apparatus for hoisting up the weights, in order to give 
the machine impetus. This aeroplane is 40 feet across and has a 
breadth of 64 feet. The front rudder is 16 feet long, 24 feet broad, 
and is equipped with skids, as shown in plate 5, figure 2. The pro- 
peller is of peculiar and original construction, and the motor is in 
every way the Wrights’, for, in 1902, they made a canvass of the 
different makers of gasoline motors in this country, asking them to 
furnish a motor according to specifications which they presented. 
None of them at that time could do so, and the Wrights went to work 
themselves, designed a motor, and built it with their own hands. 
This design has proven more reliable than the motors built in France, 
which are unduly light. The Wright motor, originally of 15 pounds 
to the horsepower, was reduced to 7 or 8 pounds to the horsepower, 
while the French people are building motors weighing 44 to 5 pounds, 
but they do not prove as reliable, while the Wright motor has never 

_, given any trouble and has proven reliable in every respect. 

» — Orville Wright made a number of unofficial tests in 1908. On the 
8th of September he rose to a height of 100 feet and flew 40 miles; 
on the 12th he made a little higher ascension, estimated by the Army 
officers at 200 feet, and flew 50 miles in 1 hour and 15 minutes. AI- 
together that year he made 14 flights. On the morning of the 17th 
of September he made several short flights. In the afternoon of that 
same day he met with a terrible accident; his propeller broke while 
he and Lieut. Selfridge were in mid-air, the machine falling to the 
earth, when Orville was seriously injured and Lieut. Selfridge was 
killed. This ended the tests of that year. The Government granted 
an extension of time and the trials were not resumed until July of 
this year (1909). The results this year, as you know, have been very 
successful. The official time test shows that on the 27th of July the 
machine remained in the air for 1 hour and 13 minutes, with two per- 
sons on board. 

On the 30th of July the machine traveled 5 miles and back cross- 
country in 14 minutes, with two persons on board, at a speed which 
averaged over 42 miles an hour. Therefore, the machine was accepted 
by the Government and a premium was given the Wrights of $5,000 

| for the extra 2 miles of speed. Wilbur Wright is now engaged in 
teaching the Army officers how to use the machine. Immediately after 
the acceptance of the machine, Orville Wright went to Berlin, and 
there he has been accomplishing some remarkable feats. On the 29th 


“AWOY LV LHSIYAA YNETIM 


"LZ 3LV1d ‘a}nueyn—'O16|1 ‘Hoday uejuosyyiws 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 8. 


1. SIDE VIEW OF SANTOS-DUMONT’S “‘DEMOISELLE.” 


2. SANTOS DUMONT. ST. CYR TO Buc. 


3. THREE-QUARTERS VIEW OF THE ESNAULT-PELTERIE MONOPLANE. 


The wing wheels b b and the twisting rudder h are features of this machine. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—-CHANUTE. 151 


of August last he made his first exhibition there, flying 15 minutes. 
On the 8th of September he went up with Capt. Hildebrandt; on the 
18th of September he went up with Capt. Englehardt, and on the 
17th of September he made a demonstration before the court. On 
the 2d of October he took up into the air the Crown Prince, who gave 
him a handsome present, and on the 4th of October he made a flight 
of 21 miles, reaching a height estimated at 1,600 feet. This is the 
latest performance which he has made, although there is no telling 
what another day will bring forth. He is now in Paris. In London 
he may make some demonstrations with his machine in the course of a 
week or two. 

The French, in 1905, became partly acquainted with what had been 
done in this country, and they thought it would never do to let the 
Americans obtain priority in the air, so a good many people began to 
experiment. Among the first was Santos Dumont, who made a flight 
on the 12th of November, 1906, of 720 feet in 21 seconds with his No. 
14 machine, Hargrave type. That flight created great excitement, 
and the French people thought they were on the high road to beat the 
Americans, but it required a good deal of further experimenting be- 
fore that result was even partially accomplished. 

Santos Dumont brought the machine out a second time but broke 
it. He then concluded that it was not built on the right plan and 
began to experiment with a modified machine. It proved unsatisfac- 
tory in various ways, and after it was broken he discarded it. 

The next machine he tried was the biplane, the cellular partitions 
being removed. That ought, in my judgment, to have given satisfac- 
tion, but it did not and he abandoned it, although with that machine 
he made a flight, in Paris, on the 17th of November, 1907, of 500 feet. 

He then went over to still another plan which he called the “ Bird 
of Prey.” In this design he placed the motor up in the top and had 
a dihedral angle in the biplane. But that did not give him satisfac- 
tion, and in the next. machine he finally went over to the monoplane, 
which the French people have always insisted was the best design for 
a flying machine, and which they have promoted as against the 
biplane. 

Plate 8, figure 1, is a view of the monoplane of Santos Dumont, and 
with that on the 10th of March, 1909, he made a flight of 1,300 feet. 
On the 10th of April he made another flight of 1.2 miles. On the 19th 
of June he made a flight at Issy, near Paris, of 820 feet, at which 
time his machine was struck by a downward rush of air, and to his 
great astonishment he found himself suddenly on the ground. The 
machine had gone down without his knowing what was happening. 
Fortunately the machine was not broken and he was not injured. 

Santos Dumont’s idea had been all along to have a handy machine, 
and he finally built a baby monoplane, which he called the “ Demoi- 


152 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, i910, 


selle” (Dragon Fly). This is the smallest of all the existing aero- 
planes. Its supporting surface is only 97 square feet; its weight, 260 
pounds. When that is compared with the Wright machine, which 
has 500 square feet of supporting surface and a weight of 950 pounds 
(the empty machine), we can appreciate the enormous difference and 
the necessity, therefore, of driving this Dragon Fly very much faster 
in order to obtain support from the air, with so very small a surface. 
On the 13th of September of this year, near Paris, Mr. Dumont was 
able to drive that machine 5 miles in five minutes, going down the 
wind, or at the rate of 60 miles an hour over the ground. The speed 
through the air was probably about 50 miles an hour. Plate 8, figure 
2, is from a photograph taken during that flight, which was from 
St. Cyr to Buc. I think the general idea is sound, for the smaller the 
flying machine can be made, within limits, the faster it must be made 
to go, and the more uesful it is likely to prove for varying wind 
conditions. Commercially I have no clear opinion as to its uses, but 
as a mode of rapid transportation for very light loads, I think the 
smaller the aerial plane the better. 

As regards the question which has lately been debated extensively, 
of the relative merits of the biplane and monoplane, I do not think 
we are yet in position to decide which is the better design. Both 
have their good points. The monoplane offers less resistance, but 
the biplane is steadier, stiffer, and stronger in every way. So it is 
only experience that will determine which one is the most efficient. 

Other experimenters have come into the field, and among the first 
was a clever young sculptor by the name of Leon Delagrange. He 
went to Voisin Bros. and asked them to build him an aeroplane. This 
was called the Delagrange machine, but as a matter of fact the design- 
ing and construction was done by the Voisin Bros., who are a leading 
authority on the subject of building flying machines, and who, in two 
years, have had to enlarge their shop three times to keep up with their 
orders. 

In plate 9, figure 1, is shown the machine the Voisin Bros. built 
for Delagrange. At first he did not trust himself to fly the machine, 
but got Voisin to ride in it and show him how. Subsequently he 
flew in it himself and all the later feats he has accomplished by him- 
self. Onthe 11th of April, 1908, he flew 2.5 miles at Issy; on the 27th 
of May, at Rome, 7.9 miles in 15 minutes and 26 seconds; at Milan, 
June 22, 10.5 miles in 16 minutes and 30 seconds. Then he went to 
Turin and for the first time in history took a lady on board, who was 
very proud of the honor. The picture (pl. 9, fig. 2) is from the 
meet at Rheims in August, 1909, where Delagrange flew 31 miles on 
a monoplane. It may be remarked incidentally that there have been 
lately quite a number of these tournaments in Europe, which have 
attracted great crowds, have proved very satisfactory, and where all 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 9. 


1. DELAGRANGE ON THE VOISIN MACHINE. 


2. DELAGRANGE ON A MONOPLANE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 10. 


2. FARMAN’S NEW MACHINE WINS FIRST PRIZE. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—CHANUTE. 153 


previous records have been smashed. One was at Rheims, where the 
Champagne people contributed large sums for the experiments. An- 
other tournament took place later in Berlin, and still another in 
Juvisy, near Paris, in October, 1909. 

The next man to gain prominence was the celebrated sportsman, 
Henry Farman, who walked into the Voisin shop one day and ordered 
an aeroplane. He succeeded on the 26th of October, 1907, in flying 
253 feet, which at that time was considered a great feat. He then 
attempted to sweep a circle, but did not succeed. It really took the 
French people two years to learn how to turn a corner. They were 
somewhat misled at first by amathematical equation,and then closely 
analyzed the motions of the bird. They found that he flexed one ~ 
wing at a lower angle than the other, placing himself thereby on a 
slant, so that the centripetal force of gravity should overcome the 
centrifugal force of the speed, and that similar effects could be pro- 
duced by side fins and wihg tips. Since that time they have turned 
corners without great difficulty but only on long radii. 

Mr. Farman was successful, among other things, in sweeping curves 
on the 6th of July, 1908, when he flew 12 miles in 19 minutes and 
won the Armengaud prize which had been offered for the first turning 
of a corner. One of his flights is shown in plate 10, figure 1. On 
the 30th of October he made the first cross-country flight in history 
by going from Chalons to Rheims, 17 miles in 20 minutes, thus win- 
ning great applause and becoming the foremost aviator in France. 
In 1909 he designed and built a flying machine of his own with which 
to compete at the Rheims tournament. He put both skids and wheels 
in this, the wheels being so adjusted that they could be lifted up, and 
with that apparatus splendid results were obtained in the Champagne 
tournament. The apparatus is shown in plate 10, figure 2. 

On the 18th of July that machine fiew for 1 hour and 23 minutes 
at Chalons. On the 23d of July he took a cross-country trip covering 
40 miles from Chalons to Suippe. On the 27th of August his machine 
made a flight of 112 miles at Rheims, which is the world’s record for 
distance at present,’ and he received, therefore, the first prize in that 
tournament. On the same day the machine flew 6 miles in 10 minutes 
with three persons on board, this being the first time three persons 
had ridden in a flying ne hie, 

The next experimenter to be mentioned is Louis Blériot. He be- 
gan his experiments in 1906, and has built and broken more machines 
than any other aviator in the world. He has built 12 machines 
and broken about 15, that being accomplished by rebuilding the 
same machine after smashing it. He is a man of tremendous pluck 


1 Since this talk, Mr. Farman made, on the 3d day of November, 1909, a flight officially 
estimated at 1373 miles in 4 hours 6 minutes and 25 seconds, but really of 150 miles, 
over the aviation grounds at Mourmelon. 


154 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


and wonderful imagination, and therefore tries all sorts of things. 
The machine with elliptical cells was launched on floats in the Seine 
in order to haul it up as a kite, and was Blériot’s third. He had an 
idea that this elliptical arrangement would increase the stability very 
much, but it did not, and he gave up that idea. He then constructed 
No. 4, which he called a box plane. 

Machine No. 5 was of the Langley type, on the same plan that our 
Army officers had been unable to obtain further funds to experiment 
with—two sets of wings, one behind the other—he placed it on 
wheels, and with that type he got some very fair flights, flying 474 
feet [Aug. 6, 1907]. That was not enough for him, so he went from 
that to the monoplane and he has built, I think, six of them. Since 
then he has adhered to the so-called dragon-fly plan and is now 
flying on No. 12. On the 13th of July, 1909, he flew 27 miles in 45 
minutes. Plate 11 shows the machine on which he made his journey 
cross-country from Etampes to Chevilly, ¢ distance of 27 miles, and 
on that occasion he flew across a railway train, over one of the 
churches, and over various buildings. 

On the 25th of July Blériot attempted to cross the British Channel 
and succeeded. Plate 12 is from a photograph taken on that occa- 
sion. That trip comprised a distance of 33 miles and was made in 37 
minutes. It created great excitement, great applause, and great 
wonder, although, as a matter of fact, it was perhaps not as difficult 
a feat as the previous fiying across country, but it appealed very 
much more to the imagination. 

Blériot then went to the meeting at Rheims in Champagne, and 
there exhibited some very good performances. He flew over the 
grandstand at a very great height, made a trip on the 27th of August 
of 25 miles in 41 minutes, winning the ninth prize for distance, while 
on the succeeding day he flew 6 miles in 7 minutes and 48 seconds, 
winning the first prize for speed.? 

The next man who began experimenting was Mr. Esnault-Pelterie, 
a young French civil engineer, who started out with gliding ma- 
chines, and then built a monoplane. Plate 8, figure 3, gives a view 
of the 1908 design. That is the machine as finally perfected. He has 
made quite a number of flights, but no very long ones nor any high 
ones, the highest being 100 feet. 

Capt. Ferber, who is next to be mentioned, has been the chief apos- 
tle of aeroplanes in France. He became interested in the subject at 
an early date (1898) and has been promoting aeroplanes ever since. 
He began with gliding experiments. At first he was greatly in favor 
of the monoplane, but when I explained to him the advantages of 

1 See appendix for account of flights with Blériot machine No. 5, built on Langley type. 

2 Subsequently, Dec. 12, 1909, he was driven against a house during an exhibition flight 


at Constantinople, met with his twenty-second fall, and sustained injuries sufficiently 
severe, though not fatal, to require his going to a hospital. 


“AYLNNOD SSOYOY “ANVIdONO| S:LOIYS1gG 


“~E} alvid ‘aynueyg—'O 16 ‘Hodey ueiuosyyiws 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 12. 


BLERIOT’S MONOPLANE. ACROSS CHANNEL. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 13. 


1. FERBER’S BIPLANE IN FULL FLIGHT. 


2. LATHAM (AT TOP), LEFEBVRE, AND BUNAU-VARILLA. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 14. 


1. LATHAM’S ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE IN THE ENGLISH CHANNNEL AND THE RESCUE. 


2. PAULHAN ON VOISIN MACHINE AT RHEIMS. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—-CHANUTE. 155 


the biplane, he accepted that design, although he did not like the stiff, 
horizontal lines, and introduced bird-like transversal curves. Then 
_ he added a motor; this was applied to the No. 9 machine, in which he 
_ still had these transversal curves in the wings; he had the propeller 
in front, and instead of twisting the wings he used fins at the rear, 
which are adjustable. He obtained some very fair results. This ma- 
chine is shown in plate 13, figure 1. On the 5th of September, 1909, 
he borrowed a Voisin machine and undertook a trial flight at Bou- 
logne, preliminary to attempting to cross the British Channel, where 
it is about 40 miles wide, but, in making a turn, his machine tipped 
over unduly to the left. He undertook to alight, but in doing so his 
left wing struck a lump of earth, or hummock, when the wheels 
rolled into a ditch, the machine turned turtle, and poor Ferber was 
killed, to the profound sorrow of all interested in aviation. He is the 
third victim thus far this year,! but the wonder all along has been 
that so few accidents have occurred. There have been thousands of 
flights made—for instance, 1,300 were made in one week at the Rheims 
tournament—but thus far only three deaths have occurred. 

More people kept coming into the field, and among the later ones 
is Mr. Hubert Latham, with a monoplane called the “ Antoinette.” 
Mr. Latham has risen to sudden prominence by some daring feats. 
Mr. Levavasseur designed and built this monoplane and engaged Mr. 
Latham to operate his machine. With it Mr. Latham got some very 
fine flights, such as that shown in plate 13, figure 2, taken at Rheims. 
On the 6th of June, 1909, he went across the country 10 miles from 
Juvisy. On the 19th of July he attempted to cross the British Chan- 
nel, but was unsuccessful. On the 27th of July he tried it again, and 
flew 20 miles, or within 1 mile of Dover; the motor then gave out 
and he fell into the sea, the rescue being shown in plate 14, figure 1. 
On the 26th of August, at the meeting at Rheims, he flew 96 miles in 
2 hours and 18 minutes, and won the second prize for distance. On 
that occasion he rose 508 feet, a record which has since been beaten by 
Paulhan and Rougier, who have developed an extraordinary aptitude 
for high flights. On his first attempt, on the 10th of July, 1909, 
Paulhan was able to fly 1.25 miles. On the 19th of July he flew 12 
miles across country; on the 7th of August, 23 miles; on the 24th of 
August, 18 miles on a Voisin machine, and on the 25th of August he 
flew 81 miles at Rheims, winning third prize for distance. He has 
since made very fine flights in various meets. Plate 14, figure 2, is 
from a photograph taken at Juvisy. ; 

The next man to reach prominence is Mr. Sommer. On the 4th of 
August, 1909, he flew 2 hours; on the 27th of August, 37 miles at 
Rheims; on the 10th of September, 18 miles over troops in review; 


1 Since then Aviator Fernandez was killed at Nice, Dec. 6, by a fall in his aeroplane. 


156 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910, 


on the 11th of September, 24 miles, from Nancy to Lenoncourt. 
Plate 15, figure 1, shows a flight in company with Farman. 

KE. Lefebvre, an automobile dealer, having purchased a Wright 
machine, laid down lines of rails and taught himself how to operate 
and fly the machine. At Rheims he made some very good perform- 
ances. On the 27th of August he fiew 12.5 miles in 20 minutes and 
47 seconds. Unfortunately, upon the 7th of September, when test- 
ing a new Wright machine, he was upset and killed, this being the 
first fatal accident to occur in 1909. 

One of the last men to come into prominence in France has been 
Mr. Henri Rougier, who operates a Voisin machine (pl. 15, fig. 2), 
and who has made some remarkable high flights. At Brescia he 
reached 328 feet of altitude, and later, on another occasion, 650 feet 
of altitude was reached. At Berlin he won the first prize for dis- 
tance. On the 18th of October, at Blackpool meeting in England, 
he made a flight of 18 miles in 25 minutes, but all of those perform- 
ances in height fall far short of the performances of Orville Wright, 
who rose to a height of 1,600 feet. 

By the contract in which the Wright brothers agreed to sell their 
French patents to a syndicate, Mr. Wilbur Wright was to teach three 
pupils to operate the machines. The men selected were the Count 
de Lambert, Mr. Paul Tissandier, and Capt. Lucas-Girardville. The 
latter, being an army Officer, has not appeared in any public tourna- 
ment, but Mr. Tissandier has made many good flights, the longest 
up to the present time being one of 69 miles at Rheims, and he has 
been training pupils of his own. Count de Lambert made a flight 
of 72 miles at Rheims, and day before yesterday (Oct. 18) he 
made a sensational journey from the aviation grounds at Juvisy, 
where plate 16, figure 1, shows one of his flights over a portion of 
Paris to the Eiffel Tower and back, some 30 miles. This feat, as 
well as the flight of Latham on September 27 over the suburbs of 
Berlin, is disfavored by the Wrights as involving undue risks of 
accident. 

Wilbur Wright also taught two pupils in Italy (where he sold a 
machine)—Lieut. Calderara, who fiew at Rome and at Brescia, win- 
ning some prizes and meeting with accidents, and Lieut. Savoya, 
whose performances have not been made known. | 

Mr. Legagneux and Mr. Bunau-Varilla also made creditable flights 
at Rheims upon machines built by Voisin Bros. (pl. 16, fig. 2), but 
the performances most commented upon at that tournament were 
those of Mr. Glen Curtiss, who, with a machine built by himself, 
won the Gordon Bennett cup by making the shortest time over 20 
kilometers; won the first prize for speed in a flight of 30 kilometers 
(46 miles an hour), and the second prize for speed over 10 kilo- 
meters, in which he flew at 48 miles per hour. Plate 17 shows these 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. WATE. We 


1. SOMMER AND FARMAN IN RACE. 


2. ROUGIER’S VOISIN RISING FROM STARTING GROUND. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910,—Chanute. PLATe 16. 


1. DE LAMBERT ON WRIGHT MACHINE. 


2. BUNAU-VARILLA ON VOISIN BIPLANE. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 17. 


eS Qe 


r 


1. CURTISS AND BUNAU-VARILLA. 


wrese 


2. THE “JUNE BUG” AT HAMMONDspoRT, N. Y. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. PLATE 18. 


1. BLERIOT AEROPLANE No. 5 AFTER A FALL. 


2. BLERIOT AEROPLANE No. 5 AFTER FLIGHT OF 265 Meters, AuausT 6, 1907, AT 
IsSy LES MOULINEAUX. (LANGLEY TYPE.) 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—-CHANUTE. 157 


flights. Subsequently Mr. Curtiss won the grand prize at the Brescia 
meet by flying 31 miles in 49 minutes and 24 seconds. He had previ- 
ously won twice the Scientific American trophy in this country, once, 
July 4, 1908, by a flight of 5,090 feet at Hammondsport, Nie Yi,and 
again, July 24, 1909, by a flight of 25 miles in 52 minutes a 30 
seconds. 

This was the direct outcome of the ee of the Aerial Experiment 
Association, organized in 1908 by Alexander Graham Bell, upon the 
suggestion of Mrs. Bell, who generously contributed the funds. Dr. 
Bell had been experimenting with groupings of tetrahedral kites, 
which exhibited extraordinary steadiness in the air. He hoped to 
develop them into an efficient flying machine of automatic stability, 
and had been well served in his experiments by two young Canadian 
engineers, Mr. F. W. Baldwin and Mr. J. A. D. McCurdy. In order 
to give these faithful men a chance to test their own ideas the Aerial 
Experiment Association was organized by taking in (besides the 
three named) Lieut. Selfridge and Mr. Curtiss, the latter then being 
a manufacturer of motor cycles and motors at Hammondsport, N. Y., 
where the experiments were first started. The association built four 
flying machines—the Red Wing, the White Wing, the June Bug, and 
the S2lver Dart—all of double-bowed shape, shown in plate 17, figure 
2, and equipped with Curtiss motors. With these some very prom- 
ising flights were made, both at Hammondsport and at Baddeck, 
Nova Scotia, to which the association removed and where Mr. 
McCurdy made flights of 16 miles and over. 

I have memoranda of many more flights that have been made 
by other aviators, but I think they will be of less interest than the 
moving pictures about to be shown. 


[Editor’s Note: The talk was illustrated by many beautiful and 
interesting scenes, exhibited by the stereopticon, which are virtually, 
though not necessarily exactly, the engravings printed in this paper. 
At the close of the address, some beautiful and wonderful views of 
different machines in flight were shown by the aid of a moving- 
picture machine installed that evening for the purpose. The illustra- 
tions on plates 1, 4, 5; figs. 1 and 3 on pl. 8; fig. 1, pl. 10; fig. 1, pl. 14; 
and fig. 2, pl. 15 are from Victor Lougheed’s “ Vehicles of the Air,” 
kindly loaned by the Reilly & Britton Co., publishers. ] 


APPENDIX I. 


The following account of flights with the Blériot Machine No. 5 (the Langley 
type) referred to by Mr. Chanute on page 154 is translated from Bullettino 
della Societa Aeronautica Italiana, August, 1907. 


158 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


THE NEW BLERIOT AEROPLANE. 


The Blériot IV, in the form of a bird, of which we spoke at length in No. 4 
of the Bulletin of this year, does not appear to give good results, perhaps on 
account of its lack of stability, and Blériot, instead of trying some modifica- 
tions which might remedy such a grave fault, laid it aside and at once began 
the construction of a new type, No. V, adopting purely and simply the arrange- 
ment of the American, Langley, which offers a good stability (see Bulletin 
11-12, Nov. to Dec., 1905, pp. 187 and 188). ‘The experiments, which were com- 
menced a month ago, were first completely negative, because the 24-horsepower 
motor would not turn the propeller, which was 1.80 meters in diameter and 
1.40 meters pitch. By advice of Capt. Ferber, Blériot reduced the pitch of his 
propeller to 0.90 meters, so that the motor could give all its force. 

This modification was an important one for his aeroplane. From that 
moment every trial marked an advance. On July 12 he made a flight of 30 
meters, and the aviator was able to show that the lateral stability was per- 
fect. On July 15 the trial was made against a wind of 6 miles an hour, but 
gave good results. He made a flight of 80 meters, showing, however, that the 
hind part of the aeroplane was too heavy. In this flight he arose as high as a 
second story and on landing the wheels and one propeller were somewhat 
damaged. 

On July 24, repairs having been completed, a new trial was made. This 
time, in order to remedy the defect in the balance, Blériot had moved his 
seat forward about 80 centimeters. The correction was too great, for on that 
day the aeroplane, although the hind part arose, was not able to leave the 
ground. On July 27, after having mounted the seat on wheels, as in skiffs, 
Blériot resumed the trials and made a flight of 120 meters, at first moving his 
seat back and then, after getting started, bringing it forward. Blériot had 
not provided this aeroplane with an elevating rudder, but, following the ex- 
ample of Lilienthal, changed the center of gravity of the apparatus by mov- 
ing his own person, and after having established the proper angle remained 
immovable on his seat. In order to arise or descend the aviator made use of 
the spark lever, thus varying the number of turns of the propeller. 

During a second trial on the same day, having accidentally reached the limit 
of the aviation field, Blériot, without allowing himself to be surprised and 
obliged to descend, decided to attempt a turn by maneuvering the steering 
rudder and to return again to the center of the field. With marvelous pre- 
cision the aeroplane began to describe a circle of about 200 meters radius, in- 
clining as if on a pista cidistica. Having finished the flight he quickly re- 
gained his balance, still in the direction of the wind, but on account of a slight 
movement of the aviator the aeroplane fell to such an extent that he was 
obliged to land. He landed gently and without shock, rolling on his wheels. 

On August 1 he made another flight of 100 meters in 64 seconds, and on the 
6th one of 265 meters, with one interruption. While the attention of the pilot 
was distracted for a moment the aeroplane, which was flying at a height 
of 2 or 3 meters above the ground, touched the soil with its sustaining wheels 
at the end of 122 meters, and then, immediately arising, covered the remaining 
143 meters at a height of 12 meters. Blériot, moving forward too quickly, 
caused the aeroplane to descend swiftly to the ground, and the shock broke the 
axle and the blades of the propeller were bent. In order to confirm this 
account we reproduce what was said in the Auto of August 7, 1907: 

“M. Blériot, continuing the trials of his aeroplane yesterday, surpassed the 
superb results which he had already obtained. The trial took place at 2 o’clock 
in the afternoon on the aviation field of Issy. After a sustained flight of 


ate ee 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Chanute. Plate 19. 


1. BLERIOT AEROPLANE No. 5. (LANGLEY TYPE.) 


2. BLERIOT AEROPLANE No. 5 IN FLIGHT. (LANGLEY TYPE.) 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—CHANUTE. 159 


about 122 meters at a height of 2 meters, the aeroplane touched the ground, with- 
out stopping, however, and set out again almost immediately at a height of 12 
meters and traversed about 148 meters. M. Blériot, who for the time had no 
other means of balancing but by moving his body, then moved a little forward to 
stop the ascent. The aeroplane plunged forward, and in the fall the propeller 
was damaged and the axle broken. 

“M. Blériot, whose courage as a spertsman equals his learning as an engineer, 
was fortunately uninjured. An inspection of the apparatus showed that one 
blade of the propeller was bent, which was sufficient to prevent the maneuver 
made by the aviator having its desired effect and contributed to the fall. The 
engine will be repaired without difficulty and the trials will be resumed 
Friday.” 

On August 10 he made a flight of 80 meters, but the motor was not in perfect 
order, so Blériot did not make other trials. He decided, however, to substitute 
definitely a 50-horsepower motor for the 24-horsepower motor with which he 
made all the experiments above reported, which were of a character to encour- 
age the most sanguine expectations. 

Ferber advised Blériot to adopt an elevating rudder also, because the effect 
produced by changing the position of the center of gravity, although efficacious, 
is very difficult and delicate to control. 


APPENDIX IT. 


The following table, compiled by the author, is here reprinted through the 
courtesy of the World Almanac, 1910: 


CHRONOLOGY OF AVIATION. 
[Compiled by O. Chanute.] 


Bewildering advance in aviation took place in 1908 and 1909. When it is 
remembered that the first successful man flight, landing safely, was made by 
Wright brothers December 17, 1903, that it took them two years—1904—1905— 
to obtain entire control over their machine; that the Santos-Dumont flight of 
720 feet, November 13, 1906, excited the wonder and admiration of all Europe, 
we can realize partially the progress made, now that flights of over 100 miles 
have been made, that a height of 1,600 feet is said to have been attained; that 
there are hundreds of successful experimenters in the field, and that records are 
being broken every few days. 

It would be quite futile to give a compendium of all the flights made in 1909. 
They number thousands. The profitable thing which can be done is to tabulate 
the more remarkable performances; and, in order to mark the advance, to in- 
clude therewith the former feats of the same aviator, which excited wonder 
only one or two years ago. The most interesting of these are prefixed with a 
star. 

During 1909 exhibitions of aviating apparatus were held in Paris, December 
24 to 30, 1908; in London, March 19 to 27; in London again, July 6 to August 
4; in Frankfort, July 10 to October 10; in Paris again, September 25 to October 
17; and these drew great crowds; while meets, contests, and tournaments were 
held at Rheims, August 22 to 29; at Brescia, September 5 to 20; at Berlin, Sep- 
tember 26 to October 3; at New York, September 25 to October 2; at St. Louis, 
October 4 to 10; at Paris, October 2 to 21; and at Blackpool and at Doncaster, 
October 15 to 23, 


160 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The events which have attracted most attention have been the cross-country 
flight of H. Farman, from Bouy to Reims, 17 miles, without landing, October 
30, 1908; of Bleriot, October 31, 1908, from Toury to Artenay and return, with 
landings; of the same man from Htampes to Chevilly, 26 miles, July 13, 1909, 
and his flight across the British Channel, July 25; the two unsuccessful at- 
tempts of Latham to perform the same feat, July 19 and July 27, 1909; the 
flight of Farman, July 28, from Chalons to Suippes, 40 miles; of his flights at 
Rheims of 112 miles, August 27, and of 150 miles at Mourmelon, November 3; 
of Orville Wright, at Fort Myer, July 27 and 30; of W. Wright, at New York, 
October 4; of Curtiss, at Rheims, August 28 and 29; of Latham, over Berlin, 
September 27; and of De Lambert, over Paris, October 18; as well as a speed 
of about 90 miles an hour, down wind, at Blackpool, attained by Latham, 
October 22, 1909. 

These feats have not been accomplished without some deplorable accidents. 
Several aviators have been killed or injured by the fall of their machines, and 
many of the latter have been smashed. It will be remembered that Lieut. 
Selfridge was killed at Fort Meyer, September 17, 1908. In 1909 Bugene 
Lefebvre was killed at Juvissy, September 7; on the same day Enea Rossi was 
killed at Rome while testing a machine of his own invention; while on September 
22 the distinguished propagandist of aviation in France, Capt. L. F. Ferber, 
was killed at Boulogne by an unlucky landing. On December 6, A. Fernandez, a 
French aviator of Spanish birth, was killed at Nice by the fall of his biplane, 
similar to Wright’s, caused by the explosion of his motor when at a height 
estimated at 500 meters. 

The tendency has been to develop special experts for exhibition flights. Some 
200 of their flights, which are thought the more memorable for one reason or 
another, will be found in the following list: 


Chronology of memorable flights—Motor Aeroplanes. 


WILBUR WRIGHT. 


Date. Machine. Place. Distance. Time. text Remarks. 
H.m.s 

Dec. 17,1903}, Biplane....| Kitty Hawk-....| 852 feet....... 0 00 59 1 | First successful man flight 
in history. 

Nov. 9,1904 |..... dose. an Dayton, Ohio...| 3 miles....... 4 30 1 | Made 105 flights that year. 

Oct. 5,1905 |...-- d0.v2si| cess yc Cok ee) 24 miles... 38 00 1 | Made 49 flights that year. 

Anes 8 1Q08 ak. Oeics ManSS sccm see ieerecescee st e|- cee eee 1 | Short flights showing con- 
trol. 

Sept. 21,19081)..... 0 (1 Auvours..--.-.. 41 miles...... 1°31 00 1 | Made over 100 flights here. 

Oct. 10,1908 |..... GS ae | eee DO onincen Bei 46 miles.....-. 1 900 2 | With Mr. Painleve; took 35 
others. 

Dec. 18,19081)..... 0 ee eee 0 wn nceacuas 62 miles......; 1 54 00 1 | Rose to 360 feet; then world 
record. 

Dec. 31,19081)..... UGssce5lsoece donna ss--e, Ti OUES Sosa PN VA} 1 | Won Michelin prize; world 
record. 

Mar. 20,1909 |..... dos..a2% Pau, France: J 0). 5. Sb. 6 00 1| No. previous propulsion; 
teaches 3 pupils. 

Apr. 16,1909 |..... doss.s Rompss4sices 2 tweets. apf Lgace .| se bemesers 2 | Took up many passengers. 

Apr. 26,1909 |..... Go se |2--%s AO scamdccht2|- hooeoe ft. ao. | ota 1 | No previous propulsion. 

Sept. 25,19091)..... do-....5. New. SOBs no gl ae eck ae ee 1 | Circled Statue of Liberty. 

Oct. 4,19091)..... ER Malas Os «sae 21 miles...... 33 33 | 1 | To Grant’s tomb and return. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—-CHANUTE. 


161 


Chronology of memorable flights—Motor Aeroplanes—Continued. 


ORVILLE WRIGHT. 


_ 


Ll SSS ed 


ee Re 


Remarks. 


Unofficial; rose to 100 feet. 

Longest flight of 1908. 

Selfridge killed; Wright in- 
jured. 

Unofficial test. 

Do. 

Official time test; machine 
accepted. 

Official speed test; 42 miles 
per hour. : 

Many preliminary exhibi- 
tions. 


With Capt. Hildebrandt. 

With Capt. Englehardt. 

In presence of Empress rose 
to 565 feet. 

With Capt. Englehardt. 

With Crown Prince of Ger- 
many. 

Reached height of 1,600 feet; 
unofficial world record. 


First flight in Europe. 
Made several flights. 

Do. 
With the Libellule. 
With the Demoiselle. 
Several other flights. 
St. Cyr to Buc to visit friend. 
Across country. 


First Voisin aeroplane. 

First flight with passenger 
(Farman). 

Won Archdeacon cup. 

In presence of King, ete. 

Best flight on Italian trip. 

First woman passenger 
(Mrs. Peltier). 

Beat then existing records. 

Won Lagatineri prize. 

Circling across country. 

Won tenth prize; speed. 

Won eighth prize; distance. 

Before King, at Aarhus. 

To keep crowd from grum- 
bling. 


Date. Machine. Place. Distance. Time 
H.m. s 
Sept. 8,1908 | Biplane....) Fort Myer.....- 40 miles...... 0 62 00 
Sept. 12,1908 1).._-. OOerisenl oe ce = dO Sowssecats 50 miles...... 1 15 00 
Sept. 17,1908 1).._.. (ok Ree Eee GOs. ae ane2 3 miles....... 4 00 
July 20,1909 }..... (oko ee ee Ges cecscct s|Geacewasccsaces 1 20 00 
July 21,1909 |..... DO nn sal seep’ OO ocnacath = veces soasceaee 1 29 00 
July 27,19091)..... dossend eet: (sta es lh CARE CCN a 1 13 00 
July 30,19091)..... (ot ee Se GDscceces-h< 10 miles...... 14 00 
Aug. 29,1909 |..... doz=:. BerliWescsccace clecececoscseccks 15 00 
Sept. 4,1909 |....-. (3 {ce ee CO <caisseesbr faeaeaeee net webe 55 00 
Sept. 8,1909 |....- OO oy a lebeee CR aCe el ESTOS AC ae 17 00 
Sept. 9,1909 |..... CC ee oe CO sre cnn snes |e amccemeaaee chs 15 00 
Sept. 17,1909 |..... GO.e elit a2 (3 (oat Ai BS ee ee. 54 26 
Sept. 18,19091)..... es eee OO sewicces epislrapanisivneciccees 1 35 47 
Oct. 2,1909 }..... C6 (i ee Se DOE sa decnebe |S mecssies.cecte 10 00 
Oct. 4,19091)..... (60 hel emer COnaa=aceee= 21 miles.....-. 33 33 
A. SANTOS DUMONT. 
Nov. 13, 19061) Cellular....| Bagatelle........| 720 feet....... 0 21 00 
Nowe 17,1907") Biplanez:.s| Issy.t...- 0. sccte- SOO MESE: sateen ete a 
Novy. 21,1907 | Monoplane.| Bagatelle........| 400 feet.......)......... 
Mar. 1051909, \22<2.00.s5-./5|-- 4-- 0 | eee Se 1 B200dC6U. <.tnn|occccseee 
Apr. 10,1909 |..-.-. OGOineems|) Wh. CYT. oc. s0sc6,- 1.2 miailesye.}.-|---. 2552 
June 19,1909))-....do.-2..| Issy..-.<......- 820ifeets =. selon. casc=s 
Sept. 13)19091)|5 .2..do-.... 2) St. Cynic... .. 1. 5 milese.s2 ... 12 00 
Sept. 17, 19091)..... Oga0: -|\)..= GOs essed 10 miles...... 16 00 
LEON DELAGRANGE 
Mar. 16,1907 | Biplane.-...| Bagatelle......-.. BU Tests ses <lbe ae sauce 
Mar. 29,19081)..... GO! sca 5 \GHEMM basse be. <r, 453 feels cb-).lecccecee 
Apr. 11,1908 |..... Ose -s er VSSVarme tee scr sce 2.43 miles....| 0 6 30 
May 27,1908 |..... do. ROME reese. aes 7.90 miles....| 15 26 
June 22,1908 |..... d0res-- = Milarmeeeses cores 10.50 miles....] 16 30 
July 8,19081)....- doe 2 | LUT: Sec ade 500 feeb: << cb [cence 
Sept 6,1908 |..--. WOresera TESS get ees 15.2 miles..... 29 53 
May 23,1909 |..... Core LVISSy anicn each 3:6 miles. - .).- 10 18 
June 12,1909 |..... G0score oleh e's Givaseccreee Oot WMIeSe eee lt eeer ens. 
Aug. 23,1909 | Monoplane.| Rheims... 6.5 J|o20. 22. oc2 sek ll 4 
Aug. 27,1909 |....- 6 Lo aces Be ADivceen seek Sls sce cbleceensees 
Sept. 15,1909 |..... do*-..--| Denmarkyr st eile se oka sese 15 00 
Oct. 16,1909")... . do..<-.-| Doncaster: :2:--- 5.75 miles..... 11 25 
Oct. 26,19091)..... C0 sn SS dOs.. .<=.-2-| Gmiless. 2-5. 7 36 


Over 50 miles an hour. 


97578°—sm 1910——11 


162 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Chronology of memorable flights—Motor Aeroplanes—Continued. 


HENRY FARMAN. 


Date. 


H.m.s 
Oct. 26,1907 >| Biplane. . 2) Issyi-- et | DOO COV cet re cle ciate 
May40; 1008 |. .--.<OOrew o <1) CHENG cso 5.5. 8-1 O-0f TTIOS sce|aeeeeeeee 
TULY “©, 2008 [osc eA0aceselseoseOO0nseccssct = 
Oct. 30,19081).....do.....| Chalons.........] 17 miles...... 20 00 
Oct, S1;1908122-. dOsccc.|s=--2 23 00 
VERLVERLB LOOM UIE AscU Cc cass |e sscOGeucnaccetslircecsetceeshs 1 23 00 
July 93;1000%)25 2 do secas| sees cOOnescncre ro mille. A 1 500 
Aug. 27,19001).....do.....| Rheims ........| 112 miles..... 3 457 
DOs orc stelte rec enerae| SeincclOscacce teks | OTNNOS coco. 10 00 
Oct: “3; 19092|"- > -do.-. <.| Berlin... ..---| Oz miless.. 2. 1 40 00 
Oct: 1571909" |= = --d0ss00| DIACKPOOl-...-..) 14 miless. oS 23 00 
OG. 20; 19008 | ses cOOn coeteless cedOseccccc che 47 miles......| 1 32 16 
Noy. 3,19091).....do.....| Mourmelon..... 137.25 miles..| 4 6 25 


Bee ee 


Remarks. 


First sweeps a half circle. 

With Mr. Archdeacon. 

Won Armengaud prize. 

Cross-country, Chalons to 
Rheims. 

82 feet altitude; won prizes. 

His first long flight. 

Cross-country, Chalons to 
Suippe. 

First prize for distance and 
time up. 

With 2 passengers; 
prize. 

Won third prize, $960. 

On first day of meeting. 

Won prize of $10,000. 

Said to be 150 miles; 4 hours 
17 minutes 35 seconds. 


won 


Avg. 61907 | Langley..:::|\Issy.2..2.2 45.522 AIONOBT ale a iaje| owe oeteide 
July 4,1908 | Monoplane.|..... DOs eicemt eee 3.7 miles. .... 0 547 
Oct. 24,1908 |..... GC re MOULY:o. asiseccles 4.25 miles.... 6 40 
Oct. 81,1908 |..... AO SRI EE Sac dO 48 a6 8.7 miles..... 11 00 

Dosttesee|eee3 (oe | ee 6 |e eee slanese GOs Se exclsosss: ss: 
May 30,1909 |..... doses: Ussytocsceaceaesfieete Wolf ci cculsscssee22 
June 12,19091)..... dons: JUVISSY...cecee0 984 feet... 5. ealecccccces 
July 13,19091)..... do: 532 Mondesir.......| 26 miles...... 44 30 
July 25,19091)..... rots eet Walaise.25.oseee 32 miles...... 37 00 
Aug. 28,19091]..... GO. <5 RHSMS ..<-ces5 6.3 miles..... 7 48 
Aug. 27,1909 |..... GO ose clos om dO sc ccessen-| 20 Miles... ...|' 41/00 

Ss. F. CODY. 

Feb. 22,1909 | Biplane....}| Aldershot....... L200 feetenicre|s<cpecese 
May 14,1909 j..... co te ee Be Sa DLs Acecuee AMCs sce elon ececee 
July 21,1909 |..... OOS cel teane (i |: EES AMCs ook elecescesae 
Aug. 29,1909 }..... Ds sogels ren edn caee esses = 10 miles......].. wehiotes 
Sept. 8,1909!|..... Cs fe ee = M02. oce-~r-} 40 mies! abel h-- 6100 
Sept. 11,1909 |..... oC ee ee 1G Ssiota aicnie el ome ame iae al <a a Saran 
Oct. 16,1909 |..... GOnéucs Doncaster....... 8,000 feet... s<|acsceseees 


1 


His first attempt to circle. 

Swept several circles. 

At height of 65 feet 

Toury to Artenay, landed. 

Artenay to Toury; inter- 
mediate landing. 

Over adjcining fields. 

Santos Dumont and Four- 
nier as passengers. 

Etampes to Chevilly, cross- 
country. 

First flight across British 
Channel. 

Won first prize speed for 
6-mile trip. 

Won ninth prize for distance 
flown. 


In a 12-mile wind. 

On the Army biplane. 

On rebuilt machine. 

With passenger in three 
flights. 

Circuit to Farnborough and 
return. 

Before Empress Eugenie. 

Machine wrecked; aviator 
hurt. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—CHANUTE. 163 


Chronology of memorable flights—Motor Aeroplanes—Continued. 


MOORE-BRABAZON. 


Date. Machine. Place. Distance. Time. Bi Remarks. 
H.m.s. 

Jan. 28,1909 | Biplane....| Chalons........-. SAlimiless ae eens as 1 | Learning use of Voisin ma- 
chine. 

Feb. 24,1909 |..-.- dose-s) SSW oem sictasaia eters alpeisrout CA neat 1 | Swept over two circles. 

Feb. 28,1909 |....- CoRR aA See Oe cajerae'siates 25 TOMOSE.. als -lesetesse = 1 | Several flights. 

Apr. 30,1909 |..... donna) England........ 4.5:miles 05) aa sosnoe 1 | Gradually improves per- 
formances. 

Oct. 30,1909 |..... doze Sle IS eileen 8 see eo Senet Sd bee aauee 1 | Won Daily Mail $5,000 prize 

for flight with a British 
machine. 
L. F. FERBER. 


Aug, <8) 1908" "Biplane lesen | SS j8e a oan =.<i| - SPS A 5 22] Aces 1 | First trials with motor ma- 
chine. 

Sept. 19,1908 |..--- douse. (35... Ot see Seaes 15640 feets. 3:5 |-coccn0-6 1 | His aeroplane No. 9. 

June 13,1909 |..-.-- doses.: JUVISSY2 ee. coos 3.1 miles. ...- 0 530 1 | Ona Voisin machine. 

Sept. 15,19091]..... dolss:: Boulogne......- 6 miles....... 9 00 1 | Boulogne to Wimeroux. 

Sept. 22,1909 |...-.- CO te ae Bee (6 (ees ae WntilOs ec edet lcs caetinct 1 | Landed in ditch; killed. 


Octet On 0 Zale Monopland:| PBC. 20 cee) 4. cle cocseoseree acs los eece ane f tomes First short flights. 
June: 8) 1908p) fo. dO see. + |5--5< GO ese oncitee Ourbannles ser Pee ree 1 | At height of 100 feet. 


May 19,1909 | Monoplane.| Chalons........- 15640iteeb as sih.< occ. 1 | Begins operating the Antoi- 
nette. 

June 5,1909 |..-..- GOs. .5-|2-052 Of PES n ea Roce ee REDE acne 1 737 1 | In wind and rain; breaks 
record, 

June 6,1909 |..... On aca JUVISYiss caneoo =e LO MMes - 225. | sunescenie 1 | Cross-country flight. 

June 12,1909 }...-. OG ssealses so O0lann a5 ene. 5] OU Tall OSae cee. 39 00 1 | Won Goupy prize. 

July 19,19091)..... Geena Calais. on nccses ali Neacnl ECA ee aes 1 | Over British Channel; fell 
in sea. 

July 27,19091)..... Os, < s2|Feceie dOr.<<s<5--| 20mmiles.. 5. .\sesssss-- 1 | British Channel; fell near 
Dover. 

Aug. 26,19091)..... do... -..|Sivnelms..<.-55-. 96 miles......} 218 9 1 | Won second prize for dis- 
tance. 

Aug. 27,19091)..... (CSAS IE creed Co TEINS Rey <a [Easier  o iy 4 | es a 1 | Won first prize; altitude, 508 
feet. 

Sept. 27,19091)..... do:.. 6.4 Berlime..2.<.45 = 6.5 miles. ...- 13 00 1 | Across suburbs of Berlin. 

Sept. 29,1909 |..... Osea in 002-52 ee a 42 miles. ee. 1 10 00 1 | Won second prize for dis- 
tance. 

Sept 30, 1909 |...-- douerastesaee OO sjacrceet s,s 51 miles...... 1 23 00 1 | Machine broken in landing. 

Oct. 22, 19091)..... doeeeas Blackpool: oot. hasacenscasetaal se Ssecsas 1 | Flew in gale; won prize, 
$1,500. 

Nov. 19, 1909 |.....do..... Chalons: <p! 4se4| esc seaeeeee ee 10 00 1 | Rose 1,345 feet, competing, 
Weiler prize. 

Dee. 1, 1909" 2... dosveos Mourmelons 2 \o-asoa- seca seioalo oe ace ees 1 | Rose 1,500 feet in 40-mile 


wind. 


164 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Chronology of memorable flights—Motor Aeroplanes—Continued. 


LOUIS PAULHAN. 


*» 


Date. Machine. Place. Distance. | Time. ater Remarks. 
H.m.s 

July 10, 19091} Biplane....| Douai........... d:2h oniles- /Pcleees cee 1 | His very first flight. 

July 15, 1909 |----- CO RRERE Saas OD is ance |S ee eae ee 11700] 1 | Reached altitude of 357 feet. 

July 19, 19091]----- dO -olt@mns co eee 8) 12.1 miles....] 2253] 1 Cross-country, Douai to 
Arras. 

July 23, 1909 |----- GOsac|se was (3 a Rs ee 43.5 miles....| 117 19 1 | Official allowance, 30 miles. 

Aug. 6, 1909 |----- (a (spare Dunkerque... bali sccccccncdacks 18 20 1 | Altitude, 200 feet. 

Aug. 7, 1909 |----- OO EES s-| Bader COE eats te 23 miles...... 33 00| 1 | Ona Voisin biplane. 

Aug. 24, 1909 |----- do:..= = Rheims. ........ 18.6 miles....| 3812] 1] Altitude, 295 feet. 

Aug. 25, 1909 })..--- OG. J. 22am CO See ae 81 miles...... 2 43 24 1 | Won third prize for distance. 

Sept. 9, 1909 |----- G0:--52 VOUMHE = oo ce eee 12.4 miles....| 1700 1 | Two cross-country flights. 

Sept. 13, 19093]-.... Gl Rass Resa DO eines ne tales eee 13500] 1] Tournai to Taintignies and 
return. 

Sept.17, 1909 |----- Go 4.50" Ostend... -2--%5 1.24 miles... . 3 16 1 | Circled over sea. 

Sept. 18, 1909 |.---- Gosek) ~|- S210 Gaeree = seo |emes ace ee sheet Rem 1 | Over sea front; won $5,000 
prize. 

Oct. 10, 1909 |.---- dO. eu Port Aviation ..| 21.5 miles....} 21 48 1 | Flew over line of the stands. 

Oct. 12, 1909 |.---- Gossext14.2.% doi .¢.<<~~. 3.6 miles... .. 6 11 1 | Won prize for slowest flight, 
$600. 

Oct. 18, 1909 |.---- dos. =~ Blackpool. .....- 14 miles...... 25)53 1 | On first day of Blackpool 
meeting. 

Oct. 19, 1909 1).---- Co (Rapa | [ dOcse.ncsone 15.75 miles...) 32 18 1 | Won third prize for dis- 
tance, $1,400. 

Nov. 19, 1909 |..--- Colts Chalongst.te. cock tc. ee eR "1 | Rose 1,210 feet, competing, 
Weiler prize. 

Nov. 20, 1909 1).-.-- (c 0: Mourmelon..... 37 miles...... 55 00 1 | Chalons and return. Rose 
nearly 1,000 feet. 

ROGER SOMMER. 

July 4,1909 | Biplane....| Chalons......... Oso WES. Soaio eee 1 | On Farman’s new machine, 

July 18,1909 |..... GOrec cau) sore CO ies ce. oo aer|scccmee ean eee 1 400 1 | Longest of several flights. 

July 27,19091)..... COC a. <2, eee 25 miles...... 1 23 30 1 | To Vadenay and back. 

Aap Te LONG oo a ore eee SLOOL eat menaealsetnca:e5 ances 1 50 30 1 | Beats all French records. 

Aug. 2,19091)..... GOices GOs cam 9 miles....<.- 12 00 1 | ToSuippes; 45miles an hour. 

Aug. 4,1909 |..... (0 ERS EC OSE Se cc Bao e Cn ee 2 010 1| Trying to beat Wright’s 
record. 

Aug. 7,19091)..... O0-ccn sewed el scciccceacnbesns 2 27 15 1 | Beats Wright’s record of 
Dee. 31, 1908. 

Aug. 22,1909 |..... D> eas | (RUMOMIIS <2 25.2. Seal ice eae jaenuhee 119 33 1 | On first day of Reims tour- 
nament. 

Aug. 27,1909 |..... do;.<. seQO sintasncs eee SUUODON Ws sen ssmeneece 1 | Won seventh prize for dis- 
tance. 

Sept. 6,1909 |..... OOseee=s | NANCY acca ease 25 miles...... 35 00 1 | Also made flights with pas- 
sengers. 

Sept. 10,1909 |..... a Ce Rf eae (: (eee USIHUGS so. 4ac taeee wae 1 | Accompanies troops on re- 
view. 

Sept. 11,1909 |..... ODzecsssleeess Qn sansia= Bole 24 miles .5. Fob aw ces oot 1 | Nancy to Lenoncourt. 

Oct. 16,1909 |..... do......| Doncaster....... 9.7 miles......] 21 45 1 | Best flight in Great Britain 
to date. 

Oct. 26,19091)..... do... Bei: (ae ee 29.7 miles....| 44 53 1 | Won Whitworth cup. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—CHANUTE. 165 


Chronology of memorable fights—Motor Aeroplanes—Continued. 


M. ELLEHAMMER. 


Date. Machine. Place. Distance. | Time. eur Remarks. 
H.m.s 
1906-1909... .. Biplanes35|) Denmark. £. u.<|./.sssee sees eee beets 1.| Experience with varied suc- 
cess. 


ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL. 


BOO 7190052 5s os gan os ad OC ete Stes ie aaa wes oe loaieis ocd een Experiments; tetrahedral 
machine. 


COUNT DE LAMBERT. 


Mar. 17, 1909 | SI plan Oees- | BAM a ees ease ch Seats see setae 0 300 1 | First flight alone; Wright’s 
pupil. 

Mar. 24,1909 |..... Clee Ae See GOL seeesosce 15.6 miles..... 27 11 1 | Wins Aero Club prize for 250 
meters. 

Mar. 27,1909 |..... GOsese—- |. secs GOn see ccs 2. besettne. cones 7 56 1 | Flies beyond experimental 
field. 

Apr. 13,1909 |..... (oi foo Ps Ses GO vain sos see loca sesame gate 1 30 2 | With Delagrange as passen- 
ger. 

Aug. 26,19091)..... Gores. - Rheims =5e22 5:7. 72: miles: ...-. 1 52 00 1 | Won fourth prize; distance. 

Oct. 18,19091)..... GOs .c2- WUUVASS=/<\< cic =21—t 31 miles...... 49 39 1 | To Eiffel Tower and back 
across Paris. 

Oct. 21,1909 |..... GOrsac. Port Aviation ..| 1.25 miles....- 1 57 1 | Wins $3,000 prize for speed. 


May 20,1909 | Biplane....| Pau............. DOs MOS etal aac dais 1 | Pupil of W. Wright. 

Aug. 22,1909 |..... Os asc Rbeimsss..scse 18.6 miles. ...| 0 29 00 1 | Won third prize for speed 
over 30 kilometers. 

Aug. 27,19091)..... Osa =a |S-02 COtencsaseee 69 miles...... 1 46 32 1 | Won sixth prize for distance 
flown. 


July 21,1909 | Biplane....| La Haye........ Dmilesssesscs|sessest ees 1 | Self taught on Wright ma- 
chine. 

Aug. 27,19091|..... DO gers a PR NEIMNSe occas 12.4 miles....| 0 20 47 1 | Shows great boldness and 
skill, 

Aug. 28,1909 |..... Ghee eee (O1G paper | ay ye ee eS 115 2 | Performs evolutions with 
passenger, 

Sept. 7,1909 |..... (homers. JUNVISSY is nc cc cee TL S00H466C= ~<a |mscencecs 1 | Upset and killed. 


ADIOS 1909 WE plane. == ROME Sam ciocces|aacecmisccrecmeme 0 10 00 1 | Pupil of W. Wright. 

May 6,1909 |....- DOr ge iee = (0 (Re am ng | teat 3 Oe tel cine BOLT es 1 | Upset and hurt. 

Sept. 12,1909 |..... oleae IBTESCIAe Jew aisce 6:3 MNES? ose lesen wen ae 2 | One passenger; won prize. 
Sept. 15,19091)..... GOs somsesces OOo ewan SiGimiles: sob |csiees sees 2 | Won Oldofredl prize. 


Sept. 20,19091)..... (8 (ener ene eens OOS. sceineese 31 miles...... 50 51 1 | Wonsecond prize for speed. 


166 


ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Chronology of memorable flights—Motor Aeroplanes—Continued. 


GLEN H. CURTISS. 


Date. Machine. Place. Distance Time. |ons. Remarks 
H.m.s. 

July 4,19081) Biplane....| Hammondsport.| 5,090 feet... .. 0 1 42 1| Wins Scientific American 
cup. 

July 13,1909 |..... O02 oe Mineola........- 1.5.miles........ 3 00 1| Tuning up Aeronautic So- 
ciety machine. 

July 17,1909 }..... GOs =. caleo= == Gossas62-. 55 15 miles... 21 00 1 | Described figure 8. 

July 18,1909 }..... ee ES COE. nescence 30 miles...... 52 30 1 | Official distance, 25 miles. 

July 24,1909})..... OGcesse cet cdOnces. cance 25 miles. 2225. 52 30 1| Second winning Scientific 
American cup. 

Aug. 24,1909 |..... Gor: Rheims.......-. 6.2 miles. .... 8 35 1 | Wins second prize; speed 
over 10 kilometers. 

Aug. 25,1909 |..... Te eeeracy O0ssecere<c 6.2 miles... .. 8 il 1 | Bleriot is 7 seconds faster. 

Aug, 26,1909 |..... OOS. e33)e.+ 200. se ee 19 miles...... 29 00 1 | Wins tenth prize; distance 
and speed. 

Aug. 28,19091)..... OO. aneilissk GO his Soe. c5 12.4-miles...-] -15 56 1 | Wins Gordon Bennett cup. 

Aug. 29,19091;..... OGspecclost<5 GOtss.chscace 18.6 miles....] 23 30 1 | Wins first prize, speed over 
30 kilometers. 

10) ees G0 eects | 2-6 G0b ccc nnse 6.2 miles. ...- 7 dl 1 | Wins second prize, speed 

over 10 kilometers. 

Sept. 11,1909 |..... Goose Brescia: .2. <--> 31 miles...... 49 24 1 | Wins first prize for speed. 

Sept. 29,1909 |-.... dow «= 2|pNOw WOwKas. 227) 5 cugecke eet lose 5 1} Flights about Governors 
Island. 

Oct. 10,1909 |....- do... Bi. Louis... 2<5|-ss0-esesceweee|onnencese 1| Flights at Centennial cele- 
bration. 

Oct. 16,1909 |..... dow. =< = Chicago. .......- J mile: =<. .-.5 1 30 1 | Exhibition flights. 

J. A. D. MCCURDY. 

May 18,1908 Sti aint Hammondsport.| 600 feet.......|...-.---- 1 | With the White Wing. 

July 4,1908 }..... ak Pa 3,420 Ie0b sae tn nese a 1 | With the June Bug. 

Feb. 23,1909 |..... d0....-: Baddeck.....-..- 2,640 Teebe- eel 2-2se 1 | With the Silver Dart. 

Feb. 24,1909 }..... €02.ce2-|--  O0eee ee S| ee Berean eee ce 1 Do. 

Mar, id; 1909) |. 2-2 Ossett e | See eUOres ease) LO Ines: a5 0 22 00 1 Do. 

Mar. 18,1909 |..... CL cocoate tence 7 eesereereeecged bi cfeice ( Cheecege| arenes 1 | Aggregate of 1,000 miles. 

SUE. DON le se ee Se Petawawa.....-- BO amiless22 55. S- -. 1 | Many flights; broke ma- 
chine. 

LE BLON. 

Oct. 18,1909 | Monoplane.| Doncaster... ..-- 22 miles...... 0 30 00 1 | On Bradford cup; flew in 
rain. 

Oct. 19,1909 }..... Wor. be: ee Use (ici: See ae eee 1 | Astonishing flight in a gale. 

Oct. 20,1909 }..... G0z.6s baB 6 | ete ey dean gee | lh tn oy a heay dae SB eh Tele eaten, 1 | Foolhardy flight in great 
gale. 

F. W. BALDWIN. 

Mar. 12,1908 | Biplane....| Hammondsport.| 319 feet.......|.......-- 1 | With the Red Wing. 

May 18,1908 |..... (Ll (A aes Os fate ete a oe ete grieel ay Hate Bsa 1 | With the White Wing. 

Mar. 18,1909 |..... ts (eee Baddetke eee ae ee eee 1 | With the Silver Dart. 

Aug. 2,1909 |..... Grea. ol OUAWA WAL Coe cohen. eae see eo eee 1 | Several short flights. 


PROGRESS IN AVIATION—-CHANUTE. 


167 


Chronology of memorable flights—Motor Aeroplanes—Continued. 


LEGAGNEUX. 
Date. Machine. Place. Distance. | Time. | Pel Remarks. 
H.m.s 
Feb. 14,1909 | Biplane....| Mourmelon....-. Tea miles 3-2|ee- seca 1 | Pupil of Ferber. 
Woes se sete GG eo as ae ed Ore secon ce. |hOue EleSe pa. memes 1 | Sweeps two circles. 
Apr. 27,1909 |..... GOL. 55-2) Vienna. 42 eee 2.5 miles. .... 03 26 1 | Ona Voisin machine. 
Aug. 6,1909 |..... do......| Stockholm...... Sy2s0eet =. =~ oeeceecen 2 | With a passenger. 
Aug. 22,1909 |..... do:....-.)| heims’=.-.. Gmiles ao 52 3. 9 56 1 | Won eighth prize for speed 
over 6 miles. 
HENRI ROUGIER. 
May 23,1909 | Biplane....)| Juvissy......--- LS. Gmiléss- feces 1 | Swept eleven circles. 
Aug. 29,1909 }..... Goss -o5- AP] 0150 01s Ro ae cgeeeer ss] Meee 1 | Won fourth prize; altitude 
180 feet. 
Sept. 9,1909 }..... WO ae ||P STOSCIN sco. soo ce bomie ements 0 12 10 1 | Reached 328 feet altitude. 
Sept. 12,19091)..... GOres. POO laos smiles... 22... 11018 1 | Reached 380 feet altitude. 
Sept. 20,19091)..... doz... Bs Eee es SESE ee mC eee Hea a 1 | Reached 650 feet altitude. 
Sept. 28,19091)..... dGvor~=" |MBOnine- cee s ee 31 miles....-.. 54 00 1 | Rises to 518 feet. 
Sept. 29,1909 |..... dot. -GGcesce .-| 48 miles.....- 1 35 00 1) In competition with 
Latham. 
Oct. 1,19091)...-. (dG. pcmns SOO soe waecteci-| 80 MUO. <5 2 38 00 1 | Wins first prize, distance. 
Oct. 18,1909 |... .. eee Blackpool......- 17.7 miles... 24 43 1 | Wins second prize, $3,600. 
E., BUNAU-VARILLA. 
NUE eo LOO. iplane:. 5 2|\Chalons se 65 osc]: ee eos cee seek 0 15 00 1 | Voisin biplane presented by 
father. 
Aug. 22,1909 |--... dos. .222| Rheims... 22... 6.2 miles..... 13 30 1} Thirteenth prize for speed 
for 10 kilometers. 
Aug. 29,1909 |...-- do:--~ -€0.2..5 18.6 miles... 38 31 1 | Eighth prize for speed for 30 


kilos. 


1 Considered the most interesting flights on record. 


Sct deat lair fetid me 
; : WENO IeteH 
Oe nm ait \ eee 7s eS ho 


shots 99 1 Qos |. Balai ati sak Es a eee sil / 
‘ebairite sity ane aor f ’ ee tke } hat |S ay 
<> i ey mae 7, Odie Leg ) i 0) Re aaa See 

sista shakes peibidil SUMO}. ac ak aaa we 

« Seebisie inet diet Bataan st | cs wet or el Seah 2 hy) Lube he 
© break dyea tad! Boaseaart oe BE pried tae ane 


AU haath | Ore EO ein ae souetp 
; 
ti 


ashe Avltitey Mow ier! ity ee PRS. osseous 
«fatal dex T" i 
{ 


amines wih iar ade che 7t 7 aot a ie aah: " s--. 
i hat FP} why env | Tey him Ty b cieaeehe sane Ape 
+ | - 
= — ; andl » a er . ' — ws -— 
) : AJLIBAVOJ ABH FE ia@ + 


Zz >? 


top a chs si PUP" ag \ SA» Tee Se eee a 
oe Latmgesus aaah! abioy } i) ere . fw, |... inl OL, SE 
; 
Del ‘ j 
: { 


Demge rit Seluy el eesiti a | PEt ha. tet os reps eee) bP Ane Beth 
Srpbausted } tok : 

SW aabibaligh vol nedy Mar i a - ea OU so 1 AAs vd seas: 
' 


4 ~ 
Ais . if 
“ee Sd a \ ] és 
magreotataerwnr erie ae * ee Pee 
7 a YG a! Th shbiannes ‘ia Leahy Quit tr» Lil stpa'D/? 
9 wat a. ae 
ew PF 2 to ie i (re% 
y 
4 
2 
ha aa) 
- Po ‘2.75 
. . 
+ i 
. 
’ ° : £ 
\ sé ‘ye ee 


4 err) wi they viet : we ty 7 j 
Ge 28, er , as , : f i 
Moe. Gt re | a... ds hee ar oy 

e 


‘ie 


wa (2 eee a + ~ahe . . i 


PROGRESS IN RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS IN THE 
WESTERN UNITED STATES. 


[With 12 plates.] 


By F. H. Newett, Director of Reclamation Service. 


PRESENT CONDITIONS. 


The progress being made by the United States Government in the 
reclamation of arid lands under the terms of the so-called Recla- 
mation or Newlands Act of June 17, 1902, has been notable, and the 
results as accomplished are instructive to students of engineering and 
economics. The plans and hopes have been touched upon in previous 
discussions, but the time has now arrived when more tangible con- 
clusions are becoming available. The work is in an instructive stage 
in that it is possible to observe the results of the practical application 
of ideals of conservation and the working out of these in communities 
of considerable size. 

Reclamation works have been laid out in all of the Western 
States and Territories and an investment of over $60,000,000 has 
been made. Part of the works in each State has been completed 
and is being operated, returning a part of the cost. About 10,000 
families are being supplied with water. Most of these have come 
from the humid regions and have located upon tracts of land which 
formerly were considered valueless, and in portions of the country 
which were called desert. In short, by the use of a trust fund which 
is being returned and used over again, the waste waters of the Nation 
are being conserved, destructive floods prevented, apparently value- 
less land converted into highly productive farms, and thousands of 
families settled upon small tracts sufficient for their support. To 
this extent relief is being given to the tendency toward congestion 
in the industrial centers and home markets are being extended. The 
farmer located upon a small irrigated tract owned and cultivated by 
himself necessarily practices intensive farming, produces the highest 


17This article is in continuation of papers printed in the Smithsonian Reports for 1901, 


pp. 407 to 423; 1903, pp. 827 to 841; 1904, pp. 373 to 381; 1907, pp. 331 to 345. 
169 


170 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


crop value per acre, is a large consumer as well as producer, and be- 
comes the most valuable citizen in the stability of the commonwealth. 

The individual projects are located far apart and the engineering 
problems connected with them are varied and many of them novel 
and difficult. They have not been confined to any one branch of en- 
gineering, but include not merely the ordinary surveying and prac- 
tice of civil engineering, with planning and construction, but reach 
out into hydraulics, to electrical development and transmission of 
power and the use of the power in pumping water and incidentally 
in commercial enterprises, the manufacture of cement, and of various 
structures, large and small, together with the safe and economical 
handling of explosives, the digging and maintaining of tunnels, and 
innumerable mechanical operations. 

Joined with the engineering has been the business side. This in- 
volves not merely the expenditure of the trust fund and the getting 
of the largest possible return for it, but also the careful accounting 
for all expenditures in terms of value received. It has not been the 
custom for work under Government auspices to be measured in the 
ordinary commercial way by returns. On the contrary, it has been 
usual to state simply that so much money has been appropriated and 
spent. Thus data are lacking for comparison of relative efficiency 
under Government and under corporate enterprise in most compa- 
rable operations, but in the use of the reclamation fund this side of 
the work has been made prominent. 

The engineering and business problems have been met and suc- 
cessfully solved. The most difficult undertaking, however, is that 
incident to the stage of progress now being entered upon, namely, 
the operating side which involves successful dealing with the human 
as opposed to the physical elements. This means the tactful han- 
dling of thousands of individuals, collecting from them in small 
payments the original cost of the works, they in turn deriving this 
money from the sale of products of the soil, and at the same time 
operating the works in such way that the best results in crop pro- 
duction may be attained, also maintaining the structures so that ulti- 
mately, after having been paid for, they may be turned over to the 
landowners in the best possible condition. 

The object of the reclamation act, as stated in the law is the con- 
struction of irrigation works for the reclamation of arid or semi- 
arid lands in the States and Territories named in the act. But the 
purpose behind the mere reclamation of the land is the providing of 
opportunities for homes for an independent self-supporting citizen- 
ship. The law is not drawn for the purpose of making men rich, 
but for providing opportunities for citizens who have the skill, 
energy, and thrift suflicient to make use of the opportunities for se- 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—-NEWELL. 171 


curing a home for themselves and for their children; one in which 
the family may be supported; and one where with the growth of the 
country and increased land values, it will be possible for an in- 
creasing number of families to maintain themselves upon subdi- 
visions of the original farms. 

Thus far the wisdom of the framers of the act has been demon- 
strated, and it has been shown that, with wise administration, the 
law is proving of inestimable value to the States and to the Nation. 
From time to time, it is necessary to make improvements or changes 
in the organic law, such as are inseparable with growth, but as a 
whole this act has proved remarkably complete. 


CHARACTER OF SETTLERS, 


The character of the citizens who have taken up lands cn these 
projects under terms of the homestead act, or have purchased them 
from the original occupants, is as varied as can well be imagined. 
Characterizing them as a whole, it may be said that they include 
the more energetic and venturesome part of the population, such 
as largely make up all pioneer communities; men who have the 
desire for the novelty and for change deeply planted in their charac- 
ter, who are wearied of the monotony of the old familiar life, and are 
attracted by the remote and unknown. Among them are many me- 
chanics, shopkeepers, and clerks, who have had a longing to get 
into the open air, and who through energy and self-denial have saved 
a little money. Others are young farmers who can not find land 
near the old home and who wish to try their fortunes in the West. 
Others who come from nearer irrigated States, where the price of 
land has increased rapidly, and by selling the old farm for a high 
price they can obtain land equally as good at far less cost. 

The would-be irrigators come from every part of the civilized 
earth but are mainly Americans. There are some men of the Latin 
races, Spanish and Italians, also Germans and the northern races, 
English, and Irish, a mingling of the white men of every variety 
of religious belief and of political affiliations. 

As might be imagined, the population in the first few years is 
largely transitional. The same qualities which bring a man to a 
project tend to make him leave it. He has heard of all the good 
things, has read the roseate descriptions of irrigation, its benefits, 
but the drawbacks have never been brought to his attention. It is 
hardly to be wondered that many of the people who take up irriga- 
tion for the first time suddenly awake to the fact that it is not wholly 
a matter of sunshine and flowers, and that for success energy, skill, 
and thrift are required. In order to get well started on an irrigated 


172 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


farm a man must have not only good fortune but must be prepared to 
endure privations which he would not be willing to consider at home; 
doing this, however, with the assurance that the reward ultimately 
will be correspondingly great. 

This awakening to the fact that irrigation has its thorny side some- 
times comes as a startling shock, sufficient to discourage all but the 
most enthusiastic or persistent, and the more faint hearted seek still 
farther for the promised land. Those who remain soon learn that 
success must be preceded by subduing the soil, getting it into a good 
condition of tilth, supplying the necessary nitrates and perhaps the 
phosphates, applying water day or night, and perhaps all night, 
wading around in the mud, or enduring the heat of the long days of 
brilliant sunshine and the accompanying dust of the arid regions, 
the troubles with neighbors over division of water, the possible seep- 
age followed by crop losses, or ruin from alkali. AJl of these look 
very large at first to the man who has never given them thought, but 
they gradually fade again as time goes on and experience is at- 
tained. 

As a consequence of these conditions a considerable part of the first 
settlers on every irrigation system sell out or relinquish their home- 
steads and seek other fields. 

The second comer is more apt to stay. He has usually looked over 
the field in advance with considerable care and has weighed the dis- 
advantages more carefully than his predecessor, but sometimes he 
in turn sells to a third comer, who may be regarded as the final 
locator. 

The first and sometimes the second man has reaped more or less of 
a reward for the discomforts of pioneering. He has obtained the 
land for nothing or at very small cost, has, it is true, endured priva- 
tions for a time, but has received an otherwise unearned increment in 
land values, due to construction of the works by the investment of 
capital not his own. Thus, if his land has cost him directly or indi- 
rectly $1 or $2 an acre, he usually sells it for $20 or $30 an acre, the 
final purchaser paying a reasonable amount for the land, but nearly 
what it is worth. The purchaser approaches the undertaking on the 
basis of a thorough appreciation of values and possibilities involved. 
He has not rushed in as have many of the pioneers because of the 
feeling that he was getting something for nothing, but on the con- 
trary has carefully weighed the advantages and disadvantages and 
has paid a fair price with the knowledge that he must get his money 
back out of the land itself. With him it has not been a vision of 
comfort or luxury, but a realization of hard work involving certain 
risks, though with reasonable assurances of success. 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—NEWELL. Lis 


SIZE OF FARM. 


The size of the farms obtainable from the public domain is defined 
by the reclamation act not by an arbitrary number of acres, as in the 
case of the homestead and other similar laws, but the Secretary of the 
Interior is required to give a “limit of area per entry, which limit 
shall represent the acreage which in the opinion of the Secretary may 
be reasonably required for the support of a family upon the lands in 
question.” 

With reference to the right to the use of water sold for lands in 
private ownership, the limit is placed at 160 acres “ to any one land- 
owner, and no such sale shall be made to any landowner unless he be 
an actual bona fide resident on such land or occupant thereof, resid- 
ing in the neighborhood.” These provisions necessitate a study in 
advance of the character of the irrigable land, so that it may be 
divided into tracts in accordance with its quality, each of these farm 
units being of a size reasonably required when irrigated and culti- 
vated for the support of a family. 

In the extreme southern part of the arid region, where the daily 
sunlight and warmth is most favorable for the production of crops, 
it results that where the land is carefully tilled, where it has been 

-put into high-grade crops, and especially in fruit, 10 acres may be 
ample for the support of a family. This is because of the fact that 
with intensive cultivation, crop follows crop in rapid succession, 
there being hardly any interval for rest during the year. Alfalfa, 
for example, may be cut eight or ten times, while there may be three 
successive crops during the year of grains or vegetables. 

Farther north, where the summer season is limited, and there is a 
long cold winter, the area required for a family is correspondingly 
greater. With alfalfa and sugar beets, 40 acres may be considered a 
fairly good sized farm, as, for example, in the more favorable parts 
of Montana, and elsewhere, 80 acres is usually the limit. Few men 
can handle successfully over 80 acres of irrigated land, especially 
with high-priced water. 

In laying out the farm units it is necessary to follow the conven- 
tional rectangular system adopted by the Government, of which the 
section, or 1 square mile, of 640 acres is the unit, and the quarter 
section of 160 acres is the size of the homestead entry. The smallest 
subdivision ordinarily recognized is the quarter-quarter section, or 
40-acre tract, commonly known as a “ forty.” This in turn in the 
irrigated regions is again divided into quarter-quarter-quarters, or 
10-acre tracts, this smaller subdivision not being generally recognized 
in the Land Office tracts. 

Not all of any quarter section or even of the “ forty ” is usually 
irrigable, Generally the farm unit consists of, say, 80 acres in all, 


y) 


174 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of which 48 or 52 acres or some other number may be irrigable. 
The charge for water is apportioned according to the number of 
irrigable acres, irrespective of the total of the farm unit. This farm 
may extend across the canal to an extreme size of 160 acres, of which 
a portion may be dry land above the reach of water and a portion 
irrigable. 


REQUIREMENT OF SETTLEMENT. 


The requirement of actual settlement on the reclaimed land has 
been one which has led to much discussion and has been the cause of 
much of the hardship incident to pioneering. The theory of the law 
as originally passed was that the Government, investing this trust 
fund without profit and interest, does this for the purpose of securing 
settlement in the more sparsely populated western States. The 
prime object was not so much to enrich these localities or States as 
to secure resident citizens, who would not only cultivate the soil and 
become producers but would build up the institutions of the State, 
make roads, organize schools, and add to the strength of the Com- 
monwealth. 

If, however, the Government were to reclaim the lands and permit 
men living in near-by cities, or even in Chicago or New York, to pur- 
chase or hold these lands, cultivating them through tenants, the main 
object of the bill would be defeated. It would amount practically 
to lending this money without profit or interest to a favored few. 
Assuming, for example, that the proportional cost of reclaiming a 
40-acre farm was $30 an acre, this would be $1,200 invested by the 
Government for the benefit of some one family. This $1,200 is to be 
repaid in 10 annual installments by the landowner. If he prefers 
to live in the city, and rents the use of the land to some other indi- 
vidual, this renter will have little.or no interest in the permanent 
improvement and in development of the land and of the community. 
if either man is to be benefited by this loan of the Government, it 
should be the renter on the farm rather than the big or little capi- 
talist living in town. 

For this reason the resident clause has been held to be vital to 
the object of the act, although it has caused much hardship through 
the requirement that men bring their families out into the desert and 
live there throughout the early years of preparation. From the 
standpoint of a man. working in a store or machine shop, a teacher 
or professional man, the idea is extremely attractive of getting one 
of these homesteads from the Government, visiting it occasionally, 
adding improvements, and hiring a man to look after it until the 
community has been built up and the days of pioneering have passed. 
His monthly savings can be put into the little farm and provision 
made for the future without interfering with his daily wage-earning 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—NEWELL. 175 


capacity. It seems to him a useless hardship to be compelled either 
to give up the farm or to go and live upon it, and he urges that if 
he be allowed to hold the farm and invest his savings in it he can 
in the end bring about a higher development than would be possible 
if he spent all his time on the farm itself. 

There is, however, no way of distinguishing between the small 
investor and the large, and if the school-teacher has the right to 
enjoy absentee landlordism, so has the man of larger means. Thus 
it would soon happen that the bounty of the Government would be 
enjoyed by people of comparative wealth and leisure, renting their 
farms to the class of men who are most needed as resident owners. 


CROPS. 


The crops planted by the settlers are as varied as are the farmers 
themselves and the climatic surroundings. They naturally endeavor 
to raise the things with which they are familiar and are somewhat 
slow in adapting their methods to the requirements of the soil and 
climate. Asa rule, grain is planted first, as it is a quick crop and it 
is possible to realize an early return from the new ground. The 
experienced irrigator endeavors to get a small part of the land into 
alfalfa as quickly as possible, knowing that it enriches the soil. 
With his first grain crop he sows on part of his land some alfalfa 
seed and if the stand is good he leaves this small tract in alfalfa for 
a few years, cultivating the remaining areas and adding each year to 
the alfalfa tract until the time arrives when he can plow in the alfalfa 
which was first planted, turning the plants under to enrich the soil, 
then cultivating it and planting to root crops (pl. 6, fig.2). | 

One of the problems with the lighter and sometimes better soils is 
to hold these in place until the crops are established. The desert 
vegetation, the sagebrush and greasewood, while undisturbed protect 
the soil from the winds, but, as has been shown by bitter experience 
again and again, when these plants are removed and the ground is 
plowed the winds of early spring sweeping furiously across the dry 
level field blow the soil away in clouds, carrying off the seed (pl. 1, 
figs); 

It requires a few incidents of this kind to convince the newcomer 
that it is wise to follow the advice given him not to clear his entire 
farm at once, but to leave rows of sagebrush across the path of the 
prevailing spring winds. He soon appreciates that it is little short of 
wicked to burn the sagebrush, and instead of piling it for destruction 
he learns to leave it in long windrows, cultivating the places between 
until the ground is well shaded by the growing crop and the roots 
have been firmly established, then he can remove the remaining sage- 
brush or windbreaks and get his entire field into crop. Ina few years, 


176 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


by careful handling, the light soil becomes reasonably compacted, or 
held back by the roots and straw of the vegetation, or protected by 
the growing trees and shrubbery, so that no further damage is 
incurred. 


PROBLEMS. 


These problems of dealing with the settlers, of giving them sound 
advice, and at the same time collecting from them the cost of the 
works, involve the problems which are far more difficult than 
those of engineering construction or related business manage- 
ment. The difficulties of management are complicated by the 
fact that the irrigator frequently regards his individual interest as 
antagonistic to that of the community or management, insisting upon 
wasting water because of the mistaken belief that the more of a good 
thing he has the better. He thus gradually reduces the value of 
his land or ruins it and that of his neighbors, contesting stubbornly 
every effort at economy and wise management, because it interferes 
with his convenience. He has paid for water and he wants all he has 
paid for and more, awakening too late to the fact that in all this he 
has been struggling to do the wrong thing, because it seemed at the 
time easiest or cheapest. This phase of the work demands not merely 
engineering skill and agricultural knowledge, but the exercise of ° 
patience, tact, and firmness to the highest possible degree. 

It is probable that as irrigation systems develop, as the country 
grows older, and experience is acquired, the good practices will 
crystallize into customs and the customs into laws or regulations, mak- 
ing it easier to control the distribution of water, but at the present 
stage of the development under the reclamation act, with new officers 
and employees in a new country with almost unknown soil and 
climatic conditions, with families from all parts of the United States 
and from abroad, with irrigators who have never irrigated before, 
with customs uncrystallized, with laws and court decisions confusing 
and apparently contradictory, it is easy to see that there is no bed of 
roses for the water master, who must operate hundreds of miles of 
new ditches, delivering water to hundreds of new farms, through or 
by means of hundreds of structures, including headgates, flumes, cul- 
verts, and with bridges, crossings, etc., to be maintained. 

The water master, or the man who manages a large complicated 
system of hundreds or thousands of small farms, who must plan out 
day by day the schedule of distribution, who must guard against 
loss, be keenly vigilant for possible breaks in the system, and who 
takes the place of Providence for a community, is the most abused 
individual in the community. 


IcECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—NEWELL. 177 
AMOUNT OF WATER USED. 


The phrase “duty of water” is used frequently indicating the 
amount of water required during the year or crop season for success- 
ful irrigation. The duty of water is usually expressed in depth 
over the surface, for example, the statement that the duty of water 
is 3 acre-feet means that during the crop season an amount of water 
has been applied sufficient to cover an acre to a depth of 3 feet. As 
the acre consists of 43,560 square feet, a duty of water of 3 acre-feet 
corresponds to the use of 130,680 cubic feet per acre during the year, 
or nearly a million gallons (977,550 gallons). 

The use of water is also frequently expressed by a statement that 
1 second-foot will irrigate 100 acres, more or less. This means that a 
stream 1 foot wide and 1 foot deep flowing at the rate of 1 foot per 
second, or in other words, 1 cubic foot of water per second flowing 
throughout the irrigating season will water 100 acres. By a simple 
arithmetical computation, it will be found that 1 cubic foot per 
second flowing for 24 hours will cover an acre to a depth of very nearly 
2 feet (1.98 feet). In other words 1 second-foot is nearly equivalent 
to 2 acre-feet per day; thus, if the irrigating season is 90’days in - 
length, 1 cubic foot per second for 90 days will amount to a delivery 
of nearly 180 acre-feet, or cover 100 acres to a depth of 1.8 feet. 


NECESSITY OF GOOD MANAGEMENT. 


The value of the crop produced and the consequent ability of the 
farmers to return the cost of the investment are dependent directly 
upon water being received on each farm in proper quantity and at 
the right ume. If too much water is applied the crops will be corre- 
spondingly injured, the available soluble salts in the soil will be 
washed out or brought to the surface, the land depreciate in value, 
and large areas will be destroyed. With intensive cultivation and 
the crop production in the more valuable fruits, berries, or vegetables 
under ideal conditions, the yield may be several hundred dolla:s an 
acre. By a slight error in handling the water the crop value may be 
lessened by a hundred dollars an acre or more. 

Although the net product per acre may appear to be large and sat- 
isfactory, and it is impossible to prove that higher values might 
have been reached, yet the man who thoroughly understands the 
situation appreciates that there has been a loss of $100 per acre, 
which is directly attributable to lack of good management, and that 
under better conditions higher values would have been attained by 
the farmers. This possible reduction of crop values in a highly 
developed agricultural area of say 10,000 acres at $100 per acre 


97578°—sm 1910——12 


178 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


means a loss to the community of a million dollars, or, rather, under 
better or more successful management of the water, the net return 
of the community might have been $1,000,000 more during the season. 

This is by no means a fanciful idea. The study of ditch manage- 
ment and crop production in irrigated regions shows that in many 
instances there has been a shortage of water at a critical time, due 
to lack of forethought or, skill on the part of some one. 

The average farmer does not appreciate what this has meant to 
him, as he is apt to rarely figure out these larger matters with any 
degree of precision, and has been accustomed to disappointments in 
his crops so often that he regards such matters as inseparable from 
agriculture. If the crop looks fairly well he frequently goes no 
deeper. Possibly never having seen a full-crop production under 
excellent conditions he has no standard by which to judge. 

This matter was well illustrated by an experienced irrigation 
manager who examined one of the large. projects in Wyoming where 
the farmers for several years had been what they considered fairly 
successful. They had raised profitable crops and had succeeded in 
getting along with constant temporary repairs to the main canal. 
He took the history of a single season’s operation and number of 
days that the canal was out of service through accidental but pre- 
ventable breaks, and figured on a conservative basis what would have 
been the crop products had the works been maintained in excellent 
order by skilled men. He showed that had fire swept through the 
country and destroyed every visible improvement in the towns of 
the vicinity the loss to the entire community would have been less 
than had actually resulted from preventable failure to operate the 
canals properly. The spectacular view of a burning barn or store- 
house rivets public attention upon this definite loss, but the gradual 

-and unimpressive delay in development of the crop day by day is not 

noticeable. While all of the neighborhood would rush to aid the 
owner of the burning barn, yet no one knows or apparently cares 
while the valuable fruits or other crops are being imperceptibly 
reduced in value to a far larger degree. 


FERTILIZERS. 


One of the fallacies which must be continually met and overcome 
with these new men is that by applying water artificially to the soil 
the processes of farming are made easier and that there is no need 
of applying fertilizer. Statements are often made in popular publi- 
cations to the effect that the irrigating streams not only furnish to 
the plants the needed water but also bring fertilizers and enrich the 
soil. The Nile Valley, in Egypt, is frequently cited as an instance 
where it is alleged that through centuries agriculture has been prac- 
ticed without impoverishing the soil, the rich mud left by the river 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—-NEWELL. 179 


giving all the necessary elements required for the growing crop. 
This, however, is true in part only. The soils of Egypt for best 
results must be fertilized by supplying the lack of some of the ele- 
ments of plant food not brought by the Nile. 

As a matter of fact, irrigation can not take the place of cultivation, 
and it is not a lazy man’s form of agriculture, but quite the reverse. 
Cultivation may take the place of irrigation to a certain extent, and 
it has been found that thorough cultivation reduces the need of 
water, but neither cultivation nor application of muddy waters will 
bring to the soil all the needed constituents which must be had to 
obtain the largest and best growth of plant or fruit. 

During the first few years the crop returns from the formerly un- 
worked soil are frequently large, but to preserve the valuable quali- 
ties experience has shown that some of the constituents of the soil 
must be conserved and others added. In other words, it is impos- 
sible to take large crops away from the fields year after year unless 
the necessary food is supplied to the plants. The successful irrigator 
must not only cultivate his fields, apply water sparingly, but must 
fertilize, supplying those materials which experience has shown are 
most beneficial to the crops. He should strive to retain or renew in 
the soil the useful constituents placed there by nature and supplement 
these where needed. 

Most of the soils of the arid region contain a large proportion of 
soluble mineral salts. The rains have nof been sufficient to wash 
these entirely away and they remain fairly uniformly diffused 
throughout the soil. Some of these salts are extremely valuable as 
plant food, but if at any point in the field they are in excess, there 
plant life is destroyed. The chief deficiency among these, however, 
appears to be in the phosphates. It is sometimes essential to supply 
this lack, even though there is a large quantity of the salts of soda 
and potash. 

The problem of obtaining the phosphates should not be a very 
difficult one as throughout the arid region are large deposits of the 
rock carrying the. necessary supply and the smelters or other in- 
dustries, as a by-product, can produce unlimited quantities of the 
acids necessary to put this phosphate into soluble or accessible form. 
The development of the industry has, however, not proceeded to a 
very notable degree, because of the slowness of the farmers to recog- 
nize the fact that fertilizers of this kind are valuable and the fear 
that, if it is generally known that fertilizer should be used, this will 
add to the discouragement of the new farmers. 


ALKALI, 


The excess of what is otherwise a valuable fertilizing element is 
also a matter which must be of serious concern. The natural salts, 


180 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


easily soluble and widely distributed through the agricultural soil, 
may be concentrated by careless handling of the water and bring about 
a condition which is covered by the general term “alkali.” These 
salts appear on the surface of the ground, usually as a thin white 
crust, looking in the distance like snow (pl. 2, fig. 2). The appear- 
ance of the salts on the surface is sometimes preceded by an excessive 
crop yield, followed by diminution and burning out of the plants, 
and then by the white patches taking possession of the field. This is 
commonly known as the white alkali. Another appearance, less fre- 
quent, is that of irregular black patches of a peculiar, almost oily 
substance, as though a quantity of crude petroleum had been scat- 
tered over the field, destroying the crop and leaving a black stain. 
This is the dreaded black alkali, which is more difficult to eradicate. 

The white alkali is of the nature of gypsum, mostly sulphate of 
soda, while the black alkali consists of mixtures of similar salts in 
which the bicarbonate of soda predominates. Their destructive effect 
can be prevented by care and vigilance, and remedies can be applied, 
though at very large expense, sometimes too costly for the value of 
the land. In this, as in many other evils, an ounce of prevention is 
worth a pound of cure. 

A study of the origin of the alkali shows that as a rule where water 
has been applied to lands in excessive quantities it has dissolved some 
of the valuable salts, and, seeping through the ground, has finally 
come to the surface perhaps a mile or more away. LEvaporating, the 
water has left its load of soluble material, for a time enriching the 
soil at this locality, as illustrated in the large crop growth for a short 
period. The process still continuing, the salt has accumulated to 
such an extent as to be visible. 

The remedy lies in two directions: 

First. In preventing excessive use of water, and, 

Second. In systematic drainage, to take away any excess of water. 

The first is mechanically the easiest, but from the human stand- 
point the most difficult, as it is impossible to convince the average 
newcomer, who first sees the wonderful results of irrigation, that it 
is possible to apply too much water and to ruin his own or his 
neighbor’s field. 

He can not see that he is washing out slowly but surely the con- 
stituents of the soil which are vital to his continued success. It 
requires a careful analysis to show that these salts, which would cost 
him, say, $100 per acre to apply, can be quickly taken away by a little 
carelessness, and the true value of the land reduced. He is less 
willing to admit that the excess water which has drained or perco- 
lated from his land, carrying off what is valuable to it, is at the same 
time concentrating the salts in the soil of his neighbor until its value 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—NEWELL. 181 


is reduced in the opposite direction by becoming overloaded with 
what he has lost. 

e Lhe average experienced irrigator, seeing that something is wrong, 
and not recognizing that he himself is creating the mischief, clamors 
for drainage. If he could have his way he would develop a system 
of drains such that by having a steady stream of water flowing to the 
farm, there would be an almost equal stream flowing awdy, washing 
over or percolating through his soil. Such condition would result 
in a few years in leaching the land to a mere insoluble skeleton. 
This future contingency seems very remote in comparison with the 
ease and pleasure of having an abundant stream of water available 
at all times to turn to the fields or running out among his plants. 

These conditions are given at this time as illustrating the problems 
which are incident to the present stage of development of the recla- 
mation projects. On each of these a similar period of education of 
the individual and of the community must be passed through. There 
must be taught what is essentially a new art to men and women who 
have acquired experience along other lines. Many of the farmers 
must unlearn some of the things taught from boyhood, but as time 
goes on, and as experience is had in the new home and under the new 
climatic conditions, the importance of this matter gradually dawns 
upon the settler. As payments are made and the responsibilities of 
ownership become more deeply impressed, he sees the necessity of 
various regulations and becomes more ready to cooperate in the gen- 
eral welfare. 

The same lessons, however, must be learned on each of the projects, 
and although one group may have passed through bitter experience 
in losses through following wrong methods, another group must learn 
the same lesson in the same way. 


LOCATION OF WORKS. 


Reclamation projects, as before stated, have been begun in each of 
the Western States and Territories, and there is given in the follow- 
ing pages a review of the present condition of these, arranging the 
descriptive matter alphabetically by States, and giving concisely the 
physical features which are of interest or concerning which questions 
are usually asked by the student of engineering. The location of 
these projects is shown by the small map (fig. 1) which indicates by 
the heavy black spots the relative position and outline of the projects 
which are described. The structures are of all kinds and descriptions, 
and on each project there may be from 3,000 to 5,000 distinct pieces 


of work, these ranging from a great storage dam or tunnel, costing 
a million or two million dollars, down to the smaller diversion dams, 


headgates, flumes, bridges, culverts, and almost innumerable other 
minor works. These are scattered over an area of from 20 to 200 


182 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


miles in length, or even more. Each must be designed, built, watched, 
and maintained individually. 

In the description that follows only a few of the larger features 
are mentioned, and it must be borne in mind that on most of the 
projects there are hundreds of miles of small distributing ditches and 
thousands of minor works such as farmers’ headgates and flumes, 
each of which is important to some one man or group of men. but 


PAYETTE-BOISE 
tse * 
Ni 
‘ < 

G KLAMaT), <o 
A Pe 
aan )=- © alee a “—\ J MINIDOKA PATHFINDER 
RESERVOIR 

al 

‘ 


TRAWBERRY 
VALLEY RiytA a 


| 
GRAND VALLEY + 
a H 


sk 6 
UNCOMPAHGRE 
 ) VALLEY 


Fic. 1.—Principal irrigation projects in the western United States. 


which forms merely a part of the highly elaborate system of control- 
ling, diverting, and distributing the water. 

Arizona, Salt River Project.—The principal feature of this project 
is a storage dam at Roosevelt, Ariz. (pl. 3), creating a reservoir with 
an area of 25.5 square miles, and a capacity of 1,284,000 acres of 1 foot 
in depth. The Roosevelt Dam is of rubble masonry 280 feet high, 
235 feet long on the bottom, and 1,080 feet long on top. Its purpose 
is to regulate the flow of Salt River. When needed for irrigation 
the water is allowed to flow down the river from the dam for’ 40 miles, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 1. 


1. DESERT COVERED WITH SAGEBRUSH, ILLUSTRATING CONDITION OF LANDS BEFORE 
WATER IS APPLIED. 


2. IRRIGATED VALLEY AFTER SAGEBRUSH Has BEEN REMOVED AND WATER INTRODUCED. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. 


PLATE 2. 


1. TYPICAL SETTLER’S HOME, SHOWING CULTIVATION FOLLOWING IRRIGATION. 


2. ALKALI FLAT, FORMERLY VALUABLE Farm, Now RUINED BECAUSE OF CARELESS 
IRRIGATION. 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—NEWELL. 183 


where it is diverted by means of the Granite Reef Dam into two 
canals, one on each side of the river. These canals carry water by 
gravity to about 170,000 acres of land in the vicinity of Phoenix and 
Mesa. The Granite Reef Dam is a rubble concrete weir 38 feet high 
and 1,100 feet long. The irrigation system includes about 499 miles 
of canal. 

A power canal above Roosevelt Dam about 184 miles long, having 
a capacity of 225 second-feet, has been constructed and used to de- 
velop 4,500 horsepower which has been used by all the accessory 
plants incidental to the work of construction. On this line are tun- 
nels aggregating a total length of 9,780 feet. A power house and a 
transformer house have been constructed immediately below the dam, 
and the power developed is transmitted electrically about 80 miles 
down the valley, where it will be used to pump water from under- 
ground sources to extend the irrigable area to about 50,000 acres of 
high lands in the Gila Indian Reservation and in Salt River Valley, 
and for drainage purposes. A large amount of power will be avail- 
able for other purposes. A cement mill erected and operated by the 
Government furnished the cement used in the construction work, the 
dam alone requiring about 280,000 barrels. 

The lands under this project surround Phoenix, the capital of the 
State. The general elevation is 1,000 to 1,300 feet above sea level; 
temperature, maximum 120°; minimum, 20°; mean, 70°; rainfall, 
3 to 10 inches. The watershed area is 6,260 square miles, with an 
additional 6,000 square miles on Verde River. The average annual 
rainfall on watershed is from 10 to 20 inches, and the estimated 
annual run-off of watershed is 804,000 acre-feet at Roosevelt Dam and 
586,000 acre-feet from the Verde. The duty of water is 4 acre-feet 
per annum. 

The valley soil is an alluvial deposit of great fertility and adapted 
to the cultivation of a wide variety of crops, including those of the 
temperate and semitropical zones. The public lands in the project 
have all been filed on, but there are many large holdings of private 
lands which must be subdivided and sold to actual settlers, as no 
water right can be sold for more than 160 acres under the reclamation 
act. 

The Roosevelt Dam is now completed, and the remainder of the 
project will probably be completed by the end of the year 1912. 
Water is being furnished to about 131,000 acres of land and this area 
will be increased by several thousand acres during each succeeding 
season. During 1910 the beet-sugar industry has been proven a suc- 
cess in this valley, netting the growers handsome returns even under 
adverse conditions. Forage and grain crops, fruits, and vegetables 
of all kinds produce well and command high prices in the local 
markets. . 


184 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Arizona-California, Yuma Project—The diversion of the waters 
of Colorado River into two canals, one on each side of the river, 
is accomplished by means of Laguna Dam, a structure of the Indian 
weir type, about 10 miles northeast of Yuma, Ariz. This dam was 
completed in March, 1909. It is about 19 feet high, 4,780 feet long, 
and 260 feet wide up and down stream (pl. 4. fig. 1). By a unique 
arrangement at the headgates of the canals the waters of this muddy 
stream are drawn off comparatively clear. The distribution system 
consists of 100 miles of canals. A complete system of levees with a 
length of 734 miles has been constructed to protect the bottom lands 
from overflow, and a pumping system will be utilized to remove the 
surplus waters from the low-lying areas. 

On the Indian reservation on the California side of the river 173 
farm units were opened to entry on March 1, 1910, and during 1910 
many of the entrymen cleared and leveled their farms. The cost 
of the water right is $55, payable in not more than 10 annual install- 
ments, with an annual charge of $1 for operation and maintenance. 
There is also a charge of $10 as the price of the Indian lands, payable 
in not more than 10 annual installments. 

The bottom lands comprise 17,000 acres in the Yuma Indian Reser- 
vation in California, 20,000 acres in the Gila River Valley in Ari- 
zona, and 53,000 acres in Colorado River Valley in Arizona. When 
the system is extended to include the mesa or table lands south of 
Yuma and east of the bottom lands in Arizona, about 40,000 acres 
of practically frostless land will be available for the cultivation of 
oranges, lemons, grapefruit, limes, olives, vegetables, ete. 

The soil of the lowlands is a rich, alluvial deposit and produces 
very heavy crops when water is applied. Alfalfa, grains, vegetables, 
sugar beets, nuts, melons, fruits, cotton, cane, corn, etc., are grown. 

The watershed area is 160,000 square miles and the estimated an- 
nual run-off is 15,400,000 acre-feet. The lands lie at an elevation of 
100 to 300 feet above sea level, and the temperature ranges from 22° 
to 118° above zero. 

California, Orland project—The reclamation of 14,000 acres of 
land lying about 90 miles north of Sacramento is involved in this 
project. The lands when watered are fertile, although their use for 
many years for wheat growing has deteriorated them for ordinary 
agriculture. The soil is a gravelly loam, and with irrigation and 
the prevailing climatic conditions it has been demonstrated that the 
land is excellent for the production of alfalfa, nuts, including the 
almond and English walnut, and both citrus and deciduous fruits. 
The general elevation is from 175 to 380 feet above sea level; the 
temperature, maximum, 120°; minimum, 26°; average annual rain- 
fall on the irrigable lands, 17 inches. The duty of water is 3 to 34 
acre-feet per annum. The watershed area is 790 square miles. The 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 3. 


1. ROOSEVELT DAM, ARIZONA, AT THE TIME OF THE DEDICATION BY EX-PRESIDENT 
ROOSEVELT, MARCH, 1911. 


2. ROOSEVELT DAM, LOOKING DOWNSTREAM. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 4. 


1. LAGUNA DAM ON COLORADO RIVER, LOOKING FROM NEAR THE HEADGATES ON THE 
CALIFORNIA SIDE ALONG THE AXIS OF THE DAM TO ARIZONA. 


2. East PARK DAM ON ORLAND PROJECT, CALIFORNIA. CONCRETE STRUCTURE FOR 
REGULATING FLOODS. 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—NEWELL. 185 


average annual rainfall on the watershed is 25 inches, and the esti- 
mated annual run-off on watershed 548,000 acre-feet. 

The engineering features consist of a storage reservoir controlled 
by the East Park Dam on Stony Creek, at a point about 40 miles 
above Orland (pl. 4, fig. 2), and a diversion dam situated at Miller 
Buttes for turning water into two canals, one on each side of the 
creek, covering lands in the vicinity of Orland. The storage dam is 
of concrete masonry, gravity section, 139 feet high from bedrock, 60 
feet long on the bottom and 250 feet long on top. The canal sys- 
tem includes 25 miles of main canal and 80 miles of laterals. The 
farmers are pledged to dispose of their holdings in excess of 160 
acres to bona fide settlers under the terms of the reclamation act. 

Colorado, Grand Valley Project.—This is planned to irrigate about 
538,000 acres of land in Mesa County, Colo. The work involves the 
construction of a diversion dam in Grand River, about 60 miles of 
main canal, with a series of short tunnels on the first few miles of 
canal having an aggregate length of about 20,000 feet. It is probable 
that considerable power will be developed at drops in the canal, and 
used to pump water to elevations above the main canal. 

The average elevation of the irrigable area is 4,700 feet above sea 
level; the temperature ranges from 15° below to 100° above zero, and 
the rainfall on the irrigable area is from 6 to 11 inches annually. 
The watershed area is 8,550 square miles. 

The soil is largely red mesa sand, black bottom sandy loam, and 
adobe. The apple and peach orchards of the Grand Valley bottom 
lands are famous, the crops sometimes selling for more than $1,000 
per acre per annum. Strawberries and cantaloupes are usually grown 
between the rows while the orchards are growing, also potatoes and 
other vegetables; alfalfa and sugar beets are also grown. 

Colorado, Uncompahgre Valley Project.—Here the waters of Gun- 
nison River are diverted by means of a tunnel 30,645 feet in length, 
cross section 10 by 11 feet, cement lined, with a capacity of 1,300 
second-feet. The tunnel passes through the mountains to Uncom- 
pahgre Valley, where its water is used to supplement the local sup- 
ply and extend the irrigable area to about 140,000 acres of land. The 
tunnel was commenced in 1904 and carried water in 1910. There are 
330 miles of canals in the distributing system. 

The lands to be irrigated in Montrose and Delta Counties have a 
general elevation of 5,000 to 6,400 feet above sea level and the temper- 
ature ranges from 20° below to 98° above zero. The watershed area 
is 4,350 square miles, and the estimated run-off of watershed is 1,610,- 
000 acre-feet. The rainfall on the irrigable area is from 6 to 12 
inches, and the rainfall on the watershed ranges from 7 to 20 inches. 

The lands for which water is now available are mainly in private 
ownership. The farm unit varies from 40 to 80 acres, and the duty 


186 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of water is 4 acre-feet per annum at the farm. About 60,000 acres 
are suitable for raising apples and peaches.. Orchard lands produce 
as high as $500 per acre in the valley. The bottom lands, comprising 
from 80,000 to 90,000 acres, are adapted to the growing of alfalfa 
and sugar beets. 

Idaho, Boise project—When fully developed the Boise project 
will reclaim approximately 243,000 acres and will supplement the 
supply for about 79,000 acres of land in the fertile valleys of the 
Boise and Snake Rivers in southwestern Idaho. The general ele- 
vation is 2,500 feet above sea level, and the temperature ranges from 
28° below to 107° above zero. The thermometer rarely reaches zero, 
however, and freedom from wind marks the winter months. The 
summers are long, sunshiny, and warm, and with irrigation promote 
the most rapid vegetable growth. The soil is largely of volcanic 
origin, free from rocks, easily worked, and rich in the necessary 
mineral constituents. With rotation of crops and the addition of 
vegetable mold it becomes very productive. 

Farms in a good state of cultivation produce 3 to 8 tons of alfalfa 
per acre in three cuttings, 2 to 5 tons of clover, 50 bushels of wheat, 
and 75 bushels of oats. After the last cutting the fields furnish 
pasturage. Both clover and alfalfa seed yield good crops. Apples, 
prunes, and small fruits produce well and are shipped in quantities 
to eastern markets. Sugar-beet culture is also profitable. 

Storage reservoirs on the headwaters of the Boise River are 
necessary and are being built. A diversion dam (pl. 5, fig. 1) has 
been completed on Boise River, 8 miles above Boise, diverting water 
into a canal irrigating lands under it and supplying Deer Flat reser- 
voir in the vicinity of Nampa, which has a capacity of 186,000 acre- 
feet. The watershed area of the Boise River is 2,610 square miles; 
the average annual rainfall on watershed is 25 inches, and the 
estimated annual run-off of watershed is 2,190,000 acre-feet. The 
average rainfall on the irrigable area is 12.7 inches. 

Idaho, Minidoka project—The irrigable area under the Mini- 
doka project consists of about 76,700 acres under a gravity system 
and 48,000 acres under a pumping system. The lands le on both 
sides of Snake River, in the southern part of Idaho, in Lincoln and 
Cassia Counties. 

The works include a diversion, power, and storage dam on Snake 
River at a point about 6 miles south of Minidoka, Idaho, and two 
canal systems (pl. 5, fig. 2), one on each side of the river, heading at 
the diversion dam and covering lands in the vicinity of Acequia, 
Rupert, Heyburn, and Burley. Power is developed at the diversion 
dam for generating electrical energy for pumping water to lands on 
the south side of the river too high to be reached by a gravity system. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 5. 


2. MAIN NORTHSIDE CANAL, MINIDOKA PROJECT, IDAHO, TYPICAL OF THE LARGER IRRI- 
GATION CANALS, WITH POWER TRANSMISSION LINES LOCATED ON THE BANK. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 6. 


1. PORTION OF RECLAIMED DESERT, SHOWING ONIONS RAISED FOR SEED ON THE HUNTLEY 
PROJECT, MONTANA, FORMERLY PART OF THE CROW INDIAN RESERVATION. 


2. Crop oF ALFALFA ON SUN RIVER PROJECT, MONTANA, ON LANDS ORIGINALLY DESERT. 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—-NEWELL. 187 


The dam has a height of 86 feet and a length of 736 feet and is of the 
earth and rock fill type. It has a spillway 2,385 feet long. The 
distribution systems include 513 miles of canals. The power and 
transmission lines will have a length of from 13 to 20 miles. 

The soil is sandy loam and volcanic ash fairly free from alkali, 
and exceedingly fertile. The sandy soil is particularly adapted to 
the raising of alfalfa, potatoes, beet and other root crops, as well 
as melons, strawberries, etc. It is also especially adapted to the 
cultivation of sugar beets. 

The general elevation is 4,200 feet above sea level. There is an 
ample water supply. The watershed area is 22,600 square miles, and 
the estimated annual run-off is 8,000,000 acre-feet. The average 
annual rainfall on the irrigable area is 14 inches. 

The cost of water right is $22 and $30 per acre, payable in 10 
annual installments, and the operation and maintenance charge for 
1910 was 75 cents per acre for the gravity system. The building, 
operation, and maintenance charges for the high areas to which water 
must be pumped have not been fixed. 

Kansas, Garden City project—This project consists of a pumping 
system for the recovery of underground waters, which are delivered 
into a conduit leading to a distributing canal known as “ The Farm- 
er’s Ditch.” The plant consists of 23 small pumping stations, each 
operated electrically from a central power station. There are 10,- 
677 acres of irrigable land lying in the vicinity of Garden City on the 
north side of Arkansas River. The soil is a rich prairie loam capa- 
ble of high cultivation and adapted to the raising of grain, sugar 
beets, cantaloupes, alfalfa, and other crops of the plains region. The 
average elevation of the area under this project is 2,925 feet, and the 
temperature ranges from 20° below to 105° above zero. The water- 
right charge is $37.50 per acre of irrigable land, and the farmers are 
also required to pay an annual maintenance and operation fee which 
at present amounts to $2.75 per acre. The project has not been a 
success because of the failure of the farmers to economically use the 
relatively expensive water. 

Montana, Blackfeet project—This was planned for the reclamation, 
of 50,000 acres of land in the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, Mont., 
and the ultimate reclamation of 133,000 acres total under five pro- 
posed canals. The first construction involves the diversion of water 
from the left bank of Two Medicine River immediately below the 
confluence of Little Badger Creek and carrying this to lands in the 
east-central portion of the reservation, east of the town of Cut Bank. 
These lie at an elevation of approximately 3,850 feet, and the tempera- 
ture ranges from 40° below zero to 100° above. The soil is a sandy 
loam, producing abundantly with sufficient moisture. The average 
rainfall is about 16 inches, but varying materially. Some hay and 


188 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


grain and excellent pasturage are produced without irrigation. The 
main canal and a portion of the distribution system of the Two Medi- 
cine unit were the first completed. 

Montana, Flathead project—tIrrigation works for the land allot- 
ted to the Indians and for such additional lands as may be opened to 
entry are being constructed on the Flathead Indian Reservation in 
Montana. Upward of 150,000 acres will be covered by the eight 
principal canals and several minor systems. Construction work has 
been in progress to cover three units—the Jocko unit, comprising 
6,000 acres; the Polson unit, 3,000 acres; and the Mission unit, 6,000 
acres. The canals for the Jocko north side unit have been com- 
pleted; also for additional 2,000 acres on the Jocko south side unit 
and for the Mission unit of 6,000 acres. The allotments of lands to 
the Indians have been made and the remaining lands, which may be 
irrigated from the canals being constructed primarily for the Indian 
allotments, have been entered. 

The average elevation of the land is about 2,800 feet above sea level, 
and the temperature ranges from 30° below zero to 96° above. The 
soil is clay, forest loam, and gravelly loam, and fair crops of hay, 
grain, and fruits are usually produced without irrigation, the average 
annual rainfall being about 15 inches. With irrigation, alfalfa and 
all kinds of grains, vegetables, and fruits in variety peculiar to this 
altitude are produced in abundance. 

Montana, Huntley project—About 30,000 acres of irrigable land, 
located along the south side of Yellowstone River, have been re- 
claimed, these being formerly a part of the ceded strip of the Crow 
Indian Reservation. Settlers are required to pay $4 per acre to the 
Indians—$1 at the time of entry and 75 cents annually for four 
years, beginning with the second year. In addition to this the Gov- 
ernment charges the settler the cost of building the irrigation works, 
which is $30 per acre, payable $3 per acre per annum for 10 years. 
A further annual charge of 60 cents per acre for operation and main- 
tenance is made. 

The general elevation of this part of Montana is 3,000 feet above 
sea level; its climate is mild and the soil, varying from light sandy 
loam to heavy clay, produces abundant crops when properly wa- 
tered. The principal products are alfalfa, forage, cereals, sugar 
beets, vegetables, apples, and small fruits. The farm units vary 
from 40 to 160 acres, depending upon location, and average 40 acres 
of irrigable land. The irrigated land in this vicinity sells from $75 
to $200 per acre, according to the state of cultivation and the crops 
grown. 

The engineering works consist of a system of canals having a 
length of 268.5 miles, delivering water to each farm. The head- 
works, culverts, and other structures are of reinforced concrete and 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—NEWELL. 189 


the three tunnels with an aggregate length of 2,654 feet are lined with 
cement. The pumping plant near Ballantine is a novel feature, as 
the drop of water from the main canal is made to lift a portion of 
the water to a higher level to supply the high-line canal. This is 
accomplished by means of vertical turbines and centrifugal pumps 
mounted on the same shaft, and the operation is nearly automatic. 

Montana, Milk River project—It is possible to reclaim about 
248,000 acres of land in the Milk River Valley between Chinook and 
Glasgow, in Chouteau and Valley Counties, Mont., of which about 
50 per cent is public land. The average elevation is 2,200 feet above 
sea level and the temperature varies from 45° below zero to 100° 
above. The soil is well adapted to the raising of hay, grain, vege- 
tables, alfalfa, sugar beets, and other products of the north temperate 
zone. The Dodson Dam on Milk River has been completed and water 
is being diverted into the canals on each side of the river, the south 
canal taking water to about 10,000 acres, covering lands extending 
from Dodson to Nelson Lake Reservoir. From here it is expected 
to construct another canal to cover lands toward Glasgow. 

In addition to the ordinary discharge of Milk River the water 
supply will be supplemented from St. Mary Lake. The discharge of 
St. Mary Basin will be stored and conducted by a canal 25 miles 
across the divide to the headwaters of Milk River. The engineering 
features involve storage and several diversion dams, 375 miles of 
main canal, and an extensive lateral system. 

Montana, Sun River project—The lands are located in Teton, 
Lewis and Clark, Chouteau, and Cascade Counties, about 25 miles 
from Great Fails. Sun River Valley is about 70 miles long and 
from 1 to 5 miles wide. The ultimate development of the project 
includes the reclamation of 276,000 acres of land. A compact body 
of 16,000 acres, known as the Fort Shaw unit, has been opened to 
entry and rapidly settled. 

The principal crops are alfalfa, hay, grain, vegetables, and sugar 
beets. The general elevation is 3,700 feet above sea level, and the 
temperature ranges from 40° below zero to 100° above zero. Fine 
grazing lands surround the project. The farm units vary from 40 
to 160 acres of land. Wherever practicable. a tract of grazing land 
is included in the farm unit. 

The watershed area consists of 850 square miles on Sun River and 
290 square miles on Deep Creek, and the estimated annual run-off 
is about 700,000 acre-feet. The average annual rainfall on the 
irrigable area is 12 inches. 

Farms under this project are obtainable under the homestead law, 
subject to the charge for water of $30 per acre of irrigable land in 
not more than 10 annual installments. At present the operation and 
maintenance charge is 50 cents per acre per annum, and the sum of 


190 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


$3.50 per acre is due and payable at the time of making entry. An 
interesting feature in connection with this project is the establish- 
ment of villages every 6 miles. In connection with the Fort Shaw 
unit already opened the villages of Fort Shaw and Simms have been 
established. 

Montana-North Dakota, Lower Yellowstone project—Water is 
diverted from Yellowstone River at a point 18 miles northeast of 
Glendive, Mont., and will ultimately irrigate about 65,000 acres of 
land, for 40,000 acres of which the works have been completed and 
the water is now available. Two-thirds of the lands to be irrigated 
are in Montana, the balance in North Dakota. 

The general elevation is 1,900 feet above sea level, and the temper- 
ature ranges from 30° below to 100° above zero. The soil is a deep 
sandy loam, easy to cultivate. Alfalfa, the great forage crop of the 
West, is especially adapted to the soil and climate. Small grains are 
raised with success and it is believed that sugar beets will be a profit- 
able crop. The average rainfall is 16 inches. Surrounding the proj- 
ect is one of the largest and best grazing areas in the United States, 
providing a fine range for vast numbers of cattle and sheep. An 
abundance of lignite for fuel is found throughout this section. 

The principal engineering features consist of a diversion dam on 
Yellowstone River 12 feet high and 700 feet long, 259 miles of canals, 
and the development of 290 horsepower. 

Nebraska- Wyoming, North Platte project.—This is about 100 miles 
north of Cheyenne, Wyo., extends along the North Platte River, and 
includes about 129,000 acres. The average elevation is 4,100 feet above 
sea level, and the temperature ranges from 25° below to 100° above 
zero. The average annual rainfall on the irrigable area is about 15 
inches. The soil is a sandy loam, quite free from alkali, and requir- 
ing 24 acre-feet of water per acre per annum. Alfalfa is the prin- 
cipal crop, but cereals, sugar beets, and potatoes are successfully 
grown. Excellent range country borders the irrigable lands in 
Wyoming. 

The farm unit has been fixed at 80 acres, and the building charge 
is $45 per acre. The watershed area is i2,000 square miles, and the 
estimated annual run-off of watershed at Pathfinder Dam is 1,370,000 
acre-feet. The principal engineering features consist of a storage 
dam forming what is known as the Pathfinder reservoir on the North 
Platte River, about 50 miles southwest of Casper, Wyo., a diversion 
dam 150 miles down the river at Whalen, Wyo. (pl. 7, fig. 1), and the 
interstate canal, 150 miles long. Total length of canals 598 miles. 
The Pathfinder Dam is a concrete rubble masonry arch 218 feet high 
and 432 feet long on top. It is completed and the reservoir has a 
capacity of 1,025,000 acre-feet. The diversion dam at Whalen is a 
reenforced concrete weir 29 feet high and 300 feet long. A diversion 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 7. 


1. DIVERTING DAM ON NORTH PLATTE RIVER FOR INTERSTATE CANAL, NEBRASKA- 
WYOMING. 


2. FLUME ON INTERSTATE CANAL, CROSSING SPRING CANYON, WYOMING. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 8 


1. CEMENT-LINED CANAL CARRYING WATER OF TRUCKEE RIVER TO CARSON RIVER, 
NEVADA. 


2. Diversion DAM AT LEASBURG, NEW MExiIco, ON RIO GRANDE, AND HEAD OF CANAL 
FOR MESSILLA VALLEY. 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—-NEWELL. 191 


dam is also planned to be constructed at Guernsey, Wyo., for divert- 
ing water into a canal to cover lands in Goshen Hole, in eastern 
Wyoming and western Nebraska, which are now withdrawn from 
entry. 

Nevada, Truckee-Carson project—This work in western Nevada 
is located in Churchill, Lyon, and Storey Counties. The first unit 
was opened in 1907, and lands are now subject to homestead entry. 
In addition to the land office filing fee each settler is required to pay 
$3 per acre annually for 10 years, without interest on deferred pay- 
ments. An annual maintenance fee of 60 cents per acre is charged 
in addition. The first payment of $3.60 per acre must be paid at the 
time of filing on the land. The farm unit is 80 acres. 

A dam has been built on Truckee River, near Wadsworth, to turn 
the flow of the stream into a canal 31 miles long (pl. 8, fig. 1), which 
carries the waters to Carson River. Here a diversion dam turns the 
waters as needed into two main canals. The first unit of this project 
includes more than 600 miles of canals and laterals, 50,000 feet of 
dikes, and the dams on the Truckee and Carson Rivers. The project 
in its entirety will irrigate about 260,000 acres of land and will in- 
volve the construction of several storage reservoirs and the develop- 
ment of power. 

The climate in this valley is mild; the elevation above sea level is 
about 4,000 feet, and the temperature ranges from zero to 105° above. 
It is so dry, however, that the extremes, which seldom occur, are not 
injurious. The average rainfall on the irrigable area is 4 inches per 
annum. ‘The soil is loam and volcanic ash, requiring 8 acre-feet of 
water per annum for each acre. The valley will produce the varie- 
ties of crops grown in the north temperate zone. Alfalfa, wheat, 
barley, and oats grow luxuriantly, and corn is also profitable. Pota- 
toes and garden vegetables do well and find a ready market in the 
near-by mining towns. 

The watershed area is 3,450 square miles, the annual] rainfall on 
the watershed 25 inches, and the estimated run-off 1,000,000 acre-feet. 

New Mewico, Carlsbad project—The principal works here include 
the reconstruction of canals and storage reservoirs on Pecos River, in 
Eddy County, built to irrigate about 20,000 acres of land. These 
lands are in private ownership, but several thousand acres are in- 
cluded in excess holdings. The price of these lands varies from $20 
to $60 per acre. The cost of water right is $31 per acre, payable in 
10 annual installments, and the annual maintenance and operation 
fee is $1.35 per acre. 

The general elevation is 3,100 feet above sea level, and the tempera- 
ture ranges from zero to 110° above. The soil is light and sandy. 
The principal crops in the valley are peaches, pears, apples, cherries, 
small fruits, alfalfa, cotton, sweet potatoes, celery, and garden truck. 


192 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Fodder, corn, cane, and milo maize produce good crops. Stock rais- 
ing is profitable, owing to the extensive range lands on the east and 
west, 

New Mewico, Hondo project—A reservoir has been built for the 
storage of the flood waters from the Hondo River, a tributary of the 
Pecos, to irrigate 10,000 acres of land in Chaves County near Ros- 
well. The general elevation is 3,750 feet above sea level. The soil 
requires about 24 acre-feet of water per annum. Alfalfa, corn, fruits, 
and vegetables produce abundantly when properly watered. 

New Mewxico-Texas, Rio Grande project—This international proj- 
ect includes the reclamation of 185,000 acres of land, 115,000 of 
which are in New Mexico, 45,000 in Texas, and 25,000 in Mexico, 
which are provided for by the treaty proclaimed January 16, 1907. 

The Leasburg Dam (pl. 8, fig. 2) for the first unit of the Rio 
Grande project is completed, diverting water for 25,000 acres in 
Mesilla Valley. It is of concrete, 600 feet long, with sluice and head 
gates. From the diversion dam 6 miles of canal were constructed 
to connect with the old Las Cruces Canal. 

The Engle Dam, which is planned to be constructed across the Rio 
Grande, opposite Engle, will be rubble concrete oravity type, 265 feet 
high, 1,480 feet long on top, and will create a reservoir 190 feet deep 
at its lower end and 45 miles long with a storage capacity of 2,538,000 
acre-feet. Work is being prosecuted rapidly. 

The general elevation is 3,700 feet above sea level, and the tempera- 
ture ranges from zero to 100° above. The average annual rainfall on 
the irrigable area is 9.5 inches. The soil requires about 25 acre-feet 
of water per acre per annum. It produces abundant crops when sufli- 
cient water is applied, the principal products being alfalfa, corn, 
fruit, vegetables, and melons. 

The watershed area is 37,000 square miles and the estimated 
annual run-off is 860,000 acre-feet. 

North Dakota pumping projects—On account of the slight fall of 
Missouri River gravity canals were not feasible, and pumping was 
resorted to with power generated with lignite coal, deposits of which 
are found in this vicinity on Government land. The power plant is 
located near one of the coal outcrops, the fuel being mined and 
delivered by gravity to the boilers. The power is converted to elec- 
tricity and transmitted to the various pumping stations, some of 
which are 28 miles distant. On account of the unstable character of 
the river banks the pumps have been placed on floating barges con- 
nected to the shore by flexible pipes. The water is pumped to set- 
tling basins from which canals carry it over the lands. 

The Williston unit includes about 8,000 acres of bench and valley 
lands surrounding Williston, but the system may be enlarged to 
cover 12,000 acres, The general elevation is 1,875 feet above sea level, 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—-NEWELL. 193 


and the temperature ranges from 45° below to 107° above zero. The 
soil of the bottom lands is a heavy clay, but the bench lands are a 
rich sandy loam, requiring 2 acre-feet of water per acre per annum. 
The principal crops grown are wheat, flax, and oats. Alfalfa is 
profitably grown for winter feed, and sugar beets are likely to become 
an important crop. Small fruits do well, and dairy farms and mar- 
ket gardens are needed. 

The building charge on this project has been fixed at $38 per acre 
of irrigable land, payable in not more than 10 annual installments, 
each not less than $3.80 per acre. An additional annual charge of 
70 cents per acre is also required for operation and maintenance, and 
50 cents per acre-foot of water actually pumped and delivered for 
irrigation in any one year. 

The Buford-Trenton area embraces about 12,500 acres of bench 
and bottom lands bordering the north bank of the river for about 
20 miles east of the Montana-North Dakota State line, and lying 
along the Great Northern Railroad. Water is now available for 
4,000 acres. Power for the pumps on this project is developed at 
- the main power station at Williston and is transmitted electrically 
over a transmission line 28 miles long. 

Oregon, Umatilla project—This is located 190 miles east of Port- 
land, Oreg., in Umatilla County, and contains about 25,000 acres of 
irrigable land bordering upon Columbia River along Umatilla River. 

The engineering works include a storage reservoir having a ca- 
pacity of 50,000 acre-feet, supplied with flood water by an inlet 
canal from the Umatilla River (pl. 9, fig. 1). There are 138 miles of 
distributing canals. The farm unit on public lands is limited to 40 
acres, and the majority of farms are 10 to 20 acres in area. The total 
building charge is $60 per acre, and the annual operation and mainte- 
nance at present is $1.30 per acre. The land to be irrigated all lies at 
an average elevation of 470 feet above sea level. Climatic conditions 
are favorable for the early ripening and marketing of small fruits, 
for which the soil is especially suited, as well as for the raising of 
all kinds of deciduous fruits. Alfalfa is profitably grown, but the 
land is too valuable for pasture crops. Not only is the land fertile 
in a high degree, and the climate such as will permit of the raising 
of high-priced crops, but the transportation facilities are of the best. 

The watershed area is 1,610 square miles, the average rainfall on 
watershed is 20 inches, and the estimated annual run-off 530,000 acre- 
feet. The average annual rainfall on the irrigable area is 9 inches. 

Oregon-California, Klamath project—This differs from the other 
undertakings in that there has already been provided by nature a 
large storage reservoir, the Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon, situ- 
ated at an altitude above that of most of the irrigable lands. Water. 


97578°—sm 1910——13 


194 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


is taken from this by means of a tunnel (pl. 9, fig. 2) through a low 
range of hills and carried out by gravity to the fertile areas sur- 
rounding the lakes lying at lower altitude. The canals may be ex- 
tended into areas in the northern end of California. 

The lower lakes or marshes are supplied in part by waters origi- 
nating in California, which flow northerly into Oregon. By storing 
the floods near the headwaters these lower lakes may be reduced 
in area and the available lands thus uncovered may be irrigated 
by the waters from Upper Klamath Lake. The project has many 
ramifications, waters derived from Oregon being used to irrigate 
lands in California, and vice versa. The first unit of approximately 
30,000 acres has been placed under irrigation at a cost of $30 per 
acre. 

The general elevation of the irrigable area is 4,100 feet above sea 
level. The temperature ranges from 5° below zero to 100° above. 
The soil is exceedingly fertile, being decomposed basalt mingled with 
lake-bottom deposits. The duty of water is 1.8 acre-feet per acre per 
annum. The principal crops grown are alfalfa, wheat, oats, barley, 
rye, vegetables, and some deciduous fruits; potatoes are an important 
crop. The climate is especially adapted to dairying and stock rais- 
ing, and forage crops grow to perfection. 

The entire watershed area is 3,700 square miles, and the estimated 
run-off 2,124,000 acre-feet. The annual average rainfall on the 
watershed area is 20 inches, but the rainfall on the irrigable area is 
only 15 inches. 

South Dakota, Belle Fourche project.—The engineering work on 
this project has resulted in the construction of one of the largest 
earth embankments in the country, built in a depression occupied by 
Owl Creek. It is 115 feet high, 20 feet wide on top, and more than a 
mile long (pl. 10, fig. 2). The reservoir thus created will be filled 
with water by an inlet canal (pl. 10, fig. 1) from the Belle Fourche 
River and will be the largest lake in the State. The watershed area 
is 4,270 square miles, the average annual rainfall on watershed 20 to 
30 inches, and the estimated annual run-off 363,000 acre-feet. 

When completed this project will reclaim about 100,000 acres of 
land lying north and northeast of the Black Hills. Water is now 
available for about 47,000 acres. The farm unit on public lands is 
80 acres, except within 2 miles of townsites, where it is 40 acres. 
Settlers are required to pay a building charge of $30 per acre and an 
annual charge of 40 cents per acre for operation and maintenance. 

The average elevation is 2,800 feet above sea level. The climate is 
delightful, with little snow in winter, the temperature ranging from 
20° below to 95° above zero. As in other parts of the arid region, 
the sensible temperature does not vary as widely owing to the dryness 
of the atmosphere. Fruits, such as apples, cherries, plums, and small 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 9. 


i ae 
eee eb teste 


are eae 


2. CONCRETE-LINED CANAL AND TUNNEL TAKING WATER FROM UPPER KLAMATH LAKE, 
OREGON. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 10. 


1. DAM IN BELLE FOURCHE RIVER, DIVERTING THE STREAM INTO FEED CANAL FOR OWL 
CREEK RESERVOIR, SOUTH DAKOTA. 


2. EARTHEN DAM FOR OWL CREEK RESERVOIR, BELLE FOURCHE PROJECT, SOUTH DAKOTA. 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—-NEWELL. 195 


fruits, do well, especially on the higher portions of the project near 
the bluffs, and potatoes can be raised on the south side of the river, 
where the soil is more sandy. The main crop, however, is alfalfa 
and native hay for use as winter feed, the great number of cattle and 
sheep summer pastured on the open range surrounding the project 
creating a demand for alfalfa. The fruits and vegetables raised on 
the project are sold to the mining camps in the Black Hills. 

Utah, Strawberry Valley project.—This provides for the irrigation 
of about 60,000 acres of land in Utah and Wasatch Counties, on the 
eastern shore of Utah Lake. The water supply will be obtained 
from a storage reservoir to be built in Strawberry Valley, about. 30 
miles east of the irrigable area. By means of a tunnel (pl. 11, fig. 1) 
about 34 miles (19,200 feet) long the stored waters will be carried 
through the mountains and emptied into Spanish Fork, from which 
a canal 18 to 20 miles long will convey them to the irrigable area. 
Power created from the high-line canal is now transmitted electrically 
to the tunnel for drilling, and later will be utilized to pump water to 
lands above the gravity system and for drainage of low-lying lands. 

The lands have an elevation of about 4,600 feet, and the tempera- 
ture ranges from —10° to 95°. Alfalfa, hay, cereals, sugar beets, 
fruits, and vegetables are grown. Settlers are getting ready to plant 
orchards as soon as water is available. The existing canals are being 
enlarged to form part of the Government system. 

The watershed area is 870 square miles, the annual rainfall on 
watershed 45 inches, and the estimated annual run-off 168,000 acre- 


feet. 

Washington, Okanogan project.—The most interesting engineering 
feature is a storage dam 64 feet high and 1,000 feet long, built by the 
hydraulic fill process, forming a reservoir with a capacity of 13,000 
acre-feet. The watershed area is 150 square miles, the average an- 
nual rainfall on watershed 17 inches, and the estimated annual run- 
off 37,000 acre-feet. The annual rainfall on the irrigable area is 
8 inches. 

This project is designed to supply water to 10,000 acres of land in 
Okanogan County, Wash. The soil is decomposed basalt, sand, and 
gravel, and is very fertile. Grain, hay, fruit, nuts, and vegetables 
are grown, but the principal crop is apples. The elevation of the 
land is about 1,000 feet above sea level. The temperature ranges 
from —10° to 105°. In the history of 20 years of fruit growing in 
the valley frost has not seriously injured the crops, and there has 
never been a failure with apples, peaches, plums, prunes, apricots, 
pears, cherries, nectarines, grapes, or any variety of small berries 
grown there. 

On account of the possibilities of high development in this section 
the farm unit has been fixed at 40 acres. The building charge is 


196 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


$65 per acre of irrigable land, and the operation and maintenance 
charge at present amounts to St, 50 per acre per annum. 

Washington, Yakima project—On the eastern side of the Cascade 
Mountains in the State of Washington is a succession of valleys in 
the upper part of the drainage basin of the Yakima River. It is 
estimated that with storage the water supply is sufficient for about 
460,000 acres of land. Dams are being built at the outlets of several 
mountain lakes, the capacity of which when ultimately deyeloped, 
will total 930,000 acre-feet. The development of a comprehensive 
system of irrigation in Yakima Valley will be accomplished by the 
successive construction of several units of a general project, the work 
being gradually extended to embrace the entire irrigable area. 

Tieton unit: The lands under this unit are in Yakima County, near 
the city of North Yakima. The engineering features are difficult and 
expensive. For 12 miles the main canal (pl. 11, fig. 2) is constructed 
along the steep sides of the Tieton Canyon, and in five places the can- 
yon walls are tunneled, the total length of the tunnels being more than 
2 miles. The lands to be pilaueed are rolling and the distribution 
system is also expensive. In order to replace in the Naches River 
the water needed to supply prior appropriations, it was necessary for 
the Government to construct storage works at Bumping Lake, Wash., 
on the headwaters of that stream. The lands in the vicinity, not 
more favorably situated for fruit raising, range in value from $300 
to $1,000 per acre. The elevation is from 1,300 to 2,100 feet above 
sea level and the temperature ranges from —21° to 102°. Although 
a great variety of crops could be grown the lands are so valuable 
that it is probable the principal crops will be fruit and hops. 

Sunnyside unit: The first unit of this system is now available 
for 11,590 acres of land in addition to the 40,000 acres under the 
old canal. The cost of water right is $52 per acre, payable in not 
more than 10 annual installments, and the operation and mainte- 
nance charge at present is 95 cents per acre of irrigable land. Work 
on the system consists of the enlargement and extension of the exist- 
ing Sunnyside Canal, which was purchased by the Government for 
incorporation in a more complete system. The extension of this 
will cover more than 50,000 acres of new land. The average eleva- 
tion is 700 feet above sea level, and the temperature ranges from 
—21° to 110°. The soil requires 3 acre-feet of water per acre per 
annum. The farm unit is 40 and 80 acres of irrigable land. For- 
age, hops, vegetables, and fruits are grown. The orchards of 
Yakima Valley are famous for their yields of fine fruits. 

Wapato unit: The irrigable lands under this unit are in the 
Yakima Indian Reservation. There are about 116 000 acres suscep- 
tible of irrigation, 15,000 acres of which are now receiving water 
during high-water periods through canal systems constructed for 


PRATER til 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. 


5 


TT Tne ap. 


2. CONCRETE FLUME BUILT IN SHORT SECTIONS FOR MAIN TIETON CANAL, YAKIMA 
PROJECT, WASHINGTON. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Newell. PLATE 12. 


SHOSHONE DAM, WYOMING. 


RECLAMATION OF ARID LANDS—-NEWELL. 197 


the Indians. The soil and transportation facilities are excelient. 
For the reclamation of these lands the plans provide for the en- 
largement of the old and new reservation canals which were built 
with tribal funds, the building of other canals and laterals, and 
the storage of over 200,000 acre-feet of water in Yakima lakes. 

Kittitas unit: This unit on which no work has been done con- 
templates the irrigation of land in the vicinity of Ellensburg. A 
canal 90 miles long will bring water from the Yakima River just 
above Easton. The growing season is somewhat shorter here than 
in the lower valleys, but the lands are well adapted to diversified 
farming. This is the dairying section of eastern Washington, and 
the soil and climate are favorable for the growing of cereals, timothy, 
vegetables, and winter apples. 

Wyoming, Shoshone project.—The most striking feature is an im- 
pounding dam at the head of the canyon of the Shoshone River in 
northern Wyoming, storing the waters for the irrigation of about 
155,000 acres of land. This dam (pl. 12), the highest in the world, 
was completed in the winter of 1909-10. It is 328.4 feet high from 
bedrock to top of parapet walls, 108 feet thick on the bottom, and 
only 200 feet long on top. The reservoir created by it has an area 
of 6,600 acres and a capacity of 456,000 acre-feet. The diversion dam 
at Corbett, which turns the waters of the river through a tunnel 34 
miles long into the main canal, is a reenforced concrete masonry 
structure 18 feet high and 400 feet long. The watershed area is 1,380 
square miles, the average annual rainfall on watershed 15 inches, and 
the estimated annual run-off is 1,150,000 acre-feet. The rainfall on 
the irrigable area is from 6 to 10 inches. The elevation is about 4,500 
feet above sea level, and the temperature ranges from —30° to 95° 
The climate is dry and agreeable and the light soil produces abun- 
dantly when water is applied. Alfalfa, hay, wheat, oats, barley, and 
vegetables can be grown; also potatoes, sugar beets, and fruits. 
Large numbers of cattle and sheep are pastured on the surrounding 
ranges during the greater part of the year, but require feeding in the 
winter months, so that there is always a good home market for hay. 

The farm unit varies from 40 to 80 acres of irrigable land. The 
building charge is $46 per acre of irrigable land, payable in 10 annual 
installments. The annual maintenance and operation charge at pres- 
ent is $1 per acre, one-tenth of the building charge, and one year’s 
maintenance charge, or $5.60 per acre are due at the time of filing. 

The surrounding mountains are covered with spruce and fir and 
supply the farmers with timber and the stockmen with summer range. 
Coal mines located in the vicinity supply cheap fuel for domestic and 
manufacturing purposes. Well water of good quality is found at 
depths varying from 30 to 50 feet. 


198 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 
SUMMARY. 


Summarizing the foregoing statements, it may be said that during 
the nine years from 1902 to 1911 projects have been constructed in 
each of the arid States and two Territories, shown on the map on 
page 182, and water provided for nearly 1,000,000 acres, of which 
about one-half is now in use. The engineering works on the whole 
are completed well ahead of the actual utilization of these. 

These statements are sufficient to show that the reclamation act has 
been a success; that the money invested is coming back; and that the 
great object, above and beyond the financial returns, is being reached, 
namely, that of providing opportunities for homes for American 
citizens, 


ELECTRIC POWER FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.* 


[With 8 plates.] 


By CursterR M. CLARK. 


In the Mississippi Valley, about 140 miles above St. Louis, there 
is being built a hydroelectric plant to utilize for industrial purposes 
the immense natural power of the Mississippi River. Unless before 
its completion in July, 1913, some other plant is constructed, pro- 
pelled by a force greater for electric generating purposes than the 
steady flow of this great stream, the Mississippi River Power Co. 
will have at its command, it is believed, one of the most potent single 
hydroelectrical developments so far created. Its ultimate generative 
capacity is to be over 200,000 delivered horsepower. As part of this 
development there is being thrown across the river between Keokuk, 
Towa, and Hamilton, Ill., a dam, which, so far as appears to be of 
record, will be the longest bank-to-bank river-dam yet built of solid 
masonry. 

An undertaking of such magnitude, besides marking a step in in- 
dustrial development, involves engineering features of peculiar in- 
terest. Before attempting to set these forth, however, a few words 
as to the history of the project may not be out of place. 


HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT. 


As far back as 1848 there was organized what was called the Mis- 
sissippi River Improvement Association, with a capital of $1,000,000, 
to improve navigation and harness the water power that might be 
developed in the process. Nothing definite is of record as having 
been accomplished toward this object for many years thereafter, 
except in the nature of preliminary observation. An examination of 
the geologic structure of the river bed was made. Along in 1868 


1In rendering available statistics and other data for this article thanks are due Mr. 
Hugh L. Cooper, of New York, prime mover in the enterprise, now in direct charge of the 
hydraulic construction of the development. 
199 


200 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910, 


there were begun by the United States Government daily observa- 
tions, which it appears have been continued, almost without break, 
to the present year. 

Nothing in the nature of a definite enterprise was undertaken, 
however, until on April 18, 1900, several citizens of Keokuk, Iowa, 
and Hamilton, Ill., met at the State Bank of Hamilton and finally 
organized a company to develop and utilize the water power of the 
Des Moines rapids and to obtain the necessary grants for such pur- 
pose from the Congress of the United States and from the States of 
Illinois and Iowa. The organizers of the Keokuk & Hamilton 
Water Power Co. directed their first efforts to obtaining a charter 
from Congress, which was granted on February 8, 1901, as public bill 
No, 48. This act gave the right to construct, operate, and maintain 
a canal along the east bank of the Mississippi River between Nauvoo 
and Hamilton, IIl.; to erect, construct, operate, and maintain a power 
station in connection therewith; to erect, construct, operate, and 
maintain a wing dam 500 feet into the river from the head of the 
canal; and to make such other dams and improvements as might be- 
come necessary within said limits for the development of water 
power and the generation, transmission, and use therefrom of elec- 
trical energy and power. Nauvoo, noted as the seat of the first Mor- 
mon temple, is beautifully located on high ground about 12 miles 
above Keokuk on the opposite side of the river, and is at the head of 
the Des Moines rapids. The river at this point is about 1 mile wide. 
The building of a short dam 500 feet long into the river to gather 
water for a canal 12 miles long, extending down to Hamilton, IIL, 
it is estimated would not have permitted the development of more 
than 10,000 horsepower. 

This project was not carried out. In its place there grew the 
idea of a development which, while utilizing for power purposes 
the entire energy of the Des Moines Rapids, would at the same time 
transform navigation possibly as difficult as anywhere along the 
Mississippi into comparatively safe and convenient water transporta- 
tion. Instead of a wing dam there was substituted a concrete struc- 
ture running entirely across the river from the bluffs of Keokuk to 
the bluffs of Hamilton and the construction in connection therewith 
of a single lock and dry dock and a power station capable of utilizing 
the full force of the flow. 

This new plan was indorsed by the Mississippi. River Improve- 
ment Association and by the Mississippi River Pilots’ Association. 
Acting under authority contained in the river and harbor bill 
passed by Congress and approved June 13, 1902, the Secretary of 
War appointed a commission, of which Lieut. Col. Hodges, United 
States Army, and Capt. Judson, United States Army, were mem- 


(LYVHO LNAWNYSAOD NO GALVOIGN| NVQ 30 NOILV9O7) “LNVI1d S09 YAMOd YIFAIY IddISSISsi|A] JO ALIS 40 LYVHD TVOIHdvebodo | 


[PUTS IS TROP Wy US BONER ASO SNOT YT UO TES Ul SBuipess oDLTS PUL Sy 

NYOSH IS PTO HMPOPTT ST VU IO Vos FU WS PRE Se FUN] usySI KA 

‘ oat Say FO PUMTIPUTApder Bal UPNOIU! Plus Wen sens 43 Vor, oul 
TROP WH Fx0Ae 15 ToS h Se 


JTVOTs ONT MT WsoSe NAM 8 

SILI TENS = OTT OT PIT WROTIOG SOT OUT BURIS FAITE ISI AT UPTTER 

POTS TOY FUL FUT MUSA Pa WT BUSTS PAINT || TF HD'O {YT JO WS SA 

DY PERS IS PU MO MONT SES PUP IAM] OY UC Io PY WG HI IIT 
Seo se Mae wae UE Tey oue> 


Padge OY] IO Udy>seIpsyj Moe 

Oy Uy sy JospIs) ubG PU UO Pasyd aio Uys Sab) KG paicspul He UN 

FSWT Fy shoge SIA TUOT FUT IS SUONeATS BY HUA IAD PU’ TpUM Wd{\Oq PY 
UBTIese G99) FAY PUS SING BU US RS Hy UIT BIE Soul IMBIUaT BY] 
SAL oes I PAT Ay Uwsa MOG ea) Sie AiS{OW Im 

Bo poo sual euduaL We ebAee sesuibUy ST] eui Jo CudT Py] MISA {FA} 
PE Va! TT UM wuLld np FnduIS[y ey SACar 479] Ul UaAIB Iw SUDUEMATD 


Soe ea 
MOQ” paeoday abi 


ost 228 ¥ 5 7 a 75 * h| es 
BAY : Ca Gs 47e4 iG 
y == gaat 


12 © & 00g 


SSO 


OO0O0¢ =| AIWOS 


zesl 16170 


[681 Pue [eal UL apr 


APAANS [BI aULOUOSI4} © ULOdy pajyaafo4g 
9€T6N LYWHO dO NOLLHOd 


NOISSINWOD HAATY IddISSISsiN 


ayyjo UO}VI2IIIp 9Yy} JapuNn epuly is 308 


HAATY Idd ISSISSTN AIL st we 


10 AGAYAS 


“| 3LV1d H42IO—'0161 ‘Hoday ueiuosyziws 


“LL6OL ‘8g HOUVII SSHOHS WMO] WOYNS WVG 4O 3LIS JO MaIA IVuaNay 


‘6 3LV1d WRIO—O161 ‘Hodey uviuosyjims 


ELECTRIC POWER FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER—CLARK. 201 


bers. After public hearings and an investigation, the commission 
reported favorably on the project. 


AUTHORIZATION. 


In view of this favorable attitude and report, on April 21, 1904, 
a bill was introduced in Congress to secure the right to build a 
dam completely across the Mississippi at the foot of the Des Moines 
Rapids. This bill was favored by the legislature of the State of 
Illinois, which, on January 17, 1905, by joint resolution, memorial- 
ized Congress, urging its passage. The State Legislature of Iowa 
also indorsed the enterprise. On January 27, 1905, the bill passed 
the Lower House; on February 2, 1905, it passed the Senate; on 
February 9, 1905, it received the approval of President Roosevelt 
and became a law. 

This law was public act No. 65, entitled “An act granting to the 
Keokuk and Hamilton Water Power Co. rights to construct and main- 
tain for the improvement of navigation and development of water 
power a dam across the Mississippi River.” It provides: 


That the assent of Congress is hereby given to the Keokuk and Hamilton 
Water Power Company, a corporation created and organized under the laws 
of the State of Illinois, its successors, and assigns, to erect, construct, operate, 
and maintain a dam, with its crest at an elevation of from thirty to thirty-five 
feet above standard low water, across the Mississippi River at or near the foot 
of the Des Moines Rapids, from Keokuk, Iowa, to Hamilton, [llinois, and to 
construct, operate, and maintain power stations on or in connection with said 
dam, with suitable accessories for the development of water power, and the 
generation, use, and transmission therefrom of electric energy and power to be 
derived from the Des Moines Rapids on the Mississippi River. 


The United States Government had constructed in 1877, and was 
maintaining along the Iowa shore as an aid to navigation a dry dock, 
canal, and a series of three locks, the structure extending in all 114 
miles from Keokuk to a point below Fort Madison, but above the 
swiftest part of the rapids. The dock, canal, and locks had for 
years made feasible the only practicable river intercourse between 
points above and below the barrier. 

In order to continue this means of communication, and in order 
that the Government might receive a return for the perpetual fran- 
chise granted the company, there follows in the bill this proviso: 


That in lieu of the three locks and the dry dock, with their appurtenances, 
now owned and operated by the United States, at the Des Moines Rapids 
Canal, the said Keokuk and Hamilton Water Power Company shall build, coin- 
cidentally with the construction of the said dam and appurtenances, at locations 
approved by the Secretary of War, a lock and dry dock with their appurtenances ; 
the said lock shall be of such a kind and size, and shall have such appur- 
tenances and equipment as shall conveniently and safely accommodate the 


202 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


present and prospective commerce of the Mississippi River; the said dry dock 
and its appurtenances shall be such as to give space, facilities, and conven- 
iences for the repair of vessels at least equal to those afforded by the existing 
Government dry dock and shops at the Des Moines Rapids Canal. ~ 


Other conditions provide for further approval by the Secretary of 
War and upon completion place in the United States the ownership 
and control of the lock, dry dock, and their appurtenances, and the 
operation and maintenance thereof. 

As still further protection to navigation, and in the interest of 
tisheries, section 2 of the act requires: 


That the withdrawal of water from the Mississippi River and the discharge 
of water into the said river, for the purpose of operating the said power stations 
and appurtenant works, shall be under the direction and control of the Secre- 
tary of War, and shall at no time be such as to impede or interfere with the 
safe and convenient navigation of the said river by means of steamboats or 
other vessels, or by rafts or barges: Provided, That the said company shall 
construct such suitable fishways as may be required from time to time by the 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor. 


Under authority of this act, after the delay of preparing to finance 
the construction, in 1909 work was actually begun to continue until 
completion, it is estimated, some time before July 1, 1913. 

In direct charge of the hydraulic construction is Mr. Hugh L. 
Cooper, of New York. The Stone & Webster Engineering Corpora- 
tion, of Boston, has direct charge of the electrical installation, includ- 
ing the transmission and distributing lines. 


CHARACTER OF RIVER BED. 


The site of this dam and hydro-electric plant, as a glance at the 
map will show, is above the junctions with the Mississippi, of 
the Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois Rivers. It is at a point where 
the three States of Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois touch, 140 miles 
from Des Moines, 140 miles from St. Louis, and 220 miles from 
Chicago. 

The dam itself is being built upon a river bed of blue limestone in 
a region stable from a geological point of view. The surface of the 
river bed at this point is naturally clean and free from the cracks and 
fissures of rock of igneous origin. The average depth of the river 
at this point is from 5 to 6 feet and the variation is slight. 

Under an act of Congress July 25, 1866, a bridge joining Keokuk 
and Hamilton was built. This bridge crosses the river at a point 
1,066 yards below the location of the Keokuk Dam. The following 
description of the river bed in the vicinity of this bridge is taken 
from page 1006 of the Report of the Chief of Engineers, United 
States Army, for the year 1878, Part 2: 


ELECTRIC POWER FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER—-CLARK. 203 


The river in its natural condition at this place is about 2,600 feet in width at 
ordinary low water and about 5,500 feet in width at flood stages. The bed of 
the river is limestone, of the same character as that of the whole Des Moines 
Rapids, which extend from this place to Montrose, about 11 miles. 

On page 313 of Report of the Chief of Engineers, United States 
Army, for the year 1867, is found a description of the Des Moines 
Rapids, in which the following extract appears: 

This erosive action, though productive of such remarkable results, has not 
been carried sufficiently far to render the river through this part of its bed, 
available at all times for the purposes of navigation. From Fort Madison to 
Montrose, the river is about 2,500 feet wide, and sufficiently deep; but in the 
rapids its bed of limestone rock, which by some unknown cause seems to have 
been hardened to a greater degree than the corresponding stratum above and 
below the rapids, has resisted the action of the water, while its sides have given 
way. The result is that this mass of rock remains there, acting exactly as an 
artificial dam whose upper surface slopes about 22 feet in 11 miles, and con- 
forms very nearly to the plane of stratification of the rock through which the 
channel is cut. The bluffs extend along the banks of the river throughout the 
length of the rapids, presenting a rock escarpment at the present high water- 
mark with a sloping gravel beach to low water, and also another escarpment 
of rock at 105 feet above the present water level, having, likewise, a sloping 
beach at its foot. 


FLOW OF RIVER. 


Readings of the stage of the Mississippi River at various points 
have been made by the United States Government since 1868. These 
readings have been published as part of the records of the Missis- 
sippi River Commission and of the United States Weather Bureau. 
Besides reading the stage of the river the Government has, through 
the United States Army and the Mississippi River Commission, ob- 
served at various times and at various points the discharge of the 
water. The results of these discharge measurements also form part 
of the records of the Mississippi River Commission as well as of the 
United States Engineers. In addition to these, various observations 
have been taken under the direction of Mr. Cooper. For the purpose 
of determining the amount of power available all of the above ob- 
servations, and particularly those establishing a minimum flow, have 
been valuable. So far as is known to the engineers of the develop- 
ment, the lowest measured discharge was recorded by Montgomery 
Meigs, United States Civil Engineer, in September, 1891, when at a 
time that the commonly accepted low-water marks on Mechanics’ 
Rock, just above Keokuk, showed water lower than the record of 1864, 
there was observed a discharge of 21,389 cubic feet per second. Other 
observations of minimum discharge are shown in the tables which 
follow, being the lowest records of which the engineers of the de- 
velopment have authentic knowledge. 


204 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Measurements at Burlington, Iowa (40 miles above Keokuk). 


Stage of : ‘ 
Date. Sarmeces piece pita oor ype) Measurements made under direction of— 
gauge. 
1866. Feet. Sec.ft. 
Oct. 23 11.0 36,100 | Double floats.....- Lieut. G. K. Warren, United States Army. 
1879. 
May 2 1.8 37,900 |..... GO I5I. it?s. Maj. F. U. Farquhar, Corps of Engineers, United 
States Army. 
May 9 na ( BOR GOpiac Vasenar Do. 
Sept. 17 1.5 34,600 |.-... GOs aria aot Do. 
Oct. 4 Auf PA Ph ea Qee osetia oe Do. 
Oct. 10 8 Ze (QOM: sees GOs de seaeeee Do. 
1891. 
Sept. 16 “2 21,389 |.-.-. CO sec cess anes Montgomery Meigs, United States civil engineer. 
1907. 
Dec. 31 1. 42 27,386 | Rod floats.........| W. V. N. Powelson and Lieut. C. S. Bookwalter, 
1908. United States Navy. 
Jan. 30 1.45 2A; 755 ||--.-32 Gaense asec, 2 Do. 


1JIn 1866 there was no standard gauge at Burlington and this gauge reading is ap- 
proximate only as compared with the present gauge, which was established in 1872. 


The observations listed above, purposely selected as showing the 
least discharge of record, have led the engineers of the development 
to establish in their calculations a minimum discharge of 20,000 
second feet. Other observations of minimum discharge, made in 
1906 under the direction of Mr. Cooper by a current meter, may 
serve to show the safe margin of surplus power often available over 
the amount calculated on the basis of the above minimum. 


Measurements at Nashville, Iowa (6 miles above Keokuk). 


Stage of Stage of 
Dat the river, | Measured Date the river, | Measured 
: ashville ischarge. i ashville | discharge. 
: Nashville | discharg Nashville | disch 
gauge. gauge. 
1906. Sec.ft. 1906. Sec.-ft. 
Depy. (So -222 sees eeaeeeee 3.00 G3; SOON ISGRt Zon cr~ cncccestcce cel 3.05 69,700 
TD uP OS) Ss beens 3.05 GF 7OOF Got Rei. Lace LER 3.30 71,730 
TR ESE RRS SP SS 3.05 66, 100 Rosas saa ae dob ece se 3.10 62,120 
Rt Se er icet 3.05 68, 300 7 Re 3.00 65, 700 
aeednte eset core. 3.00 60, 400 Ls apes Reopen til Be 5 Bs 2.90 67,850 
19s 5 seer... Files s.. 3.00 60, 400 1805.2 Et 2. 55 61, 600 
PATE ey 6 SEBS Sa 2.95 68, 460 


The waters at Keokuk can not accurately be called turbulent. 
They are not hurled over hidden bowlders and irregular rock with 
the speed of a Niagara. The river has much less velocity and pre- 
sents rather the smooth appearance of water running down an in- 


“JONVLSIG NI WV¥GYS4SS0D ASNOH-YSMOd “LILGL ‘LL WYdy ‘SYOHS SIONITT| WOYNS Ma3IA TWHSaNa5 


Ue es 
E | y. rd pA a . a 'y 
= eee ee ee SS 
ECL ERE EE AERA CEES 
a es | 

AERA BELL 


7 


Sees 
"H12J}O—OL6| Hodey uejuosyyiws 


"INVUO YSASTLNVO PNIMOHS ‘LLGL ‘SL Teddy ‘Wvq JO DNINNIDSG ‘SYOHS SIONINI| 


“p ALVId *yIeJIO— 0161 ‘Hoday uBiuosyyWS 


ELECTRIC POWER FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER—CLARK. 205 


clined surface (pl. —). An observer with a short metal sounding 
rod can hear the clear ring of the solid rock bottom all the way 
across. The regularity of the bottom and the rock of which it is made 
are charted on the facsimile of the United States Government map 
shown opposite page 200. 

A well constructed concrete dam, power house, dry-dock, and lock 
on such foundations should last as long as the old Roman concrete 
work made of natural cement, a great deal of which has been standing 
2,000 years and is still in good condition’ where not destroyed by the 
hand of man. 


STORAGE OF WATER. 


In the interests of navigation below the dam, particularly during 
the open period from March to December in each year, there are 
certain restrictions placed upon the complete interruption of the 
fiow of the river. The Mississippi River Power Co., successor to the 
privileges and franchises of the Keokuk & Hamilton Water Power 
Co., is allowed to cut down the flow only during the night to 15,000 
cubic feet per second for two hours, 10,000 cubic feet per second for 
six hours and 5,000 cubic feet per second during the balance of the 
time between sunset and sunrise. If the wheels do not pass the above 
amounts then the deficiency must be made up by letting water 
through the gates. 

From an operating point of view these restrictions are not a gross 
handicap, for the storage of water during the night, when the load 
is light, will still be possible for use during the next day when the 
load is heavy. 

In backing up this water, the amount of which can of course be 
regulated as will be seen from the description of the dam construc- 
tion below, in the ultimate development, there will be formed a lake 
from 3 to 5 miles wide and about 40 miles long, overflowing the low- 
lands and thereby changing the topography of the country immedi- 
ately adjacent to the river. It will also submerge the Government 
canal mentioned above which is being supplanted by the new lock 
and dry dock. 


DETAILS OF THE DAM CONSTRUCTION. 


Resting on the solid river bottom described, the plant is being 
built out from the bluffs on either side almost a mile apart. The 
construction is handled by two distinct organizations—the Illinois 
division building the dam, the Iowa division the locks and dry dock. 
Each construction plant consists of a concrete-mixing plant, a stone- 
crushing plant, a central power plant supplying compressed air and 


206 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


electric current to the works, a machine shop, a carpenter shop, ware- 
houses for storing cement, warehouses for miscellaneous materials, 
and various other structures. ; 

The methods of construction, if not unprecedented, may at least be 
interesting to such as are not familiar with hydraulic engineering 
work: | 

A cofferdam consisting of a rectangular timber crib structure, 
loaded with stone and made water tight by means of clay puddle, 
is built around a section of the dam about 1,000 feet long. The 
water is then pumped out of this cofferdam. In this space thus 
pumped dry is excavated a trench in the solid rock, on which the 
dam is founded. The piers and arches forming the bridge and the 
bottom part of the dam between these piers are then built. After 
this the cofferdam is removed and another section is cofferdammed 
and the bridge built in the same way. This continues until the 
bridge is extended all the way from the Illinois shore to the junc- 
tion with the power house on the Iowa side. This will leave 119 
large openings between the bridge piers, through which the water 
passes unobstructed. These openings will finally be closed off, a 
few at a time, by means of steel gates, and the balance of the 
concrete part of the dam will be placed behind these steel gates, 
gradually raising the crest of the dam until it has reached its full 
height. 

The dam, including abutments, is being built 4,568 feet long, or 
about seven-eighths of a mile. The spillway section is 4,278 feet in 
length. The height above the river bed is about 32 feet and its base 
is 42 feet wide. The upstream face is vertical. The downstream 
face is an ogee curve, the upper portion a parabola over which the 
water will spill, the lower portion an arc of a circle which will throw 
the water away from the toe of the dam. On the top of the spillway 
are being placed the steel floodgates, one for each opening, 30 feet 
wide and 11 feet high, supported by concrete piers. These piers are 
6 feet thick and are built integral with the dam. The piers also 
support an arched bridge, from which the gates will be operated by 
electric hoists. By manipulating these gates the water above the 
dam may be maintained at a nearly constant level at all seasons. 

The dam is being built entirely of massive concrete without reen- 
forcement. It is being locked into the rock bed of the river by 
potholes and other excavations and is practically a monolith. All 
concrete, except at specially isolated places, is machine mixed, car- 
ried from the mixing plant to the point of use in large buckets by 
trains running on the completed portion of the dam, where a canti- 
lever crane picks up the buckets of concrete from the cars, carries 
them out and dumps the contents into the forms. 


“MONA WENLYN HLIM GANISWOD Y3LWM 40 3OVIYNG HLOOWS ATSAILVYVdWOD ONIMOHS ‘1161 ‘8% HONVIA| ‘SHOHS WMO] WONS HALVM 40 MalA YVAN 


“G 3LV1d *“H12ID—O16L ‘Hodey uBlUosyzIWS 


"dNNOYDSYOY NI IVNVO LNSWNYSAOD “LL6L ‘G WYdy ‘SYOHS VMO] ‘SLIG SSNOH-YSMOd HOS WVGHS4IIOO 3H1 ONIAGTING 


WW 


"9 3ALV1d *MIRIO— 0161 ‘Hodey uRiuosy}IWS 


ELECTRIC POWER FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER——-CLARK. 207 


In mixing the concrete three parts of a standard grade of quartz 
sand, taken from the natural deposits of the Des Moines River, 
2 miles south of Keokuk, is placed with one part of a standard 
grade of American Portland cement, and tempered with water. 
The stone to place with this mortar, available a few hundred 
feet from the end of the dam, is the run of crusher where the 
crusher jaws are set for standard 24-inch broken stone. The quan- 
tities of mortar and stone are such as to produce the maximum 
density and specific gravity. Mass rock is used in the body of the 
concrete work where any minimum dimension of the finished con- 
crete is 3 feet or over. The cubiture of such mass rock may vary from 
one-half cubic foot to 60 cubic feet, but all such rock deposited is 
thoroughly embedded in the concrete so as to form a complete union 
with the surrounding concrete, and stones are separated from one 
another in dimension by at least 12 inches. No mass rock is placed 
within 12 inches of any finished surface. 


POWER-HOUSE STRUCTURE. 


At the Iowa end of the dam, slanting downstream toward the lock, 
is being built the power house, 1,616 feet long and about 123 feet wide, 
the location of which is charted opposite page 200. The substructure 
is being built of massive concrete, in which are molded the water 
passage and water-wheel chambers. On top of this is planned the 
superstructure, a house of concrete brick and steel. The super- 
structure will contain the electric generators, transformers, and 
switchboards. The height of the power house from foundation to 
roof will be about 133 feet. 

In building the power house the method is to construct a cofferdam 
around the entire area in which the power house is built, inclosing 
approximately 37 acres. The water is pumped out of this inclosure, 
and the work of building proceeds in the space so unwatered. In 
connection with the power-house construction it is necessary to 
excavate a large amount of rock for the foundations. The rock is 
blasted out with dynamite and loaded on cars by steam shovels. It 
is then hauled to the crushing plant and after being crushed is 
mixed into concrete. The concrete is hauled to the point of use in 
buckets and deposited in the substructure of the power house by 
movable steel cranes. The molds or forms for this portion of the 
work, involving the water passages and wheel chambers, are com- 
plicated. 

The concrete used in the power-house construction complies with 
the specifications mentioned above in connection with the dam. 
Further than this, where partitions in the superstructure are less than 


208 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


5 inches thick the proportion of cement and sand is 1 to 23, respec- 
tively, instead of 1 to 3, and stone for walls of less than 10 inches 
thickness is screened and thoroughly separated, so that no stone in the 
mixture may have a greater dimension than 24 inches. 

From the power-house end of the dam, as shown on the chart 
opposite page 200, there will be run an ice fender for protection 
against logs and floating ice. This will be built upstream, curving to 
a junction with the shore and will be 2,800 feet long. The material 
will be concrete. The general design will be similar to that used by 
Mr. Cooper in one of the Niagara Falls developments. To the eye the 
fender will appear as a solid wall fencing off the power house from 
the river. There will, however, be large arched openings below the 
water level through which the water will find its way to the power 
house. 

INSTALLATION. 


In the initial development it is planned to install 15 main water 
wheels of the Francis type pressure turbines with single runner 
mounted on vertical shaft, so providing for direct connection to main 
generators. These turbines are to have a normal output of 10,000 
mechanical horsepower each at a speed of 57.7 revolutions per minute 
and head of about 32 feet. The maximum output is to be approxi- 
mately 13,500 mechanical horsepower under a maximum head of about 
39 feet. The design of governors, gate control, main step bearing, 
bucket design, and intermediate details incident thereto embody 
features usual in hydroelectric construction. 

The main generators will likewise be 15 in number, of vertical 
shaft revolving field type, each having capacity of 8,000 kilowatts at 
normal rating with overload capacity of 25 per cent for two hours. 
These generators are to deliver three-phase alternating current at 
11,000 volts and frequency of 25 cycles per second. 

With the generators there will be installed initially two exciter 
turbines direct connected to the generators. These turbines will be of 
the same type as the main generator turbines, and will be mounted on 
concrete foundations and will have the same type of water inlet and 
discharge as provided for main units. The governors for main units 
and exciter turbines will be of standard construction for hydraulic 
regulation. Each turbine will be provided with an independent gov- 
ernor direct connected to the turbine gate control. The exciters direct 
connected with the exciter turbines are to deliver direct current to the 
generator fields at a suitable voltage. 

Initially there will be installed step-up transformers of sufficient 
capacity to deliver to the transmission lines, over and above the line 
loss 60,000 electrical horsepower which has already been contracted 


SLO: ‘bl AYVNYSSy ‘(SLSYONOD JO L1INg) NOlLvYadO NI LNV1d H2xXI\J SLAYONOD 


"7 AlW1d 


“HIRIO— O16 ‘Hodey ueluosyyiws 


"LLOL ‘Z HOUVIN ‘SIVINSLVI SLSYONOD HOS LNV1d DNIHSNYO-MO0Y 


*8 3ALVid ‘YIRIQ—O16| ‘woday ueiuosyzWws 


ELECTRIC POWER FROM THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER—CLARK. 209 


for by public service corporations of St. Louis. The transformers 
are to be connected up for three-phase current and to deliver current 
to the transmission lines at a potential of approximately 100,000 volts. 
Step-down transformers will be installed for delivering current at 
a suitable voltage for lighting the power house and operating 
auxiliary motors. 

The transmission line to St. Louis will run from Keokuk along the 
east bank of the river about 155 miles to a point in the former city, 
and will consist of steel towers carrying two circuits, each capable of 
handling at least half the power specified. 

For the ultimate development to be installed in the power house 
as above described there are planned a total of 30 turbines and gen- 
erators and 4 or more exciter turbines and exciters for the gener 
ation of at least 200,000 delivered horsepower. 


LOCK AND DRY DOCK. 


The lock and dry dock, as indicated on the map accompanying this 
article, are being constructed on the west bank of the river in ac- 
cordance with plans approved by the Secretary of War. These plans 
call for a concrete and steel lock 400 feet long from gate to gate, 110 
feet wide, and capable of lowering vessels about 40 feet. The lock 
is to be equipped with 1 steel gate downstream, and 2 on the upstream 
end, the one farthest up acting as a guard for the upper lock gate. 
The lower gate arches upstream; the upper gates are straight. In 
the masonry of the side of the lock runs a culvert with laterals ex- 
tending beneath the lock and valves to regulate the intake and out- 
flow of the water. The dry dock is to be built between the lock and 
the bank of the river, a space roughly 463 by 140 feet inside dimen- 
sions. The walls, of course, are of concrete. A separate small hy- 
draulic power plant will provide power for operating the lock gates 
and machinery connected with the lock and dry dock. 

In addition to building the lock and dry dock the company has 
obligated itself to carry out certain improvements in channel facili- 
ties immediately below the dam and upon certain conditions to pay 
over to the Government a sum of money for a similar purpose. 


CONCLUSION. 


It is not the purpose of this paper to place upon the construction 
of this dam and powerful hydroelectric plant in the Mississippi Val- 
ley an industrial significance. It is, nevertheless, true that this 
development is placed in a region heretofore unsupplied with hydro- 
generated electric power. The size of the development will enable 


97578°—sm 1910——14 


210 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the furnishing of power at a comparatively reasonable price, and it 
is believed by inhabitants of Keokuk, of Hamilton, and the vicinity 
that manufacturers requiring large amounts of electric power will be 
attracted to the locality in the years to come. This, in a region here- 
tofore mainly agricultural in its pursuits, can not but be quoted as 
an indication of one direction of economic development of this coun- 
try during the next generation or so. 


SAFETY PROVISIONS IN THE UNITED STATES STEEL 
CORPORATION. 


[With 11 plates. ] 


By Davip 8S. Bryer, 


Chief Safety Inspector, American Steel and Wire Company. 


At the outset it should be explained that this article is not intended 
to be either “ popular ” or “ technical,” in the accepted sense of these 
terms. If it were framed on purely technical lines it would pre- 
suppose a thorough knowledge on the part of its readers, of power 
generation—of machinery—of industrial organization—and would 
resolve itself largely into a statement of rules, specifications, methods, 
and appliances, that would be both uninteresting and incomprehen- 
sible to any one who did not have this knowledge. On the other 
hand, to explain to an outsider the mechanical construction and 
operation of, for instance, the different types of electric cranes, with 
the accidents which may occur on them—and to make clear the value 
of the rules and safety devices which have been worked out to pre- 
vent such accidents—might readily fill the entire space allotted to 
this article. The attempt will be, rather, to touch in a general way 
on some of the principal features of safety work in its present stage 
of development in the United States Steel Corporation, and to give 
some impression of the problems encountered, and how they are being 
solved in a practical way. 

This work is a logical outgrowth of association with the accidents 
which must inevitably accompany the use of machinery. It is prob- 
ably safe to say that the “ casualty ” or “ accident ” department has 
always preceded the “safety ” department; that dealing with the 
men who have been injured has brought about a desire to prevent 
the recurrence of accidents. From the first scattering efforts in this 
direction have grown more systematic methods, until accident. pre- 
vention has developed such a variety of detail and such breadth of 
possibilities, that it is fast becoming a technical branch of itself. 
What was originally a species of self-defense has broadened out into 


1 Copyright, 1910, by the Charity Organization Society. Reprinted by permission from 
The Survey: A Journal of Constructive Philanthropy, New York and Chicago. Vol. 24, 
No. 6, week of May 7, 1910, pp. 205-236, Some of the illustrations of the original article 
are here omitted. 


211 


212 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


more humanitarian lines, until at present it is being taken up on a 
scale that would not have been dreamed of in this country a few 
years ago. Safeguards once considered entirely satisfactory are 
being replaced by others of improved construction. New forms of 
protection are constantly being devised. 

In some of the companies which were brought together in 1901, to 
form the United States Steel Corporation, organized safety depart- 
ments have existed for the last 15 years; in all of them more and 
more attention has been given to safeguarding employees, until at 
present each of the main constituent companies has a corps of trained 
specialists who devote their time to studying the causes of accidents 
and to devising means to prevent them. New impetus was given this 
work by the interest manifested in it and the policy adopted toward 
it by the officials of the Steel Corporation. Every year all the men 
in charge of these matters for the several subsidiary companies have 
been called together at the general offices in New York for discussion 
of the problems connected with their work, the first general meeting 
being held in May, 1906, At these meetings the officers of the corpo- 
ration have given assurances of support to the subsidiary companies 
in every practical undertaking*for the prevention of accidents. This 
resulted in the formation in April, 1908, of a central committee of 
safety. 

This committee 1s composed of five members representing sub- 
sidiary companies operating the largest plants and mills, with an 
officer of the United States Steel Corporation acting as chairman. 
It was empowered to appoint inspectors to examine the various 
plants and equipment, and submit reports of safety conditions, with 
suggestions for improvement, The committee was further requested 
to record and disseminate data on regulations, rules, devices, etc., 
tending toward safer working conditions in the plants. 

Some idea of the breadth of the field before the new committee 
may be gained from the fact that it includes 143 manufacturing 
plants, in addition to mining and transportation properties, employ- 
ing in all approximately 200,000 men. 

The committee has selected as its inspectors men already engaged 
in safety work in the subsidiary companies. In other words the 
matter has resolved itself largely into a system of inter-company 
inspection, which gives the plants inspected the benefit of new view- 
point and varied experience, and at the same time enables the in- 
spectors themselves to see what is being done elsewhere, and to carry 
back new ideas and devices to their own plants. The plan has worked 
well and has been of great assistance to the several companies, who 
hitherto had been coping with their own safety problems without 
definite knowledge of what other members of the great corporation 
family were doing. 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 213 


Meetings of the committee are held about once a month, when 
arrangements for inspection are made, and reports considered. 
Drawings, photographs, rules, specifications, etc., are submitted for 
consideration, and such as seem desirable are sent out to all the com- 
panies. During the two years since the institution of this central 
committee of safety its inspectors have reported to it, in round 
numbers, 6,000 recommendations for increasing the safety of em- 
ployees in the plants, mills, mines, and on the railroads and steam- 
ship lines of the organization. Of these recommendations 93 per 
cent have been adopted by the committee and carried out by the sub- 
sidiary companies. New appliances, guards for the protection of 
machinery, and other means for safeguarding the workmen, to the 
number of 100 or more each year, have been submitted for the con- 
sideration of the committee, and through the committee have been 
brought to the attention of and adopted by the subsidiary companies. 

There has been no attempt to establish a uniform safety organi- 
zation in each of these companies, since the conditions vary so greatly 
that this would be impracticable; the Carnegie Steel Co. has 27 dif- 
ferent plants, the Illinois Steel Co. 6, the National Tube Co. 13, the 
American Sheet & Tin Plate Co. 34, the American Bridge Co. 16, the 
Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. 7, and the American Steel & 
Wire Co. 32. In some cases the plants of a company are grouped 
within a radius of a few miles, in others they are located in as many 
as 10 or 12 States. While each company thus has its own safety or- 
ganization, which has been evolved during a period of years, there 
are many features common to all. The following pages treat partic- 
ularly of the organization and methods used in the American 
Steel & Wire Co., but it should be borne in mind that many of the 
devices and ideas found in its plants were secured from some of the 
other companies mentioned, through the central committee of safety 
and the system of inter-company inspection. 

The American Steel & Wire Co. has plants in Worcester, Mass.; 
New Haven, Conn.; Trenton, N. J.; Pittsburg, Donora, Allentown, 
and Sharon, Pa.; Cleveland and Salem, Ohio; Anderson, Ind.; De 
Kalb, Joilet, and Waukegan, Ill.; San Francisco, Cal.; and Hamil- 
ton, Canada. Its equipment includes docks and ore-handling ma- 
chinery, blast furnaces, open-hearth furnaces, Bessemer converters, 
blooming mills, plate mills, and rod mills; finishing departments for 
making nails, fence, market wire, etc., as well as specialty depart- 
ments for springs, electric cables, rail bonds, wire rope, and flat wire. 
It unloads a boat of ore from the Michigan mines at its docks in 
Cleveland, reduces this to pig iron in its blast furnaces, converts the 
iron into steel ingots in open-hearth or Bessemer departments, rolls 
these ingots out into billets in a blooming mill, reduces the billets to 
a quarter-inch rod in the rod mills, and draws this rod down into the 


214 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


wire from which your watch spring is made or your telephone con- 
nected up. 

To do this there is a great variety of machinery, and the problem 
of bringing this equipment up to approved standards of safety and 
maintaining it in this condition is complicated by the widely sep- 
arated locations of the plants. The logical outcome has been to place 
the responsibility largely in the plants themselves, with such over- 
sight and assistance as are necessary to obtain satisfactory results. 
Accordingly, special inspectors have been appointed and local inspec- 
tion committees organized. There are two of these committees in 
each mill, one of which is called the “ foremen’s committee,” and the 
other the “ workmen’s committee.” 


LOCAL COMMITTEES. 


The foremen’s committee usually includes the assistant superin- 
tendent of the plant, the master mechanic, chief electrician, and a 
department foreman or two. Some of these members are retained 
permanently on the committee, so that they may gradually become 
educated to the full scope of the work. By changing one or two 
members at intervals, numbers of foremen receivé the benefit of this 
experience. It is the duty of the foremen’s committee to make an 
inspection of the plant, either semimonthly or monthly, and turn in 
a written report; furthermore, it goes over the recommendations of 
the workmen’s committee, which reports weekly. 

The workmen’s committee is entirely distinct and is taken from 
the rank and file of our mill employees; for example, there may be a 
machinist, an electrician, and a wire drawer; or a roller, a millwright, 
and a carpenter, etc. These men are selected by the superintendent 
in consultation with the foreman from whose department they are 
taken, workmen of good intelligence being chosen, who will take an 
interest and be able to make their work count. There are from two 
to four men in this workmen’s committee, depending on the size of 
the plant; they serve on the committee for a month, making one 
inspection a week, each inspection consuming about a day. At the 
end of the month an entirely new committee is appointed, and both 
the incoming and outgoing committees meet with the superintendent, 
who explains to them something of the object of their committee 
work. Those who have completed their term of service are told that 
they are to consider themselves permanently on the safety commit- 
tee and to feel free at any time to mention anything which they think 
conducive to their own safety or that of their fellow employees. The 
men, pleased, of course, at the opportunity to meet the head of the 
plant, take considerable pride and interest in the safety work and 
are coming to realize more fully its importance. Several superin- 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 215 


tendents state that the early members of these committees are still 
making suggestions, and they undoubtedly bring up many things 
that otherwise they would not mention at all. 

The details of the committee organization are left largely to the 
local managers, who adapt the scheme to local conditions and bring 
some of their own ideas into play. One superintendent makes out 
the lists of workmen’s committees for several months and posts them 
in the mill so that the men will see them and know some time ahead 
that they are to serve on the committee. He says that they like to 
see their names used in this way,-and “load up” in advance for the 
time when they are to begin this service. At another plant it is cus- 
tomary to have one member of the foremen’s committee go about with 
the workmen’s committee, to explain and discuss any problems which 
may come up. While there are these local variations in the different 
plants, the plan and scope of the work are the same in all. Each 
committee makes a written report of its inspection, the reeommenda- 
tions of which are numbered, and the numbers of any incomplete 
item are all shown on a monthly statement until they have been car- 
ried out as mentioned later. 

Our experience with these committees has been uniformly satis- 
factory; benefits accrue both from the actual recommendations and 
from the enlivened interest which the men are taking in safety 
appliances. A master mechanic of one of the large plants said a few 
days ago that he can notice a decided change in the attitude of the 
men toward safety matters since these committees were established; 
that where he used to have difficulty in keeping any safeguards in 
place, the men are now looking out for them and helping keep them 
up. Some of the things they bring to light are such as might escape 
an outside inspector in a dozen trips through the mill. For instance, 
one of the workmen’s committees recently called attention to a plat- 
form which was so placed that when it rained the water deflected 
back into the “ mixer building,” where melted iron is constantly being 
handled. This water lying in pools on the floor would cause a serious 
explosion if hot metal were spilled into it. Other items refer to gear 
covers which have been taken off and not replaced; to steam which 
forms in cold weather and obscures an open reservoir; to elevator 
gates which have been tied up so as to make them ineffective; to 
places which are poorly lighted at night, etc. 


MILL SAFETY INSPECTORS. 


There are certain classes of equipment that require thorough inspec- 
tion at frequent intervals by men of special training, who can go 
over them in greater detail than is possible for the mill committees. 
In this class are electric traveling and locomotive cranes, engine stops, 


216 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


elevators, shop equipment, cars, locomotives, etc., and for them spe- 
cial inspectors have been appointed, who make a weekly report on 
a printed form. At present we have nine such forms in use. The 
important parts are all specified and each part is checked off on the 
form as the inspector goes over the cranes. One of the headings 
requires the man who is operating the machine to state his opinion 
as to its.safety, and there is a provision for stopping it at once if any 
serious defects are found. There are at present 28 men engaged in 
such official inspection in the Amalgamated Steel & Wire Co.’s plants, 
aside from the local committees. In the larger works this takes all 
of one man’s time, while in smaller ones two or three days or a week 
may be sufficient, the inspector working as a machinist, electrician, 
etc., the rest of the time. 

The reports of foremen’s committees, workmen’s committees, and 
safety inspectors are compiled once a month and copies sent to the 
general offices of the company. These statements include all new 
items, and at the end of each report show the “ Recommendations com- 
pleted during current month,” “ Previous recommendations incom- 
plete,” ‘“ Recommendations objected to,” if any, with reasons for 
objection. This gives a monthly survey, from which a good idea 
may be obtained of the general condition and progress at each plant, 
and additional pressure may be brought to bear where the progress 
is not satisfactory. 

Aside from the practical value of the recommendations secured, 
there is a moral effect in this varied inspection which must not be 
overlooked. The foremen, millwrights, and repairmen—all who are 
in any way responsible for the condition of the machinery—are stimu- 
lated to greater care and attention in keeping everything in good 
shape. The knowledge that any defects will be mentioned on an in- 
spection report (sometimes on two or three) each week until the 
defect has been remedied or the delay investigated, undoubtedly does 
much to prevent tardiness in carrying out this work. During the 
month of January, 1910, there were approximately 1,500 specific rec- 
ommendations made by these different inspectors and inspection com- 
mittees in the American Steel & Wire Co.’s plants. Of these over 
500 had been entirely completed before the end of the month, with 
material ordered and work under way on a great many more. 


BOILER PLANTS. 


In mills driven by steam engines the boiler plant is the primary 
source of power. It generates steam which is piped to the engines, 
and is a storehouse of energy so great that when any mischance re- 
leases this energy in the form of an explosion buildings are demol- 
isbed and lives endangered. The possibility of such catastrophes 
has been so emphasized by repeated boiler explosions that most States 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 217 


and municipalities have laws requiring a systematic inspection of 
boilers by authorized inspectors. In the United States Steel Corpo- 
ration this is done by an outside inspection company which makes a 
specialty of boiler insurance, each boiler being thoroughly inspected 
at least once in six months. 

In addition to this inspection, which is directed mainly to the de- 
tection of corrosion or defects which might lead to an explosion, many 
minor arrangements can be made to contribute to the safety of men 
whose duties require their presence in and about boiler plants. The 
failure of a part in a boiler or steam pipe, insignificant in itself, can 
instantly involve men and machinery in a cloud of blinding vapor, 
so that ladders and passages that would be safe under normal condi- 
tions may bring misfortune upon the workmen groping about with 
ineffective vision. Under such conditions prompt and unimpeded 
access is needed to overhead valves and connections, stairways being 
preferable to vertical or inclined ladders, and all stairways, walks, 
tops of boilers, etc., across which it is necessary for workmen to pass 
should be thoroughly protected by handrails and well lighted. Plate 
1 shows stairways in one of our boiler plants. 

The arrangement of piping may be such as to form what is known 
as a “water pocket,” that is, a place where water gathers from ‘the 
condensation of the steam. The opening of a valve will shoot this 
water forward with sledge-hammer effect, bringing disaster to the 
piping system or the machinery to which steam is furnished, and 
endangering the lives of all who may be near. Water pockets should 
be guarded against in designing a system of steam piping, but where 
oversight or necessity has brought about such a form. of construction 
the danger has been obviated by placing a “drip” in the water 
pocket, that is, a small drain with a valve through which the objec- 
tionable water may be allowed to flow from the pipe before a main 
valve is opened. 

Many plants are provided with a tunnel underneath the boilers, 
through which, where coal fuel is used, the ashes are removed; not 
infrequently these tunnels are so arranged that there is a “ dead end,” 
from which there is no means of egress. A break which would let 
steam or hot water flow into the tunnel and cut off escape by the one 
outlet provided would be lable to scald or suffocate any workman 
who happened to be in this section of the tunnel. Six cases of tun- 
nels with “ dead ends,” which have come under our observation in 
the past two years, have been corrected by providing additional doors, 
ladders, or other outlets. 

Every boiler is equipped with a gauge glass, that is a vertical glass 
tube about three-quarters of an inch in diameter, by which the height 
of the water in the boiler can be known. These glasses frequently 
break, as they are subjected to the same steam pressure as the boiler 


218 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


itself, which may be from 100 to 150 pounds per square inch, with a 
temperature of from 300° to 350° F. When a boiler tender opens 
the valve after putting in a new glass it is liable to explode before 
his face like the cannon cracker which the boy celebrating the Fourth 
of July holds too long after hghting, and the results are much the 
same—more or less severe cuts and burns, and possible destruction 
of his sight. Danger from this source has been eliminated by using 
the gauge-glass guard shown in plate 2, figures 1 and 2. This guard is 
made of sheet steel, and can be turned in front of the glass when any- 
one is working about it. After the work is done it is swung around | 
back of the glass, so as not to interfere with the view of the water. 

A number of our boiler plants have been equipped with nonreturn 
valves, which only come into play in case of an accident. There may 
be 10,000 horsepower of boilers connected into one piping system, 
so that if any part of a boiler or main steam pipe fails this stored- 
up energy will be released with terrific force at the point where the 
break occurs, until valves can be closed or fires drawn and the boilers 
cooled down. The nonreturn valve closes automatically in case of 
accidents of this sort, and thus brings the system under control with- 
out the risk which must be taken by men going in to close the valves 
by hand. 

Three connections are necessary for each boiler—one through 
which water to be evaporated is admitted; a connection from the 
boiler to the main piping through which the steam is carried away, 
and a connection to a system of “ blow-off” piping, so that the sedi- 
ment which settles from the water can be blown out at intervals. 
Entrance to a boiler is obtained by means of a “manhole,” which 
is just about large enough to enable an average-sized man to wrig- 
gle through comfortably—a process which can not be accomplished 
very quickly. Thus the workman who enters a boiler while other 
boilers of the same plant are in use is necessarily at the mercy of the 
men outside, as the accidental opening of a valve might result in his 
serious scalding. There are long rows of these valves exactly alike, 
and mistakes are liable to occur. To guard against this the valves 
have been numbered and red warning signs marked “ Danger—do 
not move” are hung on them when anyone is in a boiler. Wherever 
practicable it is made the duty of the man doing the work to place 
these warning signs. 


ENGINE INSTALLATIONS. 


The power which turns the shafting and drives the machinery in 
our mills, is furnished chiefly by large steam engines. These engines 
have flywheels weighing from 25 to 75 tons each, running at a rim 
speed of 5,000 or 6,000 feet per minute. The energy stored in one of 
these wheels when operating is about equivalent to an average sized 


‘SOATBA UIBUI 
dT] JO YOR OF ssad00B S9ATS PUB S1OTLOG 
oy} Jo do} oy} SuolTR spue}X9 YL[VAL STULL, 


“ONILVUD TadLS JO MIVA 
SSOUDQ GVAHYSAO ONIMOHS ‘AVM 
-ulVLS AWVS 3HL JO M3IA YAHLONY 


"| aLvid 


“JOT OYJ WO SIOPp] 9YI AQ payBOIPUT ST SIG) SULOp JO poyoUL pfoO dy, 


“ASNOH Y3ATIOG NI ONIdld GNV SAAIVA GVSHYSAO SONIHOVAY YOs AVMYIVLS 


4akag—Q1 6 ‘Hoday ueiuosyziws 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beyer. PLATE 2, 


1. GAUGE GLASS FOR INDICATING HEIGHT 2. WHEN STEAM IS TURNED INTO A NEW 
OF WATERINA BOILER. SEMICIRCULAR GAUGE GLASS THE GUARD IS REVOLVED 
STEEL GUARD SHOWN IN ITS NORMAL TO THE FRONT, TO PREVENT INJURY IN 
POSITION. CASE THE GLASS SHOULD BURST. 


3. View OF Rope DRIVE FOR ROD MILL, SHOWING STEEL PLATE INCLOSURE. 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 219 


passenger locomotive, running at the rate of 60 miles an hour. If an 
engine is allowed to speed up, additional energy is imparted to the 
flywheel until it bursts from centrifugal force, unloosing a power 
which might be likened, roughly, to a locomotive and a train of 
several cars plowing their way through the mill at the rate cf 
“a mile a minute.” This terrific force is controlled and held in 
check by the “ governor,” which is usually an arrangement of two 
fly balls revolving at a speed proportionate to that of the engine, and 
automatically reducing or increasing the steam supply. Certain 
parts of the governor may break and cause the engine to “ race,” and 
if the engineer can not get a valve closed quickly enough the flywheel 
will “ explode.” 

There is a safety attachment on the governor, which is intended to 
stop the engine in such emergencies, but engineers frequently allow 
this attachment to become ineffective. On a single inspection trip, 
this was the case with 10 out of 16 engines observed. In one instance 
a roll of waste was placed under the governor bracket—in another x 
wood block was used—in others the bolts were clamped so as to 
produce the same result, in two or three cases the man in charge 
simply said he had “forgot” to fix it up after a shutdown. One 
erayhaired engineer of perhaps 50 years to whom I spoke about this 
condition, minimized the danger, saying, “I have been running this 
engine now for six years and have never had an accident,” and yet on 
further questioning he admitted that such an accident might occur 
at any time, due to that insignificant handful of waste, and that 
probably he would be the first man injured. Each of the men run- 
ning these engines realized what might result from their interfering 
with the action of the governor, yet they all took the chance, because 
it never had happened in their experience. 

To improve matters we are having counterweighted brackets placed 
under the engine governors, so that they will drop out automatically 
when the engine is running, without any attention from the engineer, 
and a written report is made weekly on one of the inspection blanks 
previously mentioned, which shows’ whether this safety feature is 
being used or not. As an additional safeguard, practically all the 
large engines in this company have been equipped with automatic stop 
valves having a speed limit attachment. These are intended to shut 
ihe engine down automatically when it exceeds a certain safe speed, 
and the valve may be closed also by pushing an electric button in 
various parts of the mill. At intervals here and there in the different 
departments there are little blue lights, each of which marks the 
location of a push button for the engine stop system. Sometimes they 
are on a column, sometimes suspended over a machine, and there are 
anywhere from five or six up to forty or fifty of them in each system. 
If a man is caught in the machinery, or there is a breakdown of any 


220 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


sort, one of these buttons is pushed, which shuts off the steam and 
stops the engine. Nearly one hundred of these stops have been in- 
stalled in plants of the American Steel & Wire Co. 

The push buttons operate by electricity—and the small wires which 
carry the current to the engine-room may be broken, the push buttons 
may be get out of order, or the batteries develop defects; here, if any- 
where, “eternal vigilance” is the price of safety, and we have ar- 
ranged that the daily shutting down of the engines shall be by means 
of these buttons, and that once a week each button shall be pushed 
with a man at the engine throttle to see that it works properly-—the 
speed limit tried, the voltage of the batteries taken, and the lines 
tested for breaks; all of this being reported on a printed form. In 
several places butter-fly valves have been placed in steam lines to 
engines—that is, a valve which closes instantly by pulling a lever, 
and chains or wire ropes are carried from this lever to convenient 
points for stopping the engine from a distance. 


MOTOR STOPS. 


In departments driven by electricity, we have motor stops cor- 
responding to the automatic engine stops described. In some cases 
these are arranged to operate by push buttons, and in others a rope 
is carried directly from the machinery to the switch controlling the 
motor, so that the switch can be pulled by means of the rope in case 
of emergency. Plate 3 shows a series of machines having a stop of 
this sort. There is an operator at each set of rolls. Recently when 
one of them had his hand caught he cried out, and several of his 
fellow operators pulled the rope with such vigor that the switch 
was torn bodily from the board. The motor was stopped so quickly 
that only the tips of the injured man’s fingers went into the rolls, 
whereas his whole hand would undoubtedly have been crushed but 
for this safety stop. 


ELECTRIC TRAVELING CRANES. 


Electric cranes have been called the “ giant laborers” of the mills. 
They pick up a ladle weighing 20 tons, with 50 tons more of molten 
iron inside it, carry, and pour it as readily as if it were a cup of tea. 
Heavy rolls and housings used in the mills are lifted out and replaced 
by them, and in many departments all of the daily tonnage is handled 
one or more times by cranes. They are excellent servants, but some- 
times they blunder, and a ladle of steel upset may mean disaster to a 
dozen men. There are gears and wheels which mangle; and 20, 30, 
40 feet of space underneath the man who falls from a crane bridge. 

Some one has said that the education of a child should begin with 
its grandparents; certainly the best time to safeguard a crane is 
before it is bought. This method can be used when new machinery 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 221 


is being obtained, and in order to insure proper attention to these 
matters by crane builders, standard safety specifications have been 
prepared for use in ordering new equipment for the American Steel 
& Wire Co. These specifications provide for a footwalk on the side 
of the crane bridge, with a toe board along the edge of this walk; 
exposed gears are to be covered and overhung gears eliminated. 
(Examples of these conditions are shown in pl. 4, figs. 1, 2); limit 
switches are required to prevent a load being lifted too high and 
breaking away from the drum; a safety switch is to be placed on the 
upper part of the bridge so that a workman can throw out this switch 
and prevent anyone starting the crane from the cab while he is at 
work; safety couplings, brakes, and bumpers are specified; also a 
gong which the operater can ring to warn anyone underneath of the 
approach of the crane; a brush or prong is required which moves 
along the track in front of the crane wheel, and would push aside 
a hand or foot resting on the rail of the runway before it would be 
crushed by the wheel. Wire ropes are also specified for hoisting 
purpeses instead of the chains which have been used largely in the 
past; the failure of a single link in a chain means dropping the load, 
while several members of a wire rope may be broken without inter- 
fering with its service, and the broken strands give warning of weak- 
ness which would not be apparent in a chain. 

~ One of the most important safety provisions for a crane is a foot- 
walk on the bridge (see pl. 4, fig. 1), for the use of the crane operator, 
who must go all over his crane every day or two to oil and inspect it, 
and for the repairmen, who must handle tools and remove and replace 
parts of the crane. Where a footwalk is not provided, it is necessary 
to walk on the upper edge of the girder, the surface of which is 
bisected by a rail and broken up by rivets and bolts, and is, more- 
over, frequently slippery with grease or oil which drips from the 
bearings. If mention is made at the time the order is placed, any 
of the standard crane builders will furnish a footwalk on the crane; 
but of course it adds slightly to the cost, and in view of the com- 
petitive bids on such work, it is only natural that the footwalk should 
be omitted if it is not distinctly specified. 

Where these general matters have not been considered in designing 
and arranging the different parts of a crane, it is difficult, and some- 
times impossible, for an operating company to make all of the above 
safety provisions, but whenever practicable they are being installed 
on our old equipment. 


FOR WIRE DRAWING EQUIPMENT, 


Plate 5 shows the arrangement of a modern wire mill. A coil of 
rods or wire is placed on a reel, from which it is drawn through a 
die to a revolving block, the opening in the die being smaller than 


222 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the original wire, so as to decrease its diameter. It is possible by 
this process of cold drawing to reduce a quarter-inch rod to the 
thickness of a hair—that.is, one or two thousandths of an inch. 

There are several things which may occur to endanger the wire 
drawer: If the wire does not uncoil freely the reel may be dragged 
forward and crush him against the frame of the machine; a loop 
may spring over the top of the reel and catch his arm or foot, so that 
if the block is not stopped promptly the loop will tighten and lacer- 
ate, or even cut off the member; or the wire may break, and the 
flying end put out an eye or cause a scratch or puncture wound from 
which blood poisoning may result. 

In all of our wire mills some form of a stop has been put in. A 
number of different applications of it were assembled on one draw- 
ing and prints sent to each plant. It is simple and effective, the 
only objections to it being the amount of floor space it occupies and 
the second’s time it takes to place the wire through the lever. It may 
save an arm, an eye, or even a life—and yet some of the workmen 
have broken them off, others have refused to use them, and after a 
campaign of several years along this line one never goes into a mill 
without seeing some places where the operators carry the wire past 
the safety lever without using it. 


MISCELLANEOUS SAFETY PROVISIONS. 


In addition to the more common forms of protection, such as the 
elimination of projecting set screws, covering of gears (pl. 6), erect- 
ing of railings, etc., there are a great many provisions which could 
not be described in detail in an article of this sort. One of the dan- 
gerous occupations in the mill is that of oiling shafting and machin- 
ery. Wherever practicable, arrangements have been made to do this 
while the equipment is not in operation; in some cases oil cans are 
used, having light spouts 10 or 12 feet long, which enable a man to 
oil overhead shafting without leaving the floor; in other cases railed 
walks have been erected along lines of shafting, so that the bearings 
may be reached without unnecessary risk or inconvenience. 

Standard scaffolds with handrails are provided for the use of 
painters, riggers, etc., and a “painter’s chair” has been designed 
which has a safety belt, so that if a man were to fall out of the seat 
the belt would still hold him. Rules regarding the construction, 
inspection, and testing of this equipment have been posted in all of the 
shops where such appliances are used. 

Counterweights are being boxed so that they can not fall on any- 
one in case a rope or chain breaks; covers and shields are provided 
for emery grinders (pl. 7) ; safety stops of various kinds are arranged 
to enable machines to be shut down quickly in case anyone is caught; 


*poddojs Aue SUT ST ATOUTYORUL SUTATIP-10JOUL OY} PUB INO UAMOIYY SI YOJIMS OY] Surppoy st 10} v10do0 oy) YOry AM odor oy Surpjnd A 
k JS A[JUBISUT ST Ty TALL { t t Tploy st 1} ory I TTL 


“SANIHOVI ONITIOYN YSAO LNAWAONVYEYY dOlS 


*g) alvald ssakag—O161 ‘Woday ueluosyzIWS 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beyer PLATE 4. 


1. ELECTRIC TRAVELING CRANE BOUGHT ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO. 


This shows open gearing, overhung gears, exposed couplings, ete. The foot walk on which the 
men are standing was placed on the crane after it had been installed. 


4 emo, Fcmaary H 


, 5 (Er (a 


\ 


2. ANOTHER CRANE VIEW, SHOWING WHAT CAN BE DONE IN THE WAY OF PROTECTING 
GEARS. 


It is practically impossible for any one to be caught in the gearing of this crane, or for any of the 
parts to work loose or drop. 


"NSLSAS ONILVILNSA IYLNAD V OL GSLOANNOOD SAYV NAIA) SHL YSAO GSGNAdSNG Sadldqd SHL “MYO LV SYSAMVEC JYIM 


"G ALV1d rahag—'9|6| ‘Hoday ueiuosyyiws 


s ‘IOYRUL oy} AG Po1dAOd JOU SBAL 
TOUT oULTVUE B JO Sues Supoo0}01d soy yorpodxo poos B st jt puwB ‘saves SULSUBYO IOJ ABA 


‘SAHLV7] 4O SYVAD GNZ 3HL YOS GUVND 1431S V 


aq} JO No SuNAs oq ATI pBor UL SIL 


"9 SLVId 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 223 


blacksmith’s tools are inspected to see that the edges are not allowed 
to “mushroom” until some one is struck with a flying chip; storage 
yards are inspected to see that material is not piled too close to the 
tracks; planer beds are covered in the machine shops; and safety 
cylinders provided for all jointers in carpenter shops. 

Accidents which occur are studied with a view of determining 
means for preventing similar accidents, and a constant effort is made 
to anticipate danger in any form before it results in an accident. 

General specifications, rules, drawings, and photographs of stand- 
ard appliances are being compiled in a handbook, which it is in- 
tended shall be to the safety inspector what the standard reference 
books are to the engineer; these handbooks will be furnished to those 
who are responsible for the design, installation, and maintenance of 
equipment in our mills. 


NEW PLANTS. 


In erecting a new plant or in making extensions to an old one, 
much of the machinery is bought in practically completed form from 
outside manufacturers. When gear covers, etc., have to be adapted to 
old machines the results are always more or less unsatisfactory; the 
arrangement may be such as to afford no adequate means for attach- 
ing a guard, or a cover which protects one part of the machine may 
interfere with some of the other working parts. These difficulties 
can all be avoided if sufficient thought and attention are given to 
safety considerations when new machinery is being designed, as the 
different parts can then be arranged most advantageously. In plan- 
ning a new plant, the drawings are all checked over to see that the 
latest safety provisions have been included; the following note was 
inserted in a contract prepared recently for a mill to be erected by the 
American Steel & Wire Co.: 

Safeguarding of gears, spindles, couplings, collars, set screws, keys, ete., will 
be covered as fully as possible in the drawings which we furnish, but it is 
understood that these features shall be subject to the approval of our inspectors, 


who shall have free access at all times to the machinery while it is in process 
of construction and erection, 


In addition to the detailed specifications for various classes of 
equipment, each of our purchasing agents has been supplied with the 
following stamp, with the object of further stimulating interest in 
safeguards on the part of machinery builders: _ 

Provisions for safeguarding workmen should be brought to our attention, as 
we will consider them in selecting new machinery and equipment. 

This notice is stamped on correspondence, and the results which 
are already in evidence show that it is having a beneficial effect, from 
which other companies will profit as well as our own. 


224 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The demand for more thorough safety precautions is becoming 
recognized by manufacturers generally, and, when requested, most of 
them will furnish very good forms of protection. Plate 8 illustrates 
the improvement which is being made in machine tools and crane 
design; where open gears were the rule a few years ago, everything 
is now smoothly covered, and the gearing is practically invisible. 


THE HUMAN ELEMENT. 


From statistics which have been prepared both in this country and 
in Germany, it would appear that about one-third of the total number 
of industrial accidents are attributable in whole or in part directly to 
carelessness or negligence on the part of the workers themselves. In 
other words, a considerable percentage of the accidents which occur 
can be charged to the human element and can not be prevented by 
mechanical safeguards. If they are to be materially reduced, they re- 
quire other treatment. 

The problem here is largely a psychological one, and we are work- 
ing on it in a number of different ways. Men are prone to take 
chances, and it is not surprising if the same spirit which causes one 
man to ignore a cold until pneumonia succeeds it, or to risk his home 
in the stock market, causes another to take reckless liberties with a 
red-hot rod. Anyone who has watched a gang of structural workers 
20 stories in the air scaling the steel columns of a new building must 
be impressed with the needless risks that these men take. 

We are endeavoring to bring about a change of sentiment among 
the workmen—to make them realize that it is quite as worthy and 
honorable to be careful and not to take such risks, as it is to assume 
the reckless, dare-devil attitude that is often found. There are din- 
ing rooms in practically all of our plants where the foremen assemble 
for lunch, with a more or less informal business meeting after the 
meal. Reports of accidents are discussed here, letters of instructions 
and general safety recommendations are taken up; talks are given; 
and a constant effort is made to impress upon the foremen their re- 
sponsibility in warning the men in their charge, or cautioning them 
when they see them in any dangerous practice 

When the men receive their pay envelopes they find little “ ser- 
monettes ” printed on the back of the envelopes, urging them to take 
care for the safety of themselves and others. These are placed also on 
certain printed forms which are used largely in the mills, such as the 
sheets on which the time distribution of the men is recorded and those 
on which requisitions for material are filled out. The following 
wordings are a few of those which have been used for this purpose; 


‘ 


The exercise of care to prevent accidents is a duty which you owe to your- 
self and your fellow employees. 
Always be careful and take no risks. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beyer. 


View IN NAIL MILL, SHOWING SAFETY Hoops OVER EMERY GRINDERS, WHICH ARE 
FLANGED OuT OF A SOLID PIECE OF STEEL PLATE. 


The foot treadle must be held down while the grinder is being used; as soon as the treadle 
is released a spring throws the overhead belt on to the ‘‘loose”’ pulley, stopping the 
grinder automatically. Walks for oilers will be noted inthe trusses at the top of picture; 
in this case they are fenced in with boards, although pipes or structural railings are 


frequently used. 


“AIEISIA ATSOUNVOS SI ONIYVWSS SHL ‘NDISSG LNS03Y JO SHLV] “SG 


‘posodxo AloIT] Ua O18 SIBAS SULUTBUOL 9} -SMOTS sivas WUOIT 0Y} IDAO 97RId OT} Sv ‘UOT}D9}0Id O UOALS UW9Aq SRY WOT0991B OTL V 
t tur { I I | y i t 


‘Oop SYVSA N3SaLsI4 YO SAISAML LING SHLV] al 


"8 aLW1d akeag—'016) ‘Hodey ueRiuosy}IWS 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 225 


Carelessness as to the safety of yourself or others will be sufficient cause 
for dismissal. 

The more you insist upon carefulness on the part of others, as well as exer- 
cise it yourself, the safer it will be for all. 

Report all injuries, however trivial; blood poisoning is the result of neglected 
wounds.* 


Realizing that what is sometimes classed as carelessness may be 
merely thoughtlessness or lack of understanding, signs are posted in 
the mills which are intended to keep the necessity for caution fresh 
in the mind. Following a newspaper account of an accident in an 
outside company, where three men were crushed to death in the air 
cylinder of a blowing engine, this notice was posted in each of the 
blowing engine rooms of the American Steel & Wire Co.: 

Norice.—All persons are positively forbidden to enter an air cylinder of a 
blowing engine until flywheels have been securely blocked, to prevent possi- 
bility of engine turning over. 


, Supt. 


Signs are placed at ladders or passageways leading to crane run- 
ways, instructing men to notify the crane operator before doing any 
work on a crane; warning signs are hung on valves, switches, and 
controlling levers of various kinds of machinery to guard against 
their being started while the men are working where they might be 
injured; notices are placed at railroad crossings and along tracks, in 
freight elevators, and in other places where they will attract atten- 
tion to possible dangers. 

Plate 8, figure 1, shows the warning sign which is used for mark- 
ing electrical equipment. It is printed in six languages and is sur- 
mounted by branching lines of “ red hghtning,” which ought to make 
‘it universally understood. The smaller sign at the top of the picture, 
marked “ Danger—Keep away,” is made of nonconducting fiber and 
is hung over the controlling switch to show that it should not be 
operated. 

It is difficult to get the men to exercise the continued care which is 
necessary to guard against accidents. It has been said that “ famil- 
iarity breeds contempt,” and this is nowhere more strikingly demon- 
strated than in the mills. 

While investigating a case recently, where the general foreman of 
a rod mill was injured, one of this man’s assistants took me to the 
location in the mill where the accident had occurred, stepping over 
running lines of red-hot rods to reach the exact spot. He explained 
that a guard of wire netting had been placed at the rolls, which was 
supposedly fine enough in mesh to prevent a rod going through it. 


17This is intended to encourage the men to make use of the hospital facilities described 
later. 


97578°—sm 1910 15 


226 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


By a peculiar chance, however, a rod which was exactly the same 
diameter as the opening in the mesh struck the screen fairly and went 
straight through it, injuring the man standing in front. With this 
catastrophe thus vividly before him, my guide started to show me 
another part of the mill, but instead of going round about somewhat 
as he might have done, he went directly along a line of guide pipes 
through which hot rods were running at the rate of 1,100 feet a min- 
ute. In doing so, he said apologetically, “ We'd better hurry here, as 
a rod sometimes jumps from the pipes.” If a loaded rifle were 
mounted in a mill and arranged to discharge at uncertain intervals, 
a man who passed in front of it would be considered foolish, and yet 
this is practically what some men are doing daily in the mills. 

I later talked to the injured foreman and he assured me that he 
had been positive that the screen was fine enough to stop anything 
which would be rolled there and had been greatly surprised to find 
that the rod could get through; he saw it coming and tried to 
“dodge” it, but was not quick enough. As it was, he escaped very 
fortunately from what might have been a fatal injury. Although the 
hot rod practically passed through his body, penetrating a lung in 
its course, he was in the hospital but two weeks and was back at his 
regular duties in the mill four months later. 

Anyone who is familiar with mill conditions, or, to put it more 
broadly, who knows something of human nature, realizes how difficult 
it is to change the accustomed method of doing things. When a 
safety appliance is installed it may involve some inconvenience to the 
workmen—it requires adjustment and repairs—at least, it is some- 
thing new, and the man who has been getting along without it for 
several years is generally against it. If he has never seen an accident 
of the kind in question it seems a very remote possibility to him. 

It is a slow process of education, but by continued agitation, by 
thorough inspection in which officials and workmen join for the 
common good, by commending what is good and holding it up as a 
model for all, the standard of safety conditions is being steadily 
raised. 

RESULTS. 


In considering the results of this work a comparison of the number 
of accidents occurring in the different mills shows much irregularity. 
A large percentage of reduction was made in some plants in 1909 as 
compared with the preceding year, but very little change appeared 
in others where an equal effort was made to improve conditions. The 
total number of accidents, however, is a very indefinite standard of 
comparison for several reasons. Slight injuries, of which no notice 
was taken a few years ago, are now reported; a particle of emery dust 
in the eye or an insignificant scratch on the hand may become in- 
fected later and develop serious complications, so that greater em- 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beyer. PLATE: 9. 


1. MILL SWITCH BOARD, SHOWING METHOD OF MARKING ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT. 


The small sign at the top of the picture reading ‘‘ Danger.—Keep away’’ is made of non- 
conducting fiber and is hung over a switch when anyone is working on the machinery 
it controls. 


2. PROTECTIVE DEVICE FOR TRAP Doors. 3. WARNING SIGN TO ATTRACT ATTENTION 
TO WORKMEN OVERHEAD. 


The guard rods rest on ledge of door frame 
when the cover is raised, and drop down Intended to prevent injury from falling tools 
out of the way when it is closed. or material. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beyer. PLATE 10. 


1. WORKMEN EQUIPPED WITH SAFETY 2. SAFETY Hoop, REAR VIEW. 
Hoop, READY TO ENTER A GASEOUS The same air supply is breathed 
ATMOSPHERE. over and over again, being con- 

= aalge : : : aie ae ee stantly purified and supplied 

This is a type of equipment which is used with the necessary oxygen. 


largely for rescue work in mines, and 
has been provided for our gas engine 
plants. 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—-BEYER. 927 


phasis is placed on having all such cases reported promptly and havy- 
ing proper attention given them, even though no time is lost by the 
man affected. 

One is impressed with the capriciousness of fate when confronted 
with the peculiar ways in which accidents occur. An engineer had 
started home one evening at the end of the turn, but stopped for a 
moment to explain to the night man why he had been five minutes 
late in going on duty that morning; in doing so he placed his elbow 
on the end of the engine cylinder, and just at that moment the con- 
necting rod broke and the cylinder head was knocked out, injuring 
him fatally. In September, 1909, there were three isolated fatal acci- 
dents in one of the Pittsburg mills, while there was none in all of the 
other 380 odd plants of the American Steel & Wire Co.; in the 
succeeding month two men met fatal injury in one of the Cleveland 
mills, while, as before, these were the only fatalities for the entire 
company. 

On the other hand, there are quite as striking instances where what 
might have been serious catastrophes have passed off harmlessly. In 
one of our plants there is a group of machines in a building adjacent 
to the boiler plant; a couple of years ago the main belt furnishing 
power to these machines broke about midnight, and it was decided 
that it was useless to try to repair the belt that night, so the men were 
sent home. A little later a high wind, which was blowing, tore down 
the boiler stacks, and they fell over the building in which these men 
had been employed a short time before; parts of the wall were 
knocked down and a section of the roof fell in. The next morning 
the heavy beams and timbers which were lying over these machines 
indicated what might have resulted if that main belt had not snapped 
and the men had remained at work. Notwithstanding the fact that 
two buildings were wrecked, and a 16-inch steam main was broken 
in the boiler plant, no one was injured. 

Such occurrences introduce a large element of chance, which tends 
to invalidate any comparison from month to month, or year to year, 
and the plants are being constantly extended, giving an increasing 
number of employees to be considered. With these varying factors 
it would require a detailed study and analysis of classified injuries, 
extending over a period of years, to give any convincing statistical 
information as to the decrease effected; and so far we have been con- 
centrating on the active work of accident prevention, rather than on 
theoretical research of this nature. 

We are very certain, however, as to the results, and numerous 
specific instances which might be cited give definite clues as to what 
is being accomplished. In one of our eastern plants, power is fur- 
nished to three floors of a wire mill by a motor located in the base- 
ment, We planned an installation of push buttons for stopping the 


228 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


motor from the different floors, but had considerable difficulty in 
getting a safe arrangement on account of the fact that a high-voltage 
current was used. For several months experimental work was con- 
ducted and various devices and expedients were tried, until finally a 
satisfactory arrangement was secured. Shortly after the installation 
was completed an operator was caught on the second floor of the 
building and was drawn to the block; his assistant pushed a button 
and stopped the machinery almost instantly, preventing any serious 
injury. Without the stopping device this man would probably have 
been killed, as it would have been necessary to go from the second 
floor to the basement to shut down the motor. There have been three 
specific instances in the last year where these motor stops have been 
similarly effective. 

There have been several cases during the same period where acci- 
dents have occurred in places covered by recommendations of safety 
inspectors, before these places could be safeguarded, showing con- 
clusively that it is possible to anticipate trouble of this sort. Dur- 
ing an inspection tour of a plant outside the American Steel & Wire 
Co. the writer went over various features of the electrical installation 
with the chief electrician of the plant; among other points which were 
mentioned was the provision of sweep brushes in front of the crane 
wheels, as some of the cranes had these while others did not. The 
electrician acknowledged the value of this device, and said that it 
would be placed on all cranes as promptly as possible. The day fol- 
lowing a man had his arm cut off by one of the unprotected cranes; 
he was holding to the girder with his arm across the track while 
adjusting an electric wire and had failed to notify the crane operator 
that he was there. If the crane had been equipped with brushes the 
most serious result, regardless of his lack of ordinary precaution, 
would have been a fall of about six feet to a platform. Numerous 
instances of this sort could be cited, and while it is generally impos- 
sible to point out a particular safeguard and say it has prevented 
an accident, it is obvious that the thousands of protective devices 
which have been installed in the various plants of the company must 
frequently prevent injuries which would otherwise occur. 


RELIEF ORGANIZATIONS. 


In concluding it might be well to mention briefly the methods used 
by the American Steel & Wire Co. in caring for injured men and 
those who are incapacitated by sickness or who have reached the age 
limit for retirement. 

There is an emergency hospital at each plant to give prompt aid 
to the injured; these hospitals are fully equipped with surgical in- 
struments, dressings, beds, etc., and each is in charSe of a competent 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beyer. PEATE she 


GRILL WorRK PROTECTION FOR BINS AND HOPPERS. 


Sometimes a workman falls through a car of coal or ore into the bin underneath the track, where 
he is liable to be suffocated if he can not be gotten out promptly. 


g 
ae 
be 


yi 
— eS 


be eas 


SAFETY PROVISIONS—BEYER. 229 


surgeon paid by the company. In the larger plants, where circum- 
stances warrant, nurses are in constant attendance. Very serious 
cases are sent to the public hospitals at the company’s expense, and 
all injured men are cared for until they have fully recovered, irre- 
spective of the manner in which their injuries were received. In 
cases of prolonged disability financial assistance is given to the in- 
jured man, according to the merits of the case, based on his age, 
family relations, and record as to term of service and faithfulness. 
These injury benefits are dispensed equitably without consideration 
as to whether the company is legally responsible for the injury or not. 

In each plant there is a “mill committee,” composed chiefly of 
foremen, whose duty it is to seek out and visit faithful employees 
who may have become sick and destitute. This committee investi- 
gates such cases and makes recommendations for financial relief for 
those whom it considers deserving. During the year 1909 more than 
$7,000 was distributed gratuitously in this way by the American 
Steel & Wire Co. 

There is, in addition, a pension department, which was established 
in January, 1902. Pensions are granted to employees who have 
reached the age of 65 and who have been in the service of the com- 
pany, or any of its predecessors, for 10 years; also to any who have 
reached the age of 55 and are physically disqualified for further serv- 
ice, providing they have been employed the preceding 10 consecutive 
years, 

The following uniform method is used in computing the amount 
of these pensions: For each year of service, 1 per cent of the aver- 
age monthly pay for the 10 years preceding retirement, is allowed; 
for example, a man who has been in the service of the company for 
40 years, and has drawn an average of $75 a month for the last 10 
years, would receive 40 per cent of $75 or $30 a month pension. 
Pensioners are allowed to seek employment elsewhere if they desire, 
and the utmost freedom of travel and residence is given them. In 
1909 the American Steel & Wire Co. had 419 retired pensioners, 
some of them being located. in England, Ireland, and Sweden, be- 
sides various parts of the United States; they receive in pensions dur- 
ing the year a total of $56,712. The pension fund is maintained en- 
tirely by the company, without assessment or contribution from the 
employees. 


aati: eases tee wend rpg 
al boviewr: sew gobtrint tieds dood 
Jcont att oF wath #t onontelde lerianalt 9 
: ae sid anv fyaad sts 6d ty etter: 
sey tint Hae cotrwe to arial of ee paler 
ibitirinhiawcs divoudtiw vidatingy baecracpails #18 4 reset 
dosrto Giaret pit rat sidigaodaer yllugal at ghecqatoh ‘aft att 
to vliside tmeoqmat “soittnnaas dint” 2°at, edt tanlg done. | 
desyolame lytdtiot jiae fest dag food 6} ai ti ub sealer. stem 
Liaeviti ssttinwew ail atniiteoh here aie eaomd tvail you ¢ 
got Toller lofyamitl at sadiinbostaows vaddat, bite wan jovew 
wails sion PONS Tesy, ots quiet agirictmals athbixads 31 nods 
rusted: add. Yh Ae siddict. Yepotintery: butgdertails way ere 
. >) otk " 4% se 
hocniliintes ea Moitle poner ne ieigns] a, ioitibia i 4. vee 
rad ods aivirolesnts ia Datos ei eter . Glye! viguank 4 i. 
aos dit Yo wolrws sl pi nese ava che, baw 6o4e wee alt hee 
ave dite yte oF osle peieed Ol ay eioresabeng ii Lo e107 p 
Vise sotalol hotilaupeth vilsoiaggtg ois bite SC 16 oun oll coda ll 
qiineenios Of anibsosny oft heveiqme 1990 arn yon subrogee & 


bie aa pies bert 


jee 


favor odd anitaqaoo ai hean. et hosted or rotisus Saiwohor oa F 
“r9tR «ld to 4099 Son L wootvise te seey sono 410 Wie HOLA seat 
shawolin al dnemertijet poihwor sizoy OF sdf 160 ‘weg ridicot 
qok Yasqmoo sit} lo aoivige of? i coud wel oF ed fh olgateze, = 
OF thal self vot. diner e ae 36 sgmove ata, neath ead cia er’, OF 
“okwied diosat 1 RES 704 do: fae: Dg Gh ovinxrr blower 
vieek yodt ti siatweals doaryoigie dom at bewolia. oon estat 
ul .oved! duvip xi sodetient ture fovay) To what ducrssedss oth. fare 
mudiasq Swiien,. Qf bad e-em. 2 fret peorarh odd ss 
of aber? fox basinal dosed atebenl yaisd mails tom in 
tly anbvieos Vi STisw. weds pabiaiG begin) odd to Arua; -HOPUuEY, anaes 
ai) bedialitent ai bash sormnasg oT 217,064 to lelbi 5 tay het 


»d) motk aotindiviags no ¢asntessrea Hstdliby yomprvory oft, Yb 


THE ISOLATION OF AN ION, A PRECISION MEASURE- 
MENT OF ITS CHARGE, AND THE CORRECTION OF 
STOKES’S LAW.1 


By R. A. MILLIKAN. 


INTRODUCTION. 


In a preceding paper ? a method of measuring the elementary elec- 
trical charge was presented which differed essentially from methods 
which had been used by earlier observers only in that all of the meas- 
urements from which the charge was deduced were made upon one 
individual charged carrier. This modification eliminated the chief 
sources of uncertainty which inhered in preceding determinations by 
similar methods such as those made by Sir Joseph Thomson,’ H. A. 
Wilson,* Ehrenhaft,® and Broglie,’ all of whom had deduced the ele- 
mentary charge from the average behavior in electrical and gravita- 
tional fields of swarms of charged particles. 

The method used in the former work consisted essentially in catch- 
ing ions by C. T. R. Wilson’s method on droplets of water or alcohol, 
in then isolating by a suitable arrangement a single one of these 
droplets, and measuring its speed first in a vertical electrical and 
gravitational field combined, then in a gravitational field alone.’ 

The sources of error or uncertainty which still inhered in the 
method arose from: (1) The lack of complete stagnancy in the air 
through which the drop moved; (2) the lack of perfect uniformity 
in the electrical field used; (3) the gradual evaporation of the 
drops, rendering it impossible to hold a given drop under observa- 
tion for more than a minute, or to time the drop as it fell under 
gravity alone through a period of more than five or six seconds; 
(4) the assumption of the exact validity of Stokes’s law for the drops 
used. The present modification of the method is not only entirely 


1 Reprinted with abridgment, by permission of the author and the American Physical 
Society, from The Physical Review, Ithaca, N. Y., vol. 32, No. 4, April, 1911. A prelim- 
inary account of this work was read on Apr. 23 before the American Physical Society and 
was published in Science, vol. 32, p. 486, September, 1910. 

2 Millikan, Phys. Rev., December, 1909, and Phil. Mag., 19, p. 209. 

3 Thomson, Phil. Mag.; 46, p. 528, 1898; 48, p. 547, 1899; 5, p. 346, 1903. 

4H. A. Wilson, Phil. Mag., 5, p. 429, 1903. 

5 Ehrenhaft, Phys. Zeit., Mai, 1908. 

6 Broglie, Le Radium, Juillet, 1909. 

7In work reported since this paper was first presented, Ehrenhaft (Phys. Zeit., July, 
1910) has adopted this vertical field arrangement so that he also now finds it possible to 
make all his measurements upon individual charged particles. 


231 


232 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


free from all of these limitations, but it constitutes an entirely new 
way of studying ionization and one which seems to be capable of 
yielding important results in a considerable number of directions. 

With its aid it has already been found possible— 

1. To catch upon a minute droplet of oil and to hold under observa- 
tion for an indefinite length of time one single atmospheric ion or any 
desired number of such ions between 1 and 150. 

2. To present direct and tangible demonstration, through the 
study of the behavior in electrical and gravitational fields of this 
oil drop, carrying its captured ions, of the correctness of the view 
advanced many years ago and supported by evidence from many 
sources that all electrical charges, however produced, are exact 
multiples of one definite elementary electrical charge; or, in other 
words, that an electrical charge, instead of being spread uniformly 
over the charged surface has a definite granular structure, consist- 
ing, in fact, of an exact number of specks or atoms of electricity, all 
precisely alike, peppered over the surface of the charged body. 

3. To make an exact determination of the value of the elementary 
electrical charge which is free from all questionable theoretical 
assumptions and is limited in accuracy only by that attainable in 
the measurement of the coefficient of viscosity of air. 

4. To observe directly the order of magnitude of the kinetic 
energy of agitation of a molecule, and thus to bring forward new 
direct and most convincing evidence of the correctness of the kinetic 
theory of matter. . 

5. To demonstrate that the great majority, if not all, of the ions of 
ionized air, of both positive and negative sign, carry the elementary 
electrical charge. 

6. To show that Stokes’s law for the motion of a small sphere 
through a resisting medium, breaks down as the diameter of the 
sphere becomes comparable with the mean free path of the molecules 
of the medium, and to determine the exact way in which it breaks 
down. 

THE METHOD. 


The only essential modification in the method consists in replacing 
the droplet of water or alcohol by one of oil, mercury, or some other 
nonvolatile substance and in introducing it into the observing space 
in a new way. 

Figure 1 shows the apparatus used in the following experiments. 
By means of a commercial “ atomizer”? A a cloud of fine droplets of 

1The atomizer method of producing very minute but accurately spherical drops for the 
purpose of studying their behavior in fluid media, was first conceived and successfully 
earried out in January, 1908, at the Ryerson Laboratory, by Mr. J. Y. Lee, while he was 
engaged in a quantitative investigation of Brownian movements. His spheres were blown 
from Wood’s metal, wax, and other like substances which solidify at ordinary tempera- 


tures. Since then the method has been almost continuously in use here, upon this and a 
number of other problems, and elsewhere upon similar problems. 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 233 


oil is blown with the aid of dust-free air into the dust-free chamber 
C. One or more oi the droplets of this cloud is allowed to fall 
through a pinhole 7 into the space between the plates M, N of a hori- 
zontal air condenser and the pinhole is then closed by means of an 
electromagnetically operated cover not shown in the diagram. If 
the pinhole is left open air currents are likely to pass through it and 
produce irregularities. The plates M, N are heavy, circular, ribbed 
brass castings 22 centimeters in diameter having surfaces which are 
ground so nearly to true planes that the error is nowhere more than 
0.02 millimeter. These planes are held exactly 16 millimeters apart 
by means of three small ebonite posts a held firmly in place by ebo- 
nite screws. <A strip of thin sheet ebonite c passes entirely around 


“To Pressure Tank 


poe 


Earth nh 


the plates, thus forming a completely enclosed air space. Three glass 
windows, 1.5 centimeters square, are placed in this ebonite strip at the 
angular positions 0°, 165°, and 180°. A narrow parallel beam of 
light from an arc lamp enters the condenser through the first window 
and emerges through the last. The other window serves for observ- 
ing, with the aid of a short focus telescope placed about 2 feet distant, 
the illuminated oil droplet as it floats in the air between the plates. 
The appearance of this drop is that of a brilliant star on a black 
background. It falls, of course, under the action of gravity, toward 
the lower plate; but before it reaches it, an electrical field of strength 
between 3,000 volts and 8,000 volts per centimeter is created between 


Fig. 1. 


234 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the plates by means of the battery B, and, if the droplet had received 
a frictional charge of the proper sign and strength as it was blown 
out through the atomizer, it is pulled up by this field against gravity, 
toward the upper plate. Before it strikes it the plates are short- 
circuited by means of the switch S and the time required by the drop 
to fall under gravity the distance corresponding to the space between 
the cross hairs of the observing telescope is accurately determined. 
Then the rate at which the droplet moves up under the influence of 
the field is measured by timing it through the same distance when the 
field is on. This operation is repeated and the speeds checked an in- 
definite number of times, or until the droplet catches an ion from 
among those which exist normally in air, or which have been pro- 
duced in the space between the plates by any of the usual ionizing 
agents like radium or X rays. The fact that an ion has been caught, 
and the exact instant at which the event happened is signalled to 
the observer by the change in the speed of the droplet under the in- 
fluence of the field. From the sign and magnitude of this change 
in speed, taken in connection with the constant speed under gravity, 
the sign and the exact value of the charge carried by the captured ion 
are determined. The error in a single observation need not exceed 
one-third of 1 per cent. It is from the values of the speeds observed 
that all of the conclusions above mentioned are directly and simply 
deduced. 

The experiment is particularly striking when, as often happens, 
the droplet carries but one elementary charge and then by the 
capture of an ion of opposite sign is completely neutralized, so that 
its speed is altogether unaffected by the field. In this case the 
computed charge is itself the charge on the captured ion. 

The measurement of the distance between the cross hairs, correct 
to about 0.01 mm., is made by means of a standard scale placed ver- 
tically at exactly the same distance from the telescope as the pin- 
hole p. 


THE DEDUCTION OF THE RELATIVE VALUES OF THE CHARGES CARRIED BY A 
GIVEN DROPLET. 


The relations between the apparent mass! m of a drop, the charge 
€n, Which it carries, its speed, v, under gravity, and its speed v, under 
the influence of an electrical field of strength F, are given by the 
simple equation 


v Mg mg (4+ 
—+——__*__ or aoe 1? ), (1) 
V Ken—mg } V, 


1The term ‘apparent mass” is used to denote the difference between the actual 
mass and the buoyancy of the air. 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—-MILLIKAN. 935 


This equation involves no assumption whatever save that the speed 
of the drop is proportional to the force acting upon it, an assump- 
tion which is fully and accurately tested experimentally in the fol- 
lowing work. Furthermore, equation (1) is sufficient not only for 
the correct determination of the relative values of all of the charges 
which a given drop may have through the capture of a larger or 
smaller number of ions, but it is also sufficient for the establishment 
of all of the assertions made above, except 3, 4, and 6. However, for 
the sake of obtaining a provisional estimate of the value of m in 
equation (1), and therefore of making at once a provisional deter- 
mination of the absolute values of the charges carried by the drop, 
Stokes’s law will for the present be assumed to be correct, but it is 
to be distinctly borne in mind that the conclusions just now under 
consideration are not at all dependent upon the validity of this as- 
sumption. 

This law in its simplest form states that if uw is the coefficient of 
viscosity of a medium, wv the force acting upon a spherical drop of 
radius @ in that medium, and v the velocity with which the drop moves 
under the influence of the force, then 


v=6r Ua. (2) 


The substitution in this equation of the resulting gravitational force 
acting on a spherical drop of density o in a medium of density gives 
the usual expression for the rate of fall, according to Stokes, of a 
drop under gravity, viz, 


Es 
iy a5 ep). F- (3) 


The elimination of m from (1) by means of (3), and the further 
relation m = 4% 2a*(o—/) gives the charge e, in the form 


Ea ae 3 i i(v +0,)v = . 
HH) Gea) HP 


It is from this equation that the values of e, in Tables I-XITI are 
obtained. 


PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS UPON THE CATCHING OF IONS BY OIL DROPS. 


Table I presents the record of the observations taken upon a drop 
which was watched through a period of four and one-half hours as it 
was alternately moved up and down between the cross hairs of the 
observing telescope under the influence of the field F and gravity G. 
How completely the errors arising from evaporation, convection cur- 
rents, or any sort of disturbances in the air are eliminated is shown 


7 


236 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


TABLE I.—Neg4tive drop. 


[Distance between cross hairs = 1.010 em. Distance between plates — 1.600 cm. Tem- 
perature—24.6° C. Density of oil at 25° C.—0.8960. Viscosity of air at 25.2° C.—= 
0.0001836. ] 


G see. F see. n €nX1010 | ex 1010 
. 22.8 29.0 7 34, 47 4.923 
22.0 Dies 39. 45 4.931 
22.3 17.2 
G= 22.28 2: atcllyu. Bvyns 
V=7950 22.0 172 ; pass isla 
22.0 17.3 
22.0 14.2 10 49. 41 4.941 
22.7 21.5 8 39. 45 
22.9 11.0 12 59. 12 4.927 
22.4 17.4 44, 42 
22.8 14.3 10 49. 41 
V=7920 22.8 12.2 
ee see ae 11 53. 92 4.902 
78 i( S| Wea el 
22.8 14.2 
Ws 5 pA TAN otek ek ney Taso het 10 49, 41 4.941 
22.8 14.0 
22.8 17.0 
Wa Sessa 172 9 44, 42 4.936 
22.9 17.2 
22.8 10.9 
F= 10.73 22.8 10.9 12 59.12 4,927 
22.8 10.6 
22.8 12.2 ei | *d02 4.902 
V=7900 22.8 8.7 14 68. 65 4,904 
A 99) 29 > 7 | 
Fe del pomiee ying ele glee Tee 
22.8 7.2 
sae a RO 
ith ee Te: 
Ha yD ||eee ee 7) 16 78. 34 4. 897 
23.0 7.4 
we 7B 
een ere ae 
22. 8.6 
F= 8.65 ad ae 14 68. 65 4,904 
23. 9.8 
Fee an 13 63, 68 4.900 
23.5 10.7 
F= 10.63 an ie 12 59.12 4,927 
uy 9.6 
23.0 9.6 
23.0 9.6 
' 23.2 9.5 
V=7820 23.0 9.6 13 63. 68 4.900 
Gy 98M ae ets A 9.4 
F= 9.57 22.9 9.6 
De Gees 9.6 
22.9 9.6 
te deine 10.6 12 59.12 4. 927 
Eads Se £7 
F= 8.65 aS ie 14 68. 65 4.904 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 


TABLE I.—Negative drop—Continued. 


G sec. F sec. n én 1010 
23.0 12.3 
i 12.2 
= A225 a8 ib! 53. 92 
#..223! 12.1 
23. 2 12.4 
Change forced with radium. 
72.4 
F= 72.10 ea 
72.2 5 24. 60 
71.8 
TALT 
32 
39 é 
BO | 
Gar eee) Unensnenes 27.4 7 34. 47 
Saket tes 20. 7 8 39. 38 


r 


a 

nw B 

3 8 

iw) 

bo 
a 
wow bd wv bo Now hb Ww 
BS 8 8 BSSsagsys 

wooonan © > 


oe | 

3 

4 

3 
23.2 (hile: 

4 

>| amo | 

4 

s| me | 

V=7760 23. 4 38.5 | 3 
G= 23.43 pe yal 39.2 

23.5 70.3 ‘ 
23.4 70.5 
23.6 ral, : ee 

4 

6 

4 

5 

4 

2 

4 

6 

3 

4 


PSOE OL 26.9 
SR OOOBee 27.2 
39.5 
39. 2 
39.0 
39. 1 


be | 


34. 47 


39. 20 6 29. 62 


5 24. 60 
382. 5 
374. 0 

71.0 


5 24, 60 
70.6 


e1X 1010 


4. 902 


4. 920 


4.922 
4. 923 


4. 937 


4. 920 


4. 920 


4. 920 


4,915 


4. 937 


4. 920 


4. 937 


23. 71.4 
23: 71.0 
23: 71.4 
23. 380. 6 
23. 384. 6 
23. 380. 0 
F= 379.6 23. 375.4 4 19. 66 
23. 380. 4 
23. 374.0 
23. 383. 6 
Be aie safe 39.2 
F= 39.18 23. 5 39. 2 6 29, 62 
V=7730 23. 5 39. 0 
G= 23.46 23. 4 39. 6 
a SEAR COE 70.8 
=18e1000) © Been ste 70. 4 5 24. 60 
Ae ee 70.6 
23. 6 378.0 4 19. 66 
Saw it, here, at end of 305. sec.. pick up two 
negatives. 
23. 6 39. 4 6 29. 62 
23.6 70. 8 5 24. 60 


Mean of all e:s=4.917 


4. 920 


237 


238 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


DIFFERENCES. 


24.60—19.66= 4.94 
29.62—24.60= 5.02 
34.47—29.62= 4.85 
39.38—34.47= 4.91 


Mean dif.= 4.93 


by the constancy during all this time in the value of the velocity 
under gravity. This constancy was not attained without a consider- 
able amount of experimenting. It is sufficient here to state that. the 
heating effects of the illuminating arc were eliminated, first by filter- 
ing the light through about 2 feet of water, and, second, by shutting 
off the light from the are altogether except at occasional instants, 
when the shutter was opened to see that the star was in place or to 
make an observation of the instant of its transit across a cross hair. 
Further evidence of the complete stagnancy of the air is furnished 
by the fact that for an hour or more at a time the drop would not 
drift more than 2 or 3 millimeters to one side or the other of the 
point at which it entered the field. 

The observations in Table I are far less accurate than many of 
those which follow, the timing being done in this case with a stop 
watch, while many of the later timings were taken with a chrono- 
graph. Nevertheless this series is presented because of the unusual 
length of time over which the drop was observed and because of the 
rather unusual variety of phenomena which it presents. 

The column headed G shows the successive times in seconds taken 
by the droplet to fall, under gravity, the distance between the cross 
hairs. It will be seen that, in the course of the four and one-half 
hours, the value of this time increases very slightly, thereby showing 
that the drop is very slowly evaporating. Furthermore, there are 
rather marked fluctuations recorded in the first 10 observations, 
which are probably due to the fact that, in this part of the observa- 
tion, the shutter was open so much as to produce very slight convec- 
tion currents. 

The column headed F is the time of ascent of the drop between 
the cross hairs under the action of the field. The column headed 
én is the value of the charge carried by the drop as computed from 
(4). The column headed m gives the number by which the values 
of the preceding column must be divided to obtain the numbers 
in the last column. The numbers in the e, column are in general 
averages of all the observations of the table which are designated 
by the same numeral in the » column. If a given observation is 
not included in the average in the e, column, a blank appears oppo- 
site that observation in the last two columns. On account of the slow 
change in the value of G, the observations are arranged in groups 
and the average value of G for each group is placed opposite that 
group in the first column. The reading of the voltmeter, taken at 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 239 


the mean time corresponding to each group, is labeled V and placed 
just below or just above the mean G corresponding to that group. 
The volts were in this case read with a 10,000-volt Braun electrom- 
eter which had been previously calibrated, but which may in these 
readings be in error by as much as 1 per cent, though the error in 
the relative values of the volts will be exceedingly slight. The PD 
was applied by means of a storage battery. It will be seen from the 
readings that the potential fell somewhat during the time of observa- 
tion, the rate of fall being more rapid at first than it was later on. 


MULTIPLE RELATIONS SHOWN BY THE CHARGES ON A GIVEN DROP. 


Since the original drop in this case was negative, it is evident 
that a sudden increase in the speed due to the field—that is, a de- 
crease in the time given in column F—means that the drop has caught 
a negative ion from the air, while a decrease in the speed means that 
it has caught a positive ion. 

If attention be directed, first, to the latter part of the table, where 
the observations are most accurate, it will be seen that, beginning with 
the group for which G=23.43, the time of the drop in the field 
changed suddenly from 71 to 380 seconds, then back to 71, then down 
to 39, then up again to 71, and then up again to 380. These numbers 
show conclusively that the positive ion caught in the first change— 
i. e., from 71 to 380—carried exactly the same charge as the negative 
ion caught in the change from 380 to 71. Or again, that the negative 
ion caught in the change from 71 to 39 had exactly the same charge as 
the positive ion cavght in the change from 39 to 71. 

Furthermore, the exact value of the charge caught in each of the 
above cases is obtained in terms of mg from the difference in the 
values of én, given by equation (1), and if it be assumed that the 
value of m is approximately known through Stokes’s law, then the 
approximately correct value of the charge on the captured ion is 
given by the difference between the values of e, obtained through 
equation (4). The mean value of this difference obtained from all 
the changes in the latter half of Table I (see Differences), is 
4.93107. 

Now it will be seen from the first observation given in the table 
that the charge which was originally upon this drop and which was 
obtained, not from the ions in the air, but from the frictional process 
involved in blowing the spray, was 34.47<X10-". This number comes 
within one-seventh of 1 per cent of being exactly seven times the 
charge on the positive, or on the negative, ion caught in the obser- 
vations under consideration. In the interval between December, 
1909, and May, 1910, Mr. Harvey Fletcher and myself took observa- 
tions in this way upon hundreds of drops which had initial charges 


240 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


varying between the limits 1 and 150, and which were upon as diverse 
substances as oil, mercury, and glycerine and found in every case the 
original charge on the drop an exact multiple of the smallest charge 
which we found that the drop caught from the air. The total number 
of changes which we have observed would be between 1,000 and 2,000, 
and im not one single instance has there been any change which did 
not represent the advent upon the drop of one definite invariable 
quantity of electricity, or a very small multiple of that quantity. 
These observations are the justification for assertions 1 and 2 of the 
introduction. 

For the sake of exhibiting in another way the multiple relation- 
ship shown by the charges on a given drop the data of Table I have 
been rearranged in the form shown in Table IT. 


TABLE II. 

n. | 4.917Xn. ee n. |4.917Xn. ee 
1 hn gd) Mpa 10 | 49.17 | 49.41 
ib | Brag een ae rl 54.09 | 53.92 
Seven WOOL. Ad 12 | 59.00 | 59.12 
4 | 19.66 19.66 || 13 | 63.92 | 63.68 
5 | 24.59 24.60 || 14 | 6884 | 68.65 
6 | 29.50 29.62 || 15 ater) meant: 
7 | 34.42 34.47 || 16 | 7867 | 78.34 
gs | 39.34 39.38 || 17 | 983.59 | 83.22 
9 | 44.25 IE | BA id= 27 nd He 8 


No more exact or more consistent multiple relationship is found 
in the data which the chemists have amassed on combining powers, 


and upon which the atomic theory of matter rests, than is found in 
Tables I to XIII. 


DIRECT OBSERVATION OF THE ENERGY OF AGITATION OF A MOLECULE. 


Before discussing assertion 4 it is desirable to direct attention to 
three additional conclusions which can be drawn from Table I: 

1. Since the time of the drop in the field varied in these observa- 
tions from 380 to 6.7 seconds, it will be seen that the resultant moving 
force acting upon the drop was varied in the ratio 1 to 55, without 
bringing to light the slightest indication of a dependence of e, upon 
the velocity. Independently of theory, therefore, we can assert that 
the velocity of this drop was strictly proportional to the moving 
force. The certainty with which this conclusion can be drawn may 
be seen from a consideration of the following numerical data. Al- 
though we had upon our drop all possible multiples of the unit 
4.91710" between 4 and 17, save only 15, there is not a single 
value of e, given in the table which differs by as much as 0.5 per cent 
from the final mean e,. It is true that the observational error in a 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 241 


few of the smaller times is as much as 1 or 2 per cent, but the 
observational error in the last half of the table should nowhere 
exceed 0.5 per cent. In no case is there here found a divergence 
from the final value of e, of more than 0.4 per cent. 

2. Since the charge on the drop was multiphed more than four 
times without changing at all the value of G, or the apparent value of 
e,, the observations prove conclusively that in the case of drops like 
this, the drag which the air exerts upon the drop is independent of 
whether the drop is charged or uncharged. In other words, the 
apparent viscosity of the air is not affected by the charge in the 
case of drops of the sort used in these experiments. 

3. It will be seen from the table that in general a drop catches an 
ion only when the field is off. Were this not the case there would 
be many erratic readings in the column under F, while in all the four 
and one-half hours during which these experiments lasted there is 
but one such, and the significance of this one will presently be dis- 
cussed. A moment’s consideration will show why this is. When the 
field is on, the ions are driven with enormous speed to the plates as 
soon as they are formed, their velocities in the fields here used being 
not less than 10,000 centimeters per second. Hence an ion can 
not be caught when the field is on unless the molecule which is 
broken up into ions happens to be on the line of force running from 
the plates through the drop. With minute drops and relatively 
small ionization this condition is very unlikely to occur. When the 
field is off, however, the ions are retained in the space between the 
plates, and sooner or later one or more of them, by virtue of its 
energy of agitation, makes impact upon the drop and sticks to it. 

These considerations lead up to assertion 4 in the introduction. 
It will be seen from the readings in the first half of the table that 
even when the drop had a negative charge of from 12 to 17 units 
it was not only able to catch more negative ions, but it apparently 
had an even larger tendency to catch the negatives than the posi- 
tives. Whence, then, does a negative ion obtain an amount of energy 
which enables it to push itself up against the existing electrostatic 
repulsion and to attach itself to a drop already strongly negatively 
charged? It can not obtain it from the field, since the phenomenon 
occurs when the field is not on. It can not obtain it from any explo- 
sive process which frees the icn from the molecule at the instant of 
ionization, since again in this case, too, ions would be caught as well, 
or nearly as well, when the field is on as when it is off. Here, then, 
is an absolutely direct proof that the ion must be endowed with a 
kinetic energy of agitation which is sufficient to push it up to the 
surface of the drop against the electrostatic repulsion of the charge on 
the drop. 


97578°—sm 1910——16 


242 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


This energy may easily be computed as follows: As will appear 
later the radius of the drop was in this case 0.000197 centimeter. 
Furthermore, the value of the elementary electrical charge obtained 
as a mean of all of our observations is 4.891107°. Hence the 
energy required to drive an ion carrying a unit charge up to the 
surface of a charged sphere of radius 7, carrying 16 eiementary 
charges, is 

1667), b6X (4:89 14402)? 
isthe. 0.000197 

Now the kinetic energy of agitation of a molecule as deduced 
from the value of e herewith obtained, and the kinetic theory equa- 
tion, p=4nmu?, is 5.751074 ergs. According to the Maxwell- 
Boltzmann law, which doubtless holds in gases, this should also be 
the kinetic energy of agitation of an ion. It will be seen that the 
value of this energy is approximately three times that required to 
push a single ion up to the surface of the drop in question. If, then, 
it were possible to load up a drop with negative electricity until the 
potential energy of its charge were about three times as great as 
that computed above for this drop, then the phenomenon here ob- 
served, of the catching of new negative ions by such a negatively 
charged drop, should not take place, save in the exceptional case 
in which an ion might acquire an energy of agitation considerably 
larger than the mean value. Now, as a matter of fact, it was regu- 
larly observed that the heavily charged drops had a very much 
smaller tendency to pick up new negative ions than the more lightly 
charged drops, and in one instance we watched for four hours 
another negatively charged drop of radius 0.000658 centimeter, 
which carried charges varying from 126 to 150 elementary units, and 
which therefore had a potential energy of charge (computed as above 
on the assumption of uniform distribution) varying from 4.6X10-™ 

5.47<10-"4, and in all that time this drop picked up but one single 
negative ion, and that despite the fact that the ionization was sev- 
eral times more intense than in the case of the drop of Table I. 
This is direct proof independent of all theory that the order of mag- 
nitude of the kinetic energy of agitation of a molecule is basal: cis 
as the kinetic theory demands. 


=1.95xX10™ ergs. 


THE QUESTION OF VALENCY IN GASEOUS IONIZATION. 


The correctness of assertion 5 in the case of the ionization existing 
in the observing chamber at the time at which the data in Table I 
were taken is directly proved by the readings shown in that table, 
since the great majority of the changes recorded in column 4 corre- 
spond to the addition or subtraction ia one single elementary charge. 
There are, however, some changes which correspond to the addition 
or subtraction of ie or three times this amount and which therefore 
seem at first sight to indicate the existence of multiply-charged ions. 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 243 


The conclusion, however, that valency is exhibited in gaseous ioniza- 
tion is not to be so easily drawn. During the observations recorded in 
the first half of the table, a closed tube of radium, containing 500 
milligrams of radiifm bromide of activity 3,000, stood about 5 feet 
away from the testing chamber, so that its y rays and a portion also of 
its 8 rays could enter this chamber. At the end of the observations 
in the group in which G=23.14, this radium was brought up to 
within a few inches of the testing chamber, and six elementary 
charges were forced upon the drop. The radium was then taken 
entirely out of the room, so that the changes recorded in the last half 
of the table are entirely due to such ionization as exists in air under 
normal atmospheric conditions. 

Now, so long as changes take place only when the field is off there 
is no way of telling whether an observed change of two units is due 
to the addition to the drop of a double ion or to the successive addi- 
tions of two single ions. It might be possible to account, therefore, 
for all the multiple changes which occurred when the field was off 
on the theory of successive single changes. There is, however, one 
single change recorded in the last part of Table I, which is not to be 
so easily accounted for upon this hypothesis. It will be seen that the 
drop made one particular trip up in 378 seconds, then one down 
(recorded in the same horizontal line) in 238.6 seconds. Immediately 
thereafter it was being pulled back again under the influence of the 
field at the 380-second rate—a rate so slow that it could scarcely be 
seen to be moving at all if observed for a short time. After the 
lapse of 305 seconds, during which time the shutter had been opened 
every 30 seconds or so to see that the star was still in view it changed 
instantly while I was looking at it, the field being on, from the 380- 
second to the 39-second speed skipping entirely the 71-second speed. 

This sort of a multiple change, when the field was on, has been 
observed a dozen or more times when the ionization was so weak 
that it seemed very improbable that two or three different molecules 
could have been simultaneously ionized in the minute tube of force 
having for its diameter the diameter of the drop. In fact, at the 
time at which the preliminary report upon this work was made it 
was thought that these changes constituted pretty good evidence 
that the ionization produced by radium does not always consist 
in the detachment of one single elementary charge from a neutral 
molecule, but consists in occasional instances, in the separation of 
two or three such charges from a single molecule. The method 
of studying ionization herewith presented is capable of furnishing 
a definite answer to the question here raised in the case of any 
particular ionizing agent. Recent work which will be reported in 
detail in another paper has shown that if either radium radiations 
or X rays of the intensities thus far used ever produce multiply- 


244 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


valent ions in air, the number of such ions formed can not exceed 
1 or 2 per cent of the number of univalent ions formed. At the 
present time therefore it seems probable that, despite the contrary 
evidence presented by Townsend* and Franck and Westphal,’ the 
process of gaseous ionization by both radium and X rays always 
consists in the detachment from a natural molecule of one single 
elementary electrical charge. 


MECHANISM OF THE CHANGE OF CHARGE OF A DROP. 


It has been tacitly assumed thus far that the only way in which a 
drop can change its charge is by the capture of ions of one sign 
or the other from the air. When a negative charge increases there 
seems to be no other conceivable way by which the change can be 
produced. But when it decreases there is no a priori reason for 
thinking that the change may not be due as well to the direct loss 
of a portion of the charge as to the neutralization of this same 
amount by the capture of a charge of opposite sign. Table I shows 
conclusively, however, that if direct losses occur at all they take place 
with exceeding infrequency as compared with the frequency with 
which ions are captured from the air, even when there is no* ex- 
ternal source of ionization whatever. For if there were two com- 
parable processes tending to diminish the charge (viz, direct loss 
and capture of opposite ions) and only one tending to increase it 
(viz, capture of ions of the same sign) and that one of approxi- 
mately the same efficiency as one of the first two, the drop, instead 
of maintaining as it did in these experiments for three and one-half 
hours after the radium was removed from the room, essentially 
the same mean charge despite its repeated changes, would have 
quickly lost its charge and gone to the lower plate. The fact that 
it did not do this furnishes perhaps the most convincing evidence 
which has yet been brought forward that the process of evaporation, 
which must have been going on continuously at the surface of the 
drop, does not have the power of removing at all an electrical charge 
which resides upon an evaporating surface.® 

There is but one more comment to be made upon Table I. Ata 
point indicated in the table by the remark “change forced with 
radium,” it will be noticed that the charge was suddenly changed 
from eleven negative units to five negative units—i. e., that six posi- 
tive units were forced upon the drop. This sort of a change was 
one which, after the phenomenon had once been got under control, 
we could make at will in either direction—i. e., we could force charges 

1J. Townsend, Proc. Roy. Soc., 80, p. 207, 1908. 

2 J. Frank u. Westphal, Verh. d. D. Phys. Ges., vol. 2, pp. 146 and 276, 1909. 

*This question has been considerably discussed in the past and the experiments of 
Henderson (Phil. Mag., 50, p. 489, 1900) and at Schwalbe (Ann. de Phys., I, p. 295, 


1900) strongly support the conclusions here reached, despite the opposite evidence brought 
forward by Pellat (Jour. de Physique, 8, p. 225, 1899). 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 245 


of either sign or in any desired number, within limits, upon a given 
drop. We did this as follows: When it was desired to load the drop 
up negatively, for example, we held it with the aid of the field fairly 
close to the positive plate, and placed the radium so that it would 
produce uniform ionization throughout the chamber. Under these 
conditions if the positive and negative ions were alike in both num- 
ber and mobility the chance that the drop would catch a negative ion 
would be as many times its chance of catching a positive ion as the 
distance from the drop to the negative plate was times the distance 
from the drop to the positive plate. Similarly, if we wished to 
load the drop positively it was held by the field close to the nega- 
tive plate. On account of the slightly greater mobility of the nega- 
tive ion, and also on account of the somewhat greater numbers in 
which they occur, we found, in general, a greater tendency of the 
drops to take up negative than positive charges. In view, there- 
fore, of the greater ease with which negative drops could be held for 
long intervals without being lost to the plates most of the drops 
studied have been of negative sign. 


THE FAILURE OF STOKES’S LAW. 


When the values of e, were computed as above for different drops, 
although each individual drop showed the same sort of consistency 
which was exhibited by the drop of Table I, the value of e, at first 
came out differently, even for drops showing the same value of the 
velocity under gravity. This last irregularity was practically elimi- 
nated by blowing the drops into air which was strictly dust free, but 
even then drops of different sizes, as determined by v,, always gave 
consistently different values of e,. This is illustrated by the observa- 
tions shown in Tables III, IV, V, VI, VU, and VIII. 


TABLE IJI.—WNegative drop No. 6. 
[Distance between cross hairs=1.303em. Temperature=24.6°C. Density of oil at 25.0° C.=.9041.] 


G sec. F sec. n é€nX1019 | e:x1010 
120.8 26. 2 2 10. 98 5. 490 
B= U9 121.0 11.9 4 21.98 5. 495 
pie uP 3 16. 41 5. 470 
120.1 16.3 
F= 26.40 120. 2 26. 4 Dia ees te eee ees 
119.8 67.4 1 5. 495 5. 495 
G=12007 120.1 26.6 2 HONOR | estes = sete 
Veo SOL b0raetse 16.6 
He 62.50 120.2 16.6 | 3 SG WAT Me lege <2 ee 
Ge te Ne 16.5 
is Mayas" 120.1 68. 0 
119.9 67.8 4 ADB les tcrs 3-3 
2BS4) \ieeg HOI9S VER ae 


v1= .01085. Mean e; (weighted)= 5.490. 


246 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


TaBLE IV.—WNegative drop No. 8. 


[Distance between cross hairs = 1.033 em. Temperature= 20° C.] 


G sec. F sec. n €n X10 | e100 
B80 | ois arene oe] hee ee ae ee 
V=S512 88.8 95.3 2 10. 98 5. 490 
G= 87.85 87.8 31.0 
4 21 F 
F= 30.9 87.4 30.8 = sbi 
87.8 47.0 3 16.41 5.470 
+ Acs ie eae dl beget peed leis Spe a A, Soo 
v1=.01176. Mean ¢; (weighted)=5.482 


TABLE V.—Negative drop No. 2. 


[Distance hetween cross hairs=1.005cem. Temperature=24.3° C.] 


G see. F sec. n €n X10 | e,x1010 
F= 49.15 53.8 49.2 |) 
4 21.46 . 365 
53.7 49.1 || : 
G= 453.80 54.0 95.2 
V=3990 — 95.5 | 
ly 3 16. . 
53.7 96.6 | ae SEE: 
F= 95.78 BS Ee 95.8 
v1= .01868 Mean ¢)=5.349 


TABLE VI.—Positive drop No. 15. 


[Distance between cross hairs=1.033 em. Temperature=20° C.] 


G sec. F sec. n é€nX10! | e101 
30.4 12.8 10 52.06 5. 206 
30.5 17.9 8 41.61 5.200 
30.6 43.8 5 26.08 5.216 
30.2 85.9 
G= 30.48 30.5 85.9 
V=9010 30.7 86.4 
30.5 85.6 ay 20. 84 5.210 
30.7 86.2 
F= 86.09 30.5 86. 2 
— 86.4 


30.2 2520.0 3 15.55 5.183 


U1= .04265 Mean ¢; (weighted )=5.208 


The drops shown in Tables III and IV were of almost the same 
size aS is seen from the closeness of the values of the two velocities 
under gravity, and although the field strength was in one case 
double that in the other the values of e, obtained are almost iden- 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 247 


tical. Similarly Tables VII and VIII are inserted to show the con- 
sistency which could be attained in determining the values of e, 
so long as the drops used were of the same size. On the other hand, 
the series of Tables ITI, V, VI, and VII, or IV, V, VI, and VIII, 
show conclusively that the value of e, obtained in this way diminishes 
as the velocity of the drop increases. This means of course that 
Stokes’s law does not hold for these drops. 


TABLE VII.—Positive drop No. 16. 


[Distance between cross hairs= 1.317 cm. Temperature=27.6° C.] 


G sec. F sec. n €nX10 | e,<1010 
24. 611 151.9 
24.4 152.9 
B= 152595 so 24. 63 152. 4 5 25.75 5. 150 
24.6 153. 5 
24.4 153.9 
Vi=9075 5 a2<< 24.7 39. 4 
cs 36. 03 5. 147 
G2 aie 24.8 29. 2 
24.6 28. 6 
= are E 4 
He cee 2330 ih 8 41.07 5.134 
24. 59 29.0 
24. 54 16.0 
24. 58 16.Q 
i gy 5.114 
(Hi sa9 lis Gaie aentaemes ter 15.8 : ee 
v1= .05360 Mean e; (weighted)=5.143 


TABLE VIII.—WNegative drop No. 17. 


[ Distance between cross hairs=1.305 cm. Temperature= 26.8° C.] 


Gsec. | Fsec. n énX101 |} e,>< 1019 
23. 8 31.5 
WES BieSR Boa 23. 6 31.3 8 41.10 5. 189 
23. 4 31.2 
; 23.7 43.8 
G= 23:58... 23a 43. 6 
V=8075.....- 23.8 43.7 7 36. 09 5. 156 
1 Se BPs 23.5 43.4 
23. 2 43.4 
nthe Be) te 23. 5 24, 2 9 46. 29 5. 144 
V1= .05534 Mean ¢; (weighted)=5.145 


1The reading carried to hundredths of a second were taken with a chronograph, the 
others with .a stop watch. The mean @ from the chronograph readings is 24.567, that 
of the stop-watch readings 24.583. 

In order to find in just what way this law breaks down we made 
an extended series of observations upon drops the velocities of which 
varied in the extreme case 360 fold. These velocities lay between 


248 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the limits .0013 cm. per sec. and .47 cm. per sec. Complete records 
of a few of these observations are given in Tables IX, X, XI, and 
XII. 

[The reader may consult these tabies in the original article, but 
they are here necessarily omitted for lack of space.] 

The readings shown in these tables are merely samples of the 
sort of observations which we took on between 100 and 200 drops 
between December, 1909, and May, 1910. The sort of consistency 
which we attained after we had learned how to control the evapora- 
tion of the drops and after we had eliminated dust from the air 
may be seen from Table XIII which contains the final results of 


saul SEESEREFTEEIEEEEEEEOEERE 


eegenenaeeseesece! 


HE HEE Fe 
Ereeranieiet 


0 $00 4000 _ 1500 2008 2500 - 3000 3§00-_ 100) a oo 


SLA x10" 


Fig. 2. 


our observations upon all of the drops except three which were 
studied throughout a period of 47 consecutive days. The three drops 
which have been excluded all yielded values of ¢, from 2 to 4 per 
cent too low to fall upon a smooth e,v, curve like that shown in 
figure 2 which is the graph of the results contained in Table XIII. 
Tt is probable that these three drops corresponded not to single drops, 
but to two drops stuck together. Since we have neyer in all our 
study observed a drop which gave a value of e, appreciably above 
the curve of figure 2, the hypothesis of binary drops to account for 
an occasional low value of e, is at least natural. Before we elimi- 
nated dust we found many drops showing these low values of e,, 
but after we had eliminated it we found not more than one drop in 


ISOLATION OF AN ION——-MILLIKAN. 249 


ten which was irregular. The drop shown in Table I is perhaps the 
best. illustration of the case under consideration which we have 
observed. It yields a value of e, which is 4 per cent too low to fall 
on the curve of figure 2. This is as large a departure from this 
curve as we have thus far obtained. 


RABE Wake lls 


No. | Velocity. | Radius. | e:x100, | Probable 
cm. sec. cm. Per cent. 
1 | 0.001315 | 0.0000313 7.384 6 
2 . 001673 358 6. 684 4 
3 . 001927 386 6. 142 2.5 
4 . 006813 755 5. 605 1.5 
5 . 01085 967 5. 490 5 
6 01107 979 5. 496 ii 
7 . 01164 . 0001004 5. 483 4 
8 .01176 1006 5. 482 A 
9 . 01193 1016 5. 458 BS 
10 . 01339 1084 5. 448 5 
11 01415 1109 5. 448 4 
12 . 01868 1281 5.349 25 
13 . 02613 1521 5. 293 5 
14 . 03337 1730 5. 257 5 
15 . 04265 1954 5. 208 5 
16 . 05360 2205 5.148 4 
17 .05534- 2234 5.145 5 
18 . 06800 2481 5.143 aye 
19 . 07270 2562 5.139 5 
20 . 08843 2815 5.102 4: 
21 . 09822 2985 5.107 .4 
22 . 1102 3166 5. 065 A 
23 .1219 3344 5. 042 5 
24 . 1224 3329 5. 096 5 
25 . 1267 3393 5.061 5 
26 15145 3712 5.027 5 
27 . 1644 3876 5.050 £3 
28 . 2027 4297 4.989 a0 
29 2175 4447 5. 046 4 
30 . 3089 5315 4.980 
31 . 3969 6047 5. 060 
32 4074 6104 5. 033 1 
33 4735 6581 4.911 1.5 


THE CORRECTION OF STOKES’S LAW. 


The simple form of Stokes’s law, which has been used in obtaining 
the values of e, involves the assumption that there is no slip at. the 
bounding surface between the medium and the drop, or that the 
coefficient of external friction between oil and air is infinite. From 
the standpoint of the kinetic theory this surface slip, though in 
general very small, is, strictly speaking, never zero, and to take it 
into account a term must be introduced into the equation of motion 
which is proportional to the ratio between the mean free path of the 


250 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


gas molecule and the radius of the drop.t. Since it is conceivable, 
however, that there is some other cause for slip than that assigned 
by the kinetic theory, it will be well to make this discussion as 
independent as possible of all theoretical considerations. 

From whatever point of view, then, the phenomenon of external 
slip be regarded, it is clear that the very existence of any surface 
effect of this sort between the medium and the drop must tend to 
produce an actual velocity higher than that computed from the 
simple form of Stokes’s law, 1. e., it must tend to produce departures 
from Stokes’s law of the kind actually shown in the experiments 
herewith recorded. Furthermore, it will be evident from the analysis 
underlying Stokes’s law that any surface effect whatever between oil 
and air which might modify the velocity given by Stokes’s law must 
be more and more effective in so modifying it the more the radius 
of the drop is diminished, and that when the radius is taken sufii- 
ciently large the term which represents this surface effect must be- 
come negligible. We could then write a corrected form of Stokes’s 
law, which would take into account any kind of surface phenomenon 
which might alter the speed, in the general form 


<= Guan +4G)P" ~ () 


in which 7 is a constant of the medium and a the radius of the drop. 
If we were in complete ignorance of the form of the function f we 
could express it in ternis of the undetermined constants, A, B, C, 
etc., thus 


/ eee eat 
r(;) =14A-+B5+05, ete. (6) 


and so long as the departures from the simple form of Stokes’s law 
were small, we could neglect the second order terms in //a and have 
therefore 


oS 6xuarl + lee (7) 
or 
fen +A ‘| (8) 


Using this form of equation to combine with (1) and denoting now 
by e the absolute value of the elementary charge and by e,, as here- 
tofore, the value of the charge obtained from the use of (4), there 


results at once 
Ai + av) =¢, Or Aa + a‘) =ias, (9) 


1See O. E. Meyer, Kinetische Theorie der Gase, p. 211, for the correction of Poiseuille’s 
law for slip, and Cunningham, Proc. Roy. Soc., 83, p. 57, 1910, for the corresponding 
correction of Stokes’s law. 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 951 


[The author then determines the value of the correcting term = 
a 


and confirms his result by reference to independent work of other 
observers. Jor these discussions the reader should consult the origi- 
nal article. | 


7000 


6000) 


5000. 


4000 


Fig. 3. 


10° 


£000 


en | Sus geese 
THE ABSOLUTE VALUE OF é. 


Taking the value of A as 0.817 the value of e was determined 
from (9), and the values of ¢,, a, and Z obtained as explained above. 


252 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The next to the last column of Table XIV gives the results of this 
computation of e for all of the observations recorded in Table XIII 


TABLE XIV. 
Tem- | pew : , aie Differ- 
No. | pera- 5 1X108. | Velocity. | a(=radius) ia. €:X1019,] obser- | ex1010, | ence 
rare point. vational from 
an mean. 
pan ok “GC Cm. | Cm. sec. Cm. Per ct. Per ct. 
1 24.0 5.3 945 | 0.001315 | 0. 0000313 0. 3020 7. 384 6.0 
2 26.0 10.8 954 | .001673 . 0000358 . 2664 6. 864 4.0 
3 23.8 9.3 944 | .001927 . 0000386 - 2446 6. 142 2.5 
4 19.9 1.8 929 | .006813 . 0009755 . 1230 5. 605 1.5 
5) 24.6 3.7 948 | .01085 . 0000967 - 0980 5. 490 25 4.892 | 0.20 
6 26. 4 6.0 955 | .01107 . 0000979 . 0975 5. 496 at 4, 889 . 26 
tf 24.0 .0 945 | .01164 . 0001004 - 0941 5. 483 4 4.903 - 03 
8 20.0 1.8 929 | .01176 . 0001006 . 0923 5. 482 .4 4.916 - 28 
9 24.8 .0 949 | .01193 . 0001016 . 0934 5. 458 8 4.891 577, 
10 26.3 6.0 955 | .01339 . 0001084 - 0883 5. 448 5 4. 908 -10 
il 23.6 3.7 943 | .01415 . 0001109 . 0850 5. 448 4 4,921 . 42 
12 24.3 11.0 947 | .01868 . 0001281 . 0739 5. 349 5 4. 900 - 03 
13 24.0 .0 945 | .02613 . 0001521 . 0621 5. 293 5 4.910 Pr 
14 27.0 6.0 959 | .03337 - 0001730 . 0554 5. 257 5 4.918 . 34 
15 23.2 | = 1.2 942 | .04265 . 0001954 - 0483 5. 208 5 4,913 «2d 
16 27.6 12.2 959 | .05360 - 0002205 - 0435 5. 143 4 4. 884 . 36 
17 26.8 6.0 958 | .05534 . 0002234 . 0429 5.145 25 4. 885 34 
18 25. 2 4.0 951 | .06800 - 0002481 - 0384 5.143 ay 4.912 eal 
19 23.8 5.0 944 | .07270 . 0002562 - 0369 5. 139 5 4.913 -O1 
20 23. 2 1335 942 | .08843 . 0002815 - 0325 5. 102 3 4.901 aOr 
21 24. 6 1.7 948 | .09822 - 0002985 . 0318 5. 107 4 4.915 wer, 
22 25. 0 9.2 950 | .1102 . 0003166 . 0300 5. 065 4 4. 884 . 36 
23 27 15.0 959 | .1219 . 0003344 . 0287 5. 042 5 4. 882 - 40 
24 22. 6 1.6 939 | .1224 - 0003329 . 0282 5. 096 5 4,923 . 44 
25 24.0 3.7 944 | .1267 - 0003393 . 0278 5. 061 5 4. 894 15 
26 23 8 5.0 944 | .15145 . 0003712 - 0254 5. 027 5 4. 880 .44 
27 25. 2 -3 948 | .1644 . 0003876 - 0245 5. 050 3 4. 903 - 03 
28 22.3|— .7 938 | .2027 . 0004297 . 0218 4. 989 “7 4. 858 85 
29 21.8.) =~ tt 936 | .2175 . 0004447 - 0211 5. 046 -4 4.918 fo6 
30 22.3 4.2 938 | .3089 - 0005315 -0177 4. 980 1.0 
31 24.4 1.0 947 | .3969 - 0006047 - 0157 5. 060 1.0 
32 22.8 1.0 940 | .4074 . 0006104 . 0154 5. 033 1.0 
33 25..2 2.% 951 - 4735 . 0006581 . 0144 4.911 1.5 
Mean e=4.901 


Six months after the original work on this table was done the laboratory obtained a 
very reliable Weston laboratory standard voltmeter which made it possible to obtain a 
more perfect calibration curve of the Kelyin and White electrostatic instrument than 
had been made at first. With the aid of this new calibration curve every value of e in 
the above table was recomputed, with the result that the final value of e was reduced 
0.06 per cent. Furthermore, in the computation of the above table the m of equation 
(1) was through oversight treated as the real mass instead of as the apparent mass. 
This necessitates a further reduction of e amounting to 0.14 per cent, so that the most 
reliable value obtainable from the work thus far done is e=4.891X10~. 


except the first four and the last four. These are omitted not because 
their introduction would change the final value of e, which as a mat- 


ISOLATION OF AN ION—MILLIKAN. 253 


ter of fact is not appreciably affected thereby, but solely because of 
the experimental uncertainties involved in work upon either exceed- 
ingly slow or exceedingly fast drops. When the velocities are very 
small residual convection currents and Brownian movements intro- 
duce errors, and when they are very large the time determination 
becomes unreliable, so that it is scarcely legitimate to include such 
observations in the final mean. However, for the sake of showing 
how completely formula (9) fits our experimental results throughout 
the whole range of the observations of Table XIII, figure 3 has been 
introduced. The smooth curve in this figure is computed from (7) 
under the assumption of e=4.89110-° and the experimentally de- 
termined values of e, are plotted about this curve, every observation 
contained in Table XIII being shown in the figure. 

The probable error in the final mean value 4.891 x 10-'°, computed 
by least squares from the numbers in the last column, is four 
hundredths of 1 per cent. If there is an error of as much as 8 per 
cent in the determination of A the final value of e would be affected 
thereby by only about 0.2 per cent. Since, however, the coefficient of 
viscosity of air is involved in the formula, the accuracy with which e 
is known is limited by that which has been attained in the measure- 
ment of this constant. There is no other factor involved in this 
work which has not been measured with an accuracy at least as 
great as 0.2 per cent. 

The value of 4; which has been used in the computation of all of 
the preceding tables, viz, 0.00017856, is in my judgment the most 
probable value which can be obtained from a study of all of the large 
mass of data which has been accumulated within the past 40 year$ 
upon this constant. It represents not only the result of what seems. 
to me to be the most reliable single determination of s which has 
thus far been made, viz, that of Stokes and Tomlinson! who deduced 
it from the damping of oscillating cylinders and spheres, but it is ex- 
actly the mean of the three most recent and very concordant values 
obtained by the outflow method (Table XV), and it is furthermore 
the mean of all of the most reliable determinations which have ever 
been made. These determinations are as follows: 

[The discussion of the determinations of the coeflicient of viscosity 
of air is here omitted. ] 

We have devised two modifications of this method of determining 
e which do not involve the value yw. It is scarcely likely, however, 
that the necessary experimental error in these methods can be re- 
duced below the error iny It is probable, therefore, that any in- 
creased accuracy in our knowledge of e is to be looked for in in- 
creased accuracy in the determination of y. 


1 Stokes, Math. and Phys. Papers, v. 5, p. 181. 


254 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


EXPERIMENTS UPON SUBSTANCES OTHER THAN OIL. 


All of the preceding experiments except those recorded in Table I 
were made with the use of a specially cleaned gas-engine oil of 
density 0.9041 at 25° C. Those in Table I were made with the use 
of a similar, though more volatile, mineral oil (machine oil) of den- 
sity 0.8960. The reason that we worked so continuously upon a single 
substance was that it was found that in order to maintain a drop of 
constant size it was necessary, even with these very nonvolatile sub- 
stances, to have the drop in equilibrium with its saturated vapor. 
This is shown by the following observations. The inner surfaces 
of the condenser plates had been covered with a very thin coat of 
machine oil in order that they might catch dust particles. Drops 
blown from a considerable number of nonvolatile substances were 
introduced between the plates and were found in the main to evap- 
orate too rapidly to make accurate observing possible. This was true 
even of so nonvolatile substances as glycerine and castor oil, as the 
following observations show: 


Glycerine, density Castor oil, density 
25° 0.975. 


G. F. G. F. 
28.3 11.5 73.8 18.0 
32.5 9.8 75.8 * 12.9 
38.7 77.8 18.0 
45.6 8.4 78.17 102.2 
59.2 79.6 17.8 
¢ 84.8 30.2 
87.7 12.7 
90.7 18.1 


In order to get rid of this continuous increase in G, the drops were 
next blown from the least volatile liquid at hand, viz, gas-engine oil, 
and the behavior of a given drop showed immediately that it was_ 
growing in size instead of evaporating. This can be seen from the 
following readings: 


Gas-engine oil. 


c F, 
17.6 6.1 
17.4 76.2 
17.2 82.0 
16.9 87.2 
16.8 92. 4 
dLife 97.8 
16.7 104.6 


ISOLATION OF AN ION——MILLIKAN. 255 


This behavior was shown consistently by all the drops experi- 
mented upon (six or eight in number) throughout a period of two 
days. Imagining that the vapor from the more volatile machine 
oil upon the plates was condensing into the less volatile but similar 
oil of the drop I took down the apparatus, cleaned the plates care- 
fully, and oiled them again, this time with the gas-engine oil. Every 
gas-engine oil drop tried thereafter showed the sort of constancy 
which is seen in Tables III to XII. Series of observations similar 
to that made upon gas-engine oil and tabulated in Tables XTIT and 
XIV will ultimately be made upon other substances. Thus far the 
aim has been to take enough observations upon other substances to 
make sure that the results obtained from these substances are sub- 
stantially in agreement with those obtained from gas-engine oil and 
to concentrate attention upon an accurate series of observations upon 
one substance. As a matter of fact, we have a fairly complete series 
upon machine oil and a number of observations upon watch oil, 
castor oil, and glycerine, all of which are in agreement within the 
limits of observational error, in some cases as much as 2 or 3 per 
cent, with the observations upon gas-engine oil. 

* * * * * * *k 


The conclusion to be drawn from all of the work thus far done 
on substances other than oil is merely that there is nothing in it to 
cast a doubt upon the correctness of the value of e obtained from the 
much more extended and much more accurate work upon gas-engine 
oil. 

COMPARISONS WITH OTHER DETERMINATIONS. 


The value of e herewith obtained is in perfect agreement with the 
result reached by Regener? in his remarkably careful and consistent 
work in the counting of the number of scintillations produced by 
the particles emitted by a known amount of polonium and measur- 
ing the total charge carried by these same particles. His final value 
of this charge is 9.58 X 107°, and upon the assumption that this is 
twice the elementary charge—an assumption which seems to be jus- 
tified by Rutherford’s experiments*—he finds for e 4.79 x10, 
with a probable error of 3 per cent. Since the difference between 
this value and 4.89 & 10-*° is but 2 per cent the two results obviously 
agree within the limits of observational error. * * * 

[The author then discusses several other determinations of e, and 
explains some discrepancies which appear. | 

In conclusion there is presented a summary of the most important 
of the molecular magnitudes, accurate values of which are made 


1B. Regener, Sitz. Ber. d. k. Preuss. Acad. d. Wiss., 37, p. 948, 1909. 
2Rutherford, Phil. Mag., 17, p. 281, 1909. 


256 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


possible by an accurate determination of e. The Faraday constant 
is taken as Ve = 9,655 absolute electromagnetic units. 


e = 4.891 X 107° E.S.U. the smallest quantity of electricity canable of sepa- 
rate existence. 


N= 5922: x% 10° the number of molecules in one gram molecule of 
any substance. 

..-=, 2.644.- 6.270" the number of molecules in 1 cubic centimeter of 
any gas at 0° C. and 76 centimeters. 

aw = 2.106 X 107 ergs. the constant of molecular energy. Molecular en- 
ergy « = aT’. 

& = 5.750 X 10-™ ergs. the kinetic energy of agitation of a single molecule 


at 0° C. and 76 centimeters. €)=273a. 
m = 1.702 X 10-*4 gms. the weight of the hydrogen atom. 


Weights and diameters of molecules. 


arp rg sipignt | ARSE? | Diameters [pale 
Grams. Centimeter. G. cm. 
18 byg6 bite y 42 le ee MEA Sea cOer ee “omen Pes oOo Tee 2 3.40104 | 2.28x10-8 0. 55 
ROL ss. oe oot oka ns cee owe hamenehe xk teaser ce tao ay 6.81X10-4 | 2.001078 1.63 
Carbon monoxide... .3h.3-.552cce--ceeee eco sees 27.8 47.4 X10-%4 | 2.89108 3.76 
WihVleEne) aS. <sncaebes afassosas «asta aye er ae = eee 27.8 47.4 X10-%4 | 3.40X10-8 2.34 
INTUTOP EN s occee eens Jos ood-ce cee ape oes eee eee 27.8 47.4 <10-%4 | 3.06108 Az 
RTT ae ae oe a Sean Saleen fest neo mlenie ameter 28.9 49.2 x10-4 | 2.99x10-8 3. 53 
Nitric omidey..tsgokd 222522. 2 Bee ess soe Sa 29. 81 50.8 10-4} 2.69108 5.00 
ORATION ics ee a areata emit ie ec Stincisy ake ees atte 31.8 54.2 K10-%4 | 2.89x10-8 4.30 
TATE aE aoe spe ees ooe Macane- cmc peaeeeoeoadtce 4s 39.6 67.5 X10-%4 | 2.78108 6. 01 
Carbon: dioxide:. -. 2... decteos<cats Sess Jae2< seems estos 43.7 74.4 X10-4 | 3.11x10°8 4.73 
Nitrous: oxide:....2 <5 sen .6 Se esese cee Stee - ae See 43.7 74.4 X10-4 | 3.48x10-8 3.39 
OCHIOTING: J od.cccs tes taseitecsis = sedstns sectanaoeemeeg<< 70.4 119.8 10-4 | 3.01x10-8 3. 90 
Water VADOF a. - ons. conse gama tes nS neces eters 17.9 30.5 X10-4 | 3(?)x10° 
Bthylichlonde-.. -o-<-<cs see ccsaen et getter cs aac 64.0 108.9 X10-%4 | 4(?)x10-8 


My thanks are due to Profs. Crew, Carman, and Guthe for loaning 
to me tubes of radium when my own supply met with an accident. I 
wish also to acknowledge my great indebtedness to Mr. Harvey 
Fletcher who has most ably assisted me throughout the whole of this 
investigation. 


1These diameters have been obtained from the above value of m and the viscosity 
equation 


__350pz 
27nD* : 


Sutherland’s correction for cohesional force (Phil. Mag., 17, p. 820, 1909) and Jean’s 
correction for persistence of velocities being added. ‘This procedure is thought to yield 
more reliable results than applying the above corrections to means of D obtained from 
viscosity, diffusion, heat conduction, and departures from Boyle’s law, since computa- 
tions based on the last three phenomena involve both theoretical and experimental 
uncertainties of large magnitude. 


THE TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS, WIRELESS AND 
BY WIRE.* 


[With 2 plates.] 


By T. THorNE Baker, Hsq., F.C.S., A. I. BH. H. 


It frequently happens that when two alternate processes are avail- 
able for certain work, and one of them is considerably less practical 
than the other, the less practical one is possessed of much higher 
scientific interest. This may certainly be said of the telegraphy of 
pictures and photographs. The whole of the methods of transmis- 
sion can be classed as either purely mechanical, or dependent on the 
physical properties of some substance which, like selenium, is sensi- 
tive to ight. 

The latter methods are of no little scientific interest, and, although 
very delicate and for the moment obsolete, there is every likelihood 
of their coming into more extended use later on. 

The telegraphy of pictures differs only from the transmission of 
ordinary messages in that the telegraphed signals, recorded by a 
marker on paper, must essentially occupy a fixed position. In the 
case of an ordinary telegram it matters little whether the received 
message occupy two, three, or more lines when written out on paper, 
but when a picture is telegraphed every component part of it must 
be recorded in a definite position on the paper. 

Suppose you greatly enlarge a portrait, and divide it up by ruled 
lines into a thousand square parts. Suppose also that the photo- 
graph is printed on celluloid, so that it is transparent. If, now, the 
portrait be held in front of some even source of illumination, it will 
be seen that each square—each thousandth part—is of different 
density. The light parts of the photograph will consist of squares of 
little density, the dark parts, of squares of greater density, and so on. 
In this way the photograph is analyzed into composite sections, each 
section corresponding precisely to a letter in a message; letters and 

1 Lecture before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, at the weekly evening meeting, 
Friday, Apr. 22,1910. His Grace the Duke of Northumberland, K.G., P.C., D.C.L., LL.D., 


I.R.S., president, in the chair. Reprinted by permission from author’s copy published by 
the Royal Institution. Printed also in Nature, No. 2129, Aug. 18, 1910. 


97578°—_sm 1910——17 257 


258 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


spaces recombined form words and messages; squares of different 
densities recombined, in correct position, form a photograph. 

I propose to deal with the more practical system first, which, as 
already pointed out, is perhaps the less interesting from the theo- 
retical point of view. The telectrograph system has been employed 
by the Daily Mirror for the transmission of photographs since July, 
1909, and has been worked very regularly between Paris and London, 
and Manchester and London. 

Instances of its use may be recognized in the publication of photo- 
graphs taken in court in the recent Steinheil case at Paris, when 
photographs of witnesses or prisoners were sometimes received in 
London actually before the court rose at which they were taken, a 
clear day being gained in the time of publication. 

The method of telegraphing photographs that has been employed 
on a large scale by the Daily Mirror may be called a practical modi- 
fication of several early attempts. The effect of an electric current 
to discolor certain suitable electrolytes or to set free an element or 
ion that can be used to form with a second substance a colored 
product was employed in many early forms of instruments for 
telegraphing writing, etc. If we break up a photographic image in 
the way already described into lines which interrupt the current for 
periods depending on their width, these interrupted currents can be 
used at the receiving station to form colored marks which join up 
en masse to form a new image. My telectrographic process is thus 
briefly as follows: 

At the sending station we have a metal drum revolving under an 
iridium stylus, to the drum being attached a half-tone photograph 
printed on lead foil. Current flows through the photographic image 
to the line and thence to the receiver. The receiver consists of a 
similar revolving metal drum over which a platinum stylus traces. 
Every time the transmitter style comes in contact with a clear part of 
the metal foil current flows to the receiver, and a black or colored 
dot or mark appears on the chemical paper. But you will readily 
understand that if our reproduction—built up of these little marks, 
which have to be made at the rate of some 200 per second—is to be 
accurate, each mark must be only exactly as long, in proportion, as 
the clear metal space traversed by the stylus. 

It will be easier to explain the system by means of the rough 
diagram shown in figure 1. The transmitting instrument is shown on 
the left, the receiver on the right. A metal drum is revolved by a 
motor, one revolution every two seconds; over this a metal stylus or 
needle traces a spiral path in the same way as a phonograph. On 
the drum is fixed a half-tone photograph broken up into lines, and 
printed in fish glue upon a sheet of lead foil. I will show one of 
these line photographs on the screen, and you will see that the light 


TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER. 259 


and shade of the picture is made up of masses of thinner or thicker 
lines, with clear spaces in between. 

As the stylus traces over such a photograph, its contact with the 
metal base is interrupted every time one of these fish-glue lines comes 
beneath it, and for such a time as depends, of course, on the width of 
the line. The transmitting instrument thus sends into the telegraph 
lines a series of electric currents whose periods of duration are deter- 
mined by the width of the lines composing the photograph. 

A similar stylus, S,, traces an exactly similar path over a revolving 
drum in the receiving instrument, but round this drum is wrapped a 
piece of absorbent paper impregnated with a colorless solution, which 
turns black or brown when decomposed by an electric current. 

What happens then is that every brief current which passes 
through the paper causes a mark to appear on it. The width of the 
mark depends on the duration of the current—or should so do—so that 


Baltery 


you will see that these marks gradually combine to recompose the 
photographic image. 

This method is all very well in the laboratory, but when we come 
to try it over a long distance the capacity of the line at once causes 
serious interference. It is well known that if a current be sent to 
some apparatus, such as a telegraph, from a distance, the current 
having to pass through long wires the capacity of which is appre- 
ciable, a certain time is taken for the current to charge the line, and 
the line discharges itself into the apparatus with comparative slow- 
ness. If the circuit be closed by means of a Morse key, the time of 
contact at the key being a sixth of a second—a common time of dura- 
tion of a short tap—the discharge of current from the cable would be 
considerably longer than one-sixth of a second. When, therefore, 
we are sending signals through the line at the rate of 175 per second, 
it is not difficult to see that every signal will run into the next dozen 


260 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


or so at the receiving apparatus, and the result will be a hopelessly 
confused mass of overlapping marks. Thisis well illustrated in plate 
1, figure 1, where A shows a series of taps passed through a cable 
of high capacity into the telectrograph receiver; instead of getting a 
series of sharp dots or short lines, we get elongated lines ending off 
in tails. Without the capacity, we get the short lines as shown in 
the B series. These short, definite lines are again obtained, even 
when the capacity is present, in series C; but in this case I had 
shunted on to the receiver what I have termed the line balancer, a 
modified form of shunt apparatus embodying the principles of wip- 
ing cut residuary currents from the cable in the way frequently made 
use of in duplex telegraphy. 

The use of this apparatus has rendered commercial the old ideas 
of telegraphing by the electrolytic method, and as many as 300 
sharply defined chemical marks can be recorded in one second by its 
means. The method of application will be seen if we have the last 
slide shown again (fig. 1); here, shunted on to the line (which is 
closed by the stylus S, and the metal drum), is a circuit containing 
two batteries, B, and B,, and the two sections of a divided 1,000-ohms 
resistance, W, and W,. Shunted across the variable contacts of the 
resistances is a variable condenser K. By varying the resistances, 
W, and W., we can vary the power of the current used to sweep out 
the residuary charges in the line; the current can, of course, flow 
through the chemical paper on the drum, but the pole of the battery 
B,, connected to the style, is of opposite sign to that of the line unit 
connected to it. 

When the leakance on the line is great and evenly distributed, less 
reverse current from the balancer is necessary, this being quite in ac- 
cordance with Heaviside’s formule for telephony over lines with 
capacity and inductance. It is interesting to note, also, that by in- 
creasing the voltage of the reverse batteries B, and B,, considerably 
greater contrast can be obtained in the pictures; the finer the half- 
tone screen employed in splitting up the photographs into lines, the 
higher, again, must the voltage of B, and B, be made. 

I should like to take up a few moments in referring to the actual 
utility of phototelegraphy. The demand by the public for illustra- 
tions in their daily papers must be admitted. News is telegraphed in 
order to expedite its publication, and photographs illustrating this 
news can therefore be telegraphed advantageously. But where a 
large installation and establishment, with accumulators, a large in- 
strument, and an operator to work it are required, the cost of tele- 
graphing every individual picture becomes quite out of propor- 
tion to its value. It is therefore desirable to direct special attention 
to the portable instruments, the first one of which is shown for the 
first time to-night. A photographer going to obtain pictures of some 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Baker. PLATE 1 


Lleclrual Lagigerrigg 


2. PHOTOGRAPH SHOWING A PORTION OF THE PHOTO-T ELEGRAPHIC 
APPARATUS. 


TRLEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER, 261 


important function or interesting event can take the machine with 
him, prepare his pictures, and telegraph them to his head office, and 
when the event is over he simply returns with the apparatus. Tor 
criminal investigations, the portable instrument will, I feel sure, be- 
come of considerable value also. Through the continued courtesy 
shown by the Postmaster General and Maj. O'Meara, the engineer in 
chief, we have been given every facility for developing the work, 
and I believe that the uses of the portable instrument will before long 
have been amply demonstrated. 

If a picture revolving beneath a tracer has to redraw itself, as it 
were, on a piece of paper perhaps hundreds of miles away, it is 
obvious that each mark redrawn must occupy a precisely similar spot 
on the new paper as it does in the original picture. As cylinders or 
drums are used in picture telegraphy, this means that they must re- 
volve in perfect unison. If one drum were to gain on the other we 
should have, in the case of a portrait, a nose being recorded where 
the eye ought to be, or something equally disastrous; in fact, if the 
two machines get the least bit out of step, the received pieture is com- 
pletely ruined. The method of synchronising used by Prof. Korn 
has proved very satisfactory, and has been adopted in practically all 
systems of phototelegraphy. The motors which drive each drum are 
run at about 8,000 revolutions per minute, and geared down very con- 
siderably, so that the drums themselves revolve, perhaps, at 30 revo- 
lutions per minute; the motors are run from secondary batteries of 
ample capacity to insure smooth working, and should be run for a 
sufficient time before beginning a transmission to allow of their 
warming up. 

The speed of each motor is controlled by a regulating resistance in 
series with the field magnets, and the speed is ascertained by means 
of a frequency meter, which indicates the number of revolutions per 
second, The dial of this meter is shown on the screen. <A set of tuned 
steel tongues are fixed in front of a magnet, which is supplied with 
alternating current obtained from slip rings on the motor, and each 
tongue has a different period of vibration. When the alternations 
in magnetism correspond with the period of vibration of any one 
spring, that spring vibrates, and thus serves as an indication of the 
speed of the motor. 

The receiving drum is revolved a little quicker than the transmit- 
ting drum. It consequently completes its revolution before the trans- 
mitter. It is then stopped by a steel check, and is obliged to wait 
until the other drum has caught it up. When the transmitting drum 
has completed its turn, a fleeting contact comes into play, a reverse 
current is sent to the receiving instrument; this is led into a polar- 
ized relay, which actuates an electromagnet, and this magnet re- 
moves the check. 


262 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Thus, however much one drum gets out of step with the other, the 
fault is limited to each revolution, and both drums must always start 
off in unison for each new revolution. I have found that where each 
operator endeavors to keep his motor running uniformly by regu- 
lating the resistance according to the fluctuations recorded by the 
frequency meter, the personal element makes itself visible in the re- 
sults; straight lines appear wavy, and the synchronism is not at all 
good. J therefore tried very carefully calibrating the motors by 
timing first, and then arranged that, once started, the motors should 
not be touched; the gain in speed of each is approximately the same 
if both motors are run from secondary batteries of the same ampere- 
hour capacity, and in this way we have obtained the most perfect re- 
sults as regards synchronization. 

The great advantage of this process is that the whole operation is 
in full view, whereas with systems in which the received picture is 
obtained on a photographic film one has to develop-such film before 
it is possible to discover whether anything is wrong. With the re- 
ceiver described, the operator keeps his hand on the sliding contact 
of the resistances, and merely adjusts their position during the first 
two or three seconds, according to the condition of the electrolytic 
marks, i. e., whether crisp and concise or not. The transmitting cyl- 
inder can be used as the receiving cylinder, and the apparatus is thus 
reduced to the limits of simplicity. 

Toward the end of last year I designed a portable machine, two 
of which Mr. Sanger-Shepherd has just completed, embodying in 
them a number of improvements of his own, and these machines, 
which have worked successfully on their trials, are shown on the 
lecture table to-night. They are suitable for line or wireless work, 
and will, I believe, prove of great value in naval and military 
operations. 

The Daily Mirror inaugurated the Paris-London photographic 
service in November, 1907, with Prof. Korn’s selenium instruments, 
which I shall briefly describe, as Korn is now making two new 
selenium apparatus with the view of transmitting photographs from 
New York to London. In this system use is made of the fact that 
the electrical resistance of the metal selenium varies according to 
the strength of illumination to which it is subjected, a beam of light 
passed through the light and dark parts of a photograph in succes- 
sion being used to vary the strength of an electric current sent to the 
receiving apparatus. 

In Korn’s selenium transmitter light is concentrated from a Nernst 
lamp to pass through a revolving glass cylinder, round which a trans- 
parent photograph (printed on celluloid) is fixed, the beam travers- 
ing the film at its brightest part, where the rays come to a focus 
(fig. 2). The light which passes through the picture is reflected by a 


TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER. 2638 


prism inside the cylinder on to the selenium cell, through which the 
current passes. Across the circuit is shunted a galvanometer of the 
Einthoven pattern, containing two fine silver strings free to move 
laterally in a strong magnetic field. These are represented by AB, 
the magnet poles being MM. When a bright part of the photograph 
admits of light falling on the sensitive cell, current passes through 
AB, and it shifts aside, allowing light from a Nernst lamp N, to enter 
the prism P, whence it is reflected on to the second cell SS. The tele- 
phone lines connecting the two instruments go direct to the wires of 
a similar galvanometer, which is in series with the galvanometer of 
the transmitting instrument. If we imagine MM to be the receiving 
galvanometer, then we remove the prism P, and the light acts on a 
sensitive photographic film attached to the drum C, which revolves 
synchronously with the glass cylinder of the sending instrument. 
The inertia of selenium once overcome, the metal immediately be- 
comes of great use for many purposes. Prof. Korn’s method of com- 


Sensitrve 
Cell. 


Fig. 2. 


pensation is to let the light fall at the same time on two cells of op- 
posite characteristics; one has great inertia and small sensitiveness, 
the other low inertia and great sensitiveness. By using the two cells 
on opposite sides of a Wheatstone bridge, dividing the battery into 
two parts for the other sides, the deflection in the galvanometer is 
very rapid. You will see the effect from the two curves now shown 
on the screen. That above the axis along which exposure is measured 
is the sensitive cell; that below this axis the cell of low sensitiveness. 
Clearly the current passed through the galvanometer is that obtained 
by joining the sums of the ordinates. This gives the small curve 
shown as the shaded portion. When the illumination is thrown on 
the cell the current rises very rapidly instead of gradually, whilst 
when it is suddenly shut off (at P in the upper curve) it drops to 
zero almost instantly instead of falling gradually. 

T shall now show, by means of a meter, an image of the pointer of 
which will be projected on to the screen, how the inertia of selenium 


264 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


is overcome. You will first see that if I take away the screen so as 
to allow light to fall on the selenium cell, current passes into the 
galvanometer, and the needle slowly deflects several degrees. Now, I 
quickly shut off the light by intercepting it with the screen, and the 
needle comes slowly backward. Such sluggish movement would be 
impossible for the purposes of photo-telegraphy, where at least half 
a dozen changes per second are required to be recorded abruptly 
even in transmitting the simple portraits to which the selenium 
process is limited. 

Now, using two cells of different characteristics and a Wheatstone 
bridge arrangement, I will once more allow light to fall suddenly 
on the two cells simultaneously, and you will see that the galvanom- 
eter needle records the change in resistance of the combination quite 
quickly; the combination is even more noticeable when the lght is 
suddenly shut off again, the needle returning to zero with great rapid- 
ity. This compensated arrangement of selenium cells at once renders 
their use of practical value for various physical and optical measure- 
ments. Prof. Korn has found that for an increase in the illumina- 

1 


m, 


tion oI, the current obtained is given by the equation y= a@.0Le 
where y is the current, @ the sensitiveness of the cell, # and m its 
inertia constants, and e the basis of Naperian logarithms. For two 
cells to be combined to the greatest advantage we must have them 
such that if their equations are respectively 


a. 
—Bin iG 


y,=4,0L.e 
and 
a! 
y=aLe | 
then 
L(Y, — Y2) = 
dt : 


This makes the condition for good compensation that 


a, f= af, 
m is usually almost constant, and with suitable Giltay cells is about 4. 
In practical language, the condition for compensation is that the 
principal cell should have great sensitiveness and a small inertia con- 
stant, the compensation cell low sensitiveness and a high inertia con- 
stant, the product of sensitiveness and inertia constant being the same 
in the case of both cells. 


The physical properties of selenium are of such importance that 
I feel I may be allowed to digress for a few moments to show one 


TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER. 265 


way in which they may be utilized to solve a problem that has long 
occupied many investigators, viz, the satisfactory measurement of 
the beam of heterogeneous rays from an X-ray tube. Whenever a 
new tube is used in radiographic work, a different voltage, or different 
interrupter or coil, the time of exposure for the photographic plate 
has to be determined anew. ‘The strength of the tube under any con- 
ditions can, however, be determined by means of a simple piece of 
apparatus which I have constructed, the working of which T shall 
now be able to show you. 

If the X rays fall on a fluorescent screen of barium platino-cyanide, 
the screen absorbs them and emits yellowish-green visible rays; this 
transformed energy is capable of affecting a very sensitive selenium 


CURVE SHOWING EFFCT OF FEEBLE 
ILLUMINATION ON THE 


? RESISTANCE or SELENIUM 

Ng Mar 1910 

ss Resistance of unilluminaled oalray 1eet 
: ceu 395,000 ohms’ 

So 

oi 

: = 

eg 

ee R 

gi 

KS 

28 

4 

4 

x 

> 

Ss 


O2L EE PRMhUE BID mM %@BWi 32 36 40 Ey) 60 & 70 


Distance sm Inches of Setewium Crrr from Source 
of INumination, x 2. 


Fig. 3. 


cell when placed in contact with the screen, the resistance becoming 
less the greater the fluorescence. You will see here a selenium cell 
of approximately 395,000 ohms resistance, over which is placed a 
small fluorescent screen of the same size; the cell is put in series with 
a battery of 100 volts and a milliampere meter, the divisions of which 
may be made to correspond to some arbitrary scale or to the time 
necessary for the exposure of a given make of photographic plate. 
The dividing of the dial depends on two things: First, the char- 
acteristic curve of the selenium cell connecting its resistance with the 
strength of illumination, the linear distance of the source from the 
cell being, in this case, the most convenient to employ. Second, this 
characteristic curve must be modified to meet the case of illumina- 
tion by the rays from the antikathode, which do not necessarily 


266 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


diminish in their power to make the sereen fluoresce as the square 
of the distance from it. You will see on the screen the character- 
istic curve of a selected selenium cell for feeble illumination, the 
maximum being of about the same wave length as that of the fluores- 
cence, showing the relation between resistance and distance separating 
the source of illumination and the cell, and also the modified curve 
showing a similar relation between resistance and distance between 
antikathode and cell, with the screen in contact. The portion of the 
first curve most nearly asymptotic is best to employ for the work, 
and from the second curve the dial scale of the meter can be easily 
calibrated. If, now, I vary the height of the X-ray tube from the 
measuring apparatus, you will see that the meter needle is deflected 
less as the distance between tube and cell is increased. The actual 
instrument is provided with a scale divided so as to show compara- 
tive times of exposure, and by its use radiographic work can be 
greatly facilitated. 

It is interesting to note that the effect of the rays on the fluorescent 
screen, as estimated by the selenium cell, differs less with increasing 
distance the farther the antikathode is from it: 


Distance of anti- 
kathode from Current recorded, Difference. 
apparatus. 
Inches. Milliamperes. 

6 0.33 _ 
8 -27 0. 06 

10 22 05 

12 - 20 - 02 

14 18 02 

16 -16 02 


A good deal of time has, I am afraid, been taken up in giving de- 
tails of apparatus, but I will now show some of the results that have 
been obtained in practice. The selenium machines already referred 
to were operated between Paris, Manchester, and London until the 
end of the year 1908. The first photograph received (slide) was of 
King Edward, and was received at the Daily Mirror installation in 
November, 1907. Several results will now be shown in the lantern, 
and you will observe that they are all composed of parallel lines, 
which widen or “thin” according to the density of the picture. 
These lines correspond to the movement of the shutter attached to the 
strings of the Einthoven galvanometer, which regulates the thick- 
ness of the spot of light focused on the revolving sensitive film. This 
spot of light*traces a spiral line around the film, which, when de- 
veloped, is laid flat, and the spiral becomes resolved into so many 
parallel lines. 


TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER. 267 


Late in 1908 Prof. Korn introduced his telautograph, in which a 
Caselli transmitter, such as already described for the telectrograph, is 
used, and a line sketch or half-tone photograph is attached to the 
drum. ‘The receiver is similar to that used in the selenium machines, 
a spot of light cast on a revolving sensitive film being shut off every 
time current flows through 
the wire of the galvanometer NO COMPENSATION 
and displaces it. When dis- 
placed the shadow of the 
wire falls over a fine slit 
placed in front of the film, 
and so prevents the light 
from passing through to it. 
A line sketch transmitted 
from Paris to London in this 
way is now shown (pl. 2, fig. ORL e PARNER OS URE 
2). The methods of syn- 
chronizing the sending and 
receiving cylinders is the COMPENSATION 
same as that used in the telec- - 
trograph; but Prof. Korn’s 
work was done prior to mine, 
and his arrangements were 
therefore copied by me. Sim- 
ilar methods have been 
adopted for many years, how- 
ever, in certain systems of 
ordinary telegraphy. 

There is a great deal of 
interesting matter connected 
with the efficiency of the gal- 
vanometer-recelving appara- 
tus, and the vast amount of 
careful work done by Prof. 
Korn to increase it, which 
time quite forbids my men- 
tioning, and IT will therefore 
pass on to the latest phase of 
phototelegraphic work—the experiments now being carried out to 
effect wireless transmissions. 

The wireless apparatus for transmitting sketches, writing, or 
simple photographic images over distances up to about 50 miles may 
perhaps be looked upon as rather rudimentary, but I shall be able to 
show, from actual results, that it is at any rate practicable, and it is 
certainly more simple than any method based on later wireless re- 
searches. 


CURRENT 


CURRENT 


Fie. 4, 


268 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


I will first show you an experiment, for the simplicity of which I 
must ask your pardon; but it illustrates so clearly how easy it really 


FLUORESCING POWER OF X-RAYS AS 
MEASURED BY SELEWIUM 


“ 
~ 
~ 
° 
a 
° 
© 
~ 
s 


MILLIAMPERES 


CURRENT : 


DISTANCE (IN INCHES OF ANTICATHOOE FROM CELL 


Siercury 
interrupley 


earth 
Fic. 6. 


is to transmit a photograph by wireless under ideal conditions. I 
have here a small electric lamp, coupled up with the local side of a 
relay and battery, the relay being actuated by means of a coherer de- 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Baker. PLATE 2. 


1. PHOTOGRAPH WIRED FROM PARIS TO LONDON 
BY THE AUTHOR’S TELECTOGRAPH. 


2. FASHION PLATE TRANSMITTED BY PROFESSOR KORN’S 
T ELAUTOGRAPH. 


TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER. 269 


tector. At the other side of the platform there is a Morse key, which, 
when depressed, closes the primary circuit of an induction coil, the 
secondary being coupled up in the usual way to give oscillations. 
When I press the key, and thereby send a signal, you see that the 
lamp at once lights up. If the coherer be tapped, the lamp is ex- 
tinguished, and another tap of the Morse key causes it to light again. 

Now suppose that the taps of the Morse key were controlled by the 
lines in a photograph or sketch, and that the ight from the lamp 
were concentrated on a revolving photographic film, and you will see 
at once how a photograph could be transmitted by wireless teleg- 
raphy. 

Such a process would be utterly impracticable commercially, but my 
telectrographic system can be used with success in its place. A line 
picture prepared in the way already described is attached to the drum 
of the transmitter, and the intermittent current, which is ordinarily 
passed into the telephone line, goes into an electromagnet, M in figure 
6, which then attracts a soft iron diaphragm attached to brass springs, 
which are fixed to two rigid supports. Every time current flows 
through the magnet coils this diaphragm is attracted to it, and the 
platinum contacts PQ are brought together; when the current flows, 
and PQ are in contact, the primary circuit of a transformer is closed, 
and the secondary having a spark gap and being inductively coupled 
to the aerial and earth, a signal is transmitted into space. Thus in 
the wireless transmitter the only difference from ordinary telegraphy 
hes in the fact that the length of the signals and their distance apart 
are regulated by the lines composing the sketch or photograph. 

When working with high voltages in the primary, such as 110, 
arcing is liable to take place, and hence the distance between P 
and Q, when not attracted must be considerable. This means that 
the distance between the diaphragm clamps must be short, and 
the German-silver spring of which the diaphragm is made must 
be thick, these two conditions making the natural period of vibration 
very short. I have, however, found that by interposing a mercury 
motor-interrupter in the primary circuit, arcing is almost entirely 
avoided, as if an are be formed the current is interrupted an instant 
later, and the arcing ceases in consequence. 

The receiving apparatus is very simple, and depends, for short- 
distance work, upon a coherer cymoscope, the decohering apparatus 
being of a particular character. Every time an oscillation passes to 
the antenna, the coherer becomes conductive in the ordinary way, 
and a relay is actuated; this relay is usually made to start a hammer 
vibrating, the hammer hitting the coherer, and thus causing it to 
lose its conductive power. But a vibrating hammer is useless for the 
photo-telegraphic receiver, and it is essential to have one strike only 
on the coherer for each signal detected. 


270 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The form of apparatus I have employed for this purpose is seen 
diagramatically in the next lantern slide (fig. 7). EE is the 
magnet which is actuated by the relay R. It then attracts an arma- 
ture MN, which moves toward the magnet poles and brings a resili- 
ent hammer H, fitted with a platinum contact p, against the coherer. 
The coherer AB is also fitted with a collar F and contact pin, so that 
in the act of striking the coherer the hammer closes a local circuit, 
and so causes a black mark to appear on the chemical paper. Suc- 
cessive distinct marks can be obtained in 0.017 second in this way, 
which is considerably more rapid, I believe, than a decoherer was 
given credit for. 

There is not sufficient time to show an actual transmission by wire- 
less, and I should like to make it clear that only sketches of the 
simplest character are at present being transmitted; but, as you will 
see from the result thrown on the screen—a simple portrait of His 


Majesty the King—the images are recognizable, and merely require 
slightly more detail to make them quite comparable with the early 
results in line obtained by Prof. Korn’s telautograph. 

Another result shows a plan transmitted by wireless; here an 
island is seen represented, and a lighthouse—or it might be a fort— 
and by means of letters the positions of sections of an army on the 
island are supposed to be designated, while the shaded portion might 
mean that the “enemy” is in that part of the island. Such plans as 
these could be drawn direct in shellac ink on a slip of metallic foil, 
placed upon a portable machine coupled to a portable military wire- 
less set, and communicated from one section of an army to another. 
The small portable machines I have already shown are used for the 
wireless transmissions, and they possess the advantage that “tap- 
ping” of the communications would be quite impossible. It is for 
this reason that I think the method would be of such value for mili- 
tary and naval purposes; even supposing that anyone wishing to 


TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER. art 


intercept a plan or written message were to have an exactly similar 
instrument, with the same dimensions, screw threads, and so on, by 
merely altering the rate of running by 5 or 10 per cent, according to 
prearranged signals, the picture as received by the intercepting 
party would be quite unintelligible and confused. 

We have already seen that in the telegraphy of a picture by any 
system, accurate synchronizing of the sending and receiving appa- 
ratus is essential. Where a metallic circuit links the transmitting 
and receiving instruments together, the matter is an easy one, and 
we have seen in what way it is effected. But when dealing with 
wireless work, the question of synchronism becomes more serious. 
I have employed two methods, each of which appears to answer 


CHRONOMETRIC SYNCHRONISER FOR WIRELESS APPARATUS. 
Fig. 8. 


satisfactorily, and as they are very important I will devote a few 
moments to their description. 

The first method secures accurate synchronism independently of 
any wireless communication. You have already seen how, in the 
ordinary telegraphic work, the receiving cylinder is driven rather 
faster than the sending one, and when it finishes up a complete turn 
too soon it is arrested until the sending cylinder has caught it up, 
when the latter sends a reverse current, which is responsible for its 
release. But in the wireless apparatus both sending and receiving 
cylinders are driven too fast, so to speak—that is, they are made to 
revolve in four and three-fourths seconds instead of a nominal five. 
A check comes into play at the end of the revolution, and the cylinder 
is stopped until the five seconds are completed, the motor working 


pio ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


against a friction clutch in the ordinary way during the stop. At 
the end of the fifth second each cylinder is automatically released by 
chronometric means, in the manner shown in the next diagram 
(fig. 8). 

Here you will see that a special form of clock is used, with a center 
seconds’ hand which projects beyond the face by about an inch, and to 
the end of it is attached a brush of exceedingly fine silver wires. At 
every twelfth part of the circumference of the clock dial is fixed a 
platinum pin, and consequently every five seconds the little brush 
wipes against the convex surface of one of them. Each of these pins 
is connected with one terminal of a battery B, the other side of the 
battery leading to the relay R, as does also the center seconds’ hand. 
Therefore each time the brush wipes against a pin the circuit is closed, 
and the relay throws into action the local circuit connected up with 
the terminals TT. This circuit excites an electromagnet, which 
attracts an armature and pulls away the check which is holding 
back the cylinder. At the end of each five seconds the cylinders 
consequently recommence turning. 

Well-calibrated clocks of the pattern used will keep good time for 
the period taken to transmit a picture, one gaining on the other quite 
an inappreciable amount, depending on the friction of the brush 
against the pins. By this means the two cylinders are kept in very 
fair synchronism independently of any wireless communication, and 
the less the interval between the stopping and restarting of the cylin- 
ders be made, the more accurate and satisfactory will be the effect. 

The other method of synchronizing is controlled by electromag- 
netic oscillations. Let us suppose that a coherer is being used as 
cymoscope; the transmitting cylinder is kept running without any 
interruption, but by means of a fleeting contact it sends out a wave 
at the conclusion of its turn, a bare space in the picture being neces- 
sary about half a second beforehand, so that no waves are sent out 
for the half-second previously. The receiving cylinder is driven too 
quickly, and checked at the end of the revolution. It then, by means 
of a cam pressing down a spring lever, throws out of circuit the 
marking current, and brings into circuit the relay which actuates 
the electromagnetic release. Consequently, when the synchronizing 
wave is received, the coherer causes the relay to work, the release is 
effected, and the receiving cylinder starts a new revolution in unison 
with the transmitter. 

This means of synchronizing is only possible in cases where a 
eymoscope is employed that is capable of actuating a relay, and you 
will therefore see that it is out of the question, except for short dis- 
tances. I am therefore using the chronometric system already de- 
scribed in the apparatus, and it is being embodied in the quartz fiber 
apparatus I am now about to describe. I must first remark that the 


TELEGRAPHY OF PHOTOGRAPHS—BAKER. } O73 


wireless work has been greatly facilitated by the courteous assistance 
so readily given by the Marconi Company. 

The general form of the Einthoven galvanometer is well known, 
and the modified type of it used by Prof. Korn for phototele- 
graphic purposes has been already shown. If, now, we make the 
magnetic field very much more intense by building the field magnets 
heavier, and using a large number of ampere turns in the winding, 
and also employ a “string,” which is very much more elastic than the 
silver ribbon, the displacement of the string will be correspondingly 
greater. The silvered quartz fiber. used by Duddell for this purpose 
gives an extremely sensitive instrument, and very appreciable dis- 
placement is obtained with the current from one dry cell passing 
through 35 to 90 megohms resistance. 

It is not long since Prof. Fleming explained at this Institution the 
valve receiver for detecting wireless oscillations; in ordinary wire- 
less telegraphy, the minute alternating currents are rectified, and 
sounds are heard in the telephone in circuit owing to small unidi- 
rectional currents. If these currents be passed through the silvered 
quartz string of the galvanometer, the string is shifted. If, there- 
fore, we cause a shadow of the string to le over a fine slit, any dis- 
placement will cause the slit to be opened, as it were; the shadow will 
be shifted off the sht, and light will be free to pass through it. 
Oscillations corresponding to the lines in a photograph or sketch 
could therefore be utilized to cause shifting of the shutter in the 
manner I have already described for Korn’s telautograph, and a 
sensitive photographic film could be revolved on a drum behind the 
shit to receive the picture. Such an apparatus is now in course of 
preparation; but the amount of light that passes through the slit is 
extremely small, owing to the fineness of the fiber. Mr. Sanger- 
Shepherd has therefore attached a minute shutter to the fiber, cross- 
ing the optic axis; this enables me to use a very much wider slit, 
and also to adopt the alternative procedure for reception, which you 
will now see represented in the diagram on the screen. 

For photographic reception, the oscillation is passed into the valve 
detector, and thence to the quartz fiber AB, which is stretched across 
the field of the magnets (not shown), the poles of which are bored 
with a tunnel, through which the beam of light is directed. When 
the fiber is displaced, light is enabled to pass through a fine slit W, 
and so act on the photographic film. Where, however, the shutter is 
attached to the fiber, a much wider slit can be used, and then a pair of 
narrow compensated selenium cells SS are placed behind the slit W, 
a positive lens being interposed. When a signal corresponding to 
a dot in the photograph (i. e., the traversal of a line by the stylus) is 
received, the fiber shifts, light falls on the cells SS, and their resist- 


97578°—sm 1910——18 


274 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ance is decreased sufficiently to enable the battery E to actuate the 
relay R. This closes a local circuit, in which the telectrograph re- 
ceiver is included, and a mark appears on the paper. In this way a 
visible record is obtained, which greatly facilitates the process. 

Wireless phototelegraphy may eventually prove of more utility 
than the closed-circuit methods, because it would bring America 
within reach of this country, and would enable communication to be 
made where telephone or telegraph lines did not exist. It is not 
limited to photographs—banking signatures, sketches, maps, plans, 
and writing could be transmitted. But I would point out most par- 
ticularly that the work is as yet in the very earliest stages, and that 
in giving you some account of it to-night I may be bringing before 
your notice methods and systems on which a few years hence you will 
look back with a smile—as curious merely from a historical point 
of view. 


MODERN IDEAS ON THE CONSTITUTION OF MATTER.’ 


By JEAN BECQUEREL, 
Professor at the National Museum of Natural History, Paris. 


For a number of years past physicists have been laying the 
foundations of a new theory of matter. A series of bold concep- 
tions, based on unlooked-for facts, has worked a deep-seated trans- 
formation in the previously accepted ideas concerning the constitu- 
tion of bodies. 

Everyone knows that substances in general are divided into two 
groups, simple bodies or elements and complex bodies made up by 
the combination of these elements. For a long time these bodies 
have been considered as composed of atoms which have combined 
and formed molecules, the atom being the most minute quantity of 
matter characteristic of an element and capable of entering into 
chemical combinations, while the molecule of a body, simple or com- 
plex, is the smallest particle of this body which is capable of exist- 
ing in a physical state. Let us consider an example: The molecule 
of water, the smallest quantity of water which can exist in a physical 
state, is the result of the combination of two atoms of hydrogen 
with one of oxygen. I shall repeat before you the classic experiment 
of decomposing water by an electric current; oxygen is set free at 
the positive pole and hydrogen at the negative pole, the two gases 
coming off in the proportion of two volumes of hydrogen to one 
volume of oxygen. 

The molecule of a complex body is always made up of the atoms 
of at least two elements. The molecule of an element may be made 
up of only a single atom, as is the case with monatomic bodies such 
as helium, zinc, cadmium, or mercury, while in other cases the 
molecule of a simple body may be a group of several atoms of this 
body, for instance, hydrogen and oxygen are diatomic, while phos- 
phorus and arsenic are tetratomic. . 

The discovery of Gay Lussac concerning the laws of the compo- 
sition of gases led Avogadro and Ampere to declare that gases con- 


1 Lecture delivered at the Museum, Apr. 10, 1910. Translated by permission from the 
Revue Scientifique, Paris, 48, No, 14, Oct. 1, 1910. 
275 


276 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


tained in equal volumes the same number of molecules, and that the 
definite proportions in which they combined represented the invari- 
able relation between the weights of the atoms which were in juxta- 
position. 

The theory is that in the interior of bodies the constituent mole- 
cules are perpetually animated by a movement which becomes cor- 
respondingly greater as the temperature becomes higher. If the 
swiftness of these thermic movements could be gradually reduced to 
zero, temperatures would be obtained which would approach more 
and more closely to the limit of temperature found at about —273° C. 
This temperature, the lowest’ conceivable, since it corresponds to a 
state of repose of the molecules, is called absolute zero. 

The principles of mechanics which apply to this conception of 
molecules in movement takes account of all these laws to which 
gases and dissolved bodies are subjected. I can not enlarge here on 
the methods which have made it possible to count in a cubic centi- 
meter of gas at ordinary temperature and pressure, thirty billion 
billions of molecules, and to evaluate the dimensions of one of 
these molecules. The diameter of a molecule of oxygen, for example, 
is a few ten-millionths of a millimeter. These figures give some 
idea, however, of the extreme divisibility of matter. In connection 
with this divisibility of matter it is interesting to recall that accord- 
ing to Berthelot the odor of one hundred-thousand-millionth of a 
gram of iodoform per cubic centimeter of air is perceptible to the 
sense of smell. 

You are all aware that matter attracts matter, in accordance with 
the universal law of gravitation which rules the movements even of 
the stars. The invariability of the constant of gravitation has sug- 
gested the idea that the atoms of all bodies can be formed by the 
unequal condensation of a single principle and the relations dis- 
covered by chemists between the different elements lend themselves 
favorably to this hypothesis. 

The idea of a single principle as the ultimate constituent of all 
things, dates in reality from the most ancient times. Twenty-five 
centuries ago, Thales propounded the existence of a primordial fluid 
to which he attributed a sort of soul and a power of attraction. 
Anaximander, Anaximines, and Herodotus spoke of a universal prin- 
ciple, and Pythagoras located above the air “ether, a celestial sub- 
stance free from all perceptible matter.” Five hundred years before 
our era Leucippus and Democritus had conceived of atoms indi- 
visible and eternal which moved about in infinite space; Lucretius 
a little later expounded similar doctrines. Finally Descartes and 
Leibnitz developed for themselves an idea of matter which led them 
to similar conclusions, 


CONSTITUTION OF MATTER—BECQUEREL. Are 


About the end of the last century an English chemist, Prout, pro- 
pounded the hypothesis that all elements could be made up by the 
progressive condensation of hydrogen, the lightest of all the bodies. 

Several years ago, however, modern physicists took a still further 
step; they now attribute an atomic structure not only to matter, but to 
electricity as well, and consider matter as composed of electricity. 

We shall see as a fact that electrified corpuscles have been isolated 
which themselves appear to be composed of electricity, entirely free 
from anything that can properly be termed matter, whose mass is of 
electro-magnetic origin and is nearly two thousand times as small as 
that of an atom of hydrogen. 

These atoms of electricity are called electrons. They are present 
in all bodies; they are the atoms which are at the source of all phe- 
nomena of light, and again they are those atoms which allow the 
conduction of heat and of electricity. The electron appears to be 
in the nature of a universal constituent of matter, without being 
itself matter, in the ordinary sense of the word. 

The first conception of, an atom of electricity is a result of the 
phenomenon of electrolysis, of which you may see an example in 
the decomposition of acidified water by an electric battery. <A solu- 
tion which is a conductor of electricity and is decomposible by a 
current is termed an electrolyte. Every molecule of an electrolyte 
is separable into two atoms or atomic groups, called ions, which 
possess charges of equal quantity and opposite signs; thus, when 
sodium chloride is dissolved in water a certain number of molecules 
dissociate into negative chlorine lons and positive sodium ions. 
Under the influence of the molecular movements which go to make 
up heat and consequently from the shocks resulting therefrom there 
is a constant recombination of the ions and fresh decomposition of 
the molecules. In a very dilute aqueous solution, however, nearly 
all the sodium chloride is found to be in a state of dissociation. Now, 
if two electrodes connected to the poles of a battery are dipped into 
the solution, the negative ions (chlorine) are carried to the positive 
pole (anode) and the positive ions (sodium) to the negative pole 
(cathode). 

The laws of electrolysis, established by Faraday and worked out 
completely by Edmond Becquerel have led to the conclusion that all 
the wnivalent ions, such as hydrogen, chlorine, sodium, and potas- 
sium, always carry the same charge (negative or positive), while 
the bivalent ions (copper and the like) carry a charge just double 
the preceding, and so on. The charge of the univalent ion is the 
smallest charge that has ever been observed, and when separated 
from its material support constitutes the electron or atom of elec- 
tricity. 


278 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


This elementary charge has been susceptible of measurement. It 
is easy to evaluate the quantity of electricity necessary to liberate a 
gram of matter—for example, a gram of hydrogen in the electrol- 
ysis of water—and thus to obtain the total charge of the hydrogen 
ions. These ions correspond to the molecules, and as the number of 
molecules in a gram of hydrogen is known, the charge carried by a 
single ion may be determined. This charge is very minute; it 
amounts to 4.10-’° in terms of the C. G. S. electrostatic unit. 

The study of the radiations obtained in rarified gases has also 
been of assistance in making our knowledge of the atom of electricity 
more definite. When an electric discharge is produced in a gas by 
means of a static machine or an induction coil under ordinary pres- 
sure a disruptive spark is obtained. In a tube where the pressure is 
reduced the aspect of this spark is changed and when the pressure 
is not more than a few millionths of an atmosphere (Crookes’s vac- 
uum) a ray emanating from the cathode (negative pole) may be 
observed. Whatever may be the position of the anode or positive 
pole, this cathode ray is emitted perpendicularly to the surface of 
the cathode and is sent out in a straight line. The glass of the tube 
where the radiation strikes it takes on a beautiful green fluores- 
cence. These cathode waves excite phosphorescent bodiest and heat 
screens placed in their path. 

These rays emanating from the cathode bear the name of cathode 
rays. They were discovered in 1869 by Hittorf, and have since been 
made the subject of study by a great many physicists, among whom 
are Crookes, J. J. Thomson, Jean Perrin, Marjorana, Lenard, Wien, 
Villard, and others. Sir William Crookes was the first to propound 
the hypothesis that they were due to a fourth state of matter, the 
radiant state, which took shape as a molecular bombardment, as it 
might be called. This truly remarkable idea met with much in- 
credulity, as at that period (1880) the tendency of most men of 
science was to attribute all such phenomena to a vibratory move- 
ment and not to a flow of matter itself. Many physicists, therefore, 
considered the cathode rays to be due to undulatory movements 
analagous to light. This interpretation was soon to be abandoned, 
however. Later experiments confirmed in the most startling man- 
ner the ideas of Sir William Crookes, subject only to the qualification 
that the radiant state was due in the cathode rays not to a bombard- 
ment of particles of matter, but to a bombardment of electrified cor- 
puscles which were much smaller than the molecules of known bodies 
and which were no other, as we shall see later, than negative electrons 
free from matter. 


1 Experiment: A bouquet of phosphorescent material rendered luminous by cathode 
rays. 


CONSTITUTION OF MATTER—BECQUEREL. 279 


In December, 1895, M. Jean Perrin succeeded in a fundamental 
experiment. He demonstrated that the cathode rays carried nega- 
tive electricity, and he charged with negative electricity an insulated 
cylinder placed in a grounded metallic vessel. 

Let us consider now some other properties of cathode rays. If 
they traverse an electric field—that is to say, if they are passed 
between two electrified metallic plates, one positive and one nega- 
tive, a pencil of these rays describes a parabola, as would be ex- 
pected of a stream of corpuscles attracted by the positive plate and 
repelled by the negative plate. 

If submitted to the influence of a magnet (magnetic field) the 
pencil is curved and describes a helix around the lines of force. 

These two deviations, electric and magnetic, allow, as Sir J. J. 
Thomson has shown, the measurement of the velocity of propaga- 
tion of the corpuscles, as well as the relation between the electric 
charge carried by a corpuscle and the mass of the corpuscle. Other 
methods have also led to the estimation of the same quantities with 
the following result: The velocity of the cathode corpuscles varies, 
according to the conditions of the experiment, between 30,000 and 
100,000 kilometers per second. The ratio of the mass to the charge 
is 2,000 times as small as that of the hydrogen ion in electrolysis. 
This ratio is always the same whatever the electrodes or the rarified 
gas in the tube happen to be. Here is a first important experimental 
result. ° 

At the same time that these researches were being carried on, experi- 
ments were being made on radioactive bodies, whose study has led to 
conclusions of at least equal importance. 

You all know that certain bodies possess the property, discovered 
in February, 1896, by Henri Becquerel, of spontaneously giving out 
radiations of various sorts without any energy being furnished to 
them. 

The electrified particles emanating from these bodies ionize the 
air—that is to say, by tearing electrified corpuscles away from the 
molecules of gas and surrounding these corpuscles with neutral 
molecules, they cause the formation of electrical nuclei which render 
the air electrically conductive.? It is on account of this fact that 
these rays discharge electrified bodies. 

Of the three varieties of rays which emanate from radioactive 
bodies, one group, the 6 rays, are charged with negative electricity 
and are formed of corpuscles identical with the cathode corpuscles, 
which may be determined by measuring their deviation in an electric 
field and in a magnetic field. Henri Becquerel has shown that 


1 Experiment: Deviation by a magnet of a sheaf of cathode rays determined by an 
opening made in a screen placed a few centimeters in front of the cathode. 

2Experiments: (1) Discharge of an electroscope by the radiations emanating from a 
radium salt. (2) Increase of the discharge distance of a spark in the vicinity of radium. 


280 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


as long as their velocity does not approach too closely the velocity 
of light, the value of the ratio of the charge to the mass of each 
corpuscle is just the same as that of the cathode rays. 

Again, these same corpuscles are given out by incandescent metals, 
and liberated by the action of ultra-violet light or of the X rays 
on metals. In all these manifestations of the phenomenon the same 
ratio of charge to mass is found. 

I can not describe here the remarkable methods due to the work of 
Messrs. J. J. Thomson, Townsend, and H. A. Wilson, which have 
made it possible to measure the charge of a cathode corpuscle; I 
will only indicate the principle on which they are based. When 
ions are formed in the air—we now call all electrified centers ions— 
they condense water vapor out of a supersaturated atmosphere 
and each electrified particle forms the nucleus of a particle of con- 
densed water.1. The velocity of the fall of these particles allows the 
calculation of their size, and by evaluating the total quantity of con- 
densed water the number of particles can thus be determined and 
therefore the number of ions. Furthermore the quantity of elec- 
tricity carried down by the mist formed can be measured and from 
that the charge of each ion can be calculated, since their number is 
known. 

The result is a fundamental one; cathode corpuscles and gaseous 
ions carry the same charge as an atom of hydrogen in electrolysis, 
and yet their mass is two thousand times as small as that of an atom 
of hydrogen. 

As a necessary conclusion, therefore, it follows that the cathode 
corpuscles, the B rays, carry an atom of negative electricity and 
possess a mass two thousand times as small as the lightest of known 
material atoms. 

We have just seen how our knowledge of negative electrons is a 
result of the study of electric phenomena and of radioactivity. In 
an entirely different branch of physics, however, in the field of 
optics, the theory of electrons has found an extremely remarkable 
confirmation. 

The theory of Fresnel and the results derived from the experi- 
ments of Foucault and Young have established the fact that lght 
is a vibratory movement, and that consequently there exists a 
medium of such a nature as to transmit the luminous waves. This 
medium has been called ether. It is known by the properties of the 
movements which are capable of being produced and propagated in 
it; it exists everywhere—in the interior of matter as well as in spaces 
free from matter, such as a vacuum. 


1Bxperiment: A spark is discharged in the inside of a tube to produce #ns; as soon 
as the air is cooled by expansion so that it is supersaturated, a heavy mist forms about 
the ions. 


CONSTITUTION OF MATTER—BECQUEREL. 281 


Maxwell and Hertz have demonstrated that the phenomena of 
light are nothing more than a particular manifestation of the elec- 
tromagnetic phenomena such as induction, hertzian waves, etc., which 
may be produced in the ether. 

Everyone is familiar with the decomposition of white light by a 
prism resulting in the formation of a spectrum in which the colors 
spread out as in a rainbow. When the lhght produced by an incan- 
descent gas is analyzed with the aid of a spectroscope, the observer 
sees a number of separate brilliant lines. These emission lines are asa 
matter of fact images of the slit through which the light passes 
before falling on the prism which separates the radiations of differ- 
ent colors. These brilliant lines can be transformed into dark 
absorption lines when a vapor is traversed by a continuous ray of 
white light; the black lines then indicate the arrested colors. Dit- 
ferent bodies in a solid state or in solution likewise show character- 
istic absorption spectra.* 

The existence of these emission and absorption spectra, and more 
generally the fact of all the changes undergone by light waves in a 
body whether at rest or in movement, shows the intervention of mat- 
ter in the phenomena of which ether is the seat. In order to explain 
the reciprocal effect of ether and ponderable matter Lorentz con- 
ceived the idea that light phenomena had their origin in the move- 
ments of electric charges inclosed in the atom, A remarkable dis- 
covery made in 1896 by Zeeman added to the strength of Lorentz’s 
views. 

Zeeman discovered that under the action of an intense magnetic 
field the spectrum lines of a gas are decomposed into several com- 
ponents, and that these component lines indicate that the movement 
of the corpuscles is polarized—that is to say, oriented, by a magnet. 

Thus, just as in the case of cathode corpuscles, the corpuscles which 
produce or absorb light may have their movements modified by a 
magnet. It is consequently certain that they are electrified. 

In the simplest case, where the lines of force of the magnet are 
parallel to the luminous line, each line is decomposed into a double 
ray whose components correspond to two vibratory circular move- 
ments of the corpuscles in opposite directions.’ 

According to the theory of Lorentz the amount of separation of 
the components allows the calculation of the ratio of the charge to 
the mass of the corpuscles, and the direction in which a magnetic 
field of determined direction displaces the components corresponding 
to the circular ‘vibrations, indicates the sign of the electric charge 
effecting the movement. 


1Hxperiment: Emission spectrum of an electric are and absorption spectrum of nitrate 
of didymium. 

2 Projection of a slide representing Zeeman’s effect on several of the iron lines (spark 
spectrum). 


282 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The application of this theory to experimental results has shown 
that emission and absorption in the spectra of gases and vapors are 
caused by corpuscles identical with the cathode corpuscles; in other 
words, by negative electrons. 

Since the discovery of Zeeman numerous experimental and theo- 
retical researches have been carried out with regard to this phe- 
nomenon which have thrown a new light on the mechanism of emis- 
sion and absorption. The action of magnetism on the absorption of 
light has been observed in our laboratory with solid bodies, crystals, 
and minerals, and experiments have been made at temperatures as low 
as the solidification of hydrogen (—259°). We shall touch further 
on upon the novel and unexpected results which attended these re- 
searches. 

From the foregoing observation, therefore, we find the electron at 
the very source of all phenomena of light. According to modern 
theories the transmission of heat and electricity in metals and also the 
sound and color of metals are explained by the movements of elec- 
trons circulating freely among the molecules. These numerous facts, 
of which I have given you a résumé, establish the idea that the nega- 
tive electron which appears in a way tangibly in the B rays is a uni- 
versal constituent of matter. 

We must now take up a vital question: What is the nature of the 
electrified corpuscle? Is it composed of matter or is it made up of 
some other essence? Present-day physics seems to have partially 
solved this problem. 

Let us consider an electrified body: In the first place such a body 
possesses a material mass, in the mechanical sense of the word mass; 
that is, the ratio of the force acting on the body to the acceleration 
which it gives that body; secondly, by reason of the fact that the body 
is electrified, it possesses another mass of electromagnetic origin; as 
a matter of fact, if it is in movement, it constitutes an element of the 
current which is flowing. 

Now, then, every modification in the intensity and direction of the 
current—that is to say, in the value or direction of the velocity— 
brings energy into play and gives rise to an effect of induction in 
the ether. This induction, which opposes every change in direction 
or intensity (Lenz’s law), is a true inertia of electric origin. It is 
therefore evident that the electrified body has two masses, its mate- 
rial mass and the electromagnetic mass of the charge which it 
carries. 

Now, it has been demonstrated that electromagnetic inertia should 
depend on velocity; that it should remain practically constant if the 
velocity does not reach a considerable figure (less than 100,000 kilo- 
meters per second), but that it should increase and approach infinity 


CONSTITUTION OF MATTER—BECQUEREL, 283 


when the velocity approaches the velocity of light (800,000 kilo- 
meters per second). 

We have seen that it is possible to measure the velocity as well as 
the ratio of charge to mass in the £ particles of radium. These 
@ rays form a sheaf of corpuscles which have very different velocities 
and certain of them attain velocities closely approaching that of 
light. We understand also that the greater the velocity the smaller 
the ratio of the charge to the mass; that is to say, inasmuch as the 
charge can not vary, the greater the mass becomes. This, to be sure, 
is just what we should expect, and the law of variation of the total 
mass in terms of the velocity should indicate the relative parts of 
the two masses in the total mass. 

The result is surprising; the variation of the total mass is the 
same as if the electromagnetic mass existed alone, consequently the 
material mass appears to be zero. In other words, the electron is 
made up of electricity free from any material support, and is a modi- 
fication, still unidentified in other ways—perhaps of a whirling na- 
ture—of the medium which we call the ether. 

Thus we find that the electron is a particular condition of the ether; 
it has a little the nature of matter in that it possesses mass, which ts 
one of the fundamental properties of matter, nevertheless it is not 
material in the sense which has heretofore been attributed to the 
word, since its inertia is merely the inertia of the ether. To sum up, 
we may picture the electron as an intermediate state between the 
ether and ponderable matter. 

The mass of the negative electron at low speeds is 0.51077 gram. 
Assuming it to be spherical its radius can be calculated, its mass 
and charge being known. This is found to be 10-* centimeter. 

Up to the last few years physicists were always driven to seek a 
mechanical explanation of physical phenomena. It is due to this, for 
instance, that Fresnel originated a mechanical theory of light. Such 
an attempt was very natural, since mechanical phenomena fall under 
our observation every day and are much more familiar to us than 
electrical phenomena. 

Nevertheless, although according to the theory of Maxwell a 
mechanical explanation, or speaking more exactly an infinite num- 
ber of mechanical explanations of electromagnetic phenomena, are 
possible, still no satisfactory interpretation has been obtained in this 
manner, and the ether has appeared to be very different from the 
bodies of which we have knowledge. 

In view of the data which have now been acquired, however, men 
of science have decided not only to search no longer for a mechan- 
ical explanation of electromagnetism, but to formulate an electrical 


* LG caaatee iat Ne SET, 


284 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


theory of the formation of matter and of mechanical phenomena. 
It is evident that all the facts which we have just reviewed lead 
logically to this point of view. 

We find that a corpuscle which appears to be nothing but electricity 
has been isolated from matter, and that the mass of this electron is 
entirely of electromagnetic origin. We are therefore forced to take 
electricity as a point of departure in building up a theory of physical 
phenomena, and even of matter itself. 

If matter is made up of an assemblage of electrons, its inertia is 
entirely of electromagnetic origin; and it is the ether which sur- 
rounds each of these electrons and not the matter itself which is the 
seat of all energy. I do not wish to go as far as to say that there is 
no such thing as matter; this merely signifies that it is not well to 
depend entirely on appearances, and that it is necessary to view matter 
in a different light from which it has been viewed up to the last few 
years. 

If the inertia of matter is electromagnetic, the mass of bodies de- 
pends on their velocity, yet this result from an absolute point of view 
is contrary to one of the principles on which mechanics are based. 
It would be well to notice, however, that the problems treated in 
mechanics are all identified with a particular phase, where the ve- 
locity is small in comparison with that of light. This is the case not 
only in all velocities realized on the earth, but also in all velocities 
in which the stars are concerned. Under such conditions the mass 
can be considered as practically constant, and nothing in the me- 
chanics of the past need be affected. 

Persons who are not sufficiently familiar with the ideas which have 
just been reviewed often object that electricity still remains a mystery 
and the new theories rest on an unknown basis. That is very true; 
we are ignorant of the primary cause of electricity and we compre- 
hend but slightly certain properties of the ether. But in the me- 
chanical theories of the past, is not the word matter wrapped in 
mystery just as profound? Is the meaning of the word mass any 
clearer when we speak of a material mass? Is not the origin of 
matter when considered as independent of the ether still more ob- 
scure than that of electricity which appears to us to be a modification 
of ether itself ? 

In any case the electrical theory of matter presents the advantage 
of simplicity, for it tends toward the unification of all the phenom- 
ena which are bound up in the manifestations of a single medium, 
the ether. The electron, which is at the same time ether and matter, 
serves as a transition means between the ether of space and the 
matter which is apparent to us. 

The object of electrical theories of matter should be to investigate 
how the atoms of elements can be made up of an assemblage of 


CONSTITUTION OF MATTER—BECQUEREL. 285 


electrons. But present day physics, in spite of the good results 
which have been attained, is still far from affording a representa- 
tion of an atom of matter. 

We have just seen that physics has attained a rather complete 
knowledge of one constituent of matter, namely, the negative elec- 
tron, and that the new ideas are based on the properties of this cor- 
puscle. Now does there exist a positive electron, beside this negative 
electron? It is evidently necessary that positive charges be present 
somewhere in matter, but have they an atomic structure like the 
negative charges, or are they of an entirely different nature? 

In the discharges through media of rarefied gases and in the 
emission of radioactive bodies, besides the negative rays, rays car- 
rying positive charges are found, but these positive rays seem to be 
in general entirely different from the former. 

When holes are pierced in the cathode of a Crookes tube, one may 
observe behind the cathode sheafs of rays which have passed through 
each one of the orifices formed, and which are propagated in a direc- 
tion inverse to the cathode rays. These are the canalstrahlen dis- 
covered by M. Goldstein. These rays are positively charged, and, 
rather remarkably, whatever the gas in the tube may be, the meas- 
urement of the ratio of the charge to the mass reveals only two sorts 
of corpuscles (J. J. Thomson) some corresponding to the atom of 
hydrogen carrying an elementary charge, and others corresponding 
to the atom of helium and carrying a double charge. 

It is these last corpuscles which, in the emission of radium and all 
radioactive -bodies, form the a rays. Rutherford has demonstrated 
by some magnificant experiments that these @ rays are made up of 
atoms of helium. 

Lastly, there are other positive rays (anode rays) emitted by sub- 
stances placed at the positive pole of a Crookes tube, which are no 
other than material atoms which have lost their negative electrons 
(Gehrke and Reichenheim). 

It may be seen, therefore, that the positive rays are quite different 
from the negative rays; they form a stream of electrified matter and 
are made up, not of electrons, but of ions, material atoms deprived 
of one or more negative electrons. These atoms are of a mass at 
least equal to that of a positive ion of hydrogen, that is to say, an 
atom of hydrogen charged positively in consequence of the loss of 
a negative electron. In a word, the positive particles are the remains 
of atoms. 

Because these positive charges remain in such a way affixed to 
particles of matter, many men of science have not admitted the 
existence of a positive electron ‘similar to the negative electron. 
Some have even thought that there is no positive electron and that 
matter itself has an existence independent of electrons, that the union 


286 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of matter and negative electrons would give atoms electrically neu- 
tral, and that the positive charges would result only from the absence 
of negative electrons; this view of the case, however, a view which 
is intermediate between the old and the new ideas, loses all the ad- 
vantages of simplicity and unification resulting from the modern 
conceptions, which attributes everything to the ether. 

A vital factor in these considerations must be noted in the emana- 
tion of helium in the form of X rays from all radioactive bodies, and 
it must not be forgotten that Sir J. J. Thomson has found these 
same X rays in the canalstrahlen tubes. The helium ion can not, 
however, be the positive electron because there exists a material 
atom, that of hydrogen, which possesses a smaller mass; still the 
atom of helium presents a grouping of very great stability. Whether 
it is formed in the preceding phenomena by the direct combination 
of negative electrons with positive electrons freed at just that instant, 
or whether it appears as a primordial grouping in the constitution 
of the atoms of most of the elements are questions which can not at 
present be answered. 

In the canalstrahlen particles characteristic of the hydrogen ion 
are also found. We can go back to the ideas of Prout and suppose 
that this ion is nothing else than the positive electron. It would be 
necessary to know, then, whether its mass is purely electromagnetic. 
If this is so, the positive electron would have a mass 2,000 times 
that of the negative electron, and the atom of hydrogen would be 
the result of the union of a single positive electron with a single 
negative electron. 

Still another hypothesis has been proposed; some physicists who 
have found great difficulty in explaining the properties of metals by 
means of negative electrons alone have imagined the existence of two 
sorts of electrons differing only in the sign of their charges. 

T should like to say a few words here about some quite recent ex- 
periments made in our laboratory, for which there has been found no 
simple explanation in the idea of negative electrons, but which could 
be interpreted in a simpler way if there were positive electrons in the 
make-up of bodies. These experiments had to do with the action of 
a magnetic field on the absorption bands of crystals and of certain 
dissolved salts. The change of period produced by the magnetic field 
took place in certain bands in the direction which would correspond 
to negative electrons, but manifested itself in the opposite direction 
with other bands. 

The size of the change of period which is absolutely independent of 
changes of temperature (as far as —259°) appears to be characteristic 
of a vibrant system. All these phenomena seem to indicate that cer- 
tain of these systems may contain positive electrons.’ 


1 Projection of a slide showing this Dhunarn ean in a group of bine | of enotne ie 
— 259°, 


CONSTITUTION OF MATTER—-BECQUEREL. 287 


Other experiments on discharges in very rarefied gases made first 
by M. Lilienfeld and then in another form in our laboratory have 
resulted in obtaining positive rays which may be interpreted by sup- 
posing the existence of free positive electrons, but other interpreta- 
tions have been opposed to this hypothesis, and further researches in 
this direction must be made. 

It is therefore possible that there exists a positive electron of the 
same nature as the negative electron. I say “of the same nature” and 
not “identical,” because the dissimilarity between the phenomena 
presented by the two electricities renders it probable that there is a 
difference between the two electrons. If the two sorts of electrons do 
exist, according to our experiments they should have the same ratio 
of charge to mass, but their masses as well as their charges may be 
very different. 

One fact is certain in any case, and this is that the positive electrons 
if they exist, are very tightly bound to the atoms of matter. They 
only reveal themselves in magneto-optic phenomena, where the 
physicist carries his investigations to the very foundation of the atom 
without breaking it up, or in the interior of tubes of rarefied gases 
under very special conditions where positive ions are broken up by 
the shock of the cathode particles acting in the capacity of projectiles. . 

We can see from this how much the ideas on the nature of positive 
charges have been modified. Yet whatever the positive electron may 
be, its nature must be known as well as the negative electron before it 
is conteivable to understand the structure of an atom of matter. 

Nevertheless there are two very interesting systems of explanation 
which have been developed. Some physicists have conceived the idea 
that at the center of the atom is a positive charge around which the 
negative atoms gravitate like planets around the sun. But this 
hypothesis meets with grave difficulties which I can not set forth 
here. I think that one should not allow himself to be led astray by 
the seductive idea of a similarity between the world of the infinitely 
small and the world of the infinitely great and it seems to me that a 
group of atoms is in no way comparable to the world of matter. 

The system most generally adopted to-day is as follows: 

It is imagined that there is a positive charge uniformly distributed 
over a sphere in the interior of which are situated the negative 
electrons. The positive charge is equal to the sum of the charges of 
the negative electrons. The positive electricity tends to draw the 
corpuscles to the center of the sphere but the mutual repulsion of the 
negative electrons drives them away from this point and they take 
up a position of equilibrium and group themselves regularly about 
the center. 

By a simple experiment due to Prof. Mayer, we can reproduce a 
similar grouping. If we take a number of small steel needles iden- 


288 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


tical with each other and equally magnetized and stick these needles 
into corks which float on the surface of a tub of water, they will 
repel each other mutually in the same way as the negative electrons 
would do and in accordance with the same law. The force to group 
them is derived from the pole of a large magnet placed above the tub, 
the needles are attracted toward a point situated vertically below 
the pole and for each one the horizontal component of the force of 
attraction is evidently proportional to its distance from this point. 

The conditions imagined for the electrons are thus realized by the 
needles, the only difference being that the grouping takes place not 
in three dimensions, but in a plane. 

Let us brilliantly illuminate the tops of the corks and project 
their images on a screen. You can see in this way the representa- 
tion of this equilibrium. You can imagine that the brilliant spots 
on the screen represent mobile electrons in the interior of a great 
positive sphere. It can be seen that these electrons are regularly 
arranged around a center forming, according to their number, one 
or more concentric rings. 

Sir J. J. Thomson has worked out, with the aid of calculus, the 
positions of equilibrium which the electrons may assume in greater 
. or less numbers, and has succeeded in explaining in this way the 
periodic classification of elements discovered by Mendelejeff. It 
should be noted, moreover, that this way of looking at the constitu- 
tion of the atom takes account of the phenomena of light. It is im- 
possible, however, to form any idea of the constitution of the Sphere 
over which the positive electricity is supposed to be distributed. 

Other conceptions can be imagined, and the field for hypothesis 
will be unlimited as long as positive electricity remains as mys- 
terious as it is now. It can even be said that the adoption of this 
or that system of explanation is hardly more than a matter of pref- 
erence. 

In any case, however, it is certain that the atom is of considerable 
dimensions in comparison with the negative electron. The volume of 
an atom is sufficient to contain billions on billions of electrons, but 
as its mass indicates that it contains at most a few thousands, it is 
certain that the electrons are at enormous distances from each other 
in comparison with their dimensions. We might liken them to a 
swarm of gnats gravitating about in the dome of a cathedral. 

In spite of our ignorance of the nature of positive electricity, 
however, the facts acquired in the last 20 years render extremely 
probable the hypothesis that the constitution of matter is purely 
electrical. But, then, as all substances are made up of electric 
charges, the atom of matter can no longer be considered as immu- 
table, and one may say without being an alchemist that the trans- 
mutation of matter is not a Utopian idea, 


CONSTITUTION OF MATTER—BECQUEREL. 289 


Such ideas as these, whose boldness needs no remark, have already 
been confirmed in a remarkable manner. Radium gives birth to a gas 
called the emanation of radium. Messrs. Ramsay and Soddy have 
shown that this emanation produces helium. Rutherford has proved 
that the @ rays of radioactive bodies are nothing more nor less than 
atoms of helium. Moureau has recognized the presence of helium in 
radioactive gases from thermal sources. 

We know to-day that radioactive substances undergo an evolution 
in which there appears a whole series of more or less ephemeral bodies 
whose duration of existence may be as small as a few days, or even a 
few seconds, as in the case of the emanation of actinium. All these 
bodies are new elements. 

These transformations are veritable transmutations. They are not 
chemical decompositions. They appear to be independent of tempera- 
ture; they bring into play a considerable amount of energy; for 
instance, the emanation of radium is, as a matter of fact, capable of 
setting free 2,500,000 times as much energy as the explosion of a mix- 
ture of hydrogen and oxygen of equal volume. 

Radium and polonium form part of the series of elements deriving 
their origin from uranium, and it is very probable that in addition to 
helium the relatively stable residue of these transformations is nothing 
other than lead. 

Sir William Ramsay at present is carrying out some remarkable 
experiments. He has announced the transmutation of copper into 
potassium, sodium, and helium under the action of the concentrated 
energy which the radium emanation brings to bear on them. In some 
recent experiments, which appear to be beyond criticism, he has at- 
tained the transmutation into carbon of silicon, titanium, zirconium, 
lead, and thorium. All these bodies belong in the same column in 
Mendelejeft’s table. . 

These results show the possibility of a transformation of heavy 
atoms into more simple atoms; that is to say, the possibility of a 
degradation of elements. It is impossible to imagine for an instant, 
however, the possibility of realizing the inverse transformation, for 
example, of copper into gold. Such a transmutation would unques- 
tionably require a colossal amount of energy, and we have as yet no 
means of disposing of the intra-atomic energy, of which our only 
knowledge is that it is considerable. 

It is probable that all matter is undergoing a process of evolution. 
The slowness of the transformation, however, or the rarity of con- 
ditions favorable to quick change gives us an illusion of stability. 

A while ago I recalled several very ancient theories; we know of 
nothing to-day that contradicts them. Four principal ideas may be 
derived from these theories, the conception of the atom, the existence 


97578°—sm 1910——19 


290 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of internal movement, the relation between these movements and the 
properties of the magnet, and the possibility of transmutation. 
These ideas we are always calling to our aid in practical work. I 
may quote here a few lines of Lucretius which are truly prophetic: 

“Versibus ostendi corpuscula materiai 

Ex infinito summam rerum usque tenere 

Undique protelo plagarum continuato.” 

(The corpuscles, the elements, of matter shall preserve for all eternity and 
everywhere the uniformity of things by a series of ever-continued blows.) 

“ Fit quoque ut hue veniant in coelum extrinsecns illa 

Corpora quae facient nubes nimbosques volantes.” 

(It may happen that hither from the worlds beyond may come those bodies 
which form the mists and the flying clouds.) 

According to Lucretius these corpuscles are innumerable and 
traverse rapidly inexpressible distances, so that you may recognize in 
these citations the principal properties which we attribute to-day to 
electrified corpuscles. 

However, if certain of these ideas which have just been expounded 
have inspired philosophers and savants of all ages from antiquity 
to the present day, still, the idea that electricity can give birth to 
matter is entirely modern and is due to the discoveries of radio- 
activity (February, 1896), of the Zeeman phenomenon (August, 1896), 
and of the nature of cathode rays (1895-1897). 

Between the assertions of the ancient philosophers and those of our 
day there exists a profound difference. The former were never sub- 
jected to any experimental confirmation; they were merely concep- 
tions of the imagination and their value is limited by the errors which 
they included. The latter, however, can be justified by experiments 
which brook no contradiction and by reason of this confirmation 
carry conviction with them. 


SOME MODERN DEVELOPMENTS IN METHODS OF TEST- 
ING EXPLOSIVES. 


[With 12 plates.] 


By CHARLES EH. MUNROE, 


Professor of Chemistry, George Washington University. 


As has previously been pointed out in these pages, the greater pro- 
portion and the larger variety of the explosives that are annually 
produced are consumed in the industries, and a very considerable pro- 
portion of these are consumed in the winning of coal. As is well 
known, this most important industry is attended by many hazards, 
not the least of which is the constant danger of explosions owing to 
the presence of fire damp and inflammable dust in these mines. Most 
serious accidents from these causes, which have been attended with 
frightful casualties, have frequently occurred, and their frequency 
and magnitude have increased as the demand for coal has’ increased 
until the public conscience has been aroused and efforts have been 
made by individuals and by governments to devise means by which to 
reduce the number of these explosions and limit their scope. 

Consideration of the conditions attending such of these catas- 
trophies as were carefully investigated made it evident that many of 
these mine explosions have been initiated by the explosives used in 
the mines, and therefore the behavior of a large variety of explosive 
compositions, when fired in dusty and fiery atmospheres, have been 
studied experimentally with a view to selecting from among them 
those which, while capable of doing the work required of them effi- 
ciently at a reasonable cost, and while possessing such qualities as to 
render them reasonably safe in transportation, storage, and use, were 
least liable to ignite the fire damp, or coal-dust-air mixture, or mine- 
gas-coal-dust-air mixture found in mines. 

For this purpose it became necessary to have a chamber in which 
the gas and dust could be introduced, and the explosive fired, at will, 
and all the conditions of the experimental trials be known and under 


1Reprinted by permission from the United States Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 36, 
No. 3, whole No. 135. Copyright, 1910, by Philip R. Alger, secretary and treasurer 
United States Naval Institute. soft 


292 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


control. Beginning some 30 years ago, many kinds of chambers have 
been employed, from one made of boiler iron mounted on wheels tised 
at Zwickau, Germany; an abandoned mine tunnel used at Rossitz, 
Austria; a wooden gallery used at Frameries, Belgium; a concrete 
gallery used at Lievin, France; to metal galleries as used at Wool- 
wich, England, and Pittsburg, United States. This last is one of the 
most modern of these testing galleries, it having been erected on the 
arsenal grounds by the technologic branch of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey in 1908, and as it was designed after careful study of 
the characteristics of different galleries abroad it may be regarded as 
representing the latest type of testing chamber. 

This chamber, which is styled gas and dust gallery No. 1, is shown 
in plate 1. It consists of a cylinder 100 feet in length and 64 feet in 
diameter, which is built of boiler-plate steel, in five divisions, each 
consisting of three sections 6% feet long. The gallery is closed at one 
end by a concrete head. The different sections of the gallery are for 
convenience in operation numbered consecutively from 1 to 15, be- 
ginning with the section nearest the concrete head. Sections Nos. 
1, 2, and 3 are made of one-half inch plates, the remaining sections of 
three-eighths inch plates, and all of steel having a tensile strength 
of not less than 55,000 pounds to the square inch. The sections are 
held together by lap joints, at each of which there is on the interior 
of the gallery a ring, formed of 24-inch angle iron, upon the face of 
which paper diaphragms may be so secured as to partition off any 
desired portion of the gallery at will, and thus provide a closed space 
of any desired volume, within the capacity of the gallery, in which 
to inclose the gas-air, coal-dust-air, or gas-coal-dust-air mixture to be 
used in the test. 

Each section is provided with a pressure-release door placed cen- 
trally on top, which not only provides a vent by which the gases may 
immediately escape after the explosion, and thus acts as a safety valve 
to prevent the destruction of the gallery, but also affords an ap- 
proximate means of estimating the pressures developed. Each door 
closes on a rubber gasket and is provided with a rubber bumper on its 
back to prevent injury when thrown open violently. In use each door 
may be left open, or closed but not fastened, or closed and fastened, as 
seems best under the experimental conditions which obtain. 

Each section is provided with a stout plate-glass window placed 
in the center of the section on the operating side of the gallery 
through which the progress of any flame produéed in the gallery 
may be viewed and noted, while an indicator cock, tapped into the 
central section, provides a means by which samples of the mixtures 
in the gallery may be taken for analysis. 

The gallery is so connected with the natural-gas supply used in 
Pittsburg that it may be filled with gas at will, and the quantity 


wrrn Cen hes a 


*L aLwid 


"NOILVLSG ONILSS] OYNESLLIg ‘L ‘ON ‘A¥aSTIV5 ISN GNV SV5 


"2aOJUNIN—OL6L ‘Wodey ueiuosyziws 


‘“AYATIVS’S JO HLNOW LV SAGVOINeVA 


}¥ 5 sINIHOVA 


"6 ALVI 
d “aoJUNIWWN—OL61 ‘HOday uBlUOSsYy}ILUS 


"uly GNV LSNG 1vOD 4O 3YNLXIIN V 4O NOISO1dxXy 


‘*§ ALVid ‘20JUNIN—'016| ‘Oday ueluosy}iWS 


*WOOY NOILVAYSSEO 


*p ALV1d *AOJUNIN—'01 6] ‘HOday ueiuOsY}IWWS 


METHODS OF TESTING EXPLOSIVES—MUNROE. 293 


charged is measured by a meter which can be read to one-twentieth 
of a cubic foot. The air and gas are mixed by means of circulating 
systems exterior to the gallery, operated by monogram exhausters. 
The circulating system for the first division is stationary and includes 
steam heating coils by which to bring the mixture in the gallery to x 
constant temperature. The remaining divisions of the gallery are 
served by a portable device. 

When coal dust is to be used it is spread on a series of shelves, 
20 feet long by 4 inches in width, lining the gallery, there being four 
of these on each side, and in addition upon a steel trestle, having a 
surface 20 feet by 12 inches, which is placed for that purpose in the 
first section of the gallery when coal dust is to be used. This dust is 
always freshly ground from lump coal to 100 mesh in fineness just — 
before using. 

In addition the gallery is provided with a humidifying apparatus 
provided with a Koerting exhauster, having a capacity of 240,000 
cubic feet of free air per hour, by which the effect of moisture in 
preventing the propagation of explosions may be quantitatively 
ascertained. 

The explosives to be tested may be suspended in the chamber and 
fired in the prepared atmosphere, and this method has been pursued 
at some stations, but the regular practice at the Pittsburg testing 
station is to fire the charge in a special “ cannon,” as this more nearly 
simulates the conditions in mining where the charge is fired in a 
bore hole in coal or rock. These “cannon” are cylinders 24 inches 
in diameter by 36 inches in length, with bore holes 24 inches in 
diameter by 214 inches in depth. The simplest of them have been 
made in one piece from a low-carbon steel or nickel-steel forging. 
Others have been built up from centrally perforated jackets of cast 
steel, vanadium steel or other iron alloy, and a liner of nickel steel 
or other metals or alloys. In repairing, after erosion, the liner has 
been formed by the thermite process. No definite conclusions have 
yet been reached as to the relative merits of the different forms of 
construction. These “cannon” are shown in the right foreground 
of plates 2 and 4 and in the center of plate 6, figure 1. 

The “ cannon” is embedded in the concrete head of the gallery and 
is so laid that its axial line coincides with the axial line of the gallery. 
The “cannon” is loaded from within the gallery, but the charges 
are fired by electric detonators for high explosives and electric 
igniters for explosives of the gunpowder class, the firing machine 
being located in an observation room 60 feet distant from the gallery. 
The larger part of the explosives tested are detonated, and they are 
fired both stemmed and unstemmed into the sensitive mixtures. 

As when the explosive mixtures in the gallery are fired the blast 
from the mouth of the gallery is very destructive in its effects, two 


294 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


concrete barricades are erected on each side of the mouth of the 
gallery, and a thick iron plate is so suspended on a frame across, but 
at a distance of 50 feet from, the mouth of the gallery, that it may so 
swing as to deflect the blast and arrest any flying stemming or other 
material which may be blown out of the gallery. This arrangement 
is shown in plate 2, which also shows the reenforced-concrete founda- 
tion in which the gallery is set and specimens of the “ cannon” used. 
The violence of the gallery explosions initiated by the charges of 
explosive used may be judged from plate 3, which is a photograph of 
an explosion of a coal-dust-air mixture. 

The observation room from which the charge is fired and the 
visible phenomena occurring in the gallery observed is shown in 
plate 4. This room is 40 feet long by 9 feet 5 inches wide, built with 
brick walls 18 inches thick, and provided with a heavy plate-glass 
window, 37 feet long by 6 inches wide, which is protected by two pro- 
jecting wooden guards. This room with its window is made so large 
in size that it may not only provide a large field of sight, but that 
it may accommodate a considerable number of persons, for the station 
is designed to be educational as well as experimental, and coal miners 
are brought there in large numbers to be convinced by experimental 
demonstrations of the accidents that may arise unless they use the 
explosives recommended by the station, and use them in the pre- 
scribed manner and amount. 

Prior to testing the explosives in the gallery, which is both costly 
and time consuming, they are subjected to other tests which may 
show them to possess such characteristics as to render them unfit for 
use and render the gallery test unnecessary. Thus they are inspected 
physically and analyzed chemically, and an admirably equipped and 
well-manned laboratory is provided for this purpose. Among other 
tests, the gravimetric density of the material, in the original package 
in which it would be used in the mine, is determined by the aid of 
dry sand as the mobile medium, and this density is carefully pre- 
served in those tests in which density is a factor. 

One of the first tests to be made is the determination of what is 
styled the “ unit-disruptive charge,” which is ascertained by the aid 
of the ballistic pendulum shown in plate 5. This apparatus consists 
essentially of two parts—the “ cannon,” in which the charge is fired, 
and the pendulum, which receives the impact of the products of the 
explosion, and that of the stemming when the latter is used. The 
“cannon” is identical in form, construction, and proportions with 
those used in the gallery. It is mounted on a four-wheeled truck, 
to which it is made fast by straps and rods. The truck runs on a 
30-inch track which is provided with a recoil bumper placed 9 feet 
from the face of the pendulum mortar. The “cannon” is carefully 
placed axially in line with the pendulum mortar. 


“ANINGNAd DILSITIVG 


‘9OIUNIN—'O 161 ‘Hoday ueluosy}IWUS 


“LSAl 4OO1g Ava] TIVWS °S 


"9 ALVId *aOJUNIN—'0 161 ‘HOday ueiuosYyyIWS 


METHODS OF TESTING EXPLOSIVES—MUNROE. 995 


The pendulum consists of a 12.2-inch Army mortar, weighing 
31,600 pounds, which rests in a stirrup made of two 14-inch machine- 
steel rods bent in a U shape. The ends of these rods pass through a 
solid-steel supporting beam and are held fast to it by cast-steel 
saddles fitting over the beam. This beam is provided with two 
nickel-steel knife-edges countersunk in its lower face, which rests on 
bearing plates provided with small groves that permit of the knife- 
edges being kept in oil, so as to be protected from the weather. The 
bearing plates rest on base plates which are anchored to the concrete 
piers between which the pendulum mortar swings. 

The concrete piers are each 51 by 120 inches in dimension at their 
bases and 139 inches high. The outside walls taper, while the inside 
walls are vertical, and there is a clearance of 60 inches between these 
piers. A firing line, with a coupling box, is attached to the left- 
hand pier, and by its aid the firing may be done from a safe distance. 

The extent to which the pendulum mortar is deflected is measured 
by a detachable device consisting of a graduated scale, with its 
vernier, which is set on a steel base fastened to a concrete footing 
below and to the rear of the mortar, the movable parts being actuated 
by a contact rod, set in guides, which bears at one end against a stud 
bolt in the bottom of the mortar directly below the point at which its 
center of gravity is located, and, at the other, on the scale. The 
radius of the swing of the pendulum mortar, measured from the 
knife-edge bearings to the center of the contact rod, or to the base of 
the stud bolt, is 114,;% inches. The radius of the swing, measured 
from the knife-edge bearings to the center of the trunnions of the 
mortar, is 892 inches. The recording device measures the deflection of 
the pendulum to within the one-hundredth part of an inch. 

The standard used for this test is 227 grams (one-half pound) of 
40 per cent straight dynamite, stemmed with 1 pound of dry clay, 
tamped with tamping sticks of standard pattern under a uniform 
rate of pressure, and fired with a No. 6 electric detonator. The unit- 
disruptive charge of another explosive is that weight of this explosive 
that will, when fired under the prescribed conditions, give the same 
deflection of the pendulum mortar as the standard dynamite charge 
does. 

In making the test after the recording device is set, the “ cannon ” 
is loaded in the prescribed manner and rolled up to within one- 
sixteenth of an inch of the muzzle of the pendulum mortar, and stops 
are so placed that this distance is maintained when the flanges of the 
wheels of the truck are against them. The legs of the detonator are 
then connected to the firing line, and the party loading, who has also 
been carrying the safety plug with him, retires to the firing machine, 
inserts the safety plug, and fires. 


296 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Firing trials with the standard show that variables enter here, and 
that the same pendulum deflection is not invariably obtained with 
equal weights of charge of the standard dynamite, even though the 
successive charges are tamped in the “cannon” with the same degree 
of pressure, stemmed with the same weight of fire clay, and fired by 
the same numbered detonator. A condition affecting this result is 
the distance of the “cannon” from the mortar, and hence, as shown 
above, this distance has been definitely fixed. Another is the posi- 
tion of the knife-edges supporting the pendulum mortar, and to 
eliminate the effect of this the knife-edges are trammeled before each 
trial. Other factors affecting the results are the direction and 
velocity of the wind, the condition of the bore hole in the “ cannon,” 
and that of the person charging the “cannon.” No one of these can 
be controlled absolutely. Hence, the explosive to be tested must be 
proved in this ballistic-pendulum test directly against the standard, 
both being handled and charged by the same person on the same day 
and as nearly as possible under the same conditions, for this tends to 
eliminate the personal equation, through its effects becoming nearly 
uniform, and to eliminate the effects of wind and weather, since they 
are fairly uniform during the trial periods. The condition of the 
bore hole is the existing variable factor which is the most difficult of 
elimination. 

The energy of the explosive is further ascertained comparatively 
by the Trauzl and by the small lead-block tests. The device used in 
the Trauzl test is shown in plate 6, which consists of lead blocks 200 
millimeters in diameter and 200 millimeters in height, in which holes 
25 millimeters in diameter and 125 millimeters in depth are bored 
centrally in the top. These cylinders are cast from desilvered lead 
and all used in the same series of tests are carefully prepared under 
identical conditions and from the same melt. The volumes of these 
bore holes are carefully measured by means of water. 

Ten grams of the explosive, weighed on a balance of precision, are 
wrapped in similar-sized pieces of tin foil, together with a No. 7 elec- 
tric detonator, and the whole inserted in the bore hole of one of these 
cylinders, then 40 cubic centimeters of dry Michigan dune sand, of 
such fineness that it will all pass through a 50-mesh screen and be 
caught on an 80-mesh one, are poured into the bore hole and tamped 
10 blows with an automatic tamping device, which operates on the 
principle of an automatic center punch, and delivers blows of known 
magnitude over a definite area. Then 10 cubic centimeters more of 
the same sand are poured in and tamped with 40 blows of the tamp- 
ing device. The loaded cylinder is placed on a piece of heavy shaft- 
ing imbedded in concrete, which forms a rigid support, the tempera- 
ture of the block is ascertained to make sure that it is 15° C., and, 
when this is attained, the charge is fired. The cavity is again meas- 


METHODS OF TESTING EXPLOSIVES—MUNROE. 297 


ured by calibration with water and the increase in volume produced 
by the charge of explosive fired is compared with that produced by 
an equal weight of the standard dynamite fired under the same con- 
ditions. The Trauzl test is quite widely used, and abroad it has been 
recommended that the cylinder be covered by a lead plate secured by 
a yoke. But it.is found that in putting on the yoke the charge and 
stemming were disturbed and, as uniformity in these last particulars 
are of much more importance in these comparative tests than a 
greater degree of confinement, the plate and yoke are not recom- 
mended. 

The Trauzl test measures comparatively the displacing effect of an 
explosive under moderate confinement. The small lead-block test 
measures comparatively the pressure exerted in contact by a charge of 
explosive which is detonated or exploded unconfined, or, in other 
words, the percussive effect. The blocks used and the deformations 
produced on some of them are shown in plate 6, figure 2. The lead 
blocks employed are cylinders 14 inches in diameter and 24 inches 
high. The charge of explosive used is 100 grams. Since an uncon- 
fined charge of high explosive, such as the standard dynamite, would, 
on detonation in contact, deform the cylinder beyond measurement, 
as shown by F in the figure, a disk of annealed steel 14 inches in 
diameter and one-fourth inch in thickness is placed upon the lead 
cylinder. Since this plate retains a portion of the energy expended 
the compressed cylinders record only the residual energy. 

In making the test, after placing the steel disk on the cylinder, a 
strip of manila paper is so secured about and beyond them as to pro- 
vide a container, above the plate, for the explosive to be fired. The 
cylinder is then placed on a rigid support, the carefully weighed 
charge of explosive poured in and so tamped as to acquire the specific 
gravity it possessed in its original container, the No. 7 electric deto- 
nator inserted, and the charge fired. The height of the compressed 
cylinder is then ascertained with precision, and this comparison, as 
compared with that produced’in a cylinder subjected to the detona- 
tion of 100 grams of the standard dynamite, is styled the relative per- 
cussive force of the explosive. 

A more accurate idea of the pressures produced by an explosive 
may be obtained by means of the Bichel pressure gauge which is 
employed to determine the “ maximum pressure of an explosive in its 
own volume,” by which is meant the maximum pressure which an 
explosive exerts when exploded or detonated in a space which it fills 
completely, and when all of the heat set free through the chemical 
reactions taking place during the explosion are retained by the prod- 
ucts of the reaction. Evidently this condition never actually obtains 
in practice, for a portion of this heat is always communicated to the 
walls of the inclosure. The portion thus lost from the products dif- 


298 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


fers in amount with the temperature differences, with the rate at 
which the heat is set free in the reaction, with the materials of which 
the chambers are composed and the extent of the exposed surface in 
the chambers. Using chambers made of the same material it becomes 
possible, by varying the areas of these exposed surfaces in the differ- 
ent experiments to a known extent, to measure the heat-absorbing 
effect of surfaces of known area, and by combining this data with 
that recorded for the pressure, to ascertain the total dynamic effect 
of the charge of the explosive tested. This apparatus moreover af- 
fords a means by which the gaseous, liquid, and solid products of the 
reactions attending explosion may be collected for chemical analysis 
and physical inspection and study. 

In plate 7 are shown two of these gauges, one of which is open and 
ready to load while the other is closed for firing. It will be observed 
that they are in principle like the bombs used by Noble and Abel 
in their Researches on Fired Gunpowder, but they are markedly de- 
veloped in details of construction and in the addition of accessories. 
One of these cylinders has a chamber capacity of 15 liters, the other 
of 20 liters, but the volume of the latter may be reduced at will by 
inserting steel disks of known volume and area. The surface is 
thereby changed so that while the cooling surface of the small cham- 
ber is 3,914 square centimeters, that of the large cylinder, when one 
large steel disk is inclosed, is 6,555, and when three of the smaller 
disks are inclosed, 7,624 square centimeters. 

These cylinders are made of steel 12.5 centimeters in thickness and 
the removable heads are secured in place by 12 heavy stud bolts. 
packed with lead washers, and an iron yoke. A system of sheaves 
and suspended counterweights is provided to aid in detaching the 
heavy heads from the cylinders and mounting them upon the spe- 
cially designed wagons, so as to give ready access to the interiors of 
the cylinders. 

Before the charge is fired the cylinders are exhausted to 10 milli- 
meters of mercury. To permit of this being done a well-glanded tube 
is inserted in a perforation in an upper segment of each cylinder 
near one end, and this is provided with a valve by which to isolate 
the air pump after the vacuum has,been attained. On the opposite 
upper segment of the cylinder from the exhaust a second opening is 
provided in which a glanded housing is inserted, which affords a 
means for introducing the electric detonator and so packing its legs 
as to prevent air entering about them while the cylinder is exhausted 
or gases escaping about them after the explosive has been fired and 
while a considerable pressure obtains within the cylinder. 

A third perforation in the top of the segment carries a properly 
glanded tube provided with a piston 0.3937 centimeter in diameter, 
which can move up and down within this tube. This piston is held 


METHODS OF TESTING EXPLOSIVES—MUNROR. 299 


on its seat by springs of known dimensions and effect. A stylus is 
mounted on the upper end of the stem of the piston in such manner 
that it moves freely only in the vertical plane, while the motor-driven 
drum at its rear, against which it impinges, rotates horizontally, 
thus producing a curve which, by its magnitudes and variations, 
records the extent of the pressures developed from the beginning to 
the end of the explosion. 

The charge of explosive used varies from 100 to 200 grams, ac- 
cording to its character, as judged by the results of the chemical 
analysis which has been made of it. The explosive is removed from 
its original wrapper and inclosed in a wrapper of tinfoil in such 
manner as to preserve its original density. The head of the cylinder 
is removed, the No. 7 electric detonator passed through the glanded 
plug, and then inserted and secured in the cartridge, the fused car- 
tridge laid on a small wire support in the center of the cylinder, the 
head replaced, the vacuum produced, the indicator drum set in revo- 
lution, and then, all parts being found secure and operative, the 
charge is fired and the indicator diagram taken. Three shots are 
made with each of the different cooling surfaces. 

After the explosion the products are allowed to cool to the room 
temperature which, with the tension of the gases, the barometer and 
the volume of the cylinder, is noted and the volume of the gaseous 
and vaporous products is reduced to normal. A sample of these 
gases and vapors is then drawn out through the exhaust opening and 
analyzed. The liquid and solid products are recovered, measured, 
and analyzed after the head has been removed. 

As is well recognized, the heat developed by an explosive when 
it explodes is one of the most important of the factors which deter- 
mine its effect, and since Berthelot first employed the calorimetric 
bomb with which to directly measure the number of heat units set 
free by a known weight of an explosive, attention has been given to 
the improvement of this device so as to render it more useful. One 
of the modern forms of this instrument is Mettegang’s explosion 
calorimeter, which is shown in plate 8. 

This consists of a bottle-shaped calorimetric bomb 30 inches high, 
with a capacity of 30 liters, made of wrought steel one-half inch in 
thickness, and closed by a cap having an air-tight fit. Two holes are 
tapped into this bomb on opposite sides of the curvature of the 
neck, into one of which a valve is tapped by which to connect the 
bomb with an air pump, and into the other a plug through which 
the legs of the detonator are carried. This bomb when charged is 
placed in an immersion vessel, filled with a known weight of water, 
which is made of nickel-plated copper one-sixteenth inch in thick- 
ness, and which is strengthened by bands of copper wire wound about 
the outside. The immersion vessel is placed, with its contained 


300 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


bomb, in a wooden-insulating vessel provided with a wooden cover. 
The accessories consist of a framework stirring device rotated or 
raised by an electric motor with which to bring the entire mass of 
water to a uniform temperature, a thermometer with open scale read- 
ing to one one-hundredth of a centigrade degree, a magnifying glass 
with which to read this thermometer, a pair of scales on which to 
accurately weigh the several parts of the system and the water that 
is used, a hocking frame to raise the vessels from the scales and 
deposit them in place, and a machine with which to fire the charge. 

The water equivalent of the calorimeter having been determined 
and the effect of the detonator and tin-foil wrapping having been 
ascertained a charge of 100 grams of the explosive, wrapped in tin 
foil, is connected with a No. 7 electric detonator and suspended in 
the bomb, which is closed and exhausted down to 10 millimeters of 
mercury. The immersion vessel having received its weighed charge 
of water all the parts of the calorimeter are assembled and the stir- 
ring device set in motion to bring the water, and therefore all essen- 
tial parts of the calorimeter, to a common temperature. When the 
thermometer immersed in the water shows that a constant tempera- 
ture has been reached the charge is fired and the rise in temperature 
recorded on the thermometer carefully observed until the mercury 
has reached its greatest altitude in this experiment. From this data, 
together with that referred to above, the number of calories given by 
a known weight of the explosive is found. 

In firing by dentonation it is essential for safety and success in 
blasting that when the reaction is once initiated by the detonator 
it shall proceed throughout the column of explosive for otherwise 
a portion of the charge may be thrown out of the bore hole unex- 
ploded but inflamed, producing a “blown-out shot” which may 
ignite the fire damp or coal-dust-air mixture, or a pertion may be 
left in the bore hole unexploded where it constitutes a source of 
danger in subsequent operations, or it may be brought down mixed 
with the coal to produce trouble in the breakers, in transportation, 
or in the use of the coal. The test employed to ascertain the relative 
sensitiveness of explosives to the detonation of masses of their own 
kind is called the explosion by influence test. I have applied this 
term to the testing of explosives for their sensitiveness to the initial 
detonation of a standard explosive, and described the method in the 
Journal of the American Chemical Society 15, 10-18; 1893. A com- 
mercial method now used for some time is one in which the cartridges 
are placed in rows on the ground, or other support, with spaces be- 
tween each, and varying the intervals between the cartridges in suc- 
cessive trials. A more modern and severer test is to so bind two 
cartridges together with wire that they may be suspended vertically 
in the air, end to end, at a carefully measured distance apart, a 


METHODS OF TESTING EXPLOSIVES—MUNROE. 301 


detonator, of the grade recommended by the manufacturer of the 
explosive, being inserted in the lower end of the lower cartridge, 
secured in place, and fired. By proceeding tentatively the distance 
at which detonation by influence ceases is said to be established 
within very narrow limits. For comparison between different ex- 
plosives cartridges of uniform size are used, such as 1} inches in 
diameter by 8 inches in length. This may necessitate the repacking 
of the explosive, and when this is done care should be taken to pre- 
serve the original density, since this is a factor in this behavior of 
explosives. 

While the explosive should be sufficiently susceptible to detona- 
tion to be fired with certainty it should not be so sensitive to per- 
cussion as to be dangerous in handling, transportation, or use. This 
sensitiveness of explosives to the effect of direct blows is determined 
by the impact machine shown in plate 9, which consists of a vertical 
steel framework carrying two guide rods between which a yoke, to 
which the impact weight or hammer is attached, is guided; an anvil 
upon which the charge of explosive is placed; and a soft-steel 
plunger which rests upon the anvil and upon which the hammer 
impinges in its fall. The yoke is provided with jaws which engage 
the lugs of an endless chain moving behind it, and by this mechanism 
the yoke with its attached weight is raised to any desired height. 
By means of an electric current the yoke may be magnetized and 
demagnetized at will so that when magnetized it will attract and 
support the hammer to such an extent that both may be raised 
together by the endless chain to any predetermined height, at which 
point the yoke is demagnetized, the hammer or weight is released 
and the latter then falls through the intervening distance and im- 
pinges upon the plunger. The stop which arrests the upward travel 
of the magnetized yoke and automatically causes its demagnetiza- 
tion is operated by a vertically driven precision screw on the right- 
hand side of the frame, which is also geared to a recording device 
which measures the height from which the hammer falls. By the 
aid of this screw and its accessories one is able to set the stop in 
advance so as to secure any desired distance of fall for the hammer 
within the capacity of the machine. 

The hard-steel anvil is set firmly on a heavy iron base and it is 
surrounded by a tubulated jacket through which water may be cir- 
culated, so as to bring the temperature of the anvil and of the charge 
of explosive placed upon it to any desired temperature and to keep 
it there. The plunger is held lightly in place by a steel guide which 
forms a part of the base support for the vertical-guide rods. It is 
essential that the faces of the plunger and of the anvil which are in 
contact should be absolutely true and plane. As the impacts and ex- 
plosions produce deformation of the metal, the plunger is made of 


302 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


soft steel, so that the deformation may accumulate on it, and there- 
fore it is very frequently turned up on a lathe and reground to true 
up its face. 

The hammer used weighs 2,000 grams. The soft-steel plunger 
weighs 900 grams, and the maximum height from which the ham- 
mer can be dropped is 100 centimeters. The weight of charge of 
explosive used is 0.02 gram. The temperature of the anvil and the 
explosive at the time of testing is 25° C. 

In making the test the explosive is weighed out on a chemical 
balance and the charge so wrapped in tin foil as to make a pellet 
in the form of a flat disk 1 centimeter in diameter. The hammer is 
raised, the stamp is lifted, the pellet is placed on the anvil, the stamp 
is pressed gently down upon it, so as to insure a good contact, and the 
whole is left to attain the standard temperature. The stop is then 
set by judgment and the hammer raised until it is disengaged at the 
chosen height and falls upon the plunger. If no explosion ensues, 
the stop is set at a greater height and the hammer released, and this 
method of procedure is repeated until either explosion occurs on im- 
pact or the maximum range of the machine is reached. When ex- 
plosion does occur the test is repeated with a fresh charge of ex- 
plosive and slightly diminished distance of fall, and one thus 
proceeds tentatively until such a height of fall for the hammer is 
reached that there is no explosion, and yet if that height be exceeded 
by but 1 centimeter an explosion occurs. This point is then fixed 
by four additional tests, giving the same results. 

Provided all other conditions remain the same the brisant or 
shattering effect of an explosive varies with the velocity with which 
the chemical reaction, or explosion wave travels through the column 
or charge of the explosive. Where explosives are fired by detonation 
this movement, as measured in definite terms of time and length, is 
styled the rate of detonation of the explosive. The making of such 
determinations is not new, for Abel measured the rate of detonation 
in guncotton, nitroglycerine, and dynamite nearly 40 years ago,’ and 
Berthelot did so some 10 years later.2, What has been done in recent 
years has been rather in the standardizing of the method, the im- 
provement in the details and operation of the chronograph, and the 
introduction of the method into general practice. 

To assure a definite and uniform area of exposure, the cartridges 
of explosives in their original wrappers, but with the ends cut off so 
as to avoid the damping effect of the layers of paper, are packed 
in tubes of thin sheet iron 42 inches in length and varying in 
diameter from 14 to 2 inches, according to the character of the ex- 
plosive to be tested. When the tube has been charged two copper 


1 Phil. Trans. 164, 377; 1874. 2 Ann. chim. phys. (6) 6, 556, 


“SADV5H AYNSSAYd SMSHOIG 


5 eel al cd *QOJUNJN—O1L61 ‘Hodey ueluOsy}IWS 


“YALAWIYOIVD NOISO1dXy S‘ONVOSLLAA 


r 


ect? 


"8 3LV1d "eOIUNWI— 0161 ‘Hodey ueluosYyIWS 


PLATE 9. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Munroe. 


o 
= 
: 
cma. sana at ee ie ge 2 . 
a 


~ 
~~ 


IMPACT MACHINE. 


"YSqGHOOSY ONVOSLIVI 


TOW LL Val 
*9OJUNIWN—'016| ‘Hodey ueluOosy}iWS 


METHODS OF TESTING EXPLOSIVES—MUNROE. 303 


wires are inserted through perforations in the tube and the cartridge 
file at a distance of 1 meter apart, and these wires are separately led 
to a chronograph. An electric detonator of the usual type and grade 
is inserted in one of the end cartridges of the file; the tube, as now 
arranged, is suspended in the firing chamber; the copper wires which 
pass through the explosive are connected up to the chronograph; and 
the charge is fired. 

The chronograph which records the time that elapses between the 
rupturing of the wire nearest the detonator and the wire 1 meter dis- 
tant from it is known as a Mettegang recorder, and is shown in plate 
10. The primary components of the Mettegang recorder are a soot- 
covered bronze drum so connected to an electric motor that it may be 
caused to revolve at any desired speed up to 105 revolutions per sec- 
ond; a 200-volt D. C. electric motor provided with a rheostat for con- 
trolling its speed; a vibration tachometer so connected to the bronze 
drum that the number of revolutions of the latter in unit of time are 
accurately measured for any speed between 50 and 105 revolutions 
per second; induction coils which may receive their electric current 
from electric-lighting circuits having terminal pressures of from 
about 110 to 220 volts; and platinum terminals placed about one- 
fourth of a millimeter from the surface of the rotating drum, and in 
circuit with the induction coils, by which electric sparks are so pro- 
jected against the surface of the drum as to disturb its sooty cover- 
ing and produce a tiny bright spot at the point of impact, which 
spot may be easily perceived by the aid of a microscope attached to 
the drum. 

The drum is 500 millimeters in circumference. The edge of this 
drum is provided with 500 teeth which may be made to engage an 
endless screw. A pointer attached to this screw passes over a dial 
reading to hundredths, and it thus enables one to read the distance 
intervening between the spots produced on the soot-covered surface 
of the drum with great precision. The drum is provided with six 
platinum terminals which are held by an insulated arm that may be 
so moved as to bring the points within any desired distance from the 
drum, and each one of these points may be put in series with one of the 
induction coils while the other end of the electric lead is grounded to 
the drum through the base which supports it. Only two of these 
platinum terminals are used in any single-firing trial for the deter- 
mination of the rate of detonation in a given explosive, while the 
other four are held in reserve for future use. 

To operate this method of ascertaining the rate at which det- 
onation when once initiated is transmitted through a column, or file, 
of an explosive, the electric current which is used as the medium for 
transmitting the record is, as taken from its source, divided into two 


304 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


parts by passing it through two equal lamp resistances, each of which, 
at the Pittsburg testing station, consists of a series of five 16-candle- 
power lamps. These leads are then, after independently traversing 
the cartridge file at the initial and final points, jointly connected to 
_one of the poles of the primary coil of the induction coil through 
which the current passes to the return conductor. The secondary 
coil of the induction coil is then connected by one pole to the two plat- 
inum terminals and by the other pole to the base supporting the drum 
as described. As is well known, in the induction coil any change of 
tension in the primary coil sets up an induced current in the sec- 
ondary coil, and this mutual induction between the coils results in 
the production of a higher potential difference at the terminals of 
the secondary one so that sparks of considerable length and intensity 
may be obtained. 

The vibration tachometer, by which the speed of rotation of the 
drum is measured, is connected to an auxiliary shaft which engages 
the main shaft of the drum by gears, thus preventing any irregularity 
in recording the speed due to slipping. This tachometer measures 
the number of rotations of the drum, and as the circumference of the 
drum is accurately known, the distance which any point on the pe- 
riphery travels may easily be calculated. Hence, at the highest speed 
of 105 revolutions per second, the distance of travel is 52.5 meters. 
At 50 revolutions it is 25 meters. At 86 revolutions it is 43 meters 
per second. With this number of revolutions it is possible with this 
instrument to measure the one-four-million-three-hundred-thousandth 
part of a second of time. . 

A more recent and simpler method of measuring the rate of det- 
onation is that devised by M. d’Autriche,’ which was described at the 
congress in London, in 1909, by Dr. A. M. Comey, as follows: 

The method of M. d’Autriche depends upon the use of a special detonating fuse 
having a uniform velocity of 6,000 meters per second. A suitable length of fuse, 
according to the length of the column of explosive to be tested is taken for the 
test and the exact middle of the fuse is determined by measurement and marked. 
A fulminate cap containing a charge of 15 grains (1 gram) is slipped over each 


end of the fuse and crimped securely. The fuse is then laid upon a piece of 
32-pound sheet lead (14 inches by 15 inches by 4 inch) (88 by 380 by 13 
millimeters), so that the center of the fuse is about in the center of the sheet of 
lead, and the point coinciding with the middle point of the fuse is marked 
plainly on the sheet lead (M). The fuse passes along the entire length of the 
sheet of lead, and its ends are bent around so that they nearly meet. The two 
ends of the fuse covered with the detonating caps are inserted a short distance, 
at two points, into the column of explosive, the velocity of which is to be tested, 
and the distance between these points accurately measured. This may be called 
(A). A fulminate cap with fuse or electric connections is placed in one end 
of the stick of explosive. When this cap is detonated, the explosive wave 
proceeds through the detonating fuse in both directions and meets at a point 


1 Comptes rend. 143, 641 and 144, 1030. 


"SNLVUVddy LSA, AWVI4 


SEE BBLS *2OIUN|N— 0161 ‘Hodey uejuosy}iWS 


Smithsonian Report, 1910,—Munroe, PLATE 12. 


RPM. 375. DURATION OF FLAME 1539. MILLISEC. HEIGHT OF FLAME 50.21 IN. 
A BLACK: BLASTING POWDER. 


RPM. 2400. DURATION OF FLAME 542 MILLISEC. HEIGHT OF FLAME i979 IN. 
Ao rPERMISSIBEE Exe OSE 


1. FLAMES FROM EXPLOSIVES. 


2. X-RAY PHOTO OF FUSE. 


METHODS OF TESTING EXPLOSIVES—MUNROE. 3805 


(T) where a sharp line is formed by the effects of the detonation itself, and 
the lead is often broken through at this point. The distance from (M) to (T) 
is accurately measured and designated as (0). If the two ends of the fuse are 
detonated simultaneously (M) and (T) fall together; that is, the detonation pro- 
ceeds at the same rate through the two halves of the fuse and meets at the mid- 
dle, but when a certain length of an explosive is placed in the circuit we have 
on one side one-half the length of the fuse and on the other side one-half the 
length of the fuse plus a certain measured length of explosive. We have thus, 
letting— 

X=Velocity of detonation of the explosive tested. 

V=Known velocity of the fuse (6,000 meters per second). 

A=Distance between two ends of fuse, or length of explosive tested. 

b=Distance between M and 'T. 


Then,— 
VA 60004. 
gs hr a 


As to the accuracy of the test, it was found that by using the fuse alone (M) 
and (T) always coincided to within one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters). It 
is easily seen that errors in measurement will be diminished by increase in 
the length of explosive tested, and it can be calculated, with velocities of 4,000 
to 6,000 meters per second, using 15 inches (88 centimeters) of powder, that 
an error of one-fourth of an inch (6 millimeters) in measurement of the dis- 
tance (M) to (T), which is a very large one under the conditions, introduces an 
error in the determination of the velocity of about 5 per cent. 

Comey and his associates have tested this method quite fully at 
the eastern laboratory of the Du Pont Powder Co., and have found 
that it gives not only a ready and accurate means of determining the 
velocity of detonation through a column of any desired length of 
explosive, but that it is also possible by this method to determine 
the velocity with which a detonation wave travels through the air. 

Tt is obvious that the flame-giving qualities of an explosive plays 
a most important part in its liability to ignite fire damp and other 
combustible mixtures, and that, all other conditions being equal, that 
explosive which gives the shortest flame for the briefest time is most 
suitable for use. Hence latterly much attention has been given to 
the study of the flames from explosives, and many devices have been 
constructed by which to photograph them. 

Among these is the one employed at the Pittsburg testing station, 
where the flame is photographed on a moving film. The charge of 
explosive is fired from a “cannon” of the type used in the gallery 
tests by means of an electric detonator or igniter, but in this test 
the “cannon” is mounted vertically in a concrete foundation at a 
distance of about 18 feet from _the lens of the camera. To cut off 
extraneous light rays, so that the tests may be made at any time, 
the “cannon” is inclosed in an iron cylinder 20 feet in height and 
43 inches in diameter, which is connected with the dark room by a 
light-tight iron conduit, as shown in plate 11. The cylinder, or 


97578°—sm 1910 20 


306 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


stack, is provided with a door in the side, through which the “ can- 
non” can be loaded, and with a vertical slit 8 feet in length by 2 
inches in width, which is so placed that its vertical center coincides 
with that of the conduit and also with that of the lens by which it is 
viewed. At the time of firing the top of the stack is covered with 
black paper. The conduit is closed at the point where it ends in the 
wall of the dark room by a shutter. 

The camera consists of a drum on which the sensitized film is 
mounted, an electric motor by which the drum is revolved at a known 
rate, a quartz lens, a semicircular shield in which a stenopaic slit has 
been cut, and a shutter by which to control the slit in the shield. All 
of these except the motor are inclosed in a light-tight box. The 
semicircular shield is placed close to and concentric with the drum 
to prevent any light reaching the film except that passing through 
the stenopaic slit. A lens of quartz is used because it focuses not 
only the visible light rays, but also those invisible violet rays which 
occur to a large extent in the flames from explosives. 

By means of a tachometer both the number of revolutions per 
minute of the motor and the peripheral speed of the drum are 
directly read off. The maximum peripheral speed of the drum is 
20 meters per second, and this rate is employed when detonating ex- 
plosives are tested, but with slow-burning explosives the drum is 
run at a slower rate. At the 20-meter rate 1 millimeter width of 
flame equals 0.05 millisecond of time, and as the measurements of 
the flame photographs are read to the nearest quarter of a millimeter 
the smallest time interval measured is the 0.0125 millisecond. The 
charge of explosive used in the test is 100 grams, and these charges 
are fired both with and without stemming. 

The result of this test on black blasting powder and on a permis- 
sible explosive are shown in plate 12, figure 1. By the term “ per- 
missible explosive” is meant an explosive which has satisfactorily 
passed all the prescribed tests at the Pittsburg testing station and 
is regarded as suitable for use in coal mines. 

One of the most novel of modern tests is that devised by J. 
Thomas,! who has employed the X rays for ascertaining the condi- 
tion of the powder core in Bickford or running fuse. The cause of 
misfires and delayed ignitions has been the subject of much specula- 
tion, and among other theories proposed was that of a break in the 
continuity of the powder cores. In plate 12, figure 2, which is a copy 
of Thomas’s X-ray picture, the interruption of continuity in two 
pieces of the fuse shown is very apparent. 


1J. Chem. Met. Soc. S. Africa 9, 183; 1908. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Campbell. PLATE 1. 


SiR WILLIAM Huaains, 1824-1910. 


SIR WILLIAM HUGGINS, K. C. B., O. Mt 


[With 1 plate.] 


By W. W. CAMPBELL. 


The name of Sir William Huggins is intimately associated with 
the entire history of astronomical spectroscopy. With Rutherfurd, 
Secchi, Angstrém, Draper, and others, he was a pioneer in this sub- 
ject; and by virtue of long life, enthusiasm, and uncommon wisdom, 
his contributions have enriched astronomical knowledge during a full 
half century. His lamented death on May 12, 1910, at the ripe age 
of 86 years, calls for a review of his remarkable career. 

William Huggins was born in London on February 7, 1824. His 
father was in commercial life, and was able to provide the son not 
only with a good education, but the financial means to follow as- 
tronomy in a private capacity, unattached to university or estab- 
lished observatory. His early education was received in the City of 
London School, and he later studied the languages, mathematics, 
and various branches of science extensively under private tutors. 
Astronomy and microscopy were subjects of special interest, and it 
was a difficult question with him as to which he should attempt to 
advance through original investigations. The decision was made in 
favor of astronomy. In 1856 he removed to 90 Upper Tulse Hill, 
then a short distance in the open country south of London, now 
within the great city, where he erected an observatory in connection 
with his dwelling house; and there all of his work was done. “It 
consisted of a dome 12 feet in diameter and a transit room. There 
was erected in it an equatorially mounted telescope by Dolland of 5 
inches aperture, at that time looked upon as a large rather than a 
small instrument.” He commenced work on the usual lines, taking 
transits, observing the planets, and making drawings of planets. In 
1858 the 5-inch refractor was replaced by a Clark 8-inch refractor of 
great excellence. 

1 Reprinted by permission after author’s revision from publications of the Astronomical 


Society of the Pacific, vol. 22, No. 133, San Francisco, October, 1910. 
307 


308 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


In the Nineteenth Century Review for June, 1897, Sir William 


has given an interesting account of his entry into the spectroscopic 
field : 


I soon became a little dissatisfied with the routine character of ordinary 
astronomical work, and in a vague way sought about in my mind for the 
possibility of research upon the heavens in a new direction or by new methods. 
It was just at this time, when a vague longing after newer methods of observa- 
tion for attacking many of the problems of the heavenly bodies filled my mind, 
that the news reached me of Kirchhoff’s great discovery of the true nature and 
the chemical constitution of the sun from his interpretation of the Fraunhofer 
lines. 

This news was to me like the coming upon a spring of water in a dry and 
thirsty land. Here at last presented itself the very order of work for which 
in an indefinite way I was looking—namely, to extend his novel methods of re- 
search upon the sun to the other heavenly bodies. A feeling as of inspiration 
seized me. I felt as if I had it now in my power to lift a veil which had never 
before been lifted; as if a key had been put into my hands which would unlock 
a door which had been regarded as forever closed to man—the veil and door 
behind which lay the unknown mystery of the true nature of the heavenly 
bodies. This was especially work for which I was to a great extent prepared, 
from being already familiar with the chief methods of chemical and physical 
research, 

It was just at this time that I happened to meet at a soirée of the pharma- 
ceutical society, where spectroscopes were shown, my friend and neighbor, Dr. 
W. Allen Miller, professor of chemistry at King’s College, who had already 
worked much on chemical spectroscopy. A sudden impulse seized me to suggest 
to him that we should return home together. On our way home I told him of 
what was in my mind and asked him to join me in the attempt I was about to 
make, to apply Kirchhoff’s methods to the stars. At first, from consideration of 
the great relative faintness of the stars, and the great delicacy of the work 
from the earth’s motion, even with the aid of a clockwork, he hesitated as to 
the probability of our success. Finally he agreed to come to my observatory 
on the first fine evening for some preliminary experiments as to what we might 
expect to do upon the stars. 

* * * Wrom the sun, with which the Heidelberg professors had to do— 
which, even bright as it is, for some parts of the spectrum has no light to 
spare—to the brightest stars is a very far cry. The light received at the 
earth from a first magnitude star, as Vega, is only about the one-forty- 
thousand-millionth part of that received from the sun. 

Fortunately, as the stars are too far off to show a true disk, it is possible 
to concentrate all the light received from the star upon a large mirror or 
object glass, into the telescopic image, and so increase its brightness. 

We could not make use of the.easy method adopted by Fraunhofer of plac- 
ing a prism before the object glass, for we needed a terrestrial spectrum, 
taken under the same conditions, for the interpretation, by a simultaneous 
comparison with it of the star’s spectrum. Kirchhoff’s method required that 
the image of a star should be thrown upon a narrow slit simultaneously with 
the light from a flame or from an electric spark. 

These conditions made it necessary to attach a spectroscope to the eye end 
of the telescope, so that it would be carried with it, with its slit in the focal 
plane. Then, by means of a small reflecting prism placed before one half of 
the slit, light from a terrestrial source at the side of the telescope could be 


SIR. WILLIAM HUGGINS—CAMPBELL. 809 


sent into the instrument, together with the star’s light, and so form a spectrum 
by the side of the stellar spectrum for convenient comparison with it. 

This was not all. As the telescopic image of a star is a point, its spectrum 
will be a narrow line of light without appreciable breadth. Now, for the 
observation either of dark or of bright lines across the spectrum a certain 
breadth is absolutely needful. To get breadth, the point-like image of the star 
must be broadened out. 

As light is of first importance, it was desirable to broaden the star’s image 
only in the one direction necessary to give breadth to the spectrum; or, in 
other words, to convert the stellar point into a short line of light. Such an 
enlargement in one direction only could be given by the device, first employed 
by Fraunhofer himself, of a lens convex or concave in one direction only, and 
flat, and so having no action on the light in a direction at right angles to the 
former ione;,(* ©* ) * 

It is scarcely possible at the present day, when all these points are as familiar 
as household words, for any astronomer to realize the large amount of time and 
labor which had to be devoted to the successful construction of the first star 
spectroscope. Especially was it difficult to provide for the satisfactory intro- 
duction of the light for the comparison spectrum. We soon found, to our dis- 
may, how easily the comparison lines might become instrumentally shifted, 
and so be no longer strictly fiducial. As a test we used the solar lines as 
reflected to us from the moon—a test of more than sufficient delicacy with the 
resolving power at our command. 

Then it was that an astronomical observatory began, for the first time, to 
take on the appearance of a laboratory. Primary batteries, giving forth noxious 
gases, were arranged outside one of the windows; a large induction coil stood 
mounted on a stand on wheels so as to follow the positions of the eye end of 
the telescope, together with a battery of several Leyden jars; shelves with 
Bunsen burners, vacuum tubes, and bottles of chemicals, especially of speci- 
mens of pure metals, lined its walls. 

In 1870 my observatory was enlarged from a dome of 12 feet in diameter to 
a drum having a diameter of 18 feet. This alteration had been made for the 
reception of a larger telescope made by Sir Howard Grubb, at the expense of a 
legacy to the Royal Society, and which was placed in my hands on loan by 
that society. This instrument was furnished with two telescopes, an achro- 
matic of 15 inches aperture and a Cassegrain of 18 inches aperture, with mir- 
rors of speculum metal. At this time one only of these telescopes could be in use 
at atime. Later on, in 1882, by a device which occurred to me of giving each 
telescope an independent declination axis, the one working within the other, 
both telescopes could remain together on the equatorial mounting, and be 
equally ready for use. 

* * * Tt is not easy for men of the present generation, familiar with the 
knowledge which the new methods of research of which I am about to speak 
have revealed to us, to put themselves back a generation, into the position of 
the scientific thought which existed on these subjects in the early years of the 
Queen’s reign. At that time any knowledge of the chemical nature and of the 
physics of the heavenly bodies was regarded as not only impossible of attain- 
ment by any method of direct observation, but as, indeed, lying altogether outside 
the limitations imposed upon man by his senses, and by the fixity of his position 
upon the earth. 

It could never be, it was confidently thought, more than a matter of pre- 
sumption, whether even the matter of the sun, and much less that of the stars, 
were of the same nature as that of the earth, and the unceasing energy 


310 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


radiated from it due to such matter at a high temperature. The nebular 
hypothesis of Laplace at the end of the last century required, indeed, that 
matter similar to that of the earth should exist throughout the solar system; 
but then this hypothesis itself needed for its full confirmation the independ- 
ent and direct observation that the solar matter was terrestrial in its nature. 
This theoretical probability in the case of the sun vanished almost into thin 
air when the attempt was made to extend it to the stellar hosts; for it might 
well be urged that in those immensely distant regions an original difference 
of the primordial stuff as well as other conditions of condensation were pres- 
ent, giving rise to groups of substances which have but little analogy with 
those of our earthly chemistry. * * * 

The dark lines were described first by Wollaston in 1792, who strangely 
associated them with the boundaries of the spectral colors, and so turned 
contemporary thought away from the direction in which lay their true sig- 
nificance. It was left to Fraunhofer in 1815, by whose name the dark lines 
are still known, not only to map some 600 of them, but also to discover similar 
lines, but differently arranged, in several stars. Further, he found that a 
pair of dark lines in the solar spectrum appeared to correspond in their posi- 
tion in the spectrum, and in their distance from each other, to a pair of 
bright lines which were nearly always present in terrestrial flames. This 
last observation contained the key to the interpretation of the dark lines as 
a code of symbols, but Fraunhofer failed to use it; and the birth of astro- 
physics was delayed. An observation by Forbes at the eclipse of 1836 led 
thought away from the suggestive experiments of Fraunhofer; so that in the 
very year of the Queen’s accession the knowledge of the time had to be summed 
up by Mrs. Somerville in the negation: “ We are still ignorant of the cause 
of these rayless bands.” 

Later on the revelation came more or less fully to many minds. Foucault, 
3alfour, Stewart, Angstrém prepared the way. Prophetic guesses were made by 
Stokes and by Lord Kelvin. But it was Kirchhoff who, in 1859, first fully 
developed the true significance of the dark lines; and by his joint work with 
Bunsen on the solar spectrum proved beyond all question that the dark lines in 
the spectrum of the sun are produced by the absorption of the vapors of the 
same substances, which when suitably heated give out corresponding bright 
lines; and, further, that many of the solar absorbing vapors are those of sub- 
stances found upon the earth. The new astronomy was born. 

Soon after the close of 1862, in collaboration with Dr. W. A. Miller, I sent a 
preliminary note to the Royal Society, “On the lines of some of the fixed stars,” 
in which we gave diagrams of the spectra of Sirius, Betelgeux, and Aldebaran, 
with the statement that we had observed the spectra of some 40 stars, and also 
the spectra of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It was a little remarkable that on 
the same day on which our paper was to be read, but some little time after it 
had been sent in, news arrived there from America that similar observations on 
some of the stars had been made by Mr. Rutherford: A very little later similar 
work on the spectra of the stars was undertaken in Rome by Secchi and in 
Germany by Vogel. 

In February, 1863, the strictly astronomical character of the observatory was 
further encroached upon by the erection, in one corner, of a small photographie 
tent furnished with baths and other appliances for the wet collodion process. 
We obtained photographs, indeed, of the spectra of Sirius and Capella; but 
from want of steadiness and more perfect adjustment of the instruments, the 
spectra, though defined at the edges, did not show the dark lines as we expected. 
The dry collodion plates then available were not rapid enough; and the wet 
process was so inconvenient for long exposures, from irregular drying, and 


SIR. WILLIAM HUGGINS—CAMPBELL. old 


draining back from the positions in which the plates had often to be put, that 
we did not persevere in our attempts to photograph the stellar spectra. I 
resumed them with success in 1875, as we shall see further on. 

Whenever the nights were fine, our work on the spectra of the stars went 
on, and the results were communicated to the Royal Society in April, 1864; 
after which Dr. Miller had not sufficient leisure to continue working with me. 

* * * TI pass on at once, therefore, to the year 1876, in which, by the 
aid of the new dry plates, with gelatin films, introduced by Mr. Kennett, 
I was able to take up again, and this time with success, the photography 
of the spectra of the stars, of my early attempts at which I have already 
spoken. 

By this time I had the great happiness of having secured an able and enthu- 
Siastic assistant by my marriage in 1875. 

The great and notable advances in astronomical methods and discoveries 
by means of photography, since 1875, are due almost entirely to the great ad- 
vantages which the gelatin dry plate possesses for use in the observatory over 
the process of Daguerre, and even over that of wet collodion. The silver- 
bromide gelatin plate, which I was the first, I believe, to use for photograph- 
ing the spectra of stars, except for its grained texture, meets the need of the 
astronomer at all points. This plate possesses extreme sensitiveness; it is 
always ready for use; it can be placed in any position; it can be exposed for 
hours; lastly, immediate development is not necessary, and for this reason, 
as I soon found to be necessary in this climate, it can be exposed again to 
the same object on succeeding nights; and so make up by successive install- 
ments, as the weather may permit, the total long exposure which may be 
needful. 

The power of the eye falls off as the spectrum extends beyond the blue, 
and soon fails altogether. There is, therefore, no drawback to the use of 
glass for the prisms and lenses of a visual spectroscope. But while the sen- 
sitiveness of a photographic plate is not similarly limited, glass, like the eye, 
is imperfectly transparent, and soon becomes opaque, to the parts of the spec- 
trum at a short distance beyond the limit of the visible spectrum. ‘To obtain, 
therefore, upon the plate a spectrum complete at the blue end of stellar light, 
it was necessary to avoid glass and to employ instead Iceland spar and rock 
erystal, which are transparent up to the limit of the ultra-violet light which 
ean reach us through our atmosphere. Such a spectroscope was constructed 
and fixed with its slit at the focus of the great speculum of the Cassegrain 
telescope. 

How was the image of a star to be easily brought, and then kept, for an hour, 
or even for many hours, precisely at one place on a slit so narrow as about the 
ene two-hundredth of an inch? For this purpose the very convenient device 
was adopted of making the slit-plates of highly polished metal, so as to forma 
divided mirror, in which the reflected image of a star could be observed from 
the eye end of the telescope by means of a small telescope fixed within the 
central hole of the great mirror.- A photograph of the spectrum of a Lyre, 
taken with this instrument, was shown at the Royal Society in 1876. 

In the spectra of such stars as Sirius and Vega, there came out in the ultra- 
violet region, which up to that time had remained unexplored, the completion of 
a grand rhythmical group of strong dark lines, of which the well-known hydro- 
gen lines in the visible region form the lower members. Terrestrial chemistry 
became enriched with a more complete knowledge of the spectrum of hydrogen 
from the stars. Shortly afterwards, Cornu succeeded in photographing a 
similar spectrum in his laboratory from earthly hydrogen. 


312 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The years 1863 to 1890 were made fruitful by Huggins, especially 
in the comparison of terrestrial and stellar spectra. He established 
that the principal elements in the earth’s surface strata exist also in 
the atmospheres of the stars in the form of vapors and gases. Other 
studies attempted to arrange the principal stars in the order of their 
evolutionary history—in the order of their effective ages—from the 
different appearances of the hydrogen and metallic lines in their 
spectra. 

Huggins’s observation of the spectrum of a nebula, for the first 
time in 1864, has probably never been surpassed in dramatic interest 
in any department of science. From the days of Sir William 
Herschel it had been a much-discussed question whether the nebule— 
the faintly shining bodies which had not been resolved into separate 
star images—were continuous in structure lke a great gaseous cloud, 
or were composed of stars unresolvable on account of their enormous 
distances. To let Huggins speak: 

The nature of these mysterious bodies was still an unread riddle. Toward 
the end of the last century the elder Herschel, from his observations at Slough, 
came yery near suggesting what is doubtless the true nature and, place in the 
cosmos, of the nebule. I will let him speak in his own words: 

“A shining fiuid of a nature unknown to us. 

“What a field of novelty is here opened to our conceptions! * * * We 
may now explain that very extensive nebulosity, expanded over more than 60° 
of the heavens, about the constellation of Orion, a luminous matter accounting 
much better for it than clustering stars at a distance. * * * 

“Tf this matter is self-luminous it seems more fit to produce a star by its 
condensation than to depend on the star for its existence.” 

This view of the nebulze as parts of a fiery mist out of which the heavens 
had been slowly fashioned, began, a little before the middle of the present cen- 
tury, at least in many minds, to give way before the revelations of the giant 
telescopes which had come into use, and especially of the telescope, 6 feet in 
diameter, constructed by the late Earl of Rosse at a cost of not less than 
£12,000. 

Nebula after nebula yielded, being resolved apparently into innumerable stars, 
as the optical power was increased; and so the opinion began to gain ground 
that all nebulie may be capable of resolution into stars. According to this view, 
nebulz would have to be regarded, not as early stages of an evolutional progress, 
but rather as stellar galaxies already formed, external to our system—cosmical 
“ sandheaps ”—too remote to be separated into their component stars. Lord 
Rosse himself was careful to point out that it would be unsafe from his obser- 
vations to conclude that all nebulosity is but the glare of stars too remote to be 
resolved by our instruments. In 1858 Herbert Spencer showed clearly that, 
notwithstanding the Parsonstown revelations, the evidence from the observation 
of nebulze up to that time was really in favor of their being early stages of an 
evolutional progression. 

On the evening of August 29, 1864, I directed my telescope for the first time 
to a planetary nebula in Draco. The reader may now be able to picture to 
himself to some extent the feeling of excited suspense, mingled with a degree 
of awe, with which, after a few minutes of hesitation, I put my eye to the 
spectroscope. .Was I not about to look into a secret place of creation? 


SIR. WILLIAM HUGGINS—CAMPBELL. 818 


I looked into the spectroscope. No spectrum such as I expected. A single 
bright line only. At first I suspected some displacement of the prism, and that 
I was looking at a reflection of the illuminated slit from one of its faces. This 
thought was scarcely more than momentary. Then- the true interpretation 
flashed upon me. The light of the nebula was monochromatic, and so, unlike 
any other light I had as yet subjected to prismatic examination, could not be 
extended out to form a complete spectrum. After passing through the two 
prisms it remained concentrated into a single bright line, having a width cor- 
responding to the width of the slit, and occupying in the instrument a position 
at that part of the spectrum to which its light belongs in refrangibility. A little 
closer looking showed two other bright lines on the side toward the blue, all 
the three lines being separated by intervals relatively dark. 

The riddle of nebule was solved. The answer, which had come to us in the 
light itself, read: Not an aggregation of stars, but a luminous gas. Stars after 
the order of our own sun, and of the brighter stars, would give a different 
spectrum; the light of this nebula had clearly been emitted by a luminous gas. 
With an excess of caution, at the moment I did not venture to go further than 
to point out that we had here to do with bodies of an order quite different from 
that of the stars. Further observations soon convinced me that, though the 
short span of human life is far too minute relatively te cosmical events for us 
to expect to see in succession any distinct step in so august a process, the 
probability is, indeed, overwhelming in favor of an evolution in the past, and 
still going on, of the heavenly hosts. A time surely existed when the matter 
now condensed into the sun and planets filled the whole space occupied by the 
solar system, in the condition ef gas, which then appeared as a glowing nebula, 
after the order, it may be, of some now existing in the heavens. There remained 
no room for doubt that the nebule, which our telescopes revealed to us, are the 
early stages of long processions of cosmical events, which correspond broadly to 
those required by the nebular hypothesis in one or other of its forms. 


Further observations identified two of the lines as due to hydro- 
gen. Observations by various spectroscopists have increased the 
number of bright lines known to exist in nebular spectra to 30 or 40, 
but aside from hydrogen and helium, accounting for about one-half 
of all the observed lines, the chemical constitution of the so-called 
gaseous nebule is unknown. 

To leave the subject of the nebular spectrum here would mislead 
the inexperienced, and it is necessary to say that only a minority of 
the nebule thus far observed in this way show spectra consisting 
chiefly of bright lines. The spiral nebule have spectra chiefly con- 
tinuous, and their composition and physical state remain a mystery. 
Even so for bright-line nebule, as observed by Huggins in 1864, we 
cannot say that they are shining by virtue of the heat of incandes- 
cence; the tendency of present-day opinion is that their substances 
are comparatively cool, and that their luminosity must arise from 
other conditions not now understood with certainty. 

Important contributions to our knowledge of temporary stars—the 
so-called new stars—were made by Huggins in half a dozen papers 
on their spectra. The principal stars studied were those which ap- 


314 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


peared suddenly in Corona Borealis, in the Great Nebula in Andro- 
meda, and in Auriga. 

Huggins was among the first to apply the spectroscope to the study 
of comets. A dozen papers by him, on cometary spectra, make inter- 
esting reading, for they record the gradual evolution of our know]l- 
edge of physical conditions existing in comets up to the year 1882. 
For example, speaking of observations of Winnecke’s comet of 1868 
made on the evening of June 22, he says: 


When a spectroscope furnished with two prisms of 60° was applied to the 
telescope, the light of the comet was resolved into three very broad, bright 
bands. A0*o*)* 

In the two more refrangible of these bands the light was brightest at the 
less refrangible end, and gradually diminished toward the other limit of the 
bands. This gradation of light was not uniform in the middle and brightest 
band, which continued of nearly equal brilliancy for about one-third of its 
breadth from the less refrangible end. This band appeared to be commenced 
at its brightest side by a bright line. 

The least refrangible of the three bands did not exhibit a similar marked 
gradation of brightness. This band, though of nearly uniform  brilliancy 
throughout, was perhaps brightest about the middle of its breadth. * * * 

The- following day I carefully considered these observations of the comet 
with the hope of a possible identification of its spectrum with that of some 
terrestrial substance. The spectrum of the comet appeared to me to resemble 
some of the forms of the spectrum of carbon which I had observed and care- 
fully measured in 1864. On comparing the spectrum of the comet with the 
diagrams of these spectra of carbon, I was much interested to preceive that 
the positions of the bands in the spectrum, as well as their general characters 
and relative brightness, agreed exactly with the spectrum of carbon when the 
spark is taken in olefiant gas. * * * 

It was with the spectrum of carbon, as thus obtained, that the spectrum of 
the comet appeared to agree. It seemed, therefore, to be of much importance 
that the spectrum of the spark in olefiant gas should be compared directly 
in the spectroscope with the spectrum of the comet. The comparison of the 
gas with the comet was made the same evening, June 23. * * * 

The brightest end of the middle band of the cometic spectrum was seen to 
be coincident with the commencement of the corresponding band in the 
spectrum of the spark. As this limit of the band was well defined in both 
spectra, the coincidence could be satisfactorily observed up to the power of 
the spectroscope; and may be considered to be determined within about the 
distance which separates the components of the double line D. As the limits 
of the other bands were less distinctly seen, the same amount of certainty of 
exact coincidence could not be obtained. We considered these bands to agree 
precisely in position with the bands corresponding to them in the spectrum of 
the spark. ; 

The apparent identity of the spectrum of the comet with that of carbon 
rests not only on the coincidence of position in the spectrum of the bands, 
but also upon the very remarkable resemblance of the corresponding bands 
in their general characters and in their relative brightness. This is very 
noticeable in the middle band, where the gradation of brightness is not uni- 
form. This band in both spectra remained of nearly equal brightness for the 
same proportion of its length. 


SIR. WILLIAM HUGGINS—CAMPBELL. 815 


On a subsequent evening, June 25, I repeated these comparisons, when the 
former observations were fully confirmed in every particular. On this evening 
I compared the brightest band with that of carbon in the larger spectroscope, 
which gives a dispersion of about five prisms. 

The remarkably close resemblance of the spectrum of the comet to the spec- 
trum of carbon necessarily suggests the identity of the substances by which in 
both cases the light was emitted. 


The application of the Doppler-Fizeau principle to the measure- 
ment of stellar velocities has assumed great importance in astronomi- 
cal investigation. It is now easy to look backward and say that this 
importance was inevitable, but it was not easy, half a century ago, 
to look forward and say that this must be so. It is characteristic 
of the pioneers in this field that they were slow to publish their ideas 
and observations. 

It was Fizeau, in 1848, who first enunciated the principle correctly 
that motions of approach and recession must cause corresponding 
shiftings of the entire spectrum, including the dark lines of Fraun- 
hofer, toward the violet and red, respectively, but without change of 
color. Fizeau also outlined methods for applying the principle to 
measuring the motions of celestial bodies toward and away from the 
observer. While these methods were sound theoretically, they were 
unpractical.. All matters spectroscopic were then mysterious, and 
Fizeau’s statements attracted no serious attention. In fact, his lec- 
ture on the subject in 1848, before a minor society in Paris, was not 
published until 1869. In the meantime the subject was receiving at- 
tention on the theoretical and laboratory sides from Fizeau and 
Clerk Maxwell, and on the stellar side from Huggins and Miller, and 
from Secchi. Secchi’s paper in Comptes Rendus, Paris Academy, 
dated March 2, 1868, describes his search for high velocities of the 
stars in the line of sight, conducted under encouragement from 
Fizeau, which led to merely negative conclusions; and he remarked 
that success in detecting velocities in the line of sight no greater than 
that of the earth in its orbit would require instrumental equipment 
more powerful than was then at his disposal. 

Almost simultaneously appeared a paper by Huggins and Miller 
in the Philosophical Transactions, dated April 23, 1868, from which 
the following paragraph is quoted: 


In a paper “On the spectra of some of the fixed stars” by myself and Dr. 
W. A. Miller, treasurer Royal Society, we gave an account of the method by 
which we had succeeded during the years 1862 and 1863 in making trustworthy 
simultaneous comparisons of the bright lines of terrestrial substances with 
the dark lines in the spectra of some of the fixed stars. We were at the time 
fully aware that these direct comparisons were not only of value for the more 
immediate purpose for which they’ had been undertaken, namely, to obtain in- 
formation of the chemical constitution of the investing atmospheres of the 
stars, but that they might also possibly serve to tell us something of the motions 


316 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of the stars relatively to our system. If the stars were moving toward or from 
the earth, their motion, compounded with the earth’s motion, would alter to an 
observer on the earth the refrangibility of the light emitted by them, and con- 
sequently the lines of terrestrial substances would no longer coincide in position 
in the spectrum with the dark lines produced by the absorption of the vapors 
of the same substances existing in the stars. 

Repeated efforts to measure the velocities of recession and ap- 
proach of the stars were made in later years by Huggins and other 
observers; and while their results were inaccurate and erroneous, 
they did not work entirely in vain, for the successes of the later 
observers in any subject are built, to some extent, upon the failures 
of the pioneers. We now know that visual methods could not have 
had more than very moderate success, even under the most favorable 
conditions. The coming of very sensitive dry-plates has made it 
possible for a 6-inch telescope and spectrograph to measure the ve- 
locities of a greater number of stars than could be done with the 
36-inch telescope, using visual methods of spectroscopy. 

Perhaps Huggins’s greatest contributions to the development of 
celestial spectroscopy have come from his efforts to interpret the 
original observations by means of laboratory observations made by 
himself and others. To these problems he brought philosophic judg- 
ment of unusual breadth and depth. His public addresses, reviewing 
astronomical progress and forecasting the problems of the future, 
were of unusual interest and excellence. The Cardiff address of 1891 
was notable in this regard. 

The epoch-making work of Huggins brought him early and full 
recognition from universities and learned societies. His government 
alone was slow to reward him. He was Rede lecturer in Cambridge 
University in 1869; he received the degree of LL. D. from Cambridge 
in 1870, and the degree of D. C. L. from Oxford in 1870. He was 
made a member of the Royal Society in 1865. He received the 
Lalande gold medal and the Janssen gold medal of the Paris Acad- 
emy of Sciences; the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society ; 
the Royal, the Rumford, and the Copley medals of the Royal Society ; 
the Bruce medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific; and 
perhaps others. 

He received honorary degrees from many universities, and was 
elected to membership in the leading academies. He was president 
of the British Association in 1891, the year of the Cardiff meetings. 
He was president of the Royal Society during the years 1900-1905. 
On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, in his 
seventy-fourth year, he was knighted; and in his seventy-eighth year 
he received appointment to the Order of Merit. 

It is a law of nature that ripeness must give way to youth. For- 
tunately, the example and work of such as Huggins live on into 


SIR. WILLIAM HUGGINS—CAMPBELL. ee by 


succeeding generations, and the history of astronomy will keep his 
name on the list of great pioneers. 

For 35 years he experienced able and devoted support in his scien- 
tific duties and undertakings from Lady Huggins, whose assistance 
was always real and active. The history of science does not tell us 
of more devoted coworkers than Sir William and Lady Huggins. 
The sympathies of all who have had the good fortune to know them 
go to her who has been left behind, 


ict: asad pile Gute conte 
hey (hk nod. warke-piitels in euinty shoe hic seeded 
ComyvaTs im any srt oe ate. Hitt, to sothe- extowr, sant 
wf tlie piepects. “Me sea Ritu a isnal aethsada corm 
Miki o1cre tient r#t'y. HG pute <0 es. ¢ an bode foe most, Ss 
whhCona., —"h le. ctentng of ty ensitive dig pekigs Dest 
oacite ton. sb dae anu pee sey 8G rears 
qieve uit a Preetie pwisteny iy ays cues ait) Li des ied 


. vs. 


a a Tae 
J Tweeter, ee a Wicnik: . re iE way ’ # oS ae Ts Tk Ee : . “kod ¥ 
“$F See biee.s i OPS = rari do-gh tempeh De Pig er | f 5 7 
: A ’ i 
et) ap clang tatty eae bie fly clas Ww. loan 
_ 
Jar, ae”. 4 & AWTS: eres WY | wat Bry. dxuoy yar yin “Pah 
‘ - “eo 
Fd 25 Aiba? ac co *e Lip Vrided 4 THA ATEL Ct L brat ~~. ty recvertely “ 
Pe i if . 4 PT 7 . vie einen thai i Habis ad ‘A Fotseds rece > 


> OR ' Ye oll we ‘ y Sry tr Si se aoe ht ot (iis tai 
. lan SietypeaL vi os Abi i, 5 | oe @ awl iff winvicuds 


A y ia 
Sle -eLt g.4i {ol Mageine Ofough), lng sgl ¥ angal 

es . ; ’ 

‘ke Tint Tu ; 's : jpat APT a ' cn tae. ft x i” 
~*~ 
- ra ‘ ( iB ris ayn f fis ny 
. } 
¥ . x th at a] ae ‘ 
“ Th eee! j 4 i> 7 *43) Tint . ’ 


: q ar a é 


»@ te Del ig a) y me y 
i‘ f iT ' Ce fe SMe? ated i de. ni 


4c tyndad of Ge Hayy? Asdokeied? aM 


LD ve ae Lonley quniticot sta Royal 
5) Seton! Morisey wiht (opel 


i 


; henaper, G4RS Peers deh: “one, a 4 
0p iy the iene areden, ire: ite ab aE 
Titi de (G24)- ale Bod” Le PURI ‘ r The Karst a af ’ 
pivshenh ofilia ar HM boca ys duphe thea, 

Tiatld me va Manwod duites: af Qrach Ma 

Gory 139-3 abs, Lt Atte 40g Ries piety sk hie tenons 
bi oye tb he Ordena? pe 
me 4 awl Lalas nol rigeieie aus @ 


‘eles, unt fan ha? eta shot 


THE SOLAR CONSTANT OF RADIATION.? 


By C. G. ABBOT, 


Director of the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution. 


Langley once wrote: 

If the observation of the amount of heat the sun sends the earth is among 
the most important and difficult in astronomical physics, it may also be termed 
the fundamental problem of meteorology, nearly all whose phenomena would 
become predictable if we knew both the original quantity and kind of this 
heat; how it affects the constituents of the atmosphere on its passage earth- 
ward; how much of it reaches the soil; how, through the aid of the atmosphere, 
it maintains the surface temperature of this planet; and how, in diminished 
quantity and altered kind, it is finally returned to outer space. 

The first great advance in the study of this matter was made by 
Pouillet more than 70 years ago. He constructed an instrument 
which he called a “ Pyrheliometer.” It comprised a shallow circular 
metallic box blackened to absorb sun rays, having a thermometer 
inserted in the center of one circular face, and being arranged so as 
to expose the other circular face broadside toward the sun. The in- 
strument was first shaded for a time, as, for instance, five minutes, 
then exposed to the sun an equal time, then shaded again. By reading 
the thermometer before and after each of the intervals just men- 
tioned, the rise of temperature due to the sun, exclusive of the losses 
and gains of heat due to the surroundings, was thought to be de- 
termined. Knowing the water equivalent of the pyrheliometer and 
the area exposed to the sun, the result could be converted to calories 
per square centimeter per minute. 

But it is not sufficient to know the amount of heat available in the 
solar beam at the earth’s surface, for this is reduced by the amount 
of haze, dust, and water vapor in the earth’s atmosphere, and even, 
as Rayleigh afterwards showed, diminished by the diffuse reflection 
of the molecules of air themselves. Hence the intensity of the solar 
beam not only differs from day to day, but increases between sunrise 
and noon, and decreases between noon and sunset, depending on the 
length of path of the beam in the atmosphere. Bouguer and Lam- 
bert, independently, about 1760, had derived an exponential formula 
connecting the intensities of the entering and outgoing beams with 


1 Address by C. G. Abbot to the Solar Union Conference at the Mount Wilson Solar 
“Observatory, California, Wednesday eyening, Aug. 51, 1910. ie 


320 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the thickness of the medium traversed. This formula is variously 
given, but may be used in this form: E=E, Am, where E and E, are 
the intensities of the outgoing and entering beams, A a constant 
expressing the fraction transmitted through unit thickness, and m 
the thickness traversed. In the case of the atmosphere it is natural 
to take unit thickness as that of the layer between the observer and 
the zenith, and m as equal to the secant of the zenith distance of the 
celestial object. This latter assumption is not strictly true, because 
the air layer is not a plane parallel sheet, but spherical in curvature, 
and secondly because the beam is curved by atmospheric refraction. 
However, as the air layer of sensible density is thin compared with 
the length of the earth’s radius, and as the refraction is negligible 
except near the horizon, the approximation is very close for zenith 
distances less than 75°, for which m=4. Knowing m and measuring 
E by the pyrheliometer, two observations at different zenith dis- 
tances fix the values of KE, and A. Pouillet, proceeding in some such 
manner, made numerous determinations of these quantities, and con- 
cluded that the value of E, at mean solar distance is about 1.76 
calories per square centimeter per minute. This, then, is Pouillet’s 
value of the “ solar constant of radiation.” 

For the next 40 years this result was generally adopted, although 
the experiments of Forbes, Violle, and Crova and the theoretical 
work of Radau indicated that it was too low. Langley, about 1880, 
stated Radau’s argument in a highly convincing form. Briefly stated, 
since the transmission of the atmosphere differs, depending on 
whether we consider blue or red light, and especially on whether we 
treat of rays which suffer only the general scattering of the molecules 
and dust particles of the air, or take those which are selectively ab- 
sorbed by water vapor and oxygen, and which are almost completely 
extinguished high above the earth’s surface—on account of this 
inequality of atmospheric extinction Pouillet’s method inevitably 
yields too low results. 

Langley, by the aid of his then newly invented bolometer, meas- 
ured at Allegheny, and in 1881 at Lone Pine and Mount Whitney, 
the transmission of the spectral rays separately, computed how the 
energy of the sun is distributed in its spectrum outside the atmos- 
phere, and fixed a new value of the solar constant which has been 
generally accepted almost until the present time. 

The method of Langley, which is that now in use, is complex, but 
necessarily so. Imagine that you have a very intense solar spectrum 
before you, and that it is still early morning, with the sun perhaps 
an hour and a half high. If you had a thin, delicate, blackened 
thermometer you could carry it along in the spectrum from the ex- 
treme ultra-violet to far beyond the red end of the visible spectrum, 
and detect varying degrees of temperature rise proportional to the © 


SOLAR CONSTANT OF RADIATION—ABBOT. 321 


heat produced by each spectral ray. At each of the Fraunhofer 
lines the thermometer would fall slightly. The great A band of 
oxygen would produce a large decrease of temperature, but beyond 
the red you would think several times you had reached the end of 
the spectrum if you did not know better, and that you were exam- 
ining great water-vapor bands. Suppose now that several hours 
later you repeated the experiment. You would find that, excepting 
in these great water-vapor bands, practically every part of the 
spectrum was hotter than before, and that the change had been 
greatest in the violet end. At any selected wave length you could 
then apply the method of Pouillet, and find what your instrument 
would have indicated if you could have read its rise of temperature 
due to the heat of the solar spectral ray outside of the air altogether. 

It would be natural to plot upon a convenient scale the spectral 
distribution at the earth’s surface, and outside the atmosphere, using 
intensities of the spectrum as ordinates, and wave lengths, or pris- 
matic deviations, as abscissae. The total area included between such 
a curve and the axis of abscissae (or zero intensity) is proportional 
to the total radiation of all colors combined. Hence the ratio be- 
tween the computed area outside the atmosphere and that measured 
at the earth’s surface is the ratio which would be found between the 
readings of the pyrheliometer if one could read it outside the atmos- 
phere and again at the given hour at the earth’s surface. So we 
should determine the “solar constant” by multiplying the pyrhelio- 
meter reading at the earth’s surface for the given hour by the ratio 
just mentioned, and then reducing the result to mean solar distance. 
One thing, however, is to be considered. The energy in the great 
atmospheric absorption bands of the infra-red spectrum does not 
increase fast enough, as the path of the beam diminishes, to fully 
obliterate the bands in the energy curve computed for outside the 
atmosphere. But we know that there is no absorption in these bands 
due to the sun itself. They are solely atmospheric. Hence in draw- 
ing our extra-atmospheric computed curve we draw it. smoothly so 
as to eliminate all atmospheric bands. The remaining solar Fraun- 
hofer lines may be blurred over by using a wide slit of the spectro- 
scope, or, better still, a smooth energy curve representing average 
intensities may be drawn to allow for them, both within and without 
the atmosphere. As for the ultra-violet and infra-red regions be- 
yond what is convenient to observe, corrections of a few per cent 
are added for them. 

Such, in brief, is the method of Langley for determining the solar 
constant of radiation. Unfortunately in this pioneering work he 
came to distrust the application of the exponential formula of 
Bouguer to the atmosphere, even when applied as he did it to homo- 


97578°—sm 1910——21 


322 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


geneous, that is to say, monochromatic rays. He was thus led to 
fix the solar constant at 3 calories per square centimeter per minute, 
which now appears to be fully three halves the true value. I quote 
his own words in description of the method by which this value was 
derived: — 

We now proceed to determine from our bolometer observations a value which 
we may believe * * * to be a minimum of the “solar constant,’ and one 
within the probable truth. All the evidence we possess shows * * * that 
the atmosphere grows more transmissible as we ascend, or that for equal 
weights of air the transmissibility increases (and probably continuously) as we 
go up higher. In finding our minimum yalue we proceed as follows, still deal- 
ing with rays which are as approximately homogeneous as we can experiment- 
ally obtain them. Let us take one of these rays as an example, and let it be the 
one whose wave length is 0.64, and which caused a deflection at Lone Pine of 
201. The coefficient of transmission of this ray, as determined by high and 
low sun at Lone Pine and referred to the vertical air mass between Lone 
Pine and Mountain Camp, is 0.976. From the observations at Lone Pine, then, 
the heat of this ray upon the mountain should have been 


1000 
201 X 076 = 206.0, 


but the heat in this ray actually observed on the mountain was 249.7. There- 
fore, multiplying the value for the energy of this ray outside the atmosphere 
calculated from Mountain Camp high and low sun observations (275) by the 


ratio Bead we have 333.3, where 333.3 represents the energy in this ray out- 


side the atmosphere as determined by this second process. 

By this process Langley obtained the solar-constant value 2.630 
calories, which he considered a minimum. By another process he 
obtained the value 3.505, which he considered a maximum. The 
mean of the two he chose as the solar constant, or, in round numbers, 
3 calories. 

Langley’s argument is, of course, that if we find our formula giv- 
ing too small values at a station within the atmosphere to which we 
can ascend, probably it would give values even smaller in proportion 
to the true one outside the atmosphere altogether where we can not 
go to test it. But in fact the transmission coefficient found at Lone 
Pine was not applicable to compute what ought to have been ob- 
served at Mountain Camp. It was applicable to the average trans- 
missibility of all the layers of the air from Lone Pine to the limit 
of the atmosphere. It was therefore far too high to suit the trans- 
mission of the dusty, opaque layers next the earth’s surface. Hence, 
by its use Langley computed a smaller value for Mountain Camp 
than he observed, but this had really no bearing on the problem. It 
would seem that the true result to be selected as representing Lang- 
ley’s experiments is the mean of 2.06 found by the unmodified 
method of homogeneous rays at Lone Pine and 2.22 found in the 
same way at Mountain Camp. That mean is 2.14 calories. 


SOLAR CONSTANT OF RADIATION—ABBOT. 823 


After Langley, everybody admitted that “solar constant ” work 
required observation of homogenous rays, but nobody practiced it 
until 1902, when such observations were begun in Washington at the 
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In the meantime im- 
portant advances had come. The brilliant work in Germany from 
1890 to 1900 had fixed the laws and constants of radiation for the 
perfect radiator or “absolutely black body” of Kirchhoff. Hence 
we knew approximately that the sun was of the order of 6,000° in 
absolute temperature (centigrade), and that as its spectrum energy 
curve determined by Langley was generally similar to that of a “ black 
body,” there could be no very appreciable fraction of its radiation 
beyond 3y in the infra-red, or beyond 0.3» in the ultra-violet. The 
positions of the infra-red atmospheric absorption bands had been de- 
termined, and they had. been assigned to water vapor and carbon 
dioxide. The bands of the latter compound had been found to lie 
beyond the spectral region just named, and hence to be of little ac- 
count to diminish solar radiation, so that Angstrém, in 1901, with- 
drew his solar-constant value 4 calories, which he had based on a 
supposed enormous carbon-dioxide absorption. 

Great improvement had been made in the bolometer. For “ solar 
constant ” work this instrument comprises essentially two little threads 
or tapes of platinum, each about 1 centimeter long, 0.01 centimeter wide, 
and 0.001 centimeter thick. They are blackened to absorb rays, but 
one is hidden from the spectrum while the other is exposed to it, so 
that the latter is warmed by the rays with respect to the former. 
‘Two equal resistance coils are joined to the two bolometer tapes, so 
that the whole forms a “ Wheatstone’s bridge.” The rise of temper- 
ature of one of the tapes increases its electrical resistance, and causes 
a very minute electrical current to flow and deflect a highly sensitive 
galvanometer. In ordinary bolometric practice a rise of temper- 
ature zodoov° centigrade is readily observed. 

You will not wonder that when this instrument was a new one it 
was almost unmanageable. Langley has told me often that in the hot 
tent at Lone Pine the galvanometer light spot used to rush off the 
scale, 1 meter long, in a single minute. Hence it took several men to 
make an observation. One sat, sweltering (this was the immortal 
Keeler), reading the scale as fast as he could, while another recorded 
his numbers and also set the spectroscope. One let the sun on and off 
the spectroscope and kept the irregularly running siderostat reflecting 
the beam approximately right. A fourth observed with the Violle 
pyrheliometer. It took thousands and thousands of observations to 
determine a “solar constant” under such circumstances. The de- 
flections could be worked out only by plotting the almost innumer- 
able galvanometer readings which the observer had made without 


324 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


knowing if the sun was on or off. It is wonderful that out of such a 
maze the truth was approximately found at last. 

When the Astrophysical Observatory was founded at Washington 
the bolometer had been so far subdued that Langley introduced the 
beautiful device of photographically recording the galvanometer 
light spot on a moving plate, while the same clock which moved the 
plate also moved the spectrum over the bolometer tape. Thus an 
automatic solar spectrum energy curve could be taken without mak- 
ing a single galvanometer reading. But “drift,” though no longer 
ameter a minute, was stillan obstacle. Several devices have since been 
applied by means of which “ drift” is practically eliminated, so that 
the galvanometer light spot stays day after day practically unmoved, 
except as the sun is allowed to shine through the spectroscope. We 
now usually take an energy curve of the solar spectrum, running 
from the band of silver transmission near wave length 0.334 in the 
ultra-violet, to wave length 2.5» in the infra-red in eight minutes. 
Such a curve shows more than even Keeler could have found with the 
old apparatus in a lifetime. One observer may now easily carry on 
“solar constant ” work without help. 

In his “ Report of the Mount Whitney Expedition,” Langley states 
that the measurement of the “solar constant” encounters two difli- 
culties, one of which he describes as “formidable,” the other as 
“perhaps insurmountable.” The first is the difficulty of completely 
absorbing and accurately measuring the intensity of the solar rays 
as they reach the earth’s surface. The second is the difficulty of 
correctly estimating the loss they suffer in traversing the atmosphere. 
We shall recur to the latter. After eight years of effort to overcome 
the former I agree that it was “ formidable.” 

In 1894 Prof. V. A. Michelson, of Russia, published an account 
of his pyrheliometer. In this instrument he employed a tube-like 
chamber, blackened within to absorb the rays, and surrounded by 
melting ice and water. The amount of solar heating he determined 
by noting the increase of volume of the ice as it melted, reading for 
this purpose a graduated capillary tube attached to the outer chamber 
wall. Michelson’s pyrheliometer, which has been, I think, little used, 
may have given correct results, but excepting for it I believe there 
has been no accurate standard pyrheliometry until this year, 1910. 
Unfortunately the importance of Michelson’s device was overlooked 
because his description was published in the Russian language. 

The electrical compensation pyrheliometer of Angstrém was de- 
scribed in 1898, and has attained wide acceptance. It was adopted 
by the Solar Union as a standard at the Oxford Conference, but the 
experience of Kimball and of Callendar is unfavorable to it, for 
there is a deterioration after some years in practically every in- 


SOLAR CONSTANT OF RADIATION—ABBOT. 325 


strument. Besides this, there is reason to believe that the instrument 
reads too low, even at the first. 

In most pyrheliometers, as in that of Pouillet, there is a blackened 
exterior surface for the reception of the solar radiation, behind 
which lies a device for measuring temperature. There are two pos- 
sible paths for the heat produced, one by conduction back to the tem- 
perature device, one by convection and radiation forward into the 
air. This second part of the heat is lost, and is undetermined, though 
not large in amount. Besides this loss is a second by direct reflec- 
tion of rays from the surface. This second loss is usually allowed 
for, but its determination is not easy. Both these sources of error are 
avoided in the hollow chamber instrument of Michelson. 

When in 1902 we began at Washington the study of the “ solar con- 
stant” we fortunately, though quite innocently, did not employ 
- Angstrém’s pyrheliometer. We had received from the late M. Crova 
two of his alcohol actinometers, and of these he said in a letter, with 
delightful naiveté, that they were good secondary instruments and 
only required to be calibrated by comparison with any satisfactory 
standard. At that time there was no standard. So we cast about for 
one, and, following Tyndall, who had followed Pouillet, I had our in- 
strument maker, Mr. Kramer, prepare a shallow, circular copper box 
with a thermometer inserted at the side, and with mercury filling 
the box to the blackened cover. The whole was surrounded by a 
wooden chamber to keep off the wind. By calorimetric measure- 
ments we attempted to get the water equivalent of this mercury 
pyrheliometer, and our subsequent measurements were all given, 
for years, in terms of the scale it furnished. We soon found our 
mercury pyrheliometer more convenient than the Crova actinometer, 
and abandoned the use of the latter. Afterwards we recognized 
that, on account of the great variation of the specific heat of alcohol 
with change of temperature, we should have been all at sea if we 
had continued to use Crova’s instrument. Later we dispensed al- 
most wholly with the mercury and used a solid, circular, thin 
copper block, with a radial hole for inserting the cylindrical bulb 
thermometer, using only enough mercury to make good heat conduc- 
tion to the thermometer. Finally we have bent the stem of the ther- 
mometer at right angles, employed a steel-lined silver block, have 
equipped the instrument with various effective little auxiliary devices, 
and by the aid of a grant from the Hodgkins fund by the Secretary 
of the Smithsonian_ Institution, have sent several of our silver-disk 
pyrheliometers to Europe, to promote international agreement in 
pyrheliometry. 

But although our scale of pyrheliometry was fortified by com- 
parison of numerous copper and silver disk instruments among them- 


326 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


selves, and though we found by these intercomparisons that the scale 
remained unchanged from year to year, we yet felt sure that it was 
not the standard scale of calories. In 1903, not knowing of Michel- 
son’s idea of a decade earlier, I conceived the idea of employing the 
hollow chamber, or “absolutely black-body” principle. Instead of 
combining ‘with it the Bunsen ice-calorimeter method I proposed to 
make the walls of the chamber hollow and to circulate a measured 
current of water through them, which should carry off the heat as 
fast as formed. The rise of temperature of this water I proposed to 
measure by a platinum-resistance thermometer immersed half in the 
incoming, half in the outflowing water. To test the accuracy of the 
results I proposed to insert a coil of resistance wire within the cham- 
ber and to measure a known quantity of electrical heating which 
could be introduced thereby in terms of the rise of temperature it 
produced in the water. This program, after seven years, and the 
successive building of three, all supposedly final, water-flow pyr- 
heliometers is now satisfactorily completed. I can not praise too 
highly Mr. Kramer’s admirable skill in the construction of these 
instruments. A careful comparison, completed by Mr. Aldrich this 
spring in Washington, of standard pyrheliometers No. 2 and No. 3 
with secondary pyrheliometer No. 8, and through this with secondary 
No. 4, used since 1906, on Mount Wilson, has resulted as follows: 


Constant of secondary pyrheliometer No. 4. 


leash bw ko Rh Ch eee ee ee ee 0. 8553 
MES yes CeMI CLE T C1 SIN hs ah es ee rent ere ee 0. 8550 


In these comparisons electrical heating was frequently introduced 
as a check, and the heat found seldom deviated more than 1 per cent 
from 100 per cent of that introduced. On the average about 99.5 
per cent was found. 

I consider that now the obstacle to solar-constant work called 
“ formidable” by Langley is overcome, and that we may know the 
amount of solar heat received at the earth’s surface within a quarter 
of 1 per cent. 

It is not probable that I should have been here this evening if it 
had not happened that our “solar constant” values of 1903 indicated 
a fall of solar radiation of about 10 per cent at a time just before 
there occurred a general fall of several degrees centigrade from the 
normal temperature of the United States and Europe. This led to 
the suspicion that the “solar constant” was a misnomer, and that 
the sun’s emission is really variable. After further studies in Wash- 
ington, hindered by long periods of cloudiness, I was sent by Mr. 
Langley in 1905, at Prof. Hale’s invitation, to occupy for the summer 
a temporary station here on Mount Wilson. As ] was about to start 
Mr. Langley directed me to remember that I was going not to fix the 


SOLAR CONSTANT OF RADIATION—ABBOT. 327 


average value of the “solar constant,” but to observe its possible 
variability. “In fact,” said he, with a twinkle in his eye, “ I may tell 
you that I consider that value of the solar constant as best which 
nearest approaches 3 calories.” You will perhaps infer from this 
that I had expressed to him the views regarding his Mount Whitney 
result which I have given here this evening. He replied that the 
Mount Whitney work was done in the prime of his life, and now 
that he was old and had laid the subject aside for so long he did not 
feel that he could reason upon it as acutely as he could have done 
at that time, and therefore he would let his former value stand. 

In 1905, 1906, 1908, 1909, and now in 1910 I shall have occupied for 
six months each year the Mount Wilson Smithsonian station, which 
has now become the permanent cement structure which many of you 
have visited. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the aid, inspiration, 
and friendly companionship which I have had from Mr. Hale and 
his staff. In this interval, partly with the aid of Messrs. Ingersoll 
and Aldrich in different seasons, but much of the time alone (so much 
are instrumental conditions superior now to those of Langley’s early 
work), I have made series of spectro-bolometric and pyrheliometric 
observations for the determination of the “solar constant” on about 
400 different days. During 1905 and 1906 Mr. Fowle was carrying 
or nearly simultaneous, similar observations in Washington when- 
ever conditions permitted. Although the direct readings at the two 
stations differed by about 20 per cent on account of the relative con- 
ditions at sea level and 1,800 meters elevation, yet our “solar con- 
stant ” results agreed within the experimental error at Washington; 
that is, within 3 per cent on the average. 

In 1908 I went to the summit of Mount Whitney with Prof. Camp- 
bell, and we united to recommend the erection there of a permanent 
shelter by the Smithsonian Institution. This was approved by Secre- 
tary Walcott, and a three-room stone and steel house was built in 
August, 1909, by aid of a Hodgkins grant, and is now available to 
all students of science who shall receive permission of the secretary 
to use it. In 1909 I returned to Mount Whitney with a spectro- 
bolometric outfit, and made a complete determination of the “solar 
constant ” on September 3, simultaneously with a complete determina- 
tion by Mr. Ingersoll here on Mount Wilson. My result differed from 
his by less than 1 per cent, although my direct readings were, of 
course, fully 15 per cent higher than his, on account of the higher 
elevation of Mount Whitney, 4,420 meters. 

I have just returned from a third trip to Mount Whitney, on which 
I had, fortunately, excellent weather during all the time when I 
desired it. During my stay I made complete “ solar constant ” obser- 
vations on four days simultaneous with those of Mr. Fowle here on 
Mount Wilson; I observed with Prof. Kapteyn’s photometer on two 


828 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


nights; made bolometric measurements of the water-vapor bands in 
the infra-red spectrum on one day; and measured with the bolometer 
on two days the relative brightness of the sun and many different 
parts of the sky. My expedition lacked the picturesqueness and éclat 
which distinguished Langley’s, with its private car, its guard of 
cavalry, and a budding astronomer of the first rank, the renowned 
Keeler, as assistant. However, I rode from Mojave to Lone Pine 
(about 150 miles) in an automobile trying all the while desperately 
to keep my pyrheliometer from being broken, and was consequently 
jounced myself, once to the roof of the automobile, and barely escaped 
a broken nose. My treasured pyrheliometer afterwards rolled down 
the Mount Whitney trail twice with the pack mule, and the second 
time the mule was killed, but the instrument reached the top in 
safety. My measurements of 1910 are, of course, not yet reduced. 

Considering that practically identical results have been obtained by 
simultaneous “solar constant” measurements at sea level (Washing- 
ton) and 1,800 meters (Mount Wilson), and again at 1,800 meters and 
4,420 meters (Mount Whitney), observing by the spectro-bolometric 
method of homogeneous rays in each case, I think we must admit that 
Langley’s second difficulty was a bugbear and not an insuperable 
obstacle. I therefore venture to announce that I believe the true 
average value of the “solar constant” of radiation is for the years 
1905 to 1909, 1.92 calories per square centimeter per minute. We 
know that the earth’s temperature is higher at sun-spot minimum 
that at maximum. Hence I suppose that the values so far observed 
are a' little below the mean for a term of years, and I propose as the 
most probable mean value of the “solar constant” 1.95 calories per 
square centimeter per minute. 

Our results at Mount Wilson have strongly confirmed the impres- 
sion gained in 1903 that the “solar constant ” is really a variable of 
short and irregular periodicity. We have tested this conclusion by 
all means in our power. But the one obvious and necessary test, that 
of establishing a second far-distant cloudless station and carrying on 
there with equal facilities and experience a series of “solar constant ” 
measurements simultaneous with those on Mount Wilson, we have 
not been able to make for lack of funds. 


ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEMS OF THE SOUTHERN 
HEMISPHERE.* 


By Heser D. Curtis. 


It is a natural result of the more recent development of the civili- 
zations of the Southern Hemisphere that advances in the science of 
astronomy should likewise be less extensive than those made by the 
parent civilizations of the Northern Hemisphere. From the nature 
of the case, the Southern Hemisphere possesses relatively few astro- 
nomical records which can compare, in point of time, with those 
cbtained for the northern skies during the last two centuries; and 
in the past, but to a less extent to-day, no small part of the progress 
made in mapping and studying the southern skies has been made 
by expeditions from the older foundations of Europe and America. 

Probably the first observatory south of the equator which can 
be described as of a permanent character was that founded by Sir 
Thomas Brisbane in Paramatta, New South Wales, as a private 
observatory, in 1821; its period of activity extended over about 10 
years, and it was later incorporated with the Observatory of Sydney. 
An observatory was founded in Buenos Aires in 1822, but its period 
of activity was very short. Although the Observatory of the Cape 
of Good Hope was founded in 1820, its activity did not commence 
till 1829, the date of its completion; the extremely valuable and 
extensive work carried on here during the 80 years past give to it 
the unchallenged rank as the oldest permanent astronomical founda- 
tion in the Southern Hemisphere. Ata later date we find the foun- 
dation of the Observatory of Santiago in 1856; Melbourne, founded 
in Williamstown, Victoria, in 1853, and transferred to Melbourne 
in 1861; Adelaide, established in 1854; Cérdoba, 1870; Arequipa 
in 1891, and others of more recent date. Among the early expedi- 
tions of a temporary character may be noted the visit of Halley to 
St. Helena in 1677; later we come to the appearance of the first 
large systematic catalogue of the southern stars by Lacaille as a 

1 Reprinted by permission, with author’s revision from publications of the Astronom- 


eal Society of the Pacific, vol. 21, No. 129, San Francisco, Cal., Dec. 10, 1909. 
329 


330 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


result of his stay of four years at the Cape of Good Hope in the 
years 1751-1755; the noteworthy investigations made at the same 
spot by Sir John Herschel, from 1834 to 1838; the expedition sent 
to Santiago under charge of Gilliss in 1849; and others of more recent 
date to which attention will be called later. 

The observatories in the southern part of the north temperate 
zone can extend their investigations in many lines of astronomical 
research to a distance of 30° to the south of the celestial equator 
without great difficulty or loss of accuracy, but from this limit to the 
South Pole we have a region amounting to about one-fourth of the 
entire sky which, relatively to the northern skies, was almost as much 
a terra incognita 75 years ago as was Central Africa at the same date, 
and which to-day contains many virgin fields which offer rich returns 
to the exploring astronomer. 

In the first great subdivision of astronomy, the astronomy of posi- 
tion, whose field is primarily the determination of the accurate posi- 
tions of the fixed stars, the observed changes in these positions are 
so minute that the element of time becomes the most important factor 
to enable conclusions to be drawn from a given mass of observations 
as to the proper motions of the stars and the structure of the sidereal 
universe as a whole. Because of this relatively short time factor 
since the earlier exact observations of the positions of the southern 
stars, the astronomy of precision of the Southern Hemisphere can not 
yet compete with the results from the northern heavens. Sir David 
Gill has said, and there is doubtless no more competent authority to 
pronounce upon this point than he, that the state of our knowledge 
of the exact positions of the stars of the Southern Hemisphere is at 
least a century behind that of the Northern Hemisphere. Neverthe- 
less, if we consider the results already secured in the exact cartogra- 
phy of the southern skies, and take into consideration also the re- 
searches in this field at present well under way, we may safely reach 
the conclusion that the coming 20 years will render our knowledge 
of southern star positions very little inferior to those of the northern 
skies, always excepting, in this conclusion, the disadvantage arising 
from the lack of early observations, a lack which will necessitate the 
accumulation of results for many years before our knowledge of 
southern proper motions can equal that of the northern stars. 

In this task of bettering our knowledge of exact star positions in 
the Southern Hemisphere it is doubtless superfluous to mention here 
the excellent work that has been done in the past and is now in 
progress at a number of southern observatories, especially the exten- 
sive results from Cordoba and the Cape of Good Hope. In 1865 the 
Astronomische Gesellschaft. undertook the extensive task of mapping, 
by means of exact meridian observations, all the stars in the sky 
down to the ninth magnitude. This work for the Northern Hemi- 


ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEMS—CURTIS. 831 


sphere and for some distance south of the celestial equator is now 
practically completed, and the work is advancing favorably for the 
more southerly portions of the sky at the observatories of Madras, 
Melbourne, and the Cape. 

One of the most important programs in connection with the 
astronomy of precision of the Southern Hemisphere is that inaugu- 
rated in 1908 under the auspieces of the Carnegie Institution of 
Washington. It has for its object the measurement of the accurate 
positions of about 25,000 stars in the southern skies in accordance 
with the system of Prof. Boss, of Dudley Observatory. The instru- 
ment employed is the meridian circle of the Dudley Observatory, 
which has been used in the past for exactly similar work in the 
northern skies. The constants, graduation errors, etc., of this instru- 
ment have been so thoroughly investigated that doubtless no more 
efficient instrument exists to-day for this class of work. By the use 
of the same instrument, the same system of reductions, and to a cer- 
tain extent even the same observers, it seems probable that the re- 
sults of this program will afford us a far more exact binding together 
of the northern and southern skies in one homogeneous system than 
we possess to-day. The site was selected at San Luis, in the Argen- 
tine Republic. Prof. Tucker, of the Lick Observatory, was in charge 
of the Carnegie Observatory at San Luis and advices state that the 
site seems to be a very favorable one for this class of work. The 
program has been completed as planned and the observers are now 
(April, 1911) returning to the United States, where the results will 
be put in final shape for publication. The project involved about 
3 years’ work, and about seven observers and assistants were employed. 

In the years 1885-1891, under the direction of Sir David Gill, the 
Observatory of the Cape of Good Hope undertook an extensive 
photographic map of the southern skies from declination —19° to 
the South Pole. The measurement of the positions of the stars on 
these plates was carried through by the disinterested and self-sacri- 
ficing labors of Prof. Kapteyn, and the publication in 1900 of the 
third and concluding volume of the great “Cape Photographic 
Durchmusterung” marked the completion of this monumental task. 
It contains the positions of 454,875 stars, nearly to the tenth magni- 
tude, and the positions are accurate to about 1 second of arc. It is 
an epoch-making work in the cartography of the southern heavens; 
in fact, until the completion of the “Astrographic Catalogue” no 
such complete and systematic photographic catalogue exists for the 
Northern Hemisphere. Naturally it can not compete, however, with 
the accuracy of the “Astrographic Charts”; those from Helsingfors, 
for example, having the small probable error of 0.11’’ for the mean 
of two measured star images. 


332 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Without doubt, however, the greatest problem in the cartography 
of the southern skies which awaits the observatories of the Southern 
~Hemisphere is the completion of their respective shares in the great 
photographic map of the heavens mentioned above, which was in- 
augurated at the International Conference in Paris in 1887. As is 
well known, this plan, in its entirety, involved the construction of a 
photographic map of the entire sky down to the fourteenth stellar 
magnitude, for which about 22,000 plates were to be taken, and the 
total number of the stars registered on the plates would probably 
reach 20,000,000. Supplementary to these charts the plans con- 
templated the publication of a great catalogue of perhaps 2,000,000 
stars down to the eleventh magnitude, based on plates or shorter ex- 
posure time. The task was apportioned among 18 observatories in 
the two hemispheres. The observatories south of the Equator which 
possess photographic equatorials of the uniform type adopted for 
the work are those at La Plata, Cordoba, the Cape, Santiago, Perth, 
Melbourne, and Sydney. It was proposed that the entire work be 
repeated in 100 years. But so vast is the scope of this program that 
even in the Northern Hemisphere this project, whose value for the 
astronomy of position of the future can scarcely be overestimated, 
has by no means made the progress anticipated for it at the time of 
its inception. Owing to the cost, only a few of the cooperating ob- 
servatories have agreed to publish the great maps, and among south- 
ern observatories Perth has decided to take only the plates to the 
eleventh magnitude and to publish the resulting catalogue. Perth has 
taken all the plates in its zone, and has commenced the measures for 
the Catalogue. The section apportioned to the Cape of Good Hope 
is now nearly completed, both as to the taking of the plates and their 
measurement, and rapid progress is being made at Sydney, Mel- 
bourne, and Cérdoba. Up in 1908 nothing had been done at La 
Plata or Santiago, though Dr. Ristenpart, recently appointed director 
of the National Observatory at Santiago, will make every effort for 
the prompt completion of the zone assigned to him; the work of 
taking the plates has already been begun under the direction of Dr. 
Zurhellen. It would seem that the publication of the costly maps 
might well be abandoned, for the plan adopted at Oxford of publish- 
ing only the coordinates of the stars would be far cheaper and fully 
as useful. 

Excellent work has been done in determination of stellar parallax 
at the Cape of Good Hope, but the difficult field of work which has 
for its aim the determination of the distances of the stars by the 
heliometer or modern photographic methods is still practically un- 
touched in the Southern Hemisphere. Parallaxes of only 17 stars 
south of declination —30° have been published, while north of this 


ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEMS—CURTIS. 3338 


limit about 300 parallaxes have been determined, many of them a 
number of times, by different observers and different methods. 

In the interesting field of double stars, as is well known, Herschel 
discovered many systems in the southern skies, and modern ebservers, 
as Innes, Taylor, and others, have materially augumented this num- 
ber. During the past decade Profs, Aitken and Hussey have been 
making a very complete and systematic search for such doubles in 
the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, with the result that several thou- 
sand new doubles have been discovered, many of them of great in- 
terest. They have reached the conclusion that at least 1 in every 
18 stars brighter than the ninth magnitude is a visual binary system. 
To these results we must add the evidence of the spectroscope that 
1 in every 5 or 6 of the stars thus far examined is a spectro- 
scopic double, and we have facts whose importance it is scarcely 
possible to overestimate in their bearing on our theories of stellar 
evolution. Such systematic researches for the discovery of visual 
doubles are most urgently needed in the southern skies to round out 
the program which these astronomers have now nearly completed 
for the northern portions of the heavens. In this regard there is no 
doubt that the southern sky offers one of the richest and most promis- 
ing fields of research existing to-day. Burnham’s great “ Catalogue 
of Double Stars,” recently published by the Carnegie Institution, 
includes 13,665 pairs of stars and extends to south declination 31°. 
This eminent authoritiy estimates that a century must pass before 
sufficient data can be collected to make a similar catalogue necessary 
for the Southern Hemisphere. Innes’s “ Reference Catalogue of 
- Southern Double Stars”? contains 2,191 pairs between the Equator 
and the South Pole, but of this number about 925 are between the 
Equator and Burnham’s southern limit, nearly all of which have 
been discovered by observers in the Northern Hemisphere. A com- 
parison of the number remaining, south of —31°, with the results 
trom the northern skies will show clearly that there may well be 
2,000 double stars brighter than the ninth magnitude at present 
awaiting discovery in the Southern Hemisphere, to say nothing of 
the need for additional researches on the pairs already known. 

During the past 10 years systematic observations have been made 
at six special stations in the Northern Hemisphere to study the small 
oscillations of the axis of the earth known as the variation of latitude. 
These stations are located at Mizusawa, Japan; Tschardjui, Asiatic 
Russia; Carloforte, Italy, and at Gaithersburg, Md.; Cincinnati, 
Ohio, and Ukiah, Cal.; and are all situated almost exactly on the 
parallel of north latitude 39° 8’. In 1905 the association which 
has this research in hand, Das Centralbureau der Internationalen 
Erdmessung, decided to extend this series of observations to the 


1 Cape Annals, vol. 2, pt. 2, 1899, 


334 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Southern Hemisphere, and the plans at first contemplated three 
stations: in Sydney, Australia; Capetown, Africa; and Santiago, 
Chile. It was pointed out, however, by Dr. Helmert that better re- 
sults could be secured, as far as the evaluation of the so-called Ki- 
mura-term in the latitude equation was concerned, by two stations 
placed as exactly as possible on opposite sides of the earth. Ac- 
cordingly, after correspondence with authorities in Australia and 
the Argentine Republic, two cites were chosen in 1905 which satisfy 
this condition, and are, in addition, admirably situated as regards 
climatic advantages. Both are in south latitude 31° 55’ 15’’, and 
differ 179° 36’ in their longitudes. The Australian installation is in 
charge of Dr. Hessen, formerly of Berlin, and is located at Bays- 
water, West Australia, about 4 miles from Perth, the capital. The 
Argentine station is under the direction of Dr. Luigi Carnera, form- 
erly occupied in similar observations at Carloforte, and is located at 
Oncativo, about 45 miles from Cérdoba. 

Both of these stations commenced observations in 1906, and the 
work has been prosecuted with great energy since that date.t. The 
results thus far secured are enabling us to draw more accurate con- 
clusions with regard to these supplementary, exceedingly minute 
movements of the earth’s axis. 

The formula for the variation of latitude is ordinarily expressed 
by the equation 

od—o’=x cosrX + y sin A 4 &, 
where « and y are the components of the variation in the planes of 
zero longitude and that perpendicular to this, while the term z, called 
the Kimura-term from the Japanese astronomer who suggested its 
introduction denotes that part of the variation which is common to 
all the stations, corresponding to an apparent movement of the center 
of gravity of the earth toward one or the other pole. The results 
from the northern stations have revealed the interesting fact that the 
value of 2 is periodic, with a period’of one year, reaching its zero 
values about March 9 and September 12, and its maximum and 
minimum values on June 10 and December 10, these points coming, 
then, about 10 days before the solstitial points. The preliminary 
results from the southern stations coincide almost exactly with those 
from the northern stations with respect to the magnitudes of # and y, 
and show, in addition, that the value of the z-term is of the same 
magnitude and algebraic sign as that derived from the northern re- 
sults. This g-term is very small, oscillating only 0.’’046 on each side 
of the mean, which, if real, would correspond to a movement of the 
center of gravity of the earth of about 44 feet toward the North or 
the South Pole. The temptation is very strong to seek a meteoro- 


1The observations at Bayswater were discontinued in January, 1909; the station at 
Oncativo has been taken over by the Government of the Argentine Republic. 


ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEMS—CURTIS. 3835 


logical explanation for this small shift of the plane of the Equator. 
The accumulation of snow and ice at one pole, together with the cor- 
responding diminution at the other pole, due to the melting in the 
summer season, would be perhaps sufficient to explain the shift, but 
if this were the true and only explanation, it is difficult to see why 
the maxima and minima do not follow the solstitial points by a con- 
siderable interval of “lag,” instead of preceding them by about 10 
days.t. Moreover, the quantities involved are so extremely minute, 
such transcendental care is necessary in arranging and making the 
observations, and such pains to exclude in the investigation all pos- 
sible sources of systematic error, that astronomers are by no means 
in accord as to the real existence of the z-term, Biske has shown that 
a variation similar to that afforded by the z-term could arise as a 
result of inaccuracies in the adopted value of the solar nutation, and 
that future progressive changes in this value could result from 
similar slight errors in the adopted value of the lunar nutation. 
Quite recently Prof. Hiroyama, of Tokio, has subjected the results 
of the first four years of the latitude variation results to a careful 
analysis, and reached the conclusion that the z-term is probably a 
result of errors which may be classified as instrumental. He did 
not include in his researches, however, the results from the southern 
stations. 

Probably no more marked case of modern specialization in the 
science of astronomy, no more fitting example of minute and careful 
analysis, nor any better illustration of the mutual interdependence 
of fields of investigation apparently widely separated, can be found 
than this same subject of the variation of latitude. Long since, 
Kuler, from purely mathematical considerations with regard to a 
rotating spheroid, showed that the axis of the earth should be sub- 
ject to a minute oscillation, with a period of 305 days. In 1890-91 
Prof. Kiistner announced that this prediction had been confirmed by 
observation, but that the period was about 427 days. So minute is 
the movement that the poles shift from their mean position by less 
than 30 feet. Eight special observatories have been established, six 
in the Northern Hemisphere and two in the Southern, and experi- 
enced observers are carefully accumulating the observations for the 
further study of this variation, determining from observations of 
the stars a periodic movement of the positions of the poles of the 
earth only a little greater than the distance from one wall of their 
small observatories to the other, and even showing, with some prob- 
ability, that the earth’s center of gravity oscillates once a year a dis- 
tance of only a little over 4 feet toward one pole or the other. From 
these results Darwin, Hough, Larmor, and others have undertaken 


1Later studies seem to indicate that the maxima and minima in the e-term are slowly 
shifting. 


336 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the investigation of the difference between the observed period of 427 
days and that of 305 called for by theory, finding the explanation 
in the slight yielding of the earth, and have deduced the result that 
the earth as a whole must possess an effective rigidity a little greater 
than that of steel. In confirmation of these results, tidal students 
have found evidences, though very slight, of a minute tide with a 
period of 430 days. And in still another field these results may 
possibly prove of interest. No less an authority on earthquakes than 
Prof. Milne has expressed the opinion that earthquakes are more 
frequent at those epochs when the axis of the earth is farthest from 
its mean position, though this theory is not accepted by most seis- 
mologists. 

In the wide field of stellar photometry a very large proportion 
of our knowledge of the southern stars comes from the results of 
the Harvard photometric expeditions and particularly from its sta- 
tion at Arequipa, Peru. Through the visual results secured at Cér- 
doba, the photographic magnitudes as given by the Cape Photo- 
graphic Durchmusterung and the long series of exact visual 
estimations made with the meridian photometer at Arequipa, we may 
say that, except in certain special studies on the fainter stars, the 
state of our knowledge of the relative brilliancy of the stars of the 
Southern Hemisphere is not inferior to that of the Northern 
Hemisphere. 

From this station, too, has come far the largest proportion of 
what is known to-day with reference to the variable stars in the 
more southerly regions of the sky. Epoch making in this branch is 
the discovery by Prof. Bailey of a very large number of variable 
stars in clusters. The Magellanic Clouds and other clusters in the 
Southern Hemisphere have alone given about 2,000 new variable 
stars; the determination of the periods of all these and the study of 
the peculiarities in their variation will in itself furnish work for 
many years to come. Much remains to be done as well on the 
brighter variable stars of the Southern Hemisphere. 

Through the excellent work at Arequipa, also, Harvard’s exten- 
sive spectographic surveys have been extended to the South Pole. 
While it is certain that future studies with spectrographs of higher 
dispersion will bring forth many new facts with regard to stellar 
constitution, there is no doubt that Harvard’s extensive surveys of 
the entire sky in the photometric and spectrographic fields will for 
decades be to the astrophysicist what the Bonn Durchmusterung has 
been to the worker in the astronomy of position. 

As in the surveys just mentioned, the spectrograph was at first 
employed solely to determine the constituent elements of the sun and 
the stars, but the application of the Doppler-Fizeau principle to 
the determination of a star’s velocity in the line of sight from its, 


ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEMS—CURTIS. oat 


spectrum has opened up to astronomy a field so vast that we scarcely 
dare to-day even to demark its boundaries. Few are the fields of 
astronomical research where the work in radial velocities is not 
making itself felt, and to-day we are furnished with the interesting 
spectacle of the oldest astronomy of position and the newer astron- 
omy of the spectrum drawing closer and closer together for the 
solution of problems of sidereal structure. In order to determine 
the motion of our sun through space many analyses have been made 
of the minute proper motions of the stars across our line of vision, 
but all such determinations are subject to some uncertainty because 
of the fact that the true distances of the stars whose proper motions 
are used in the analyses are, in general, very imperfectly known. 
On the other hand, the spectrograph gives us the velocity of a star in 
the line of sight, a velocity which, in stars possessing good spectral 
lines, is accurate within a few tenths of a kilometer per second, and 
which is entirely independent of the distance of the star from our 
system. For this reason it should be possible to determine from 
the radial velocities of a considerable number of stars well dis- 
tributed over the entire sky a much more accurate value of the amount 
and the direction of the movement of the solar system through space. 

For a complete solution of this problem, at which Dr. Campbell 
and his associates have been working during the past 15 years, it was 
necessary that radial velocities be secured for the stars in the South- 
ern Hemisphere. This need was laid before Mr. D. O. Mills, who, in 
1902, generously gave the funds necessary for the installation on 
Mount San Cristébal, Santiago, Chile, of a 37-inch reflecting tele- 
scope with the necessary spectrographic equipment, and in 1905 ad- 
vanced further funds to continue the southern work for five years 
longer. A further extension of the work for two years has been made 
possible through funds supphed by Mr. Ogden Mills, son of the late 
D. O. Mills. 

Up to date about 7,200 spectrograms have been taken at Mount 
Hamilton and 3,700 by the D. O. Mills expedition at Santiago, on 
nearly 1,400 stars. The northern portion of the program is nearly 
completed, and two years more should see the southern portions of 
the work essentially finished, though decades could well be used in 
investigating the “by-products” which have appeared in the course 
of the work, and other decades for the much-needed extension of 
these researches to fainter stars. To give one instance only, at the 
Santiago station alone 48 spectroscopic binaries have been announced 
up to May, 1909, and to work up these binary systems adequately 
and compute their orbits would necessitate at least three years’ work. 
One in every five or six of the northern stars examined has proved to 
be a binary, and nearly one in five of the stars observed by Prof. 


97578°—smM 1910——22 


338 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Wright during the first two years and a half of the work of the D. O. 
Mills expedition. The discovery of so many spectroscopic binaries 
has greatly complicated the problem of determining the solar mo- 
tion; moreover, several other complexities have of late been added to 
the analysis of the results. Recent investigations of the proper mo- 
tions of the stars made by Kapteyn, Eddington, Dyson, Schwarzs- 
child, and others, have shown that our universe is probably complex 
rather than homogeneous in respect to its structure, for there seem 
to be at least two fairly well marked directions of motions among the 
stars as a whole.t’ Moreover, Monck and Kapteyn have pointed out 
that a considerable majority of stars possessing marked proper mo- 
tions belong to those spectral types which show numerous lines of va- 
rious elements, while the hydrogen and helium stars are relatively 
fixed in space. In connection with these facts a further complexity is 
brought in on the spectroscopic side through the unfortunate circum- 
stance that it is not possible to derive accurate velocities for many of 
the hydrogen and helium stars, because of the wide and hazy char- 
acter of their spectral lines. A simple solution will then perhaps be 
insufficient, on the assumption that all the velocities arrange them- 
selves according to the probability curve; it would seem that a satis- 
factory conclusion can only be reached by a very careful combina- 
tion of spectrographic results with due regard to all that the astron- 
omy of position can give us with reference to “star-drift,” proper 
motions, and variation of proper motion with type of spectrum. 

Work on the determination of radial velocities has recently been 
inaugurated at the Observatory of the Cape of Good Hope, so that 
these two observatories, that at the Cape, and the D. O. Mills expedi- 
tion, have to themselves this rich and still only partly explored field, 
while in the Northern Hemisphere some 10 observatories are at work 
on problems more or less allied to the determination of radial 
velocities. 

In figure 1 are shown the locations of the principal observatories 
of the world; the cut is that given by Stroobant in Les Observatoires 
Astronomiques et les Astronomes, Bruxelles, 1907, with the addition 
of a few recently established stations. The map shows, better than 
any description or tabulation, the overwhelming disproportion in the 
number of astronomical foundations in the Northern and Southern 
Hemispheres. 

Sufficient has been said to point out the great richness of the skies 
of the Southern Hemisphere as a field for the working astronomer, 
and note has been made of some of the lines of work in which there 
are great untouched regions awaiting the explorer. Numerous other 


1,000 of the brighter stars, give but little support to the two-drift hypothesis,— 
AUTHOR, May 9, 1911, 


339 


ASTRONOMICAL PROBLEMS—CURTIS. 


‘PIIOM 94} JO Sal10}BAIesqo [Bdjourid oy} jo uoHNgTysIq— T ‘Dlr 


XI “TA TA an A ‘Ateneo 203 [sepmibun J 0 Tymvaesg TT 2p ay Tilsvbos AT a TAS ATA So XE xX ie xs 


ae 
jeans 


340 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


points in which there is need for work in southern skies could easily 
be pointed out. Much work still remains to be done by those who 
are not possessed of powerful instruments in the study of the brighter 
variable stars and meteor radiants. Excellent photographs have been 
made with the Bruce refractor at Arequipa, but the field of southern 
nebular photography with reflecting telescopes is almost untouched 
as yet, and there is no more urgent need for the astronomy of 
the Southern Hemisphere than the establishment of a large re- 
flector to continue for the southern skies the work done by Roberts, 
Keeler, Perrine, and others on the northern nebule and clusters, for 
the study of faint variable stars, for parallax investigations, and 
many other allied lines of research. A program of nebular photog- 
raphy has been inaugurated with the new reflector at Helwan, Egypt; 
its southern limit, however, will extend only to —40°. The day 
must come, also, when there shall be established at some favorable 
point in the Southern Hemisphere a large solar observatory to carry 
on solar studies and investigations of the sun’s constant of heat in 
the southern summer season, thus supplementing the work of the 
northern solar observatories. 

Above all, so few are the workers in this southern field compared 
with the men and the instruments attacking the problems of the 
northern skies, that some scheme of cooperation among southern 
observatories seems imperative, each one to devote its attention to 
some one line of work or some definite zone. Prof. Cooke, of Perth, 
has recently pointed out the disadvantages arising from scattered 
and unsystematic observations in meridian circle work, and has 
announced that for the future all the efforts of Perth Observatory 
in determining stellar positions will be concentrated upon the zone 
from south declination 31° to 41°. Some such plan of cooperation 
and delimitation seems essential for the future progress of as- 
tronomy, and more particularly for the astronomy of the Southern 
Hemisphere; as Prof. Kapteyn has pointed out, the scope of this 
science to-day, with its millions of isolated units demanding study, 
is too vast for the combined efforts of all the observatories of the 
world, and he has accordingly suggested the well-known plan of 
limiting future studies to certain relatively small “selected areas,” 
a plan which promises to be the best method of extending our 
finite knowledge in a realm that is practically infinite. 


THE PROGRESSIVE DISCLOSURE OF THE ENTIRE 
ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN. 


[With 4 plates.] 


By Dr. H. DESLANDRES, Membre de UInstitut. 


The sun, to which this conference is devoted, is a superb subject 
for study. Everyone realizes more or less clearly that the destinies 
of our earth are closely bound with those of the sun, and so we ought 
to know its real nature, its total radiation, its variations—in a word, 
its precise and complete action upon our globe. Face to face with 
the sun, our dependence upon it is absolute, and was recently sum- 
marized tersely by one of our French statesmen, now minister of 
finance, from whom I had asked a special appropriation for solar 
researches at the Observatory of Meudon, where I am director. At . 
first he refused, alleging the continuous increase in the public dis- 
bursements. Then, as I insisted, he said, “ Yes; you are right; the 
sun is master of us all; we must do something.” And so the Ob- 
servatory at Meudon was enabled to add to its ordinary means an 
amount, truly very small, but which came opportunely and aided 
ereatly in the prosecution of researches the results of which I now 
present to you. 

The study of the sun to-day requires a costly installation, compli- 
cated apparatus, and a personnel specially apt in physical as well as 
in astronomical observations. Since the sun lights the entire globe 
and ripens all our crops, it seems but natural that every man should 
direct his energies to the study of the sun. And with this in mind I 
proposed, some years since, to the Astronomical Society of France, 
that there be enacted a special and universal tax, only one cent per 
capita, for the study of the sun. This would have assured a continu- 
ous record of the sun and its changes not yet realized and, accord- 
ingly, a more profound knowledge of this star. But as our taxes are 


1 Discourse delivered in French at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on Friday, 
June 10, 1910. Translated by permission from the author’s separate, printed by Royal 
Institution of Great Britain, London. Published also in Nature, London, Vol. 85, Jan. 26 
and Feb. 2, 1911. 

341 


342 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


constantly increasing, this one, though very small and just, will prob- 
ably be set aside. Still, it must be said, civilized man of to-day, and 
he of the city especially, thinks little about the sun; he notices it less 
than primitive man and the savage who had neither watch nor alma- 
nac. The carrying out of my idea must be reserved for future citi- 
zens and for a social state more perfect than our own. 

This recourse to the Government or to associations of men is a 
French custom. It would be better to proceed as the English do, 
and appeal to private support, to the initiative of enlightened, gen- 
erous individuals. In this way the Royal Institution was founded 
which has seen mature so many beautiful discoveries and so many 
illustrious scientists. This good example should be followed by all. 
We know how liberally it has been followed in America, where the 
greatest observatories and especially those devoted to the study of 
the sun have been due to private munificence. 

Indeed, during the last 50 years, thanks to great discoveries, thanks 
to the support of our Governments and private patrons, the study of 
the sun has made remarkable progress. Little by little, astronomers 
have developed for it a zealous and permanent organization, and 
have extended their study to the entire and hitherto inaccessible 
atmosphere of this star. 

The principal discovery was the periodic variations of the sun 
spots, variations which are also undergone by the brilliant facule 
of the surface and, indeed, by all of its far-extending atmosphere. 
The sun in its entirety undergoes a great periodic variation; and 
what is yet more interesting, this variation extends to the earth and 
affects its magnetic elements. 

This connection of solar phenomena with the earth is of capital 
importance. It implies almost necessarily a novel, special action 
exercised by the sun upon our globe; whence comes the practical pop- 
ularity which solar research now enjoys. Following the discovery 
by Sabine and Lamont of the coincidence between the earth’s mag- 
netic variation and the variation of the sun, the English have given 
very great attention to the study of sun spots; and they were the 
first to establish the photographic registration of the spots and the 
magnetic elements at various places on the earth. The collection of 
all these records in one observatory, where they were accurately 
compared, followed. The works of Ellis and Maunder relative to 
these discoveries are well known. In this connection it is fitting to 
mention the researches of Lockyer and Schuster, who have recently 
noted variations of the spots in periods greater and smaller than 
the principal cycle of 11 years. 

The action produced upon the earth by the sun is generally at- 
tributed to the sun spots, but it may as well have its cause in the 
solar atmosphere, which undergoes the same variation; whence comes 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN—DESLANDRES. 848 


the necessity of studying and examining this with care. For 
nearly 20 years I have studied the entire atmosphere of the sun, and 
to-day I place before you the most recent results which have been 
brought to light relative to the upper layers of the solar envelope 
until recently unexplored. 


1. THE ATMOSPHERE SEEN DURING ECLIPSES NEAR THE EXTERIOR EDGE 
OF THE SUN. 


The atmosphere of the sun is first revealed to man about the edge 
of the disk during total eclipses. It then forms a luminous ring 
that stands out from the now dark background of the sky surround- 
ing the lunar disk, equally black. Stretching out beyond the moon 
and the solar edge, it consists of two distinct portions: One, the 
narrow, brilliant, rose-colored chromosphere, with its prominences, 
also rose colored; the other, the fainter and more extensive corona. 
In what immediately follows we shall consider especially the chromo- 
sphere and the prominences. This luminous ring, visible at eclipses, 
is ordinarily hidden by the much more brilliant illumination of 
our sky. The screen which masks it is luminous; in order to annul 
this screen the English astronomer, Sir Norman Lockyer, in 1866, 
was among the first to have recourse to the spectrum, supposing what 
seemed probable, that the solar atmosphere is gaseous. This was 
one of those strokes of genius that have since become so fruitful. 

The eclipse of 1868 showed, indeed, that the rose-colored promi- 
nences are composed almost wholly of incandescent hydrogen which, 
under the influence of the electric spark, emits radiations already 
well known in the laboratory, and especially an intense red ray, 
designated as Ha. After the eclipse, Janssen in the Indies and 
Lockyer in England rediscovered the chromosphere and prominences 
of the eclipse with the assistance of the spectroscope and this bright 
red line. This result was justly received with enthusiasm, for this 
method, at once simple and fertile, has now been employed for 40 
years in daily observations of the chromosphere and the positions 
and forms of the prominences. This study is even more captivat- 
ing than that of the spots, for the prominences have the most varied 
and rapidly changing forms. They appear at all latitudes and 
follow the same 11-year period as the spots, although it is true the 
duration of the maximum is longer. 

The spectroscopic study of the solar border, carried on at ordi- 
nary times or, still better, at eclipses, has brought us knowledge not 
cnly of the chemical composition of the chromosphere, but also the 
minimum height to which each vapor extends as estimated by the 
length of the corresponding line in the spectrum. 

Speaking generally, vapors of low atomic weight rise to the 
greatest heights; such is the case with hydrogen and helium. With 


344 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


these gases the spectrum line which indicates the greatest height. is 
the red one, Ha, of hydrogen; the other lines of hydrogen show 
lesser heights and diminish in brightness from the red to the violet 
end of the spectrum. But reaching to the greatest heights of all are 
the gasses corresponding to the very brilliant violet lines, H and K, 
which are emitted by the compounds of calcium. As the atomic 
weight and density of calcium vapor are relatively great, this seems 
strange; it is easily explained, however, following the suggestion of 
Lockyer, by the dissociation of calcium in the sun and in the electric 
spark in our laboratory. The H and K lines, in all respects excep- 
tional, are very bright at the solar edge, assuring the easy photo- 
graphing of the prominences with ordinary photographic plates. 
On the other hand, the heavy vapors which are much more numer- 
ous extend up but a short distance into the atmosphere and are not 
easily seen except at eclipses. They form the lower, relatively very 
brilliant layer of the chromosphere, called the reversing layer. 


Yi Kei fit fy 
YUU 

Uy Uy 
MU 
Fic. 1.—Curve of the intensities in the solar spectrum in the neighborhood of the broad 


dark K line. The cross-hatched sections show the positions of the slits of the different 
spectroheliographs. 


2. THE CHROMOSPHERE PROJECTED ON THE DISK—-THE AVERAGE LAYER. 


Such are the principal results obtained by the method of Lockyer 
and Janssen. They are truly wonderful, but in certain respects in- 
complete. They tell us only of that part of the chromosphere ex- 
terior to the edge of the solar disk and even there only about the 
lighter vapors at some distance from the limb. The part within the 
edge, projected upon the disk, and fifty times more extended in area, 
eluded our vision. But, since from 1892 to 1894, even this gap in 
our knowledge has been covered by an absolutely general method 
which reveals all the vapors, both heavy and light, and their suc- 
cessive layers in the entire hemisphere turned toward the earth. 

At the border of the sun the lines due to these vapors stand out 
‘bright upon the continuous spectrum of the sky; on the disk they 
appear dark, and the continuous spectrum which then serves as their 
background is that of the sun itself which is much more brilliant, 
so that the difficulty of seeing these lines is far greater. 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN—DESLANDRES. 345 


That the H and K lines of calcium are an exception to this rule 
was announced simultaneously in February, 1892, by Hale and Des- 
landres. These dark lines are very broad, indeed the broadest in the 
solar spectrum; but wherever on the solar surface there is a facula, 
they are reversed ; in other words, there appears a bright line through 
the center of the broad dark line, and this bright line is itself double 
and stands out therefore as the lines of the prominences do outside 
of the hmb. (See fig. 1, which shows the K line and its components 
Ky, Ky, K,, Kp, Kz.) 

This result was obtained by Hale with the spectroheliograph, a 
new, somewhat complex contrivance that isolates a certain radiation 
with a second slit and by the movement of the first slit over the sun’s 
image furnishes a monochromatic image of the sun. I, myself, have 

ae ¥ Ky 


ciiiamiet thy ie ac 


du Bord 


du Bord 


—— eee we oe oe -——_——_——-— 


Fie. 2.—-(Schematic) ss, section of the sun made by the slit of the spectroscope; the 
chromosphere and the spot are very much enlarged; bright Ks, line, attributed to the 
calcium vapor and which appears in the middle of the broad dark K line of the ordinary 
spectrum ; it is single and narrow above spots and at the upper level of the chromosphere 
and double at other places, being then divided into two parts by the dark central Kz line. 


employed an ordinary simple spectroscope giving successive sections, 
though fully recognizing the use of the spectroheliograph. 

Meanwhile these two observers were at variance upon an impor- 
tant point. Hale placed these vapors thus revealed in the facula 
itself, below the surface, while I placed them, on the contrary, above 
in the atmosphere. The ordinary spectroscope furnishes all the data 
necessary for the solution of this question. Accordingly, in this re- 
spect it is superior to the spectroheliograph. 

The double K, line is bright not only over the facule but at all 
other points over the disk where it is present—weaker, it is true, 
and more difficult to detect. The bright, double K, line is always 
sharp just within the limb, and is prolonged beyond the edge of the 
disk as a double, bright line. (See fig. 2, which shows plainly the 


346 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


appearance of the double K, line at the border of the sun as well 
as over a spot.) 

Since the K, line, exterior to the limb of the sun, corresponds to 
just what we have actually defined as the chromosphere, then we 
must conclude: The photograph of the sun taken with the K, line 
with the spectroheliograph represents the whole solar chromosphere 
projected on the disk. 

Besides these images of calcium made in Paris in 1894, which were 
the first exact images of this vapor, show the bright regions of facule 
larger than on the ordinary photograph of the surface, as well as 
smaller bright regions now called flocculi. These flocculi are pres- 
ent at the pole as well as at the equator. I have confirmed their 
presence at the pole during the years of a sunspot minimum as well 
as during the whole 11-year period. 

The bright K, line remains double beyond the edge for some 4” 
or 5’’ of arc, and as the chromosphere at the edge has a height of 
10’, we may say that our photograph represents the mean chro- 
mosphere. 

Finally, while the first spectroheliographs were obtained in 
America, in France was discovered for the first time the whole chro- 
mosphere of the sun. 


3. LOWER CHROMOSPHERE. 


But we may proceed still further. In 1893, I stated that this 
isolation with the spectroheliograph of an ordinary dark line pro- 
duced an image of the corresponding vapor; and in 1894, I isolated, 
with a small spectroheliograph of low dispersion constructed at 
Paris, the fading edges of the K line called K,, and K,y and the 
neighboring strongest dark lines due to aluminum, to iron and to 
carbon. The spectroheliogram obtained differed from those taken 
with the K, line. The spots, at times hidden in the K, image, have 
here their umbre and penumbre perfectly sharp and the regions of 
facule both at the edge and at the center though less extensive 
than in the K, image. Indeed, this new image is intermediate be- 
tween that of the surface and that of the mean chromospheric layer 
as shown by the K, photograph. It gives a picture of the entire 
reversing layer now obtained for the first time. 

I showed, also, that a still greater dispersion would allow the iso- 
lation of the much more numerous finer lines, and especially the 
narrow black central K, between the two components of K,. The 
K, line corresponds to the upper layer of the chromosphere. This 
method becomes thus absolutely general; it will furnish views of 
all the solar vapors indicating as well the successive superposed 
strata whenever the spectrum lines can be divided into distinct parts 
as in the case of the broad K line. 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN—DESLANDRES. 347 


Now, the number of solar lines amounts to some 20,000; and ac- 
cording to Jewell, all the solar lines show more or less the special 
characteristics of the typical line of calcium. The new field open 
to investigation is evidently very broad. 


4, RECENT RESEARCHES—A GREAT SPECTROHELIOGRAPH OF NEW TYPE. 


The program of researches laid out in 1894 was accordingly very 
extensive. It was carried out in part during the following years, 
and the actual progress was marked, if not very rapid. 

In 1903 Hale and Ellermann took up the study in the black lines 
with a spectroheliograph of greater dispersion, and after 1906 con- 
tinued the work at Mount Wilson with yet more powerful instru- 
ments. They have obtained beautiful pictures and a whole series of 
new facts. With the lines of the reversing layer the results are 
practically the same as those obtained in 1894. But the hydrogen 
lines, and recently the Ha line especially, have shown new and very 
curious phenomena, which we will describe in detail shortly. 

However, the dispersion employed has been only moderate; though 
they have isolated a much greater number of lines than in 1894, the 
finer lines have not been used; and indeed in each case they have 
used the entire lines, making no distinction of the separate portions 
and therefore of the separate layers of the vapors. Their images 
have resulted from the mixture of the several distinct ones due to the 
several layers. 

I assumed the task of filling this gap and thus completing the 
program of 1894, isolating the upper strata hitherto unrevealed. 
Becoming director of the Observatory of Meudon in 1907, I was able 
to apply to this task the resources of the observatory, and here the 
special grant already mentioned proved very opportune. In short, 
it became possible to construct a great spectroheliograph having a 
dispersion as great as that of Rowland’s large spectrograph and a 
special building for its protection. 

This building consisted of a large chamber, 22 meters by 6 meters; 
its roof was of stone and earth, assuring the constancy of the tem- 
perature within. It received the hght from the sun by way of a 
coelostat placed south of the building, and constructed from some 
old transit-of-Venus apparatus and an old objective of 0.25 meter 
aperture and 4 meters focus. These pieces, though mediocre, were 
used for the sake of economy. The spectroheliograph, on the other 
hand, was of a novel type and presents several interesting features. 
It is somewhat complicated, at least in design, for it really consists 
of four different spectroheliographs grouped about the same colli- 
mator. The first is of three prisms, two slits and a camera 3 meters 
long, giving an image of the sun 85 millimeters in diameter; the 


348 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


second uses a grating, two slits and a camera of the same length 
as the first; the third has an arrangement differing from the two 
preceding; finally, the fourth, the most powerful, has three slits 
and prisms and grating. It consists first of a spectrograph having 
a camera of 7 meters, and, as in the classical apparatus of Rowland, 
allows the isolation of very fine lines. But its ordinary solar image 
would require too long an exposure. It is therefore received by a 
second spectrograph which reduces it to the desired size and eliminates 
the diffused interior light. The final image of the sun is of any di- 
ameter desired; and by means of a special contrivance it shows the 
entire solar disk, a condition not fulfilled in other spectrohelio- 
graphs of great dispersion. The customary diameters of the sun’s 
images are 6 and 4 centimeters. 

This apparatus, with the two spectrographs, has a total length of 
14 meters, and under these conditions rests stationary. It is, indeed, 
the first spectroheliograph in which all the parts except the photo- 
graphic plate remain at rest. The movable parts, the plate and the 
astronomical objective, are put in motion at the desired rate by 
synchronous electric motors and transformers for special speeds. 

The agreement of the movements is assured by electrical means, 
which do not depend upon distance, and this arrangement is pre- 
sented as a general solution of the spectroheliographic problem. 
Each of the four spectroheliographs has its special advantages, and 
_ the passage from one to another may be made in a few moments. 

The observer has thus at his disposal varied means for his investi- 
gations. In a general manner the spectroheliograph of two slits and 
a length of 3 meters has a large image, rich in detail. The three- 
slit spectroheliograph of 14 meters gives, with a longer exposure, a 
smaller image, but one much more pure (that is, more monochro- 
matic) ; it allows the isolation of the finest lines. 

The researches with this apparatus have been made by a young 
astronomer of this observatory, M. d’Azambuja, whose name is 
associated with mine. 


5. THE DISCLOSURE OF THE UPPER K, LAYER OF CALCIUM. 


In 1908 we were able to isolate the narrow dark central line, K,, of 
calcium, and therefore the upper stratum of that vapor. Figure 1, 
which shows the K line and its components, will indicate the progress 
accomplished. Until now the spectroheliograph used had isolated 
the ensemble of the two bright lines (K,), which include K,; the 
slit width was then ninety one-hundredths Angstrém. The resulting 
image, called by us the K,, image, was a composite of the layers K, 
and K,, the much brighter K, layer predominating. Now with the 
great spectroheliograph we are able to isolate easily with slits of 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN—DESLANDRES. 349 


three one-hundredths Angstrém or greater either the K, line or one 
of the components of K,, thus obtaining very pure images of each 
corresponding stratum free from all extraneous light. The corre- 
sponding slit widths are crosshatched in section in figure 1. 

The vapor of calcium, which beyond the limb rises higher than all 
the other vapors, thus shows us three distinct strata, and if to these 
we add the ordinary surface of the sun we have four layers which 
are interesting to compare. . 

August * 1908. September 18, 1908. 


Fic. 3.—Network of alignments noted in the upper layer of the solar atmosphere. The 
full dark traces correspond to the continuous and very sharp dark lines called filaments ; 
the discontinuous traces to the similar lines though less sharp and the dotted lines to 
those still less visible and often broken. The hatched places are the larger regions of 
bright facule. 


As we rise above the surface of the sun the facule, or bright 
regions, grow progressively in extent and relative brightness. The 
average-sized flocculi increase, although the small ones disappear 
or become scarcely visible. There results a certain aspect of the 
K, layer which at once distinguishes it from the K, layer photo- 
graphed in 1892. (See the two spectroheliograms in K, and K, of 
the 18th of September, 1908.) I would also add that the peculiar 
network (reseau) of flocculi, called by me in 1894 the chromospheric 


3850 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


reseau, and often “formed over a considerable area, composed of 
polygons touching each other at their sides and corners, is in general 
more distinct in the upper layer. 

On the other hand, the black spots which are the principal char- 
acteristic of the surface diminish progressively as we go above the 
surface and often disappear. 

Yet, further, there appear dark lines not seen in the densi layers, 
lines ne very long and called by me filaments. Generally the fila- 
ments have extensions from each side reaching to the limb neither 
so dark nor so sharp, which I call “alignments.” The ensemble of 
filaments and alignments form a definite network over the solar disk. 
They are a new phenomenon characteristic of the upper layer. Here 
the filaments have the same importance as the spot at the surface. 
They persist, like them, during several rotations, and like them also 
are the seats of special disturbances which are accompanied by 
prominences. 


6. THE DISCLOSURE OF THE UPPER Hg LAYER OF HYDROGEN. © 


In my first studies I likened the spots to depressions (“lows”) 
or cyclones in our atmosphere and the filaments to anticyclones. 
I will come back later to this comparison, which I will develop. 

During the following year we (d’Azambuja and I) used this 
same apparatus in the study of the hydrogen lines, and especially the 
the red Ha. Hale and Ellermann had already isolated these lines 
with the spectroheliograph, obtaining very curious results. In 1893 
they noted that in the Hf, Hy, and H8 spectroheliograms the facule 
were no longer bright with reference to the background, as in the 
calcium images, but, on the contrary, are often dark. With Hy, iso- 
lated in 1908, they found all about the spots a series of fine demarca- 
tions, giving the impression of whirls, and which Hale has described 
here at a special meeting. Indeed, these Ha images are beautiful 
and abounding in fine details. 

However, these American Ha images were obtained by the isola- 
tion and use of the whole dark line. I stated in 1908 that they must 
be composed of the mixture of the two or three images belonging to 
different strata. For, according to Rowland, the Ha line is doubly 
reversed like the K line, due to calcium although more feebly. Its 
width, including the shading edges, is 1.24 Angstréms; without them, 
0.90. We would, therefore, expect somewhat different results as 
different portions of the line are isolated. 

This we have already clearly shown to be true, and indeed, con- 
trary to all our expectations, the differences existing between the 
various hydrogen images are greater than for calcium. 

The exact results are as follows: 

When the shaded portion close to the edge of the line is used, 
corresponding to K, of calcium, at a distance from the center of the 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Deslandres. PLATE 1. 


C= D > Gis! Care ere . = 


Upper Kz; layer of calcium. 


awa aS eal Se 


Mean Kg layer of calcium. 


SPECTROHELIOGRAMS OF SEPTEMBER 18, 1908. 
(Negatives. ) 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Deslandres. PLATE 2. 


ene is 


Upper layer of hydrogen. 


[ PN 


Mean layer of hydrogen. 


SPECTROHELIOGRAMS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 1909. 
(Negatives.) 


PLATE 3. 


Deslandres. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910. 


Upper layer of calcium. 


21.3.1, 


Upper layer of hydrogen mixed with a portion of the mean layer. 


SPECTROHELIOGRAMS OF MARCH 21, 1910. 


(Negatives. ) 


i 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Deslandres. 


a 


41, 4.10, 


Nee EEE ay 


Upper layer of hydrogen mixed with a portion of the mean layer. 


SPECTROHELIOGRAMS OF APRIL 11, 1910. 
(Negatives. ) 


PLATE 4. 


~ 


GS 


ie 


a 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN—DESLANDRES. 851 


line amounting to between forty-seven one-hundredths and sixty- 
two one-hundredths of an Angstrém, we get the result of 1893; that 
is to say, the regions of facule appear black relative to the back- 
ground. 

When the middle of each side is used at a distance of from ten 
one-hundredths to forty-two one-hundredths of an Angstrém from 
the center, the result is entirely different. It shows the principal 
characteristics of the spectro-heliograms taken in America in 1908 
and particularly the groups of small lines which Hale has called 
“solar vortices.” 

Finally, with the center of the line we get a third, yet different, 
aspect from the other two, much paler and simpler and correspond- 
ing to the upper layer of hydrogen. 

Now, and this point is important, the new image shows the dark 
filaments of the K, layer of calcium. As to the regions of facule, 
they are bright, never dark; they cover a smaller region than with 
the K, stratum and correspond to the maxima of brightness of the 
similar regions in the K, stratum, maxima which differ from those 
of the K, and K, strata. The darkest and the brightest parts are 
the same. (See the annexed pictures taken with K, and with Ha 
the 11th of September, 1909, and the 21st of March and the 11th of 
April, 1910.) 

And yet further, we have isolated the various parts of the blue Hf 
line of hydrogen, showing a lower elevation in the solar atmosphere 
than the Ha line, and so obtained images which show almost exclu- 
sively the dark regions of facule such as we found in the shaded 
portion of the red Ha line and which therefore correspond to a low 
level. 

Finally, we are led to conclude that hydrogen gives, like calcium, 
at least three distinct superposed strata which are now for the first 
time clearly distinguished. 

Now, in what just precedes I have treated the different portions 
of the same line and the different corresponding images by the 
ordinary laws of emission and absorption by gases, admitting nat- 
urally that the density of the gas and the width of the corresponding 
line diminish as we go upward in the solar atmosphere. Now, the 
theory of anomalous dispersion has been brought forward as coming 
into play here, and, at least in part, explaining the peculiarities of 
these images. But it seems to me that anomalous dispersion, while, 
of course, to some extent it must come into play, does so only to a 
minor extent and may be neglected in this preliminary study. The 
real reasons for making such an assertion would take too long to 
develop here. However, anomalous dispersion has been found in the 
laboratory with the lines H and K of calcium, and recently with the 


352 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Ha linet. But as the center of the line does not suffer anomalous 
dispersion, this theory can not apply to the images of the upper 
strata with which we are now interested. 

The black filaments which are found similarly in both calcium and 
hydrogen are in fact a very characteristic element of the upper 
stratum. Hale had already a glimpse of them in the earlier, really 
composite spectro-heliograms taken with K and Ha light, and noted 
them under the name of long dark flocculi and suggested that 
they very probably belonged to the high strata. Indeed, under such 
conditions one may often obtain the most important filaments which 
appear as very broad, dark lines. But for a complete knowledge of 
the filaments and their properties we must have recourse to the 
images solely of the upper stratum. 

Another important element of the upper strata is the bright re- 
gions of facule which are found at the same positions as on the sur- 
face though of different form. 

To sum up, if we examine the four layers formed by the surface 
and the atmosphere of the sun, the brightest portions are above the 
facule. But the darkest regions are placed very differently at the 
surface and in the upper strata. Below they occur in the spots; 
above, in the filaments which occupy a total black surface greater 
than that of the spots. The area covered by these filaments should 
be measured as exactly as that occupied by the spots. 


7. RESEARCHES ON THE MEVEMENTS OF THE ATMOSPHERE—AN INSTRU- 
MENT FOR REGISTERING SPECTRUM VELOCITIES. 


The black filaments especially attract attention, and indeed justly, 
for, as we have just said, they have an importance at least equal to 
that of the spots. What, then, is their origin and what the nature 
of these long dark lines? An accurate answer is very difficult; it is 
significant to recall our uncertainty as to the spots which have been 
studied 300 years. However, with the filaments the inquiry may be 
more easy. The surface which carries the spot les between the inte- 
rior of the sun, which escapes our vision, and the lower complex 
strata of the atmosphere; on the other hand, the upper layer, with 
which the filaments are connected, is more free, more disengaged, and 
may have a structure and movements more simple. 

Indeed, at Meudon, several results regarding the filaments have 
been obtained worthy of note by virtue of a special device developed 
and used as yet only at Meudon and which is an instrument for 
registering or indicating spectrum velocities (spectro-enregistreurs 
des vitesses). This apparatus, used since 1892, was greatly improved 
in 1907. It reveals, as its name indicates, the radial movements of 


1Some months after the Royal Institution lecture we found at Meudon that the anomalous 
dispersion was acting on the edges of the Kg line; so that the displacement toward the red 
is increased and the displacement toward the violet diminished. But the image of the 
center of the line with the spectroheliograph is always unchanged. 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN—DESLANDRES. 8538 


the solar vapors by placing side by side small spectra of successive 
equidistant sections of the solar disk by means of a second large slit 
and discontinuous, automatic movements. It is a complement to the 
spectro-heliograph and fully as useful. It tells us besides the radial 
velocities, the general form of the vapors, and the details of the-whole 
line, particularly the width of the isolated line which is very variable 
from one part of our star to another. It gives us information at 
points where the spectro-heliograph fails, for the latter can not with 
a slit of constant width isolate accurately a line of variable width; 
in short, it records all the elements which escape the spectro-helio- 
graph and assures an accurate interpretation of the results. 

A naked-eye examination of the plates taken with the K line shows 
at once that the radial movements are in general more noticeable 
on the filaments than at the adjacent points. Sometimes even all the 
K, lines due to the filament are inclined in the same direction and 
show a whirl about a horizontal axis as distinguished from that which 
exists in the sun spots about a vertical axis. But to this movement 
there succeeds, as with the spots, a relative calm. If then we were to 
measure with care these displacements and the radial velocities in 
the K, line when the vapor is at the center of the disk we would find 
that the vapor is rising with a velocity often greater than the ve- 
locity of rotation of the sun at the equator (some 2 kilometers per 
second). This has been verified for several filaments. Aside from 
the spots and the filaments, the vertical velocities in the upper strata 
are not insignificant and often of the same order as the equatorial 
speed of rotation. The magnitude of this vertical motion is less 
astonishing when we note that the gaseous mass of which the atmos- 
phere is composed lies above an intense furnace of heat. 

Analogous measures have been made carefully at the center of the 
sun on. facule and flocculi with the reverse result. The vapor 
here has a contrary direction of motion and descends while in the 
relatively dark portions around there are ascending currents. Gen- 
erally at the bright places of the K, images of the upper layer the 
vapor descends; it ascends where the image is relatively dark. That 
is really logical, for the vapor which goes down becomes compressed 
and therefore becomes warmer, while that which rises expands and 
becomes cooler. 

This phenomenon, which has already been noted on a great num- 
ber of plates, is important, for it shows the special structure of the 
atmospheric strata, indicating that they are divided into convection 
currents exactly. as in the case with liquids heated uniformly at 
their lower surfaces in our laboratories. 

The bright facule often cover a remarkable extent of the image 
and often with sharply formed juxtaposed polygons exactly similar 


97578°—sm 1910——23 


304 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


to the polygons formed by the vortex cells in liquids so well studied 
in France by Bernard. 

Since the vapor descends over the flocculi and rises at the inter- 
stices, each one of these solar polygons is thus probably a vortex cell. 
Other flocculi in the same image show polygons less sharp and less 
complete and sometimes, although more rarely, of wholly irregular 
forms. 
May 20, 1909. June 15, 1909. 


PN. | P.N 


| ps | es 


November 27, 1909. April 11, 1910. 


PN 


i 
| 


lps 


| 


Fic. 4.—Drawings of the upper layer of the solar atmosphere showing the characteristic 
black filaments and especially the polar filaments. These images, obtained with the aid 
of d’Azambuja, have been made from the monochromatic pictures of the sun taken with 
the central portion of the Hq line of hydrogen and the K line of calcium. They show 
only the dark filaments without the alignments. The bright regions above the facule 
have not been represented. 


Moreover, the filaments and lines are probably the limits of vortex 
cells yet greater, superposed upon the preceding in the upper stratum, 
and of which the spots are the centers. This is in accord with the 


1This arrangement in juxtaposed polygons is at times very distinct over nearly the 
whole sun. The Kg plate of Sept. 18, 1908, shows in the Southern Hemisphere, near the 
center, several of these polygons joined by their sides and corners; but a larger and 
sharper image is necessary to show them well. 


ATMOSPHERE OF THE SUN—DESLANDRES. 355 


movements in the stratum next to the spots noted by the English 
astronomer Evershed. We may easily explain why the spots are 
pointlike and the filaments linear, sometimes very long. Our prob- 
lem therefore through these researches has already received some 
light; it will, it seems probable, be completely elucidated when we 
have continuous measures of the radial velocities over the whole 
disk of the sun, unfortunately necessary for a very long period of 
time. 


8. THE DISCOVERY OF THE POLAR FILAMENTS. 


I will close with a new phenomenon of the filaments recently rec- 
ognized at Meudon and already published. The observatory has so 
far obtained pictures of the upper stratum for more than 20 en- 
tire revolutions of the sun, and from them it is possible to study the 
‘distribution of the filaments. They appear in all latitudes but at the 
poles they are generally grouped on a curve, more or less circular, 
surrounding the pole, although often not along a parallel of lati- 
tude. This polar curve of filaments is at times clearly seen at both 
of the poles, but in general it is distinctly visible only at one and 
tends to move from one pole to the other. It was particularly dis- 
tinct and strong during last April at the South Pole. (See the two 
pictures of Apr. 11 and fig. 1, which show the filaments of four dif- 
ferent days.) 

These polar filaments are accompanied by prominences and accord 
with the secondary maxima of prominences at the poles which have 
already been noted. They may thus be related to the special form 
of the corona which appears during the minimum of the sun-spot 
cycle and with the often-noted inclination of the coronal axis to 
the ordinary solar axis of rotation. 

At times the polar curve is accompanied on the side toward the 
equator by a line of parallel filaments which are reunited to the 
curve by filaments or lines more or less inclined; and so we find a 
disposition analogous to that of the bands on the planet Jupiter. 

Finally, the polar zone of filaments, where, as we have just seen, 
the vapor is ascending, may be compared to the zone of spots and 
faculz near the equator, where, contrarywise, the vapor is descending. 
We are led to suppose a great meridian circulation in the upper 
stratum, a vast general convection current analogous to that which 
exists in each hemisphere of the earth between the latitudes 35° and 
the poles. 

Time fails, unfortunately, for developing all the consequences of 
these first observations, but the facts given suffice to show the great 
interest connected with the study of the upper strata of the solar 
atmosphere and the necessity of continuing it. 


856 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The atmosphere of the sun alone we may observe in its entirety 
and in its successive layers. Our self-registering apparatus gives 
in a few moments its general aspect'and principal movements. From 
this point of view it is better known than our own atmosphere, which 
we may observe only in its lower portions and over a restricted re- 
gion even with the aid of the telegraph. 

The network of convection currents and the curious filaments 
discovered in the upper stratum may be found also upon the earth, 
and so the study of the sun may bring us to a better knowledge of 
our own atmosphere. 


RECENT PROGRESS IN ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED 
STATES. 


[With 8 plates. ] 


By J. Bosier, 
Astronomer at the Observatory of Meudon, France. 


Americans during recent years have made great advances in astron- 
omy. This science, with its broad horizons and its continued desire 
for improvements and capital, comports well with the temperament 
of a people so well endowed for vast undertakings and for all in any 
way connected with mechanics. To get money for their researches 
seems second nature, almost a pleasure, to American scientists; as 
natural to them is the construction and employment of new instru- 
ments. We were not astonished, therefore, some months since, on 
the occasion of the International Conference at Mount Wilson, Cal., 
in finding for ourselves that they had accomplished great things in’ 
this class of undertakings, as well as in many others. It is but just 
to add that the means placed at the disposal of the astronomers by 
their many and generous friends were truly proportional to the uses 
made of these means. What follows will at every step illustrate the 
beneficent influence of private American initiative. 


HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY—THE SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE STARS. 


One of the oldest of the scientific establishments in the United 
States is the celebrated observatory of Harvard College, situated near 
Cambridge (Mass.), which, during the last quarter of a century, Prof. 
E. C. Pickering, assisted by his brother, has greatly helped to make 
illustrious. It is supported not by the State, but by Harvard Univer- 
sity, an autonomous institution analogous to the English universities. 
Situated in the center of New England, near Boston, this observatory 
is assuredly the least American of all those of the United States; you 
will not find here those colossal instruments which are the pride of the 
astronomer of the West; here the methods are akin to our own, and 
the qualities are the more especially European ones of order and 
patience, from which so many beautiful results have followed. 


1 Translated, by permisssion, from Revue Générale des Sciences, Paris, 22d year, No. 3, 
Feb. 15, 1911. 
357 


358 ANNUAL*REPORT- SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The principal line of researches followed at the Harvard Observa- 
tory is the spectroscopic and photometric study of the stars. The 
observers therefore constantly watch the entire system of stars down 
to the sixth magnitude, and as much fainter as possible, so that none 
of them may escape surveillance. In order to study the stars about 
the southern. celestial pole, which for good reasons have been so neg- 
lected by most astronomers, the Pickering brothers established, in 
1891, an auxiliary station at Arequipa, Peru, at an altitude of about 
2,700 meters, and consequently under the best atmospheric conditions 
for observations. Pickering, with praiseworthy self-denial, sent 
there one of his most beautiful instruments, the Bruce 24-inch tele- 
scope, which he thought would render more service there than at 
Harvard. We will not dwell on the photometric and spectroscopic 
catalogues published at Cambridge, nor yet upon the astounding dis- 
coveries of spectroscopic double stars, nor the various kinds of stellar 
hydrogen, and so on, which have been made here in the past. We 
will limit ourselves to the methods actually in use at this establish- 
ment and which, as we have stated, are in themselves of great interest. 

Prof. E. C. Pickering personally carries on the stellar photometry 
and has allowed no detail to escape detection which would lead to 
precision. The photometer is stationary and placed in a well-shaded 
place; a siderostat, worked from the interior by an assistant, sends 
the rays of the star under measurement into the horizontally placed 
photometer. The astronomer is thus comfortably situated, as at the 
equatorial-coudé at Paris, with his head enveloped in a mantle of 
black material; he remains here continuously during the whole even- 
ing; the settings, the records, even the readings of the divided scale, 
are made by his assistant. Mr. Pickering uses his sight strictly for 
the purely photometric work, assuring himself of his maximum effi- 
ciency in the photometric comparisons and avoiding thus a number 
of more or less systematic errors. 

The spectroscopic classification of all the stars of the sky is done 
principally with the aid of the objective prism of the 11-inch tele- 
scope. The equatorial upon which this prism is mounted is in no 
way unusual except for the electric control, which assures the accurate 
regulation of the driving mechanism which is kept in perfect syn- 
chronism with a controlling pendulum. As this 11-inch apparatus 
would not have been sufficient, two new ones, both of 24 inches, were 
constructed at the same time, thus reducing the net cost of each. 
Nothing more need be said in praise of the objective prism; it is well 
known how with it, at one exposure, may be photographed the spectra 
of all the stars visible in a given field. There is much less loss of light 
than in the use of a slit spectroscope, so that a shorter exposure is 
necessary. Unfortunately, accurate determinations of wave-lengths 
can not be made with that system and, despite the most ingenious con- 


“VINYOSITVD ‘NOLIINVH LNNO| NO AYOLVAYSSEO AOI] JO M3IA IWYSN3S5H 


"| aLlvid 


‘18/S0G—"O16]| ‘Hodey ueluosyyiws 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Bosler. PLATE 2. 


THE CROSSLEY REFLECTOR OF THE LICK OBSERVATORY. 


ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED STATES—BOSLER. 359 


trivances, because of the lack of a convenient standard for the indica- 
tion of the wave-lengths, it is difficult to use it for the determinations 
of radial velocities. It is thought that the use of absorbing screens 
may do away with this objection last mentioned, now that the sub- 
stances have been found giving, at ordinary temperatures, fine ab- 
sorption lines (and not more or less hazy bands). The plates we saw 
were striking in this respect. This method necessitates, however, a 
longer exposure. 

Great progress has been made lately in the researches on variable 
stars. Independent of the direct photometric observations which 
give comparatively few results, several methods have been devised 
for the discovery of new variables. By means of one of the great 
portrait objectives of 16-inch (40 centimeters) aperture, which Pick- 
ering has had constructed, eight or ten exposures are made in a 
series on the same plate at intervals of a half hour; those stars are 
then easily noted, if such exist, which have varied during the four 
or five hours’ exposure. Variables of short period of the Algol 
type are thus discovered. Another more general procedure in use 
at Harvard is to take at two different dates two negatives of the 
same region of the sky; a positive is printed by contact from one of 
them, let us suppose the second, and superposed upon the original 
first negative. The stars which have not varied are represented—one 
of the plates being a little more dense than the other—by black dots 
surrounded by whitish aureoles (or inversely). The images of stars 
whose light has varied present a different aspect: if their brightness 
has increased, they appear surrounded by an aureole relatively 
brighter than that of their neighbors; if the contrary is the case, 
the aureole is less marked or perhaps wholly absent. By repeating 
this several times for each region all the variables existing in these 
regions may be told almost at a glance, even among the immense 
numbers of stars not undergoing fluctuations. The value of this 
method is unlimited and it is admirably adapted to clusters of stars 
like a Centauri in which 128 variables were discovered at Arequipa. 
At Harvard this ingenious method has led to the discovery of 2,000 
to 3,000 variables, several times as many as have been made known 
by all the other methods combined. 

The objective prism aids also in this class of discovery. We know, 
for instance, that the variables of long period, of the type of Mira 
Ceti, for example, contain bright lines in their spectra; on the other 
hand, these bright-line stars are comparatively rare, so that a star 
possessing this characteristic attracts our attention at once to its 
variability. 

The organization of this bureau, composed solely of women and 
which has executed such colossal work, merits our attention. The 
reader may, however, reassure himself; we shall not detain him long. 


360 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


We will content ourselves with saying that we Frenchmen, born 
bureaucrats and believing ourselves without rivals in the routine of 
administration, would certainly find much to learn here from a prac- 
tical point of view. 

All these researches on variable stars, upon stellar spectra and 
their classification, may appear to the ordinary reader very monoto- 
nous and of very little use; yet they are of great importance for 
a knowledge of our universe. We should not forget that by means 
of this incessant comparison these observers can often announce the 
new stars (nove) which are so interesting in many ways. And yet, 
further, a new short-period variable, a new type of stars gives cer- 
tainly a new clue to the elucidation of yet unsolved problems or what 
amounts to a new instrument for research in this vast laboratory of 
the sky where new tools are rarely obtained. 


THE LICK OBSERVATORY. 


Now, crossing the whole continent from one shore to the other 
and going to the Lick Observatory, we find a totally different estab- 
lishment ; more grand because of the vastness of the means at its dis- 
posal as well as notable for the beauty of its situation. Founded 
through the generosity of James Lick, a rich Californian, and now 
under the eminent direction of Prof. W. W. Campbell, the Lick Ob- 
servatory is situated on Mount Hamilton, at an altitude of 1,400 
meters, a beautiful site, although unfortunately somewhat difficult of 
access despite its nearness to San Francisco. The distance from the 
nearest railroad station to the peak is some 40 kilometers, over a rather 
rough route, though suitable for an automobile. So the astronomers 
must dwell there all the time, and during the winter this region must 
lose some of its charms. 

We will dwell but little on the great Lick equatorial, one of the 
most justly famed telescopes of the world. Its focal length is 17.30 
meters and its aperture 91 centimeters (386 inches). It may be used 
for visual observations and adapted for photography by the aid of a 
correcting lens placed just inside the focus. One of the most remark- 
able aids used with this instrument, the only rival of which is at the 
Yerkes Observatory, where it is further perfected, is the moving floor, 
which may be raised by hydraulic means so that the observer, his 
assistants, and all which surrounds him may be placed at a suitable 
elevation. 

The great telescope is used for various researches, notably for 
spectroscopy and the determination of radial velocities. The con- 
struction of the spectroscope, known as the Mills spectrograph, was 
most carefully designed. It has three prisms and an adjusting device 
which assures the parallelism of the optic axis of the telescope to that 


ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED STATES—BOSLER. 361 


of the collimator, a condition evidently indispensable for the use of 
all the available hght; the tube is sufficiently rigid to allow the 
realization of this. It is well known that one of the principal dif_i- 
culties in the accurate measurement of radial velocities results from 
the changes of temperatures which change the indices of refraction 
of the prism during the necessarily long exposures and thus produce 
a false displacement of the spectrum lines. In order to escape this 
danger the whole dispersive system is surrounded by a thermostat 
which maintains it at a constant temperature. It consists of a 
wooden box, lined with thick felt. By means of an electric fan and 
a fine German-silver wire passing along the sides of the box and 
traversed by an electric current of moderate intensity the box may 
be rapidly warmed when the temperature becomes too low; a ther- 
mometer, by means of an auxiliary current, stops the warming cur- 
rent when the proper temperature has been regained. 

Naturally the great equatorial of this observatory is particularly 
suited to measures upon double stars; we ourselves were able to sepa- 
rate the two components of the close double 6 Equulei (0.3’’ apart), 
and R. G. Aitken, the astronomer in charge of these researches, on 
nights of good seeing does even better and can separate those as close 
as 0.14’’.. He has already published 2,000 new doubles hitherto un- 
catalogued. 

Notwithstanding the superb qualities of this instrument, its angu- 
lar aperture (about 1 to 19) is too small for use in photographing 
very faint objects, such as nebule and comets, and for this purpose 
they therefore employ the Crossley reflector, whose aperture is 364 
inches. This instrument has had a somewhat peculiar history and 
its mounting has been wholly rebuilt during the last few years in the 
shops of the observatory. As they had especially in view its use in 
photography, rigidity was considered a most essential quality. In 
order to follow a star across the meridian without having the tele- 
scope strike the pier and thus avoiding the necessity of then revers- 
ing the instrument, which would have been very undesirable in the 
middle of an exposure, they adopted the English form of mounting 
where the two extremities of the polar axis rest upon separate piers. 
In order to diminish the moment of inertia of the moving parts, 
which weigh 6 tons, they gave the polar axis the bizarre eccentric 
form shown in plate 2; the eccentric portion serves partially as a 
counterpoise and the radius of gyration is decidedly reduced. The 
driving sector has a radius of 2.50 meters so that any irregularities 
due to its movements are much reduced. In order to keep the image 
of the star being photographed constantly at the same point of the 
plate it has usually been the custom to move the whole telescope by 
the means of slow-motion mechanisms; with the Crossley reflector 
only the plate holder is moved. Two micrometer screws give it the 


362 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 1910. 


necessary correcting movements, thus avoiding the useless waste of 
exertion in the older method. Finally, a very small, convex, hy- 
perbolic mirror, placed near the principal focus, allows them to give 
to the telescope the Cassegrainian form, increasing its focal length 
for the study of the brighter stars. 

With this instrument, and indeed, with its old form of mounting, 
the Lick observers were able to obtain a superb series of plates of 
the nebule, which are rivalled only by those obtained during the 
past year at Mount Wilson. They hope to photograph thus 120,000 
nebulz, possibly many more, and our present catalogues contain only 
13,000. 

The spiral form is much more general among nebule than was 
formerly: supposed, a result which becomes even more interesting 
since the Crossley reflector has enabled Fath to obtain the spectra of 
several of them. He found their spectra very remarkable and com- 
posed of three distinct types; a continuous spectrum, bright nebular 
lines, and dark absorption lines. The theory that these nebule are 
very condensed masses of stars is therefore supported by this. 


THE YERKES OBSERVATORY. 


Less favored than the Lick Observatory by its climate, the Yerkes 
Observatory is near Chicago; it was dedicated in 1897 in the pres- 
ence of a gathering of astronomers from the whole world. It owes 
its inception to the energetic initiative, assisted by the means of a 
wealthy manufacturer, of Dr. Hale, who was its first director and 
who proposed to make it a center of the first rank. Its great tele- 
scope, with an objective (pl. 3) of 1.02 meters (40 inches), derived 
much profit in its construction from the one previously built for the 
Lick Observatory. All perfections possible seem to be combined in 
this instrument, which, with its moving dome, cost some $170,000. 
The moving floor is raised by electrical means, the clock rewinds 
itself, and yet other motors direct the telescope to the desired place— 
indeed, no convenience has been omitted. 

One sees here vividly how American methods of construction dif- 
fer from ours, how little they concern themselves with customs so 
rigorously observed elsewhere. Our great instruments always seem 
to be built according to some former shop rules, very different from 
the practice in the construction of the machinery of ordinary manu- 
factories. Such is not the case with the great American telescopes; 
their parts are more massive, less fragile, and have the appearance 
of the machinery in the ordinary commercial industries. Everything 
must conduce to regularity of operation rather than to surface re- 
finements. Precision becomes illusory where there is flexure and the 
strains tend constantly to destroy the perfection of the surfaces and 
their adjustments. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Bosler. PLATE 3. 


THE GREAT 40-INCH EQUATORIAL OF THE YERKES OBSERVATORY AT WILLIAMS BAY, 
WISCONSIN. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Bosler. PLATE 4, 


DETAIL OF THE EYE-END OF THE 40-INCH, SHOWING THE PLATE HOLDER MOVABLE WITH 
RESPECT TO THE REST OF THE INSTRUMENT. 


ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED STATES—BOSLER. 363 


Several spectroscopes of one or several prisms may be attached to 
the telescope; we will mention especially the Rumford spectro- 
heliograph. Hale had especially in view the study of the sun when 
he founded the Yerkes Observatory. So he had the great refractor 
furnished with adjuncts analogous to those which he had used in 
his private observatory at Kenwood for his earlier solar researches. 
Yet we will find that there is now a tendency everywhere to adopt 
widely different schemes for this class of researches. 

Under the incentive of Prof. Frost, now the director at the Yerkes, 
progress has, of course, continued. With the 40-inch Burnham made 

.his great catalogue of double stars published in 1906. This includes 

many new doubles, which European astronomers may not hope to 
see. In photography Ritchey, the clever constructor and observer 
now at Mount Wilson, first applied at the Yerkes the idea of moving 
the plate holder with its plate (pl. 4) in following a star instead of 
moving the whole telescope. And yet further, by the use of isochro- 
matic plates combined with suitable color screens for eliminating the 
blue and violet rays for which the objective was not corrected pho- 
tographically, he succeeded in obtaining remarkable plates of star 
clusters. 

Studies in photometry have been carried on at the same time, and, 
just as at Meudon, daily photographs are taken of the protuber- 
ances of the sun, and also of the strata of calcium and hydrogen over 
the whole solar atmosphere. 

The Yerkes Observatory has other instruments: a telescope of 24 
inches constructed there almost entirely by Ritchey; finally, through 
the generosity of Miss Bruce, there is a photographic telescope of 
25 centimeters linear aperture and 1 to 5 angular aperture of large 
field, which has enabled Barnard to obtain, besides numerous pho- 
tographs of the comets which are magnificent, plates of large areas of 
the milky way and to discover through these latter those large, dark, 
star-free places, commonly called coal sacks, which so perplex the 
scientist. 


FLAGSTAFF OBSERVATORY—MARS AND THE PLANETARY SURFACES. 


And now we will pass to a class of work which recently has aroused 
lively curiosity even outside of scientific circles; this is the study of 
the surfaces of the planets, undertaken especially since 1894 and in 
particular very recently at the observatory at Flagstaff by Percival 
Lowell. Mr. Lowell, a rich amateur astronomer, early conceived 
a passion for studying the question of the “canals” of Mars and 
has become an ardent and intelligent advocate of the habitability of 
this enigmatic planet. The Martians seem almost friends of his, he 
has become so ardent in describing their exploits. In order to better 


364 _ ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


observe their deeds and manners Lowell has chosen on the Arizona 
Plateau a privileged site near the route of the Santa Fe, a short 
distance from the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, the marvels 
of which we could not tell here without departing from the purpose 
of this article. A dry and desert climate, high altitude, and distance 
from the smoke of manufactories, all contribute to give beautiful 
images in their telescopes, and they are indeed so very often. 

At Flagstaff they employ chiefly an equatorial of 0.61-meter aper- 
ture and 9.45-meters focal length and propose, besides direct visual 
observations, to obtain photographs as perfect as possible of the great 
planets. Lowell noted that generally the definition of the telescopic: 
images is vitiated by the undulations in the lower layers of our atmos- 
phere whose wave-lengths are of about the order of magnitude of the 
diameter of the object glass, although often smaller. With such dis- 
turbances it often happens that the bundle of light waves having 
traversed regions differently agitated produce a general blurring of 
the image which is not compensated by a smaller diffraction. Lowell 
therefore thinks it preferable to diaphragm his objective to 0.30 or 
0.45 meter. Each of the exposures, which are made in series, receives 
a bundle of these varying rays which have followed very closely 
neighboring paths and traversed practically the same atmospheric 
course. Accordingly the images are very sharp, especially as care is 
taken to choose the most favorable moments. However, this is not all 
there is to be said. The form of the diffracted bundle of rays is that 
of a sugar loaf (conical), so that the diffraction of the image formed 
of a point is smaller the closer to the summit we cut the cone; or, 
practically, if we absorb a part of the light by interposing a screen 
before the plate we will diminish the harmful effect of the dif- 
fraction, thus improving the definition of the image. This hap- 
pens very fortunately, for in the use of isochromatic plates with an 
ordinary objective corrected for visual observation, we have already 
stated that it is necessary, in order to obtain a sharp image, to absorb 
the blue rays by the use of a yellow screen. 

Lowell and his assistants, Slipher and Lampland, have thus been 
able to photograph for the first time the “ canals ” of Mars, and, in- 
deed, so they think, to discover new ones of recent formation. To 
continue with the suggestive deductions which have led them to con- 
clude the existence on our neighbor of intelligent beings—indeed, yet 
more, of consummate agriculturists !—would take us too far, especially 
since we would then treat with theories which are strongly contested 
and upon which we must say that very little light has really been cast. 
They have made other spectroscopic researches, which have led 
Lowell to affirm the presence of the bands due to water vapor in the 
red portion of the spectrum of Mars, a fact favorable to the exis- 


ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED STATES—BOSLER. 365 


tence of people on the planet; but here, also, we must note, there are 
divergencies of opinion, and we must not insist. 

The ingenious methods of Lowell have been applied as well to 
Jupiter and Saturn; they have revealed on the equatorial bands of 
these two planets curious oblique filaments, a sort of network (re- 
seau) of cells which had already been noted in visual observations, 
‘but the interpretation of which has not yet been found. 

Whatever we may think of the theoretical and philosophical ideas 
of which Lowell is the brilliant champion, there is no doubt that his 
methods present an important advance; in every way his planet 
photographs are among the best, perhaps the best, which have been 
made. 


MOUNT WILSON OBSERVATORY—SOLAR PHYSICS. 


At Mount Wilson we are brought more especially to the study of 
the sun. The Mount Wilson Solar Observatory was founded in 1904 
through the munificence of Mr. Andrew Carnegie and at the request 
of Dr. Hale, then director at the Yerkes Observatory. Hale was 
especially interested in finding for solar physics a very elevated sta- 
tion where the atmospheric disturbances and convection currents 
would be less noticeable; therefore it seemed to be necessary to seek 
such a place among the mountains of the Pacific coast, which had 
been shown to be so favorable for astronomical researches. After 
a detailed inquiry at various places Hale chose Mount Wilson, a few 
hours’ ride from Pasadena, not far from Los Angeles, a peak of 1,800 
meters altitude and crowned with pines; he had transported there a 
portion of the instruments which he had used at the Yerkes, taking 
with him also several of his assistants. 

At the foot of the mountain in the village of Pasadena are situated 
the offices for measurements and calculations. Here, as everywhere in 
America, there is a personnel exclusively feminine, which is an ad- 
vantage where, initiative being secondary, care and delicacy are 
required. Finally, in order to reap results from the greatest possible 
number of plates, a stereo-comparator by Zeiss is used. This is a 
German device, allowing the exact superposition and the changing at 
will in the field of vision of two slightly different plates of the same 
region; the smallest divergencies, the smallest changes, are then easily 
noted. 

We find here also an admirably organized workshop provided 
with all American mechanical resources, which means that they do 
here with mechanical means many things that we still do by hand, 
resulting in a great saving of time. Finally—and this is a thing of 
capital importance—these machines allow the working of pieces of 
very great dimensions which could never be executed in the shops of 
the best French constructors of astronomical instruments. 


366 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


As to the laboratories proper at Pasadena, they also include all 
that is necessary for physical and spectroscopic researches, which in 
the minds of the founders should be the indispensable complement 
of astronomical investigations. If in the laboratory, by known means, 
the phenomena observed in the stars are reproduced, then, indeed, 
the presumption is tenable that the phenomena take place in the stars 
just as they do in our experiment. The proof is truly not rigorous}: 
and the conditions which prevail in the celestial objects are more 
or less difficult to realize, and may at times result in unexpected con- 
sequences. Nevertheless, it is the only method available in astro- 
physics for attaining the truth, and we must leave to the future the 
task of definite corroboration. We should add that this idea has 
become very general, and that all astrophysical observatories have 
more or less complete laboratories. 

Since its construction the establishment at Mount Wilson has been 
open to astronomers of all nations who have wished to work or study 
there. And so we had the pleasure of meeting our colleague, M. H. 
Chretien, of the Observatory of Nice, who had been studying thera 
some eight months. So, also, W. H. Julius was enabled to study in 
application to the sun his well-known theory of anomalous disper- 
sion set forth in this review in 1903. With this theory he explains 
a great many phenomena, principally those of the chromosphere and 
prominences by reason of the curvilinear paths of the light rays in 
the solar atmosphere. Kapteyn, also from Holland, has come to 
Mount Wilson for the purpose of continuing his researches upon the 
absorption of light in celestial space. The differences which he has 
noted between the visual and the photographic magnitudes of the 
stars, which become larger the greater the distances of the stars, may 
be easily explained by the absorption of the light by some cosmic 
medium. 

We have considered the general organization of this observatory; 
let us now discuss the instruments. The first one put into service 
was the Snow telescope (pl. 5), which does not differ materially — 
as a whole from that used at Meudon for the study of the solar at- 
mosphere. It consists of a two-mirror coelostat which sends the 
solar beam horizontally to a great spectrograph and a spectrohelio- 
graph. The latter, which is of moderate dispersion, serves to take 
plates of the sun in monochromatic light several times a day. With 
it was explored the mean layer of chromospheric hydrogen, in which 
are seen at times, besides the more important filaments of the upper 
stratum, isolated later at Meudon, the peculiar more or less vortical 
movements that bring to mind the classic experiment of the magnetic 
spectrum. 

The instrument next in order to the “Snow” is the tower tele- 
scope, which is designed on a totally different plan. In order to 


"VINYOSITVD ‘NOSTIM LNNOW LV 3d00S31a_. MONS SHL SO MalA 1VYESN3D 


“sa\sog— 0161 ‘Hoday ursuosyyiWs 


"Gg aLVId 


"NOSTIM, LNNO| SO 3dOOSatS | YSMOL FHL 3O HdVYDONLOSdS SHL 4O YA0IOH SLW1d OIHdVYDOLOHd INV LIN1S 


‘9 3ALV1d ‘sajSOgG—'Q16| ‘Hoday ueiuosyyiWwS 


ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED STATES—BOSLER. 367 


avoid the irregular refractions produced in the lower air by the 
heated ground, it occurred to Dr. Hale to place the coelostat upon a 
tower some 20 meters high, sending theerays vertically downward 
through a lens of 30 centimeters diameter and 18 meters focal length. 
The solar image is formed about 1.50 meters above the ground upon 
the slit of a spectroscope (pl. 6). The light beam then descends into 
a well 9 meters deep, traverses the dispersive system, which may be 
rotated about a vertical axis, and the essential part of which is either 
a Rowland 4-inch grating or a Michelsson 8-inch grating, at will, 
and finally returns to the level of the ground to the photographic 
plate. There is yet another spectroscope with a prism, a companion 
to the last one; which is of great dispersion and mounted as a spec- 
troheliograph. This gives a monochromatic image of a portion of 
the sun’s disk, and either this or the one preceding may be employed 
at will. 

It was with the grating spectroscope of the tower telescope that 
‘Hale discovered the magnetic field in sun spots, one of the most 
beautiful discoveries relating to the sun in recent times. The agi- 
tated appearance of the hydrogen flocculi about the spots suggested 
an investigation as to whether the Zeeman effect might not be produced 
by them. The hypothesis that the spots have electrically charged 
matter in rotation indicated the possibility of the existence of such a 
phenomenon. Indeed, the spectrum of the spots contains a great num- 
ber of enlarged and reversed lines, an appearance which would be 
produced -by a smaller or greater degree of doubling. Therefore 
Hale placed before the slit of his spectrograph a Fresnel rhomb and 
a nicol serving the following purpose: The former transforms the 
circular polarized light of the Zeeman doublets into plane polarized 
pairs, and the second, according to its orientation, extinguishes one 
or the other of the latter components. The experiment confirmed Dr. 
Hale’s theory. The rotation of the nicol 90° caused the disappearance 
of the right or left line from its original position, while, the telluric 
lines remained unchanged. Later it was found that this curious phe- 
nomenon existed in all sun spots to a degree varying with their size, 
and that the magnetic field seems to diminish greatly with the height 
of the vapor above the photosphere, and later yet other peculiarities 
were found which we can not think of describing here. A vast field 
thus seems open for astrophysicists, and the astronomers of Mount 
Wilson will certainly not leave it unexplored. 

In the realm of pure astronomy the Mount Wilson Observatory 
possesses an instrument which in power is not surpassed by any 
other in the whole world—the telescope of 1.52 meters (60 inches) 
aperture, constructed under the direction of Ritchey, and in use 
since December, 1908. Its mounting is interesting. The telescope 
tube, which is of openwork construction, is carried in a forklike 


368 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


extension of the polar axis. Further, in order to lighten the great 
weight of the moving portions, it rests at its lower part in a bath of 
mercury; a large cylinder,jn the form of a mill wheel, and which 
may be seen there, plays the part of a float. In all details the de- 
signers have profited by the experience acquired elsewhere. 

In order to take advantage in every possible way of the light at 
their disposal various combinations of auxiliary mirrors may be 
used to give an instrument of various equivalent focal lengths. For 
instance, the telescope, with its great parabolic mirror alone, has a 
focal length of 7.6 meters and an angular aperture of 1 to 5. In 
this form it is adapted for very faint nebulae. In conjunction with 
a small hyperbolic mirror placed near the principal focus it forms 
an instrument similar to the Crossley reflector of the Lick Observa- 
tory. It has a focal length of 30.60 meters, and at the same time, 
and this is very remarkable, the images are very greatly improved 
from certain aberrations. Other arrangements allow foci of 21.40 
and, indeed, of 45.50 meters. In the last case, especially useful in’ 
the study of the brighter stars, the light beam is sent down through 
the polar axis—which is hollow—and from there it passes into a 
subterranean chamber under the pier, where it may be analyzed by 
means of a fixed spectrograph, free from variations of temperature. 
We ought to say that in the mind of Ritchey even a focal length of 45 
meters is not enough for his work on the moon. He proposes by more 
or less complicated reflections of the beam of light to photograph our 
satellite at a focal distance of 150 meters! . bre 

Ritchey’s method of work deserves description. As at the Lick 
Observatory, the photographic plate carrier is provided with two 
micrometer screws at right angles to each other for producing the 
motions of the plate necessary for “following.” It may also be 
turned in its own plane. By means of two different eyepieces at- 
tached to the plate carrier two stars may be seen; the first, which 
is kept constantly in view, is the guiding star, properly speaking; 
the second serves to correct the differential effects of refraction which 
would result in a rotation of the field. From time to time it is 
noted whether the star in the latter has left its cross wire, and a 
slight rotation of the plate holder suffices to bring it back to its 
place. Nor is that all; the focal length of the telescope may change 
during the course of an exposure lasting some 8 or 12 hours and 
continued during several nights. This is corrected every half hour 
by the knife-blade method of Foucault, susceptible of the precision 
of one-fortieth of a millimeter. For accomplishing this it is, of 
course, necessary to remove the plate, but a system of stops allows 
him to put it back into its proper position again. 

Ritchey, helped by an incomparable sky, has obtained plates which 
prove that such refinements are not illusory. His nebulae, of the 


"NOSTIM LNNOW LY ad00S373_L HONI-O9 SHL 


T/L ERAS Tal yajsog—016| ‘Hodeay ueluosy}iWUS 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Bosler. PLATE 8 


DETAILS OF THE EYE-END AND PLATE HOLDER OF THE 60-INCH TELESCOPE AT MOUNT 
WILSON. 


ASTROPHYSICS IN THE UNITED STATES—BOSLER. 3869 


greatest beauty, show details of structure of wonderful delicacy. 
Perhaps the most curious of these details are the dark streaks which 
are apparent, more often than on the Lick plates, between the spi- ’ 
rals of a great number of the nebulae. The 60-inch telescope has 
been in service but a short time, and we feel that there is no danger 
in predicting that in the near future it will justify by new feats all 
the hopes which have been placed upon it. 

But the founders of Mount Wilson wish to build yet greater 
instruments. A mirror of 2.54 meters diameter, which we had the 
opportunity of seeing, is in the process of construction in the work- 
shop at Pasadena. Meanwhile a new tower telescope, nearly 50 
meters (150 feet) tall is nearly completed. This latter structure, 
analogous to the one we have already described, will give at the 
level of the ground a solar image 40 centimeters in diameter; it will 
be completed below by a well 24 meters deep containing the spectro- 
scopes. Imagine what may be done with such apparatus! Never- 
theless, it is to be feared that the improvement of the image antici- 
pated by Hale may be compromised by the vibrations of the coelostat 
tower despite all the precautions to diminish them. 

We can not leave Mount Wilson without mentioning an extremely 
interesting work which is also going on there; one which has already 
accomplished results of the first rank. We refer to the observatory 
of the Smithsonian Institution which, under the direction of Mr. 
Abbot, proposes to continue and extend the work of Langley upon 
solar radiation. We can say that the results of these researches 
represent our most accurate knowledge upon many of the most im- 
portant details of solar physics; notably, the distribution of energy 
in the solar spectrum, the absorption in the atmosphere, and the solar 
constant of radiation. 

CONCLUSION. 


We have passed in review all the principal American observatories. 
The more common American traits, you have without doubt re- 
marked, are the extreme perfection of mechanical means, an ever- 
watchful ingeniousness and the absence of all spirit of routine in 
their constructions. We are speaking of the United States, where 
everything in the daily life tends to develop practical ideas; and an 
almost feverish activity turned unceasingly toward advancement is 
noticeable in every profession. Meanwhile, we should not forget 
that all these superb observatories, all these powerful instruments, 
owe their existence to the enlightened and regal generosity of the 
wealthy American men of industry. It is curious to note that these 
men whose energy, at times hard hearted, has brought them success, 
seem more attracted toward science than to those who have failed 


97578°—sm 1910——24 


370 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


in the daily struggle for existence; in Europe, conversely, and more 
especially in France than elsewhere, the few possessors of great for- 
tunes tend to leave a reputation, perhaps less durable in the end, of 
philanthropy. Their gifts, at least to some extent, might be more 
judiciously distributed, in the interest of the moral prestige of our 
country, to aid scientific institutions which struggle so painfully to 
maintain a glorious past. 

What fortunes, in our annual budget of some 4,000,000,000 francs, 
go every year to the State to be frittered away without profit to any- 
one which, if given to one of our great institutions, would revivify 
their founder’s prestige and perhaps yet accomplish great things in 
the future. 


THE FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH: 


By THOMAS CHROWDER CHAMBERLIN, 
Of the University of Chicago. 


Ever since the human race came to have a virile desire for intelli- 
gence it has tried to peer into the future that it might satisfy its 
curiosity and guide itself by foresight. Now and then it has tried 
to prolong its vision beyond the immediate future that it might fore- 
east the destiny of the race and the fate of the earth on which it 
dwells. In all these endeavors the depth of its penetration into the 
unknown before it, has been closely measured by the depth of its 
vision into the history behind it, and both the look before and the 
look behind have been close akin to the depth of its vision into the 
things about it. The light of the present and the lamp of the past 
have been its guides in the forecast. Beyond question this is the true 
method, and doubtless it will always remain the true method, for 
only as the race sees far into the past, and probes deeply and widely 
into the present, has it any firm basis for a sure prophecy of the 
future. 

The race did not fail to note even in its early days that the existing 
forms come into existence, live their day, and pass away. Why not 
then the race and the earth on which it dwells? While it was felt 
that this might not be true of the ultimate entities, it seemed clearly 
to be the order of things with the tangible forms. And so it will 
doubtless continue to be as the race grows into its fuller intellectual 
maturity and the horizon of its vision is enlarged, for there will no 
doubt remain the conviction that there has been a beginning of the 
current order of things and a like conviction that there will be an 
end. The increased breadth of vision that will come from research 
will only serve to bring into view still greater multitudes of organ- 
isms that have come into form, endured for a time, and passed away. 
And so any future change in the mode of building up the forecast 

1This paper is essentially the same in substance as the presidential address before 
the American Association for the Advancement of Science delivered at Boston Dec. 27, 


1909, but it has been freely revised and given a briefer title for publication in the 
Smithsonian Report.—T. C. CHAMBERLIN. ae 


372. ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


is not likely to be guided by a new fundamental method, but merely 
by an increased measure of breadth and depth of insight. 

Some of the special features that have entered into former prophe- 
cies will quite surely disappear and new ones will no doubt be added. 
The forecasts of prescientific times often made the doom of the earth 
hinge on some lapse in the conduct of man; made a physical disaster 
serve as a moral punishment. But with a truer insight into the 
basis of moral law and the place of man in nature this anthropic 
view will no doubt give place to a more consistent conception of 
sequences in the moral and the physical worlds. 

In the earlier days of the race the backward look was short, and in - 
fitting accord with this the origin of the race and of the earth was 
put only a few thousand years before our times. In ‘strict consonance 
with this the forward look seemed to disclose an end but little ahead. 
In much the same tenor also the beginning was made chaotic and 
the end cataclysmic. 

The dawn of the earth sciences was followed by a new forecast, 
and as the sciences grew this forecast was repeatedly enlarged, re- 
vised and recast. It was learned that the history of the earth 
stretches back not merely for thousands, but for millions and tens 
of millions of years; that the ongoings of the earth are actuated by 
energies too great to be seriously swerved from their orderly course 
or brought to an end by the acts of those who dwell upon it; that the 
march of earth history has a mighty tread whose moving force feels 
no serious influence from the merits or the lapses of even our potent 
race. 

The trend of prophetic thought under the inspiration of science in 
the last century invites a closer review. The ground of forecast lay 
mainly in the views of the origin of the earth then current, in 
the course of the earth’s past history, and in the trend of those agen- 
cies that control the conditions of life. The solar system was then 
thought to have sprung from a gaseous nebula, and the earth, as a 
member of the system, was assigned a place in the gaseous evolution. 
It was itself pictured as a fiery gaseous globe. We need not here 
turn aside to review the special phases of the dominant hypothesis or 
of the quasi-gaseous meteoritic hypothesis, or pause to pay honor to 
their great authors, for the sole feature fhat entered potentially into 
the shaping of the future of the earth was the gaseo-molten state as- 
signed the globe at its genetic stage, and in this feature all varieties 
of these hypotheses essentially concurred. A crude alternative view 
was, indeed, offered in what was little more than the rough suggestion 
that the earth might have grown up by the infall of small sporadic 
bodies, but this did not gain the assent of students of celestial dy- 
namics familiar with all that is implied by the symmetry of the 
system. On the contrary, it was held that the rotations of the planets 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 873 


implied a partition from a rotating mass, and so a genesis from a 
gaseous or quasi-gaseous body was almost universally accepted as by 
compulsion. 

Starting as a gaseous globe, an early passage into a molten sphere 
wrapped in a hot vaporous atmosphere was logically assigned the 
earth. The atmosphere was made vast to contain all the water of 
the globe and the volatile matter that the heated conditions were pre- 
sumed to have generated. At a later stage a crust was assigned to 
the cooling globe, and the waters, condensing on this, gave the infant 
earth the swaddling bands of a universal ocean. On further cooling, 
shrinkage and deformation were supposed to follow, the waters to 
be gathered into basins, the land to appear, and the formation of 
earth strata to begin. 

It is important to note that the main agency in this hypothetical 
history was the loss of heat, and so, with logical consistency, loss of 
heat was made to he at the bottom of the great events of the earth’s 
history down to the present time, and, in framing a forecast of the 
future, loss of heat was made the chief cause of the earth’s prospec- 
tive doom as a habitable planet. The whole history was interpreted 
as a stupendous declension. From a plethora of heat at the outset 
loss followed loss till our semiglacial stage has come, and, by proph- 
ecy, loss is to follow loss in the future till the final winter shall come. 
Starting with a plethora of air and water swaddling the earth, loss 
followed loss till our emaciated stage has been reached, and loss is 
to follow loss till drought shall join frigidity in marking the final 
state and the end of all life. The details of this inherited picture 
were not wanting. As the body of the earth cooled and shrank, the 
waters were permitted to enter.it and by union with its substance 
lose their fluid state. In like manner the air, entering the earth 
and uniting with it little by little, depleted the smothering atmosphere, 
lessened its oppressive weight, tempered its noxious nature until 
it was compatible with low life, and later with higher life, and at 
length brought it down to the present state. Projected into the 
future, the forecast tells of further depletion, with the pauperiza- 
tion and at length the extinction of life. 

The shrinking of the oceans more and more into the deep basins, 
the absorption of the waters into the body of the earth, and the pro- 
gressive cooling and emaciation of the air were logically supposed 
to join in progressively reducing the vapors that rose from the 
waters. At first, hypothetically, a deep warm mantle of cloud clothed 
the whole earth, and this shroud was thought to persist halfway down 
the geologic ages, giving sultry, lowering climates in all latitudes. At 
length, however, this mantle was pictured as giving place to rifted 
clouds and clearer skies, and still later to mild aridities, to be fol- 
lowed in turn by desert stages, and these, growing apace, led on to 


374 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the saharas of to-day, which are even now held by this school of 
thought to be creeping out persistently on the once fertile lands. 
Thus is reached our own time, when heat and air and moisture are 
all running low, putatively, and are thus foreshadowing the predes- 
tined end in the not distant future. 

Life history is thus made but an episode in the midst of this great 
declension from the too hot and the too much to the too cold and too 
little. The life period merely spans a lapse on the slope from excess 
to emaciation. 

The logic of all this is plausible, the premises once granted. Start- 
ing with the hypothetical postulates, the conclusions seem almost 
necessarily to follow. The details, indeed, may not all have been as 
mapped, but, the premises granted, the general course of progress 
was scarcely less than inevitable. Sources of delay and causes of 
deviation might, indeed, have been found in means that furnished a 
greater or less supply of air, or water, or heat to offset the waste, but 
the presumption of a downward trend carrying the whole along with 
it is not easily escaped. 

In point of fact, the general conception of a progressive declension 
dominated the geologic thought of the last century. Not only did it 
dominate the forecasts, but it gave direction to the interpretations of 
the geologic record, and in no small degree it unconsciously influ- 
enced the observations of geologic phenomena, and this domination 
continued well down to the close of the last century and is far from 
obsolete to-day. 

But logical and plausible as is this inherited picture of the history 
of the earth, it was hung on the particular hypothesis of the genesis 
of the earth that was then currently accepted. However logical, its 
logical strength was only that of the hypothesis on which it was hung. 
I say logical strength advisedly, for outside the logic of the concept 
there was always the appeal to the record. This appeal was made 
and was thought to be in the main confirmatory. The strata of high 
latitudes were found to contain relics of life of subtropical types, and 
this was found true not only of the very early ages, but of ages well 
down toward recent times. Figs and magnolias grew in Greenland 
as late as the Tertiary period. So impressive was the presence of 
subtropical plants in strata almost under the very edge of the Green- 
land ice cap, that it gave deep hold to the logical inferences with 
which it seemed to be so strikingly in consonance. Phenomena not 
so consonant with the concept were easily overlooked or lightly 
passed by, as is our wont when too much impressed by what must be. 
It is, however, a merit of modern science that it prompts us to put 
to the front that which is and to relegate that which merely must 
be to a secondary category. And so all along during the past century 
the inconsonant elements of the record were gathered as well as the 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 3875 


consonant. Most of the former were of the unobtrusive sort and 
awakened little questioning, but some of the facts were startling, 
some were indeed apparently quite incredible, and as a matter of 
fact were long subject to the suspicion of being the offspring of illu- 
sion or inaccuracy. Only very slowly under the influence of repeated 
confirmation did they gain credence. The gathering of this incon- 
sonant data gradually weakened the hold of the inherited concept and 
prepared the way for a reconsideration. 

Meanwhile, in the progress of physics, a serious source of doubt 
had arisen respecting the tenability of the gaseous basis of the con- 
cept. The older hypotheses of the origin of the earth were framed 
before the kinetic theory of gases came into currency. After the 
kinetic theory had been accepted, it was urged, notably by Johnstone 
Stoney, that the velocities of some of the molecules of the outer air 
must be such as to give rise to their escape, and thus to put a limit 
to the amount of atmosphere which the planet could hold. When a 
test of this type was brought to bear on the vast hot atmosphere 
assigned the primitive earth, it gave rise to doubt as to the physical 
tenability of the concept. 

Weakness also arose in another quarter. One of the main props 
of the gaseous and quasi-gaseous hypotheses of the earth’s origin, was 
the conclusion that a condensation from any other dispersed state 
than the gaseous or quasi-gaseous would lead to revolutions and 
rotations in directions opposite to those actually possessed by most 
of the planets and satellites. A closer examination of this deduction 
under the stimulus of the doubt that had arisen from the kinetic 
test showed weakness here also, and even a reversal of probabilities, 
for it appeared that a slow ingathering of matter from a scattered 
disk-like orbital state would give revolutions and rotations even 
more consonant with the actual facts than would centrifugal evolu- 
tion for a gaseous globe, as previously postulated. 

Thus, toward the close of the last century, there arose from differ- 
ent quarters cogent reasons for a restudy of the whole subject. 
Further scrutiny added new sources of doubt, and in the end the 
tenability of all the gaseous and quasi-gaseous hypotheses was chal- 
lenged and a new genus of hypotheses, based on orbital dynamics, 
in contradistinction from gaseous dynamics, was offered instead. 

It is not appropriate for me to say that this challenge was suc- 
cessfully supported, or that the older concepts of the earth’s origin 
are to be laid on the shelf. As an advocate of the method of multi- 
ple working hypotheses, it belongs to me rather to beg of you to 
keep in use—so far as you find in them any working quality—all 
hypotheses that yield any wholesome stimulus to inquiry. 

Much less would it be appropriate for me to affirm that any form 
of the newer concepts is entitled to take the place of the older in 


376 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


your complete confidence. The final adjudication of a genetic hypo- 

thesis of such a remote and complex an event as the birth of the 
earth and the solar system can only come of protracted scrutiny by 
means of diverse forms of searching analyses and trenchant logic, 
and of long and patient trial in testing the hypothesis by the multi- 
tudinous phenomena constantly coming to light from the earth, the 
solar system, and the heavens beyond. 

It is sufficient warrant for the present review, however, that not a 
few incisive students of celestial dynamics have been led to seriously 
reconsider the foundations of the hypotheses of earth genesis, and 
that not a few geologists have been led to scrutinize with renewed 
care the inferences and interpretations that have been hung upon 
past theories of earth genesis. Whatever may be your personal 
leanings, you will no doubt agree that it seems less permissible now 
to hang prophesies of the future upon challenged hypotheses of 
genesis than it might once have been, when a certain hypothesis or a 
certain class of hypotheses received the almost universal assent of 
those who seemed then best qualified to hold opinions respecting 
them. 

Tt does not seem to be going too far to say that whereas we for- 
merly seemed shut up to hypotheses of genesis that assigned the 
earth a gaseo-molten state at the start, it now seems to some of us 
at least that the earth may have inherited a quite different state from 
a slow growth by the ingathering of small bodies of a planetesimal 
nature. If views that are thus fundamentally diverse are permissible, 
and if these give rise to a wide range of alternative working concep- 
tions, we are freed from some of the constraints of interpretation 
that have hampered our reading of past history and colored our out- 
look upon the future. Let us, therefore, pass in brief review the 
states assigned the early earth by the newer conception of earth 
genesis that we may gain a concrete impression of the lines of inter- 
pretation it opens to us, and then let us turn to the critical phenomena 
of the actual record as the more solid basis for a forecast of the 
planet’s future. 

Quite in contrast with the older pictures of the primitive earth, 
the planetesimal hypothesis—and this is entitled to be taken as the 
type of theories based on concentration from a scattered orbital 
state—postulates a solid earth growing up slowly by accessions and 
coming to be clothed gradually with an atmosphere and hydrosphere. 
The earth, the air, and the water are made to grow up together from 
smaller to larger volumes without necessarily attaining a very high 
temperature. The sources that at the first had furnished the body 
of the ocean and the air, though they fell off as time went on, still 
continued to serve as means of replenishment, and to act as an offset 
to the familiar agencies of loss far down into the later ages, if indeed 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. OTT 


they are not still in function in some degree. And so, far from as- 
signing a vast atmospheric and oceanic supply at the start and bring- 
ing to bear on this a progressive depletion all down the ages, the 
newer view starts with a much more limited supply and rests on 
means of continued feeding as time goes on, and makes this feeding 
run hand in hand with the secular losses in more or less equal balance 
after the initial stages of growth were over. 

The question of the future, under this view, is not how long will 
the remnant of the original supply last, but rather, how long will 
the past and present degree of equilibrium between loss and gain 
remain effective? The equilibrium is held to be oscillatory but the 
limits of oscillation fall within the limits of the conditions of life. 
The specific question of the future, so far as our race is concerned, is, 
how long will such a degree of equilibrium as has prevailed in the 
past continue to preserve the critical conditions prerequisite to life? 

The question in this aspect turns us quite away from any serious 
concern respecting original abundance and centers attention on the 
geologic record itself as an index of past competencies. In particu- 
lar it turns attention on the agencies of equilibrium to see if there are 
signs of any fatal weakening of competency. Are the chief agencies 
which have controlled life conditions for tens of millions of years 
still in good working order and likely to continue effective for a 
long era yet to come, or do they show clear signs of declining power 
portending an early failure? 

Let us enter a little closer into a study of the specific factors on 
which life depends, though we may not go far. 

The ancient fear that the end of the earth will come by cataclysm 
is not yet obsolete nor is it theoretically quite impossible, but violent 
agencies are among the least to be feared. Volcanic or seismic con- 
vulsions may be imagined to put life in jeopardy as indeed they 
often actually do locally, but they really offer no serious menace to 
life in general, and they do not appear ever to have done so in the 
known ages. The spectacular destructiveness of these boisterous 
agencies deeply impresses the emotions, but they contribute but an 
infinitesimal fraction to a sober computation of the effective sources 
of loss of world life. The real peril, if peril there be to the whole 
world life, les in the deadly unbalancing of agencies of the quiet 
sort. 

The conditions essential to the maintenance of the habitability 
of the earth are many, but the more critical factors either lie in 
the atmosphere itself or are intimately associated with it. The fact 
of keenest interest is the narrowness of range within which the 
critical conditions are confined. Any of the constituents of the at- 
mosphere or all of them might easily, it would seem, be too scant or 
too abundant to be consistent with life as now organized. In a 


378 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


peculiar sense it would seem that this might be true of carbon di- 
oxide, for it is one of the least of the constituents and is one of 
the most active chemically, and has come thereby to be preeminently 
the critical constituent of the atmosphere. Some small proportion 
of this element is altogether necessary to plant life, and so to animal 
life dependent on plant life, while a large proportion of carbon 
dioxide would be fatal to air-breathing animals. If the three or 
four hundredths of one per cent now present in the air were lost 
all life would go with it; if it were increased to a few per cent the 
higher life would be suppressed or radically changed. And yet the 
theoretical sources of supply are abundant enough for imaginable 
disaster of the one order, while the agencies of depletion have theo- 
retical efficiency enough for imaginable disaster of the other order. 
But neither Scylla nor Charybdis has swallowed up the living king- 
dom. There seems little escape from the conclusion that ever since 
the birth of air-breathing life, some 30,000,000 or 40,000,000 years 
ago, let us say, the interplay of the opposing agencies of supply 
and depletion has been so balanced that neither fatal excess nor fatal 
deficiency has been permitted to cut short the history of the higher 
life. 

The dangers of excess or of deficiency of the other constituents 
of the air are indeed less narrow as named in percentages, but they 
are scarcely less real in theoretical possibilities. 

The well-being of life is also hemmed in between a suitable pro- 
portion of moisture, dependent on an adequate water surface, on the 
one hand and a diluvial excess on the other. Universal deluges 
and universal deserts would alike be disastrous to our race. A few 
thousand feet more of water depth or a few thousand feet less would 
alike exclude our race and seriously restrict the class of life to which 
we belong. 

In even a more serious way the habitability of the earth is condi- 
tioned on a range of mean temperature of some such measure as 100° 
C, roundly speaking. The higher life is in fact confined to a nar- 
rower range. This is scarcely 5 per cent of the range of natural 
temperatures on the earth and a still smaller per cent of the range 
in the heavens. A few miles above us and a few miles below us 
fatal temperatures prevail. It is deeply significant that the thermal 
states of the narrow zone of life on the face of the earth should have 
been kept within so close a range as to permit millions of species to 
follow one another in forming the great genealogical lines which lead 
continuously up from the primitive types to the present ones without | 
breakage of continuity in all the ages, while the prevailing tempera- 
tures a few miles below them and a few miles above them, as well as 
in space generally, would have been fatal. While this constant and 
necessary supply of heat has come from the sun, the control of tem- 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 379 


perature at the surface of the earth seems none the less to be inti- 
mately dependent on the atmosphere and to constitute a further index 
of its critical character. 

To appreciate the full significance of so effective a control of life 
conditions poised thus between excess and deficiency, with the danger 
line close on either hand, while the possibilities were so free and so — 
wide, there is need for some measure of the time through which the 
delicate poise has been held. But there are now no means for any 
close measure of the geologic ages; there are merely rough estimates 
which give the order of magnitude. Life was far advanced in its 
career when first a readable record was made; but yet, since that 
record began, 100,000 feet of sediments at least—not to choose the 
largest estimates—have been laid down by the slow methods of wash 
from the land and lodgment in the basins. The number of years this 
implies has been placed variously from 50,000,000 to 100,000,000, 
with, indeed, higher figures as well as lower. Merely to roughly 
scale the order of magnitude without pretense of accuracy, let us take 
the midway figure of 75,000,000 years as representative. Let this be 
divided into 15 periods which may be made to average 5,000,000 years 
each, and these will roughly represent the technical “ periods” of 
geologists. By this rough scale we may space out such of the great 
events as we need now to review. These events are such as tell us of 
the states of the atmosphere and of the temperatures that prevailed 
on the surface of the earth at a sufficient number of the periods to 
show the general tenor of past history in matters critical to life. 

As an index of arid conditions we naturally turn to the products 
of evaporation. In interpreting there is need to note that there may 
be small excesses of evaporation over precipitation without giving 
rise to appreciable deposits of evaporation products, for in almost 
all cases the area that collects rainfall is larger than the portion of 
the basin that actually holds it, because some point on the rim of the 
basin is almost inevitably lower than the rest, and this lowest point 
permits the accumulating waters to drain off to its level, so that it 
is only the smaller water surface thus left that is exposed to contin- 
uous evaporation and takes part in the concentration of dissolved sub- 
stances into beds of solid salt and gypsum. It is therefore fairly safe 
to infer a decidedly arid climate when beds of salt and gypsum are 
found spread over wide areas, especially if these also bear appro- 
priate physical characteristics and if the adjacent deposits are totally 
free of life or carry only fossils of such types of life as can tolerate 
a high degree of salinity, or such as show signs of depauperization 
by the adverse conditions of aridity and salinity. 

Now, extensive deposits of salt and gypsum are found in the Salt 
Range of India in strata of the Cambrian period, the earliest of the 
15 periods that make up our rough scale of 75,000,000 years. Because 


380 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


these salt-bearing strata le so near the beginning of the readable 
record of life they are singularly instructive, for they give an insight 
into climatic conditions well back toward the primitive state of 
things. They challenge at once the view that in these early ages the 
earth was swaddled in a dense vaporous atmosphere from pole to 
' pole, for under such a vaporous mantle a broad desert tract in India 
seems scarcely credible. 

If we come forward in time two periods to the deposits of Silurian 
times, we find great sheets of salt and gypsum underlying the St. 
Lawrence Basin in New York and westward, with a spread of many 
thousand square miles. In some parts of the accompanying beds 
there is complete barrenness of life; in some other parts the life 
seems to be pauperized, or to be only a remnant selected by hard con- 
ditions from an ampler fauna. The physical characters of the de- 
posits of sand, silt, and lime seem to add strength to the interpreta- 
tion that this great area where now lies a part of our great lake sys- 
tem was affected in Silurian times by an aridity that gave it scarcely 
less than a desert aspect. These signal facts join with those of the 
Salt Range of India in challenging the former picture of a universal 
envelope of vapor and cloud in all those early times, while it is in 
keeping with such a diversity of climate as has prevailed in later 
ages. 

In the next period there are formations that have been interpreted 
as implying desert conditions, but the evidence is less strong; and 
we pass on to certain stages of the sub-Carboniferous period next fol- 
lowing, wherein beds of salt and gypsum are found in Montana, 
Michigan, Nova Scotia, and Australia, thus implying wide but not 
general arid conditions. 

Passing on to the Permian and Triassic periods, near the middle 
of the geologic series, beds of salt and gypsum are found to be phe- 
nomenally prevalent on both the eastern and western continents, with 
a surprising range in latitude. The relative paucity as well as the 
peculiar characteristics of the life of those times seems equally to 
imply vicissitudes of climate in which aridity was a dominant ele- 
ment. There seems no tenable way to interpret these remarkable 
facts of the middle periods except by assuming an even greater prev- 
alence and intensity of aridity than obtains at the present day. 

So, too, at certain times in later periods, but at certain times only, 
the stratigraphic record implies atmospheres as arid as those of 
to-day ; not everywhere, indeed, but much as now, in particular areas 
and at certain horizons. 

These significant facts make up one group of phenomena; but there 
is another side to the picture. 

If the record be searched for facts of opposite import, they will 
come easily to hand. Indeed, as already noted, they seemed to the 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 381 


early geologists to be the more intrusive. In the early part of the 
record it seems peculiarly easy to find convincing evidences of stages 
marked by prevailing humidity, by great uniformity of climate, and 
by conditions congenial to subtropical life ranging through wide 
stretches of latitude. If we continued to center attention on these 
alone, the old view would now, as heretofore, seem to be sustained. 
But these evidences do not abound at all horizons, and the view is 
selective. Between these horizons lie the strata that bear evidences 
of marked aridity as well as those that bear the still more impressive 
evidences of low temperatures to which we shall turn in a moment. 

Combining the two sets of facts of diverse import, we seem forced 
to recognize that from the earliest known stages of distinct life record 
there have been times and places of pronounced aridity much as 
now, and sometimes even more intense, while at other times and 
places intervening between these, humidity has prevailed. 

This picture of alternations grows in vividness and strength if we 
turn from states of atmospheric moisture to states of temperature. 
The body of scientific men have rarely been more hesitant in accept- 
ing any interpretation of terrestrial phenomena than that of the 
glacial invasion of the lowlands of Europe and America in mid- 
latitudes when that view was first advanced by Louis Agassiz. In 
the face of the then prevalent view of general warmth as the domi- 
nant characteristic of all the earlier ages, it seemed beyond belief 
that great sheets of ice could have crept over large areas of the 
habitable part of Europe and America even in the geologic stage 
just preceding our own. The acceptance of this view was, however, 
made somewhai less difficult by the belief, also then prevalent, that 
the earth had greatly cooled down in the progress of the ages, and 
that concurrent with this the atmosphere had been much depleted 
by the formation of oxides, carbonates, coal, and carbonaceous mat- 
ter, and that the ocean had been reduced by hydration and by physi- 
cal penetration into the earth. By the combined influence of these 
it was easier to believe that a stage had been reached that made 
possible an epoch of exceptionally depressed temperature attended 
by glaciation. These special pleadings were in eminent harmony 
with the inherited view of a great thermal declension as the master 
fact of geologic history, and under this influence the ice age came to 
be generally regarded as but the first episode of a succession of 
~ secular winters upon which the earth was entering, a series destined 
to lead on to the total refrigeration of the earth. This presumption 
was furthermore abetted by the theory of a cooling sun. The cool- 
ing and depleting processes were naturally regarded as inevitably pro- 
gressive, and so the final doom of the earth seemed clearly fore- 
shadowed in the near future, geologically speaking. 


382 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


But opinion had scarcely more than settled down to this interpreta- 
tion, with a reluctant acceptance of the glacial evidence, when the 
geologists of Australia, of India, and of South Africa, severally and 
independently, and later those of South America, brought evidences 
of still earlier glaciation prevalent over wide areas in those low 
latitudes. The marks of glaciation were altogether typical and 
were traced up to and even somewhat beyond the tropical circles 
from both sides and in the same quarter of the globe, from Australia 
on the south and from India on the north. Moreover, all these cogent 
evidences were reported for strata referred to the Permian or Permo- 
Carboniferous times, i. e., from about the middle of our scale of 
technical time periods. For a score of years the body of geologists 
who could not personaily inspect the evidence doubted its interpreta- 
tion as surely indicating the presence of ice sheets in those low 
latitudes and at that early time, but the evidence under constantly 
renewed and broadened scrutiny by trained glacialists steadily grew 
till it became irrefutable. There seems now no rational escape from 
the conclusion that mantles of ice covered large areas in the penin- 
sula of India, in Australia, in the southern part of Africa, and in 
South America close upon the borders of the Tropics at a time roundly 
halfway back to the beginning of the readable record of life. 

On the basis of evidences of like kind and cogency, Strahan and 
Reusch, independently, have reported glacial beds in Norway at a 
much earlier geological horizon, but one not closely determinate. 
Willis and Blackwelder have described glacial deposits of early 
Cambrian age in the valley of the Yangtse-in China in latitude as 
low as 31° N. Howchin and David have described glacial forma- 
tions of similar age in Australia. In the last two cases the glacial 
beds lie beneath strata that bear Cambrian trilobites; in other words, 
they are at the very bottom of the fossil-bearing sediments, 15 
periods back, or 75,000,000 years ago, on our rough scale. Prof. 
Coleman has offered what he deems good evidence of glaciation 
much farther back at the base of the Huronian terrane in Canada, 
but some skepticism as to the interpretation still lingers. 

Even more pointedly than the epochs of aridity previously cited 
do these early epochs of glaciation seem irreconcilable with the old 
view of a hot earth, universally wrapped in a vaporeus mantle in 
early times. They favor, if they do 1fot force, the alternative view 
that the ancient climates were marked much as the more modern - 
ones have been by periodic and local oscillations and intensifications, 
and that life was able to survive all of these in some part of the 
globe, if not in most parts. This warrants the hope, if not the 
belief, that life may survive similar oscillations and intensifications 
again and again in the future as in the past. 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 383 


At the present time glaciation in the polar regions and on Alpine 
heights is contemporaneous with desert conditions in extensive belts 
where the systematic circulation of the atmosphere favors aridity. 
There are reasons for thinking that in the past glaciations and 
aridity were related to one another in some similar way, and that 
they cooperated to give an aspect of marked vicissitude to the 
climates of certain geological epochs. It is to be observed, however, 
that the epochs of glaciation now known are fewer than the epochs 
of aridity, and it is probable that aridity has been a more common 
phenomenon than glaciation. 

Set over against the adversities of desert and ice there were stages, 
as already noted, when abundant life, bearing all evidences of a 
warm-temperate or subtropical habitat, flourished in high latitudes. 
In Greenland, Spitzbergen, and other Arctic lands—and we have 
recently learned also in Antarctic lands—are found relics of life 
not known to be able to live except in a genial climate. These quite 
clearly point to subtropical conditions at certain former times 
where only frigidity now reigns. 

In the light of these contrasted states of ice and desert on the 
one hand and of geniality and moisture on the other, intervening 
between one another in unexpected latitudes, we seem forced to the 
view that profound climatic alternations followed one another 
throughout the whole stretch of known geologic time. These may 
have been attended by variations in the constitution, as well as the 
condition of the atmosphere. 

If we turn to the relations which the great waters have borne to 
the great lands, an analogous series of oscillations is presented; and 
there is ground to suspect that the oscillations of the climates had 
some casual connection with the oscillations of the land and sea. At 
no time since life began is there clear evidence of the absence of land, 
and certainly at no time is there evidence of the absence of an ocean, 
whatever theoretical views may be held of the earliest unknown 
ages. The conviction seems well sustained that the land areas of the 
Archean and Proterozoic eras were comparable to those of the pres- 
ent day both in extent and in limitations, in the sense that they were 
neither universal nor absent in these earliest known times. Follow- 
ing down the history, the lands seem at times to have been larger and 
at other times smaller than now. There appears to have been an 
unceasing contest between the agencies that made for the extension 
of the land and the agencies that made for the extension of the 
sea. While each gained temporarily on the other, complete victory 
never rested with either. From near the beginning of the read- 
able record there appears to have been an unbroken continuity of 
land life, and from a like early stage an unbroken continuity of 
marine life. Probably the history of both goes back thus unbroken 


384 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


far into the undeciphered eras which preceded the readable record, 
and no one to-day can safely affirm the precedence of either over the 
other on the basis of the physical record, either in time or in genesis, — 
whatever his theoretical leanings may be. 

Among the agencies assignable for the extension of the land are 
such as deform the earth and by deepening its basins and increasing 
its protrusions draw the water into the deeps and give relief and 
extent to the land. Among the agencies that make for the extension 
of the sea are the decay and erosion of the surface of the land and 
the girdling cut of the waves about its border. By the unceasing 
work of these gentle, but persistent, agencies, the land is brought 
low and the sea creeps out upon its borders. If the deforming of the 
earth body were held in abeyance for an indefinite period, the lower- 
ing of the land, the filling of the basins by the inwash and the 
spreading of the sea would inevitably submerge the entire surface of 
the globe and bring an end to all land life. Great progress in such 
sea transgression took place again and again until perhaps half the 
land was submerged, but before land life was entirely cut off or 
even very seriously threatened a regenerative movement in the body 
of the earth took place, the land was again protruded and extended 
and the sea again restricted. 

Here, then, also, there have been a series of reciprocal movements 
which, while they have brought alternate expansions of land life 
and of sea life, have notwithstanding conduced to the preservation 
of both under shifting stimulating conditions, and have thus main- 
tained the continuity of the two great divisions of life, if indeed 
they have not promoted the evolution of both by alternate stress and 
tension. 

It appears, then, in the large view that in each of the great groups 
of terrestrial conditions on which life is dependent, there has run 
through the ages, vast as they have been, a series of oscillatory move- 
ments that have brought profound changes again and again, but 
which have never permitted any of the disasters that seemed to be 
threatened by these movements to go far enough to compass the gen- 
eral extinction of life. These reciprocal movements seem to be 
dependent upon a balancing of the actions of the opposing agencies 
that has the aspect of a planetary equilibrium. It does not seem to 
me too much to regard it as an automatic regulative system. A 
clear insight into the intimate workings of the complex of agencies 
that cooperate in this regulative system is rather a task of the future 
than an attainment of the present, and I am not now justified in 
offering more than suggestions of what may prove to be among the 
main features of the system, in the hope that you will receive them 
with due reserve, 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 885 


The feature of profoundest importance from our racial point of 
view, the maintenance of the land against the incessant encroachments 
of the sea, seems to be assignable to internal agencies which at peri- 
odic intervals bring about a deformation of the earth’s body and a 
readjustment of the waters on its surface to the changed capacities of 
its basins. These actions involve changes also in the contact of the 
air with the earth substance which increases or diminishes the con- 
sumption of the air by chemical combination. At the same time, 
these deformations are probably related to volcanic and other ex- 
trusive actions which feed the atmosphere. How far this volcanic 
feeding is merely a return to the air of what had been absorbed 
earlier it may not be safe here to say, as opinion is not yet at one 
on this point, though the force of growing evidence seems to imply 
that at least a notable part of the volcanic gases are original. Final 
opinion on this point is dependent on what views shall ultimately 
prevail respecting the conditions in the interior of the earth, and 
these in turn are much dependent on the mode of origin of the earth. 
Perhaps it will be generally agreed that feeding from the interior is 
one of the sources of atmospheric supply, and that it helps to offset 
the depletion caused by chemical union with the earth substance; in 
other words, that the earth body gives out as well as takes in at- 
mospheric material. It is not apparent, however, that there is any 
special automatic balancing of these opposite processes, such as ap- 
pears to be requisite for maintaining the delicate adjustment on which 
the secular continuity of life depends. 

The ocean acts as a regulator of the atmosphere by alternately 
absorbing into itself and giving out atmospheric gases under the 
control of the equilibrium that exists between the gases in the water 
and in the air. This action is automatic and appears to be important. 
It has, however, its peculiarities and its limitations, and it does not 
seem to be wholly adequate, even when added to the preceding 
agencies. 

If it is possible at the present stage of inquiry to point to an addi- 
tional automatic action that promises to supplement the preceding 
in such a way as to make up a competent regulative mechanism, 
it seems to me most likely to lie in the high speed necessarily attained 
by some of the molecules of all atmospheres which causes them 
to escape from the gravity of the body about which they are gathered 
and to fly off into the sphere of control of some adjacent body, thus 
giving rise to an interchange of atmospheric matter. It seems safe 
to affirm that such interchanges prevail, but it remains to learn how 
effective these interchanges may be. The results of personal inquiries 
that have been in progress for some time have not yet been submitted 
to the full criticism of those best qualified to test them, and they can 


97578°—sm 1910——25 


386 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


cnly be drawn on here with reservation, but they seem at least to 
promise important help in solving the problem of a regulative system. 

A close analysis of the movements of the molecules of the outer 
atmosphere leads to the belief that the prevailing states there are 
distinctly different from the collisional states that prevail near the 
earth. The movements in the outer atmospheres seem to be in an 
essential part orbital in nature, and this orbital atmosphere may log- 
ically be supposed to occupy in an extremely attenuated way some 
large part of the whole sphere of the earth’s control. There should, 
under the same reasoning, be a similar orbital extension of the atmos- 
phere of the sun, and this extremely attenuated extension of the sun’s 
atmosphere should embrace the earth and its atmosphere. Under 
the laws of molecular activity, these two atmospheres should be inter- 
changing molecules at rates controlled by the equilibrium that ex- 
ists between them. It is logical to infer that any excess above this 
state of equilibrium that may at any time come fo affect the earth’s 
atmosphere would cause it to feed out into the sun’s sphere of control 
faster than the reverse feeding took place, and that any deficiency 
relative to the equilibrium state that might at any other time come 
to affect the earth’s atmosphere would lead to a deficient feeding out 
while it would facilitate a greater feeding in from the sun’s orbital 
atmosphere. If this logical inference is valid, and if it has the requi- 
site efficilency—which is a vital question yet to be settled—the main- 
tenance of the delicate atmospheric conditions requisite for the con- 
tinuity of life is automatically secured by a cosmic process of a 
fundamental nature. Under this view the future competency of our 
atmosphere is not left wholly dependent on losses and gains at the 
earth’s surface, but is abetted by a system of solar and interplanetary 
exchanges of a broadly cosmic order. The endyrance of the earth’s 
atmospheres is thus in a measure wrapped up in the continued efli- 
ciency of the sun’s activities. 

If the question of our future be thus wrapped up in the problem 
of solar endurance, weight must be given to the fact that the sun is 
sending forth daily prodigious measures of energy. But yet these 
are not wholly without some gains by way of partial offset. So far 
as present knowledge goes, however, the gains are greatly inferior to 
the losses. So long as the radiance of the sun was supposed to be 
dependent on ordinary chemical action, or on the fall of meteorites, 
or on self-contraction, it did not seem’ possible to forecast an en- 
durance of activity sufficient for the direct and indirect needs of ter- 
restrial life beyond a few million years. These few million years of 
probable endurance were of course a great advance on the estimates 
of the endurance of terrestrial conditions suitable for life worked 
out on the old method of estimate. But recent physical investiga- 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 887 


tions of a revolutionary character have disclosed sources of energy in 
radioactivity of an extremely high order. In the light of these dis- 
closures, the forecast of the sun’s probable power to energize sufli- 
ciently the activities of its own atmosphere and of ours, and to warm 
the earth adequately, is raised to an indeterminate order of mag- 
nitude. 

We thus find grounds for a complacent prophecy of the earth’s 
future habitability. This prophecy seems to me to gain strength 
from its appeal to a series of reciprocities between land and sea, be- 
tween earth and air, and between the planet and the solar center that 
seem to have been potent in all the history of the earth from its gen- 
esis to the present time. 

But if traditional fears from these domestic sources be dismissed, 
may we hold ourselves free from impending dangers from the heavens 
without? 

So far as present knowledge goes, one tangible possibility of dis- 
aster from without our system seems to be contingent; the possibility _ 
of collision with some celestial body, or, what is many times more 
contingent, such a close approach to some massive celestial body as 
to lead to serious disruptive effects. Within the solar system, the 
harmonies of movement already established are of such an order as 
to give assurance against disaster for incalculable ages. Comets do 
indeed pursue courses that may, theoretically at least, bring about 
collision, but comets do not usually appear to possess masses sufficient 
to work disaster to the life of the earth, as a whole, whatever local 
catastrophies might be suffered at the points of impact. The motions 
of the stars trend in diverse directions, so that collisions and close 
approaches between them seem, theoretically, possible and probable, 
if not inevitable. There are in the heavens also many nebule and 
perhaps other forms of scattered matter, and there are doubtless also 
dark bodies, all of which offer possibilities of collision. The appear- 
ance of new stars flashing out suddenly and then gradually dying 
away suggests the actual occurrence of collisions or disastrous ap- 
proaches. Though these seem destructive on their face, and are so, 
no doubt, it has been held that the close approach of suns is one 
of the regenerative processes of the heavens, and that by it old plane- 
tary systems are dispersed and new systems brought into being. One 
phase of the planetesimal hypothesis is built on this conception. Ti 
postulates the close approach of some massive body to our ancestral 
sun long ago, and that by this approach the sun’s former planetary 
system, if it had one, as is thought probable, was dispersed, and at the 
same time the matter for the present planetary system was thrown 
out into a nebulous orbital state by the explosive power resident in 
the sun aided by the differential pull of the great body that was 


388 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


passing near. However this may be, it must be conceded that in 
collision and close approach lie possibilities of ultimate disruption to 
the solar system and disaster to our earth. 

But here, as in other vital issues, the degree of danger is deter- 
mined by the time elements involved. How imminent is this lability 
to disaster ? 

The distances between the stars are so enormous that the contin- 

gencies of collision or disastrous approach are very remote. Although 
nothing but rough computations can be made, and even these must 
be based on assumptions whose validity is open to doubt, the chance 
of a given sun or planetary system falling on disaster from collision 
or close approach seems to be of some such order as once in some 
few billions of years. There is no star whose nearness to us or whose 
direction of motion is such as to appear to threaten the earth at any 
specific time in the future. There is only the general theoretical 
possibility or probability when time enough is allowed. 
_ While, therefore, there is to be, with little doubt, an end to the 
- earth as a planet, and while perhaps previous to that end a state in- 
hospitable to life may be reached, the forecast of these contingencies 
from the point of view herein taken places the event far ahead in the 
indeterminate future. The geologic analogies give fair ground for 
anticipating conditions congenial to life for millions or tens of mil- 
lions of years to come, not to urge the even greater possibilities. 

This answer to the question of the future habitability of the earth, 
even if the conditions remain congenial to man, does not necessarily 
carry the actual realization of the future opportunities thus open to 
our race. Congenial conditions granted, there still arise questions as 
to man’s continued biological adaptation, as to the tenacity of his 
vital powers and as to the consequences of his own choices of action. 
If an appeal be made to the record of the animal races for an argu- 
ment from analogy, it is easy to find some cases of marvelous endur- 
ance and some cases of very short records, while the majority fall 
between these extremes. Many families of animals persisted for 
millions of years, and the average record known to us is much greater 
than the record already made by man. On historical grounds, then, 
a long career can not be denied to man—neither can it be assured. It 
is an individual race problem. It is a special case in the problem of 
races in the largest sense of the term. 

In distinction from the animal races, two new factors of deep 
import enter into the problem of human endurance, one the power 
of a definite moral purpose, and the other the resources of research. 
No previous race has shown clear evidence that it was guided by 
moral purpose in seeking ends not immediately before it and not 
connected with its physical requirements. In the human race such 
moral purpose has risen into a declared distinctness. As it grows 


FUTURE HABITABILITY OF THE EARTH—CHAMBERLIN. 889 


with the higher development of the race, beyond question it will 
count in the perpetuity of man, or of the superman into which he 
may evolve. No doubt it will come to weigh more and more as the 
resources of helpful and harmful indulgence are increased by human 
ingenuity. New issues will arise as man is put to trial by new 
temptations to the deleterious and new promptings to rectitude. 
Organic ethics will quite certainly become more critical in deciding 
the strains that shall live on and the strains that shall perish, as the 
growing multiplicity of numbers brings upon the race with increasing 
stress those phases of the struggle for existence that are distinctively 
human. The ethical factor will, beyond question, be more fully rec- 
ognized as a source of perpetuity or as a cause of extinction, accord- 
ing as the criterion of the survival of the fittest shall render its unim- 
peachable verdict on what is organically good and what is organically 
evil, as determined by the actual working test. 

But to be most efficient, moral purpose must not only be shaped by 
the highest intelligence, it must be united in action with specific 
knowledge of the conditions under which it works and of the agencies 
which it may control. Herein lies the function of research, for re- 
search is to be looked upon as the sole reliable means of trustworthy 
knowledge. None of the earlier races made systematic inquiry into 
the conditions of life, nor did they consciously seek thereby to pro- 
tract their racial careers. What can research yet do for the extension 
of the career of man? We are witnesses of what it is beginning to 
do in making the forces of nature subservient to man’s purposes and 
in giving him command over the maladies that hedge him about. 
Can research master the secrets of vital endurance; can it reveal the 
mysteries of heredity; can it disclose the fundamental processes that 
condition the longevity of the race? The answer must be left to the 
future; but I take no risk in affirming that when moral purpose and 
research come to be the preeminent characteristics of our race by 
voluntary adoption and by the selective action of the survival of the 
fittest, and when these most potent attributes join in an unflagging 
endeavor to compass the highest development and the greatest. per- 
petuity of the race, the true era of humanity will really have been 
begun. 


ute BOEING, 
oares ‘labia 
© iy ia 
sy ttbioab, wi feat tia nom agaaxad la 
ot ai ies led 
AR np meer i 8.) 
Cheuonitatb axa tal ogo teico tot: aban ee. 
ce uk, oar ef nqiteaup, buowed five satya Prog fr a f 
fron AT@LILLAD Lo. Seas i at Ww ZH er 140 
suntan ptt toh aaet Leile dent ith orf 0 Inui ets dd Jo. oivatn 
(i ipokiugia et edu, bee. booger llenigagto fi dasha, asp, bos 
oa: teed yalidlron. fagiay gd vrs bogiea 
od ( yt ule od wag Jon, separ deep rae, Tarsus L dapinili deqner ee br ary 
silhorn yt Hig: woden niclaiing, of tamu’ Ji-,ovewaille tat Je id 9 
wivgoys be io. bie edaay iy. Aside. ap baat soitibaon oth te og halwe 
VE jot, vhriaikes, Yo mitingk odd esi, wigsull.. lovdaon. (ue ti doi 
ta Go neared te attaout ofinilos olye odjaa soni fodnot adap xi Aor ’ 
iz: vA LIN) by Pa paler wb ait BPG, ulate 9 ne) lo i Ai gulvbitan 
Draco. 1dawd) ye Waoinanos rradh Mabe site anil. do anothh 
2RStES htoy totewsn oe lad... 2reyteo leiden 
os wiiemad i ii duit fo eoeenedive ata a lS age toe 
Dun MMT oT OF Jae TWel jer lite eurhia to ral Mt 0 1 gilt, gris Sk i e 
Jvots oul opbol tal. xibelear, odt.cpsrw Pr eeaserericey | assiahy bate Ag 
90) (Some si-s0. Sooty bate La liv to alee od b tata pep sly atee wi. 
ity): sono) Lainounebryt odd senloeif sinas suieboend.to 
| tal, “f heii, some ad Tair ald ty tiivennel oad 
LWih. SOE G | Laaogr sspily dash msnigins ihe Laden onialei I ‘aie 
“lh goan Tio, 3.20 ‘iolompily Anpatnapatal atl $91 Od one them 
it ho juwrinigs. od to nottor evitosen ot 40 hens woitqgobay ae 
ay GeHuip sin. 1. gig paiudittie hopkogg Joounitdancd le faves , 
ni deolnete sib baw Jung otayabpdaaaky ok aah, PARTING OF WE a4 
[ sw Mia ont of) e081 abd tos ms 


i veil wil ect Tews Winans 
“i aH 


Ly 8 eras ar 
J te 
. as ? 


7s 


i } 
Mme TO, G 


AT ithilg4 é b a. 74 He « in ‘Lopes ils 
f P : = ee ——" 
3 : rit ry rita! HhHdUreat ie Ope T1e 

b- z ’ ; ‘ ; é « 
“a 4 ¢ 4 cit * inne - ih brid tela ca, “ 7s 
7 hn alwar vesdenee hep i wi 

te ain. FD ue vbr tixbely bat 

i att ; Chi sp eirets) epi Th hhh 
Rivral Porcir he 1 thie a dened dieing 
7 
‘av 

Toe e “f ) . y 


7 Aaa): %) ~ = Poe he eo ~ 7 Sale a Po, oo | on . . - al * aa 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA?—A REVIEW OF CURRENT 
RESEARCH IN ISOSTASY. 


[With 3 plates.] 
By BatLey WILLIS. 


What are the foundations of the earth? On what do mountains, 
continents, and ocean basins rest? When men build they look to it 
that the foundations are firm enough to support the weight of the 
structure, or the building crushes its foundation and falls. Are there 
any rocks firm enough to bear the weight of mountains or continents 
without crushing? 

The crushing strength of rocks, as ascertained in a testing ma- 
chine, varies from 8,000 to 20,000 pounds to the square inch, and 
their average density is such that the weight of a column 3 to 5 
miles high would crush its base. But among mountains there are 
many that are more than 3 miles high and some that exceed 5 miles. 
Their pyramidal form aids that portion of the foundation which is 
beneath the high peaks, but it has nevertheless been observed in tun- 
neling that the rocks are in a state of great strain, as was the case, 
for instance, with the granite penetrated by the Simplon Tunnel 
beneath the Alps. 

In the case of a plateau the form is that of a block, and where the 
height exceeds 3 miles the base probably approaches a crushed con- 
dition. Tibet thus stands above the general level of the Asiatic 
Continent. Asia itself may be described as a plateau, having an un- 
even surface, but rising on the average 3 to 4 miles above the bottoms 
of the ocean basins. Considered, then, as a mass whose base is on a 
level with the depths of the oceans, Asia is so high that its weight 
must exceed the load which can be supported by rocks, as we know 
them. The same is true of other continents. 

Thus it seems reasonable to think that the foundations or rocks 
beneath the continents may approach a crushed condition or may 
actually be crushed. 

Our thought has passed from mountains to plateaus and to conti- 
nents. The foundations of continents comprise one-fourth of the 

391 


392 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


earth’s outer crust. The three-fourths which underlie the ocean 
beds obviously are no exception to the conditions described. At 
depths of 3 miles or more the rocks beneath the ocean basins must 
also be loaded beyond the strength of rocks at the surface and must 
approach a crushed condition. 

This crushed condition is not, however, that of rocks which fall 
apart when crushed, for the foundations of continents and ocean 
beds are part of the solid earth and are continuous all about the 
sphere. There is, therefore, no space into which any crushed mass 
may crumble. The strength of the rocks may be overcome, but they 
can not fall apart. This condition has been reproduced experi- 
mentally and it has been shown that marble and even the firmest 
granite may be forced to change form, yet be held to a coherent solid. 
The rock under these conditions may be compared to wax, if only 
we bear in mind that it remains all the time a very strong solid. 

The zone of crushing without separating has been called the zone 
of flow or flowage, because the movement of any rock mass under 
such pressures is compared with that of a very stiff fluid. But the 
word flow conveys an idea of mobility, and is thus misleading. It is 
necessary constantly to insist that rocks in the zone of flowage are 
rigid solids. 

Solution plays an important part in the flow of rocks. Not that 
any large mass is dissolved at any particular time, but by the solu- 
tion of a minute grain or molecule, which then flows from the point 
at which it was dissolved to a point where it is redeposited. The 
condition which causes solution is a slight excess of pressure or of 
temperature or both; and deposition from solution follows where 
these slight excesses disappear. Rocks are composed of mineral 
particles which differ widely in solubility and under adequate differ- 
ences of pressure the less soluble may be granulated microscopically, 
whereas those crystals which are soluble in any moisture or mineral 
solution that may be present are dissolved and then recrystallized 
on a point that is less hard pressed. The individual element of 
motion is microscopic or even molecular, but the sum total of move- 
ments may affect a mass of subcontinental dimensions during a geo- 
logic epoch; that is to say, during a million years or several million 
years, more or less. 

Movements in the foundations of continents are exceedingly slow. 

In the zone of crushing, any rock mass of limited horizontal dimen- 
sions may be regarded as the base of a column that reaches to the 
surface of the earth. Being crushed by the weight of the superin- 
cumbent mass it seeks to spread sidewise; but it can not because each 
adjacent mass, which is the base of an equally heavy column, also 
seeks to spread in the same manner and to the same degree. If at 
any depth in the zone of crushing one mass be under a heavier load 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA ?—wlILLIS. 393 


than that borne by another adjacent to it, then the base of the 
heavier column will tend to spread with greater horizontal force 
than that exerted by the lighter column; but in order to cause move- 
ment, the excess of thrust from the heavier must be greater than the 
strength of the rocks under the lighter load. The last conclusion 
follows because the material against which the excess of horizontal 
pressure is directed is held to the condition of a rigid solid by the 
very load that crushes it. 

It may seem as though the approximate balance of lateral pres- 
sures in the foundations of mountains, continents, and ocean basins 
were sufficient to explain the apparent stability of terra firma. But 
it will not have escaped attentive thought that the pressure beneath 
the mass of the Tibetan Plateau is sufficient to cause rocks at its 
base to spread near sea level. Or that the continental plateaus stand 
so high that their weight approaches the crushing strength of ordi- 
nary rocks near the level of the oceanic plateaus beneath the waters. 
Any lateral pressures, which may exist at these levels, are not op- 
posed by lateral stress from an adjacent mass and stability depends 
upon the firmness of the rocks. Since the Tibetan Plateau and 
others stand, and since continents are stable, at least during very 
long periods of time, it would seem that rocks under these great 
loads must be stronger than the same rocks in the testing machine. 
This is no doubt to a certain extent true, and there is some experi- 
mental evidence to show that the rigidity of rocks increases greatly 
under high pressures. 

The resistance which any solid offers to a permanent change of form 
is known to physicists as the viscosity of the solid, and it may safely 
be said that the viscosity of a solid increases under pressures applied 
from all directions in. some ratio for each particular substance that 
is as yet unknown, but which, no doubt, gives the rigidity of steel to 
rocks a few miles below the surface of the earth. 

Here we must introduce the idea of time. There is evidence to 
indicate that the huge masses of continents are not firm enough to 
maintain their altitude permanently; that in the lapse of ages they 
do spread laterally with a glacier like motion; and that the spreading 
lowers the surface. When this happens to a continent that has 
already been reduced by erosion to a low plain, the conditions are 
peculiarly favorable for submergence of the land beneath the sea, as 
has repeatedly occurred in the history of continents. 

There is, furthermore, abundant evidence to show that at other 
times the bases of continents have been compressed laterally, squeezed, 
as it were. This effect has long been attributed to a contraction of 
the earth in cooling, as was first suggested by Dana, but the advances 
of geologic knowledge have greatly strengthened an old objection— 
namely, that contraction by cooling is inadequate to account for the 


394 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


amount of compression which the continents have suffered. While 
we know that continents have been squeezed, it is not known that 
ocean beds have been similarly affected. The broad flat ocean bot- 
toms have rather the form of surface of a mass which flattens and 
spreads under its own weight. The writer has suggested that the 
spreading masses below the oceans may squeeze the masses beneath 
the continents, and finds a cause therefor in the fact that a cubic 
mile of the former is heavier than one of the latter. This brings us 
to the idea of differences of density in the earth’s crust. 

As far back as 1880 an English physicist, Airy, entertained the 
idea that some parts of the earth’s crust might be heavier, some 
lighter, and in 1855 he contributed the suggestion to a discussion by 
Pratt of the attraction exerted by the Himalaya Mountains. In 
course of surveys in India it had been found that the great mass of 
that mountain range exerts an attraction, which was, however, much 
less than it should be according to calculation, if the mass beneath 
the Himalayas were of the same density as that beneath the penin- 
sula of India. Hence Airy and Pratt suggested that the mountains 
must be lighter.* 

When Pratt wrote in 1885 no one doubted but that the earth had 
cooled from a molten condition, become covered with a rigid crust, 
and finally assumed its present configuration with all the detail of 
ocean basins, continents, and mountains. Although Pratt and Airy 
did not wholly agree, they both explained the lightness of the moun- 
tains by reasoning based on the processes of cooling and floatation 
of the crust on the still fluid interior. Now that it is known that 
the earth has the rigidity of steel and can not possibly be liquid 
within, the basis of their reasoning has disappeared and their theories 
are no longer entertained; but the inference as to the lightness of the 
mountains has been confirmed not only in regard to the Himalayas. 
but for many other mountain ranges. It has also been shown that 
continental masses are relatively hight as compared with those be- 
neath the oceans. And it follows that if we think of a column be- 
neath the continent and one beneath the ocean extending down to a 
common level, the taller column of lighter material can be of the 
same weight as the shorter column of heavier material. The two 
columns might then balance each dther or be in equilibrium. 

It seemed probable to Dutton and Gilbert 20 years ago that this 
relation of equilibrium was characteristic of the masses that make 
up the outer earth. Dutton discussed the problem in the following 
terms: 


If the earth were composed of homogeneous matter, its normal figure of 
equilibrium, without strain, would be a true spheroid of revolution; but if 


1Ppratt, J. H. A treatise on Attractions, Laplace’s Functions, and the Figure of the 
Barth, 4th ed., pp. 98-94, 1871. : 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA ?—wmILLIS. 395 


heterogeneous, if some parts were denser or lighter than others, its normal 
figure would no longer be spheroidal. Where the lighter matter was accumu- 
lated there would be a tendency to bulge, and where the denser matter existed 
there would be a tendency to flatten or depress the surface. For this condition 
of equilibrium of figure, to which gravitation tends to reduce a planetary body, 
irrespective of whether it be homogeneous or not, I propose the name isostasy. 
* * * We may also use the corresponding adjective, isostatic. * * #* 
The question which I propose is: ‘‘ How nearly does the earth’s figure approach 
to isostasy ?”’* 

Gilbert,? in a measure, proposed an answer to Dutton’s question. 
He had been engaged in original studies of the rigidity or strength 
of the earth’s crust and had calculated that there was a limit to the 
mass which it could support without yielding. He expressed his 
view very conservatively, saying: 

It is believed that the following theorem or working hypothesis is worthy 
of consideration and of comparison with additional facts: Mountains, moun- 
tain ranges, and valleys of magnitude equivalent to mountains, exist generally 
in virtue of the rigidity of the earth’s crust; continents, continental plateaus, 
and oceanic basins exist in virtue of isostatic equilibrium in a crust hetero- 
geneous as to density. 


Researches as to the distribution of lighter and denser masses in 
the outer earth have been greatly extended and highly refined since 
1889. Dutton’s general law is recognized as true. The larger ele- 
vations and hollows of the earth’s surface are due to the balance of 
lighter and denser masses. Gilbert’s suggestion that mountain-like 
masses and hollows are rigidly supported, commands consideration 
by conservative students. It is, however, apparently contradicted by 
the exhaustive calculations of the geodesist, Hayford, who concludes 
that the balance postulated by Dutton extends to masses which are 
much smaller than any which Dutton or Gilbert. regarded as prob- 
ably in equilibrium. In order to understand the present state of the 
problem we may briefly review the methods that have been employed 
in making observations. 

Gravity is the force which causes bodies to fall toward the earth or 
a pendulum to swing. Its intensity may be measured by the velocity 
attained by a falling body at the end of a second, or by the number 
of swings that a pendulum of definite length will make in a definite 
time. The latter method of measurement is capable of very great 
accuracy and is used for all observations of the intensity of gravity 
on land. In order that the determinations may attain the desired 
precision and yet be carried out within a reasonable time, a highly 
specialized apparatus is used. The form employed by the Coast 


1 Dutton, C. HE. On some of the Greater Problems of Physical Geology. Phil. Soc. 
Wash., Bull., vol. 11, pp. 51-64, 1889. 

2Gilbert, G. R. The Strength of the Harth’s Crust (abstract). Geol. Soc. Am., Bull. 
vol. 1, pp. 28-25, 1889. 


396 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


and Geodetic Survey is shown in plate 1. A set of invariable 
pendulums is swung in an air-tight case in a partial vacuum, at a 
uniform temperature. An electrical flash apparatus makes the half- 
second beats of a chronometer visible and permits the observer to 
note when the beat coincides with a swing of the pendulum. The 
time of oscillation of the pendulum at the station where the intensity 
of gravity is to be ascertained is compared with the time of oscilla- 
tion under identical conditions at a station at which the intensity 
is known. The desired value of gravity is then calculated. 

The value thus obtained for the intensity of gravity at any par- 
ticular place can be compared with the intensity at other places only 
by making all the conditions of attraction the same for both places. 
Let it be supposed that any two results which are to be compared 
have been obtained at stations that differ in latitude, in altitude 
above sea, and in topographic surroundings. Then account must be 
- taken of all these conditions. 

Latitude and altitude both affect the distance from the earth’s 
center and gravity varies inversely as the square of that distance. 
Hence observations are reduced to sea level and are then compared 
with the normal value of gravity for the latitude of the observation 
according to a formula constructed by the German geodesist, Helmert. 

Suppose, for instance, that an observation for gravity had been 
made in a balloon over the sea. It would be necessary to correct 
the result for the altitude of the balloon and compare with the 
normal value given by Helmert’s formula for that latitude. This is 
what has been called the “ free-air reduction.” It is always made. 

The calculation of the influence of position and topographic sur- 
roundings involves theoretical postulates which distinguish three 
different methods. One may be described as the method of high 
rigidity, since it rests upon the postulate of a rigid earth of uniform 
density. The other two both develop from the assumption of iso- 
static equilibrium, but they differ in that according to one the balance 
is supposed to be complete, but according to the other it is partial. 
An illustration may serve to make the distinctions clearer. 

Let us transfer the place of observation from the balloon over the 
sea to the top of a lighthouse rising from sea level. The reduction - 
for elevation, the “ free-air reduction,” must be made as before, but 
correction must also be apphed for the mass of the lighthouse, which 
is an excess of material, added to and rigidly upheld by the rocks 
at sea level. It exerts an additional attraction, which must be de- 
ducted from the observed value in order to obtain the true value of 
gravity at sea level beneath the lighthouse. According to the pos- 
tulate of high rigidity, all elevations on the earth’s surface above 


1Tllustration kindly furnished by Mr. Geo. R. Putnam. 


"ALIAVYD ONINNSVAI HOS SNLVEVddY WNINGNAad 


CIR \\, SS STEER > 


IHM—0O16) ‘Hodey uejuosyyiWs 


"| aLlvid 


PLATE 2. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Willis. 


ree 
eter 


i 


HECKER’S APPARATUS FOR MEASURING GRAVITY AT SEA. 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA ?—WwILLIS. 397 


sea level are excesses of mass which exert a similar extra attraction. A 
similar correction must therefore be applied to all observations which 
are calculated under that hypothesis. This was the reasoning of 
Bouguer, a French mathematician, who calculated the gravity obser- 
vations made from 1736 to 1739 in Peru. The method is therefore 
known as Bouguer’s method, and the mathematical formula as 
Bouguer’s formula. 

Had the lhghthouse in this illustration not been an extra mass, 
added to the rock mass of its foundations, the correction for excess 
of mass should not have been made. But under the hypothesis of 
complete isostatic balance there is no excess of mass, since that hy- 
pothesis rests upon the assumption that all parts of the earth’s crust 
which are, we will say, a mile square have the same mass, the heights 
of the columns above some common level within the earth being 
inversely proportioned to the density of the materials. The common 
level of the bases of the columns may be 100 miles below sea level, 
or it might be the center of the earth. All columns of the same cross 
section rising from it to sea level or to the heights of the Hima- 
layas have the same mass by hypothesis. Hence there should be no 
correction for excess. The assumption of complete isostatic equi- 
librium is the basis of Hayford’s work, which we shall see is the 
most recent and most exhaustive investigation of the subject. We 
shall therefore refer to the method of reduction based on it as Hay- 
ford’s method. 

Some thinkers on this subject hold that isostatic dette Bi can 
not be complete for every hill and valley of the surface, nor even 
for every mountain. They admit, however, the assumption that ex- 
tensive masses, such as that of a whole mountain range or plateau, 
and defects of mass, such as that of the basin of the Black Sea, may 
be compensated or in equilibrium. The reasoning in this case pro- 
ceeds on the basis that the mass of any large feature would be bal- 
anced at the altitude of a “mean plain,” which is a hypothetical 
plain, that would be produced by leveling off the hills till the mass 
removed from them just filled the valleys. The total mass remains 
unchanged, since nothing has been added and nothing subtracted. 
The position of the mean plain depends upon the irregularities of 
the surface and is independent of the altitude of the station at which 
the observation for gravity is made. The mean plain may therefore 
lie above or below the station. If it les above, there is a mass be- 
tween the two which exerts an upward attraction and reduces the 
observed value of gravity by an amount which must be added to 
it; whereas if the mean plain lies below the station there is an 
excess of mass whose attraction is included in the original value 
observed and for which a deduction must be made. This method 
was first suggested by a French mathematician named Faye, and is 


398 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


known as Faye’s method; but Putnam and Gilbert were the first to 
put it in practice and to elaborate the idea of the mean plain. 

In the discussion of Hayford’s method it will be seen that there is 
a correction for topography which is analogous to that for mean 
plain in Faye’s method, but which has reference to a “theoretic 
plain that passes through the station.” 

The test which is applied to the results of calculations made under 
any one of these three different assumptions is that of agreement. 
All the values of gravity calculated by one and the same method 
should be the same. All the corrections which are applied are in- 
tended to eliminate from the original observation those items of 
attraction which may render the observed value greater or Jess than 
the normal value. Any difference which remains points to some 
factor that has been overlooked or to an erroneous assumption. That 
method of reduction which yields results in closest accord with each 
other is assumed to be nearest the truth. 

We shall first contrast the assumption of high rigidity with that 
of partial isostatic balance combined with partial rigid support; and 
then compare the latter with the assumption of completed isostatic 
balance, referring to the three methods, respectively, by the names of 
their authors, as Bouguer’s, Faye’s, and Hayford’s. 

In Bouguer’s time no one doubted but that the earth’s crust was 
very rigid. All masses above sea level were regarded as heaps upon 
the rigid crust and all depressions below sea level were taken to be 
defects of mass in the spheroid whose surface should correspond with 
that of the sea. Bouguer therefore corrected all observations for 
gravity by subtracting the attraction of the mass between the station 
and sea level. He obtained very small values. The intensity of 
gravity appeared to be so slight that Laplace, in the Mecanique 
Celeste, calculated the density of the material beneath the Andes as 
about equal to that of water, and he gravely suggested that the ob- 
served lightness might be due to great caverns within the volcanic 
zone. This suggestion is now recognized as quite untenable since 
rocks are not strong enough to maintain open spaces under the pres- 
sures that exist beneath the Andes. 

A great many observations for gravity were made during the 
century and a half between 1739 and 1895, and all, so far as the 
writer knows, were reduced by Bouguer’s method. They yielded a 
general result: The intensity of gravity on continents was found to 
be less than normal and was particularly low on high mountains; 
whereas the intensity was great on oceanic islands. Hence followed 
the conclusion that continents are light and suboceanic masses heavy. 

But Bouguer’s method yielded extreme results. Oceanic masses 
appeared to be very heavy and continents seemed excessively light, 
as Laplace’s calculation of the density of the Andes should have 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA ?—wILLIS. 399 


shown. The anomalies resulting from Bouguer’s formula led Faye, 
in 1880, to suggest that the correction for the attraction of the mass 
between the station and sea level should be omitted. He reasoned 
correctly that this mass is balanced and therefore is not equivalent 
to a weight which is carried by the rigidity of the crust. He dis- 
tinguished between the masses which are “compensated,” or, as we 
now say, balanced isostatically, and those which are in the nature of 
loads superimposed upon the crust, and he wrote: 

It must be clearly understood that even if the thickness of the continents 
above the sea has no place in the computation, this is not true, for example, 
of the mass of the great pyramid of Egypt, if one were to observe the oscilla- 
tions of the pendulum at its summit. In that case, after having reduced 
the observation to the level of the sea, it would be necessary to subtract the 
effect of attraction of the pyramid above the level of the ground. In the same 
manner, if Bouguer had carried his pendulum to the summit of Pechincha, 1,500 
meters above the level of Quito, it would be necessary to take account of the 
attraction of this mountain upon the pendulum of Bouguer. 

It will be noted that Faye regarded the mountain Pechincha as a 
mass upheld by rigidity, but considered compensation or balance to 
be the condition of the larger mass below the plain of Quito. He 
had thus been led by studies in geodesy to views which Gilbert 
reached in 1889 by independent geological investigations. But Gil- 
bert went further than Faye. He estimated the magnitude of the 
mass which the earth would support rigidly and placed it tentatively 
between 400 and 600 cubic miles. 

Faye’s method was first employed by Putnam in 1895 and inde- 
pendently by Gilbert, who collaborated with Putnam in the study of 
gravity observations made in the United States under the Coast and 
Geodetic Survey. 

Putnam’s results were also calculated according to Bouguer’s 
method by Gilbert as well as by himself. The comparison with 
Faye’s method was greatly in favor of the latter,-as the values ob- 
tained by Faye’s method were much more accordant, when reduced 
to sea level and the same latitude, than those obtained by Bouguer’s 
from the same observations. The comparison was so much to the dis- 
advantage of the older method that it may be said to be no longer 
worthy of consideration, and the very many results reached by it are 
of relatively slight value. 

The accordance of results by Faye’s method was so satisfactory 
that Putnam and Gilbert may be credited with having established 
beyond question the principle of isostasy as applied to the larger 
features of relief of the earth’s surface. The small number (35) of 
stations considered by them and the limitations necessarily placed 
upon the computations for corrections nevertheless lessen the value 
of their estimates as to the load that the earth could bear rigidly. 


400 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Putnam himself stated in his article that the residuals obtained by 
his computation was not precise. 

In order to understand this qualification of their results it is neces- 
sary to consider the method of reducing the “mean plain.” The 
position of that plain is such that the masses represented by hills, 
mountains, or plateaus above it are equal to the defects of mass 
represented by valleys or wider depressions below it. The position 
is calculated from topographic maps, whose accuracy thus enters 
into the computation, but a more important factor is the radius of 
the area about each station to which the estimate is extended. Gil- 
bert took a radius of 30 miles and Putnam a radius of 75 miles, both 
investigators being limited by the labor of computation to a smaller 
area about each station than they would have chosen. Hayford has 
since shown that the attractions due to topographic features out to 
a distance exceeding 2,500 miles are not negligible, and for a work 
on the intensity of gravity in the United States, which is the latest 
published, he has extended the computations to the features of the 
entire globe. Thus the detailed residuals of gravity, the differences 
from the normal, obtained by Putnam and Gilbert, are suggestive 
rather than precise. Those investigators proved the isostatic balance 
of large features, but they did not demonstrate how small a feature 
may be isostatically balanced or how large a feature may be rigidly 
supported. 

We have thus compared the hypothesis of high rigidity of the 
earth’s crust with that of partial isostatic balance, entirely to the 
advantage of the latter. There remains the hypothesis of complete 
isostatic compensation, which postulates that all parts of the earth 
are nicely balanced. Hayford has employed this assumption as the 
basis of the most refined and extensive investigations as yet made on 
the subject. 

The data which he has used are derived from the work of the 
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey and the computations have 
been executed by that organization. There are two elaborate investi- 
gations. One relates to deflections of the plumb line from the true 
vertical as determined at 507 stations of the precise triangulation 
which is the basis of the geodetic survey of the United States.1 The 
other investigation relates to observations with the pendulum for 
gravity.” 

Deflections of the plumb line are determined in precise triangula- 
tion by comparing the direction of the apparent vertical line with 
the true vertical which is fixed astronomically. 


1Hayford, J. F. The figure of the earth and isostasy from measurements in the 
United States. U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, 1909. 

2Hayford, J. F. Supplementary investigation in 1909 of the figure of the earth and 
isotasy. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, 1910. 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA ?—wILLIS. 401 


The deflection is due to lateral attraction, which may be exercised 
by mountain masses or by dense bodies within the earth’s crust lying 
on one side of the station, or by both sources of attraction. The in- 
fluence of topographic features, whose masses are more or less ac- 
curately -determinable, can be calculated. There then remains a 
residual attraction which is presumably due to a dense body, but 
before accepting that conclusion it is necessary to eliminate any 
erroneous assumption that might have a similar effect. 

Among the subsidiary investigations which Hayford made was one 
relating to the depth below sea level at which all the columns which 
extend downward from the earth’s surface are balanced. At one 
extreme he calculated the values of gravity on the assumption that 
this depth, which is called the depth of compensation, is zero; that is, 
there exists immediately below every elevation the full compensating 
defect of density and below every depression the full compensating 
excess of density necessary to balance the inequalities of height. At 
the other extreme he calculated the values of gravity on the assump- 
tion that the depth of compensation is infinity; that is to say, the 
earth is so rigid that there is no compensation in the finite radius. He 
also made similar computations for intermediate depths of the level 
of compensation. That which gave the most accordant values of 
gravity and which is therefore regarded as most reliable was at first 
ascertained to be 114 kilometers, but was subsequently corrected to 
120.9 kilometers. Helmert has arrived at the value of 123 kilometers 
by independent computations. There is, therefore, no doubt but that 
this value commands a certain confidence under the primary assump- 
tion of complete isostatic compensation. It may, however, be re- 
garded as an average, from which there are in fact greater or less 
variations in different localities, and it also depends upon the postu- 
late that the density of each individual column remains the same 
from the surface to the bottom at 123 kilometers. It is more probable 
that the density increases downward, and this would somewhat 
modify the value of 120.9 kilometers. Nevertheless this conception 
of a definite lower limit to the zone of compensation is of the highest 
value. At and below that depth all pressures due to gravity are by 
hypothesis equal. 

In calculating the topographic correction before making the vari- 
ous computations for the depth of compensation, Hayford took ac- 
count of all irregularities of the earth’s surface to a distance of 2,564 
miles from each station in all directions. The immense labor of these 
computations was brought within practicable limits by special 
methods devised to that end. As the stations ranged in position from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, the depths of the Atlantic and Pa- 
cific basins were included among the features considered, as well as 


97578°—smM 1910——26 


402 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the highlands and mountain ranges of the continent. In the direct 
studies for gravity the scope of these computations has been extended 
to the features of the entire earth. 

This topographic correction in Hayford’s. investigations occupies 
the place which the calculation of the “mean plain” takes in those 
of Putnam and Gilbert. But the plain of reference for the topo- 
graphic correction under the assumption of complete isostatic com- 
pensation is the “ theoretic plain ” at the altitude of the station indefi- 
nitely extended in all directions. The mean plain and the theoretic 
plain will rarely if ever coincide, and the corrections therefore have 
different values. It is much to be desired that the “mean plain” 
correction and Faye’s method, as used by Putnam and Gilbert, should 
be applied to all available data with the scope and detail employed 
by Hayford in order that we may have a comparison of the two 
methods on equally reliable results. The reason for this statement 
will appear presently in considering certain geological data that bear 
on the choice of method. 

Hayford found that at each station there remained residual de- 
flections of the plumb line after all the corrections had been made, and 
he regarded these residuals as evidence of departures from complete 
isostatic compensation. He says on this point: 

For the United States and adjacent areas it is safe to conclude from the 
evidence just summarized that the isostatic compensation is so nearly complete 
on an average that the deflections of the vertical are thereby reduced to less 
than one-tenth of the mean yalue which they would have if no isostatic com- 
pensation existed. One may properly characterize the isostatic compensation 
as departing on an average less than one-tenth from completeness or perfection. 
This statement should not be interpreted as meaning that there is everywhere 
a slight deficiency in compensation. It is probable that under some areas there 
is Overcompensation as well as undercompensation in others. 

Interpreting the preceding estimate in terms of altitude, Hayford 
places the average departure for the Continent of North America 
from that altitude which would correspond to perfect compensation 
at 250 feet. He further states that the maximum horizontal extent 
which a feature, such as a mountain, can have and escape compensa- 
tion is between a square mile and a square degree. 

It is evident that Hayford’s studies on isostasy exceed all previous 
ones in exhaustive detail and in precision. Nevertheless there are 
geological considerations which suggest that the assumption of com- 
plete compensation is less satisfactory as a basis of reasoning than 
that of partial compensation and partial rigidity. 

To present these considerations we must proceed from the fact that 
the features of continents are not permanent. They are the transient 
effects of two processes, uplift and erosion, which are opposed to each 
other, and which act intermittently. During certain epochs, of 
which the present is one, uplift has been dominant. Then continents 


Smithsonian Re 


Cleveland 


in metres. 


Mt. Hamilton 
rences, observed minus computed gravity: 


2 
= | 
3 & 
oa: 
Bae 
Qo 8 

<= 

oO 


Philadelphia 
N Princeton 


Uy 
Zp Br. 


Pa: 


ninus compuled gravity 
anly (dashed line). 


THE NORRIS PETERS CO., WASHINGTON, D.C 


Smithsonian Report, 1910—Willis. 


Plate 3, 
Fig.1. “6 
ig i: 
3000 BE Yi +200 
2000 yf Z 7/7 : Stations in Latitude 41° to 45° N. : ; 
1000 YY Yj > Yy f i : is § a 
Sea LZ “4 Reduced for elevation £ UVV|VVVUIIIEJIExx==_—™ WZ ne ZZ ZZ aa cree MW bill Uhl prasecane 10 z i 


“ses@err"” 


¢ il 100 
; ; -200 & 
. 3 

; = 300 
3 


4000 


Pleasant Valley 


rences, observed minus computed gravity 4 


& 
15) 
3000 My +200 
8 | 2 
3 r £ b 3 Ss ‘ 
3 ra 6 3 2 a 3 5 
° " « © § 

@ v, rs 8 = = c $ 3 3 2 
4 a g 3 - E i: = 
FY ii § E 2 > a sé 
RY = a 5 JS 
Ma > oes Ls > a ee fe Z 
Sew emge oe = 2 

7 A cms, saat a i ee SS  — eee x 

\-feauced for elevation tie ~~’. ee pasar 
ewe 
$0 
2 yu , ; : ‘ 
eee po** Stations in Latitude 38 to 41 N. 
aad a Tae 
a 


Spann 


300 


Diagrams showing relative positions of stations in elevation and longitude and differences observed minus computed gravity 
when sea level reduction is made by Bouguer's formula (dotted line), ar by correction for elevation anly (dashed line). 
(Denver is slightly displaced in longitude). 


Fig. 3. 


Asia Pavific Ocean North America Atlantic Ocean Africa +300 
Australia . < 
A . 
2 4 4 
* a oy 
3 % 3 £ $3 222 “a 2 
9 8 8 Pc) oe Pa 38 5 8 
pe 2 o o & & is) 
= —— 
‘ < 


Scale of differences in dynes 


—Differences, observed computed gravity, from C. and G. Survey observations. 
Using Bouguer’s reduction to sea level.....-...-..------ 
Faye's “ Mo ee 


JME NORRIS PETERS CO., WASHINGTON, D.C 


DIAGRAMS ILLUSTRATING THE RESULTS OF PENDULUM OBSERVATIONS ACCORDING TO PUTNAM. 


e+ tes 


“A 


Stations batiiuge” 38 t» 41 WN 
“* val f ‘e - 
Pr -, 
(MAMMA ret ans netlirpAn repr li emeicey obeeeeed a 
q op siyam » imoahalsheay levi) (ew, mele corresiiun Me olerum 
Gigikos A Yeowlaash yServoie oh ss sot} 


( © pit 


nee? of a? 


hs 


*~ 
s 
co 

> 


Fae DiTeet Ube) eet 4ia1g etapa herede suarrdtil- 
— on lorol con 4) gultqmtenn 5 emergent gale 
a - koget “ 


tT ANT AM TAMARAD CAEL AVATIONS ACCOMMING TO PUERAM 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA ?—wlILLIS. 403 


have been large and mountain chains both numerous and high. At 
present continents are unusually large and mountains are unusually 
elevated. During other much longer periods erosion has exceeded 
uplift. Then continents have become low and featureless; great 
plains have prevailed; and in consequence of slight subsidence exten- 
sive lands have been submerged. These are facts of the geological 
record which admit of no doubt. | ; 

In this play of processes any particular part of the earth’s surface 
may reach just that altitude at which it is in perfect isostatic balance, 
but it is not probable that the equilibrium can be long maintained. 
If the High Plateaus of Utah be in general in isostatic balance, then 
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado must be too light by the weight 
of the rock removed in carving it out of the plateau. It is, further- 
more, certain that the Grand Canyon is but the beginning of that 
erosion which will eventually remove as much of the mass of the 
High Plateaus as les above a plain, which will slope gently from 
no great altitude to sea level. If the region is now in isostatic balance, 
it will then be out of balance. Or, to consider another case: It is a 
commonly accepted fact among physiographers of the present day 
that the Appalachian region of the eastern United States was a low 
plain during the Cretaceous and early Tertiary periods. The plain 
is now warped up to 4,000 feet, more or less, above sea. If it is now 
in isostatic balance, it was out of balance during the long lapse of 
time of the periods named. 

It is reasonable to link the movements which are expressed in the 
warped surfaces of continents with the stresses that are set up by 
disturbance of isostatic balance. It is probable that the stresses 
directly or indirectly cause the movements. But the effect is neither 
immediate nor constant. The disturbing process, erosion, is a very 
slow process. The plains which it produces endure during a geologic 
age. The earth is sufficiently rigid to be very slow in responding to 
the stress. 

However, if the hypothetical relation of cause and effect exists 
between isostatic stress and warping, it is highly probable that equi- 
librium is most nearly perfect at the culmination of movements of ele- 
vation, such as the existing relief presumably represents. Valleys 
excavated by erosion represent disturbances of that equilibrium, 
which therefore can not be perfect in detail, or even very nearly so, 
as Hayford assumes and calculates, but the mass of any large area, 
such as the Great Plains of central North America, or the High 
Plateaus of Utah, is very probably nearly in equilibrium, considered 
as a mass and reduced to “ mean plain.” 

Geological considerations thus afford reason to prefer the method of 
reduction employed by Putnam and Gilbert, the Faye reduction, 
rather than that used by Hayford. 


404 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The geological evidence which has been cited to show that iso- 
static equilibrium can not well exist in detail may be regarded as 
demonstrating a certain rigidity of the earth’s crust, which is most 
severely taxed when erosion has planed away the compensating 
heights to the nearest possible approach to level plains. It is inter- 
esting to note that, per contra, the isostatic balance is probably most 
nearly complete in regions of most vigorous mountain growth, or 
for the continents as a whole is most perfect at a time like the pres- 
ent, when uplift is most general. If the disturbing process of ero- 
sion could be eliminated from continental activities the uplifts and 
subsidences would establish perfect equilibrium or a close approach 
to it. Now erosion has no effect over those portions of the ocean 
basins which are beyond the reach of the sediments that surround 
the-continents and which occupy nearly three-fourths of the surface 
of the globe. These areas are depressed because they are heavy, 
according to the hypothesis of isostasy, and should be depressed 
more or less according to the density of the underlying masses. 
The adjustment should be nearly or quite complete except where 
disturbed by vulcanism or by other special stresses. It is, there- 
fore, of great interest to determine the law of distribution of density 
beneath the oceans in relation to the depth of the waters, apart from 
the interest which les in the comparison of oceanic gravitation with 
that of continents. 

As it is impossible to observe a pendulum on board ship measure- 
ments of gravity in ocean areas were restricted to oceanic islands 
until recently, when they were made possible on the water by a 
method in which the pressure of the air as shown by a barometer 
is compared with the pressure of the air as determined by the boiling 
point of water. 

In measuring the air pressure with a barometer the air is balanced 
by the column of mercury, which will be somewhat shorter at a 
place where the intensity of gravity is high than at a point where 
the intensity is less. If the air pressure be measured by observing 
the boiling point of water, the result is independent of any influence 
of gravity upon the apparatus. By using both methods at a station 
the effect of gravity on the barometer at that station can be ascer- 
tained, and by comparing the effects obtained at various stations 
relative intensities are found. 

This method, which was originally invented by the German physi- 
cist Mohn, was adapted to oceanic work by Dr. E. O. Hecker, who 
devised an elaborate apparatus for the purpose. It consists of five 
mercurial barometers which are hung in a metal plate swung on 
gimbals and which are so illuminated that the movements of the 
upper surface of the mercury are registered on a photographic film. 
The record is a wavy line, since the barometers are constantly agi- 


WHAT IS TERRA FIRMA ?—wilILLISs. 405 


tated by the motion of the ship, but with the aid of a special appa- 
ratus which registers that motion the effect on the barometer and 
their actual reading can be ascertained. (PI. 2.) 

Hecker took numerous observations on voyages from Lisbon to 
Bahia, from Bremerhaven through the Mediterranean and Suez 
Canal to Sidney, from Sidney via New Zealand, Tutuila, and the 
Sandwich Islands to San Francisco, and thence back to Japan. 
Apart from certain anomalies in volcanic districts and in the Tonga 
Deep, which is a vigorous earthquake center, the results correspond 
with what the theory of isostasy requires. The intensity of gravity 
over the ocean basins is everywhere normal. That is to say, there is 
the same mass beneath each part of the ocean surface; each such 
mass or column is composed of two parts, water above and rock be- 
low. The shorter the rock part, or the deeper the water, the heavier 
or denser the rock part must be, or, putting the relation in terms of 
isostatic balance, we may say the denser the rock the deeper the 
hollow in the earth’s surface. 

The confirmation of the isostatic law for the oceanic basins is of 
great importance in supporting the probability of a similar balance 
for the continents against the ocean basins and within the conti- 
nental masses as well. 

The present state of investigation into the subject of isostasy may 
reasonably be summed up as follows: 

It is demonstrated that the larger masses of the outer earth, above 
a zone 120 kilometers deep, strive toward isostatic equilibrium. 
The condition of perfect balance has been most nearly attained 
within the ocean basins; the general balance of the continental 
plateaus and of the broad features of relief is at present also nearly 
perfect. If so, it is probable that the culmination of this mountain- 
building epoch is approaching, or is past. 

Erosion is a process which destroys those elevations of the conti- 
nental surface which appear to be essential to equilibrium, and which 
are probably a result of the effort toward it. The balance at any 
time is disturbed to the extent that erosion exceeds uplift. The long 
periods when, according to geologic evidence, lands have been low 
and featureless, have been periods of failure of equilibrium, periods 
of stress, when the low continental masses resisted uplift by virtue 
of rigidity. 

Isostasy and rigidity both are conditions of the earth’s mass. 
Their relative effects in the changes of stress in the earth vary with 
the state of uplift or erosion, and it is an interesting coincidence that 
intelligent research should investigate the condition during an epoch 
when equilibrium is most nearly complete and rigidity least severely - 
stressed. But we may not overlook the fact that this condition is 
but a transient one. 


406 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


If we apply these considerations to the question with which this 
review began, What are the foundations of the earth? We may 
answer: The foundations are solid rock, which is self-crushed to a 
depth of 120 kilometers, more or less, which is rendered sufficiently 
rigid by pressure to maintain its form during prolonged geologic 
periods with but very slight change, in spite of stresses occasioned 
by erosion of continental reliefs, but which is capable of movements 
that from time to time result in the gradual elevation of continents 
and the more vigorous uplifts of mountains through which isostatic 
equilibrium is restored. 


TRANSPIRATION AND THE ASCENT OF SAP.t 


By Henry H. Drxon, Se. D., F. R. §., 
Professor of Botany in the University of Dublin. 


The water of the transpiration stream enters at the roots, passes 
up the stem, and is given off from the leaves. It will be convenient 
to discuss the processes taking place in each of these organs sepa- 
rately, so far as they affect the stream, and then consider how these 
processes are correlated. 

In regard to the exhalation of water vapor from the leaves, early 
experimenters have shown that cuticular transpiration is usually 
insignificant compared with diastomatic diffusion. The efficiency of 
diastomatic transpiration was first clearly explained by Brown and 
Escombe.* 

The minute cross sections of the openings of stomata and the com- 
paratively large area occupied by the practically impermeable cuticle 
made it difficult to understand how the observed quantities of water 
escape from the leaf. These authors showed, however, that an unex- 
pected law governs the diffusion of water vapor through a number of 
minute perforations in an impermeable membrane. According to 
this law it follows that the amount which diffuses through the perfo- 
rations is not only, as one would on first thoughts expect, proportional 
to the sum of their areas, but may vastly exceed this proportionality ; 
and consequently the diffusion through a number of minute pores, like 
the stomata, will be much greater than through one large aperture 
having a cross Section equal to the sum of the areas of the stomata. 

In order to obtain a clearer idea of this remarkable result, we will 
consider in a general way the state of affairs around one stoma, so 
far as water vapor is concerned. At the level of the stoma the water 
vapor has a certain density—i. e., the water molecules are more or less 
crowded, depending on the state of saturation of the external space 


1 Reprinted, by permission, in abridged form, from Progressus Rei Botanice. ~ Heraus- 
gegeben von der Association Internationale des Botanistes, redigiert von Dr. J. P. Lotsy. 
Dritter Band. Verlag von Gustav Fischer in Jena 1909. 

2 Brown and Escombe, Static Diffusion of Gases and Liquids in Relation to the Assimi- 
lation of Carbon and Translocation in Plants. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. B., vol. 193, 
pp. 223-292, 1900, of which an abstract appeared in the Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. 66, and in 
Ann. of Bot., vol. 14, Sept., 1900, pp. 537-542. 


407 


408 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


and the amount of water vapor in the stomatal chamber. At some 
distance outside the stoma the crowding depends solely on the state of 
saturation of the outside space. When the density outside is less than 
that at the level of the stoma there will be a gradient of density estab- 
lished extending outward from the stoma depending on the drift of 
water molecules from the more crowded level at the stoma to the less 
dense vapor outside. If we consider a point (a, fig. 1) immediately 
over the middle of the stoma, the water vapor there will have a cer- 
tain density intermediate between that of the outside space and that 
in the stoma. AI] over the middle of the stoma places of the same 
density of water vapor will be approximately equally removed from 
the stoma, since these places lie in the general drift of water mole- 
cules from the stoma outward. Toward the margin of the opening, 
however, conditions are different. The molecules, jostling against 
each other as they issue from the stoma, tend to travel laterally as 
well as straight out from the stoma, so that the crowding at the mar- 
gin is less intense than over the middle; hence a place (a@’) having 
the same density as (a) will be closer to the stoma. By connecting 
up the points of the same den- 
sity or crowding we get a 
curve like a’ a a’, which rep- 
resents the section of a layer 
(or shell) of equal density 
arching over the stoma. In 
the same way at a distance 
somewhat more removed from 
the stoma, there will be a layer 
of less density, and this layer will be at a greater distance from the 
middle of the stoma than it is from its margin. So we may imagine 
a series of layers or shells of diminishing density overarching each 
transpiring stoma, such are are represented in section in figure 1. Of 
course, in reality the higher density within grades insensibly into the 
lower density outside; this gradient of density, or crowding of the 
water molecules, is steeper near the margin than over the middle of 
the stoma. From this it follows that the flow of molecules outward 
is less obstructed on the margins. Consequently greater numbers 
escape there. In other words, the margin is more efficient in trans- 
mitting water vapor than the middle region of the stoma. As the 
size of an aperture is reduced the relation of its margin te its area is 
increased ; for the value of 2 77 does not decrease as fast as 7? when 7 
is reduced. So, for a very small aperture like a stoma, the marginal 
diffusion is very large compared to that over its cross section, and 
hence the diffusion from a stoma is exceptionally efficient. 

It will be readily seen that in order to maintain. the efficiency of 
the marginal diffusion on the outside it is necessary that the diffu- 
sion streams from adjoining stomata should not interfere with one 


Fic. 1. 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 409 


another. This necessitates a certain interval between the openings. 
Brown and Escombe found that a membrane of 1 square centimeter 
area, perforated with 100 holes 0.38 millimeter diameter and 1 milli- 
meter apart, transmitted by diffusion under identical conditions as 
much vapor as an open tube of the same cross section, although the 
total area of the holes was only 11.34 per cent of the cross section of 
the tube. When the distance between these holes is increased their 
efficiency in diffusion rapidly increases; thus, according to these 
authors, holes of the same diameter 6 millimeters apart on a mem- 
brane 1 square centimeter in size transmitted one-fifth as much as the 
open tube, while the total transmitting area was reduced by the inter- 
position of the membrane to 0.3 per cent of the whole cross section. 
Figures like these will enable us to form some idea of the efficiency 
of a leaf. Brown and Escombe,! taking as an example a leaf of Heli- 
anthus in which the average area of the stomatal opening is 908107 
square millimeters (= a circle 0.0107 millimeter diameter) and the 
spacing of the apertures 8 to 10 diameters, and allowing for the 
resistance of the stomatal tube (which leads through the epidermis), 
found that the amount of diffusion from a square meter could be as 
much as 1,730 cubic centimeters of water per hour, when the state of 
saturation of the surrounding space was one-fourth of that of the 
spaces within the leaf. The greatest amount of transpiration observed 
in the same time was 276 cubic centimeters. This clearly shows that it 
is not the resistance offered by the stomata to diffusion which puts 
the limit on transpiration in still air. * * * 

The considerations just stated show that the stomata when open 
provide ample means for the exit of water vapor from the inter- 
cellular spaces of the leaves. We will now proceed to inquire into 
the physical conditions under which the water vapor enters these 
spaces. 

As long as the spaces are not saturated there will be a flux of 
water molecules from the adjoining moist surfaces into the spaces, 
since the vapor pressure of the water imbibed by the cell membranes 
of the mesophyll cells there exceeds the vapor pressure in the ad- 
joining intercellular spaces. How is this loss made good? On first 
thoughts it might appear impossible for pure water to pass easily 
from the cells which possess a considerable osmotic pressure within 
their more or less perfect semipermeable membranes, and we know 
experimentally it is not possible to extract water from them by os- 
mosis unless the pressure of their solutions is balanced by an equal 
external osmotic pressure. This balancing pressure may amount to 
several atmospheres.? While this is true in the case of abstracting 

1 Brown and Escombe, loc. cit. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., p. 279. 

2H. H. Dixon, Role of Osmosis in Transpiration. Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., ser. 3, vol. 
3, 1896, p. 774, and Notes from the Botanical School, Trinity College, Dublin, No. 2, p. 


42; Idem, A Transpiration Model. Proc. Roy. Dub. Soec., vol. 10, N. S., 19038, p. 119, and 
Notes from the Botanical School, Trin. Coll., Dub., No. 6, p. 222. 


410 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


water from the cell so as to diminish its total water content, quite 
a small difference of pressure will cause water to move across the cell 
when it is distended to its maximum with water. The osmotic pres- 
sure of the cell then acts simply as a force pushing the protoplasmic 
lining against its walls, while the water on one side of the cell is free 
to move across to the other side except for the resistance it expe- 
riences in passing through the cell walls and protoplasm. In the 
present instance this force is the difference of vapor pressure existing 
on the inner and the outer, or evaporating, side of the mesophyll cell. 
It might happen that this difference would be sufficient to almost 
keep the wall on the evaporating side flooded with water, and then 
evaporation into the intercellular space would take place as if from 
a free liquid surface; or, if evaporation proceeded more rapidly, the 
liquid surface might retreat into the substance of the evaporating 
wall. Then the capillary or imbibitional properties of the wall would 
exert a force drawing the water through the cell and bringing it to 
the surface of evaporation. The retreat of the water surface would 
proceed till the capillary forces so produced could bring forward 
water as fast as it evaporated from the surface and a steady state 
were arrived at. 

According to this point of view the submicroscopic spaces occu- 
pied by the imbibed water in the cell walls are regarded as intensely 
minute capillary passages. When water is lost, the surface of that 
which remains behind retreats in the form of innumerable menisci 
into these spaces. The capillary forces intensify as these menisci 
increase the sharpness of their curvature, and may attain an ex- 
tremely high value owing to the fineness of the texture of the cellu- 
lose. The contraction of cellulose on drying, involving the reduc- 
tion of these passages, enhances this effect so that the capillary trac- 
tion drawing the water from the cell within may become enormous. 

If the supply coming into the cells were small compared with the 
evaporation, it might be that the steady state would not be attained 
until the capillary forces, bringing water forward as it evaporated, 
had actually reduced the volume of water in the cell and conse- 
quently reduced its turgor. Under these conditions we would have 
the capillary forces of the outer cell wall pitted against the osmotic 
solutions in the cell itself, and, if exerting a superior force, drawing 
water into and across the cell, now somewhat diminished in size and 
containing a more concentrated ‘solution; but, all the same, the flow 
across the cell is determined by the difference of vapor pressure on 
its opposite sides. * * * 

The most vexed problem of the ascent of sap is how the water 
rises in the stem to fill the trachee of the leaves. 

Botanists have sought solutions of this problem in two directions, 
viz: (1) In the energy transformations taking place in the living 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 411 


parts of the stem, namely, in the cells of the wood and of the medul- 
lary rays, acting to raise the water, and (2) in the energy trans- 
mitted and applied by means of the physical properties of the con- 
ducting tracts and of the water stream itself, not necessarily involv- 
ing any special vital activity on the part of the cells of the stem. 
Those hypotheses which belong to the first category may be dis- 
tinguished as the vital and those of the second as the physical theories 
of the ascent of sap, 


PHYSICAL THEORIES. 


The vital hypotheses of the ascent of the transpiration current 
take no direct account of the inflow of energy at the leaves. The 
entire sap-lifting force is applied in the stem. This appears to hold 
good for all the vital hypotheses with the exception of that of Ewart, 
who admits that possibly some of the energy needed to raise the 
water may be directly transmitted downward from the leaves to the 
stream in the stem. Of course ultimately the energy assumed by 
the vital hypotheses to be expended in the stem is derivable from the 
energetic substances formed in the leaves during photosynthesis, 
and afterwards distributed to the cells of the stem. * * * 

In 1894 Dr. J. Joly and the author published the first account of 
their cohesion theory of the ascent of sap. In the work leading 
up to our theory we naturally submitted the theories of previous 
investigators, so far as we were acquainted with them, to full con- 
sideration and experimental examination. In addition to these we 
subjected various other hypotheses formed by ourselves to investi- 
gation. As these investigations naturally lead us up to the cohesion 
theory, it may be permissible to briefly outline them here. 

In the first place it seemed possible that perhaps gravitation 
itself might furnish the lifting force of the upward moving water. 
This, at first, seems paradoxical. Suppose the dilute sap in the 
leaves to be concentrated by evaporation and by the addition of 
carbohydrates. The denser fluid thus produced and passed into the 
tracheids would settle downward. As it passed down it would dis- 
place upward the less concentrated solutions entering at the root. 
An accumulation of the denser material in the lower part of the tree 
may be supposed to be prevented by the abstraction of materials 
from the concentrated sap all the way down. In this way it is 
secured that the ascending “raw” sap is just overbalanced by the 
denser descending column, and the very dilute solutions brought into 
the root might in this way be raised to any height. A model illus- 
trating the hypothesis is easily set up. <A tube, say, 1 millimeter 


1H. H. Dixon: On the physics of the transpiration current. Notes from the Botanical 
School, Trinity College, Dublin, 2, 1897, p. 4. 


412 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


bore and closed at the lower end, is filled with a solution of a dye, 
e. g., fuchsin, and set upright. A small funnel containing a denser 
salt solution is attached to its upper end. The heavy solution imme- 
diately begins to gravitate downward, and in doing so displaces an 
equal volume of the lighter fluid upward. The rise may be noted 
by the passage of the colored fluid upward in the funnel. 

There is no doubt that this mechanism could work in uninjured 
plants whose roots continued to pass comparatively pure water into 
the conducting tracts, provided there were an arrangement to pre- 
vent the mixing of the descending and ascending fluids. In the 
plant, we may suppose, the column is not supported below as in the 
model, but is held up by the capillary forces of the imbibed cell walls. 
This would explain the presence of reduced air pressure in the cavi- 
ties of some of the wood trachex, which would be impossible if the 
water surrounding them were in compression. But, however prom- 
ising for a time, the theory had to be given up. The mingling of 
the dilute ascending solutions with the concentrated descending 
fluids which inevitably takes place in narrow tubes, would certainly 
destroy this gravitational action in the trachee of plants, and there 
is no evidence whatever of isolated upward and downward currents. 

Quincke’s theory? (which suggested itself independently to us), 
viz, that the water is drawn up in a tensile state over the surfaces 
of the walls of the conducting trachez in the form of a thin film, 
had also to be laid aside. Not, however, by reason of Sachs’s ob- 
jection, who rejected it because there are not continuous tubes in 
plants. In reality this objection is quite invalid, since the water 
films may be regarded as continuous through the imbibed material 
of the transverse and oblique walls. Nevertheless the theory had to 
be abandoned, since, as we shall see later, such a film of water un- 
supported on one side, if exposed to tension, infallibly draws out 
thinner and thinner until it breaks across and leaves no water on the 
surface. 

A modification of this theory, combining it with the Unger-Sachs 
imbibition theory, then suggested itself. In order to escape the in- 
evitable thinning out of the unsupported water films, we assumed 
with Sachs, that the moving water is located in the substance of 
the walls, and that the surface-tension forces developed at the sur- 
face of the fine-textured substance of the wall prevent the water 
from drawing out thinner and thinner. Thus the tension generated 
at the leaves is transmitted downward through the imbibed water in 
the walls. This theory has undoubted advantages over the imbibi- 
tion hypothesis. It replaces the diffusion flow by a movement 
under great tensions, and so the rate of transmission may be in- 


1J. von Sachs, Lectures on the Physiology of Plants. Trans. by H. Marshall Ward, 
Oxford, 1887, p. 238. 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 413 


creased proportionately to the increased tension. But it is open to 
many of the objections which overthrew the imbibition hypothesis, 
viz, the lumina are known to transmit the major part of the current, 
and it seems improbable, even where we can invoke such great forces 
as the tensile strength of water, that they could suffice to drag an 
adequate water supply through the fine-grained cell walls. Yet we 
were able to show by experiment that even when the lumina are 
rendered impassable for water, some small amount of water is trans- 
mitted in the walls by this process. 

When we found ourselves compelled to give up these hypotheses, 
the one, as assuming conditions inimical to the transmission of ten- 
sion in the water, and the other, because it did not agree with the 
ascertained fact that the water moved in the lumina, it was an easy 
transition to arrive at the conclusion that the water passed up in the 
lumina in a state of tension. How, in the lumina of the conducting 
wood, the necessary conditions for the production of tension are ful- 
filled, we shall now proceed to enquire. 

Even in textbooks of physics the cohesion of liquids is seldom 
alluded to, and the conditions necessary to produce a state in which 
liquids may transmit a tensile stress are not adequately treated. 

Donny in 1846 showed that it was possible for a column of sul- 
phuric acid 1.255 millimeters high to hang in a vertical tube closed 
at its upper end, when atmospheric pressure was not allowed to press 
the liquid upward from below. He compares the phenomenon to the 
well-known experience that the mercury of a barometer may be re- 
tained above the actual barometric height if the tube, filled by in- 
clining it, is raised gradually to a vertical position. He further states 
that this phenomenon has been explained by Laplace as being due to 
the cohesion of the mercury and to its adhesion to the glass. * * * 

Berthelot* a few years afterwards succeeded in showing directly 
that water has a very considerable cohesive strength and, under 
proper conditions, can sustain a very great tensile stress. His pro- 
cedure was as follows: He filled a strong capillary tube, which was 
sealed at one end and drawn to a fine point at the other, with water 
at a temperature of 28° or 80° C. He allowed it to cool to 18°, and, 
as it cooled, to draw in air. Then the fine-drawn end was sealed. 
The tube was now heated to 28° or over, and the air forced into solu- 
tion in the water, which now occupied the whole of the internal space 
of the tube. On cooling to 18° or lower it was found that the liquid 
continued to occupy the entire space enclosed by the tube and pre- 
served in this way the same density from 28° to 18°. The dilatation 
needed to effect this is very large, viz, for water one four-hun- 
dred-and-twentieth of its volume at 18° C. To produce a similar 


1M. Berthelot, Sur quelques phénoménes de dilatation forcée des liquides. Ann. 
Chim. et de Phys., vol. 30, 1850, pp. 232 et seq. 


414 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 
t 


effect in the opposite sense would require a pressure of about 50 
atmospheres. The experiment shows that neither the adhesion to 
the glass nor the cohesion of the water is less than 50 atmospheres. 
Berthelot’s experiment has been variously misquoted (1) with regard 
to the dilatation observed and (2) as to the effect of dissolved air 
on the tensile strength of water. * * * 

Although a priori there seemed no reason to suspect that the pres- 
ence of dissolved air would weaken the tensile strength of water, Dr. 
Joly and the author? considered it necessary to investigate the 
point specially. We used a cylindrical glass vessel with rounded 
ends and provided at one end with a narrow tubulure. This vessel 
was very carefully cleansed by washing it internally successively 
with caustic potash solution, dilute acid, and distilled water. Half 
filled with water, it was boiled for some time to make sure that the 
walls were thoroughly wetted; then it was almost completely filled 
with water which had been previously boiled to get rid of undis- 
solved air and thoroughly to wet all dust particles which might have 
been contained in the liquid. By subsequent exposure to air this 
water was allowed to become saturated with dissolved air. During 
exposure care was taken to shield the water from dust, which might 
not have been completely wetted or which might have introduced 
small bubbles. To fill the vessel a small quantity of water in it was 
raised to ebullition, and, while steam was issuing from the attenuated 
tubulure, the latter was submerged in the dust-free water. As the 
steam within condensed and the vessel cooled, the latter became com- 
pletely filled with water. A small bubble was then introduced and 
the vessel was closed by sealing off the tubulure. 

Tf the vessel was then cautiously heated, the water expanded more 
than its glass envelope and the air bubble was compressed. The 
bubble became smaller and smaller as the temperature rose and the 
contained gas was forced into solution. When the bubble had 
reached very small dimensions and was about to disappear great 
care had to be exercised in the further application of heat; for if the 
water expanded too much and strained the glass beyond its elastic 
limit, the whole experiment was rendered abortive by the breaking of 
the glass. But if the heating process had been carried on success- 
fully and all the air had been dissolved so that the water had been 
made to completely fill the vessel without breaking it, heating was 
stopped and the water ceased to expand. 

At this moment the water in the vessel was either in compression, 
being constrained by a tension in the glass walls, or it was quite un- 
constrained, just exactly filling the envelope, and neither suffering 
compression nor causing tension in the walls. As soon as cooling 


1H. H. Dixon and J. Joly, On the Ascent of Sap. Phil. Trans. Roy Soc. London, vol. 
186 (1895), B, pp. 568 et seq. 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 415 


began, the water and the glass commenced to contract. The coefli- 
cient of expansion for heat of water being greater than that of glass, 
the water tended to contract-more. This contraction, however, was 
resisted by its adhesion to the glass and its own cohesion, and conse- 
quently a stress or tension, which kept it sufficiently dilated to fill 
the glass, was set up. As cooling proceeded the tension grew greater 
and greater, till at last either the adhesion or cohesion was overcome 
and a break appeared either between the water and the glass or in 
the substance of the water itself. The appearance of this rupture 
was signalized by a sharp click, and a bubble sprang into existence 
in the water. The bubble thus produced rapidly augmented in size 
as the water, now relieved from the stretching forces, assumed a 
volume corresponding to its temperature at the moment. Bubbles 
appear around the original bubble and pass into it. 

By estimating the amount of deformation! of the glass envelope 
when strained by the contracting water, and by determining experi- 
mentally the pressure needed to produce the same deformation, the 
amount of the tensile stress which was sustained by the water before 
rupture was determined. In an experiment, carried out in the man- 
ner just described, water was subjected to a tension or pull equivalent 
to 7.5 atmospheres before its cohesion was overcome. 

As was noticed this method of showing the cohesive property of 
water is precarious—the slighest overheating is liable to burst the 
glass vessel containing the water. It is convenient therefore to have 
a more simple method of demonstrating this property, which may 
be repeated as often as is desired without risk. The following method 
fulfills these conditions. 

The vessel in which the liquid is to be inclosed is a J-shaped glass 
tube about 1 centimeter in diameter (see fig. 2). The long limb of 
the J is about 90 centimeters while the shorter one is about 20 centi- 
meters long. On the shorter limb there is a bulb with a capacity of 
about 60 cubic centimeters. The shorter limb is continued beyond 
the bulb as a narrow tube drawn out to a point. The whole tube is 
carefully washed out in the manner described in the preceding experi- 
ment and about 100 cubic centimeters of repeatedly boiled water is 
introduced into it. In order to be certain that the glass is thor- 
oughly wetted, and also to make sure that the water is in perfect 
contact with any dust particles contained in it, the liquid is again 
repeatedly boiled after introduction into the tube. Before sealing 
off the fine tube the whole of the space unoccupied by the liquid is 
filled with steam by bringing the water to ebullition, and, when the 


1H. H. Dixon and J. Joly, On the Ascent of Sap. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, vol. 
186 (1895), B, p. 569. 

°H. H. Dixon, Physics of the Transpiration Current. Notes from the Botanical School, 
Trinity College, Dublin, No. 2, 1897, p. 5. 


416 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


steam has expelled the air and is issuing through the narrow tube 
the latter is sealed off. When the whole has cooled it will be found 
that the J tube acts as a water hammer, i. e., if, by inclining the tube 
the water is made to travel from end to end, its concussion makes a 
metallic ring. This is owing to the fact that very little air has been 
included when the tube was sealed, and water vapor at normal tem- 
peratures is unable to act as an elastic pad in the same way as air at 
normal atmospheric pressure would. The clicking metallic ring then 
may be taken as an indication that the gas pressure within the tube 
is very slight. Care must indeed be taken not to let the concussion’ 
become too violent, as in that way the tube may be easily shattered. 

If now, by carefully inclining the tube, the long limb is com-: 
pletely filled with water (fig. 2 B) and all the bubbles are chased 
out of that limb by holding the bent end uppermost, so that no breaks, 
even the most minute, remain, we shall find, on inverting the tube 
and bringing the bent end under, that the 
water remains in the long lmb and does 
not under the force of gravity take up the 
lowest possible level in both limbs (fig. 
2 C). From the level in the two limbs it 
is evident that the hydrostatic pressure of 
the shorter column can not possibly balance 
the pressure of the column in the longer 
limb. The one is about 85 centimeters 
higher than the other. The water in this 
case, like the sulphuric acid in Donny’s 
experiment, hangs in the tube. The liquid 
in the long limb is in contact with the glass 
all over, and, since it wets it perfectly, it 
adheres to it. To the film of water adhering to the glass the rest 
of the water coheres, and this cohesion is much more than able to 
sustain the weight of the column of water which is counterbalanced 
by no other upholding force. In this way the lower part of the 
water in the longer limb of the tube transmits through the upper 
part a stress to the glass equivalent to its gravitational pull. 

The reality of this pull becomes all the more striking when, by 
destroying the cohesion at one spot, a rupture is started. This rup- 
ture, which may be at first invisibly small, rapidly spreads across the 
whole column. The rupture may usually be started by a sharp knock 
administered to the side of the longer limb; but, when the cohesion 
is very perfect, to produce a rupture may require a shock so violent 
as to be liable to shatter the tube. When the rupture is started, the 
lower part tears suddenly away from the upper part of the column 
and falls into the bend of the tube. The upper part follows it more 
slowly, trickling down the inside of the tube, and all the water comes 
to occupy a position in the lower part of the tube (fig. 2 A). 


Fie. 2. 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. A417 


It is instructive to note how the cohesion of the water in these 
experiments is overcome. The rupture starts as an extremely small 
space or discontinuity in the water. Immediately surface tension 
forces develop at the surface of this bubble. At its inception, being 
extremely small, these forces are very great, but if the bubble en- 
larges, the surface tension forces tending to close it rapidly diminish. 
In our experiments the forces tending to open it are (1) the momen- 
tum of the water conferred on it by the shock, and (2) the gravita- 
tional pull giving rise to the tension in the liquid. We may neglect 
the vapor pressure of the bubble, as it is balanced by the vapor in the 
other limb. If the break opened by the shock is so small that its sur- 
face tension forces can withstand the tension in the liquid the bubble 
will close again; but if once the bubble formed is so large that its 
surface tension is overcome by the tension of the liquid, an unstable 
condition is entered on, and the bubble is continually enlarged till 
the tension of the liquid is nil. It is, however, evident that if at 
any moment we could confine the bubble and prevent it from enlarg- 
ing, the liquid would again pass into a state of tension due to the 
weight of the lower parts. 

Quite recently the author’ has been able, by using Berthelot’s 
method, to show that the cohesion of water amounts at least to 
150 atmospheres and that water, even when subjected to a tension 
of this magnitude, refuses to be severed from the walls of the con- 
ducting tracts of plants. The water used in these experiments was 
saturated with air and contained in it pieces of the conducting tracts 
of plants. The range of temperature over which this cohesion was 
exhibited lay between 25° and 80° C. 

The theory of the ascent of sap, which Dr. Joly and the author 
advocate, assumes that the water in the conducting tracts of high 
trees hangs there by virtue of its cohesion just in the same way as 
the water hangs in the J tube. The adhesion of water to the walls 
of the trachez may be shown to be very great. Thus, if a fresh 
piece of wood from the conducting tracts is inclosed in a vessel filled 
with water in a state of tension, it will be found that in every case 
rupture will occur at the surface of the glass rather than at the 
walls of the trachee. The adhesion of water to the walls of the 
conducting tubes is thus probably always greater than the adhesion 
of water to glass. This is quite to be expected, if we take into account 
the manner in which water permeates the substance of the walls of 
the trachez when it is brought into contact with it. 

The teaching of all these experiments is obviously that water 
under suitable conditions can transmit a pull just like a rigid solid. 
In the liquid, however, the stress is hydrostatic, and, like hydrostatic 


1H. H. Dixon, Note on tensile Strength of Water: Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc., 1909, 
and Notes from the Botanical School, Trinity College, Dublin, vol. 2, No. 1. 1909. 


97578°—sm 1910——27 


418 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


pressure, is transmitted equally in all directions. It is not sustained, 
consequently, by a single point, but affects the whole internal wetted 
surface of the containing vessel. In another particular the stressed 
liquid differs greatly from the stressed solid. It is much more un- 
stable. A small flaw (1. e., a bubble) in the tensile liquid rapidly 
spreads and almost instantaneously severs the whole column; it mat- 
ters not how large the cross section of the unbroken part may be, a 
comparatively feeble tension will tear it across. In the solid—a metal 
wire, for example—on the other hand, if the cross section of the un- 
broken part is sufficient, a small discontinuity in its substance is im- 
material, and the stress may be successfully resisted by the intact part. 
This difference in the behavior of the two forms of matter when sub- 
mitted to a stretching force is to be referred to the fact that the 
particles of a liquid are perfectly mobile and are free to move round 
each other without being opposed by any sensible internal forces, 
whereas in solids there is a great opposition to the relative motion of 
the parts. To this property solids owe their rigidity. In fact, in 
tension experiments the liquid becomes capable of sustaining’? and 
transmitting tensile stresses only when it is adhering completely to a 
rigid envelope which confers on the liquid a pseudo-rigidity. The 
state of tension then persists because the stretching forces act solely 
against the cohesive properties of the liquid (1. e., in an endeavor to 
separate the water molecules from one another—a separation which 
a liquid is able to withstand as well as a solid). If, however, the 
liquid is free to change its shape, not adhering to any rigid envelope, 
the smallest forces, whether of compression or of tension, spend them- 
selves in leading to a readjustment of form to which the liquid owing 
to its mobility, readily submits, and no stress is produced. On the 
other hand, if a pull is exerted on a liquid which thoroughly wets 
and adheres to the internal surface of a rigid vessel and if there 
are no bubbles or discontinuities in the liquid, a state of tension 
inevitably supervenes. 

We have seen that the evaporation taking place from the outer 
surfaces of the mesophyll cells is continually abstracting water from 
the trachez of the leaf. It is a matter of common observation that 
these trachexw are constantly filled with water and they inclose no | 
bubbles. Experiments on pieces of the conducting tracts of plants, 
as described above, show that the adhesion between their walls and 
water is as great as, and probably much greater than, the adhesion 
between glass and water. Hence, if water is given off from the cells 
more rapidly than lifting forces raise it in the trachez, the water in 
the latter must inevitably fall into a state of tension. 

Apart from root pressure, investigation has shown that the only 
force from below which is effective in raising water in plants is the 


1H. H. Dixon, Physics of the Transpiration Current, loc. cit. 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 419 


pressure exerted by the atmosphere. The amounts of water forced 
up by root pressure are insignificant compared with the losses due 
to transpiration. Atmospheric pressure can supply the evaporating 
cells at most only up to a level of about 10.3 meters. When allowance 
is made for the resistance opposed by the conducting tracts to the 
motion of water in them, we must conclude that the supply of water 
raised by these two forces to a height of 10 meters above the roots 
must be exceedingly small. It follows that the water in the trachez 
above this level is at all times in tension, and, in times of vigorous 
transpiration, whenever the loss can not be made good by the lifting 
pressure of the atmosphere, the water in the trachez of leaves at 
lower levels also is in a tensile state. This tensile state is no less 
inevitable at the top of the column of water unsupported at the base, 
such as is found in a high tree, than is the state of compression at 
the bottom of a deep vessel filled with water. The former is caused 
by the weight acting against the cohesive forces of the water, while 
the latter is necessitated by the weight acting against the resistance 
of the water to crushing. 

Owing to the permeable nature of the walls, the water in one 
trachea is continuous with that in its neighbors, and consequently the 
tension in one is transmitted to the water in adjacent trachee. Thus 
the tension applied at the mesophyll cell surfaces is transmitted 
downwards, through the water in the trachez of the leaf and of the 
petiole, to the water in those of the stem. 

While air bubbles are found extremely rarely in the trachee of 
the vascular bundles of the leaf, investigators seem agreed that they 
are of common occurrence in the conducting tissues of the stem. It 
is evident that in the tensile water in plants these bubbles will behave 
exactly in the same way as we have seen bubbles behave in the experi- 
ments on tensile fluids. If they are sufficiently minute, they will 
have a very small radius of curvature, and the surface tension forces 
preventing them from enlarging will be correspondingly great. 
When these forces balance, or are greater than, the tension in the 
water, the tension will be transmitted past the bubbles, and if the 
bubbles adhere to the walls of the trachez, the tensile stream will be 
drawn past them. Kamerling’? has shown that a bubble having a 
radius of 0.01 millimeter is in equilibrium with a pull equal to the 
hydrostatic head of 1.65 meters. While one having a radius of 0.001 
millimeter=1 » could resist the tension exerted by a column of 16.5 
meters of water. Bubbles having a radius of 1 » would just be visi- 
ble with the highest dry objectives commonly in use, their diameter 
being about one-fifth of the diameter of the lumen of the finest 
tracheids of the pine. Bubbles of this minute size are almost never 
observed in the trachez of plants. In fact, the methods of prepara- 


1Z, Kamerling, Oberfliichenspannung und Cohiision. Bot. Centralbl., 73. 1898, 


420 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


tion, involving as they do the relief of the existing tension, or even 
the exposure to atmospheric pressure, would cause bubbles of this 
magnitude to disappear. A tension anything greater than the pull 
exerted by a column of water 1.65 meters will overcome the surface 
tension of bubbles having a diameter of 0.02 millimeter, and they will 
tend to expand indefinitely under its action. Tensions as great as 
this must frequently occur in plants. On first thoughts it might 
appear, then, that one bubble having a diameter of 0.02 millimeter 
or more would destroy the possibility of tension in the water of the 
conducting tracts. A moment’s consideration, however, will show 
that the structure of these tracts sets a limit to the enlargement of 
the bubble. In the conducting tracts after the formation of a bubble 
the sequence of events will be as follows: The water around the bub- 
ble is drawn away by the tension and the surface of the bubble comes 
to rest against the wall of the trachea in. which it has developed. 
The retreating surface is held by the wall, and as more water is 
drawn away the bubble can enlarge only longitudinally. At this 
period the surface tension of the spherical bubble is replaced by the 
capillary forces of the tubular trachea, and, the capillary forces devel- 
oped in these tubes being insufficient to withstand the tension, the 
bubble gradually pulls out till it completely fills the trachea. When 
this stage is reached the bubble can enlarge no more; its surface is 
restrained on all sides by the walls of the trachea, which, as is well 
known, though very permeable to water, are so fine grained that their 
capillary or imbibitional forces are enormous and hold the surface of 
the water, limiting the bubble close to their inner surface. Sur- 
rounded thus by the imbibed and rigid wall of the trachea the bubble 
becomes just like a wetted solid or rigid body in the tensile current. 
No doubt it diminishes the effective cross section of the flow, but, 
owing to the fact that the conducting tracts are subdivided into such 
numbers of minute compartments, the development of even a large 
number of bubbles is unable to wreck the stability of the tensile 
column of water in the wood. 

The state of affairs in the conducting tissues is illustrated in figure 
8. For the sake of simplicity a longitudinal section of a conifer’s 
wood is represented. The shaded tracheids are supposed to be fiiled 
with water, while the light spaces indicate those containing air bub- 
bles, which have been expanded by the tension of the transpiration 
stream till they completely fill the tracheids in which the bubbles 
occur. It is evident that even when a large number of tracheids are 
blocked with air the water column in the wood is not broken, but is 
drawn around the bubbles inclosed in and rendered harmless by the 
walls of the tracheids. In the figure for example 50 per cent of the 
tracheids contain bubbles, and yet a considerable volume of water 
might be drawn up in the remaining tubes, The imbibitional proper- 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 491 


ties of the walls of contiguous water-filled tracheids render the water 
throughout the stem continuous. Consequently the stress developed 
above is transmitted around the air bubbles and draws the stream 
past them, to use 
Schwendener’s _ fig- 
ure, like islands in a 
river. Hence it is 
evident that it would 
be impossible — to 
sever the continuity 
of the water in the 
conducting tracts, 
ie, to: prevent 
evaporation above 
from transmitting a 
pull to the water in 
the roots unless 
tracheze containing 
bubbles were to form 
in some place an un- 
broken diaphragm 
across the conduct- 
ing tissues of the 
stem. 

Irom this exam- 
ination it appears 
that unless an ex- 
ceedingly large 
number of the con- 
ducting tubes con- 
tain air and are ar- 
ranged in a special 
manner there is no 
likelihood of the 
tensile column being 
broken. On the 
other hand, the 
amount of water 
transmitted in the 
stream will be af- i 
fected by the num- Fic. 3. 
ber of trachez which contain bubbles and which are consequently put 
out of action in the transmission of water drawn upwards under ten- 
sion. * * * Although our knowledge as to the actual proportion 
of traches containing bubbles during transpiration is very unsatis- 


422 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


factory, yet we have no evidence that the continuity of the whole 
water column is ever during transpiration interrupted in plants. 

Here it will be interesting to consider the structure of the con- 
ducting tracts and to see how far their details bear out the theory 
of the tensile sap. 

The salent feature of this structure is the subdivision of the 
waterways by an immense number of longitudinal and transverse 
partitions into minute compartments—the vessels and tracheids. 
For a system the function of which is to conduct fluids, this is evi- 
dently a most unexpected configuration. It is true that the parti- 
tions are permeable to water; but when a considerable distance is to 
be traversed, the sum of the resistances opposed by the walls to the 
flow is not inappreciable. This becomes clear from the experiments 
of Bohm,’ Elfving,? and Strasburger,? comparing the conductivity 
of wood in tangential and longitudinal directions. From them is seen 
that the pressure required to force water in a tangential direction is 
immensely greater than that needed to urge it longitudinally in the 
wood, although in both cases the water is free to move through the 
pits. In the tangential direction, however, in the same distance the 
number of walls traversed may be hundreds of times greater than in 
the longitudinal path. It is evident that the persistence of the walls 
in the development of the water conduits of plants—introducing, as 
they are shown to do, an immense resistance to flow—is inexplicable 
on any view which regards the water as being forced through the 
stem. Viewed, however, in the light of the tension hypothesis this 
structure becomes a most beautiful adaptation to confer stability on 
the tensilely stressed transpiration stream, and one which transforms 
the water, despite its mobility, into a substance which is stable while 
sustaining very great stresses, just as if it were a rigid body. True, 
the tensile stream experiences the resistance opposed by the numerous 
walls, but the presence of the partitions, conferring, in the manner 
just pointed out, a new property on the water, renders available such 
an enormous source of energy at the evaporating surfaces in the 
leaves for the lifting of the sap, that the amount of energy which is 
spent in overcoming the resistance opposed by the walls is relatively 
insignificant. 

The elongated form of the conducting elements secures that the 
resistance shall be small consistently with the stability of the water; 


1J. Bohm, De la cause du mouvement de l’eau et de Ja faible pression de lair dans 
les Plantes. Ann. d. Sci. Nat. Bot.; XII, 1881, p. 283. Idem, Ueber die Ursache der 
Wasserbewegung und der geringeren Lufttension in transpirirenden Pflanzen. Bot. Ztg., 
49. 1881. 

2Fr. Elfving, Ueber die Wasserleitung im Holz. Bot. Ztg., 42. 1882. 

8Ed. Strasburger, Ueber den Bau und Verrichtungefi der Leitungsbahnen in den 
Pflanzen. Jena, 1891, p. 739. 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 423 


for, of course, if the tension is great, a bubble in a long tube renders 
a larger portion of the conducting tissues useless than one confined 
in a short vessel; but, on the other hand, when the long tube is com- 
pletely filled it transmits more readily than if it were subdivided into 
a number of tracheids. Hence we may regard the tissue formed of 
long vessels as the path of the most rapid part of the transpiration 
current when the plant has an abundant supply of water, while the 
tracheids transmit the slowly moving water and continue in function 
even when supplies are very limited. It is also evident that the 
small cross section of the tubes, though also introducing resistance, is 
most essential. In this way each bubble which is formed occupies 
only an infinitesimal part of the cross section of the whole water 
current. 

The structure of the walls themselves is also in complete harmony 
with the tension hypothesis, and finds its most natural explanation 
viewed in the light of that hypothesis. 

It has long been recognized that the thickenings found on the walls 
of the trachez, viz, the internal supports in the form of annuli, 
spirals, and networks, are of such a nature that they are preeminently 
suited to resist crushing forces.1_ Such strengthenings are quite mean- 
ingless from the point of view of the imbibition and the various vital 
hypotheses; and even according to those views which regarded the 
sap pressed upwards by gas or atmospheric pressure they are need- 
lessly strong. For it has been shown that it is impossible to crush the 
tubes of a leaf by an external pressure amounting to 30 atmospheres, 
when, according to the theories just alluded to, they would be exposed 
to one atmosphere at most. The presence of these thickenings in the 
tracheee of the leaves forbids us accepting Elfving’s view that they 
protect the tubes from the pressure of the growing tissues. If need- 
lessly bulky they are disadvantageous because they produce friction 
and introduce turbulent motion into the upward stream. Ewart finds? 
that owing to the presence of these thickenings and to the trans- 
verse walls, the flow of water through the capillary tubes of plants 
(viz, trachee) is only about half what we would expect to find 
calculating the flow by Poiseuille’s formula. Consequently for ordi- 
nary methods of transference assumed in earlier theories the tracheze 
of the plant can not be regarded as very efficient. For the trans- 

ifr. Elfving, Ueber die Wasserleitung im Holz. Bot. Ztg., 42. 1882. 

2As appears from the fact that water is pressed backwards from the leaf cells into 
the branches by pressures of about this magnitude. Cf. Report of a Discussion on the 
Ascent of Waters in Trees. Ann. of Bot., vol. 10, Dec., 1898, p. 655. H. H. Dixon On 
the Physics of the Transpiration Current. Notes from the Botanical School, Trinity 
College, Dublin, No. 2, 1897, p. 28. 


3A, J. Ewart, On the Ascent of Water in Trees (First Paper). Phil. Trans. Roy. 
Soc. Lond., vol. 198, (1905), B, p. 50. 


424 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


mission and stability of a tensile stream, however, these thickenings 
are essential. And their strength, so far from being superfluous, is 
probably often tested severely in times when the transpiration re- 
moves large quantities of water and so develops high tensions in the 
sap. The whole wall is not thickened uniformly because the perme- 
ability of the thinner parts is essential. The thickenings confer on 
the thin walls the rigidity necessary to support the tensile stresses 
in the sap. 

It is interesting to find that we often have indications that the un- 
supported wall would not in itself have sufficient rigidity to bear the 
crushing forces it is exposed to. These indications are particularly 
frequent in the protoxylem.t’ Here commonly, when elongation has 
widely separated the rings and spirals, the thin part of the walls of 
the vessels is drawn in as a constriction between the spiral or annular 
supports, and often the whole vessel is collapsed if the supports have 
become too oblique. That this is not due to the pressure exerted by 
the growth of the surrounding tissues follows from the fact that these 
instances are most frequently found in leaves. 

The most perfect adaptation to secure the advantages of ease of 
flow without seriously reducing the rigidity of the trachez is to be 
found in the most general of all the wall structures, viz, the bor- 
dered pit. The membrane and torus of each bordered pit in the con- 
ducting trachez is able to take up three positions—a median posi- 
tion, symmetrically dividing each domed chamber of the pit from 
the other, and two aspirated or lateral positions. The median posi- 
tion is naturally assumed by the more or less tightly stretched mem- 
brane when it is not acted upon by lateral forces. In the aspirated 
positions the membrane is deflected against one dome or the other 
and the torus lies over and fills the opening into the dome. The 
membranes of pits in the common wall separating two adjacent 
trachee filled with water naturally take up the median position. 
Pappenheim? found that an immence rush of water through the 
pit was needed to deflect the membrane to one side. A moderate 
flow does not disturb it from its median position. The reason for 
this is to be found in the fact that the membrane around the torus is 
very permeable to water, and consequently water moving at a mod- 
erate speed passes through it easily without displacing it. 

The normal transpiration current never possesses the velocities 
which Pappenheim found were necessary to deflect the membrane, 
and, of course, hydrostatic tension in the liquid on each side of the 

1H. H. Dixon, Physics of the Transpiration Current. Notes from the Botanical 
School, Trinity College, Dublin, No. 2, 1897, p. 14. 


2K. Pappenheim, Zur Frage der Verschlussfihigkeit der Hoftiipfel im Splintholze der 
Coniferen. Ber. d. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell., vol. 7, 1889, pp. 2 et seq. 


TRANSPIRATION AND ASCENT OF SAP—DIXON. 495 


membrane will not tend to displace it. Hence it is that the tensile 
transpiration current passing from one trachea to another through 
the bordered pits experiences only the mini- 
mal resistance of the porous and thin mem- 
brane. But the very delicacy and porosity of 
the membrane render it unsuitable for sustain- 
ing any severe stress, and so we find when a 
bubble develops in a trachea and is gradually 
distended by the tension in the liquid, or by 
a difference of gas pressure, till it fills the 
trachea, the membranes of the pits in the walls 
of the trachea become aspirated away from the 
bubble, and the membrane is supported by the 
dome, while the torus lies over the perforation 
in the latter like a washer or plug. (See fig. 4.) 
In this position of the membrane the tension 
of the water and the gas pressure are with- 
stood, not by the thin and delicate membrane, 
but by the surface of the water, supported by 
the denser and more rigid material of the wall 
and of the torus, while the delicate membrane 
is shielded from all stress. 

Thus, from the standpoint of the tension hypothesis, we regard 
the bordered pits as mechanisms to render the walls as permeable as 
possible to continuous water streams, while, when conditions require, 
they provide, by an automatic change, a rigid support to the tensile 
sap and oppose an impermeable barrier to undissolved gas. * * * 


a nS See 
ii it iadlong, oa Be. 

cout ah My “is fe 
“ ity iu We ese 
mT iy, whereas MAH» 
“iN nue che nate i ie 


Aw + i 


et 'B Uae hah «te cae buch. Gas ae 


9 ‘ 

» Fe 7 

fA Vileah ‘2 at tii unlorit ® Bi’ TAY 

. 4 i i, Ww ety ot Hpi paid. i. {onenyah ria i ers 
i 4 rT? io Pa ; 7 

3 in ‘ Hi Pi "Tec, As} 12 Thaao- KL. ae] lo, 4 y 


——0 


ame 
< 
* 
we - 
‘ay, 2. 
_ 


% 


P| t ‘ ate 


. 
scalaiiegs oem mene 
a Ee 
. - : 

—— 


4 a + a z , TX (jie us sit tire eet, od} bi 


- | t .*> ~~ a 


ah - ae inne st Mau Te a: neki atiis it U8 
yiie Poh ie tis Ss Dihae, 7 SRN Sts 
‘ a 4 aa ae a ‘| ii ‘sier} yn fais “7 jre EMTS ad. 
ey t a 
i, By 


al \ } , ow r;< ete | rm t 
tes « [ > bi re a. 4 oh io} 2/1 oli ‘ 
ig@ .& ( i ont + 4 . : : i 
py mat: ¥ i By Al va AAS Bi iy bay ei es dats 
Be : 7 Z : § ; ote * 
ee ie A hal) sunectrlcte ay ra wo sodieoyy satiate 
' y , We Fig ’ y itg F 640 ° e 
: j ens \ oY ek 4 y : (VaR ere Beh ly ho i 46te oe + 
* ; y ' 17 > , | sarrcwy ;  ¢ . if Fase : ' 
Re BE BDI om Ms, ¢ 7 ‘ don . pe2 ULE aA er ft. 7 Ling | ved 
' AB) | ‘ p rY¥ Fa ve j TOI TSaauewn 4 . ‘ Te. ae 4 h d 7 
, Ly ; ne. im nat ) é hy : 7 Aes ry see Lg ’: AU 
j rf ; e fic | ty * [ be f 3 ‘ ie X uy sie pen - 


S Rib. o> iL Gal Ge GUN BUTT ost), 3 iS aa os 


aise ila sagt yakihe 


| | Mist od) Th. jniohitele ant Woh li 
‘ yy 4 ad ‘4 ‘ et 

; ‘ ah 44 ) 7 liy ; 

Pyeipenine dy | ; 
, 
Bi 
fF oe 
. 
n ' 
¢ 
‘ ’ 
ay 
: 7 
- ; 
_ 
4 
: « 
: i t i 

' 

a 

st “ 
i. x i Bs 


THE SACRED EAR-FLOWER OF THE AZTECS: 
XOCHINACAZTLI. 


[With 1 plate.] 


By WILLIAM EDWIN SAFFORD. 


Among the marvels of the New World which excited the admira- 
tion of the Spanish conquistadores were the parks and gardens of 
the Aztec Emperor and his nobles. Cortez, in his official reports to 
Charles V, described them at length. 

At Iztapalapan, on a peninsula between Lake Chalco and Lake 
Tezcuco, there was a park which covered a very large area, laid out 
in squares, with the intersecting paths bordered by vine-covered trel- 
lises and aromatic shrubs which filled the air with perfume. Many 
of the trees and shrubs had been brought from great distances, and 
the gardens were arranged in regular plots, irrigated by ditches. 
There were aviaries filled with birds, remarkable for their brilliant 
plumage and their songs. There was a great basin, or reservoir of 
stone, stocked with fishes of many kinds. This is described as havy- 
ing a circumference of 1,600 paces, and around it there was a stone 
pavement wide enough for four persons to walk abreast. Its 
sides were sculptured with curious designs, and a flight of steps led 
down to the water, which fed the irrigating ditches and was the 
source of beautiful fountains. So elaborate and magnificent were 
the gardens described by the conquistadores that we might well doubt 
the truth of their assertions, were the evidence not attested by many 
witnesses. 

In the capital city itself the Emperor had established the botanical 
garden of Tetzcotzinco, of which there still remain a few vestiges. 
After having gathered together all the plants and animals which 
could endure the climate, the Emperor caused the pictures of others 
to be painted upon the walls of his residence, so that the whole of 
the fauna and fiora of Anahuac might be represented. 

A few leagues south of the City of Mexico, in the direction of the 
modern city of Cuernavaca, was the wonderful garden of Huaxtepec, 
which survived the conquest, and to which Hernandez frequently re- 


427 


428 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


fers in his great work. Here were collected trees, shrubs, and herba- 
ceous plants, native and exotic, some selected for their beauty, some for 
their fragrance, and others for their medicinal virtues. They were 
systematically arranged in a manner which displayed both artistic 
taste and horticultural knowledge; and it is safe to say that it would 
not have been easy to find 
their equal in that day in 
any country of Europe or 
Asia. 
: There has come down 
to us an account of the 
methods by which this 
remarkable garden was 
stocked with some of its 
most precious plants. 
Tlacaelel, the brother 
of Motecuhzoma Ilhuica- 
mina, the chronicle states, 
conceived the idea of col- 
lecting the waters of 
Huaxtepec, in the moun- 
tains south of the valley, 
into a great reservoir 
from which they could be 
distributed and governed. 
This work was under- 
taken and, at his sugges- 
tion, a garden was laid out. 
Messengers were then sent 
to various parts of trop- 
ical America for plants to 
stock it. From Pinotl, 
viceroy of Cuetlaxtlan, 


the Emperor requested, 


Fic. 1.—Xochinacaetli, seu Flos auricule, illustration among other rare and 
of Hernandez (1576). 


(i aS 


gs 


BED 


US MEL 


attajyut 
aint Aaa 


ey teeter 
2. > 
4 


beautiful plants, the yolo- 
xochitl, or “ heart-flower” (Talawma mexicana), a single blossom of 
which was sufficient to fill a whole house with fragrance; the 
cacalowochitl, or “ crow-flower” (Plumeria rubra), used by maidens 
for decorating their hair; the izqguixochitl (Bourreria huanita), with 
clusters of fragrant salver-shaped flowers; and the xochinacaztli, or 
“ear-flower,” the botanical identity of which has long remained a 
mystery. 

The first account of this flower was written about 1569 by Padre 
Bernardino de Sahagun, who refers to it as teunacaztli, “the sacred 


a, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Safford. PLATE 


XOCHINACAZTLI (CYMBOPETALUM PENDULIFLORUM.) NATURAL SIZE. 


SACRED EAR-FLOWER OF AZTECS—SAFFORD. 499 


ear,” and states that it was much used for the sake of its fragrant 
odor and for drinking, ground up with chocolate. 

Francisco Hernandez, the “protomedico,” sent by Philip II, in 
1570, to Mexico to study its resources, has given a fair illustration of 
the flower (fig. 1), and describes it under the heading “ De Xocutna- 
caztut, seu Flore auricule.” This description, in Latin, together with 
the figure, was published in the Roman edition of his work in 1651. 
The same description, but without the illustration, appeared before 
this in the Spanish edition of Hernandez, published by Ximenez in 
the City of Mexico in 1615. It is as follows: 

The «ochinacaztli is a rare tree, with leaves long and narrow and of a deep 
green color. Its flowers, borne on a pendent velvety peduncle, are divided into 
leaves, which are purplish within and herbaceous without, shaped almost ex- 
actly like ears, and of a very agreeable odor. It grows in warm countries, and 
there is nothing else in the ti@ngues and markets of the Indians more fre- 
quently found nor more highly prized than this flower. The which is wont to 
give the greatest charm and taste, together with a very fragrant odor and 
flavor to that celebrated drink cacao, which they call chocolate, and it imparts 
to it certain tonic properties and wholesomeness as well. It is said that when 
drunk in water this flower dispels flatulency, causes phlegm to become thin, 
warms and comforts the stomach which has been chilled or weakened, as well 
as the heart; and that it is efficacious in asthma, ground to a powder with the 
addition of two pods of the large red peppers called terochilli, with their seeds 
removed and toasted on a comal which is a kind of griddle on which the natives 
toast and make their bread, called by us tortillas, adding to the same three 
drops of balsam and taking it in some suitable liquor. 

Since the time of Hernandez many works have appeared in which 
the economic plants of the Aztecs are discussed, but in none of 
them is the botanical identity of the vochénacaztli hinted at, though 
it is invariably mentioned. That it was to be found in the forests 
of the Tierra-caliente the author of the present paper felt confi- 
dent, and he read with interest the accounts of all travelers in 
southern Mexico and Guatemala who spoke of the delicious flavor 
ot chocolate prepared with the flowers of the Orejuela. His dis- 
covery of the identity of the flower was almost an accident. While 
working upon the plants belonging to the Anonacee, or Custard-apple 
family, of Mexico, he came across a photograph in the files of the Bu- 
reau of Plant Industry of the Department of Agriculture, showing a 
number of flowers with their inner petals very much like the himan 
ear in shape. This photograph had been taken by Mr. C. B. Doyle in 
1904 while accompanying Mr. O. F. Cook on a mission of agricul- 
tural exploration in Guatemala. The flowers were found in the 
market of the town of Coban, in the department of Alta Verapaz. 
The photograph is here presented (pl. 1). It was not accom- 


1The last of these is the work of the Rey. A. Gerste, S. J., published in the Vatican, 
at Rome, in 1910, entitled ‘‘ Notes sur la médecine et la botanique des anciens Mexi- 
cains,”’ 


430 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


panied by notes as to the uses to which the flowers were applied, 
but Mr. Cook, in his journal, states that the flowers of an Anona were 
offered for sale both fresh and in the form of dried black petals 
curled up on the edges and heavily veined inside. They had a pleas- 
ant, spicy odor. He describes the fresh flowers as having the sepals 
and outer petals ight green and the inner thicker petals of a pale 
dull salmon color and breaking with a bright orange-colored frac- 
ture. No specimens of the plant were collected at this time, but on 
May 30, 1906, two years afterward, Mr. Cook secured specimens of 
an Anonaceous plant at Jacaltenango, Guatemala, which he did not 
associate with the flowers he had seen in the Coban market. On 
examining these specimens in the United States National Herbarium 
(sheet No. 574411) the identity of the plant was revealed. The 
xochinacaztli of the Aztecs was no other than the plant described by 
Dunal from the drawings of Mocifo and Sessé as Cymbopetalum 
penduliflorum. 

The discovery was announced in a paper read before the Botanical 
Society of Washington, February 7, 1911.1. The accompanying illus- 
tration, drawn by Mr. Theodore Bolton from the specimens collected 
by Mr. Cook and from the photograph of Mr. Doyle, will serve for 
comparison with that of Hernandez, which is also reproduced. The 
inaccuracy of Hernandez’s figure consists chiefly in the fact that the 
upper flowers shown by him have none of the petals revolute, or 
incurved along the margin, while the lower flower has all six petals 
incurved, suggesting the fruit of the aromatic star-anise of Japan. 
It was a simple matter to test the qualities of the petals by eating 
one of them. The taste was pungently aromatic and suggested that 
of a nutmeg, or perhaps a cubeb. 

The Xochinacaztli (Cymbopetalum pendulifiorum) is endemic in 
the forests of northwestern Guatemala and across the border in the 
Mexican State of Chiapas. The use of its flowers as a spice gradually 
died out throughout the greater part of Mexico with the introduction 
of cinnamon from the East Indies, which is now, together with vanilla, 
almost universally used for flavoring chocolate. The small tree grows 
in regions where there is a marked dry and a rainy season, usually 
associated with coffee, and it could in all probability be cultivated 
wherever coffee will thrive. Both on account of the fragrance of its 
fiowers and for their application in cooking as a delightful condiment 
it is suggested that this plant be cultivated. 


1See Safford, W. E. “The Rediscovery of the Nochinacaztli of the Aztecs, with notes 
on Mexican Anonaceae.”’ Science, N. S., vol. 38, p. 470. March 24, 1911. 


SACRED EAR-FLOWER OF AZTECS—SAFFORD. 431 


Fig. 2.—Cymbopetalum penduliflorum. Natural size. 


7 
‘ 
| 


ints 


a eee 
5 


rn Sane wu 


ss 
es 


FOREST PRESERVATION. 


[With 7 plates. ] 


By Henry S. GRAVES, 
Forester and Chief of Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. 


Ten years ago, in the Smithsonian Report for 1901, Gifford 
Pinchot, then Chief of the Division of Forestry, discussed the subject 
of forest destruction. He pointed out that the attitude of the public 
in the United States on the forest question showed two sharply con- 
flicting opinions. One of these regarded forest destruction as an end 
to be sought in the interest of development. The other regarded 
forest preservation as an unmixed good and an end in itself always 
and everywhere desirable. Contrasted with both these views there 

was set forth another, in words pregnant with the spirit of the un- 
born conservation movement: 

From the point of view of national progress the one opinion is as mistaken 
as the other. Both are likely to be survived by that phase of thought which 
regards forest protection as a means, not an end; which contends that every 
part of the land surface should be given that use under which it will con- 
tribute most to the general prosperity, and the purpose of whose action is best 
phrased, in the language of President Roosevelt, as ‘“‘ the perpetuation of forests 
by use.” 

The progress in practical forest preservation which has been made 
in the 10-year interval since Mr. Pinchot’s article on forest destruc- 
tion was written may fairly be called startling. In 1901, of the 
relatively few persons who were alive to the fact that some kind of 
action must be taken to offset the effects of forest destruction, nearly 
all either lacked any definite program for the solution of the forest 
problem or favored remedies which were incapable of meeting the 
situation. The two remedies commonly proposed were the provision 
of new supphes through tree planting, largely by farmers, and the 
reservation of existing supplies through the prohibition of use. As 
early as 1873 Congress had attempted to promote tree planting as a 
means of providing timber supplies in the naturally treeless regions, 
by passing the timber-culture act, which granted homesteads to set- 
tlers on condition that one- atl of the entries should be planted 
with trees; and the idea that forestation could be developed on a 

97578°—sm 1910——28 433 


434 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


scale sufficiently large to compensate for the stripping of great areas 
of timbered country persisted long after the practical failure of the 
timber-culture act had led to its repeal in 1891. The reservation 
idea was illustrated in the State of New York by the constitutional 
prohibition of any cutting on the State holding in the Adirondack 
and Catskill preserves, and also in the popular understanding (or 
rather misunderstanding) of what was intended when the western 
forest reserves of the National Government were first set aside. 

The total area of these reserves in 1901 was less than 50,000,000 
acres. Their custody was in the hands of the General Land Office 
of the Department of the Interior. The administrative work of 
caring for them was confined almost entirely to protecting them 
against fire and trespass. At the request of the Secretary of the 
Interior, the Division of Forestry of the Department of Agriculture 
had begun to make technical studies with a view to showing how 
forestry might be applied to the reserves; but the resources of the 
Division of Forestry were hopelessly small, in comparison with the 
magnitude of this task, and the foresters were without any authority 
to insure the practice of forest conservation through use, even where 
they might have known how the thing should be done. The regular 
scientific staff of the division totaled only 20 persons, and its entire 
appropriation was but $88,520. 

Although the principal effort of the Division of Forestry previous 
to 1901 had been directed toward the private owner, less than 180,000 
acres of private forests were reported in that year as actually under 
forest management in the United States. Indeed, the vast field of 
American forestry had at that time hardly begun to be explored. It 
was almost as much of a terra incognita as was the American conti- 
nent to the geographers three centuries ago. For except to a limited 
degree in the eastern part of the country, no basis existed for fore- 
casting what the forests of different regions would produce annually, 
and therefore of prescribing what should be cut annually; of judg- 
ing what would be the effect upon the forest of any specific opera- 
tion; or of insuring forest preservation through use. Whenever the 
advice of the forester was sought it was necessary to begin by investi- 
gating the underlying problems instead of applying knowledge 
already gathered. In a word, the science on which intelligent use of 
forest resources depends was only beginning to be developed. 

A legal basis for the application of the conservation principle to 
the forest reserves, or national forests, as they became shortly after 
the transfer of their administration to the Department of Agricul- 
ture on February 1, 1905, had been created by the act of June 4, 
1897. This act declared as the purpose of these reserves “to improve 
and protect the forest or for the purpose of securing favorable con- 
ditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber: 


“LS3SYO4 TVNOILVN ZSW3Sf SHL NO NIGPVD S\YSONVY 


"|, aLV1d *SAARIN—'O1L6| ‘Hoday uviuosy}iWs 


"NOILONYLSNOO aDaIyg 


1S3YO4 IVNOILVN JO 4qdWvxXy 


a 
(os 


me 


"Sg aLVid 


*SeARIQ—'O16| ‘Hoday uviuosy}iWS 


FOREST PRESERVATION—GRAVES. 435 


for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States”; and it 
also authorized the Secretary of the Interior “to make such rules 
and regulations and establish such service as will insure the objects 
of such reservations, namely, to regulate their occupancy and use 
and to preserve the forests thereon from destruction.” The same act 
specifically authorized the sale of timber under methods prescribed 
by the act and authorized the Secretary of the Interior to permit 
free use of timber under regulations to be prescribed by him. In 
other words, the law had explicitly recognized that the forests were 
not merely hoarded reserves of timber, but public property to be 
developed, to be occupied, and to be used as well as to be preserved ; 
and further, it recognized that the sum total of these ends could be 
attained only through regulated use. Yet the only product which 
the Secretary of the Interior was authorized to dispose of was the 
timber. 

By the act approved February 1, 1905, entitled “An act providing 
for the transfer of forest reserves from the Department of the In- 
terior to the Department of Agriculture,” full authority was given 
for regulation combined with the securing to the public of a proper 
return for the use of its resources by private interests for public gain; 
for this act specified the manner in which “all money received from 
the sale of any products or the use of any land or resources of said 
forest reserves ” should be disposed of. Thus when the Forest Serv- 
ice took charge of the national forests the way was clear for solving 
the administrative problem involved in giving practical effect to the 
policy formulated in the act of June 4, 1897. The national forests 
now contain a gross area of over 190,000,000 acres. Except in the six 
States of Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colo- 
rado, in which the authority of the President to add further to the 
area of the national forests was withdrawn by Congress in 1909, 
practically all the public lands of the United States capable of con- 
tributing most largely to the public welfare by their management 
as productive timberlands or by the effect of their forest growth in 
protecting water supplies or preventing soil erosion, or by both to- 
gether, have been put into the national forests. Wherever the timber 
on these forests is in demand, it is now being sold (or given away 
where settlement and development can best be promoted by free use) 
under methods which will not only maintain but also improve the 
timber growth, and which at the same time safeguard the water sup- 
plies of the West. The total amount of timber cut from the national 
forests last year was nearly 500,000,000 feet; of this the cut under 
free use was over 100,000,000 feet. 

The National Government has also adopted a plan which looks to 
forest preservation, for purposes of stream protection, in those parts 
of the country in which there are no longer public lands available for 


436 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the formation of national forests. Under this plan the Government 
will both buy land to form eastern forests and will cooperate with 
States to protect State and private holdings from fire, 

Important progress toward forest preservation has also been made 
as a result of action by the States. Ten years ago the only States 
which had given much attention to their forest problems were New 
York and Pennsylvania. In New York the Adirondack and Catskill 
Preserves had been created and contained a total of about 1,400,000 
acres of forest land which the State had undertaken to hold and pro- 
tect from fire; and a policy of enlarging these holdings by further 
purchases had been inaugurated. Fire protection of private holdings 
under a firewarden system had also been begun in New York, the 
State sharing equally with the towns in the cost of putting out fires. 
In Pennsylvania a vigorous public sentiment, developed under the 
leadership of the Pennsylvania Forest Association, had resulted in 
the creation of a State department of forestry with a commissioner 
of forestry at its head; in the acquisition of land for State reserva- 
tions with a total acreage which before the close of 1901 was nearing 
half a million acres; in provision both for the management and for 
the sale of timber from these State holdings; and in a fire law which 
made township constables firewardens. New York and Pennsylvania 
had both provided for the punishment of persons causing fires. 
Maine also had a forest-fire law, while Michigan, Minnesota, New 
Hampshire, and Ohio had State forest commissioners, boards, or 
bureaus. In Massachusetts the State board of agriculture acted also 
as a board of forestry, while the New York work was under a forest, 
fish, and game commission. 

At the present time the New York reserves contain, in round 
numbers, 1,642,000 acres, and those of Pennsylvania 921,000 acres, 
while Michigan has 232,000 acres, Wisconsin 385,000 acres, Min- 
nesota 51,000 acres, New Jersey 14,000 acres, Maryland 2,000 acres, 
Indiana 2,000 acres, Vermont 1,700 acres, and Connecticut 1,500 
acres. Several other States also have made a beginning toward the 
formation of reserves. 

A most notable advance has been made in State provision of fire 
protection for private holdings. Generally the first attempts to 
combat the fire evil took the form of laws providing for the detection 
and punishment of persons who willfully or carelessly caused forest 
fires; and the second step was to provide for local wardens, either by 
adding the duty of firewarden to that of some existing official or 
by authorizing the appointment of men for this duty exclusively, 
to be paid for time actually spent in fighting fires. These wardens 
were usually empowered to employ other help, and often to require 
the services of men needed to put fires out, 


PLATE 3. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Graves, 


AN EXAMPLE OF NATIONAL FOREST IMPROVEMENT Work. 


ROAD BUILT ALONG FLATHEAD RIVER 


“AVEYEsaYIy AYVGNOOAS GNV TIVHY] “(LSSYO+4 TIVNOILVN SATSONV) VINYOSITVD NYSHLNOS NI SGNVq GAaLVOIEY| ONILOZLOYd 1LSSYO4 TWWuYVvdVHO 


“p ALV1d 


*SOARIQH—'O1 6] ‘Hoday ueiuosyyiwS 


FOREST PRESERVATION—-GRAVES. 437 


Real progress began when it was seen that it is much more im- 
portant, and less expensive to the community in the long run, to aim 
at fire prevention than to begin to act only after the fire has become 
formidable, and that to prevent fires main reliance should be placed 
not on punitive measures, but on an organized, disciplined, and 
efficient protective force, under a technically trained forester, and 
regularly employed in watching for fires and cutting down the 
causes of fire. In heavily forested regions this means patrol during 
the fire season. It also means such protective measures as the pro- 
hibition of brush and fallow burning during the fire season, except 
under permit, the education of the public as to the harmfulness and 
the prevention of fires, and watchfulness against such special sources 
of danger as railroads, campers and fishermen, logging and sawmill 
outfits, ete. Such a fire-protection system can not, of course, be 
established without an adequate appropriation. The States of Con- 
necticut, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hamp- 
shire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington 
now have more or less effective systems of organized fire protection, 
either partly or wholly at the expense of the States. 

In certain western States a system of fire protection under author- 
ity of the State has developed along a somewhat different line. Tim- 
berland owners in the group of heavily forested States in the North- 
west, from Montana to the Pacific coast, have on the whole been in 
advance of the local public sentiment in recognition of the need of 
systematic fire protection. It is perhaps not to be wondered at that 
in this region State legislatures were at first not able to see any reason 
for spending public money to protect private timber which was 
mainly in large holdings, or that timberland owners should have 
organized to do at their own expense what the States were not willing 
to do. The laws of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and California make 
it possible for owners, or associations of owners, of timberlands to 
nominate persons in their own employ for appointment as State 
firewardens.t. These wardens receive no pay from the State, but 
have the authority of the State behind them in enforcing the laws 
against starting fires. Fire. protective associations of timberland 
owners now exist in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon; of 
these the Washington association was the pioneer. Where their 
holdings border on or are inclosed by national forests they are lit- 
erally joining forces with the Forest Service, whose protective meth- 
ods they have closely followed; they generally wish, however, to 
spend more per acre on protection than the funds at the disposal 
of the Forest Service permit it to spend in protecting national forest 
timber. 


1 North Carolina in the East has a similar law. 


438 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Only brief mention can here be made of the important advance 
which has been made by the States in promoting forest preservation 
through the giving of advice to private owners. This has been done 
through the appointment of State foresters capable of advising, and 
expected to advise, those wishing to learn how to apply forestry to 
their holdings. State foresters, who are technically trained men. 
have been appointed and are now in office in California, Connecti- 
cut, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New 
Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, 
and Wisconsin. As advisers these men are most useful to farmers 
and other wood-lot owners who could not afford to call in a pro- 
fessional forester at their own expense, but whose small individual - 
holdings form in the aggregate no inconsiderable part of the tim- 
bered area of the East. Notwithstanding the conservatism which 
is supposed to make the average farmer slow to adopt new methods, 
it is at least open to debate whether forestry is not making actual 
progress faster among these small owners than among our lumber- 
men. Farmers have, indeed, long been practicing a kind of forestry, 
in that they have been drawing supplies of wood continuously from 
the same area; and since wood lots are characteristic of parts of the 
country which have been longest settled and are most densely popu- 
lated, they are exceptionally favorably situated with regard to mar- 
kets and the prices obtainable. It is not improbable that, if things are 
left to take their natural course, improved methods of handling wood- 
lands on the part of small owners may become general in States 
which have competent State foresters before the owners of large 
tracts in the great sources of virgin supply are converted to the 
practice of forest management. 

As indifference to forest destruction has been replaced in the public 
mind by a conviction that the question of future timber supplies is 
one of serious public concern, a sentiment has developed in favor of 
legislation to prevent destructive lumbering. The laws which have 
been proposed look generally toward either (1) the retention of a 
part of the existing stand, or (2) the lessening of the fire risk after 
lumbering. Proposed laws of the first kind have set a diameter 
limit below which timber should not be cut. From the standpoint of 
technical forestry such a requirement does not meet the need because 
of its rigidity. Decision as to what trees should be cut and what 
left in order to make best use of the productive power of the forest 
can be wisely made only when specific conditions are taken account 
of. In the same way laws prescribing that all slash must be burned 
are open to criticism as substituting a rule of thumb for judgment. 
Fortunately the working out of a better way has followed the pro- 
posal of such a law in Minnesota. After a Lake State forest fire 
conference which brought together last winter representatives of 


FOREST PRESERVATION—GRAVES. 439 


Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, and of lumbermen, railroads, 
and others interested, this Minnesota law was passed in a form which 
left decision as to the need of brush disposal and the methods to be 
followed entirely in the hands of the State forester. 

The Lake State conference adopted resolutions advocating that the 
forest-fire protective system of each State should be put under the con- 
trol of a nonpartisan commission, which should place the work in 
charge of a technically trained forester; that instead of the present 
firewarden service of each State there should be organized and main- 
tained an adequate system of patrol; that trails, telephone lines, and 
lookout stations should be constructed, and that proper safeguards 
against fire in the form of slash disposal, the establishment of fire 
lines where necessary, and patrol of railroads should be required. 
The outcome of this conference must be regarded as a long advance 
in proposals for State control of fires. 

Forest taxation has for years been recognized as an important 
part of the forestry problem. If taxes are levied annually on tim- 
berlands at a high valuation a powerful reason is created for cutting 
the timber off. Even though the valuation is low, the existence of 
laws under which timber may, in the discretion of the local authori- 
ties, be compelled at any time to pay yearly its full share of a general 
property tax creates an uncertainty which timber owners generally 
declare to be a serious hindrance to engaging in forestry. As a 
matter of wise public policy it is certainly worth while not to make 
the practice of forestry hard. At the same time, if the existing 
tax laws are modified on the plea that the peculiar interest of the 
public in forest preservation calls for a lightening of the burden on 
forest holdings, the public will have a right to demand that those 
who benefit by the change shall put forestry into practice. 

It must be admitted that as yet large owners have on the whole 
shown little inclination to take up the actual practice of forestry— 
that is, to adopt lumbering methods which provide for reproduc- 
tion and amount to a money investment in the growing of a new crop. 
There is, however, an important drift toward the making of an 
investment in what might be called halfway forestry. This appears 
in the numerous examples of cuttings in which young timber is 
left to grow, though merchantable, and in which unmerchantable 
young growth now on the ground is looked after, through care in 
lumbering or through fire protection, in expectation of a later cut. 
From this to the actual production of a new crop is but a step, 
though it may be a long step. 

Since four-fifths of our standing timber is in private hands, the prob- 
lem of conservation as related to this resource must be held far from 
satisfactory so long as a reasonable expectation of the general prac- 
tice of private forestry is not in prospect. To regard any such ex- 


440 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


pectation as justified by present conditions would show an over- 
sanguine optimism. Lumbermen have not yet reached a point at 
which they are generally ready to regard their holdings of timber- 
lands as permanent investments. The reasons for this are worth 
considering. It is a common saying that the only lumbermen who 
have made money in this country have made it by buying and hold- 
ing timber. It might be thought that these men would turn naturally 
to the idea of a permanent investment in productive timberlands. 
Doubtless they would if the prospective profit were great enough. 
But hitherto new investments in cheap stumpage have been open to 
them, either in this country or in Canada, which promised much 
better returns than money put into reproduction. 

As has already been noted, the beginnings of a demand for legis- 
lation to compel private owners of timberlands to adopt measures 
intended to secure the perpetuation of the forest on their holdings 
has already appeared. Unless private owners themselves forestall 
action by taking up forestry the pressure for legislation is certain 
to grow rapidly. When public sentiment first began to awaken to 
the fact that something was called for to counteract the effects of 
destructive lumbering, it was frequently said that forest owners 
should be required to plant a tree for every tree cut down. This 
plan was generally supposed by its advocates to be that employed 
in European countries where forest preservation was provided for. 
Such a proposal is, of course, entirely impracticable, and the idea 
that it is applied anywhere is based on misinformation. It is true 
that forest replanting by private owners is required under certain 
conditions in countries like France and Germany; but the object 
of the requirement is primarily the maintenance of protective for- 
ests, and the method is not that of planting a tree or two trees for 
every one cut, but calls for a sufficient replanting of the area cut 
over to establish a new stand. This can be accomplished only by 
planting a very much greater number of small trees than consti- 
tuted the mature stand, for a complete forest cover must be secured 
promptly and the number of young trees required for this is many 
times greater than the number of old trees. A good mature forest 
represents the outcome of a long period of competition, during 
which most of those which began the race have disappeared. 

The prescription of a diameter limit may be called the second 
stage in the evolution of a plan for enforced forest protection accom- 
panied by use. The practical objections to this method have already 
been indicated. The immediate objects contemplated by this plan 
are (1) the holding of timber, which, though merchantable, is not 
yet mature, for additional growth and a later cut, and (2) the start- 
ing of a new crop by natural reproduction. In other words, the 
trees left are expected to act as seed trees. The seed-tree method 


*SG4q LNVIdSNVUL NI Yl4 SVISNOG GIO-YVAA-OML ‘“AYSSYUNN 1SSYHO4 TVNOILVN) HOLVSVAA NI S3N30S 


‘CG ALV1d ‘SBARIO—'O16| ‘Hoday ueuosy}IWS 


*S03q 033 Ni 3Nid ALIHMA “OVNVYVS LV AYSSHNN ALVLS MYOA MAN SHL SO LYUVd VY 


S 


| 


eG 


aan 


‘9 3LV1d "SPARIQO— O16] ‘HOdey ueluosyyIWS 


FOREST PRESERVATION—GRAVES. 441 


of securing reproduction is one of the recognized methods employed 
by foresters. Like slash burning and the use of a diameter limit, it is 
not a method which can give good results if applied under any blind 
and rigid rule. Much judgment must be used in modifying the rule 
to fit specific conditions if the results intended are to follow. 

In California a law was proposed last winter which would have 
required the leaving of at least one seed tree on every acre of forest 
land cut over. So far as the writer knows, this is the only case 
hitherto in which a law has been introduced in any State requiring 
that seed trees shall be left, except as such trees are provided under 
a diameter limit. 

There are several factors, most of them of a temporary nature, 
which at present work against the adoption of better lumbering 
methods. For several years there has been a growing uneasiness 
among lumbermen because of the evidently increasing criticisms and 
public disapproval to which their industry has been exposed. Lum- 
bermen feel that they have been subjected to criticism which is un- 
just. They consider they are in danger of being ground between the 
upper and nether millstones. They confront a business condition. 
At present stumpage prices, cost of manufacture, and market prices 
for their product, their profits are not large. The public chafes at 
the present cost of the lumber which it consumes. To the average 
lumberman the difficulties in the way of the practice of forestry, in 
the light of present conditions in the lumber industry, loom so large 
that he regards it as impracticable. 

For these conditions, however, the industry itself is largely respon- 
sible. The question of profit or loss to the lumberman frequently 
turns on the price at which stumpage is figured on the balance sheet. 
Stumpage prices have, as is well known, advanced rapidly during 
recent years. As the available surplus virgin timber dwindled, far- 
sighted lumbermen rushed to get as much as possible into their hands 
in anticipation of the time when they could sell with a large profit. 
But prices which mills can get for their product have not moved 
in proportion to stumpage prices. The reason for this is twofold: 
The number of sawmills operating in the United States has increased 
greatly, and the sawing capacity of many old mills has been enlarged, 
so that to-day the capacity for lumber production is far greater than 
formerly. Mill owners can not afford to let their property stand idle, 
and, in consequence, lumber is put upon the market in excess of the 
actual demand. The second factor which tends to keep down the 
price of lumber is the inroads made by many substitutes for wood 
put upon the market in recent years. These inroads in some branches 
of the lumber industry are serious and have tended to restrict the 
demand. To the extent that lumbermen have created fixed charges 
against themselves by buying and holding large amounts of timber, 


442 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


they are themselves responsible for any embarrassment which may 
result from their inability to obtain, at the present time, prices for 
lumber which will enable them to reap the anticipated speculative 
profit. It is not likely that the public will be willing to bear, in the 
form of much higher prices for lumber, the burden which the lumber- 
men have imposed upon themselves. The demand that they be per- 
mitted to combine, in order to advance prices as a means of meeting 
the additional cost which practicing forestry imposes, is one to which 
it will be exceedingly difficult to secure public assent. Moreover, the 
additional cost made necessary by the practice of forestry would not 
be as great as most lumbermen claim. Even under present unfavor- 
able conditions it would in many cases be possible to practice for- 
estry with only such increased cost as the ultimate advantage to the 
lumberman would fully justify. 

Beyond a doubt the sentiment against forest destruction and the 
demand for the application of lumbering methods which will better 
utilize and perpetuate the forests will grow stronger. The demand 
for better lumbering methods will result in the proposal of legisla- 
tion by the States aimed at regulation of the lumber industry. Some 
States will try one experiment, some States another. Some laws will 
doubtless be urged which are unwise. The lumber industry will be 
on the defensive. It will be compelled to fight drastic and unwork- 
able propositions. When regulating laws are passed, even though 
they be good laws, the lumber industry will suffer from the lack of 
uniform laws in different States. The greater the dissatisfaction with 
the methods of the lumber industry the greater will be the probability 
of the passage of laws giving scant consideration to what it may have 
to urge in its own defense. 

If, on the other hand, they are ready and able to meet the demands 
of the public for forest conservation with a constructive attempt to 
recognize the obligations and the necessities of the situation, so far 
as they are concerned, advance toward real forestry among private 
owners may soon become rapid. Progressive lumbermen themselves 
recognize that the ownership of our timber lands carries with it a 
certain obligation. To the extent that the lumber industry controls 
a fundamental resource it is affected with a public interest, and this 
implies the right of the public to regulate the industry along lines 
which are not fantastic, but face the actual conditions and are not 
unjust to the lumbermen. 

The alternative to onerous regulation would be the voluntary choice 
of a course which would satisfy the public that the private owners 
of forest resources were seeking in genuine good faith to perpetuate 
them. With such a choice made, the public would not be inclined to 
demand impossibilities. All that would be necessary would be that 
the lumbermen should show a reasonable readiness to go as far as is 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Graves. PLATE 7. 


= ee ks ‘ 


RED SPRUCE FOREST IN THE ADIRONDACK STATE PRESERVE. 


FOREST PRESERVATION—GRAVES. 443 


possible for them under existing conditions. What is needed first 
of all is a spirit of initiative applied partly in doing such things as 
using reasonable precautions against fire and adopting a forward- 
looking policy, partly in a thorough study of existing conditions in 
order to find out what else technical forestry would propose and 
what the cost would be. There is no reason why the lumbermen 
should not work out the situation themselves, if they are ready to 
meet it in a large-minded and constructive way. 

In the case of our public forests, as in that of our privately owned 
forests, preservation through use is fundamentally a matter of in- 
vesting capital in a growing timber crop. Whenever timber is sold 
from a national forest such an investment is made. Regulations em- 
bodied in the contract of sale require the purchaser to observe certain 
conditions designed to protect young growth and favor reproduction, 
while it is stipulated that he shall cut only such part of the stand as 
the forest officers may mark for removal, and the purpose of the 
marking is to secure the future welfare and a high productiveness 
of the forest. The Government therefore invests in making such 
sales: 

(1) The equivalent of the increase in the cost to the purchaser of 
cutting timber under requirements of brush piling, avoidance of 
injury to young growth, and smaller amount of stumpage obtainable 
per acre because of the timber reserved. This increase in cost of 
lumbering falls on the Government through lower prices, which a 
purchaser required to observe such conditions is willing to offer for 
the stumpage. 

(2) The actual stumpage value of all merchantable timber reserved 
from cutting whenever the purchaser would have been willing to 
increase his purchase by this amount had he been given opportunity 
to do so. 

(3) The direct cost to the Government of planning the sale with 
a view to benefiting the forest, of marking the timber, and of super- 
vising the sale to insure observance of the conditions framed to pre- 
serve the forest. 

In other words, just as the private lumberman, if he were able 
to apply forestry and pay the added cost of operating out of his 
receipts, would be reinvesting a part of his profits; so the cost of 
handling timber sales on the national forests is largely chargeable 
to capital account on any sound scheme of forest finance. The 
average price realized for national forest stumpage last year was $2.44 
per 1,000 board feet. The average cost of these sales to the Govern- 
ment may be put at from 30 to 50 cents per 1,000, a figure which 
would be much lower were not so many of the sales on National 
Forests for small amounts. This latter amount may be regarded as 
the sum of two very different expenditures. One is the expenditure 


444 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


incident to the sale itself as a business transaction. When a pur- 
chaser cuts timber under an agreement to pay the owner a certain 
amount per 1,000 feet the owner must measure the amount cut. The 
cost of doing this should be counted as a current expenditure. On 
the other hand, that part of the cost of timber sales which goes back 
into the forest, so to speak, should be reckoned differently. It is a 
betterment expenditure. 

Of course, such a point of view as this is not easily reconcilable 
with the methods customary in handling Government expenditures. 
The national finances do not ordinarily make a distinction between 
money expended as capital investment and money disbursed for cur- 
rent expenditures. Both are paid alike from current receipts. I 
merely wish to point out that in order to judge properly as to the 
true character of the work of managing the national forests it is 
necessary to look at them from the standpoint of the business man 
and to distinguish between actual running expenses and investments 
on capital account. 

A more obvious investment on capital account, which forms a 
considerable part of the annual expenditures of the Forest Service, 
is found in the expenditures for so-called “ permanent improve- 
ments.” Both the protection and the use of the forests depend on 
their equipment with roads, trails, telephone lines, fire lines, watch 
towers, rangers’ cabins, fences and water tanks in connection with 
handling stock, and various other works of construction. Plainly, 
expenditures made for these purposes should not be combined with 
expenditures necessary for the transaction of current business and 
a balance struck against receipts if the result is to be used as the 
basis for a judgment as to whether or not the forests are paying. 

Another very large item in the total cost which national forest 
administration entails is the cost of protecting the forests from fire 
through the maintenance of a protective force. The national for- 
ests contain over 500 billion board feet of timber. Only a very small 
part of this is now within reach of a demand which will enable the 
Government to sell the timber, except at a great sacrifice in price, 
if at all. A private owner who was protecting timber which was 
not ready to cut would treat the cost, from an accounting standpoint, 
precisely as he would the cost of paying taxes on the timber. In 
other words, it would amount to an annual increase in his invest- 
ment. The question whether the expenditure was wise would not 
in the least depend on whether he was getting back anything from 
the forest or not. If his final profit is enough greater than what he 
could realize now to more than cover the cost of holding the timber, 
he has done well to hold it. 

While it would be well worth while, from the standpoint of money 
receipts, for the Government to protect the great amounts of timber 


FOREST PRESERVATION—GRAVES. A45 


which are now unsalable in anticipation of the time when they will 
be salable, it must never be thought that the question of money 
profits is the vital one. The interest of the public in the preservation 
of the existing supply of national forest timber is much more than 
an interest in what it will sell for. It is an interest in preserv- 
ing the supply of material necessary to the carrying on of many 
industries. 

More than this, it is an interest also in the continuation of the 
benefits obtained from the forests in other ways than from the use 
of timber. Many of the national forests were created, and are pro- 
tected, not because they furnish valuable supplies of timber, for they 
do not; but because they protect much more valuable supplies of 
water. If the question of the wisdom or unwisdom of the national 
forest policy were to be tested by balancing expenditures against 
receipts it would follow that the first thing to be done would be to get 
rid of forests from which a net income is not either now being ob- 
tained or reasonably to be expected. This would throw out almost 
the whole national.forest area in southern California; large parts 
of the forests in Arizona and New Mexico, maintained for the pro- 
tection of projects developed or to be developed by the Reclamation 
Service; and much of the present area of the national forests in other 
States. Neither public sentiment nor the public interest could permit 
this. The national forests are a gigantic public undertaking, con- 
ceived with a view to the future. They are like a system of public 
works in process of construction. It would be almost as absurd to 
settle the question whether the Panama Canal is worth while on the 
basis of income, compared with the expenditures at the present time, 
as 1t would be to answer the same question in the case of the national 
forests by the same method. The application of any such test is 
equivalent to the adoption of the policy of “scuttle.” It is not to 
be imagined that public sentiment would permit the adoption of any 
such policy, were it proposed. 


| ar 

cigorile ery ‘kt fle cue silt: A ta seh 
aad ati i vir bE “eldled ie feast at: er 
7 anes bie ebsites Up Sania liga” 
nett De nS en hr ya - bps Cthaboblt 


Sh 4 ‘“Le7" 131s “ai 


‘ 


ai TO Hoh tsditi tor ad A? pts Pea ink Me vag? 1 
es ‘edt ‘orlt ‘fii day fd? BS dio SP a OH eae bs ae 


Sony th Gira Waa ny aw ees? Thholter bat wv Tee ine i 


~ «GR rF Rt cepiladk ae WANES AULse? 
1 pil Tt oe <i ray dA eens 248) ree AST ¥ Beis saint 
te eae Sten ler sok don PHL 


. y ee 
V9 Tt edt 


hi tis Ht aL) Th Teo dees he te Whey id fale wit aii wt 

* Sei dattiat. eri Passe ze Gaal etl Wile Dafegt a AP i Sey Lines fe 
Vi OT ad Bite tol sf oF SH GeuP SF Pe AT niin see 
tide Der Wher so ddié 5 3f orto pitta Hah Or Geek ae 
Spastic wages Hyves fy f “ancl os ; - 

hut Berk sRiotTe . : int 

NPA SHY 401 TARR OPO | Bled 

es mehr Fa hve Poets yah tart dy Bere 


“se 


4 silesi®) ii 7 r] Titi Nar 7 : Ylit- (est ait d Pia bay paEe Bak 


nes Ul, 


»: Loadé ef Seoiell od fly HSHeris On 28 cle ae 
are © roe rif : tee ‘ é : 

% ‘ ‘Site sah? oat , ' | , ’ i ft 7 trepoItn ft 1 ip oes 3 » 
eet ies: : ; , ; )“ mete: A fe ‘ 


none ae - ® 


7 ie he 
on all - 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Mayer. 


PLATE 1. 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, 1835-1910. 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, 1835-1910.* 


[With 1 plate.] 


By ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGH MAYER, 
Marine laboratory of the Carnegie Institution, Tortugas, Fla. 


Alexander Emmanuel Rodolphe Agassiz, only son of Louis 
Agassiz, was born at Neuchatel, Switzerland, on December 17, 1835. 

The great English statistician Galton found that men who attain 
eminence in science are nearly always sons of remarkable women, 
and Alexander Agassiz was no exception to this rule. His mother 
was Cecile Braun, the daughter of the postmaster general of the 
Grand Duchy of Baden, who was a geologist of note and the pos- 
sessor of the largest collection of minerals in Germany. Cecile 
Braun was a woman of culture and an artist of exceptional ability, 
and she was the first who labored to illustrate the early works of 
Louis Agassiz, some of the best plates in the “ Poissons fossiles ” 
being by her hand. Her brother, Alexander Braun, after whom 
her son was named, was a distinguished botanist and philosopher, 
and another brother, Max Braun, was an eminent mining engineer 
and geologist and the director of the largest zine mine in Europe. 
Thus we find that intellectual superiority was characteristic of both 
the paternal and maternal ancestors of Alexander Agassiz. 

After the birth of her son sorrow came upon the family, for the 
heavy expenses demanded by the publication of Louis Agassiz’s 
numerous elaborate monographs, with their hundreds of illustra- 
tions, had exhausted not only their author’s means, but had drained 
the resources of the entire community of Neuchatel in so far as they 
could be enlisted for the cause of science. Thus in March, 1846, 
Louis Agassiz was forced to leave Neuchatel and to begin the long 
journey toward America, where he found a wider field for his great 
endeavors. Before his wife or children could follow him to his new 
home she died in 1848, after a lingering illness. 

I cite these events because they show that the early youth of Alex- 
ander Agassiz was passed in a period of domestic confusion and sor- 
row, which may have left its mark upon him throughout life, for his 


1Reprinted by permission from the Popular Science Monthly, vol. 76, No. 5, Nov., 
10. 


447 


448 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


great self-reliance was a characteristic rarely developed in those 
whose early years have been free from care. Life was a severe 
struggle for him, and though his victories were great they were won 
after hard-fought battles. 

After the departure of his father from Neuchatel Alexander re-. 
mained with his mother throughout the period of her failing health, 
and after her death his father’s cousin, Dr. Mayor, and the Rev. Mare 
Fivaz brought him to America, where he rejoined his father in 
America in June, 1849, and entered the Cambridge high school in the 
autumn of the same year. 

The earliest published picture of Alexander Agassiz is by his 
father’s artist, Dinkel, and appears upon the cover of the first liv- 
raison of the “Histoire naturelles des Poissons d’Eau’ douce de 
Europe Centrale,” published in 1839. It shows him as.a little boy 
of 4 years fishing upon the shore of the Lake of Neuchatel. 

In early life Alexander exhibited his independence of character 
and incurred the Prussian governor’s displeasure and his father’s 
reproof through his willful neglect to salute this official when he 
passed upon the opposite side of the street. He must also have shown 
his characteristic pertinacity, for before he came to America he could 
play well upon the violin, an accomplishment which he allowed. to 
fall into abeyance in later years. 

In the spring of 1850, soon after the arrival of Alexander in 
America, his father took for his second wife Miss Elizabeth C. Cary, 
of Boston, in whom he found a new mother throughout life, and he 
took the most tender care of her until her death, long years after- 
wards, when he himself was an old man. Doubtless many of the finer 
traits of his rugged character were developed through the refining 
influence due to the care and teaching he received from this superior 
woman. 

Nature and his father made him a naturalist, and his reverence for 
his father was almost a religion with him. He became the first 
student his father taught in America. 

He entered Harvard College and graduated in 1855 with the degree 
of A. B., and then studied engineering, geology, and chemistry in the 
Lawrence scientific school, obtained one B. 8. in 1857 and another in 
natural history in 1862. During his college days he was much inter- 
ested in rowing and was bow oar of the four-oared crew which won 
the race against Yale on the Connecticut River at Springfield on July 
29, 1855, at which time he weighed only 145 pounds. He continued 
to row on the university crew until 1858, when the future President 
Eliot was one of his comrades in the boat. 

After graduating from the Lawrence scientific school he studied 
chemistry for a few months at Harvard, and then taught in his 
father’s school for young ladies until 1859, when he was appointed 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER. 449 


an assistant on the United States survey, and departed to take part 
in the task of charting the region of the mouth of the Columbia 
River, Oreg., and in establishing the northwest boundary. During 
this visit to the Pacific coast he found time in intervals of travel be- 
tween official duties to study the fishes and medusz of San Francisco 
Harbor and Puget Sound, and to collect specimens at Acapulco and 
Panama for his father’s museum; bat after a year’s absence he 
acceded to his father’s earnest request and came home to Cambridge 
to continue his zoological studies and to assist in the upbuilding of 
the great museum which was the dream of his father’s life. 

We now come to the period of the beginning of his scientific pro- 
ductivity, for in 1859 he published his first paper—a brief address 
before the Boston Society of Natural History upon the mechanism of 
the flight of Lepidoptera. It seems strange that this first paper of 
one who was destined to devote his life to the study of marine animals 
and to the sea should have been upon butterflies and moths. More- 
over, 1t is his only paper save one upon a mechanical principle under- 
lying animal activity, his later work in zoology being of a systematic, 
descriptive, or embryological character. 

These years when he worked by his father’s side and assisted him 
from the time the museum was formally opened in 1860 until 1866 
when he went to Michigan to develop the Calumet and Hecla copper 
mine were probably the happiest of his life. At first he had charge of 
the alcoholic specimens, of the exchanges and the business manage- 
ment of the museum—suflicient to swamp an ordinary man; but he 
was a hercules of energy and executive power, and his remarkable 
ability as an organizer probably saved the museum from many an 
embarrassment which his father’s buoyant enthusiasm and simple 
faith in destiny might have brought upon it. He had much of that 
ardent love of the study of nature which was his father’s own, but it 
was tempered and controlled by a more conservative judgment and 
a keener insight into the motives of men, so that the two working in 
sympathy together made an ideal team for drawing the museum 
upward from obscurity to prominence; for these early days were 
eritical ones in its history. In 1866, when his father was absent in 
Brazil, Alexander Agassiz had entire charge of the museum. 

On November 15, 1860, he married Miss Anna Russell, daughter of 
George R. Russell, a leading merchant of Boston. The wedding took 
place at the home of the bride’s brother-in-law, Dr. Theodore Lyman. 

Arduous as his official duties were from 1859 to 1866, when he 
studied in the museum at Cambridge, they did not prevent his accom- 
plishing a remarkable amount of work in science, for he devoted his 
summers to study upon the seashore at a time when the waters of 
many a now polluted harbor were pure, so that he discovered many 
new and remarkable marine animals in the neighborhood of Boston, 

97578°—sm 1910-——29 : 


450 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


where now nearly all aquatic life has disappeared. He produced 18 
publications during this period, the most notable being his illustrated 
catalogue of the “ North American Acalephe,” containing descrip- 
tions of many new and interesting forms of medusze from the Pacific 
and Atlantic coasts, and illustrated by 360 figures drawn from life 
by his own hand. It is but a just tribute to his thoroughness as a 
collector and observer to say that some of these meduse have never 
again been seen since he discovered them off the New England coast 
50 years ago. 

Another interesting paper of this period is his “ Embryology of 
the Starfish,” of 66 pages, illustrated by 8 plates containing 113 
figures beautifully drawn from life by the author; and yet another 
paper is upon the young stages of annelid worms in which he shows 
that in past ages adult worms were often provided with very large 
bristles, and that the young of existing marine worms still have such 
structures. 

At this time also ke wrote much upon echinoderms, and made sub- 
stantial progress upon that great work of his early manhood, the “ Re- 
vision of the Echini,” which finally appeared in four parts between 
1872-1874 and consists of 762 quarto pages of text and 94 plates; com- 
posed of drawings and photographs made by the author. This work 
caused his father keen delight, for he foresaw that it portended a dis- 
tinguished career in scicnce to his gifted son. It won the Walker 
prize of $1,000 from the Boston Society of Natural History, and 
brought to its young author an internaticnai reputation. 

Tn 1866 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of 
Sciences, which at that time recruited itself from the active young 
workers of the country. He was president of the academy from 1901 
to 1907, and its foreign secretary from 1891 to 1901 and from 1908 
until his death in 1910. He bequeathed $50,000 to the academy. He 
was also deeply interested in the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences and served as its president, gave large sums to it and left 
it $50,000 after his death. These two academies were the only scien- 
tific associations of America in which he took any active interest. 

Between 1860 and 1866 he laid the foundation for all that he was 
to achieve in science, with the exception of his elaborate explorations 
of coral reefs, and, with this exception, all of the subjects which were 
to engross his attention in future years were then engaging his active 
interest. He never departed from the thought and method of these 
early days, and he always spoke of them with loving remembrance as 
“the good old days”—their influence upon his scientific career was 
paramount. For example, he never adopted the methods of the his- 
tologist, which were not used by his father, and he confined himself 
to the study of living animals whenever this was possible. Thus it is 
that he ranks among the foremost of those systematists and em- 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—-MAYER. 451 


bryologists who have devoted themselves to the observation of marine 
animals, but histology was wholly neglected by him. Nor did he 
ever take part in that stirring discussion of Darwinism which en- 
grossed the attention of all of his contemporaries. It would be 
unfair to say that he did not believe in evolution, but the truth is 
that he was but little interested in the speculative side of science, 
excepting in so far as its deductions could be based upon observa- 
tions of facts. In later life he came to regard the labors of the 
physiologist and of the laboratory experimenters upon the reactions 
of animals as beyond the scope of zoology. 

But the walls of the museum and problems of zoology were too 
narrow a bound for such a genius of activity as Alexander Agassiz; 
moreover, he was poor and he required funds for the prosecution and 
publication of his work in science, and thus in 1865 he engaged in 
coal mining in Pennsylvania, and in the following year he tempo- 
rarily left the museum and became superintendent of the then un- 
profitable Calumet copper mine on the southern shore of Lake Supe- 
rior, and in 1867 he united the Calumet with the adjacent Hecla 
mine, calling the combined property the Calumet and Hecla. It is 
due more to him than to any other man that this mine has produced 
the largest profits ever divided by any incorporated mining company, 
for the dividends up to December 31, 1907, amounted to $105,850,000. 
From the first days of his leadership in its affairs the company ex- 
celled all other mines in the introduction of heavy machinery and 
modern methods. Indeed, its life depended upon the development 
of methods of mining upon a large scale, and so vastly has it grown 
that 83,863,116 pounds of fine copper were produced in 1907. As 
superintendent and director and afterwards as president of the com- 
pany, Alexander Agassiz steadily pursued the policy which led to 
this extraordinary industrial success, and out of the wealth it brought 
him he devoted upward of $1,000,000 to forwarding the aims of the 
museum which his father had founded, until he made it famous 
throughout the world for its excellent publications in science. He 
also expended large sums upon numerous scientific expeditions, the 
results of which he published in a manner that has never been ex- 
celled. 

To have developed the greatest copper mine in the world would 
have taxed the entire energy of many an able man, but so extraordi- 
nary was Alexander Agassiz’s capacity for productive labor that he 
became the sole author of 127 notable scientific works, many of them 
jarge books with numerous plates and illustrations drawn by himself, 
and he published many other minor papers. He was also the joint 
author of 18 and the patron or inspirer of more than 100 more, 
which were written by specialists in America, Europe, and Japan, to 
whom he sent the collections he had gathered. 


452 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


In his treatment of assistants and collaborators he displayed a most 
commendably unselfish spirit, and indeed the only differences I ex- 
perienced during eight years in which I served as his assistant were 
occasioned in persuading him to permit his name to appear as the 
senior author of publications which were actually the result of our 
joint efforts. 

Labor at the copper mines made enormous drains upon his seem- 
ingly inexhaustible energy, for during the early years of his connec- 
tion with the company he worked upon an average of 144 hours each 
day. Yet, arduous as these duties were, between 1867 and 1874 they 
made but little difference in the output of his scientific work, for in 
this period he produced 19 papers, one of them being his famous 
“Revision of the Echini.” Another announces the discovery that 
Tornaria is undoubtedly the larva of Balanoglossus, and in another 
he proves that the peculiar pincer-like organs found upon the echini 
are in reality only highly modified spines, and they serve to keep the 
animal clean by actually grasping and removing detritus from the 
surface of the creature. In another work of this period he presents a 
paper illustrated by 202 excellent figures and giving a complete ac- 
count of the embryology of those most diaphanous of marine ani- 
mals, the Ctenophore. 

Indeed, it may be said that, while his later work was far more 
elaborate and widely known, it was not more brilliant than that of 
this period which closed with his fortieth year, and these older papers 
are of such fundamental importance that they are quoted in all gen- 
eral text-books of zoology. We see, then, that. these days of his early 
manhood between 1861 and 1873 were rich in achievement in science 
and remarkable in other respects, for it was during this period that 
he raised himself from poverty to wealth more than sufficient to meet 
the demands of his expensive researches in zoology. 

But the “ happy old days” were soon to pass away forever from the 
hfe of Alexander Agassiz, for on December 14, 1873, his great father 
died, and to deepen his misery his wife, to whom he was devotedly 
attached, passed away only eight days after his father’s death, and his 
own health, undermined by too strenuous labor, failed so seriously 
that throughout the remainder of his life he suffered from an im- 
pairment of the circulation which obliged him to seek a warm climate 
every winter. 

Those who knew him in his happier years say that from this time 
onward a great change was observed in him. These irreparable losses 
came upon him at a time when youth was gone, but middle age had 
hardly come upon him and most things of life were yet in store for 
him. Henceforth he was to live alone with his sorrow, master always 
of himself, simple almost to austerity in his tastes, but deprived of 
that sympathy which only a wife could give, it is but little to be 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER. 453 


wondered at that he raised a wall between himself and the great un- 
sympathetic world, which only those nearest to him and a few most 
intimate scientific associates could penetrate. In early life he had 
been buoyant in spirit, popular and beloved by all who knew him, but 
after the sorrows of 1873 he withdrew from broader contact with the 
world, and, while he still remained cordially intimate with a few of 
the greatest leaders, from the rank and file of scientific men he held 
himself far and aloof. One must always bear the fact in mind that 
during the last 37 years of his life he was a saddened and an ill man— 
one whose deepest love was buried and whose fondest hopes had been 
wrecked. We must also consider that a tendency toward this reserve 
probably came to him through inheritance from the German blood 
of his mother’s side of the house, and it may in some measure be ac- 
counted for by the fact that English always remained a foreign 
tongue to him, for he thought in French, and in temperament he re- 
mained European rather than American. 

Yet among scientific men he became the greatest patron of zoology 
our country has known. In 1910, at the time of his death, the fifty- 
fourth volume of the “ Bulletins” and the fortieth volume of the 
“Memoirs” of the Museum of Comparative Zoology were appearing. 
These publications had been started in 1863 and 1864, and in the 
number of important and beautifully illustrated papers they contain 
they have been excelled by only a few of the most active scientific 
societies of the world; yet the expense of producing them has largely 
been borne by one man—Alexander Agassiz. 

In 1870-71 he visited many European museums to study specimens 
of echini for his great work upon this group and he was also espe- 
cially interested in the results of the English deep-sea dredging ex- 
peditions in the Porcupine, little dreaming that he was himself to 
become a great leader in such work. 

In 1873 when Mr. John Anderson, of New York, offered his father 
the island of Penikese as the site for a marine biological laboratory, 
Alexander Agassiz used all his efforts to dissuade him from its ac- 
ceptance, but failing in this he served for the first year as an in- 
structor and the second as superintendent of the school. He gives 
a history of this experience in an article in 1892 in the Popular 
Science Monthly, volume 42, page 123. Mr. Anderson’s final loss of 
interest in the laboratory and his refusal to consent to its removal to 
Woods Hole led to its abandonment. Although Alexander Agassiz, 
prompted by his deep interest in marine zoology, did not give up the 
attempt to maintain the school until after an appeal for aid addressed 
to the superintendents of public institutions and presidents of State 
boards of education throughout the United States had met with in- 
adequate response. Then he himself paid the expenses and the 
Penikese School passed out of existence. 


454 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


His experience at Penikese was, however, by no means in vain, for 
it deeply impressed him with the advisability of establishing a sum- 
mer school for research in marine zoology, so that in 1877 he built 
upon his place at Castle Hill, at the mouth of Newport Harbor, an 
ideal little research laboratory which afforded excellent accommoda- 
tions for half a dozen students at a time. For 18 years students and 
instructors from Harvard College visited this charming spot, and 
many are the papers which resulted from their labors there. Count 
Pourtalés, W. K. Brooks, Fewkes, and Whitman were the first work- 
ers in the station, and each year about 10 of the most promising of 
the research students in zoology at Harvard were privileged to study 
at the Newport laboratory. Every day a stage bore them from the 
town, 4 miles away, to the laboratory and back again at 5 o’clock in 
the afternoon, after the daily swim in the ocean. The laboratory 
was excellently equipped with reagents, glassware, and large tanks 
provided with running salt or fresh water. The microscope tables 
were set upon stone foundations to avoid vibration, and a good little 
steam launch lay at her moorings in a near cove, ready to dredge in 
the service of science. I treasure the memory of those youthful days 
at Newport, when the enthusiastic spirit of our great leader was an. 
inspiration to each and every one of us, and I recall his delight over 
the rare “ finds” we occasionally discovered in the surface tow, which 
was made every night and lay awaiting our study in the morning. 
Gradually, however, a change came over the Newport laboratory; 
the once pure water of the harbor became more and more polluted 
as population and shipping increased, until finally, in 1897, students 
were no longer invited to come to Newport, and the scientific ex- 
istence of the laboratory ceased. An account of- the laboratory, 
together with a plan of the building, will be found in Nature, volume 
19, pages 817-319, 1879, and in the Century Magazine for September, 
1883, but these fail to give an idea of the attractive little vine-clad 
building nestled down on the slope of the shore, overlooking its little 
cove with the beautiful bay to the northward and the ocean on the 
south. ; 

Alexander Agassiz was the first to see that the southern shore of 
New England was most favorably placed for the site of such a sta- 
tion, for he discovered that here arctic forms are carried down dur- 
ing the winter and early spring, whereas late in summer the south- 
erly winds bring drifting upward from the Gulf Stream animals 
whose true homes are in the warm waters of the tropical Atlantic, and 
thus one meets with an extraordinary seasonal variation of marine life 
on the southern coast of New England. 

In 1874 Alexander Agassiz was elected curator of the museum, to 
succeed his father in this responsible position, and indeed the pros- 
pects of the museum were at that time such as to inspire grave appre- 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER. 455 


hension, for its annual income was but $10,000, while it had a debt 
of $40,000, and only four-fifths of the north wing was completed. 
Fortunately, however, the devotion of the country to the memory 
of the great Louis Agassiz was such that the museum was not allowed 
to fail as had the school at Penikese. Over $310,000 were raised 
by popular subscription and through State grants for the support of 
the museum and as a memorial to Louis Agassiz, $25,000 being con- 
tributed by Alexander Agassiz himself. It is interesting to see that 
$1,215 of the amount was subscribed by 1,233 workmen of the Calu- 
met and Hecla, although there were at that time not more than 
1,400 men at the mine. 

From 1874 Alexander Agassiz remained the actual, although not 
constantly the nominal, head of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
and from 1902 until his death in 1910 he bore the title of director of 
the Harvard University Museum. 

The growth of the museum building was slow but constant. Alex- 
ander Agassiz himself completed the construction of the zoological 
section in 1882 and other public-spirited men and women, including 
his two sisters, contributed to build other parts of the edifice, until at 
present only 100 feet of the southern wing of the building planned 
so long ago by Louis Agassizremains to be completed. The total cost 
of the building has been more than $1,200,000, and its invested capital 
amounts to somewhat more than $900,000. Thus, while it is much 
hampered for funds, it still remains the greatest university museum in 
the United States. The zoological section has been greatly enriched 
by collections gathered by Alexander and Louis Agassiz, and their 
gifts to the library have placed it in a position in which it is unsur- 
passed in America, more than 6,000 bound volumes having been pre- 
sented by Alexander Agassiz himself. 

In the classification of its zoological exhibits the museum is one of 
the clearest existing models of the system of Cuvier, for it must be 
remembered that intellectually Louis Agassiz was Cuvier’s son, and 
Alexander Agassiz steadfastly pursued his father’s plan in so far'as 
the museum’s exhibits were concerned. 

No family has striven more effectually for the intellectual uplifting 
of Harvard than that of the Agassiz, and it is to be regretted that the 
great museum which they founded and fostered does not officially 
bear their name, but instead is described by an almost meaningless 
phrase, “The Museum of Comparative Zoology.” 

Alexander Agassiz was a loyal son of his alma mater and he served 
as an overseer of Harvard from 1873 to 1878 and again in 1885, and 
he was a fellow from 1878 to 1884 and from 1886 to 1890. In 1885 
the university conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. 

The year 1875 marks the beginning of Alexander Agassiz’s career 
as a leader of expeditions, for with Dr. Samuel Garman as his assist- 


456 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ant he explored Lake Titicaca and the coast region of Peru and Chile. 
From this time onward until the close of his life exploration was to 
engross more and more of his attention, to the final exclusion of the 
embryological studies that had given color to his earlier years. The 
Jast publication in which he records the results of the rearing of ani- 
mals is his joint paper of 1889 with Prof. Cha 'es O. Whitman, and 
is upon the development of fishes. After 1889 h. gave up the raising 
of larvee in his aquaria at Newport and became an explorer, geologist, 
and systematic zoologist, although it should be said that the last 
paper published during his lifetime is a short one upon the temporary 
existence of a lantern and of teeth in the young EHchinonéus. It is, 
however, based upon the study of museum material and records an 
observation made by A. M. Westergren. 

His remarkable energy and executive ability fitted him in an emi- 
nent degree to be the leader of scientific expeditions. Each exploring 
trip was planned to a day even to its minute details, every course 
charted, distances measured, and every station decided upon before he 
left his desk in the Harvard Museum, so that all of its achievements 
were actually prearranged. At times it was of vital import to his 
expeditions to have supplies of coal brought to some distant island in 
the Tropics, but invariably when he arrived his colliers would have 
preceded him, and all went forward with clockwork regularity. In 
fact, before starting he read all that was to be found upon the regions 
he designed to visit, so that he was enabled to begin the writings of 
his results the moment the voyage was over. It:is due chiefly to his 
forethought that in more than 100,000 miles of wandering over tropi- 
cal seas he never met with a serious accident; and this is the more 
remarkable when one considers that in order to land upon the coral 
reefs he was forced to cruise in the hottest season, when the brooding 
calms were liable at any moment to break into a hurricane. Day after 
day I saw him remain upon the bridge of the steamer sketching sali- 
ent features of many a lonely coast that he of all naturalists was the 
first to see. The rolling of the vessel caused him acute distress, yet, 
though seasick, he worked on undaunted, for the keynote of his char- 
acter was pertinacity. 

As we have said, his first expedition was to South America to 
explore Lake Titicaca and to visit the copper mines of Peru and 
Chile. He published a hydrographic chart of the lake, sounded its 
depths, determined its temperature, collected its animals and plants 
and relics of the ancient Peruvians, who once lived upon its islands. 
Among other results he found at Tilibiche, Peru, a reef of fossil corals 
elevated 2,900 to 3,000 feet above the sea and 20 miles inland from the 
ocean, thus showing that the recent elevation of some parts of the 
western coast of South America has been even greater than had been 
observed by Darwin. 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—-MAYER. 454% 


Upon returning from South America, his embryological studies 
were resumed at Newport, and the development of flounders and 
other young fishes interested him especially. It was well known 
that-in the young flounder the eyes are on both sides of the head and 
that after the fish falls over on one side, the eye of the lower side 
travels around and comes to lie beside its fellow on the upper side 
of the fish, but Alexander Agassiz discovered that in the transparent 
young of flounders allied to the Plagusize the lower eye actually 
penetrates through the tissues of the head and reappears on the sur- 
face of the upper side of the fish. 

In the young of other bony fishes he discovered a caudal lobe 
showing that in an early stage the tails of the bony fishes resemble 
the adult tails of the more ancient ganoids. 

He also found that under the skin of flounders there are yellow, 
red, and black pigment cells and that changes of color are due to the 
independent expansion or contraction of these several cells; and in 
1892 he made the interesting discovery that if young flounders be 
placed for six weeks in aquaria with white surroundings they lose 
nearly all color and do not regain their normal color, even if at the 
end of this time they be surrounded by black. 

These studies of fishes, begun in 1875, were continued for many 
years in the intervals between expeditions, the last of the series being 
published in 1892. One of the most important papers of this series 
appeared in 1878 and‘is upon the development of that archaic fish 
the gar pike, Lepidosteus. 

But of all animals the echinoderms interested him most deeply. 
Indeed of the 145 most important scientific papers of which he was 
sole or joint author 45 treat of echinoderms. Accordingly in 1874-77 
we find him actively engaged in their study. In 1874 he announces 
the discovery that hybrid larve may be produced by artificial means 
between the two common species of star fish of the New England 
coast. In 1876 he studied the structure of some viviparous echini 
from the Kerguelen Islands, and found that they habitually carried 
their young about with them until the young had acquired most of 
the characters of the adult. In 1877 his beautifully illustrated work 
upon North American star fishes was published. 

In 1876 he was keenly interested when he visited Sir Wyville 
Thomson in Scotland and inspected the vast collections of deep-sea 
forms brought home from the three-years’ cruise of the Challenger; 
and it was a happy moment for him when in 1877 an arrangement 
was perfected with the United States Government by virtue of the 
terms of which he was given the scientific direction of the United 
States Coast Survey steamer Blake during the entire time of her pur- 
posed explorations of the West Indian and Gulf Stream region. He 
joined the Blake at Habana, Cuba, in December, 1877, and remained 


458 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


on board until April, 1878, exploring the Gulf of Mexico and adja- 
cent regions. Admiral, then Lieut. Commander C. D. Sigsbee, 
United States Navy, was in command, and his ingenious inventions 
of sounding apparatus, trawls, etc., saab dod the expedition to accom- 
plish unprecedented results. 

The second cruise of the Blake started from Washington on No- 
vember 27, 1878, with Capt. J. R. Bartlett, United States Navy, in 
command, and throughout the winter of 1878-79 they cruised among 
the Windward Isles of the West Indies and over the Caribbean Sea, 
visiting Habana, Jamaica, Haiti, Porto Rico, St. Thomas, Santa 
Cruz, Montserrat, St. Kitts, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, St. 
Lucia, St. Vincent, Granadines, Grenada, and Barbados, and gath- 
ering an immense collection of animals from the depthsof the ocean. 

The third and last cruise of the Blake was for the purpose of sound- 
ing the depths of the Gulf Stream. They started from Newport in 
June and cruised until August, 1880, running seven lines of sound- 
ings off the coast between Charleston and George’s Bank, which led 
to the discovery that a plateau covered by water not more than 600 
fathoms deep extends from the Bahamas northward to Cape Hat- 
teras, forming a vast triangular area of shallow water, the outer edge 
of which is from 300 to 350 miles out in the ocean from the coast of 

the Southern Atlantic States. The Gulf Stream flows across this 
area on its course between the Straits of Bemini to Cape Hatteras, 
and the outer edge of this shallow bank is where the North American 
Continent rises abruptly from the depths of the flat floor of the ocean. 
The name “ Blake Plateau” was most appropriately given by Alex- 
ander Agassiz to this extensive area of shallow water. 

During her three cruises the Blake made 355 soundings, deep-sea 
temperature observations, and trawl hauls yielding a phenomenally 
rich harvest of new and interesting marine animals. Among other 
things, the second cruise led to the discovery of a vast submarine 
valley, the “ Bartlett Deep,” extending for nearly 700 miles along the 
southern coast of Cuba toward Honduras. Twenty miles south of 
Grand Cayman this great depression is 3,400 fathoms deep, so that 
the summits of the mountains of Cuba only 50 miles away are 28,000 
feet above its somber trough. 

This experience upon the Blake was the most momentous event in 
Alexander Agassiz’s scientific life, for it gave him a taste for marine 
exploration which was to dominate his future career. Without this 
he might have continued to be an embryologist and systematic zoolo- 
gist, but he was destined to more conspicuous achievements as an 
explorer. 

Its effect upon the history of the museum at Cambridge was also 
profound, for the output of museum publications had been so slow 
that at the end of 1877 only three volumes of the “ Bulletins” and 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER. 459 


five volumes of the “ Memoirs” had been completed, and yet these 
publications had been appearing in parts for 14 and 13 years, respec- 
tively. The reports upon the great collections gathered by Alexan- 
der Agassiz’s expeditions gave these museum publications an enor- 
mous impetus, so that at the time of his death in 1910 the fifty-fourth 
volume of the “ Bulletin” and the fortieth of the “ Memoirs” were 
appearing. 

Alexander Agassiz realized that the Government had always failed 
to provide adequately for the publication of the results of its many 
explorations, and thus he himself assumed the direction and defrayed 
the entire expense of all of the publications resulting from expedi- 
tions under Government auspices of which he was the scientific di- 
rector. No results of explorations have been more appropriately 
published or better illustrated than those under the auspices of 
Alexander Agassiz. 

Alexander Agassiz did most wisely also in sending the various col- 
lections not only to specialists in America, but to the leading students 
in Europe and Japan, thus securing the cooperation of those best 
competent to pronounce upon them. 

During the first cruise of the Blake he discovered that the prevail- 
ing winds blowing over the Gulf Stream caused a marked concentra- 
tion of floating life upon its western edge, and that this aggregation 
was nowhere richer than at the Tortugas, Fla. Accordingly, under 
Government auspices he visited the Tortugas in March and April, 
1881, with Dr. J. W. Fewkes as his assistant. Although greatly hin- 
dered by stormy weather, he succeeded in securing a large collection 
of marine animals, notably the Porpitide and Velellidee, an elaborate 
and fully illustrated account of which he published in 1883, and in 
the same year, in the “ Memoirs” of the American Academy, he 
presented the results of his studies of the fine coral reefs of the 
Tortugas. 

His Blake Echini appeared in 1883, and in 1888 came his last Blake 
publication, a general account of her three notable cruises. This 
crowning work comes nearer to being a popular book than anything 
he, as sole author, ever published. It is a general review of the results 
of the Blake’s voyages between 1877 and 1880, and it appears in 
volumes 14 and 15 of the “ Bulletins ” of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology, being illustrated by 545 maps and figures of the highest 
artistic and scientific merit. 

It is rarely, indeed, that the results of exploration have been thus 
summarized in a single work, and none gives a clearer idea of the 
strange forms of the creatures that live upon the cold, dark floor of 
the deep sea than does this one. 

The results may be significantly summarized by stating that we 
now know more of the topography and of the animals of the depths 


460 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of the Gulf Stream and West Indian region than of any submarine 
area of equal extent in the world, and that this knowledge is due to 
the explorations of the Blake under Alexander Agassiz’s scientific 
direction. It is but just to add that these notable achievements would 
have been impossible had it not been for the inventive genius and 
intelligent interest of Capt. Sigsbee in devising sounding apparatus 
and trawls. 

We now come to the closing period of Alexander Agassiz’s scien- 
tific life—his long years of exploration of the coral reefs of the world, 
for during the winter of 1885 he visited the Hawaiian Islands, study- 
ing the reefs of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii. 

For 25 years this study of the mode of formation of coral islands 
was to engage his rapt attention, and he was destined to wander far- 
ther and to see more coral reefs than has any man of science of the 
present or the past. His boyish joy upon the sight of some rare crea- 
ture of the sea was something not altogether his own, for he inherited 
it from his father. The years of toil and care were all forgotten 
when he drifted in the mirrored waters above the reef and gazed 
downward into its world of subtle color where contrasts of olives, 
browns, and greens were accentuated by a butterfly-like flash of bril- 
lhancy as some fish of the coral world glided outward from the depths 
of the shaded cavern. 

He saw more coral reefs than has any living man, and this very 
virtue of his exploration is its chief fault, for the study of coral reefs 
is a complex problem, and it can not be solved by a superficial inspec- 
tion such as he was forced to make. No one realized this more fully 
than he did himself, but he believed that the subject should be ap- 
proached by a superficial survey of all of the reefs of the world, and 
thus he might hope to discover places where the problem might 
afterwards be studied with decisive results. He aimed to point out 
only the broad aspects of the problem, leaving the elucidation of 
details to those who might follow him. 

T believe that science will come to see that he succeeded in showing 
that Darwin’s simple explanation of the formation of atolls does not 
hold in any part of the world. Darwin, it will be remembered, as- 
sumed that wherever we find a voleanic mountain projecting above 
the sea in the tropical regions corals will grow upon its submerged 
slopes and form a ring around it. If, then, the mountain slowly sinks 
beneath the sea, the corals will as constantly grow upward toward the 
surface, so that after the mountain has disappeared the atoll-ring of 
coral reefs will still remain. 

Alexander Agassiz maintains, however, that atolls are formed in a 
variety of ways, and may develop where there has been neither 
marked elevation nor subsidence in modern times, as at the Great 
Barrier Reef of Australia, or under stationary conditions after a past 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER. 461 


period of elevation, as in the Fiji Islands, or by dissolving away of 
the inner parts of an elevated limestone island, as at Bermuda, or 
Fulangia in Fiji, or we may have a submerged crater the volcanic rim 
of which may erode away to beneath sea level, thus giving a founda- 
tion for a ring-shaped coral reef. 

Unfortunately the very multitude of Alexander Agassiz’s observa- 
tions and the somewhat confused style of his writing renders him 
difficult to follow. Had he enjoyed greater experience as a lecturer 
he might have become a clearer writer, for he constantly assumed that 
his readers were as familiar with the subject as himself, and that a 
few words would make his meaning as clear to them as to him. 

It is to be regretted that of the three great writers upon coral reefs 
Darwin saw only one atoll, Dana sailed past many, but was per- 
mitted to land upon few, for the islands were then inhabited by 
dangerous cannibals, and Agassiz was compelled to cover such a 
vast field that certain of his conclusions, as he states himself, are 
still tentative; for the solution of some of the questions presented by 
these problems demands a more intensive and prolonged study than 
he was able to devote to them. 

While in the Hawaiian Islands in 1885 he found that the coral 
. reefs have repeatedly been buried under lava floes, and that the corals 
have again grown over the submerged lava. The reefs have nowhere 
been elevated more than 25 feet above sea level, but the coral sands 
and shell fragments have been blown upward along the mountain 
slopes and have formed limestone dunes, which the rains have ce- 
mented into solid rock. These wind-blown limestone ledges may be 
found 700 feet or more above the level of the sea. 

In 1890 he published a paper showing that reef corals may become 
24 inches thick in less than seven years, his observations being based 
upon a study of corals that had grown upon the Habana-Key West 
cable. 

In 1887 Alexander Agassiz was invited by the United States Fish 
Commission to assume the scientific direction of an expedition of the 
steamship Albatross between Panama and the Galapagos Islands, but 
he was unable to accept until 1891, when, from February until May, 
ke cruised with the Albatross from Panama to Point Mola, thence to 
Cocos, Malpelo, and Galapagos Islands, and from Acapulco to the 
Gulf of California, making 84 deep-sea trawl hauls, soundings, and 
temperature observations, and in five more stations using the sur- 
face and submarine nets. 

A significant feature of this expedition was due to the invention 
by Lieut. Commander Z. L. Tanner, United States Navy, of a self- 
closing net, which enabled one to obtain marine animals at any 
stratum of depth, and thus to determine the range in depth of marine 
creatures. The use of this excellent net led Alexander Agassiz to con- 


462 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


clude that the floating life of the surface of the sea does not sink to 
a depth greater than 200 fathoms, and that the bottom forms of the 
deep sea do not rise more than 60 fathoms above the floor of the 
ocean, and that there is practically no life between 200 fathoms be- 
low the surface and 60 fathoms above the bottom. His later studies 
have, however, shown that these conclusions must be modified, for 
in the tropical Pacific surface forms are sometimes taken at a depth 
of about 300 fathoms beneath the surface, and although the surface 
animals do not commonly sink to depths greater than this, there is 
apparently a most interesting intermediate fauna of medusa, ete., 
which are sometimes found at depths greater than 400 fathoms, and 
which rarely or never rise to the surface. Agassiz clearly saw the 
complexities and difficulties of this problem and realized that its so- 
lution can be reached only after many have labored upon it. In- 
deed, he himself was forced through lack of time to abandon its 
study to others. 

A very rich collection of deep-sea forms then new to science was 
made by this expedition of the Albatross, and have been described in 
numerous papers in the “ Bulletins” and “ Memoirs ” of the museum 
at Harvard. 

The most important general result was Alexander Agassiz’s dis- 
covery that the deep-sea animals of the Gulf of Panama were more 
closely allied to those of the depths of the C&ribbean Sea than the 
Caribbean forms were to those of the deep waters of the Atlantic. 
This leads him to conclude that the Gulf of Panama was once more 
intimately connected with the Caribbean than the latter is with the 
Atlantic, and thus the Caribbean Sea was at one time merely a bay 
of the Pacific, and has become shut off since Cretaceous times by the 
uplifting of the Isthmus of Panama. 

In 1892 Alexander Agassiz published his general report upon this 
important exploration of the Panamic region, and he concludes that 
the Galapagos Islands have never been connected with the mainland 
of America, but that the ancestors of their peculiar animals and 
plants were drifted over the ocean by the prevailing winds and 
stranded upon the shores of these remote islands. He also observed 
that the animals of the deep-sea are preponderatingly reddish or 
violet in color, and that blue-colored forms, such as are observed 
on the surface, are rare in the depths. This inclines him to suspect 
that the lingering remnant of sunlight which penetrates into the 
depths is red, but in view of the absence of observation he is cautious 
in advancing this suggestion. 

Another paper of 1892 is his description of an interesting crinoid 
from the depths of the sea near the Galapagos Islands. This is a 
highly generalized form, and it is beautifully painted from life by 
Westergren, who accompanied him as artist upon the Albatross. 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—-MAYER. 463 


In 1898 and 1904 he describes the deep-sea echini found off Panama, 
‘this being his last paper upon the results of the explorations of 
1891. The final report is beautifully illustrated with drawings 
made by A. M. Westergren. 

In the autumn of 1892 his friend, Mr. John M. Forbes, offered to 
place at his disposal his steam yacht Wild Duck, a seaworthy little 
vessel 127 feet long upon the water line; and from January until 
April, 1892, he cruised in this yacht, wandering for more than 4,500 
miles among the Bahamas and off the Cuban coast, engaging in the 
study of the part which corals have played in the formation of these 
islands. On this and all subsequent expeditions he was accompanied 
by his son Maximilian, who was his father’s constant companion and 
friend, and who served as his photographer. The results of this 
voyage were published in 1894 in the “ Bulletin” of the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology. 

He concludes that the Bahama Islands are composed of «olian 
rock, being formed of wind-blown fragments of shells and other 
limestone particles of animal origin which, after being blown up- 
ward above sea level, have been agglutinated into rock by the agency 
of rain water. After being thus built up the islands subsided about 
300 feet, and are now much smaller than they originally were, for 
the sea and atmospheric agencies have eroded them greatly. The 
present-day corals form a mere veneer over this submerged seolian 
rock and do not play a prominent part in forming the islands. The 
so-called “lagoons” of the Bahamas are merely parts of the interior 
of the islands which have been dissolved out under atmospheric 
agencies, rain, etc., and have been deepened by the action of the sea 
after the ocean water entered them. Hogsty Atoll he would regard 
as a plateau of submerged eolian rock surrounded by a rim which 
does not reach the surface and is protected from marine erosion by 
a coating of modern corals. 

Five superimposed limestone terraces are seen at Cape Maysi and 
can be traced for a considerable distance along the Cuban coast. The 
lowermost of these terraces is raised only about 20 feet above sea 
level and is clearly an elevated coral reef, but the older and higher 
terraces he is inclined to regard as being of limestone covered only by 
a mere veneer of corals or containing only a few scattered coral heads 
and not true elevated coral reefs. 

The peculiar flask-shaped harbors of Cuba with their narrow en- 
trances and broad lagoons interested him greatly, and he decided that 
when the land was elevated these depressions had been leached out in 
the limestone by the action of streams in the drainage areas of the val- 
leys, and when the land afterwards sank the broad valleys were 
submerged, with only a deep narrow entrance connecting them with 


464 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the sea. Yumuri Valley would constitute just such a harbor were it 
submerged beneath the sea. 

This study of the reefs of Cuba and the Bahamas naturally led 
him to renew his observations in Florida and to visit the Bermudas. 
He saw the Bermuda Islands in March, 1894, and in December of the 
same year he chartered a tug and steamed along the Barrier Reef of 
Florida. 

He found that, in common with the Bahamas, the Bermudas con- 
sist of eolian limestone. In places the interior of these islands as 
dissolved away by the action of rain water rendered acid by decom- 
posing vegetable matter, and thus depressions were formed in the 
central parts of the islands. Then when the islands sank the sea 
broke through the rims and filled the lagoons, afterwards deepening 
them by its scouring action. 

Thus the Bermudas have assumed an atoll-like shape, but their 
contour is not due to corals. Indeed, there are but few corals at 
Bermuda, and these form a mere veneer over the sunken xolian 
ledges. The so-called miniature atolls are mere pot-hole basins 
which have been scooped out by wave action in the eolian rock, and 
their rims are never more than 18 inches high, and consist of a wall 
of xolian rock covered by a coating of serpule, alge, and corallines, 
which enable them to withstand the wearing action of the sea. Thus 
Darwin’s theory of coral reefs can not explain the conditions seen 
in the Bahamas and Bermudas. 

The results of his study of the Florida Reef were finally pub- 
lished in 1896, in cooperation with Dr. Leon S. Griswold. Agassiz 
concludes that the Marquesas of Florida are not an atoll, but inclose 
a sound that has not been formed by subsidence, but by the solvent 
and mechanical action of the sea. Thus the Marquesas are similar 
in their geological history to other sounds back of the line of the 
Florida Keys. 

He found an elevated reef extending along the seaward face of 
the Florida Keys from Lower Matacumbe to Soldier’s Key. We 
now know, however, that the elevated reef actually extends from the 
southern end of Big Pine Key to Soldier’s Key. Agassiz believed 
that the oolite limestone back of the elevated reef and along the 
mainland shore of Key Biscayne Bay was eolian rock; but Griswold 
decided that it was only a mud flat which had been formed beneath 
the water, and afterwards elevated. Later studies have shown that 
Griswold was right. 

In 1895 he instituted a study of the underground temperature of 
the rock walls of the Calumet and Hecla mine, and found that the 
increase is only 1° F. for every 223.7 feet as we descend. His deep- 
est temperature observation was 4,580 feet beneath the surface of the 
ground. 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER. 465 


He had now seen all of the coral reefs of the Atlantic and turned 
his attention to the exploration of the Pacific. In April and May, 
1896, he cruised along the Great Barrier Reef of Australia in the 
little steamer Croydon, which he chartered from the Australian 
United Steam Navigation Co., Capt. W. C. Thomson being in com- 
mand. The voyage began at Brisbane in April, extended northward 
to the Hope Islands, and ended at Cooktown in May. Unfortunately, 
he had come to Australia in the height of the trade-wind season, and 
the almost constant gale greatly hindered the work of his expedition. 
Indeed, during more than a month of cruising he could spend only 
three days on the outer reefs, and the dredging and study of marine 
life which he had hoped to carry out were practically abandoned. 

He concluded that the many islands and submerged flats off the 
Queensland coast were once connected with the mainland, but have 
been separated from the continent by erosion and denudation. After 
the formation of these flats and islands corals grew upon them. The 
recent reefs have been elevated at least 10 feet, and do not owe their 
contours to subsidence, yet they form true atolls. The inner channels 
of the Barrier Reef are maintained free of corals by the great amount 
of silt held in suspension in the water or deposited to form a blue 
mud over the bottom. Thus there appears to be nothing in the Great 
Barrier Reef region to lend support to Darwin’s theory of coral 
reefs, 

A tangible result of this expedition was the enriching of the 
museum at Cambridge by a great collection of Barrier Reef corals 
gathered under Alexander Agassiz’s auspices by H. A. Ward. 

His experience in Australia taught him to avoid the trade-wind 
season and henceforth his expeditions to coral seas were timed so 
that he cruised among the reefs in the late spring and early summer 
months when the trades have died out into the long hot days of calm 
which precede the coming of the hurricanes. This interval when the 
torrid sea is sleeping gave him the opportunity to land on many a 
jagged shore that defied approach at other seasons. He then could 
wade through the still waters over the coral reefs, and unravel at his 
will the secrets of the atolls, composed as they are of wave-tossed 
fragments that once were shells of mollusks or skeletons of creatures 
of the reefs. His overmastering interest carried him to the shores of 
hundreds of these distant atolls where the coco palm, the Pandanus, 
and the fishes of the reef afford the only sustenance for man, where 
there are no hills or streams and the land is only a narrow strip 
across which one hears constantly the roar of heavy breakers. 

These years of cruising accentuated his already predominant self- 
reliance, for the commander of a marine expedition must needs be an 
autocrat by profession. He was accustomed to command and to be 
obeyed and his relation to the Harvard Museum during these later 

97578°—sm 1910——30 


466 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


years Was in miniature similar to that of Bismarck to the German 
empire. Indeed, there was a strange physical and mental resemblance 
between Alexander Agassiz and Bismarck. Fearless, resolute, quick 
to anger, definitely purposeful and full of resource, they were closely 
akin in character, and indeed there seemed much in common between 
the two, for during the course of his long and honored life Alexander 
Agassiz had been granted many interviews with exalted personages, 
but his meeting with Bismarck was the only one to which he delighted 
to refer. Alexander Agassiz was a colossal leader of great enter- 
prises, fully as much as he was a man of science. 

The cold winters of Cambridge were intolerable to him, and each 
year from 1875 until the close of his life he sought a more genial 
climate. Upon these pleasure excursions he visited Mexico, Central 
America, the West Indies, India, Ceylon, Japan, the readily accessible 
parts of Africa, and every country in Europe. He never went far 
into the arctic regions, although he saw the midnight sun at North 
Cape and visited the Aleutian Islands. Upon all excursions of the 
last 20 years of his life his constant companion and friend was his 
son Maximilian. 

In 1896, in collaboration with Dr. W. McM. Woodworth, he pub- 
lished a paper upon the variations of 3,917 specimens of the medusa 
Obelia (EKucope), in which the authors show that aberrant specimens 
of Obelia are very common. This paper: is illustrated by interesting 
photographs made from life by Dr. Woodworth. This is one of the 
last of the studies published by him from his Newport laboratory, 
the latest one being in 1898 upon the scyphomedusa Dactylometra., 

From November, 1897, to January, 1898, he cruised among the 
Fiji Islands in the little steamer Yaralla, chartered from the Aus- 
tralian United Steam Navigation Co. and under the command of 
Capt. W. C. Thomson. 

Dana had stated that the coral reefs of the Fiji Islands were typical 
examples of the theory of Darwin, and Agassiz was greatly surprised 
therefore to find the clearest evidence of elevation, for in some places, 
as at Vatu Vara Island, the late Tertiary limestones are lifted more 
than 1,000 feet above the sea. This great elevation, which is so evi- 
dent in numerous places among the Fiji Islands, probably took place 
in later Tertiary times, and since then the islands have been greatly 
eroded and reduced in size, deep valleys being cut into their mountain 
slopes and many of the islands having been washed away by the 
tropical rains, leaving only a submerged flat. The coral reefs that 
grew around the shore line of the islands still remain after the islands 
have washed away, and thus the living reefs now mark the contours 
of the islands as they were. The currents flowing in and out of open- 
ings in the reef rim have deepened the lagoons, but nevertheless there 
are many coral heads growing in the lagoon of every coral atoll. 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ——MAYER. 467 


He saw that the coral reefs which grew around a voleanic mountain 
remain after the mountain has washed away, and thus an atoll is 
formed without the agency of subsidence. In other cases, as at 
Fulangia, there was once an elevated coral limestone island lifted 
above sea level. Then rain water and atmospheric erosion leached 
out depressions in its central parts and finally the sea entered, form- 
ing a lagoon surrounded by a ring of detached islets of elevated lime- 
stone. In other cases the crater rims have washed away and a ring 
of coral reefs now marks the site of the old volcanic ridge. 

According to Agassiz the coral reefs of to-day in the Fiji Islands 
form only a crust of moderate thickness upon a base of old limestone 
or volcanic rock. The present corals form only fringing reefs along 
the shores, and the contours of the atolls and barrier reefs are thus 
due to causes which acted at the time when the islands were elevated 
late in the Tertiary period. 

In so great an archipelago as that of the Fijis with more than 270 

‘islands there must be many details of reef formation, the elucidation 
of which requires more prolonged study than Agassiz was enabled to 
devote to them in his visit of less than three months; for example, he 
was puzzled to explain the great thickness—1,000 feet and more—of 
the elevated limestones; for reef corals do not grow at depths greater 
than about 120 feet. Could these enormous accumulations have been 
formed by coral reefs during a period of slow subsidence, as Darwin 
had assumed, or were they merely the talus of broken fragments 
which had rolled down the seaward sides from the outer edges of the 
reef, or were they formed by a slow accumulation of limestone frag- 
ments and shells of marine creatures other than corals which had 
lived upon the bottom more than 1,000 feet beneath the surface and 
gradually built up a vast mass of limestone, as was the case with the 
great submerged Pourtalés Plateau off the Florida coast? He had in 
mind the fact that even in the richest coral-reef regions the masses 
of broken shells and fragments of calcareous plants are commonly 
vastly greater than the bulk of the corals, for the corals grow only 
here and there over the limestone flats, and flourish luxuriantly only 
on their seaward slopes. 

Were such a reef to form during a long period of slow subsidence, 
and then become elevated above the sea, we should find only an occa- 
sional coral here and there imbedded in a great mass of limestone. 
This is the appearance presented by some of these elevated limestone 
cliffs of the Pacific islands, while others appear to be walls of non- 
coral-bearing limestone capped above with a crust of corals. In 
many cases, however, the corals they once contained have disappeared 
and been replaced by calcite or dolomite. These elevated limestones 
soon become very hard when exposed to the atmosphere, for they 
become coated by a dense veneer which rings with a clinkerlike sound 


468 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


when struck with a hammer. One sometimes finds shells of the giant 
clam, 7'7ridacna, imbedded in this hard limestone and elevated above 
the sea, and yet the nacre of the shell is still white and polished, thus 
proving that the rock was elevated only recently, and certainly not 
longer ago than in late Tertiary times. 

Altogether the most interesting problem raised by Alexander 
Agassiz’s researches in the Pacific is the question of the relation be- 
tween these elevated Tertiary reefs and the growing coral reefs of to- 
day, and it still remains unsolved, despite the careful studies made by 
Mr. E. C. Andrews, whom Alexander Agassiz sent to the Fiji Islands 
especially to study this problem, for Andrews’s investigation has 
merely served to show that the subject is very complex and can not 
be solved until prolonged study of certain favorable localities has 
been completed. 

From August, 1899, until March, 1900, Alexander Agassiz had for 
the second time the scientific direction of the Albatross. Commander 
Jefferson F. Moser, United States Navy, was in command and the’ 
cruise began at San Francisco and extended across the tropical re- 
gions of the Pacific to the Ladrone Islands and thence northward to 
Japan. On this great cruise the Albatross visited the Marquesas, 
Paumotos, Society, Cook, Nieue, Tonga, Fiji, Ellice, Gilbert, Mar- 
shall, Caroline, and Ladrone Islands, steaming many thousands of 
miles in and out among the atolls. 

From San Francisco the vessel steamed 4,000 miles straight to the 
Marquesas, making many soundings and trawl hauls which led to the 
discovery that there is here a great basin between 2,500 and 3,000 
fathoms deep, the bottom of which is covered with manganese nodules 
and the teeth of extinct sharks. It was an impressive sight to see the 
great trawl bring up tons of the manganese nodules looking lke 
gritty brown potatoes, and all nearly as cold as ice, for the tempera- 
ture of the deep floor of the ocean here was less than 3° F. above freez- 
ing. Despite the heat of the tropic sun beating upon our deck our 
hands stung with the cold as we felt among the mass of nodules and 
cracked them open to discover the inclosed nucleus of pumice, the 
encrusted ear bone of an extinct whale or a shark’s tooth imbedded 
in the soft brown rock. Some of these shark’s teeth were so large 
that the shark itself was probably more than 100 feet long. A deep 
submarine area far greater than that of the United States is covered 
thickly by these manganese nodules and sharks’ teeth, and Alexander 
Agassiz named it the “ Moser Deep,” in honor of the commander of 
the Albatross. 

Very little animal life was found, either floating in the sea or on the 
bottom, over this vast desert of manganese nodules. 

The chief result of this expedition was the discovery that a wide- 
spread elevation of the Pacific islands occurred in late Tertiary times. 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER: 469 


The Hawaiian, Paumotos, Society, Cook, Nieue, Tonga, Fiji, La- 
drone, and Caroline Islands all show elevated coral or limestone reefs, 
but there are no visible indications of elevation in the Marshall or 
Gilbert Islands where the underlying rock is not lifted above the sea. 
Makatea in the Paumotos may have been an atoll which was elevated 
about 230 feet above the sea and with a lagoon basin in the center 
sunken about 70 feet below the encircling ridge. It is possible, how- 
ever, that this central concavity may have been formed by solution 
after the island was raised above the sea, and that the island was not 
originally an atoll. 

The lagoons of the Pacific atolls were found to be usually from 13 
to 20 fathoms deep, and to be quite thickly studded with submerged 
rocks consisting of Tertiary limestone incrusted with modern corals. 

The atoll contours are due to a coordination of complex conditions, 
erosion, currents, silt, etc., which determine the place and rates of 
erowth of the corals; and not to subsidence, as was postulated by 
Darwin. 

The modern coral reefs are, according to Agassiz, distinct from 
the Tertiary limestones, and form a mere crust upon a base of lava or 
of old limestone. 

A notable act of the expedition was the bringing up of the deepest 
trawl haul ever made, this being from a depth of 4,173 fathoms, 75 
miles east of Tonga Tabu. Siliceous sponges were found here under 
an ocean almost as deep as the crests of the Himalayas are high. 

In Bora Bora, of the Society Group, he found a broken ring of 
sandy coral islets covered with:coco palms, and encircling the shal- 
low waters of the lagoon, out of the center of which there arises the 
towering mass of the basaltic cliffs of the island. The sight of this 
old volcano, now sleeping and encircled by its palm-crowned atoll 
ring, so impressed Alexander Agassiz that he employed Mr. G. W. 
Curtis to make a survey, and to construct a detailed model of the 
island for the museum at Harvard. 

As one goes westward over the tropical Pacific the coral heads 
upon the reefs become larger and larger, those of the Paumotos 
being small and stunted, while those of the Great Barrier Reef of 
Australia are the largest in the world. 

Alexander Agassiz had now seen nearly ali of the coral islands of 
the Pacific, and he at once turned his attention to the Indian Ocean, 
cruising among the atolls of the Maldive Islands from December, 
1901, to January, 1902. For this purpose he chartered the steamer 
Amra from the British India Steam Navigation Co., William Pigott, 
R. N. R., in command. He steamed more than 1,600 miles among 
the islands, making more than 80 soundings. Mr. J. Stanley Gardi- 
ner, M. A., had only recently explored the Maldives, and his account 
of their mode of formation was published before that of Agassiz. 


470 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Both Gardiner and Agassiz agree that there is evidence of recent 
elevation in the Maldives, and that conditions which are operating 
at the present day are determining the shape of the atolls. Shifting 
sandbars play a considerable role in determining the contours of the 
atolls, some of them being mainly rings of sandbars inclosing a 
lagoon, as in the Gilbert Islands. No elevated Tertiary limestones 
were seen, but the modern coral reef is in places now above the sea. 
In essential respects Gardiner and Agassiz are in accord, and both 
decide that Darwin’s theory is not applicable to the Maldives. They 
differ, however, in the conception of a “ perfect atoll,” and in their 
opinions of some of the causes which have led to the deepening of 
the lagoons, but the discussion of these matters would be unprofitable 
in this place. 

Dr. Henry B. Bigelow was an assistant upon this expedition and 
wrote a report upon the medusz. 

After his return from this expedition Alexander Agassiz was not 
suffered to remain long at rest, for once again, for the third and last 
time, he was given charge of the Albatross. The Albatross left San 
Francisco on October 6, 1904, and steamed to Panama. Thence to the 
Galapagos Islands, then to Aguja Point and Callao on the Peruvian 
coast, and then to Easter Island, from which she returned to the 
Galapagos, only to again venture out over the Pacific to Manga Reva, 
then back to Acapulco, and home to San Diego, where she arrived in 
March, 1905. Lieut. Commander L. M. Garrett, United States Navy, 
was in command, and they crossed and recrossed the Humboldt cur- 
rent four times, cruising more than 13,000 miles, making 160 deep-sea 
soundings and 280 pelagic hauls. The expedition ranged over the 
largest uninterrupted area of ocean in the world. Prof. C. A. 
Kofoid collected the protozoa and Dr. Henry B. Bigelow the meduse, 
while the coral reefs, oceanography, and echinoderms were studied by 
Alexander Agassiz. 

Interesting photographs of the great stone images of Easter Island 
were obtained, and it was found that Manga Reva is a barrier reef 
island with an eroded volcanic center. 

A remarkable result of the expedition is the discovery that the cold 
Humboldt current, which flows northward along the western coast of 
South America from the Antarctic to the equator, is a great bearer of 
pelagic life teeming with medusa, salpe, and all manner of floating 
creatures, both on the surface and in its depths; but in the outer 
Pacific beyond the western edge of this great current we find a vast 
area almost barren of life. Also the bottom under the Humboldt 
current is crowded with organisms, whereas there is a sparsely in- 
habited submarine desert to the westward of the western edge of the 
current. The effect of this current upon the distribution of pelagic 


ALEXANDER AGASSIZ—MAYER. A471 


life is most clearly described by Henry B. Bigelow in his account of 
the meduse of this expedition. 

This was Alexander Agassiz’s last great scientific expedition, al- 
though in 1908 he made a brief visit to the Florida Reef, and from 
February until March, 1907, he cruised through the West Indies from 
Porto Rico to Grenada in the chartered yacht Virginia. Dr. Henry 
B. Bigelow was his scientific assistant, and many pelagic hauls were 
made, but the region was found to be almost barren of floating life. 
This is an extraordinary fact, and it applies at present to the whole 
vast region of the West Indies, thus from 1877 until 1898 the region 
of the Tortugas, Fla., was noted for the variety and richness of its 
floating life, but since that time the pelagic animals have become 
rarer year by year until at present the region is almost a desert sea. 

In August, 1907, he presided over the meeting of the Seventh Inter- 
national Zoological Congress at Boston, and his presidential address 
is an account of the publications which had resulted from his many 
expeditions, and the reports of those to whom he had sent collections. 
These include the most noted specialists in all of the highly civilized 
countries of the world. 

In the winter and early spring of 1908 he visited the equatorial lake 
regions of Central Africa, the expedition being mainly a pleasure 
trip. 

Between 1907 and 1909 he published five papers upon Pacific echini 
with Dr. Hubert Lyman Clark as joint author, and other papers of 
this series are still to appear. 

In common with all students of pure science in our country, Alex- 
ander Agassiz was far more highly appreciated abroad than he was at 
home, for in our country practical applications and the invention of 
mechanical devices compass nearly all that the general public cares 
for science, and indeed our Republic is without means to confer hon- 
ors upon its scientific men. Thus while he was an honorary member 
of all of the great scientific societies of Europe and had been recog- 
ized officially by the Republic of France and the German Emperor, 
only one American university (his alma mater) conferred upon him 
an honorary degree. 

In 1898 he was made an Officer of the Legion of Honor of France 
and in 1902 a Knight of the Order of Merit of Prussia. He was a 
foreign associate of the Academy of Science of the Institute of 
France, the only American associates of that time being Agassiz and 
Newcomb. He was foreign honorary fellow of the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh, foreign member of the Royal, Linnean, and Zoological 
Societies of London, honorary member of the Royal Microscopical 
Society of London, and honorary member of the academies of Berlin, 
Prague, Gottingen, Leipzig, Munich, Manchester, Vienna, Upsala, 
Stockholm, Copenhagen, Liége, Moscow, Rome, Bologna, Geneva, 
Mexico, ete. 


472 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


He received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1885 
and from St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1901; Ph. D. from Bologna in 
1888; and honorary Sc. D. from Cambridge in 1887. 

In 1878 he was awarded the Prix Serres by the Paris Academy, 
being the first foreigner to be thus honored, and in 1909 he received 
the Victoria research medal of the Royal Society of London. 

After the publication of the results of the Maldive and eastern 
Pacific expeditions, one great and final task lay before him. This 
was to present a summary of the results of his 25 years of study of 
the coral reefs of the world. Five years would have been required for 
the preparation of this crowning work, which would have borne the 
same relation to his coral-reef studies that his “ Three Cruises of the 
Blake” did, to his early deep-sea work—an epitome of the whole 
subject. For 82 years the Agassiz father and son had been active 
leaders in science, and he hoped for five more years of productivity. 

But this was not to be. He had for several years been suffering 
from an impairment of the circulation and had retreated for rest and 
recreation to the genial climate of Egypt and southern Europe. 

He was returning from England in the steamship Adriatic, and 
never did he appear to be in happier mood than upon the night of the 
26th of March, 1910; but on the morning of the 27th he failed to 
appear, and when his son Maximilian entered his father’s cabin it 
was seen that he had fallen into his last long sleep. Many a guarded 
secret had the ocean revealed to him, and it was fitting that far from 
the sight of land with only the waves around there came to him the 
mystery of death. 

When I was young and struggling his hand befriended me and his 
great mind gave direction to the thought of the life I have led, and 
I think upon his spirit with gratitude and reverence, for he was my 
master in science. 

Norre.—A list of the principal scientific works of Alexander Agassiz accom- 
panies Mr. Mayer’s reprint of the above paper. ‘Including minor publications, 


he was the author of at least 248 titles. See Charles W. Eliot, in Harvard 
Graduates’ Magazine, vol. 18, p. 603. June, 1910.’’—Ep1Tor. 


RECENT WORK ON THE DETERMINATION OF SEX. 


By LEONARD DONCASTER, M. A., 
Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge. 


[Norre.—This paper was written in 1909, and much important work on the 
subject has appeared since. It has only been possible to refer in footnotes to a 
few of the more important of these papers. The additional notes and references 
are inclosed in square brackets [ ]. It will be seen that some of the opinions 
expressed may require modification in the light of our fuller knowledge.— 
L. D. April, 1911.] 


At the Dublin meeting of the British Association the sections of 
zoology and botany devoted a morning to a joint discussion on the 
determination of sex. Some account of the opinions expressed has 
appeared in reports of that meeting.? As in all discussions on this 
subject, the speakers were divided into two groups, holding opinions 
which at first sight appear irreconcilable. On the one hand there 
was the school which maintains that sex is a property of the germ 
cells and that after fertilization, if not before, the egg is irrevocably 
committed to one or the other sex; on the other there were representa- 
tives of the influential body of biologists who prefer the view that 
sex can be influenced by external conditions and that the sex of any 
individual is the result of a combination of forces, some tending in 
one direction, some in another. Not many years ago the latter was 
the prevalent opinion; it was supposed that the fertilized ovum was 
potentially bisexual, maleness being introduced by the spermatozoon 
and femaleness by the egg, and that the sex of the developing 
organism was determined by a variety of factors, the resultant of 
which decided to which side the balance should incline. This idea 
was supported by experiments on feeding the larve of insects, frogs, 
etc., in which it appeared that insufficient diet led to a higher pro- 
portion of males than when the creatures were abundantly fed. But 
critics have always pointed to the fact that these results might be 
explained by differential mortality or other circumstances not allowed 

1 Reprinted by permission, with author’s additions and corrections, from Science Prog- 
ress, London, No. 13. July, 1909, pp. 90-104. 


2Nature, Oct. 22, 1908, vol. 78, p. 647. 
473 


474 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


for by the experimenters; as we shall see, there is such a mass of evi- 
dence xccumulated on the other side that this idea is now largely 
abandoned by biologists. 

But although the doctrine that sex may be influenced by the en- 
vironment of the embryo or larva is largely discredited, a consider- 
able body of evidence has been brought forward to show that in- 
fluences acting on the parents, particularly on the mother, before 
fertilization, may affect the sex of the offspring; this idea is not open 
to the objections which appear fatal to the older view. Two of the 
most convincing pieces of work supporting this conclusion are those 
of Issakowitsch on the Daphniide? and von Malsen on Dinophilus? 
Issakowitsch worked with the parthenogenetic females of Simocepha- 
lus, von Malsen with Dinophilus apatris, in which the eggs are 
fertilized; each found that differences of temperature caused differ- 
ences in the proportion of males produced and both ascribed the 
difference to changes in the nutrition of the mother. Maupas* and 
Nussbaum * made somewhat similar statements about Hydatina senta, 
in which all females are from birth either male producing or female 
producing; but according to them the sex of the offspring of a 
parthenogenetic female is determined by the conditions of tempera- 
ture or nutrition to which that female is subjected in the parental 
uterus. Punnett® denies that temperature or nutrition has any effect 
in the case of Hydatina and says that some stocks give rise to many 
arrhenotokous (male producing) individuals, others to few or none. 
So it seems not impossible that in this case, at least, the evidence for 
the influence of environment may not be as good as it appears at 
first, and that some such cause as differential mortality may bring 
about the results observed.® 

The idea that various external circumstances may influence the 
proportion of the sexes does not rest only on experiments on inverte- 
brates; there is a considerable mass of statistics pointing in the same 
direction in the higher vertebrates, including man. In these cases the 
number of young produced by one pair is relatively small, and in 
most cases the evidence takes the form of figures drawn from a con- 
siderable population. The differences due to altered environment or 
other circumstances usually amount to only a few per cent; but if 
they are consistent in a large population they must be taken into ac- 
count in any theory of sex determination. There is a vast number of 
papers of this kind, suggesting that a great variety of external cir- 


1 Biol. Centralblatt, vol. 25, 1905, p. 529; and Arch. Miki. Anat., vol. 69, 1906, p.223. 

2 Arch, Mikr. Anat., vol. 69, 1906, p. 73. 

2 Comptes Rendus, vol. 111, 1890, pp. 310, 505. 

4 Arch. Mikr. Anat., vol. 49, p. 227. 

5 Proc. Roy. Soc. B., vol. 78, 1906, p. 2238. 

® See Whitney, Journ. Exp. Zoo., vol. 5, 1907, p. 1, for experiments on Hydatina, explain- 
ing Maupas’s results. [Also Shull, American Naturalist, Mar., 1910; and Journ. Exp. 
Zool., vol. 8, 1910, p. 311; vol. 10, 1911, p. 117.] 


DETERMINATION OF SEX—DONCASTER. 4°75 


cumstances may affect the percentage of the sexes among the off- 
spring born; among these we may choose a few of the more recent as 
examples of the kind of result obtained. Pearl’ shows that of over 
200,000 births in Buenos Aires, the proportion of males is signifi- 
cantly greater when the parents are of different racial stocks than 
when they are of the same. The difference ranges from about 1 per 
cent to about 5 per cent, but is always on the same side. Punnett? 
finds that in London the proportion of males is lowest in the poorest 
portion, highest in the wealthiest, and intermediate in the interme- 
diate portion. The males per 100 females were, respectively, 99.5, 
102.2, and 100.7; but he points out that these differences are probably 
wholly explicable on the grounds of differential infant mortality, 
birth rate, and probably marriage rate. Heape,? from statistics of 
over 17,000 greyhounds, concludes that whilst males are always con- 
siderably in excess (averaging 118.5 to 100 females), the proportion 
is noticeably higher in the season during which fewest pups are born. 
In a later note in the same volume (loc. cit., p. 201) Heape gives some 
curious figures with regard to canaries, showing that in one aviary 
(out of 200 birds hatched) the ratio of males was about 77 to 100 
females, while in another (out of 68 birds) the males were in the ratio 
of 353 to 100 females. Evidence is given that these differences are not 
ascribable to mortality ; Heape supposes that in both cases the propor- 
tion of the sexes is due to a selective action of conditions on the ova 
which are matured. He assumes that ova bear either maleness or fe- 
maleness, and that some forms of environment favor the maturation 
of one kind, some of the other. The same explanation is applicable to 
other cases in which the proportion appears to be influenced by exter- 
nal circumstances. 

It appears therefore that the idea that the proportion of the sexes 
may be influenced by conditions acting on the parents is not incon- 
sistent with the hypothesis that the germ cells bear only one or the 
other sex, as long as the primary germ cells do not all come to ma- 
turity. This is the case at least in the females of the higher verte- 
brates; and it is from them that the greatest amount of evidence in 
this direction has been obtained. Russo* has recently maintained 
that treatment with lecithin causes an increase in the number of fe- 
male ova matured in the rabbit and believes that he can distinguish 
the male from the female eggs in the ovary. He admits, however, that 
the families in his tables are selected and it seems that the differences 


1 Biol. Bulletin, vol. 15, 1908, p. 194. 

2Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., vol. 12, 1903, p. 262. 

3Ibid., vol. 14, 1907, p. 121. [See also Heape, ‘The Proportion of the Sexes produced 
by Whites and Colored People in Cuba.’ Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B. 269, p. 271-330 
(vol. 200, 1909).] 

¢ Atti Acad. Lincei, vol. 16, 1907, p. 362. 


476 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


he observed between the two kinds of eggs were probably due to 
degenerative changes in some. 

One of the first writers to maintain that the ova bear either male- 
ness or femaleness was Beard,’ who suggested that originally there 
had also been two kinds of spermatozoa, but that one has disap- 
peared in most animals, remaining in a functionless condition in 
such cases as Paludina and Pygwra, which give rise to the two kinds. 
His paper is somewhat speculative; but there is a steadily accumulat- 
ing body of proof that the sex is irrevocably decided at least from the 
moment of fertilization. This belief is supported by a number of 
different facts. It has long been known that in man “identical 
twins ” are always of the same sex, 1. e., that when twins are born 
so like one another that they are distinguished with difficulty, they 
are never of different sexes; in these cases the twins are produced by 
the division of one fertilized ovum and during fcetal life are en- 
veloped in the same membrane.? Twins produced by the simultane- 
ous development of two ova are not more like each other than other 
brothers and sisters, and are frequently of different sexes. A similar 
but perhaps even more conclusive case is provided by the parasitic 
Hymenopterous insects in which there is embryonic fission. Sil- 
vestri * has investigated two such insects, Litomastix and Ageniaspis. 
In each the flies lay their eggs in the eggs of other insects, and at the 
close of segmentation the embryonic cells become clustered into 
groups, each of which produces a separate embryo. In Litomastia, 
the number of larvee so produced may be about 1,000; in Ageniaspis, 
10 to 20; but if only one egg be laid by the parasite in the egg of the 
host, all the flies which hatch are of the same sex. Similar cases of 
embryonic fission in parasitic Hymenoptera have been described by 
Marchal, with the same results in respect of sex. 

Another line of argument tending in the same direction is drawn 
from animals which have more than one kind of egg, in which eggs 
of one kind produce males, those of the other females. Some such 
cases occur among parthenogenetic species, e. g., the rotifer Zydatina, 
and Phyllowera among insects; but in other animals both kinds of 
eggs require fertilization, and the larger always yield females, the 
smaller males. This has been shown to be the case in Dinophilus 
apatris by von Malsen (loc. cit.), in the mite Pediculopsis by Reuter * 
and is suspected by Montgomery in a spider.® In these cases there 
can be no question of modifying the sex by external circumstances 
after the egg 1s fully formed; but it might perhaps be maintained that 


1 Zool. Jahrbiicher, Anat., vol. 16, pp. 615 and 703, and other papers. 

2 See Galton, Human Faculty, 2d ed. (J. M. Dent), p. 156. 

2 Annali R. Scuola Agric. Portici, vol. 6, 1906, and Bollettino R. Scuola Ag., vol. 3, 1908. 
4 Arch. Zoo. Exp. und Gen. (4), vol. 2, p. 257. : 

5 Westschrift fiir Palmén, 1905-7, vol. 1. 

6 Journ. Exp. Zoo., vol. 5, p. 429. 


DETERMINATION OF SEX—-DONCASTER. 477 


the very fact of one kind of egg being larger and having more yolk 
was the cause of its becoming a female. 

Probably the most convincing proof that the sex is irrevocably 
determined from the beginning of development is obtained from the 
study of cases in which the same eggs may be either parthenogenetic 
or fertilized. The best-known example is the honeybee. In this in- 
sect, as is well known, unfertilized eggs yield males and fertilized 
eggs females, either queens or workers according to the treatment 
to which the larva is subjected. This statement has several times 
been denied, but the facts are overwhelmingly in favor of its truth 
in the hive bee; and numerous other examples are now known among 
the Hymenoptera. As examples, we may quote the work mentioned 
above by Silvestri on Litomastix and Ageniaspis, in which the de- 
velopmental processes are precisely similar whether the egg be fer- 
tilized or not; but in the first case females are produced, in the sec- 
ond, males. Similarly Wassiliew * found in the parasitic Hymenop- 
teran 7'elenomus that all eggs laid by virgin females became males, 
while those of fertilized females yielded about 80 per cent of females. 
It may be assumed that the remaining 20 per cent received no sper- 
matozoon. In instances of this kind it is perfectly clear that the sex 
is definitely determined at fertilization; but it can not be supposed 
that the egg bears irrevocably one sex or the other before the entrance 
of the spermatozoon. As will be seen below, it has been assumed 
' by some writers on the subject that the egg before fertilization bears 
maleness, and that the female element is introduced by the sper- 
matozoon ; but it is at least conceivable that the unmatured egg poten- 
tially bears both sexes and that the presence of the spermatozoon de- 
termines which sex-determinant shall become effective. 

Before leaving this part of the subject it should be noticed that 
there are a number of Hymenoptera which are anomalous in this 
respect. In ants and wasps workers sometimes lay eggs, said always 
to yield males,* so falling into line with the bee; but Reichenbach ® 
states that the workers of a species of ant produced workers, except 
at the time of year when males are normally produced in the nests, 
when males appeared. It is, of course, possible that there was error 
of observation,* but there is no doubt that in the sawflies some species 
produce males, a few, mixed broods, some only females from unfer- 
tilized eggs. The case of the common Vematus ribesti is remarkable; 
males are usually yielded by virgin eggs, but a small proportion of 
females (less than 1 per cent) is generally obtained. These may pos- 


1Zoo. Anzeig., May, 1904. 

2Tield, Biol. Bull. vol. 9, 1905, p. 355; Marchal, Arch. Zoo. Exp. und Gen. (3), vol. 
4. ols 

8 Biol. Centralblatt, vol. 22, p. 461. 

*[Reichenbach’s observation has since been confirmed by Crawley and Donisthorpe, 
Proc. Entom. Soc. London, 1910, vol. 5, p. 67.] 


478 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


sibly be introduced by accident, since the species is so abundant. The 
writer at one time supposed that there were two kinds of eggs, one 
requiring fertilization and yielding females, the other developing 
into males without being fertilized. But more recent experiments 
(made with the help of Mr. A. C. Tunstall, and not yet sufficiently 
extensive) do not support this idea. Out of two broods—one of 58 
eggs, the other of 102—53 and 67 male pupe or adult larve were 
reared, which clearly indicates that the absence of females was not 
caused by their dying off; for among the eggs of fertilized females at 
least 50 per cent commonly yield females. It was not possible in these 
experiments to hatch out the flies, but the size of the adult larvae or 
pupe is an almost unfailing criterion of the sex. It seems probable 
therefore that Nematus ribesii must be placed in the same category 
with the bee. The gallflies (Cynipide) offer another anomalous in- 
stance, for in them there are two generations in the year, one of 
which consists of both sexes, of which all the eggs are fertilized and 
yield a parthenogenetic generation consisting wholly of females. The 
egos of the latter yield both males and females, and the writer has 
shown that the male-producing eggs undergo maturation ; the female- 
producing do not.* 

One more point must be mentioned here. In bees some hives pro- 
duce a large proportion of gynandromorphic individuals, which are 
irregular mixtures or mosaics of male and female characters. Von 
Siebold? described such a case, and found that all the “ zwitter-— 
bienen ” were in worker cells, the drones being all pure. The hive was 
hybrid from Italian stock crossed with black; the drones were of the 
Italian type, the workers mixed. Two possible explanations may be 
liazarded: First, that the egg which develops into a gynandromorph 
has begun to segment, and that the male pronucleus conjugates with 
one of the segmenting nuclei; or, secondly, that the male pronucleus 
conjugates with one (probably the second) of the polar nuclei, and 
that both the zygote nucleus so produced and the female pronucleus 
take part in the development. Of these, the second is perhaps the 
more likely hypothesis. 

It has been mentioned above that Beard was one of the first to 
suggest that the germ cells bear the determinant for one or the other 
sex; it now remains to discuss the evidence which has since accumu- 
lated in favor of that hypothesis. It has received support on several 
very distinct grounds. We may take, first, the cytological results 
with which the names of several American investigators are chiefly 
associated, although much similar work has been done in Germany, 
France, and elsewhere. To give an at all adequate account of the 


1[Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 82, 1910, p. 88, and second part of the same paper to be published 
in Proe. Roy. Soe. shortly.] 
2 Zeit. Wiss. Zoo., vol. 14, p. 73. 


DETERMINATION OF SEX——-DONCASTER. 479 


numerous papers on spermatogenesis and oogenesis, which have led. 
to the hypothesis that the sex determinant is a visible chromosome- 
like body, would occupy more space than is available, so we will take 
the work of E. B. Wilson as typical, although similar phenomena had 
been already observed by Paulmier, ieClimgs Miss Stevens, and 
others. Wilson,’ working at a number of ae of Hemipterous 
insects, finds that in the unreduced germ cells of the female there 
are always an even number of chromosomes, two of which (idio- 
chromosomes) are frequently distinguishable from the remainder by 
their size. In the males there is either an odd number, owing to the 
absence of one idiochromosome, or one idiochromosome has the size 
which it has in the female, while the other is vestigial. At the re- 
ducing division the number is halved; when both idiochromosomes 
are present they pair together and become separated into different 
daughter-nuclei; when in the male there is only one, it passes to one 
end of the spindle and the other is left without one. In this way it 
comes about that all the eggs appear alike as regards their chromo- 
some groups, but in the male there are two kinds of spermatozoa, an 
idiochromosome being present in the one half, but absent or vestigial 
in the other half. Wilson was therefore led at first to suggest that 
the spermatozoon determined the sex, sperms with the “accessory” 
chromosome giving rise to females, those without it to males. Later? 
he modified this hypothesis in favor of one which will allow the 
sex determinants to be regarded as Mendelian characters, femaleness 
being dominant over maleness. The two idiochromosomes in the 
female are regarded as male bearing and female bearing, respectively, 
so that some eggs after maturation bear maleness, others femaleness. 
The single idiochromosome in the male is male bearing, and there is 
supposed to be selective fertilization; so that a male-bearing sperm 
can conjugate only with a female-bearing egg and a sperm bearing 
no sex determinant (idiochromosome) with a male-bearing egg. If 
femaleness is dominant, all fertilized eggs having two idiochromo- 
somes will become females, those having only one, males. It is inter- 
esting that breeding experiments with Lepidoptera, which will be 
mentioned below, led the present writer* to formulate an almost 
exactly similar hypothesis at almost the same time. But it will be 
seen that later experiments with moths suggest that a slightly differ- 
ent explanation of the facts is possible. 


1“Studies on Chromosomes,” i, ii, iii, and iv, Journ. Exp. Zoo. 1905, 1906, 1909. 
Also several papers in Science, 1905-7, ete., especially 1909, vol. 29, p. 53, a review of 
the whole subject. It should be mentioned that the accuracy of Wilson’s observations 
has been questioned by several investigators, e. g., Foot and Strobell, Amer. Journ. Anat., 
VOlens LOOKS Ds. 2109. 


2“ Studies on Chromosomes,” iii, Journ. Exp. Zoo., vol. 3, 1906. No. 1, For a still 
later suggestion of Wilson’s see footnote near the end of this article. 


8 Doncaster and Raynor, Proc. Zoo, Soe, 1906, vol. i, p. 125. 


480 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


. The essence of Wilson’s hypothesis is that the sex determinants 
behave as Mendelian characters, segregating from one another in 
gametogenesis (at the reduction division), that femaleness is domi- 
nant, and that there is selective fertilization; so that a male-bearing 
egg is fertilized by a female-bearing spermatozoon. Suggestions 
closely similar to these were put forward by Castle * on quite different 
grounds in 1903. Castle collected a quantity of evidence from breed- 
ing experiments and from what is known with regard to partheno- 
genetic reproduction. He supposed that every individual arising 
from a fertilized egg is heterozygous (hybrid) in respect of sex, and 
that segregation takes place at the second maturation division, so 
that half the gametes bear maleness, half femaleness. Male-bearing 
eggs conjugate with female-bearing spermatozoa and vice versa; but 
dominance is alternative, so that roughly half develop into each sex. 
In most parthenogenetic animals only one polar body is produced in 
eggs which will not be fertilized; in these cases femaleness is always 
supposed to dominate. Since with only one polar division no segre- 
gation takes place, the offspring are females. If in a parthenogenetic 
species two polar bodies are produced the offspring are commonly 
males, since the female determinant is supposed to be eliminated with 
the second polar nucleus. A further valuable suggestion was that 
the male and female determinants might be “ coupled ” with certain 
body characters, either invariably—so explaining sexual dimor- 
phism—or frequently, by which is explained the general association of 
one variety with one sex, another with the other, in the offspring of 
certain crosses. Wilson has since? observed coupling of ordinary 
with idiochromosomes, which may be connected with this phenom- 
enon. 

Castle’s suggestive paper has stimulated much work on the matura- 
tion of parthenogenetic species, but his hypotheses do not always 
hold good. For example, it is now known that parthenogenetically 
produced males in the Aphides arise from eggs which have only one 
maturation division; * some of his explanations of other exceptional 
cases, although ingenious, will not now bear critical examination. 
One of the most difficult is that of the hive bee and those insects re- 
sembling it, in which all eggs have two polar divisions and when 
fertilized yield females, when parthenogenetic, males. Castle sup- 
posed that the female determinant is extruded with the second polar 
nucleus, leaving the egg male bearing, and accepted the observations 


1“ The Heredity of Sex,’’ Bull. Mus. Comp. Zoo. Harvard, vol. 40, p. 189. 

2 Science, May 17, 1907, p. 779. 

3B. g. Stevens, Journ. Exp. Zoo., vol. 2, 1905, p. 313. But Morgan (Proc. Soc. Exp. 
Biol. and Med., vol. 5, 1908, p. 56) finds in Phyllozera that the females have six chromo- 
somes, the males five. And Stevens (Journ. Exp..Zoo., vol. 6, 1909, p. 115) suggests that 
in Aphis also one complete chromosome is extruded in the maturation of male partheno- 
genetic eggs, but not in female eggs. [This has since been confirmed. Biol. Bulletin, 
vol. 18, p. 72, 1910.] 


DETERMINATION OF SEX——DONCASTER. 481 


of Petrunkewitsch,) who maintains that the testis of the drone is 
derived from the fused polar nuclei of the unfertilized ege. Since 
the second polar nucleus by hypothesis contains the female determi- 
nant, the spermatozoa may be female bearing and cause the fertilized 
egg to be female. But there is considerable doubt as to the accuracy 
of the observation, and in any case it can not be applied to some 
others; e. g., Silvestri (see above) finds that in Litomastix the polar 
nuclei are used up in forming the protecting membrane of the em- 
bryos, and yet the sex phenomena are just as in the bee. An alterna- 
tive speculation may be offered. It is possible that while the female 
determinant is extruded in the virgin egg with the second polar 
nucleus, the presence of a spermatozoon in the egg may cause the male 
determinant to be eliminated, leaving the egg nucleus female bearing.” 
This would fall into line with the explanation suggested above of 
gynandromorphic bees—that in them the sperm has conjugated with 
the second polar nucleus. 

It now remains to describe work on the determination of sex which 
has led to similar conclusions to those suggested above, but arrived 
at from a different starting point. Castle suggested that as sex is 
inherited as a Mendelian unit, it might at times be “ coupled” in the 
gamete with some other body character. It has been found that 
something of this kind actually does take place in the case of certain 
varieties which are inherited differently by the male and female. As 
an illustration of this we will take some experiments made by the 
writer, accounts of which have already been published, since the 
results in that case happen to be simpler than in some other instances 
which have been worked out. 

In the common currant moth (Abraxas grossulariata) there is a 
rare and very distinct variety (“lacticolor”) found in the wild state 
almost exclusively in the female. Crossing experiments were made 
between this variety and the type form; the results were as follows: 

(1) Lacticolor 9 X type ¢ gave type ¢, type 9. 
(2) Heterozygous (crossed) type @ ™X _ heterozygous type male gave 
type 6, type @, lacticolor 9. 
type ¢. lacticolor ¢. . 
type @, lacticolor @. 
(4) Heterozygous type @ X lacticolor ¢ gave type ¢4, lacticolor °. 
(5) Lacticolor 2 X lacticolor ¢ gave lacticolor ¢ and 9. 
(6) Wild type @ X lacticolor ¢ gave type 4, lacticolor @. 


(8) Lacticolor 2 X heterozygous type ¢ gave 


These results at first may seem hopelessly confusing, but there are 
several points of interest about them. Firstly, the lacticolor charac- 
ter behaves as a Menedlian recessive, disappearing in the first cross 

1 Zool. Jahrb., vol. 14, 1901, and vol. 17, 1903. 

21 find that this suggestion has also been made by Prof. T. H. Morgan. 


* Doncaster and Raynor, Proc. Zoo. Soc. 1906, vol. 1, p. 125; and Doncaster, Reports 
to Roy. Soe. Evolution Committee, vol. 4, 1908, p. 53. 


97578°—-sm 1910——31 


482 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


(No. 1) and reappearing after mating (2). Secondly, starting with 
a lacticolor female, it is possible to get males of that variety only in 
one way, viz, by pairing such a female with a heterozygous male, 
i. e., a male which is typical in appearance, but being of lacticolor 
parentage bears the recessive lacticolor character. Lacticolor males 
are also produced from mating lacticolor males and females together 
(No. 5); but from any other form of union all the lacticolor indi- 
viduals which emerge are females. A third point of great importance 
is that converse crosses do not give similar results, the most unex- 
pected case of this appearing in matings of types No. 1 and No. 6. 
In the first, a lacticolor female paired with a wild (pure) type male 
gives all the offspring of both sexes perfectly typical, a quite normal 
Mendelian result, since lacticolor is recessive to the type. But if an 
apparently pure, wild female is mated with a lacticolor male, the 
male offspring are typical, but the female are all lacticolor—exactly 
the same result in fact as when a first-cross female is used instead 
of a wild one. 

In explaining these phenomena in the first paper this last result 
was not known; and it was suggested (in accordance with Castle’s 
hypothesis) that the germ cells bore one or the other sex, that fer- 
tilization was selective, so that all individuals were heterozygous in 
respect of sex and that in the eggs the lacticolor character was 
coupled with the female sex determinant. Later Bateson and Pun- 
nett + offered a modified hypothesis, which is perhaps more in accord 
with the facts as known at present. They suggest (1) that the sex 
determinants behave as Mendelian units, femaleness being uniformly 
dominant over maleness; (2) that female individuals are heterozy- 
gous in respect of sex, being of the constitution 2 ¢ and producing 
male-bearing and female-bearing eggs in equal numbers; males are 
homozygous in sex, of the constitution ¢ 4, so that they produce 
only male-bearing spermatozoa; (3) that there is repulsion in 
oogenesis between the dominant determinant for femaleness and the 
dominant grossulariata (type) determinant, in consequence of which 
all male-bearing eggs bear the type, all female-bearing eggs the 
lacticolor character. 

This suggestion completely accounts for the facts and has since 
been greatly supported by the discovery that all females with the 
type (grossulariata) character are heterozygous and produce lacti- 
color offspring when paired with a lacticolor male. This fact com- 
pels us to assume that the lacticolor determinant is present in all 
females of the species and is only prevented from appearing because 
typical males bear normally only the type (grossulariata) character, 
which dominates over lacticolor. If, then, the males are homozygous 


4 Science, vol. 27, 1908, p. 785. 


DETERMINATION OF SEX——DONCASTER. 483 


and the females heterozygous in respect of a character so intimately 
related with sex, it strongly supports the idea that the same may be 
the case with the sex determinants themselves. 

If this instance stood alone it might seem rash to found on it such 
a far-reaching theory of the nature of sex. But exactly similar 
cases have been found elsewhere. Miss Durham? has described 
almost identical phenomena in the case of canaries of the Cinnamon 
variety, which have pink eyes. A pink-eyed hen paired with a black- 
eyed cock gives offspring which are all black-eyed; but a black-eyed 
hen by a pink-eyed cock gives males which are all black-eyed, and 
pink-eyed females, together with sometimes a small proportion of 
black-eyed females. This occurrence of exceptions suggests some dis- 
turbing factor not present in the moths. Bateson,? and Pearl and 
Gurtaee? have discovered similar cases in fowls, and Correns from 
experiments on plants (Bryonia) has come to a similar conclusion,‘ 
except that he regards the male as heterozygous and the female 
homozygous. 

Confirmatory evidence may be drawn from other observations. 
One of these is the effects of castration. In vertebrates castration of 
the male may prevent the appearance of the male secondary sexual 
characters but does not cause the appearance of characters proper 
to the female. Removal or atrophy of the ovary, however, may bring 
about the development of characters normal in the male. In the 
Crustacea the opposite result is found.’ A female whose ovaries are 
destroyed by a parasite has its secondary sexual characters reduced ; 
a male assumes more or less completely the characters of the female. 
And if the parasite dies and the host recovers, the ovary of the 
female may again become functional; but in the male under such 
circumstances eggs may be produced in the testis. Geoffrey Smith 
concludes from these observations and from others on the Cirripedes 
that the female is homozygous in sex and the male heterozygous. 
There seems no a priori reason why this should not be true in the 
case of the Crustacea and flowering plants, while the converse is the 
case in moths and vertebrates.°® 

1 Reports to Roy. Soc. Evolution Committee, vol. 4, 1908, p. 57. 

2See note in Science, vol. 27, 1908, p. 785, referred to above. For full account of 
this case, and discussion of the whole subject, see Bateson, Mendel’s Principles of 
Heredity (Camb. Univ. Press, 1909), Chap. X. 

® Pearl and Surface, Ann. Rept. Maine Agric. Exper. Station, 1910, pp. 84-116. 

4 Bestimmung und Vererbung des Geschlechtes (Borntraeger), 1907. 

5G, Smith, Naples Monograph, Rhizocephala, 1906. [See also Smith, ‘ Studies in the 
experimental analysis of sex.’ I—V, Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., 1910—11.] 

6 [This was written before the publication of Morgan’s important papers on Sex-limited 
inheritance in Drosophila (Science, vol. 32, 1910, p. 120, and American Naturalist, vol. 
45, p. 65, 1911). In this fly the inheritance of several characters shows phenomena the 
exact converse of those found in Abra#as, indicating that the male is heterozygous for 
the sex determiner, and transmits the characters concerned only to his female offspring. 
This suggests either that in some cases, e. g., Abravas and fowls, the female is heterozy- 
gous and the male homozygous, in others, e. g., Drosophila, the male is heterozygous and 
the female homozygous for sex determiners, or that both sexes are heterozygous with 


selective fertilization. For fuller discussion of this more recent work the reader is 
referred to the papers on the subject by Morgan, Wilson, Miss Stevens, the writer, etc.) 


484 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


One of the points of difficulty about the theory that one sex is 
homozygous and the other heterozygous in respect of the sex deter- 
minants is that it appears inconsistent with Wilson’s theory based on 
the study of “idiochromosomes.” But phenomena such as he de- 
scribes have hardly been observed outside most orders of insects and 
possibly Arachnids, and are probably not of universal occurrence. 
And if all individuals of one sex are heterozygous, those of the other 
homozygous in sex, it may be imagined that in the homozygous sex 
two sex determinants would not be necessary; one of them might 
become vestigial, as Wilson describes, if at the same time spermatozoa 
bearing such a vestigial determinant can only conjugate with eggs of 
one kind. But it must be admitted that any suggestion of selective 
fertilization interferes with the extreme simplicity of the theory out- 
lined above.* 

The hypothesis here described not only explains the cases which 
led up to it and such facts as the effects of castration, but also ac- 
counts for the phenomena of sexual dimorphism and the inheritance 
of some structures by one sex only. But at present the more complex 
cases of sexual polymorphism, such, for example, as are known in the 
African butterflies of the genus Papilio, still remain obscure, although 
it is probable that when we have more extensive records of breeding 
experiments, these also will be found to fall into line. And it should 
be explained that some forms of sex-limited inheritance are of quite 
a different nature—e. g., color blindness and the disease hemophilia in 
man. In these diseases the abnormal condition is dominant in one 
sex (male) and recessive in the other and may appear in the female 
if both parents are tainted. Possibly a combination of some con- 
dition of this kind with sex relations, such as we find in A. grossu- 
lariata and the Cinnamon Canary, may ultimately be found to ac- 
count for the complex sexual polymorphism found in the African 
Papilios. 

We have now sketched the principal lines of evidence which have 
been collected in recent years, pointing to the conclusion that the 
sex determinant is present in the germ cell and is probably com- 
parable in nature with a Mendelian unit. In a paper of this kind 
it is clearly out of place to attempt even to mention a tithe of the 
numerous hypothesis concerning sex which have been advanced even in 


1 Wilson has recently (Science, vol. 29, Jan., 1909, p. 53) put forward a fresh sugges- 
tion, viz, that the idiochromosomes do not bear the determinants for maleness or fe- 
maleness as such, but that one idiochromosome in the fertilized egg causes it to develop 
into a male, two into a female, so that the difference is rather quantitative than quali- 
tative. Castle (Science, vol. 29, Mar., 1909, p. 395) has taken up this idea with the fur- 
ther suggestion that while some species are as Wilson suggests, in others the presence 
of one idiochromosome determines femaleness and absence of any idiochromosome at 
all brings about maleness. If this last condition should be found to exist in Abrazas 
grossulariata, it would then fall into agreement. In this connection it is of interest 
that cases such as Wilson describes have been observed in most of the chief orders of 
insects but not in the Lepidoptera, 


DETERMINATION OF SEX—-DONCASTER. 485 


very modern times. Many of them do not concern the point at issue, 
dealing as they do with possible factors which may influence the 
sex of a given individual; for we have seen that, whatever the true 
nature of sex may be, it is conceivable that the proportion of germ 
cells bearing one or the other sex which come to maturity may - 
possibly be influenced by external conditions. To do justice to what 
has been written on such subjects would require a book of consider- 
able size and in the present paper is impossible. The object of 
this account will have been fulfilled if it indicates the direction in 
which recent work is leading and if it makes it clear that the prob- 
abilities are overwhelmingly in favor of the idea that the determina- 
tion of sex is not consequent on the accidental preponderance of one 
or other of two nicely balanced tendencies, but is due to fixed and un- 
alterable characters inherent in the germ cells. 


- Q he alto; iat al ~ ig i. oldi 
wrt ia 1) seomadetly, Asdiiasen pat ft A 

> eS ve obra ndhdndtyalderiog 
SLT CURA RE, OF seme duidiar, 748, roi 
Lag ith ot owig auth of of, Phobias mara d Kenn "4 
veobeaa nih, enh ts eeu bliravy ary nist, HrnRt i a 
+" te fold O,AGL ., aldipooggsial i ph ¢ LAG Mipeay: otf of fark 
aj. oplovmy of, sg wih Mah die Th, ‘holly huh oa ora, ‘te te mai ey 

of) Sach tual ge earl aqat 4, ii, Dive wrthaol pi, alyowr, 


a 


- HAC taty pkey, ond tj bth arty 7 eis! Je: TOF Rt Ot “Cacinpladeeteo.e 
“tp iow te oon ary, bah ie shi ayn atht 0, Ata prea tox, ai, x 
0 ban dearth palye bunch , sane win bead havea Lnef yigata ond rg 
Ms urIoy ot) mi Jovi uni stalost aoa 
[ netted (he Can 
+» 4 - ss 
7 yet f cg htngtans ty 
‘ ¥ . éy, 
7 i c- 
ety ey 
’ reat Si 
c ine ™ 
ty 
*} ie wit : 
Hine th Belen iNnat 
oN PSTi td nr shret og 
Pa > 3 ma if (niet 
; me 
‘ ? tha i, 
ry. * 
dy 
7 - . 
> 
. = iheep ; hed 
i 4 **4 ‘ va con) 
: i esata i 
1 A Veta Th SL hn 
. et 


; ee , bare bee Aan ae 
na “i «654-3 ap oe a ee eee es) ea wie: a SOMES pete: no) 


THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PULSE RATE IN VERTE- 
BRATE ANIMALS.' 


By FLORENCE BUCHANAN, D. Sc. (Lond.), 
Fellow of University College, London. 


We should expect the frequency with which a heart beats to be 
determined by its own properties—by its size, the minute structure 
of its muscle fibers, the inorganic salts in and outside the fibers, tem- 
perature, its relation to the nervous system, etc.; and it probably is 
immediately determined by such things as these. At present, how- 
ever, we do not know the properties in which the hearts of allied 
animals, beating with very different frequencies, differ from one an- 
other, and we are not therefore in a position to point to the imme- 
diate determining factors. All we know is that the properties, what- 
ever they are, which determine frequency have come to be such as to 
enable the heart to serve the purposes of the animal to which it be- 
longs. It is proposed in this paper to attempt to ascertain whether 
we can find out some of the different ways in which the heart serves 
these purposes, and whether or to what extent alteration in frequency 
of beat is one. To do this we must first know something about the 
different purposes for which the heart is required in different ani- 
mals, 

In the first place, the amount of driving work the heart has to do 
varies a good deal in the different craniate vertebrates and both with 
the structure and the habits of the animal. Im fish, e. g., it has only 
to pump the blood as far as the gills, and it has not much to do even 
in effecting this, as the passive dilatation of the gill capillaries with 
each inspiratory movement of the buccal cavity helps the blood to get 
there (1).2 In accordance with this small amount of work, we find 
the heart to be of relatively small size in fish. Its weight in the 
common round fish is on the average only 0.09 per cent of the body 
weight; in the notably inert flatfish it is even less, only about 0.04 


1¥rom a lecture delivered to the Oxford University Junior Scientific Club in Novem- 
ber, 1909. Reprinted by permission, with author’s additions and corrections, from 
Science Progress, London, No. 17, July, 1910, pp. 60-81. 

2 These numbers refer to a list of authorities given at the end of the paper. 


487 


488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


per cent of the body weight (2). In birds, on the other hand, the 
heart has a very large amount of work to do, especially in the birds 
of passage and those that sing. Accordingly they have relatively 
very large hearts—1 to 2 per cent of the body weight, as a rule (3), 
and sometimes, as in the thrush and golden oriole, as much as about 
2.6 per cent. The size of the heart has thus no fixed relation to the 
size of the animal to which it belongs. The heart of a pigeon, e. g., 
weighs 25 times as much as that of a plaice of the same weight, and 
is about equal to that of a salmon 15 times as heavy as the pigeon. A 
thrush and a guinea pig of six or seven times its weight have hearts 
of about equal size. 

Frequency of beat, if it be in any way ere by the absolute 
size of the heart, is counts no direct function of it. It is true that 
we have reason to believe, as we shall presently see, that the pulse 
rate in the thrush is not very different from what it is known to be 
in the guinea pig, but it would also not be very different from what 
it is in the rabbit, which has a heart of over twice the size. We 
know very little about what the frequency is in different fish and for 
those in which it has been accurately determined (7elestes and Bar- 
bus) the size of the heart has not been ascertained, though, assuming 
the relative size to be the same as in the other round fish, we should 
expect it to be no larger than that of a canary. In both these fish 
the frequency varies, in different individuals, between 40 and 70 per 
minute at room temperature, and no elevation of temperature raises 
it to beyond 125 per minute (1), whereas the heart of a canary may 
(7) beat with a frequency of 1,000 per minute. 

If the animal made some demand on the heart for a definite vol- 
ume of blood in unit time, frequency of beat might be expected to 
bear some relation to the relative size of the heart. Only it would 
be difficult to discover such a relation unless in a group of animals 
having the same circulatory arrangements some required a quicker 
and others a slower circulation for some assignable reason. 

For the lower groups of craniate vertebrates (fish, dipnoi, amphib- 
ians, and reptiles) we know very little as to the special demands 
made upon the heart. It has certainly more work to do in amphib- 
ians and reptiles than in fish, having to drive the blood all round the 
body without the help of the respiratory movements which seem to 
play so large a part in maintaining the circulation in fish (1). The 
relative heart size is accordingly greater in amphibians and reptiles. 
In the frog (2. temporaria) and in a crocodile the heart was found 
to be about 0.4 per cent of the body weight and to be nearly 0.8 per 
cent in the common snake (7). But we do not as yet know what the 
tissues take most from the blood in these lower vertebrates; we only 
know for a certain number of species of fish and amphibians and for 
the crocodile (6) that they take very little oxygen and that the rate 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUCHANAN. 489 


at which this at least is supplied is not likely to cause difficulty. 
Neither has anything yet been ascertained about differences in pulse 
rate in different genera of amphibians nor in those of any of the dif- 
ferent classes of reptiles; so that we have not the material for decid- 
ing whether the frequency with which the heart beats has become one 
of the factors used in natural selection. In the few species of am- 
phibians and reptiles (6) for which—sporadically—the frequency is 
known, it seems to be not very different from what it is in fish—i. e., 
varying (and varying in individuals of the same species) between 
about 20 and 80 per minute at ordinary room temperature. 

In birds and mammals the case is different. We not only know 
. that the tissues take a great deal of oxygen from the blood, but that 
those of small animals take much more than those of large ones; and 
we can assign a reason. Birds and mammals are able to maintain 
a nearly constant temperature whatever that of their surroundings 
may be. They are homeothermic or (the temperature they maintain 
being usually higher than that of the environment) “ warm-blooded ” 
animals; they have in consequence to produce more heat than those 
animals which maintain no constant temperature—the potkolother- 
mic or “cold-blooded” animals—and to try to prevent loss of heat. 
To produce heat the muscles—the chief heat-forming organs of the 
body—require oxygen, and they take it from the blood according to 
their need, the need being greatest in those species or individuals in 
which the loss of heat is greatest. The maximum loss is of course in 
those animals in which the surface exposed to the environment is 
largest in proportion to the mass of the animal—i. e., the smaller the 
animal the more heat must it give off, other things being equal, to a 
colder environment, and to maintain a constant body temperature the 
more heat must it produce and the more oxygen must its muscles 
consume. The heart, therefore, being asked to replenish the supply, 
must, if it respond, give out the larger relative volume of oxygen- 
containing blood in unit time the smaller the animal, and it might do 
so either by expelling a larger amount with each beat or by increas- 
ing the frequency of the beat. 

But by regulating the volume of blood supplied to the muscles in 
unit time, the heart can only regulate the rate of supply of oxygen 
if the oxygen is present in a constant percentage. This is the case in 
birds and mammals in which the blood in the systemic circulation 
leaves the left ventricle of the heart with its hemoglobin saturated 
with oxygen. It is not the case in the lower vertebrates, not even in 
crocodiles; for although they, like birds and mammals, have the oxy- 
genated blood completely separated from the rest in the heart, it be- 
comes mixed with other blood in the dorsal aorta, and may become 
so even in the conus. In other reptiles facilities for the admixture of 
the blood coming from the lungs with blood coming from other parts 


490 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


of the body are greater, since it may happen even in the ventricle. In 
the dipnoi and amphibians, moreover, other organs besides the lungs 
have respiratory functions, and the blood from the rest of the organs 
in the body may mix with oxygenated blood elsewhere than in the 
ventricle and the arterial system. Where there is only one auricle, as 
in the dipnoi, and blood of all qualities enters the ventricle simulta- 
neously, the percentage of oxygen in all the blood leaving the ventri- 
cle must be variable. Where there are two auricles, the one of which 
receives only oxygenated blood, as in amphibians and reptiles, this 
need not be the case, since the blood from the lungs, by entering and 
leaving the ventricle after the rest, may remain very nearly saturated. 
But such blood is by special arrangement supplied to the head only, 
and the blood to the limbs and other muscles is unsaturated. In all 
these classes of lower vertebrates, therefore, the heart itself could not 
regulate the rate of oxygen supply to meet different demands by alter- 
ing either the volume given out per beat or the frequency of the beat. 

In fish, on the other hand, there is the possibility of regulating it, 
either by altering the frequency of the respiratory movements or by 
altering the volume of blood expelled in each heart beat, since all the 


a |} —————___—o 
l a 2 


A B 
Fig. 1.—Diagrams to show the sort of relation of the oxygen to the blood-yolume in the 
systemic circulation. ‘ 
A, warm-blooded vertebrate. B, reptile and amphibian. 


blood which supplies the body has to pass first through the respira- 
tory organs, and so would contain a constant percentage of oxygen, 
even if its hemoglobin did not become fully saturated. 

In fish, amphibians, and snakes, the attempt seems occasionally to 
be made to maintain a temperature above that of the environment 
(164), but in how far it approaches to being constant we only know 
for two specimens of the Indian python (13a). It would be inter- 
esting to find out whether in a species of 7hynnus, the bonito, which 
may have an internal temperature as much above that of the environ- 
ment as the python, it is more nearly constant, and how far the de- 
mand for oxygen in the one and in,the other varies both with the ex- 
ternal temperature and with the size of the individual; moreover, if 
it so varies, in what way the supply is regulated to meet the different 
demands. 

The difference obtaining between the warm-blooded vertebrates on 
the one hand, and all the cold-blooded except fish, on the other, with 
regard to the relation of the oxygen to the volume of the blood in the 
systemic circulation, is illustrated in figure 1. Regulating the vol- 
ume rate would regulate the oxygen supply only with arrangement A. 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUCHANAN. 491 


With any other arrangement, such as that in B, the absolute amount 
of oxygen supplied in unit time could be increased by increasing the 
frequency of the beat, but it could not in that way be regulated at all 
accurately to suit special demands.* 

What is true of the cold-blooded vertebrates is true of the embryo 
of the warm-blooded animal in respect of want of constant percentage 
of oxygen in the blood supply to the body as in so many other re- 
spects. Although the blood leaving the left ventricle is blood brought 
‘straight from the respiratory organ of the embryo, the allantois, this 
serves only to supply the head, the great aorta through which it flows 
being joined, after having given off the vessels to the head, by the 
ductus Botalli bringing blood (through what is afterwards the pul- 
monary artery) from the right ventricle, which has received it from 
all the organs and reserved all but that from the respiratory organs. 
Thus the percentage of oxygen, which may have been constant in the 
blood leaving the left ventricle, is no longer so by the time it reaches 
the body of the animal, and this must continue to be the case so long 
as the ductus Botalli remains open, which it does until the time of 
hatching or birth. When it closes, the blood from the right ventricle, 
which would otherwise have gone along it, can only go to the lungs, 
and the channels from the lungs to the left auricle, the pulmonary 
veins, become functional with the lungs themselves, so that now blood 
saturated with oxygen enters the left auricle from the respiratory 
organ of the adult, and (the septum between the two auricles being 
now complete) passes unaltered into the left ventricle, whence it is 
driven to supply not only the head, but now also the body. It would 
be interesting to know whether in the young guinea pig and chick, 
which are able to regulate their temperature as soon as they come 
into the world, the ductus Botalli closes earlier than it does, e. g., in 
young mice, rats, and pigeons, which can only regulate their tempera- 
ture very imperfectly when born or hatched, and take a week or more 
to develop this power. It would help us to find out whether, or to 
what extent, the want of power to regulate temperature depends upon 
the fact that any attempt of the heart to adapt itself to meet special 


1 Since this paper went to press, Krogh has published a series of articles in the Skand. 
Arch. f. Physiol. (1910) in which, amongst other things, it is shown that a method of 
regulating the oxygen supply to the body does exist in reptiles and amphibians. This 
consists in adjusting the relative volumes of blood in the pulmonary and systemic arches 
by alteration of resistance in the pulmonary arteries, this being effected by variations 
in the tonus of their vaso-constrictor nerves. Thus, while the blood per beat driven into 
the systemic circulation becomes less in volume the more oxygen the tissues consume, 
its oxygen-tension becomes not only relatively, but absolutely, greater in consequence of 
the increase in the volume going per beat through the lungs, which naturally involves a 
greater absolute absorption of oxygen. Although a convenient way of meeting dif- 
ferences of oxygen requirement in the individual, it is not one that would lend itself to 
meeting permanent differences of oxygen requirement, did these exist, in the different 
species of reptiles and amphibians, in the way that alteration of volume rate lends 
itself in birds and mammals, 


492 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


demands made upon it for oxygen, potentially or actually, could meet 
with only imperfect success. 

Let us now see in how far the hearts of birds and mammals, having 
the power to regulate the oxygen supply by regulating the volume 
of blood expelled in unit time, succeed in doing so when it is asked 
of them. As a measure of the rate at which oxygen is consumed in 
the different animals we may take either the oxygen intake or the 
carbon-dioxide output of a unit of weight in unit time, as the two 
things run roughly parallel, In the two following tables the carbon- 
dioxide output is given because it happens to be known for a larger 
number of species than the oxygen intake. The numbers are for the 
most part taken from the table in Pembrey’s article on “ Chemistry 
of Respiration ” in Schifer’s Textbook of Physiology and represent 
the average in round numbers when several results are there given 
by different observers. Those for birds which are not to be found 
there are determinations kindly made for me by Mr. C. G. Douglas, 
fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford.t| The pulse rates of all the 
birds and of the smaller mammals have been determined by myself 
in a manner to be described immediately; those of the larger mam- 
mals have been taken on textbook authority when none other was 
available. Asa measure of the volume of blood expelled per beat the 
weight of the heart in percentage of the body weight has been taken. 
This has been determined for a large number of birds by Parrot (3), 
but unfortunately not for many of which the pulse rates are known. 
For most of these, as well as for the mouse, I have determined it 
myself. For most of the other mammals mentioned it has been de- 
termined by Bergmann (8), but the results of his observations are 
referred to, together with some more determinations of his own and 
those of a few other people for other mammals, by Joseph (9). 
Unfortunately the number of individuals from which the “ average,” 
either of pulse rate or of relative heart weight, is taken was usually 
small and sometimes (in all the cases marked with an asterisk) the 
data were only ascertained from a single individual of a species; as 
we know that in other species there is a good deal of individual varia- 
tion, the numbers given in these columns may not hereafter be found 
to be the correct averages. They probably are so, however, in the 
case of man and rabbit, in which they have already been ascer- 
tained from large numbers of individuals. It is, of course, highly 
desirable that the correct average should be known for every case, 
but it is difficult to get people to make large collections of facts, and 
it is debatable in how far their doing so is a thing to be encouraged, 
so long as the interest attaching to them is not in evidence. The fol- 

1 For each bird he determined also the oxygen intake; since this datum for the canary 
and for the tame duck has not yet been put on record, this occasion may be used for 


stating that it was found to be 10.99 and 1.66 grams per kilo per hour, respectively, for 
the two birds. The canary was remarkably quiet all the time it was under observation. 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUCHANAN. 493 


lowing tables, if they serve no other purpose, at least indicate the 
sort of value which would attach to a large collection of these par- 


ticular facts. 
TABLE I.—Birds. 


fear ee ee 
ty Average | dioxide | weight in of beat per 
per kilo |percentage| minute 
grams). per hour of body when at 
(in grams).| weight. rest. 
Goldfinch ts sfosas 22: 4 8t BoA 2. 2c est alse *16 12.6 (?) *920(5) 
Canerye t+. Sheet m3 se she. eee eS aged. Reps ee 20 *11.7 *1, 04(3) *1, 000(7) 
SPALTOWis2 eee see ant fhe en acl eese= Skies a a8 sels oe sas 24 12:2 1.36 (5) 800(5) 
CCH iCEXST OM TAY E10 Ee SE ee oe SE Seg a er 26 11.7 (?) 740(5) 
KSIFHIRE EV OUNS) st. eiehtatsa cc ose ae uate eae ots oto ee *42 (?) (2) *440(7) 
DRY UG oe? sos Ge eho) GORE oe Baas Seep oer eee *75 (?) #2, 56 (3) (?) 
HP COME 2 Seas eek Se ae Spi 2 he ols oR oat 300 3.4 1.5(5) 185 (5) 
Parrot: (PSttacus eriuhacus)). <2 s- oaejnn n= = 5 aim lacie see #430 (2) (2) *320(7) 
Jeqeyoe ao) SOR eT Ue f Nees See BD eee ee ed ee ee 1,500 1.5 . 42(5) 330(5) 
To ibkelig (aya QOD) 2a E a see ae eee *1, 134 (2) *1.06(3) (?) 
DAC ke (LATING) Be < fare = ae peyaecie  -a'siae F< sin value’ Sere atelo *2, 060 *1. 62 . 63(2) *240(7) 
(EGU GSES SAB LOCO: CaJe De eG TEE DEEL Ea GBS cee Sree eae 4, 400 1.07 *, 8(3) (?) 


The table for birds shows us at a glance that, roughly, the smaller 
the bird, and therefore the greater the surface relatively to the mass, 
the larger is the amount of oxygen. consumed, or, rather, of carbon- 
dioxide given off, by a unit of weight in unit time. If the rate of 
supply of oxygen to the tissues is greatest, as it ought to be, in 
those in which the oxidation processes take place most rapidly, we 
should expect the pulse rates to vary directly with what we take 
as a measure of these processes so long as the relative volume of 
blood expelled with each beat is the same. Since the relative heart 
size varies, we should expect to find a reciprocal relation between 
pulse rate and relative heart size dependent upon the rate at which 
oxidation processes occur. Where we have these data, or a measure 
of them, the table shows us that this is the case. Thus, comparing 
the pigeon and the sparrow, and knowing the pulse rate of the pigeon, 


185 12.2 ‘ 

we should expect that of the sparrow to be = 693 in con- 
: , 6 : 

sideration of the different metabolisms, but to be = =r 


per minute in consideration also of the different relative weights 
of the hearts; and this is what it is in some sparrows, though it is 
lower than what was found to be the average for four sparrows. 
Again, the hen, which compared with the sparrow, would be ex- 


8001.5 


pected to have a pulse rate of —7o9 —=98.4 per minute in virtue 


of its size and its metabolism alone, would be expected to have 


494 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


€ 2) 
one of sc a NT) considering also the small size of its heart. 
If we were to take the carbon-dioxide output of the thrush as being, 
as from the size of the bird it is likely to be, about 10 grams per 
kilo per hour we should have expected its pulse rate by comparison 
with that of the sparrow to have been about 666 per minute were it 
not for the large size of its heart, which makes us expect instead one 
of only 225 per minute. From what is known of the metabolism of 
the goose, we should expect its pulse rate to be about 144 per minute 
when it is in good condition; we should expect that of the wild duck 
to be not much more than half that of the tame, allowing for its car- 
bon-dioxide output per kilo per hour being, on account of its smaller 
size, somewhat less than what Mr. Douglas found it to be in the 
tame duck of which the pulse rate was recorded. Small hearts and 
correspondingly quick pulses seem, therefore, to be more character- 
istic of tame birds than of wild, a subject to which we shall have to 


return. 
Taste II.—MWammals. 


Frequency of beat per 
minute, 
Average Average 
cero heart 
; - ; ioxide | weight in 
Weight in grams. Mamma). per kilo |percentage| Observed Paka 
per hour | of body | average 4 aT Un 
(in grams).| weight. | when at |°@ PY com- 
rest, Parison. 
: with man. 
25 Mouser. $25 Gad 3s 2s eee Ses 8.4 0.79(4) (2) | '700(4) 732 
S00—5005| Giimea, PIS 5 se c.f oto weep eee 1.8 - 40(9) 300(7) 309 
SIM GOL css lakece Stee sce 1.5 - 9(9) (?) 115 
OED a es kote t es aeons bo ee 1.3 - 45(9) 160 (7) (22) 198 
hela it Rabbityaceciescscchpeeser vcd ee 12 .27(9) 205 (11) 306 
13 Cho SBOE, SOP See eee eer se (?) . 75(8) 64(12) (2) 
6, 000—10, 000 | Medium dog....:.........-.....- 1.37 . 75(9) 120(7) 128 
10, 000O—50, 000 | Large dog .....-..-.........-.... 1. (?) 85(7) (?) 
Deerhspqsvess tenses Aehicseae est (?) 1. 15(8) (2) 45? 
SRCCD epoca b ie seek eo scek ope biag cet Al . 60(8) 75 80 
a eal | 2ptig Dek wea ta t-pain ten sae Bil (2) . 45 (8) 75 100? 
Man S220) Sthd. AOE sos fe Stee -6 . 59(8) 70= 70 
Om 354 Be. 242 daoceew asct bere 45 . 89(8) 48 78 
400, 000—600; 000"); Horse: <> --- .. £20. ftaa. FECES E SS :3 - 63 (8) 37 34 
RECO NOMS 2. 6-2 eceeeeceeee ees (?) | 1.1218) (?) (2) 


— — 


In the table for mammals a column has been added giving the 
pulse rate, which, taking both carbon-dioxide output and relative 
heart weight into consideration, we should expect the animal to 
have compared with man. Man has been chosen as the standard 
because so many more observations have been made on him that the 
averages are more likely to be correct than those for the others, with 
the exception perhaps of the rabbit. Of course, somewhat different 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUCHANAN. 495 


frequencies would be to be expected had we chosen for comparison 
some other animal. If, e. g., we had taken the relation of the mouse 
to the cat or rabbit we should have expected its pulse rate to be 
only about 590 or 490, respectively, per minute, which is lower than 
the average found for six mice. 


Carbon-dioxide output. Pulse rate. Relative heart weight. Pulse rate. 
mouse 8.4 a 980 0.59 * 732 
man 0.6 a 70° i 980 
mouse 8.4 = == ns Misbigecingy ly gyi 
rabbit ke ar 205” O79 wi omy te TES 


Considering that the rate of formation of carbon-dioxide, the 
relative heart size and the frequency of beat, have in the case of 
nearly all the species been determined by independent observers, it 
is really rather remarkable how closely the observed and expected 
frequencies agree. Only in the rabbit and ox? is the observed fre- 
quency considerably (over 30 per cent) lower than was to be expected 
from that of man. It is probably also about 25 per cent lower in 
the pig, though we have not yet the data for knowing what to expect 
for the pig. A higher hemoglobin percentage in the blood would 
compensate for what seems to be otherwise too slow a blood supply 
to enable the oxygen loss to be made good, but although we know 
this percentage to be higher in the ox than in man, it is in the rabbit 
a good deal lower than in man. Since in the rabbit at any rate the 
averages are likely to be correct, we have probably still to seek for 
some other factor which enables the supply of oxygen to meet the 
demand. But it must be remembered that the relative heart weights 
may not run strictly parallel with the volumes of blood expelled at 
each systole in the different species. Unfortunately we do not know 
and it would be difficult during life to ascertain what that volume 
is for any heart; we have had therefore to take the only available 
data which were at all likely to be a measure of it. 

None of the mammals referred to have pulse rates appreciably 
higher than those to be expected by comparison with man. All birds, 
however, so far as we know, have higher frequencies than might be 
expected when compared with mammals, thus, taking man again as 
the standard, that for the sparrow would be only 618 instead of 800 
per minute. 


Carbon-dioxide output. Pulse rate. Relative heart weight. Pulse rate. 


sparrow 12.2 1423 0.59 618 


eaten > ns 


man 0.6 Ti) 70 1.36 a 1423 


1Tf the ox had the same relative heart weight as the bull (0.53 per cent), the pulse 


rate to be expected by comparison with man would be almost precisely what it actually 
is in the ox. 


496 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The hemoglobin percentage does not appear to have been deter- 
mined in the blood of birds, but in view of the greater size of the 
red blood corpuscles of birds as compared with those of mammals 
we might expect it to be lower. On the other hand, the fact that the 
consumption of oxygen and both relative heart weight and pulse 
frequency are higher in a bird than in a mammal of the same size 
(e. g., in the sparrow than in the mouse, in the pigeon than in the 
guinea pig) may have some bearing on the fact that birds maintain 
a higher constant temperature than mammals. 

In this connection it is interesting to note that in the lowest mam- 
mals, the monotremes, and also in the marsupials, in which a lower 
body temperature is maintained, the heat produced, as measured by 
the carbon-dioxide output per kilo per hour, is much less than in 
so-called placental mammals of the same size (10). We know noth- 
ing at present about relative heart size or pulse rate in these animals. 
But since the monotremes regulate their temperature by the produc- 
tion of more heat when required (1. e., in cold surroundings) instead 
of by always producing a large amount and getting rid of the excess 
when necessary as the larger at any rate of the higher mammals do, 
we should expect the pulse rate in them to vary a good deal, and 
inversely, with the external temperature. The marsupials, utilizing 
also variations in loss of heat, although to a less extent than placental 
mammals of the same size, seem to regulate their body temperature 
extremely well. Of the two monotremes still living, Ornithorhyncus 
succeeds in doing so quite as well as some of the placental mammals; 
and Echidna, although it fails, makes the attempt for the greater 
part of the year, the oxygen consumption in the individual, at any 
given external temperature, seeming to some extent to vary inversely 
with the size according to the determinations made by Dr. Martin 
of the carbon-dioxide output per unit, weight, and time in three 
individuals (10). Those placental mammals which do not regulate 
their temperature the whole year round do not succeed much better 
than Echidna when they make the attempt, especially on first awak- 
ing from hibernation. In some of them the temperature seems to 
remain lower than in other placental mammals. :The rectal tem- 
perature of a bat, for instance, may be only 30° C. when it is wide 
awake and active (16). The low temperature in such cases seems 
again to be due to the production of heat being small in comparison 
with other mammals of the same size. Thus in an active bat weigh- 
ing about 20 grams, the carbon-dioxide output per kilo per hour 
was found to be only about 4.5 grams, and therefore considerably 
less than in a mouse. If we may take this as a measure of the 
demand for oxygen in an active bat, the heart need not beat with a 
frequency of more than 250 per minute to supply the demand, seeing 
that the heart of the bat, as we happen to know from two independent 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUGHANAN. 497 


sources (3) and (16), weighs as much as 1.2 per cent of the body 
weight, and is therefore relatively larger than that of the mouse. A 
very small dormouse on the other hand, in which the carbon-dioxide 
output may be as much as 20.4 grams per kilo per hour when awake 
(16), we should expect to have a pulse rate of over 1,000 per minute, 
even if it has as large a heart (relatively) as the bat.t It may have 
a pulse rate as slow as 16 or 14 per minute when hibernating (16a). 

Before going further a few words should be said about the method 
of ascertaining the frequency of the beat in small warm-blooded 
animals. It would be difficult to count a frequency of over 300 a 
minute, or to record any mechanical movements of the heart when 
they are so rapid, in the living intact animal. We can, however, 
make use of the fact, the meaning of which is not yet sufficiently un- 
derstood (5) and (6), that the electrical changes accompanying all 
muscular activity, and therefore that of the heart, produce in the case 
of hearts of mammals, birds, and certain if not all reptiles, two electric 
fields, the one of which pervades the anterior, the other the posterior 
part of the body. In order to record the rate at which the fields 
appear and disappear, we select some spot in each, e. g., the mouth 
and one of the hind legs, and with some good conductor of elec- 
tricity (such as wool or thread soaked in salt water) connect each 
with a basin of salt water, these in their turn being connected with 
the terminals of an instrument sensitive enough to record such 
small differences of potential as come into existence between the two 
fields. Such an instrument is the capillary electrometer represented 
diagrammatically in figure 2, which shows a bird ready to have its 
pulse rate recorded. The instrument consists essentially of a fine 
glass tube drawn out so as to be only a few thousandths of a milli- 
meter in diameter near the tip, and filled with mercury. The open 
end of the capillery tip dips into dilute sulphuric acid which enters 
so far as the mercury permits, the tube being very slightly conical 
so as just to prevent the mercury running out however near it be 
to the tip. The properties of the instrument are such that if the 
mercury becomes (galvanometrically) positive to the acid it moves 
toward it, if negative it moves in the opposite direction. Since the 
one field always comes into existence before the other, even though 
it may be by no more than a thousandth of a second, there is always 
a quick movement of the mercury in one direction while the single 
field exists. There may be other movements, but these first quick 

1 Note added in 1911.—Observations subsequently made by the author showed that an 
ordinary sized dormouse has a pulse rate of 600 to 700 when awake and warm and a 
heart weight which is about 1.2 per cent of the body weight; also that the pulse rate of 
a bat when awake is very variable, being in the very small form Nannugo pipistrellus now 
about 200, now about 900 a minute, now something between, while in the larger form 


Plecotus auritus, 9. specimen weighing 9.4 grams, had a pulse rate varying from 600 to 
900 a minute (see 6A, and Proc. Physiol. Soc., Mar. 18, 1911). 


97578°—sm 191082 


498 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ones, each the precursor of a ventricular systole, are easiest to count 
when recorded. To record the movements the image of the tip of 
the tube is magnified some three hundred times, and the boundary 


Basins of 
salt water 


- H,S0, 


Hg Capillary 


o== He electrometer 


Inverted image of 


H,SO, 
tip of capillary 
X 300 
Fic. 2—Diagram of a bird having its pulse taken. 


between mercury and acid is photographed on a moving plate on 
which is simultaneously projected the shadow of one end of a tun- 
ting fork vibrating at a known rate, so that the speed of the plate 


Fig. 3.—Electro-cardiogram of a goldfinch. 


may be gauged. Figure 3 is two seconds’ worth of a record taken 
with a goldfinch arranged in the way shown diagrammatically in 
figure 2. The tracing of a tuning fork vibrating one hundred times 
a second is seen above, and a thick and a thin horizontal line which 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUCHANAN. 499 


do not here concern us; the white below is the acid and the black 
the mercury. The record reads from right to left. It will be seen 
that the acid moved toward the mercury at regular intervals. These 
can be counted; in this particular photograph 304 of them occur in 
the two seconds, indicating that the heart was beating at the rate of 
nine hundred and fifteen times per minute. 

Until this method was introduced the frequencies of beat in small 
warm-blooded animals were not actually known. Their order had, 
however, already been inferred by Dr. Haldane from the known 
quick rate of consumption of oxygen. The method he introduced 
some 14 years ago of detecting the presence of carbon monoxide in 
mines, which has been the means of averting many disasters, depends 
essentially upon the fact that the more rapid the circulation is 
through the lungs, the more quickly is an animal affected by poison- 
ous gases absorbed from the atmosphere and the more quickly does 
it recover in air free from such gases. Since carbon-monoxide, which 
is far more dangerous to life than any of the other gases which are 
formed when explosions or fires occur in mines, neither affects the 
sense organs nor produces pain, miners may remain unaware of its 
existence and so do nothing to avoid it, until they suddenly succumb. 
Had they only with them a mouse or a small bird in a cage, forming 
as much a part of their equipment as a safety lamp, they would have 
sufficient time to escape from a place which is dangerous, by leaving 
as soon as the animal showed symptoms, long before they themselves 
had absorbed a sufficient quantity to be incapacitated. If they are 
quick, the animal will live to aid them in finding a safe place of 
retreat. As it takes 14 to 15 times as long when at rest and 7 to 8 
times as long when at work, for a man to be disabled as for a mouse, 
the miner, even if working, would have one or two hours for escape 
with such percentages of carbon-monoxide in the air as usually occur 
in mines (14). 

The frequency of beat, as we have seen, has not become adapted 
by itself to regulate the supply of oxygen to the demands of the 
different warm-blooded animals, but other factors also play their 
part. We have shown that of these the principal one is the volume 
of blood expelled per beat. We have now to inquire what signifi- 
cance is to be attached to the fact that now the one and now the other 
of the two main regulating factors plays the more important part. 

Parrot’s observations on the relative heart weights of over 50 dif- 
ferent species of birds and those others of birds and mammals re- 
ferred to in our tables show that the relatively large heart is found 
in the more active animals. This is so not only in warm-blooded 
animals, but also, as we have already noticed, in fish, flatfish having 
a relative heart weight less than half that of more active fish. It is 
probably also the case in amphibians and reptiles, although we have 


500 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


not yet the determining data; for, however small the demand for 
oxygen, all animals when active must consume more than when at 
rest and those that are habitually active must have some means of 
obtaining more. Moreover, since a large heart works more eco- 
nomically than a small one, in that it spends less of its time in over- 
coming inertia, it would for that reason also be favored when much 
work has to be done. The range of variation in relative heart size 
is fairly large in all species in which it has been determined in sey- 
eral specimens, but more so in some species than in others. Thus in 
four specimens of the golden oriole it varied between 1.8 and 2.6 per 
cent, while in seven of the curlew sandpiper it varied only between 
1.6 and 2.0 per cent. In man, according to the determinations made 
by Bergmann from 36 people in whom death was accidental, the 
variation may be from 0.43 to 0.75 per cent. Miiller (24) dealing 
not with the weight of the whole heart, but only with that of the 
musculature, in percentage of body weight, in a large number of 
individuals who had died of different diseases, shows by his tables 
that in about 800 people dying between the ages of 30 and 60, this 
varied from 0.26 to 0.89 per cent, and further that the percentage 
weights of this musculature did not vary symmetrically about a 
mean, but asymmetrically about a mode (i. e., the percentage weight 
of the greatest number), and in such fashion that the mode (0.49 to 
0.50 per cent) was nearer to the relatively small hearts than to the 
large ones, suggesting that the heart in man is becoming relatively 
smaller. The suggestion that man’s ancestors were larger hearted 
is perhaps supported by the fact that in infants the modal ratio is 
about 0.6 per cent and even in children from 4 weeks to 3 years of age 
it is further in the direction of the large heart than in the adult, 
being about 0.53 per cent. But we have to be careful in drawing 
such inferences from data which can not be determined in the living, 
since we do not know in how far the heart ratio affects the death rate, 
a point which Miiller, who interprets his tables in a way very dif- 
ferent from that which is here suggested, seems to neglect. How- 
ever this may be, we have ample evidence that in man as in other 
mammals, in birds, and so far as we know also in the lower verte- 
brates, the material is there to be selected from should it for any 
reason become advantageous for a species to alter its heart ratio in 
the future as it has probably done in the past. With regard to the 
past, it seems probable that such variations were used as material for 
selection before they became correlated with frequency of beat and 
that it was with the size of the heart more or less already deter- 
mined that this frequency, which is also known to be variable in indi- 
viduals, began to be used when it began to be advantageous to be 
independent of external temperature, owing perhaps to a change 
from an equable to a variable climate. In the present state of our 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUCHANAN. 501 


knowledge it is difficult to point to any advantage which might accrue 
to any species of poikilothermic vertebrate from having a particular 
pulse rate, nor apparently is the variation in different species greater 
than that in individuals in this respect. 

When frequency came to be correlated with relative heart size 
for the regulation of the rate of oxygen supply to the heat-forming 
tissues, the slow pulse would tell as an advantage as well as the large 
heart in animals having to make great sustained effort; for a slow 
pulse as compared with a quick one means longer diastoles more than 
longer systoles, the systole requiring to be very little longer to expel 
a much larger quantity of blood, since, in contracting, the walls (the 
surface) of the ventricles decrease with the square, the contents with 
the cube. The longer the diastole the more time has the heart to 
recuperate between the beats when the animal is at rest and the 
greater power has it in time of need of increasing the oxygen supply 
to the tissues by increasing the frequency of the beat. The pulse rate 
of the rabbit only goes up to an average of 324 per minute after a 
few minutes’ chasing about or after section of the vagi (11), thus in- 
creasing the oxygen supply by one and a half times at the most; that 
of the hare goes up under similar circumstances to 264 per minute 
(12), so that if the same amount of blood were expelled in each 
systole as when the animal was at rest the oxygen supply might be 
increased as much as four and a half times. MacWilliam, drawing 
attention to the connection between slow pulse and staying power, 
remarks (12) with regard to these particular closely allied animals, 
that “the rabbit is able to run short distances with great rapidity, 
but not to traverse long distances without intermission—this being 
no doubt in relation to the fact of their having burrows to flee to; 
the hare, on the other hand, destitute of such means of protection, 
has to depend, in the open country, upon its endurance in swift loco- 
motion.” The relative size of the hare’s heart, according to Berg- 
mann’s estimations, appears to be nearly three times that of the 
rabbit’s; and of the pulse rates of the two animals at rest that of 
the rabbit is about three times that of the hare. That staying power 
rather than wildness itself has led to the larger heart being favored is 
shown by the fact that there is very little difference in the relative 
heart weights of the tame and the wild rabbit (9). 

The relatively small heart of animals kept for food, such as the 
hen, the tame duck, the pig, the ox, and the cow (in which it is 
the same as in the ox) is, on the other hand, a consequence of the 
artificial fattening up of these animals, thus increasing their body 
weight, while their hearts, having little to do, do not keep pace, it 
being possible to supply the oxygen demanded by increasing the 
frequency of beat. The animals with the smallest hearts would be 
selected for the purpose in question by man just because of their 


502 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


being the least active. By similar artificial (though also uncon- 
scious) selection in the other direction, the relatively large heart of 
the race horse would be accounted for, while in the case of the deer 
and the bat, which are the only other mammals, of those in which 
relative heart weight has already been determined, with so large a 
heart as the race horse, the same end has been achieved by natural 
selection. 

That frequency of beat in a resting condition, as well as relative 
heart size, furnishes material (whether it is used or not) for natural 
(or artificial) selection to work on is a fact of common experience 
so far as man is concerned. I have found it to vary between 45 and 
90 per minute in quite healthy people. The extent of the range 
seems to be very different in different species, thus in the mouse it 
varies between 520 and 810 per minute, in the rabbit between 123 and 
306 per minute, while a veterinary surgeon informs me that in the 
ordinary horse its range of variation is between 34 and 40 only in 
health. Hering’s observations on the pulse rates of 43 rabbits show 
that the modal resting frequency is lower than the average fre- 
quency, thus suggesting in the case of the rabbit what Miiller’s 
observations did in the case of man, that it has come from a slower 
pulsed and larger hearted race. 

Can we go further than showing that variations in frequency exist 
to be selected from if need be, and indicate also the method by which 
the heart in birds and mammals has succeeded in adapting itself to 
the needs of the organism? We know that regulation of heat in 
every individual warm-blooded animal is brought about by the 
agency of the central nervous system. We know also that a warm- 
blooded animal never is cold, although it feels cold when brought into 
cold surroundings, while a so-called “ cold-blooded ” one which really 
does become cold under similar cicumstances does not feel cold, if we 
may judge from its behavior. We find that instead of making the 
attempt to produce more heat to counterbalance the loss, by eating 
or moving about, it refuses to do either of these things in the cold. 
It will not even choose the warmest place and so prevent as much 
loss of heat as possible. I kept a young crocodile for some months 
in a long trough so arranged that one end but not the other might be 
heated from outside. It was so heated every night when the weather 
was cold, but the crocodile was found indifferently in any part of 
the trough in the morning, until at last one night in a somewhat 
longer spell of cold weather it died at the very farthest extremity 
of the trough from the warmed part. It could have been in a sur- 
rounding temperature of 8° C. had it liked; it chose one that was 
hardly above freezing point and died there. A warm-blooded ani- 
mal, feeling the cold, would have made every effort both to prevent 
loss of heat and to produce more heat, and even without effort it 


. 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—BUCHANAN. 503 


would, with the aid of the central nervous system, that is to say 
reflexly, have done one or other or both things, in some species more 
the one, in some more the other. 

Is it also by means of the central nervous system that the muscles, 
put into play either voluntarily or involuntarily to produce the extra 
amount of heat and taking up more oxygen from the blood, ask the 
heart to make good the loss? It is well known that muscular action 
is accompanied by acceleration of the heart, and that acceleration of 
the heart may be brought about by the intervention of nerves. But 
to answer the question we have to know a good deal more than this, 
and, in the first place, whether either reflexly by the excitation of the 
afferent nerves of the muscle or by the excitation of motor cells of 
the cortex such acceleration can be produced, also whether poikolo- 
thermic vertebrates differ from homcothermic ones in this respect. 
That it can be produced in one or other of these ways in one species 
of homceothermic vertebrate, namely man, is shown, I think con- 
clusively, by the results obtained from experiments which, by the 
kindness of several Oxford undergraduates in serving as subjects for 
them, I have been able to make. Having recorded the frequency of 
the beat with the subject sitting quietly with one hand and one foot 
in basins of salt water connected with the terminals of the capillary 
electrometer, it was then again recorded when, instead of being at 
rest, he clenched the fist that was free, or made some other definite 
muscular action, on hearing a signal given automatically just as the 
plate began to pass behind the capillary electrometer and with the 
exact moment at which it was given recorded on the plate. The 
reaction time of the subject to the particular sound had been first 
ascertained with the same instrument, in a way which need not be 
here described, to enable us to tell the moment at which the mus- 
cular action began to be made, and to see in how long or how short a 
time after it the acceleration of the heart took place. We have of 
course to take our chance as to when in a cardiac cycle the signal is 
given, but by taking a sufficient number of records we are likely to 
meet with it in all phases of the cycle. The amount of the accelera- 
tion with such a slight action as clenching a fist is very different in 
different people, but if it is marked at all we have no difficulty in 
ascertaining that it occurs so promptly that if the muscle begins to 
contract only at the end of a systole, the immediately ensuing diastole 
of the same cardiac cycle is considerably shortened and that of the 
following cycles still more so. Thus in a.man whose heart when at 
rest was beating very regularly 73 times a minute, the period of the 
cycle being therefore 0.82 second, the period became 0.67 second 
when the fist was clenched at the end of the systole, and the next 
ones were 0.57 or 0.56 second, the frequency being thus temporarily 
raised to over 100 per minute. That the stimulus should be anything 


504 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


involving mechanical movements of the blood is hardly conceivable. 
The shortening of the cycle in cases of such slight action is due to 
shortening of the diastole only, and MacWilliam’s researches (12) 
on cats have shown us that it is the vagus nerve which principally, if 
not solely, affects the duration of diastole, and that stimulation of 
the peripheral end of this nerve produces an immediate effect, whereas 
that of the accelerator nerve to the heart (the sympathetic) takes 
some few seconds to produce one. We can therefore not only say 
from the promptitude with which the heart accelerates when a volun- 
tary action is made that it is due to nerve action, but also that it is 
the vagus nerve which conveys the impulse to the heart and therefore 
that the nerve which acts on the vagus center, whether the sensory 
nerve of a muscle or an axon from a cortex cell, acts in such a way 
as to suspend the tonic action of the center. Bowen, in a paper (15) 
discovered after these experiments had been made, has shown that 
even so small an action as gently tapping a key, the subject being at 
rest with his arm supported on a table, produces a prompt accelera- 
tion of the heart. His method of recording does not show so well as 
that described above how prompt it is, but he saw that it was enough 
to indicate that it could only be brought about by the mediation of 
the vagus. 

Of course many other factors—chemical, mechanical, and thermal, 
as well as nervous—must play some part in producing the strong 
acceleration of the heart consequent on severe exercise, when the 
frequency may become in man 170 or 180 per minute, and when the 
duration of the systole as well as that of the diastole is shortened. 
To answer our question we require to know whether it is to them 
or to nervous factors only that the acceleration is due which 
occurs with involuntary, reflexly produced, muscular movements for 
the regulation of temperature such as shivering, evidence of which 
acceleration I have obtained from one or two medical undergradu- 
ates who kindly took their pulse rates several times under conditions 
which induced shivering for comparison with what it was before the 
shivering commenced. Since the shivering can not be made to begin 
at a precise moment, we can not ascertain in the same way as for 
voluntary movements whether the heart acceleration as well as the 
movement itself is brought about by the agency of the central ner- 
vous system; but there is a certain amount of likelihod that the two 
things should be effected in the first instance by the same agency. The 
fact that the arousing to activity of the central nervous system of a 
hibernating animal makes it not only begin to shiver (17) or become 
very active so as to produce heat, but at the same time (or even pre- 
viously) quickens the heart beat very considerably (see 64), also sug- 
gests it. It might perhaps be determined whether it were so or not 
by seeing whether in the first place the animal managed to hibernate 


SIGNIFICANCE OF PULSE RATE—-BUCHANAN. 505 


if the action of the vagus on the heart were prevented, e. g., by the 
administration of atropine; whether in such case the frequency of 
beat was reduced to the same extent, and if so, secondly, whether 
under a continuation of the treatment heart acceleration occurred, 
and occurred as promptly, on awakening from hibernation. If in 
spite of such procedure the animal when awake still succeeded in 
regulating its temperature, we should know that other agencies than 
the central nervous system were more intimately concerned in adapt- 
ing the heart to meet the demands made upon it. We should then 
be in a better position than we are now to discuss whether the power 
which we have shown to be exercised by the heart in the different 
species of warm-blooded animals of complying with the demands 
made upon it, not on occasion only but for lfe, has been evolved 
under nervous control. 


REFERENCES. 


(1) Kourr, Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol. (Pfitiger), Vol. 122, 1908. 

(2) BryaNn-ROBINSON, 1734: quoted by (24) MULLER, Die Massenverhiiltnisse des 
menschlichen Herzens, Hamburg and Leipzig, 1882; and by Hopssuin, Arch. 
f. (Anat. u.), Physiol., 1888. 

(3) Parrot, Uber die Gréssenverhiltnisse des Herzens bei Végeln, Zool. Jahrb., Vol. 7, 
Syst., 1894, 

(4) BucHANAN, On the Frequency of the Heart-beat in the Mouse, Proc. Physiol. Soc., 
November, 1908. Journal of Physiology, Vol. 37. 


(5) , On the Frequency of the Heart-beat, ete., in Birds, Proc. Physiol. Soc., 
March, 1909. Journal of Physiology, Vol. 38. 

(6) , On the Electro-cardiogram, Frequency of Heart-beat, etc., in Reptiles, Proc. 
Physiol. Soc., December, 1909. Journal of Physiology, Vol. 39. 

(GA) , The frequency of the Heart-beat in the Sleeping and Waking Dormouse, 


Proc. Physiol. Soc., June 18, 1910. Journal of Physiology, Vol. 40. 

(7) , Results of hitherto unpublished observations and experiments made in 
Oxford with the aid of grants from the Government Grant Committee of the 
Royal Society. 

(8) BmRGMANN, Ueber die Grisse des Herzens bei Menschen und Thieren, Inaug. Dissert. 
Miinchen, 1884. 

(9) JosepH, The Ratio between Heart-weight and Body-weight in various Animals, 
(Journ. Exp. Med., Vol. 10, No. 4, 1908. 

(10) Martin, C. J., Thermal adjustment and respiratory exchange in Monotremes and 
Marsupials, Phil. Trans. B., Vol. 195, 1902. 

(11) HerinG, Ueber d. Beziehung d. extracardialen Herznerven zur Steigerung d. 
Herzschlagzahl bei Muskelthiitigkeit, Arch. f. d. ges. Physiol. (Pfitiger), Vol. 60, 
1895. 

(12) MacWIr.LuiAM, On the Influence of the Central Nervous System on Cardiac Rhythm, 
etc., Proc. Royal. Soc., Vol. 53, 1893. 

(18) FraNcK, Anatomie der Hausthiere. 

(184) Forspns, Proc. Zool. Soc., 1881, p. 960. 

(14) HaAtpAann, Journal of Physiology, Vol. 18, 1895; Trans. of the Institution of 
Mining Engineers, vol. 38, 1910, and other papers there referred to. 

(15) Bownn, A Study of the Pulse-rate in Man, as modified by muscular work. Con- 
tributions to medical research, dedicated to Victor Clarence Vaughan, Mich- 
igan, 1908. 

(16) Pemprey and HAaLtn WHITH, Regulation of Temperature in Hibernating Animals, 
Journ. Physiol., Vol. 19, 1896; or (164) Pembrey’s article on Animal Heat in 
Schiifer’s Text-book of Physiology, 1898. 

(17) Pemprey, Respiration and Temperature of the Marmot, Journ. Physiol., Vol. 17, 
1901. 


OT a ot 


itite 7 aw 


istomehypiitelars te magne te od 
"i pltoutie\: gr lth iri finn ‘tichae! er oe 
= pbroenens fo woiseesteron tnaoil Drbieed weenie 

ke Lite lnoitdited i wri tition sath wie ete | wie tae 
Uae fiebasbons! Hid ailytire ies: dursfodtiote alt?’ ab 
| (Qadir nadie | tact Newer bod tnt, svt trot wats 
- dope east Tenerselacun ybrtatnitibarsoc Woz: minticeinld orn 
madd Duos a¥hii yi Oy oheas Ehadresh ody joonteot bv vil 
j TH Oy GAT eh aie of Hon tera rat} ows biatiicp: 49) phi 
drevvsivsie ef2earoeprmedd seb wk fiesiorece) ed) oft eeydely evil vine 


‘ » rie - 
ine ete, et 4 nar ; 5m 
Z MLL Ce if Wie] MOD 20 Vier seas baa 
; em 
' i t i ) ? 1) i. ‘ - i - } 
ied) ai tiie tw hedh vine: notessosiio ida } i Roya 
i . 4 ‘ ; ¢ 
. Melinda Nice 
sa 
' J 4 
dy oe 
4 y Ase) fay , dus 4 
y ' ’ (eu t @e27 
| ly pea we japen ke § i) tne iv, hy 7 
. 7 net ‘ 4 : . ¢ a 
Piz Leas | inia iy 1 ai Let uf 
t F : rai rt] 
I< 
ri I » Ly i ‘a f " | 
. Py 
a 
t ; Tn 2 i wt? Io 4 4 : af 
he 27 phi ihn Wt lawive i 
- + 
7 brs fnalf att \ 
be ne ‘, bailed ; 1 ) é 
, - ; ria ‘tre, Yo vgoud , 
= 4 q i” / ! 
: i itt {Fry t } 
p hy L i ¢ 
ite thy f i, } i 
: , 5 
“ ‘ sat A 4 7 
‘ be 
; eit i 5 rt eee & oth pees * 
g 4 
+ ; boop ase 
é ieee tet , ; boas fs 7 was Db. ute iietothead J 
- oo f ‘ Wei Loy me i‘ 1, a ah ar ot} 
r PA iF ny Oe, 47a 
' ; if) wy ' ‘ ot) ” 
M ’ feat i Viney WGtue Traine LT » Ge ed} 
bi 
ab r iY mi ot, wat ? 
4 , i ‘ 
¢ ; anti Later iabital 1 1 deiaeule i, 
lay ‘ abcd ’ . en WY ve rs Sree TE? 7 
3, 3 { & tink Se © ViAewi dA% sbira 
Pi - > 
' , 7 4 i ‘ Peace f ¢ IRE . ag 
t rin. a4 : d ‘ ivi t ) j ’ 7 “ve 


rary : Hint avovtert ta ot? her douttal. mats Of Crue ar | 
| EH RO Ae ol agit ee Vala 


fduw ey ke atte) y , oo <>, 
; Le aA A 
| Fae tae ee ce 
Wowie Pay carl Rete APG fiebhe ieiret qt! things Py. did shee 
’ ‘ . Aa ' is ther e AGA 
3 - Lares? rune ; anf I> of A " we 
{UPTON orion xv ot yan esha, rete ashe 
ww aptimenatowd fatlt j a4 i} Stav-svie’l of) io chai A ow hy 
: ai 1 ‘oon pt athe | : ‘ f ae 


ry, rye ot beshy sa vii iy te hee ee reall ais 7 


hey 


oy 


: 6 Te : i . }J ae nv a ey ‘ae Petre 
a EE TRG SATE SOF OUe ke. LON. 4 Seer “ingte™ 


eth wal oo OR TEE, ¥ ( wubid sige, 


og ? a ; be 
ue Ai tu dasiereginyl ban hia or , 
7 ; ties 
y 4 
po ) ‘ . Les 
- 
1 e 


y 7 al? 
, rs 
4 Py ° rh we a ° Oe , tet A 
pet | ae ee a ee ee T Pee Ps a a a eye 2 


THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SOLITARY WASPS 
OF THE GENUS SYNAGRIS. 


[With 4 plates. ] 


By EH. RousBaup. 


The solitary wasps of the subfamily Eumenine which belong to the 
genus Synagris inhabit the whole of Africa except the northern por- 
tion and Egypt. They are closely allied to the genus Rhynchium, 
but are distinguishable by the labial palpi, which have only three 
joints, the very long labrum, and the maxillary palpi of 3, 4, or 5 
joints.” 

The systematic relationships of this group, although elucidated by 
the early investigations of De Saussure, are still imperfectly known, 
while the biological data which we possess regarding them are much 
more fragmentary. We know that these insects build nests in the 
ordinary manner of the eumenids, but their larve are little known 
and their mode of feeding and their history still less. 

During the leisure hours of my sojourn in the Middle Congo as a 
member of the commission for the study of the sleeping sickness, I 
sought as far as possible to supply some of these deficiencies in our 
knowledge. The wasps are quite common in the lower Congo, and I 
found there three species, S. calida L.,. 8. sicheliana Sauss., and the 
most common as well as most remarkable of all, S. cornuta L. These 
three species nest by preference on the roofs and walls of houses, at 
all times, both in the dry or cold season and in the rainy or warm 
season. There was, therefore, at my very door an interesting subject 
and one relatively easy to follow and to study from a biological stand- 
point. Since it had to do with the eumenids, one might have ex- 
pected a mode of life but little different from that of other solitary 
wasps—that is to say, an ordinary provisioning of the nests by means 
of fresh paralyzed prey, with which the egg is shut up and left en- 


. 1ranslated by permission from Annales de la Société Hntomologique de France. 
Paris, July, 1910. Vol. 79, Pt. I, pp. 1-21. 

2I owe all the bibliographical details, the information regarding classification, and 
the exact identification of the species which are the object of these observations, to my 
friend, Viscount R. du Buysson, whose knowledge and courtesy have been unfailing. I am 
happy to express here my very sincere thanks. 


507 


508 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


tirely alone. Observation was not long in demonstrating to me that 
instinct among these wasps assumed an entirely different form—that 
throughout the genus it is in full course of evolution toward a higher 
type, toward the mode of rearing the young so entirely different, 
which exists among the social wasps. The species of Synagris 
constitute, biologically, a type intermediate between those of the 
solitary wasps and the social wasps. I shall attempt to show this in 
presenting the results of my investigations regarding the three 
species of the Congo. I have been aided in this work by the devoted 
zeal of my assistant in the commission, Mr. Weiss, to whom I wish to 
express at the outset my deep sense of gratitude. 


Synagris calida L. ‘ 


This species is not common at Brazzaville. I found only one 
large nest, which was built in September under the roof of the 
laboratory of the commission. When collected in October, this nest 
measured 12 centimeters in length and about 8 centimeters in greatest 
diameter. It had the appearance of an irregular mass of earth, 
without appreciable symmetry, the surface being mammilated by 
a peculiar rough plastering, in which could be recognized the innu- 
merable pellets of earth which the builder accumulated for its con- 
struction. This nest contained 11 cells, with very thick walls, all 
closed and occupied by young pupe, or by larvee which had already 
devoured their food and spun their silken cocoons. Like those of 
all the species of Synagris, this nest was built of a mixture of 
yellow clay and sand, mixed with saliva. In accordance with the 
habits of the eumenids, it is probable that each compartment was 
constructed separately, and that the common covering of earth was 
merely a secondary assembling of the separate cells. Mr. G. Vasse 
brought to the Museum of Paris from Mozambique a young nest 
of this species which consisted as yet only of the first cell. The 
nest is somewhat conical, and about 5 centimeters long and 4 centi- 
meters across the widest part of the base. ‘The apex is occupied by a 
large orifice, shghtly turned toward one side. Mr. Chevalier also 
sent one from Krébedjé (Fort Sibut), in the Gribingui, which was 
already finished and quite old, but which contained only six compart- 
ments, from which all the adult insects had gone. It measured 7 
centimeters in length and 5 centimeters in breadth. 

I should have known scarcely anything about this wasp if I had 
not accidentally found in one of the closed compartments of the nest 
which I collected at Brazzaville a young larva dead and desiccated, 
with the whole of its store of caterpillars. All the other occupants 
of the cells were either fully developed larvee which had devoured 
their food and spun their cocoons, or were pupe. The caterpillars 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—-ROUBAUD. 509 


found by the side of the young larva of Synagris were identified by 
Mr. P. Chrétien as those of hesperids. By means of these remains it 
is possible to describe the habits of the wasp. It deposits in the cells 
during the course of their construction a hoard of caterpillars, ren- 
dered immovable, and an egg, and then walls up the orifice, and takes 
no farther care of its offspring. This is the ordinary provision of 
food as found among other solitary wasps. Mr. Maindron,! more- 
over, observed in 1879, at Senegal, the mode employed by S. calida 
in providing food. He saw the insect hunt about small bushes, 
seize upon caterpillars, grasping them with its mandibles and pierc- 
ing them with its sting, and then carrying them away and storing at 
least six in each cell. In the Brazzaville nest the number was much 
larger. I counted as many as 14 caterpillars in the same cell. Many 
of them were parasitized by the larve of a Z'achina (T. fallax Meig. 
=T. xanthaspis Wiedm.=Eutachina wiennertzi B. B.),? the pupe 
of which, having escaped from the host, were found at the bottom of 
the cell. It is quite possible that the premature death and decompo- 
sition of the parasitized caterpillars had led to that of the others, as 
well as to that of the Synagris. The parasitism of the Z'achina had, 
therefore, extended its results not only to the hesperid caterpillars, 
but also to the larva which was to feed on them. This circumstance 
shows one of the defects in the primitive mode of rearing the larvee. 


Synagris sicheliana Sauss. 


[t is not the same with S. stcheliana Sauss., in which the feeding 
instinct is perfected, as will be seen presently, in a remarkable man- 
ner. This species, which builds nests cell by cell, of rude structure, 
much resembling those of the preceding species, is the most common 
form of Synagris at Brazzaville. The nests are masses of yellow 
earth, the surface of which bears the marks of the successive balls of 
earth which the wasp has joined together to form the cells. The 
maximum number of cells which I found in a single nest did not 
exceed eight, and the whole structure was roughly ovoid. The most 
recent cell is nearly always open, and serves as a shelter for the 
builder, which very often dies in it. As is usually the case, the ma- 
terials that serve for the construction of nests are obtained in moist 
places, mixed with saliva, and carried with very great zeal to the 
place chosen, which is nearly always under the high roof of houses. 

The initial cells are higher than broad and roughly conical. Quite 
often the earth of old nests is used, in which case they are gnawed 
and demolished all about the orifice; but I have never observed that 


1 Monit. du Sénég. et Dep., Apr. 15, 1879 (communicated by Mr. J. Ktinckel d’Herculais). 
21 owe this identification to the kindness of my learned friend Dr. J. Villeneuve. 


510 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


a Synagris obtained its materials at the expense of fresh nests that 
were still occupied. The nests were 8 to 9 centimeters long and 7 
centimeters broad; the height of the cells, 4.5 centimeters. 

Association of nests—Sometimes the nests are associated, several 
being placed side by side, so that they form bands of earth 20 to 25 
centimeters long, according to the number of individual nests. The 
number can be ascertained by observing the constrictions in the mass 
of earth which mark the area of contact between two different nests. 
(Pl. 2.) Are these fortuitous associations of nests of different age 
grouped by adult wasps which had no original connection with each 
other; or are they constructed by females born in the same nest? It 
is difficult to decide. It appears, a priori, not impossible that they 
represent the first step toward a grouping in colonies. 

Rearing of larve.—On February 19 I discovered under the roof of 
a farm building a nest of this Synagris, with two cells. The older, 
the orifice of which was walled up with a plug of earth, contained a 
larva already well grown, and a provision of six inert caterpillars, 
one of which was about three-quarters eaten. In the more recent cell, 
which was guarded by the female, was found a single yellowish egg 
merely placed in the bottom of the cell. On the 22d of February 
another nest was pointed out to me by natives on the quarters of the 
Senegal tirailleurs. I had it brought down with the greatest precau- 
tions. It was an association of nests forming a band that measured 
about 30 centimeters in length. The adults had already taken their 
flight, as these nests were old. In two of the cells were found only 
a couple of females, probably the builders, who had retired within‘ 
them to die. The last cell alone, at one end of the assemblage, was 
guarded by a living female. I found there an egg that occupied the 
bottom of the cell and above it 5 large hesperid caterpillars. 

On the 23d of February a third nest was brought to me by a Ba- 
kongo boy, who had obtained it on his quarters. Three cells were 
walled up and contained a young pupa and two full-grown larve. 
A fourth cell was open and contained a wasp with its head turned 
in a menacing attitude toward the opening. It had not abandoned 
the nest while the latter was being transported. On turning it out, I 
found in the cell 10 large hesperid caterpillars, to serve as provision 
for a large larva which had already attained three-fourths its full 
s1ze. 

On the 27th two nests were brought to me with the greatest care 
by natives. One consisted of three cells, of which two were closed. 
The third harbored a young larva with a provision of eight cater- 
pillars. The other nest comprised five cells. In the freshest one, 
which was guarded by the female, was found an egg without pro- 
vision. In one of the adjoining cells, which had the orifice closed, 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—ROUBAUD. 511 


there was a larva of large size with a provision of seven caterpillars, 
two partly devoured. 

With the aid of the foregoing data, it is possible to contruct a 
history of this Synagris. The wasp lays an egg in its cell of earth. 
Then, without haste, after having guarded it for some time, com- 
mences to collect a small provision of caterpillars for the moment 
of hatching. When the larva has commenced to feed, the Synagris 
continues its provisioning, but in a slow and regular manner, taking 
care only to furnish its larva with a little more food than is neces- 
sary for the day. It is a progressive provisioning, from day to 
_ day, which gives the wasp the necessary leisure to guard the larva 
and watch its growth. A fact of this kind has never before been 
recorded of the solitary wasps. 

When the larva has attained three-fourths of its size, the wasp 
incloses it in its cell with the last provision. At this time the larva 
is still transparent and rose colored. In three days it devours the 
caterpillars at its disposal, takes on a uniform yellowish color, and 
loses its transparency on account of the abundant development of 
reserve nutriment. After three days of rest, during which it remains 
inert and without movement, it spins the thin walls of silk which 
surround it, and outside of which are left the alimentary wastes, the 
excrement of the caterpillars, and the hard chitinous parts which 
have not been devoured. 

From 19 to 23 days intervene from the time when the larva spins 
its cocoon to the time when it emerges as the adult insect. The pupa, 
properly so called, exists for about 12 days. Thus, three larve 
which spun their cocoons on February 19, 22, and 23, respectively, 
were transformed into pupe on March 1, 3, and 5. The adults came 
out on March 10, 15, and 18. The duration of the pupal stage was, 
therefore, 10 days for the first, 12 days for the second, and 13 days for 
the third. 

. The caterpillars which the female wasps choose for the nourish- 
ment of their larve are those of various species of hesperids (skip- 
pers). I did not observe either their capture or the method of ren- 
dering them immobile. Some of them were bitten on the side of the 
head, and the majority showed indications of having been stung sev- 
eral times. They were always more completely immobile than the 
caterpillars made use of by the solitary wasps of the genus Odynerus 
in our country. Fabre has observed as regards the latter that the 
caterpillars, although stung, do not remain motionless, and that they 
would crush the egg by their movements if it were deposited in their 
midst. Hence the utility of the suspensory thread which attaches 
the egg to the surface of the cell in different species of Odynerus and 
Humenes. Ferton mentions that in the case of nests which he ob- 
served the caterpillars were possibly able to spin cocoons and to trans- 


512 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


form themselves. It is far from being so in the case of the cater- 
pillars rendered immobile by Synagris, which lie quite inert in the 
earthen cell and scarcely show any signs of remaining alive, beyond 
slight movements of the mandibles and head. 

The egg is deposited beside them, and is not fixed to the wall of 
the nest by a suspensory thread, although this thread still exists at- 
tached to one end of the egg. The egg, furthermore, is not fixed to 
the prey, as in the case of such predaceous wasps as Bembex, Oxuy- 
belus, Ammophila, Pompilus, etc. It is deposited in the bottom of the 
cell, which is at the time empty, and the female watches for the 
hatching in order to begin provisioning. This is, therefore, the habit 
of social wasps. One of the wasps, M/onedula punctata, has nearly 
the same habit, according to Mr. Hudson (ea Bouvier, p. 26). This 
- wasp digs a hole, deposits its egg therein, and then closes the hole and 
waits for the hatching of the young larva before undertaking the 
provisioning. But, as Bouvier has remarked, this proceeding hardly 
constitutes a marked advance in the evolution of instinct. The young 
Bembewx, at its birth, finds itself immured in an empty cell. It does 
not find at its door the food that it needs after hatching. One can 
understand, however, the protection of the egg which is assured in 
this way against the attacks of the Tachina flies. The proceeding of 
our Synagris is much more perfected. The wasp does not wall up 
its cell after laying the egg. It remains there itself and guards the 
ege—its head directed outward, thus preventing the access of para- 
sites. On the other hand, it begins provisioning at such time as will 
enable the young larva, after hatching, to be certain to find its food. 
The provisioning which then takes place regularly and in proportion 
suitable to the size of the larva, permits the Synagris to watch the 
growth of its young. This is certainly an important advance over the 
primitive mode of rearing the young found among the solitary wasps. 
The larva is not walled up in the cell, which is abundantly supplied 
with caterpillars, until it has reached a period of active growth, 
which guarantees, to a certain extent, a favorable termination of its 
evolution. 

The usual mode of provisioning, in which the egg is abandoned to 
itself in the midst of an abundant supply of caterpillars, is mani- 
festly imperfect. It may happen that the prey which has been col- 
lected at one time in a single locality may be already infested with 
parasites. In this case, these caterpillars, which are in such a condi- 
tion that they can offer little resistance, soon perish and decompose, 
involving the death of the larva which they should serve as food. 
It may happen also that their tissues having been partly devoured 
by their parasites, the amount of food is insufficient for the complete 
growth of the young wasp. This occurred, as we have seen, in the 
case of at least one of the larve of our Synagris calida. Such an 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—ROUBAUD. 513 


accident could not happen in the nests of the Synagris sicheliana, or 
at least it could not occur so readily, as the cell is not walled up 
until late. In this respect, therefore, the slow and progressive pro- 
visioning constitutes an indisputable improvement on the primitive 
instinct. It is an important step in the evolution of the hereditary 
habits of the solitary wasps. 


Synagris cornuta. L. 


In a third species of Synagris, S. cornuta, we find the expres- 
sion of a maternal feeling infinitely more definite, an instinct for 
rearing the young still more perfected. This is the third term of the 
series which will lead us directly to the remarkable rearing habits of 
the social wasps. 

Nidification—The nest of S. cornuta, as in the case of the other 
species, is built by the female, with a yellow earth, a mixture of clay 
and sand, taken from the borders of brooks in moist places and 
mixed with saliva. Occasionally the clay chosen is of a gray color. 
As usual, the male does not participate in any manner in the con- 
struction of the nest. 

The different cells, in this case also, are built separately, but at 
periods which may vary considerably more than for the other two 
species, on account, as we shall see later, of the peculiar manner of 
rearing the larve. The nest is composed of an assemblage of cells 
which are built separately, but the general structure reveals talent 
which is unquestionably more perfect than in the other two species. 
The nest of S. cornuta has scarcely been mentioned except by FE. 
André (1895), who described it very briefly. I have had occasion to 
observe numerous nests of this species in the Congo where it is seen 
more frequently than the preceding ones. It builds, moreover, in 
much more accessible places, under roofs of huts (paillottes), and on 
the protected walls of dwellings of Europeans, at a little distance 
above the ground. I was able on one occasion to observe the con- 
struction of a nest, which was immediately before my eyes on the 
wall of the laboratory, about 1.50 meters above the ground. 

The first compartment took the form of an oval cell, the bottom 
of which was slightly more expanded than the part which contained 
the entrance. Usually there is a short neck near the orifice which 
is more or less inclined toward the side, to facilitate the entrance of 
the builder. The prominence of the neck is variable. When it is 
well developed, the cell may take on the appearance, roughly, of a 
turbinated shell of a gasteropod. (Pl. 3, fig. 2.) Frequently, the 
neck is lacking, and the entrance is then at the upper part of the cell. 
The length of the cell is, on the average, 3 centimeters, and the broad- 
est part 22 millimeters. The wall of earth is much less thick in this 
species than in the case of nests of the other two species of Synagris 

97578°—sm 1910——33 


514 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


already mentioned. The materials are noticeably economized, which 
indicates a constructive ability more certain and more refined. The 
coating of earth is diversified externally by a multitude of transverse, 
parallel corrugations, which correspond to the bands of successive 
accretions during construction. At a distance the whole structure 
presents the appearance of a small rude basket. 

The construction of the cell is begun at the bottom. The wasp 
molds its work, building up the earth in regular fashion around the 
whole breadth of the cell. It deposits its material on one side in 
contact with the substratum. Then, moving backward, it distributes 
the whole evenly as regards thickness, according to the predetermined 
diameter of the structure. It carries on this work with extreme care 
and zeal, interrupting its toil as mason and architect only to go 
hastily to gather new materials, which, as a rule, it gathers in a sin- 
gle spot. Two or three days are necessary for the Synag7vis to com- 
plete its basket of earth. Then the work is suspended for a time. 
The wasp lays an egg in the cell, and the new occupations of mother 
and nurse follow that of worker in clay. When the larva, which is 
born and develops in the cell, has completed its growth, the insect 
closes the orifice of the cell with a cover of earth, the material for 
which it frequently takes from the walls of the entrance passage, or 
neck, so that the opening is often transferred to the end of the main 
axis of the cell. 

The task being finished, the insect returns to its labors of construc- 
tion, goes to look for suitable materials, and builds a new cell at the 
side of the preceding one, and in the same form. The maximum 
number of different cells which may compose the aggregate of an old 
nest appears not to exceed six, on the average, for a single female. 
Every time that a new cell is built, it is attached firmly to the pre- 
ceding ones, and a mass of earth filling the interstices conceals in 
part the original distinctness of each cell, and also frequently covers 
the bands of the fundamental coating. The uniting of the different 
cells, however, is never so complete and never produces so compact a 
mass as in the case of the nests of the-preceding species of Synagris. 
The appearance of the nest is quite different. 

The arrangement of the cells in an old nest, and consequently the 
general form of construction, varies according to the orientation of 
the whole. Most commonly the successive cells are placed in juxta- 
position in a linear series, in a single row along the substratum. The 
complete nest formed by this manner of assembling takes the shape of 
a band of earth more or less regular and compact, about 6.50 centi- 
meters in breadth for a nest of four cells, and 3.50 centimeters in 
height (pl. 3, fig. 3). The different cells are often recognizable only 
by the orifices, which are all arranged on the same side, whether open 
or closed. The nests with the cells in a single row are the most 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—ROUBAUD. 515 


regular and perfect. In their construction the powers of S. cornuta 
in comparison with those of other species are most fully revealed. In 
other instances the cells are placed one upon another in several rows, 
the orifices being sometimes in the same direction and sometimes dis- 
tributed at random. The mass which fills the intervals between the 
cells may produce a compact and amorphous nest. 

The dimensions of these compact nests, which are always less than 
those of other species of Synagris for the same number of cells, the 
greater thinness of the walls, and the difference in the ornamentation 
of the outer coating, enable them to be readily distinguished. 

Orientation of the nests—The orientation of the orifice of the cell 
is variable, as well as that of the whole nest. The wasp knows how 
to modify slightly, according to circumstances, the general direction 
which is suitable for the cells. It adapts its constructions to the dif- 
ferent conditions existing where the nests are placed. The linear nests 
are ordinarily placed horizontally if the breadth of the foundation 
permits and the openings of the cells occupy the highest point. In 
other cases, especially when a nest is placed on a strongly inclined sur- 
face, such as the underside of a roof, the orifices are turned a little 
more outward. The length of the entrance passage, or neck, and the 
position of the orifices vary according to the inclination of the foun- 
dation. When a nest is fixed to the lower surface of a horizontal wall 
the entrance to the cells looks downward (pl. 3, fig. 2) in accordance 
with the development of the neck. Sometimes, though rarely, the wasp 
nests in the bushes away from habitations. It may then use as sup- 
ports for its cells the broad and firm leaves of certain herbaceous 
plants, but it takes care to conceal the nest on the underside of the 
leaves which, being bent downward by the weight, form a roof for it. 
When the nest is attached to a narrow leaf, the breadth of which 
scarcely exceeds the maximum dimensions of a single cell, the orienta- 
tion of the nest is entirely changed. The cells are placed according 
. to the breadth of the leaf and piled one on another. A linear nest 
results, but is oriented in accordance with the length of the blade, 
the orifices of the cells being placed laterally. These facts show a 
certain elasticity in the manifestations of the constructive powers of 
Synagris cornuta, which we did not find in our other two species. 

Ovulation and rearing of the larvaa—When the Synagris has fin- 
ished the construction of its cell of earth, it lays a bluish egg, measur- 
ing 6 millimeters long, the chorion of which presents at one of the ex- 
tremities the rudiment of a terminal filament. This is the rudiment 
of the suspensory thread of the egg. which among a large number 
of eumenids secures the egg to the wall of the cell. After the egg is 
laid, the female remains in the nest, her head being turned toward 
the orifice. She is observed to be absent only for brief periods at 
long intervals, no doubt leaving in search of food. She does not, 


516 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


however, bring back any prey, nor undertake any provisioning of the 
nest. It is only when the larva is hatched that the wasp begins to 
hunt in a more active manner. She comes and goes incessantly, re- 
maining about the nest only a very short time at repeated intervals. 
In this respect the habits of our Synagris are entirely different, not 
only from those of the two preceding species, but also from all that 
is known relative to the eumenids. In examining nests several times 
shortly after the return of the female—which never appeared to 
carry living prey in her mandibles—I always found them without 
provisions of any kind. Whatever might be the age and stage of 
development of the larva, which lay on its back at the bottom of the 
cell, it never appeared to have any caterpillars at its disposal. Fur- 
thermore, no remains of a previous repast were found, either head 
parts of caterpillars previously devoured, or excrements of paralyzed 
caterpillars, such as were always to be seen in the cells of other species 
of Synagris. One is led to conclude that S. cornuta forms a re- 
markable exception among solitary wasps as regards its habits, in 
that it nourishes its larve from day to day, without storing provision 
for them, and doubtless in a very special manner. 

By observing more closely the goings and comings of these wasps 
I secured the key to the problem. A nest easy of access was ex- 
amined at the moment when the mother Synagris left a cell. I ex- 
amined carefully the contents of the cell and found therein, as 
usual, no trace of eaterpillars. The larva of the Synagris lay at 
the bottom of the cell. I grasped it lightly by the aid of pincers, 
and after having confirmed the fact that it showed no trace of food 
I replaced it in its normal position. Ten minutes later the wasp 
returned, flying rapidly, and entered the nest. After waiting some 
moments I forced it to leave the spot and then saw, deposited on the 
thorax of the larva, on the lower surface near the mouth, a little 
food mass of a green color and of semifluid consistency, which the 
larva ate greedily. Looking a little closer, I saw that this food con- 
sisted entirely of the rudely worked-up body of a caterpillar. 

The manifestation of the feeding instinct of this solitary wasp 
proves to be entirely different from the stage at which it has arrived 
in the other two species of Synagris. S. cornuta nourishes its larva 
from day to day with caterpillars ground up into a paste which it 
places close to the mouth of its offspring in the manner so well known 
among the social wasps. 

Thus we find in this species no trace of the primitive provisioning 
instinct of the solitary wasps. By a sudden leap, we pass to a mode 
of rearing the larve greatly more advanced, which indicates on the 
part of this species a maternal care that reveals itself only in a very 
indifferent and primitive form in Synagris sicheliana, 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—-ROUBAUD. 5L¢ 


The nutritive paste is deposited by the mother wasp on the ventral 
surface of the thoracic segments of the larva. <A slight movement of 
the head suffices to enable it to reach the food. The larva lies on its 
back in the cell, and the form of its body, which is more sharply 
curved than that of the species of Synagris (pl. 4, fig. 1), helps to 
facilitate the contact of the mouth with the food. 

The solicitude of the mother Synagris for her offspring is very 
great. She goes almost constantly in pursuit of food, which the larva 
devours at once. During the day her hours of rest are few, for the 
growth of the larva is rapid and its appetite insatiable. Hence one 
sees the female at the nest only at short intervals. She brings food, 
deposits it in the proper place, remains a few moments engaged in 
caring for the larva, with the hind part of the body directed outward, 
turns around, and leaves the nest once more. While she distributes 
the food she does not appear to manifest her agitation and concern by 
strokes of the wings, as Jcaria or Belonogaster do when giving food 
to their young. 

Nothing from without shows the nature of the occupation of the 
Synagris when she provides for the needs of her larva. The absences 
of the female when the larva is full grown are of frequent occurrence 
but short duration. The extent of her wanderings and the radius of 
her pursuit of prey must therefore be quite limited. During rare 
moments of rest and at night the wasp remains in her cell with her 
head turned outward, guarding her young. 

It would be interesting to know how the Synagris kills the cater- 
pillars which she distributes to her larva, what use she makes of her 
sting, and the primitive practice of paralyzing the prey. I was not 
able to solve these questions. As to the nature of the caterpillars 
which she captures, it is difficult to determine the species from the 
food paste itself. However, as far as I was able to judge from the 
form of certain parts of the anal region still recognizable, as well as 
from the green color of the mass, they are probably skippers (Hes- 
peridee), like those chosen by the other species of Synagris. 

When the female has decided that the growth of the larva is fin- 
ished, she walls up the orifice of the cell with earth, and, ceasing 
thereafter to occupy herself with the prisoner, thinks immediately 
of the offspring which should succeed him. She goes back to the 
original work of mason and builds at the side of the closed cell a 
new one of the same type, which is immediately joined to the former. 
Afterwards a secondary coating is used to consolidate the whole 
structure, especially if the cells are already numerous. Their indi- 
viduality is thus obscured. 

The new larva which hatches in this cell is nourished in the same 
manner as before. In the meanwhile the preceding larva, in his 
walled-up cell, after remaining inactive for some days, covers the 


518 ‘ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


earthen walls with a thin layer of silk and becomes transformed into 
a pupa. 

At the time when the cell is closed and when, consequently, the 
feeding of the larva terminates, the latter does not appear to have 
entirely lost its desire for food. It devours eagerly all the animal 
prey which is offered to it. This makes it necessary to conclude that 
the mother wasp has a special instinct which leads her to suspend the 
alimentary functions of the larva at the proper time. We shall see 
presently, indeed, that under certain circumstances she herself delays 
the closing of the cell and prolongs for a considerable time the rear- 
ing of a single larva. The insect is informed by a very special in- 
stinct of the time when she should wean her offspring. 

Under ordinary conditions about a month is required by S. cornuta 
to rear her larva from the egg to the closing of the cell in which it is 
contained. Thus, at Brazzaville my assistant, Mr. Weiss, determined 
the presence of an egg in a newly made cell on October 29, but it 
was only on November 26 that the female began to close the orifice 
of this compartment, having finished the feeding of her larva. I do 
not know the amount of time which it is necessary to deduct for the 
development of the egg in order to arrive at the exact duration of 
the larval life to the end of feeding. This period should, moreover, 
vary a good deal according to the abundance of the nourishment 
which the larva receives. Nests of four cells are frequently found 
in which the first three cells are walled up, while the female has al- 
ready begun the rearing of a fourth larva and no hatching of the 
adult has yet taken place. Since as it is necessary to count 20 days 
from the closing of the cell to the hatching of the adult there is rea- 
son to believe that the larval growth was very rapid in such cases, as 
the three larvee were reared before the end of the period. 

At the laboratory of the commission at Brazzaville, I followed 
the history of a nest which was begun under my eye at the begin- 
ning of July. This nest, which was built by a young female, was 
limited to a single cell until October 20, when the female decided to 
wall in the larva and begin the construction of the next cell. Dur- 
ing more than three months, therefore, the wasp was occupied in 
nourishing and caring for the same larva. I frequently saw it on the 
nest, assuring itself of the solidity of the cell, and inspecting the sur- 
roundings, evidently concerned by the necessity of walling up the 
first cell and building another to receive the second egg. I found an 
explanation a little later of the exceptional length of this particular 
period of rearing a larva. 

On November 26 I opened the cell, which was closed at this time, 
and found the place of the pupa occupied by a parasitic ichneumon- 


fly. The slow growth of the infested Synagris was thus easily ex-: 


plained. From the facts mentioned, the conclusion must be drawn 


p> cs agai ape a 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—ROUBAUD. 519 


that the female S. cornuta possesses the power of regulating the 
time of laying her eggs or at least of retarding the process consider- 
ably for the benefit of the larva which she nourishes and cares for. 
She devotes herself to it entirely and does not abandon it in spite of 
the slowness of its evolution until she knows that it no longer needs 
her services. 

In this particular case the retardation produced by the parasite in 
the development of the first larva proved fatal to the whole subse- 
quent progeny. The mother Synagris, after having finally walled 
up the first cell, commenced the construction of the second nearly 
three and a half months after the former. After a day of toil she dis- 
appeared and did not return. It is probable that she perished 
through accident and with her all the future line. This was the in- 
direct result of the action of the parasitic ichneumon-fly on the first 
larva, which occupied uselessly in its behalf the greater part of the 
life of the female. 

It is possible, of course, that the latter, warned by the presence of 
the parasite, summoned courage to begin a new nest elsewhere, but 
the fact that she had commenced to build a second cell (at the origi- 
nal nest) renders this hypothesis improbable. 

The duration of the pupal stage in S. cornuta is approximately a 
fortnight. From one cell, which was closed on December 13, an 
adult emerged on January 5—after 23 days. It is necessary to 
deduct from this period the time necessary for the larva to spin its 
cocoon and transform itself into a pupa, which may be reckoned 
as about a week. In order to escape from its prison of earth the 
adult Synagris moistens with saliva, in the usual manner, the ball of 
earth which closed the cell, and the latter, softened immediately by 
absorption, yields at once to the pressure of the captive wasp. 

The males.—¥ollowing in this respect the habits of other Hymen- 
optera, the males of Synagris cornuta take no part in the protection 
or construction of the nest or in the rearing of the young, notwith- 
standing the threatening armor of their mandibles. However, they 
do not remain entirely ignorant of what passes; they inspect the 
young and visit them daily. Under the roof of a hut at Brazzaville 
Mr. Weiss and I noticed several nests of Synagris fixed in different 
places and sufficiently difficult to find to require search for some 
moments in spite of certain indications. One day I noticed a large 
male of this species which flew about slowly, examining the nests 
successively, moving with certainty and without any hesitation 
toward each of them as if it had known for a long time the exact 
location of each. It stopped for a moment on a nest, disregarding 
the open cells and touching and examining preferably the cells still 
walled up, which contained pupe. This male evidently came to 
watch the emergence of the young females, and the exact. knowledge 


520 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


which he possessed of the distribution of the nests leads one to be- 
lieve that he came out of one of them and returned frequently to 
the place of his birth. At my suggestion, Mr. Weiss caught this 
male and in order to recognize him removed his left posterior tarsus. 
Then he was set at liberty again. For some days the insect, doubt- 
less because frightened, did not reappear, but the following week he 
was captured agzin just as he was returning to make his usual in- 
spection. It may be said, therefore—and this is a character which 
distinguishes this species from all other eumenids—that the males 
of Synagris cornuta are not entirely indifferent to the work of the 
females; that they know all the nests that are to be found in a given 
area; and that they visit them regularly, doubtless for the purpose 
of seizing the females when they emerge. Except for these brief 
visits, the males are never seen about the nests. They wander at will 
outside of habitations in the bush and build no shelter for themselves. 

When two males meet on the same nest they attack each other with 
open jaws, repel each other with their large pincers, and strive to 
thrust one another away. The first comer usually maintains the 
advantage. It is principally for this that the formidable pincers, 
which are developed on the mandibles, as in the stag beetles, seem to 
serve. They are probably secondary sexual characters rather than 
real organs of attack and defense developed by sexual selection, 
which give those who have them an authority over the nests, and 
consequently possession of the young females. It is probable, also, 
that they play some réle in copulation. Nothing is more variable 
among the individuals reared in the same nest than the size and 
form of these large pincers. Some males are entirely without them; 
others have them narrow and short, but very sharp; while in others 
again they reach extraordinary dimensions and are provided with a 
blunt tooth near the middle. They represent a sexual character 
which is not yet fixed, over which hovers the mysterious phenomenon 
of variation. 

It is well to remark that this section of the genus Synagris, which 
is very sharply differentiated from the others by the form of the 
mandibles in the males, is also completely separated by these bio- 
logical characters. It is extremely probable that the mode of feeding 
the larve with fragments, which is exhibited by S. cornuta, occurs 
among the other species of the same group. Viscount du Buysson 
(1909) has quite recently made known a nest of S. didieri, a new 
species from the Congo, which belongs to the section of S. cornuta L. 
and S. proserpina Grib. This nest is precisely like that of S. cornuta. 
From one of the compartments Mr. Didier extracted a larva which 
was isolated in its cell without any débris of caterpillars which had 
served as food around it, such as are always found in the case of those 
forms which do not feed their young with fragments. It may be 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—ROUBAUD. 521 


affirmed, in my opinion, without hesitation, that this species is bio- 
logically of the same group as S. cornuta L. 

Evolution of instinct among the solitary wasps.—The biological 
history of the species of Synagris permits us to see, within the limits 
of a single genus, instinct developing from the provisioning in mass 
characteristic of the ordinary type of eumenids to continuous pro- 
visioning, and finally to the feeding of the larve from day to day 
after the mode of the wasps which live in colonies. We find com- 
bined in a singular manner in the same type of wasps the principal 
steps which lead from the primitive instinct of the solitary wasps to 
the much more perfected instinct of the social wasps. 

By reason of the facts which we have brought forward, it should 
not be thought that the habit of nourishing the larve from day to 
day on caterpillars ground into a mass, which is customary among 
the social wasps, may represent a primitive mode of provisioning 
peculiar to wasps which do not know how to make use of the sting 
to paralyze their prey. It is, on the contrary, manifestly a modi- 
fied form of the instinct of provisioning found among the wasps 
that paralyze their prey which forms a complete substitute for these 
hereditary habits, while at the same time maternal attachment and 
caring for the progeny are developed. 

This conception is a little different from that of Bouvier (1901), 
who regarded the habits of the social wasps and the solitary wasps 
as derived from a common source, this source being a species with the 
habits of Monedula punctata, which kills its prey without paralyzing 
it and provisions its nest continuously from day to day. Hence, the 
habits of these wasps are to be regarded as having developed in two 
different directions, the social wasps preserving the habit of killing 
their prey and provisioning the nest continuously (with slight modi- 
fications), the solitary wasps acquiring, on the contrary, with the 
habit of paralyzing their victims, the possibility of provisioning the 
nest all at one time. The evolution of instinct in Synagris, which we 
have been able to follow, leads to different conceptions as regards the 
wasps. Feeding the young by mouthfuls with caterpillars ground up 
into a paste represents the last term of an evolution of the rearing 
instinct the initial form of which is a slow, progressive, and continu- 
ous provisioning with paralyzed prey, which permits the mother 
wasp herself to watch the growth of her offspring. 

In the mode of rearing the larva so highly perfected in S. cornuta 
may be seen the direct bond of union between the solitary wasps and 
the social wasps. To understand how the final stage of evolution 
is reached by the latter it is only necessary to observe the colonizing 
tendencies among the solitary wasps, which employ continuous pro- 
visioning and nourishing their young by mouthfuls. We have already 
noted in Synagris sicheliana the association of nests, which is also 


522 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


frequently found in S. cornuta. One may be permitted to see in 
these aggregations the beginnings of association in colonies, such 
as different authors have observed; for example, in Polistes (Mar- 
chal, 1900; Ferton, 1901). It is difficult to say whether these asso- 
ciations are purely and entirely due to chance; whether the different 
grouped nests are made by individuals which are strangers to one 
another; or whether they are not rather made by individuals from a 
single nest which build their cells in proximity to those in which they 
are born. Lf this hypothesis has not yet been directly verified, it has 
at least the appearance of great probability. One may advance in 
its favor the instinct of knowledge of places which leads the males of 
S. cornuta, for example, to return frequently to the same nests and 
watch them closely. It may be asked why it is not the same as re- 
gards the females, and whether they may not possess some tendencies 
to build by preference in the vicinity of the nests in which they were 
born. We firmly believe that such is the fact, and that certain of 
these associations may be interpreted as the first step in the evolution 
of the instincts of the solitary wasps in the direction of those of the 
social wasps. 

Parasites of Synagris——The nests of Synagris may be invaded by 
different insects, some merely commensals which use only the cells 
of old nests in which in their turn to rear their young; others, genu- 
ine enemies that seek the larve of Synagris in order to prey on 
them. The usual commensals of the nests of Synagrvis are sometimes 
solitary bees of the genera Megachile, Osmia, etc.; sometimes spider- 
wasps (Pompilide). The majority of old nests are occupied by 
these hymenoptera, sometimes isolated, sometimes associated in the 
same nest. Occasionally the nest of the spider-wasps is made on the 
cells previously occupied by the solitary bees. 

One of the most formidable parasites of Synagris is an ichneumon- 
fly, Osprynchotus flavipes Brullé. This insect has a wide distribu- 
tion in Africa. The Museum of Paris contains specimens of it from 
Dakar, Casamance, Mozambique, British East Africa, the Gaboon, 
and the valley of the Zambezi. The larve of this ichneumon-fly 
(pl. 4, fig. 2) infest those of several species of Synagris. I have ob- 
tained them from 8S. cornuta and S. sicheliana. It is probable that 
they attack all the species. We have called attention above to the 
disastrous effects as regards the development of the whole of the 
later progeny of the wasps, due to the attack of Osprynchotus on 
the first larva in a nest of S. cornuta. The great retardation which 
resulted in the development of the parasitized larva delayed the 
building of new cells and prevented the mother wasp, which was 
entirely devoted to her fated offspring, from rearing new larvae, 
that might perhaps have escaped the parasite. Thus, the very per- 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—ROUBAUD. 523 


fection of this maternal instinct, so highly developed in the species of 
Synagris of the group to which cornuta belongs, in this instance 
spread the inauspicious influence of an isolated case of parasitism 
over the whole nest, with disasterous results. 

In Synagris cornuta the instinct, though so much perfected, is 
inferior, from this point of view at least, as compared with that of 
the other species which do not follow the practice of feeding the 
larvee from day to day in a manner so complete and exclusive. On 
the other hand, the ordinary provisioning, consisting of blindly 
burying the egg in the midst of a quantity of food without care of 
any kind on the part of the mother, also presents, as we have seen, 
other disadvantages. It is an indirect parasitism which in turn 
produces unforeseen effects. The caterpillars employed for provi- 
sioning may be infested by Tachina-flies, and hence unavailable as 
food for the larva of the Synagris, which is condemned to perish, not- 
withstanding the deceptive mass of provisions with which it is sur- 
rounded. 

Another parasite, less common than the last, which has thus far 
been observed only in the nests of S. cornuta, is a magnificent species 
of beetle of the family Rhipiphoride, which is also a mortal enemy 
of the larve of this wasp. At present I do not know at what time 
it penetrates into the cell and begins to attack its prey. Probably 
it waits until the wasp walls up the cell and feeds on its host only 
when the latter has ceased to have recourse to the maternal care. 

Finally, the adults themselves may be parasitized by the larve of 
Chalcis-flies (small parasitic hymenoptera). I observed at Brazza- 
ville for more than three months a female of Synagris cornuta be- 
longing to a nest consisting of a single cell, which remained in its 
nest without laying eggs, until one day I saw emerge from the ex- 
tremity of the abdomen, which extended outside the nest, a small 
white active larva. A few moments later another larva appeared, 
and, like the preceding one, dropped to the ground. I then captured 
the Synagris and discovered by dissection that the whole body cavity 
was infested by small larve similar to the first ones, which were 
doubtless prepared to escape by perforating the articular membrane 
of the posterior segments. These larve (pl. 4, fig. 3) were charac- 
terized by the presence of four pairs of retractile pseudopods on seg- 
ments 5 to 8 of the body. I was unable to ascertain the adult form. 
The larve were transformed into pupe in a small cocoon soon after 
leaving the body of the host, but they did not emerge. 

A noteworthy fact in this instance was the sterility of the parasi- 
tized wasp. It was observed to be incapable of laying eggs, and dis- 
section showed that the ovaries remained in a state of immaturity. 
This was a clear case of parasitic castration. No doubt other para- 


524 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


sites of Synagris also exist, and one may expect to ascertain very 
interesting facts regarding their life history. It would be desirable 
to extend the study, which is scarcely more than begun, as well as 
to confirm the history of the different species of these solitary wasps. 
The brief researches which I was able to make during my stay in the 
Congo lead me to hope for considerable discoveries in the future in 
connection with this subject. I shall be happy to have turned in this 
direction the efforts of African naturalists. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY, 


ANnpRE, EH. Sur quelques Vespides africains nouveaux ou peu connus. Revue 
d’Entomologie, Vol. 14, 1895, p. 352. 

Bouvier, E. L. Les habitudes des Bembex (monographie biologique). Année 
Psychologique, 1900. 

4UYSSON, R. Du. Monographie des Guépes ou Vespa. Bull. Soc. entom. de 
France, Vol. 72, 1903. 

Id. WHyménoptéres nouveaux. Revue d’Entomologie, 1909, pp. 207-219. 

DaLLaA Torre, C. G. DE, Catalogus Hymenopterorum, Vol. 9. 

Fapsre, J. H. Nouveaux souvenirs entomologiques, 2° série, Paris, 1882. 

Frerton, CH. Notes détachées sur Vinstinct des Hyménoptéres melliféres et 
ravisseurs, 1*° série. Ann. Soc. entom. France, Vol. 70, 1901. 

Id. Notes détachées sur Vinstinct des Hyménoptéres melliféres et ravisseurs, 
2° série. Ann. Soc. entom. France, Vol. 71, 1902. 

LATREILLE. Hist. naturelle crust. et insectes, 1802, Vol. 3. 

Marnpron, M. Moniteur du Sénégal et Dépendances, April 15, 1879. 

Marcuat, P. Observations sur les Polistes. Bull. Soe. zool. France, Vol. 21, 
pp. 15-21, 1896. 

RovusaubD, HE. Recherches sur la Biologie des Guépes solitaires d’Afrique du 
genre Synagris. Comptes rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, No. 16. 1908, 
p. 696. 

SaussuRE, H. pr. Mélanges hyménoptérlogiques. Mém. Soc. Phys. et Hist. 
nat. Genéye, Vol. 17, 1863. 

Id. Etude Fam. Vespides, I, Euménides, 1852. 


EXPLANATION OF PLATES. 


PLATE 1. 


Fic. 1. Nest of Synagris sicheliana Sauss. <A nest of five cells. Brazzaville. 


BH. Roubaud. 

2. Nest of S. calida L. Mozambique, Guengére. G. Vasse, 1906, Museum of 
Paris. 

3. Nest of S. sicheliana Sauss. A nest of three cells. Brazzaville. EH. 
Roubaud. 


4. Nest of 8S. calida L. French Congo, Fort Sibut, Krébédjé. A. Chevalier, 
Mission Chari-Tchad, Museum of Paris. 


PLawrE 2: 


Associated nests of S. sicheliana Sauss. Threenests. Brazzaville. E. Roubaud 
and A. Weiss. 


Fig. 1. 


Fic. 1. 


Hm oo bo 


o 


SOLITARY WASPS OF GENUS SYNAGRIS—ROUBAUD. 595 
PEATE 3. 


Nest of S. comuta L. A nest of three cells, the binding cement of which 
has been partially destroyed by commensals after completion. 


. Initial cell of S. cornuta L. Congo, forest of Ababouas, valley of the 


Roubi. Mission of Bourg de Bozas, L. Didier, 1903. Museum of 
Paris. 


. Linear nest of four cells, of the same species. Brazzaville. HE. Roubaud. 
. Complete nest, with cells superimposed, of the same species. Brazza- 


ville. EH. Roubaud. 
PLATE 4. 


Full-grown larva of S. cornuta L. and its food-paste. X 5. 


. Larva of Osprynchotus flavipes Brullé. X 5. 
. Larva of the Chalcidid parasite of S. cornuta L. 
. Larva of S. calida L. X 5. 


Hgg of S. calida, X 5, 


Sailiea ug A aa Pat ea? 
Poly, 30. ira ee: ota 
sae 7 ois M5 4 3atia wl fe ectit oe ote ie 
Ras ee Sling - Satialaday thy Serio: Natio SP wt ; 
. isc tetss air tt>. aia: athtebs ss Yo silane ids ls wnt = 
Bah Soap Sear! sry Dicasie for nnaetonnhas: ae 
\ Te Pee r } Uy » at Lee, aan 7 
Paes. ny Ma my wd * Ph eds res “a 1. apaione 0 Ma ee i 4 ia nile. a0 


= : AS fi ta ys al SOK ‘ OE if uh out, Ip. fh rv ate hie. “atlas 1Giw . 

io ws be Stl Onis: 

~ 7 , egos baadiot 3 2a 
: ; de otras bh alae ies 


e} tiny of 7 yt ‘a. ‘| 7 \ y . 
F ste ¥ STOOL BIE at. 7 HITS ty ny tal AMOS A 
M = i oe he , Pury a ~ 4 - 
; an eeirvet ¢ Hargett vuk AM eED Wie: ; 
ARS aban) 2 Tv atlapery bi lis Koss ? es bis} ST 
| RTS a 
: oo ao A Pics 2 
beta, a. Jt 6: eam 
<a J 
7 7 ee 
* Th 
. 
, 
x, it 
.Y 
_ 
: ' f £y ace 


Tp = — on =~ 5 * - ie We a ye ae | 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Roubaud. 


HISTORY OF SOLITARY WASPS. 


FOR EXPLANATION OF PLATE SEE PAGE 524, 


RiFAmmEaalle 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Roubaud. PLATE 2: 


History OF SOLITARY WASPS. 


FOR EXPLANATION OF PLATE SEE PAGE 524, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Roubaud. PLATE 3. 


HISTORY OF SOLITARY WASPS, 


FOR EXPLANATION OF PLATE SEE PAGE 525, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Roubaud. PLATE 4. 


ee 


History OF SOLITARY WASPS. 


FOR EXPLANATION OF PLATE SEE PAGE 525. 


A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ECOLOGY OF THE ADULT 
HOATZIN.2 


[With 7 plates. ] 
By C. WILLIAM BEEBE. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The strangeness of life and structure of this bird have made it 
classic in the annals of ornithology, and because of this claim upon 
our interest I offer the present article as a résumé of our present 
knowledge of the habits of the adult hoatzin. We are still ignorant 
of a considerable part of its life history, although there is small 
excuse for this, as the bird is sedentary, abundant wherever found, 
and tame to an absurd degree. 

I have had two brief opportunities for observing this species in 
life, once in March, 1908, on the Guarapiche River in northeastern 
Venezuela, and again in April, 1909, on the Abary River, British 
Guiana. On neither occasion were young birds to be found, so my 
notes refer solely to the adults. 

Although it is not my intention to discuss the anatomy of the 
hoatzin, mention may be made of certain peculiarities which exert 
an important influence upon its habits and activities. 

The crop of this bird is unique in having assumed the structure 
and importance of the gizzard in other birds. It has increased greatly 
in size, measuring, when well filled with food, about 2% inches in 
diameter. The walls, instead of being flabby and glandular, are 
thick and muscular. This increase in the size of an organ situated 
far forward in the body has resulted in a reduction of the front 
part of the keel of the sternum, a condition unique among birds. In 
reducing the area of attachment for the pectoral muscles this change 
has radically affected the power of flight. 

In spite of this specialization, there is no doubt that the hoatzin 
is an extremely ancient and isolated type, and it has very properly 
been set aside in a separate order by itself—Opisthocomiformes (43). 
Combining, as it does, the characters of several orders, it is impos- 


i1Reprinted by permission, after author’s revision, from Zoologica; Scientific Contri- 
butions of the New York Zoological Society, Vol. I, Nos. 2, 3, Dec. 28, 1909, pp. 45-66. 


527 


528 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


sible to indicate its correct position in a linear classification. In such 
artificial, two-plane, genealogical trees it has been variously placed 
between the game birds and the rails; between the pigeons and the 
rails; while it has certain affinities with the plantain eaters, and the 
vestigial claw on the third digit links it with the primitive Archae- 
opteryx. 

Another claim to a primitive condition is found in the quadrupedal 
habits of the young. These, by means of unusually developed fore 
limb and fingers, and external claws on the first and second fingers, 
are able to climb actively about the bushes. They also swim and 
dive well. 

HISTORY. 


More than 250 years ago Hernandez, in his Nova Plantarum, Ani- 
malium et Mineralium Mexicanorum Historia (22), makes the first 
authentic mention of the hoatzin, writing in Latin as follows: 


The hoatzin, a bird uttering a curious note, sounding like its name. 

This is a bird of about the size of an Indian fowl. Its beak is curved; its 
breast shades from white to buff; its wings and tail are spotted with white 
at intervals of a thumb’s length; the back of the upper part of its neck is 
yellow, shading into blackish on both sides and sometimes extending as far as 
the beak and eyes; the claws are black and the legs blackish. The bird bears 
a sturdy crest of feathers, varying from white to yellowish, the back of each 
feather, however, being black. The bird subsists upon snakes. It has a power- 
ful voice, which resembles a howling or wailing sound. It is heard in the 
autumn and is held inauspicious by the natives. 

The bones of this bird relieve the pain of wounds in any part of the human 
body; the odor of the plumage restores hope to those who, from disease, are 
steadily wasting away. The ashes of the feathers when devoured relieve the 
gallic sickness, acting in a wonderful manner. 

The bird lives in warm regions, such as Yauhtepeceusis, generally establish- 
ing itself in trees growing along the banks of the streams, where we, having 
observed it, captured it, and making a drawing of it, kept it alive. 

With the exception of the description, which is fairly accurate, this 
quotation is interesting chiefly because of its characteristically medie- 
val superstition. 

One hundred years after the account of Hernandez, Brisson (11) 
wrote a vague and plagiarized description of the New World bird 
which he called Le Hocco Brun de Mexique (Craw fuscus mexicanus). 
He said: 

It is nearly as large as a female turkey. Its head bears a crest composed of 
feathers which are yellowish-white above and black below. The sides of the 
head, the upper part of the neck and back are reddish-brown. The breast is 
yellowish-white. The wings and tail are varied with white and yellow, and 
that by spots of a thumb’s length. The feet are brown and the claws black. 
It feeds on serpents. It is found in Mexico, and chiefly in the hottest parts. 
It perches on the trees which are found along the rivers. 

The final sentence is admirable, but as the bird is a vegetarian and 
is not found in Mexico, and as Brisson seemed rather color blind, 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 529 


little can be said as to the remainder of the quotation, which I offer 
merely from the interest attaching to very early accounts. 

As in the above instance, the inaccuracies of the pioneer ornitho- 

logist Hernandez have been repeated, and, indeed, enlarged upon by 
succeeding authors. Thus Latham (26) 23 years later informs us 
that the “ Crested pheasant.” inhabits— 
Mexico and parts adjacent, where it feeds on snakes; makes a howling kind 
of noise, and is found in trees near rivers; is accounted an unlucky bird. Met 
with chiefly in the autumn, and is said to pronounce a sound not unlike the 
word “ Hoactzin.” We learn from others that it may be domesticated, and is 
seen in that state among the natives; and further that it feeds on ants, worms, 
and other insects, as well as snakes. 

In 1819, about 60 years after Brisson’s account, Stephens (47) 
vouchsafes the following information concerning the “ Hoatzin 
serpent eater ”: 

It inhabits Guiana, and is found on trees near rivers; its food consists of 
grains and seeds; it will also eat insects and serpents; it has a howling, dis- 
agreeable note; its flesh has a very disagreeable smell (probably caused by 
the quality of its food) and is consequently not eaten, but is used by the 
fishermen to catch certain fishes. 

Even the writings of recent observers on the spot, with every op- 
portunity for good observation, are in some instances totally mislead- 
ing. For example, Penard (34) tells us that hoatzins run rapidly on 
the ground, swim well, and “leven in groote troepen van honderden 
individuen.” 

NAME. 


Miiller (28) called the bird Phasianus hoazin, and although it was 
soon removed from that genus, his specific name still stands accepted. 
The name hoatzin, hoazin, or hoactzin, as it is variously spelled, re- 
fers to Hernandez’s (22) account, of which Buffon (13) says: 


Its voice is very strong, and it is less a cry than a howl. It is said that it 
pronounces its name (hoatzin) apparently in a sad and mournful tone. It is 
no longer necessary to make it pass with the common people for a bird of ill 
omen; and since everywhere a great deal of power is assigned to that which is 
feared, the same people have thought to find in it remedies for the gravest 
maladies. But it is not said that they feed themselves on it. They abstain 
from it in fact, perhaps as a result of the same fear, or because of a repugnance 
founded on the fact that it makes its ordinary food of serpents. It stays usu- 
ally in the great forests, perched on the trees along the water, for watching and 
surprising these reptiles. It is found in the hottest parts of Mexico. Hernan- 
dez adds that it appears in autumn, so that it is a migratory bird. Mr. Aublet 
assures me that these birds become tame; that they are sometimes seen in cap- 
tivity in the houses of the Indians; and that Francois called them peafowl. 
They feed their young on ants, worms, and other insects. 


Much of the charm of this wholly inaccurate and altogether 
delightful account is lost in the translation from Buffon’s native 
tongue. | 

97578°—sm 1910-——34 


530 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The present generic name Opisthocomus was given by Stephens 
(47), referring to the long, waving crest; dzofd-xo“oc, wearing the 
hair long behind, or literally, having hair behind. (ézco6ev, behind, 
+xépn, the hair.) 

Tgnoring the various bizarre appellations given to this species by 
writers of the last century, we may review the common names in 
use to-day. 

Quelch (38) writes 20 years ago: “ The hoatzin is known in British 
Guiana by the various names ‘Anna,’ ‘ Hanna, ‘Canje’ or ‘ Stinking 
pheasant,’ and ‘Governor Battenberg’s turkeys’; but in the dis- 
tricts where it is found the name ‘ Hannah’ is the one most commonly 
used.” In a recent trip to the above-mentioned colony I heard only 
the name “ Canje pheasant ” used; although I discussed the subject 
with people of many classes. 


2 


la 


k 
3 
5 
Is 


Hh 


Se 
co iby 


crabamba 7 


“pe, 3 
o A se 
nmaagA ML - 
1 Sy SESUCRE OR 


Potosi ey Ne 


q Emirs 


Fic. 1.—Distribution of the hoatzin, as far as known. 


Among the Portuguese of Brazil the hoatzin is called Cigana, 
meaning gypsy, and Catingueiro, signifying odor of the negro. 
The Dutch of Cayenne speak of these birds as Canje Fazanten, while 
the more euphonious name of the Venezuelans is Guacharacas de 
Aqua. They also call it Chinchena, while in Bolivia the hoatzin 
is known as Loco, or crazy bird. 


DISTRIBUTION. 


The little we know of its distribution shows that the hoatzin is as 
remarkable in this respect as in other phases of its life history. 
Sharpe (45) gives its range as follows: Amazonia, Guiana, Colombia, 
Ecuador, Peru, and Boliva. This is very misleading, however, for 
certain factors enter into the question of inhabitable territory which 
require more detailed reference. 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 531 


Penard (34), writing of the birds of Dutch Guiana, gives as the 
local distribution of the hoatzin, “ Wouden en terreinen waar Arwm 
arborescens groeit.” This is certainly not true as regards British 
Guiana. The great heart-shaped leaves of that Arum are seen along 
the lower reaches of every coastal river, yet the hoatzins are confined 
to three streams, two of which are little more than creeks, in the 
extreme eastern portion of the colony. These are the Berbice, the 
Canje, and the Abary Rivers. 

On the Abary one has to ascend about 20 miles from the coast 
before hoatzins are seen, and from here on they are scattered at 
irregular intervals for 8 or 10 miles, confined exclusively to the 
fringe of bushes on the windward side of the creek. So when we read 
that the hoatzin inhabits British Guiana, instead of thinking of it 
as a bird of strong flight, which traverses savannas and forests, we 
must realize that it is to be found in only the merest fraction of 
the colony. 

Taking again the large area drained by the rivers just north of the 
Orinoco delta, one finds hoatzins absent except on the Rio Guara- 
piche, beginning 2 miles below the village of Cafio Colorado. 

I append a list of the localities from which hoatzins have been 
recorded. Their isolated character, while doubtless reflecting our 
faulty and inadequate knowledge, hints also of the remarkably 
sporadic occurrence of these birds: 

Colombia: Bogota, Sclater (40). 
Heuador: Rio Copataza, C. Buckley. 
Peru: 
Cashiboya, Scl. & Sal. (42). 
Yquitos, Berlepsch (7). 
Bolivia: Lower Beni River, Allen (1). 
Venezuela : 
Cano del Toro, Hornaday (23). 
Orinoco from the delta to Rio Meta, Cherrie (16). 
Aqua Salada, Cherrie (16). 
Angostura, Berlepsch (7). 
Caicara, Berlepsch and Hartert (9). 
Guarapiche River, Beebe (5). 
Rio Guanare, Bingham (10). 
British Guiana : 
Estuary of Berbice, Brown (12). 
Berbice, Sclater (41), Quelch (38). - 
Abary Creek, Quelch (87), Beebe (6). 
Dutch Guiana: 
Maroni River, Perrin (35). 
Indefinite, Penard (34). 
French Guiana: Approuague, Berlepsch (8). 
Brazil: 
The hoatzin seems to be abundant locally “in the marshy regions which 
border the Amazon and its tributaries,’ Goeldi (20). 
Para, Amazon, Rio Negro, Rio Solimoens, Astlett (2). 


oon ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Brazil—Continued. 
Amazona inferior, Est. do Amazonias, Rio Jurua, von Ihering (25). 
Santarem, Pelzen (83). 
Lower Rio Capim, Goeldi (21). 
Obidos, Sclater. 
Marajo Island, Rio Anabiju, Bingham. 

The lower Amazon may thus be considered as a center of distribu- 
tion from which the birds have slowly extended northward into the 
Guianas and the Orinoco region, northwest to Colombia, west to 
Ecuador and Peru, southwest to Bolivia, and south to the various 
tributaries of this greatest of rivers. Not one of these localities is 
separated by a real watershed, and all are in communication with the 
Amazon either by direct tributaries or by marshy itabos, or river 
joiners. 

GENERAL APPEARANCE. 


As far as general appearance goes, the name “ pheasant ” 1s not far 
amiss when applied to the hoatzin. It comes closest in general aspect 
to the chachalacas, but there is some- 
thing strongly suggestive of a peacock, 
especially in the carriage of the neck 
and head. This is well shown in the 
positions of some of the individuals in 
plate 3. 

My descriptions are based on 15 adult 
hoatzins from the following localities: 
Ciudad Bolivar (9), Guarapiche (1), 
Bogata (1), Bolivia (1), Peru (1), 
Amazon (1), Abary, British Guiana (1). 

There is apparently no distinguishing sexual character and re- 
markably little variation in size. However, the bird which I col- 
lected in the Guarapiche, although adult, is distinct from all the 
others in color; and if these characters should be found to be constant 
in other individuals the birds in this isolated locality would form a 
distinct subspecies. 

The beak of the hoatzin is peculiar in shape, and a better idea can 
be obtained from the outline drawing than from the description 
alone. The mandibles are deep and wide, the average measurements 
of 15°>specimens being as follows: culmen, 29 millimeters; depth of 
mandibles at gape, 22 millimeters; width at gape, 19 millimeters. 
The striking character of the mandible is the shortness of the gonys, 
this being only about 9 millimeters, or one-fifth of the total length of 
the mandibles. The mandibles are slaty olive, lighter on the edges. 
The nostrils are round and placed about midway between the eye and 
the point of the beak. The sides of the head are almost bare, being 
covered only with a very scanty growth of black, bristlelike feathers 
on cheeks, ears, and lores. Two rows of these function as eyelashes. 


at 


Fic. 2. Beak of hoatzin. 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 533 


The bare skin about the eyes is Nile blue in color, shading into cobalt 
on the other unfeathered parts of the head. The irides are carmine. 

The bristles on the upper lores point upward, their tips interlock- 
ing on the forehead. Just back of them begins the long waving crest 
which is such a marked character of this species. The crown feathers 
are reddish buff; in those on the occiput the buff darkens and becomes 
a shaft stripe, while the edges and tips of the feathers are black. 
The longest measure about 4 inches. The feathers of the upper 
parts as a whole are dark brown, with a distinct olive-green irides- 
cence. The feathers of the nape and neck have pale, buffy shaft 
stripes, this color changing to white on the mantle. In some speci- 
mens the scapulars sre margined with white. The outer edges of 
the thumb feathers are pale buff, corresponding in shade to the 
feathers of the chin, throat, and breast. Most of the wing coverts 
are tipped more or less broadly with white, forming three distinct 
wing bars. 

The under wing coverts and primaries are of a rich maroon or 
chestnut, this hue being duplicated in the feathers of the sides, belly, 
flanks, and most of the under tail coverts. The tips of the primaries 
are olive green like the back, and the under and upper tail coverts are 
black. The tail consists of 10 feathers, all of which are tipped with a 
broad band of buffy white. 

The hoatzin harmonizes well with its environment, the dark upper 
color and the splashes and streaks of white and buff breaking up its 
body form into sunlight and shadow. When sitting quietly, either 
perching or on its nest, it is extremely difficult to detect, and its fear 
of hawks shows that this concealment may perhaps serve a useful 
purpose. 

The most interesting thing about its coloration is the way the colors 
of the under parts are carried out in the wings. The pale buffy 
cream of the breast has spread, as it were, over the broad wrist edge 
of the wing, and the rich chestnut of the belly has infiltrated through 
the larger flight feathers. It is most difficult to account for this 
correlation of limb and body patterns—a condition found in many 
reptiles and insects—but it seems to emphasize the fact that some 
important environmental factor or cause must be concerned with this 
apparently directive evolution of just such colors being arranged in 
just such patterns on totally different portions of the body. 

When the hoatzin is once alarmed, silhouetted against the sky, 
with wings and tail spread, and crest waving, no more sia jae 
object can be imagined. 

The total length of the hoatzin is about 23 inches, the wing 124, 
the tail 12, tarsus 2, middle toe and claw 3. 

The nels Fee eae already mentioned which I collected on the 
Guarapiche differs from all the other hoatzins I have examined in 


5384 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


having no buff on the crest, this color being replaced by dark reddish 
chestnut; the buffy cream of the breast is darker, while the edges and 
shaft lines of the wing coverts, mantle, and scapulars are buff instead 
of white, and the lower parts instead of maroon are reddish buff. 
The bird is altogether unlike those from other parts of South Amer- 
ica. It is fully adult. 

Summing up the hoatzin as a whole, we have a bird small of body 
with small head, short, curved beak, long, waving crest, and long, 
slender neck. The body plumage is loose and disintegrated, the 
wings and tail large in comparison with the body, and of strong, 
well-knit feathers—all the more remarkable when we consider the 
weak flight, soon to be discussed. 

The shortness and stoutness of the beak may safely be correlated 
with the toughness of its vegetable food. Its short feet rather belie 
their strength, as the bird seems to have little real power in them, 
and is forever balancing itself with wings and tail. 


PARASITES. 


The unpleasant odor which characterizes hoatzins seems to have 
no effect on their insect parasites, and the cheek bristles are often 
encrusted with masses of the eggs of several large species of Mal- 
lophaga. 

No thorough work has been done on the external parasites of this 
bird, but I obtained three species of Mallophaga from the hoatzin 
shot on the Guarapiche River in northeastern Venezuela. Two of 
these insects are new species and I have published their descriptions 
in Zoologica, vol. 1, No. 4. I am indebted for their descriptions, 
and the following most interesting notes, to Dr. Vernon L. Kellogg, 
of Stanford University. 

Concerning the Opisthocomus Mallophaga, Dr. Kellogg says: 


The three species are: 

(1) Goniocotes curtus Nitasch.—Heretofore taken from Opisthocomus and no 
other host. 

(2) Lipeurus, sp. noy.—in the group clypeata sutura distincta, which group 
has been found heretofore only on maritime birds. 

(3) Colpocephalum sp. nov.—An extraordinarily spiny beast, not much like 
anything else in the genus. 

TIT am disappointed in finding these two new species. I hoped to find known 
parasites that might, by their relationship with other parasites, characteristic 
of the pheasants or the rails or some other group of birds, be a clue to the 
indication of your curious bird’s phyletic affinities. 

The one known species of parasite, the Goniocotes, belongs to a group of 
Mallophaga best represented, and most characteristically, on the pheasants. 
But the Lipewrus, although a new species, belongs just as unmistakably with a 
group of Mallophaga characteristic of such birds as boobies, albatrosses, cor- 
morants, frigate birds, pelicans, and such strictly maritime forms. 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 535 
FIELD NOTES IN VENEZUELA, 


The first view which Mrs. Beebe and I had of living hoatzins was 
2 miles up the Rio Guarapiche, in southeastern Venezuela, where 
we found a flock of 8 on March 27, 1908. Farther up we discovered 
3 smaller flocks and later in the day a large assemblage of 25 indi- 
viduals. The natives know them by the name of Guwacharacas de 
Aqua and are well acquainted with the musky odor which emanates 
from their bodies. Being considered totally unfit for food, they are 
never killed and as a result have become extremely unsuspicious. 

_The following notes were written in the field: 

The moment our dugout comes into view the hoatzins announce 
their presence by hoarse, croaking cries; grating and rasping to the 
ear like an unoiled wheel. Then, as we approach, those nearest flop 
or crawl inward through the branches, making a tremendous racket. 
This utterance has been termed a “ hissing screech” by some writers, 
and although a very poor description of the sound, no better one 
comes to mind unless it is a croaking hiss. Buffon (13) tells us “ Its 
voice is very strong, and it is less a ery than a howl.” Quelch (38) 
says “ The cry of the hoatzin is usually heard when they are dis- 
turbed, and it is one of which is not easy to give an exact idea. It 
recalls slightly the shrill screech of the guinea bird (Vumida), but 
it is made up of disjointed utterancesg like the notes heigh and sheigh 
(ei as in sleigh), pronounced with a peculiarly sharp and shrill in- 
tonation, so as to be quite hisslike.” The reckless way of thrashing 
through the undergrowth, and the apparent looseness of wing and 
tail and general carelessness of plumage bring to mind the crazy 
antics of anis, a fact not wholly uninteresting when we recall certain 
hints of cuculine structure in the hoatzin. 

Except during the extreme heat of midday the hoatzins prefer 
conspicuous positions overhanging the water on mangroves or other 
trees, among the foliage of which they roost at night. They appear 
to be extremely sedentary, and day after day we could be sure of 
finding the birds in the same place. We located 9 flocks, ranging 
from a single pair to 42 birds in number, and these seemed never to 
move from their favorite trees except when driven back a few yards 
into the jungle by our intruding canoe. 

In these same trees over the water we found remains of many nests 
in various stages of disintegration. As the number of the nests bore 
a fairly accurate relation to the pairs of birds, and as we saw these 
large, rough platforms of sticks at no other points, circumstantial 
evidence would indicate that the sedentary life of these hoatzins is 
seasonal, if not, indeed, annual. We were told that they nest in 
May and June in this locality. 


536 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


After they flop and clamber a few yards away from the canoe 
they all quiet down, and with waving crests crane their necks at us 
in curiosity from their perches. Each time they utter their grating 
note they raise the tail and wings, spreading both widely. 

We had no opportunity of observing the quadrupedal habits of 
the young hoatzins, but an interesting observation, first noted by 
Mrs. Beebe, was that this finger or handlike use of the wing is present 
in the adults as well. They never fly if they can help it, and even 
when they pass over firm ground seem never to descend to it. But 
their method of arboreal locomotion is to push and flop from branch 
to branch. When the foliage and hanging vines are very thick they 
use their wings, either together or alternately, to push aside the ob- 
struction and to keep themselves from falling until a firm grip has 
been obtained with the toes. This habit is extremely wearing on the 
primary feathers, which become much frayed from friction against 
stems and branches. 

I secured two specimens for the skin and the skeleton, respectively, 
and found them in an interestingly irregular molt. In one (Coll. 
No. 1138) the right third primary and the left fourth, seventh, and 
tenth are about half grown. Im the tail, the next to the outer pair 
and the right central rectrices are in the same stage of growth, while 
blood feathers are scattered here and there over the body. 

The second hoatzin examined’ (Coll. No. 1139) was in a still more 
disheveled condition of plumage. Both wings and tail were badly 
frayed and broken. Instead of the full number of 10 tail feathers 
only 5 were present, 1 of which was half grown. Three blood-filled 
sheaths just appearing above the surface of the skin represented the 
remainder. In the right wing the second, eighth, eighteenth, nine- 
teenth, and twentieth were considerably less than half grown. The 
head, back, and thighs of this individual showed heavy molt, besides 
many growing feathers over the rest of the body. 

The crops of these birds were distended with a finely comminuted 
mass of bright green vegetable matter, the leaves of the mangroves 
and some other river growths. 

In one crop, scales and the remains of a small fish were also present, 
and as we once saw a hoatzin with dripping plumage, creeping from 
the water up a slanting mangrove root, it may be that the adult birds 
retain some of the natatory skill which characterizes the nestlings. 
This, however, is mere conjecture. The scales in this instance were 
those of the little four-eyed fish (Anableps anableps) so common 
about the muddy shores of the Cais. 


FIELD NOTES IN BRITISH GUIANA. 


On April 12, 1909, Mrs. Beebe and I reached a bungalow used as 
the headquarters of a rice plantation, some 20 miles up the Abary 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 537 


River in British Guiana. Through the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. 
Lindley Vinton we obtained permission to remain here several days, 
with excellent opportunities of studying the hoatzins. Three days 
after our arrival Mrs. Beebe had the misfortune to break her arm, 
and we were compelled to leave at once, with only a few notes and 
photographs. These are, however, of sufficient interest to warrant 
publication. 

The Abary River is at this point some 20 yards across, and winds 
through a great treeless savanna marsh in a general north and south 
direction. The east bank is for the most part clear of growth, except 
for the reeds and grasses of the savanna. Along the western bank is 
a dense shrubby or bushy line of vegetation, at times rising to a 
height of 20 or 30 feet or again appearing only 2 or 3 yards above 
the grass and reeds beyond. 

The presence of this bushy vegetation on only one side of the 
river is probably due to the prevailing winds, which blow from the 
east. The bush grows altogether in the water and consists chiefly 
of a species of tall arum, or mucka-mucka as the natives call it, 
frequently bound together by a tangle of delicate vines. Here and 
there is a treelike growth, white barked with entire obtuse leaves. 
This narrow ribbon of aquatic growth is the home of the hoatzins, 
and from one year’s end to another they may be found along the 
same reaches of the river. In general, their habits do not differ from 
those of the birds which we observed in Venezuela. 

Throughout the heat of midday no sight or sound reveals the pres- 
ence of the birds, but as the afternoon wears on a single raucous 
squawk may be heard in the distance, and we know that the hoatzins 
are astir. Directly in front of the bungalow, between it and the 
river, the brush has been cut away on either hand for a distance of 
about 60 yards. Every evening from 4.30 to 5.30 p. m. the hoatzins 
gather on the extreme northern end of this wide break in their line 
of thickets, until sometimes 25 or 30 birds are in sight at once. Some 
fly down to the low branches and begin to tear off pieces of the young 
tender shoots of the mucka-mucka. With much noise and flapping 
of wings several soon make their way to a single bare branch which 
projects over the cleared marsh. 

The first bird makes many false starts, crouching and then losing 
heart, but the next on the branch, getting impatient, nudges him a 
bit, and at last he launches out into the air. With rather slow wing 
beats, but working apparently with all his power, he spans the wide 
expanse of clear bush, then the 10 feet of water, then 15 yards more 
of stumps, and with a final effort he clutches a branch—and his 
goal is reached. After several minutes of breathlessness he makes his 
way out of sight into the depths of the brush. A second hoatzin 
essays the feat, but fails ignominiously, and falls midway, coming 


538 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


down all of a heap among the stumps. Here a rest is taken, and for 
5 or 10 minutes the bird may feed quietly. Then a second flight car- 
ries it back to the starting point or on to the end of the open space. 

Sometimes when the birds alight and clutch a twig they are so 
exhausted that they topple over and hang upside down for a moment. 

Watching the hoatzins carefully with our stereo glasses for several 
evenings in succession, we came to know and distinguish individual 
birds. Two, one of which has a broken feather in the right wing, 
and the other a 2-inch short central tail feather, are excellent flyers, 
and, taking their flapping start from the high branch, never fail to 
make their goal, going the whole distance and alighting easily. All 
of the others have to rest, and one which is molting a feather in each 
wing can achieve only about 10 yards. This one fell one evening into 
the water at the second relay flight and half flopped half swam 
ashore. 

One evening a hoatzin flew toward us and alighted near some hens 
on the ground, but took wing almost instantly back to his brushwood. 
A day or two before we came one of the birds had used a beam of the 
porch as a perch. 

This general shifting occurs at both sunrise and sunset, and is 
apparently always as thorough and noisy as we found it the first 
evening of our stay. For months, we are told, it had been kept up 
as regularly as clockwork. 

In the morning as the sun grows hotter the birds become more 
quiet, and finally disappear, not to be seen or heard again until after- 
noon. They spend the heat of the day sitting on their nests or 
perched on branches in the cooler, deeper recesses of their linear 
jungle. 

The last view of them in the morning, as the heat becomes intense, 
or late in the evening, usually reveals them resting on the branches 
in pairs close together. On moonlight nights, however, they are 
active and noisy, and come into the open to feed. 

The habit of crouching or squatting down on the perch is very 
common with the hoatzins, and it may be due to the weakness of the 
feet and toes. I am inclined, however, to consider it in connection 
with the general awkwardness in alighting and climbing, as a hint of 
the inadaptibility of the large feet to the small size of the twigs and 
branches among which it lives. Inexplicable though it may appear, © 
the hoatzin, although evidently unchanged in many respects through 
long epochs, is far from being perfectly adapted to its present envi- 
ronment. It has a severe struggle for existence, and the least increase 
of any foe or the appearance of any new handicap would result in its 
speedy extinction. 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 5389 
FOOD. 


The hoatzin is unquestionably a vegetarian, and the remains of the 
previously mentioned four-eyed fish in the crop of one of my Venezue- 
- lan specimens must have been evidence of an abnormal diet. 

Examinations of the stomachs of individuals from various locali- 
ties show that two or three species of marshy plants furnish almost 
the entire menu of this bird. One is the mucka-mucka or arum 
(Montrichardia arborescens), a tall plant of spindly growth, with 
large, tough, heart-shaped leaves, and a pineapplelike fruit. The 
leaves, flowers, and fruit are all eaten. 

Hoatzins also feed on the Drepanocarpus lunatus, and, both in 
Guiana and Venezuela, devour the tough leaves of the white man- 
grove (Arvicennia nitida). Bates (3) includes the sour guava 
(Psidium) and “ various wild fruits” in his list of its food. 


NEST AND EGGS. 


At the time of our arrival on the Abary the hoatzins had just 
begun to nest. They were utilizing old nests which, although appar- 
ently so flimsy in construction, yet are remarkably cohesive. The 
nests are almost indistinguishable from those of the “ Chows” or 
Guiana green herons (Butorides striata), which were built in the 
same situations. The latter were usually placed low over the water, 
while the hoatzins were higher, from 5 to 12 feet above the surface 
of the marsh. The twigs were longer and more tightly laced in the 
hoatzins’ nests, and while the herons’ nests crumbled when lifted 
from the crotch, the others remained intact. The hoatzins placed 
their nests in a crotch of the white-barked trees, or more rarely sup- 
ported by several branched mucka-mucka stems. Both sexes assist 
in the building, as we observed two birds collecting and weaving the 
twigs. Three sets of eggs which came under our observation num- 
bered, respectively, 2, 3, and 4. From what information I could 
gather, 2 seems to be the usual number. There is no foundation for 
the assertion that these birds are polygamous. 

There is little accurate data in regard to the date of nesting of 
hoatzins. It is possible that it differs in different places, and that no 
definite limits can be set to cover the species as a whole. 

On the Orinoco, near Ciudad Bolivar, Cherrie (16) records that 
the nesting season extends from early in June until mid-September, 
thus including the height of the rainy season. Quelch (38) in British 
Guiana found the hoatzin nesting from December to July, and thinks 
it “very likely that it is continuous throughout the year.” ; 

In Venezuela the last of March the birds were not nesting, and 
those examined showed no signs of a recent breeding season. In 
mid-April in British Guiana the hoatzins were just beginning to nest. 


are 


540 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The eggs are rather variable in shape. One which I have from the 
Orinoco is elliptical, while my Abary specimens are oval. The 
ground color is creamy white. The entire surface is marked with 
small, irregularly shaped dots and spots of reddish brown, inclining 
to be more abundant at the large end. The brown pigment de- 
posited early in the oviduct is covered by a thin layer of lime and 
thereby given a lavender hue. The size averages 1.8 by 1.3 inches. 


ENEMIES, 


Hoatzins seem to be very free from enemies, although from year 
to year their numbers remain about the same. The waters beneath 
them are inhabited by otters, crocodiles, anacondas, and voracious 
fish, so that death lies that way. They seem also to fear some preda- 
tory bird, for whenever a harmless hawk skims over the branches on 
the lookout for lizards, the hoatzins always tumble pell-mell into the 
shelter of the thick foliage below. 


PHOTOGRAPHING HOATZINS. 


We found that the best time to approach and photograph the 
birds was during their siesta. As we paddle along the bank, they 
scramble from their perches or nests up to the bare branches over- 
head, calling hoarsely to one another. Pushing aside the dense 
growth of arums and vines, we work our canoe as far as possible 
into the heart of the brush to the foot of some good-sized marsh tree 
perhaps a foot in diameter. I step from the boat to the lowest limb, 
Mrs. Beebe hands me the big Graflex with the unwieldy but neces- 
sary 27-inch lens, and I begin my painful ascent. At first all is 
easy-going, but as I ascend I break off numerous dead twigs, and 
from the broken stub of each issues a horde of black stinging ants. 
These hasten my ascent and at last I make my way out on the sway- 
ing upper branches (pl. 5, fig. 1). From here I have a fairly clear 
view of the surrounding brush, and if I work rapidly I can secure 
three or four pictures before the hoatzins take flight and hide amid 
the foliage. 

Of all my pictures, that of plate 3 is the prize. We came upon a 
flock of hoatzins late in the afternoon and were fortunate enough to 
get into a clear space and to photograph 11 on the same plate; the 
confused mass near the center of the picture containing four indi- 
viduals. Plate 4, figure 1, shows the character of the country where 
we found the hoatzin on Abary Creek, with the line of dense growth 
on one side and the level savanna on the other. 

A photographic study of an individual pair of birds is given in 
plate 5, figure 2, to plate 7. The action of these two birds is so typi- 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 541 


cal of hoatzins that an account of them will apply to the species in 
general. I made these photographs from a boat, standing on the 
thwarts, while Mrs. Beebe guided it through the brush. 

We flush the female from her nest, and she flies to a branch some 
8 feet higher, the male then appearing from a tree beyond (pl. 5, 
fig. 2). We remain perfectly quiet, and the next photograph shows 
the female hoatzin, tail on, looking about, while the male, who has 
flown nearer, is watching us suspiciously (pl. 6, fig. 1). 

Plate 6, figure 2, shows the male on another perch, still more 
alarmed, and a moment later he thrashes his way out of sight. Mean- 
while the female has rediscovered us and crouches down (pl. 7, fig. 1), 
hoping to avoid observation, but as we push closer to the nest, she 
rises on her perch, spreads wings and tail to the widest (pl. 7, fig. 2), 
her scarlet eyes flashing, and, uttering a last despairing hiss, launches 
out for a few yards. At this moment, as may be seen in the same 
picture, a second pair of birds fly up from a nest in the next clump 
of undergrowth and raise their discordant notes in protest at our 
intrusion. 

The assertion which I made last year that hoatzins use their 
primary feathers as fingers, in the same way that the chicks and 
partly grown young use their wing claws, has been received with 
some doubt, and I am glad to offer a photograph (pl. 7, fig. 2) as 
evidence. In the right wing of the hoatzin the thumb feathers are 
plainly visible, with their edges fretted away, while the first six 
primaries also show signs of severe wear, such as would be expected 
from the rough usage to which they are put. 

Attention is called to the apparent immobility of the crest, which 
is as fully erect in the crouching hoatzin (pl. 7, fig. 1) as in the same 
bird a minute or two later, alert and about to fly (pl. 7, fig. 2). 

Thus it was that we made the first photographs ever taken of these 
most interesting birds. 


ODOR. 


In regard to the odor given off by the flesh of hoatzins and its 
cause, there seem to be many conflicting statements. I quote some ~ 
opinions: 


I never found the smell of these birds so bad as I had been led to believe; it 
reminds one of a rather strong cow shed. It has been found on cutting out the 
crop, aS soon as the bird is dead, very little unpleasant odor remains. Loat (27). 

As is well known, the aroid shrub upon which the Canje pheasant feeds gives 
its flesh a strong and disagreeable odor. Sclater (41). 

The popular name (Catingueira) is derived from a certain penetrating odor. 
This disagreeable odor is transmitted and adheres with such efficacy that it is 
an excellent protection, not only against the attacks of carnivorous animals, but 
also against persecution by man. Goeldi (20). 


542 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Even by man they are seldom meddled with, except for scientific purposes, 
since a peculiar and unpleasant odor attaches to the flesh, especially after death, 
and which seems to be due to the penetration of the fluid and gaseous contents 
of the digestive tract. On this account they are not generally eaten, but a few 
eases have been reported to me in which they have been utilized for food. 
Quelch (88). 

The flesh has an unpleasant odor of musk combined with wet hides—a smell 
called by the Brazilians catinga; it is therefore uneatable. Bates (3). 

On our Venezuelan trip we heard a great deal and were warned 
again and again concerning the frightful odor which was supposed 
to characterize these birds. Some said they would have to be skinned 
under water! We found this wholly false. When skinning or dis- 
secting one of these hoatzins one notices the faintest of musky odors, 
not at all unpleasant, and indeed perceptible only when the attention 
is directed to it. Our specimens were certainly most inoffensive in 
this respect, and the flesh of one which we cooked and ate, while it 
was tough, was as clean and appetizing as that of a curassow. 

In British Guiana the above experience was repeated, although the 
“Stinking pheasant” was held in horror by the blacks. But, as 
before, we could detect nothing but a shghtly musky odor. The 
odor is exceedingly persistent and is given off by skins which are 
several years old. Its cause is problematical and the direct connec- 
tion with the crop is very doubtful. There is little doubt but that 
boatzins differ greatly, either seasonably or individually, in regard 
to the intensity of this odor. Far be it from me, however, to em- 
phasize any lack of it, for the very thread of existence of this most 
interesting bird hangs upon belief in this inedibility. 

The Indians and other inhabitants of South America who depend 
upon wild game for food never waste powder, shot, or arrows on so- 
called sport. Until the “civilized” tourist penetrates to these re- 
gions, the hoatzins are safe. When he does arrive protection must 
be given to these interesting birds—a heritage to us from past ages. 
So helpless are they that, given a week’s time and a shotgun, one 
man could completely exterminate them in the colony of British 
Guiana. Fortunately the game laws of that colony are comprehen- 
sive and wisely made, and the hoatzins are probably safe for many 
years to come. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


(1) ALLEN, J. A. 1889. List of the Birds Collected in Bolivia.- Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 
His., Wolss2, No.2;-p. 207. 

(2) AstLurT, H. A. 1909. MS. Letter, dated June 7th. 

(3) Bates, H. W. 1892. The Naturalist on the River Amazons, pp. 60-61. 

(4) BrepparpD, FRANK E. 1889. Contributions to the Anatomy of the Hoatzin. The 
Ibis. 6th Series. Vol. 1, pp. 283-293. 

(5) Breysn, C. WittiaAmM. 1909. An Ornithological Reconnoissance of Northeastern 
Venezuela. Zoologica. Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 73. 

(6) Brerpsn, C. WILLIAM, and Mary Buarr. 1909. Our Search for a Wilderness. 
Chapter 11. Henry Holt & Co., New York. 


ECOLOGY OF THE HOATZIN—BEEBE. 543 


(7) BerLePpscH, HANS Grar yon. 1884. On Bird Skins from the Orinoco, Venezuela. 


The Ibis. 5th Series. Vol. 2, p. 440. (8) 1908. The Birds of Cayenne. Novi- 
tates Zoologicae. Vol. 15, p. 297. 


(9) BrRLEPSCH, HANS GRAF VON, AND HARTHRT, ERNST. 1902. On the Birds of the 


(10) 


(11) 
(12) 
(13) 
(14) 


(16) 
(17) 
(18) 
(19) 


(20) 


(22) 


(23) 
(24) 


(25) 
(26) 
(27) 


(28) 
(29) 
(30) 


Orinoco Region. Novitates Zoologicae. Vol. 9, p. 122. 

BINGHAM, Hiram. 1909. The Journal of an Expedition Across Venezuela and 
Colombia, p. 61. 

Brisson, M. J. 1760. Ornithologie. Vol. 1, p. 304. 

Brown, C. BARRINGTON. 1876. Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana, p. 257. 

Burron, G. L. L. pg. 1771. Historie Naturelle Oiseaux, Vol. 2, p. 385. 

BURMEISTER, HERMANN. 1856.  Thiere Brasiliens, Vol. 3, pp. 842-3. (15) 
1870. Journal fiir Ornithologie, p. 318. 

CHERRIN, GhorGE K. 1909. The Hoatzin. The Museum News, Vol. 4, pp. 50-53. 

Evans, A. H. 1899. Cambridge Natural History, Birds, Vol. 9, pp. 241-242. 

Gapow, Hans. 1892. Crop and Sternum of Opisthocomus Cristatus. Proc. 
Royal Irish Acad. 38rd Series. Vol. 2, pp. 147-153. 

Garrop, A. H. 1879. Notes on Points in the Anatomy of the Hoatzin. Proc. 
Zool. Soc., Lon., pp. 109-114. 

GorupI, Emin A. 1894. As Aves do Brazil, pp. 442-445. (21) 19038. Orni- 
thological Results of an Expedition up the Capim River. The Ibis. Sth 
Series. Vol. 3, p. 417. 

HerRNanpDnz. 1651. Nova Plantarum, Animalium et Mineralium Mexicanorum 
Historia, p. 320. 

Hornapay, W. T. 1876. Unpublished Journal. 

Huxuny, T. H. 1868. The Affinities of Opisthocomus. Proc. Zool. Soc., Lon., 
pp. 804-311. 

IHERING, HERMANN VON. 1907. As Aves do Brazil, p. 26. 

LatHam. 1783. Gen. Syn., Vol. 2, pt. 2, p. 741. 

Loat, W. L. S. 1898. Field Notes on the Birds of British Guiana. The Ibis. 
7th Series. Vol. 4, pp. 558-567. 

MiLupr. 1776. S. N. Suppl., p. 125. id 

Newton, ALFRED. 1893-6. Dictionary of Birds, p. 423. 

OGILVIB-GRANT, W. R. 1893. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. 
Vol. 22, pp. 528-525. (381) 1905. Guide to the Birds in the British Museum, 
p. 56. 

ParkKeR, W. K. 1891. On the Morphology of a Reptilian Bird. Trans. Zool. 
Soc., Lon., pp. 48-85. 

PELZELN, AUGUST von. 1871. Zur Ornithologie Brasiliens, p. 280. 

PmNnsarD, P. AND A. 1908. De Vogels van Guyana, pp. 307-309. 

PrRRIN, J. B. 1876. On the Myology of Opisthocomus Cristatus. Trans. Zool. 
Soc., Lon., Vol. 9, part 6, pp. 3538-870. 

QuEtcH, J. J. 1888. Notes on the Breeding of the Hoatzin. The Ibis. 5th 
Series. Vol. 6, p. 878. (87) 1888. A Collecting Trip on the Abary. Timehri, 
N. S., Vol. 2, part 2, p. 364. (38) 1890. On the Habits of the Hoatzin. The 
Ibis. 6th Series. Vol. 2, pp. 327-3385. 

SCHOMBURGK, RICHARD. 1848. Reisen in British Guiana, Vol. 3, p. 712. 

ScuaTER, P. L. 1857. Further Additions to the List of Birds Received in Col- 
lections from Bogota. Proc. Zool. Soc., Lon., pp. 15-20. (41) 1887. British 
Guiana and its Birds. Ibis. 5th Series. Vol. 5, p. 319. 

SCHLATHR AND SALVIN. 1875. The Birds of Hastern Peru. Proc. Zool. Soc., 
Lon., p. 308. 

SHARPE, R. BOWDLER. 1891. A Review of Recent Attempts to Classify Birds,, 
p. 70. (44) 1898. Wonders of the Bird World, p. 19. (45) 1899. A Handlist 
of the Genera and Species of Birds. Vol. 1, p. 93. 

STEJNEGER, L. 1885. Riverside Natural History, Vol. 4, Birds, p. 196. 

STEPHENS, J. F. 1819. MWoatzin Serpent-eater. Shaw’s General Zoology, Vol. 
11, pp.192-194. 

WALLACH, A, R. 1876. Geographical Distribution of Animals, Vol. 2, p. 345. 


pure tnie pica a 


a r ite sig eet ive trax. > $4 Hee 
ine NUH, F minds otvibaaes u 


t. Vea? a 4 ton a | aT -- Atendt 
TS see an ie hwnd eer tote mains ATR ae 
Gi y -48) 2 Acct gna emt aia SUD 9 UN 
- (95) «OM a £ ISY seti seat emit? Soar 7 : 
y eee ¥ F 


oy .lnoiodsinat 
Atha and fore 4° el 


“ofS aw on“ ‘ j N ‘vel + bis rik Woolas 

Tare RP ee eS lad aie eared Leora wohhdatey ih 
+  7ecriie wires? tener tieigg 36: anoeett: benign ade 
2 a = ” 


‘ tla l bh atk Jen geokiet antpsh 
; y* tiztrol! df we Wht era ees WP arin? Tah? 


aime ie 7 ROOTES Gt Boll ‘eto Otia ate veel a 


; APH pPVOL CR) RMS EG eae, FERRE OD. Ror A ete BRR if 
9 J o 4 ey onae ta reat P wily =f pon ein sical : te ile ie 
te er Snicakene. yee canta wvalo rhs tk 


Qe vite: auld aihta in. a if cera) et iwretcarl Bibi 


1, Tes went i ott ree i Hw 
, , ; , 4 ‘ 
ed ‘ ‘ : ® j a) 
‘fa . “Of: Jdnont oer : iis i > eH, , 260 Mg ory 


hy . 2 : eon ] 4 ae a. - 
i Ko" 47h ae oh Se 

= 3 MIP RGM WS i Ge Met kote 

; A falll ote : y (fh) . ote 


Logeithenil Age «elperat afi joy (ORE 


3 ri , » year C2 ne eeoepy er OS 77 err ee Gee ‘ta 


7 teak! s . ia ys ifaig«) toy gel f thd oo orear . HU 
7 § : jie tae ga" ye aad Pied +4 
cay (ult legen yatdine! rer Yh eo-anfok aban a 
) Meas ". 
= = 4 ’ ' " Sin]: were 4 A +4 ’ e ie of bi +! ro § ahs 
- Wat sihétiott od) $o%etuinl? eds 0 OGRE (287 Slows bee . Dedce 
. wa. o + + is L 
. fic Wis 1.2. |e hated cae 
see tot vcontoll-<telsiah of mectou del ne sno, . Syet eR 
7 . E . , & ci f -@ oe 
me ; : J i?’ 54} : i ik T y 7 1o.-92 2 ebay _, 
. a / 


7 7 ° . € 
7 - : ° ‘ 4 a ws ' ; gad sty Mh’ ‘verve nage = 
<< ~ \ ‘ ~' iad i oak P ms 4 Hy 4 hae ena & 
P . f° > a , 218 < AL ‘sit pe be — 
, | | He eles 
. sk % ; j Lea ot 2D oe ] 
ts ; : ai” OT e7b trey FIRE hes ee, Wa 
4 “> &. ch bea stata) afi} bya 
: t ; A q ‘ - “ei 38E yerpmemis 4 i} 
‘ . ; : on) oe , ek’. hates ae © 
“Te : PRE OE ag tS 
a . Qs jeans) Fer il To SEM 
— 
ors ; . P fe 
> : : ot ee 


‘ \ vi = 
an > : k ah 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beebe. PLATE 1. 


BREAST-BONE OF HOATZIN. 


PLATE 2, 


Beebe. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910. 


HALF-GROWN HOATZIN, SHOWING CLAWS ON THUMB AND FIRST FINGER. 


"USAIN AYVEY SHL NO SNIZLVOH N3A3B1Q4 SO M0014 


tn a nani 0 en ain re ERR it sti 


TE St sides 


sOcteVal el ‘aqeeg—'016| ‘Hoday ueiuosy}iWis 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beebe. PLATE 4. 


aaa pees RIE : 


| 
| 
3 | 


1. HAUNT OF THE HOATZIN, ABARY RIVER, BRITISH GUIANA. 


2. NEST OF HOATZIN IN DENSE GROWTH OF MUCKA-MUCKA. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beebe. PLATE 5. 


2. FEMALE HOATZIN FLUSHED FROM HER NEST; MALE BIRD APPROACHING. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beebe. PLATE 6. 


2. MALE HOATZIN ALARMED AND ABOUT TO TAKE FLIGHT. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Beebe. PLATE 7. 


2. FEMALE HOATZIN TAKING FLIGHT WITH WINGS FULLY SPREAD; A SECOND PAIR 
OF BIRDS LEAVING THEIR NEST IN THE BACKGROUND. 


> a ~— a 


Step) - 7 : : ry 


‘ = ae 


ee, ee ar ky” 


MIGRATION OF THE PACIFIC PLOVER TO AND FROM 
THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 


By Henry W. HENSHAW. 


Since primitive times the phenomenon of bird migration has 
excited peculiar interest, and although much of the mystery formerly 
attaching to it has been dispelled by the prosaic facts brought to light 
by modern investigations, it still presents enigmas to stimulate the 
imagination and invite study. How birds migrate is now beginning 
to be understood, and the present practice of tabulating dates of 
arrival and departure and collating the facts gathered by numerous 
observers in different parts of the country is likely ere long to give 
us the solution of many as yet unsolved problems. Why birds mi- 
grate is quite another question, likely to resist satisfactory solution 
for some time to come for, were there no other reason, from the very 
nature of the case we can have comparatively few facts to guide us, 
and speculation must largely take the place of deduction. 

When we consider the number of miles traveled, the widely differ- 
ent character of the regions chosen for summer and winter abodes, 
and the perils necessarily attending the passage between them, the 
migration of no other of our birds appears so wonderful as that of 
the golden plover. In part the migration route of the eastern form 
of the golden plover (Charadrius dominicus) is well understood, 
and those interested in the subject are referred to a suggestive paper 
by Austin H. Clarke? on the probable method by which the bird 
is guided safely across the Atlantic from Nova Scotia to South 
America. In the present paper will be presented such facts in regard 
to the migration of the Pacific plover (Charadrius dominicus fulvus) 
as the author was able to gather during his stay in the Hawaiian 
Tslands—from 1894 to 1904—together with certain deductions there- 
from. 

1Reprinted by permission, after author’s revision, from The Auk, a quarterly journal 


of ornithology, Cambridge, Mass., yol, 27, No, 3, July, 1910. 
2 Auk, pp. 134-140, 1905. 


97578°—smM 1910-——35 545 


546 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Isolation of the Hawaiian Islands—It may be premised that no 
other part of the earth’s surface is so far distant from continental 
areas as the Hawaiian Archipelago. The islands are about 2,000 
miles from the coast of California on the east; about the same dis- 
tance from the Aleutians on the north and the Marquesas Group on 
the south; and not much farther from Japan, reckoning from the 
outermost of the chain of low islands and reefs which stretches from 
Hawaii some 1,700 miles toward the Asiatic coast. It is important to 
note, however, that, assuming the availability of these islands as 
stepping-stones for birds, there would still be an interval of more 
than 2,000 miles between the most northwestern of the chain and 
Japan. Hence, if we reject as untenable the theory of a sunken 
southern continent, of which the Hawaiian Archipelago is the north- 
ernmost and now the only visible remains, the original introduction 
into Hawaii of its mammals, birds, insects, and plants presented 
greater difficulties than were presented to the fauna and flora of any 
other part of the world. 

So remote and isolated have these islands been since their forma- 
tion, and so few and uncertain nature’s carrying agencies—the birds, 
the winds, and the ocean currents—that after the islands were thrust 
up out of the sea ages must have elapsed before they received the 
parent stocks of the many and diverse forms of plant and animal 
life peculiar to them. 

That the difficulties of stocking the archipelago with life, great as 
they must have been, were not insurmountable is proved by the fact 
that enough waifs found their way to the islands to clothe them with 
verdure and stock them with animal life. As a result of the com- 
petitive struggle which followed, upward of 900 species of plants, 
numerous insects, including many distinct genera, seven species of 
lizards, more than 50 species of birds, and at least two mammals, 
finally made good their foothold on the islands and flourished, some 
more, some less, according to their nature and adaptability. 

Avifauna of the Hawaiian Islands.—Among other inhabitants of 
the islands are some 45 species of passerine birds, one hawk, an owl, 
a mud hen, a gallinule, a stilt, a duck, a goose, and a few others. 
All of these I pass by for the moment and come to certain migrants 
from North America which regularly journey between the islands 
and the continent, both spring and fall. Four of these migrate in 
great numbers, viz, golden plover, turnstone, wandering tatler, and 
bristle-thighed curlew; the shoveler duck and pintail also visit the 
islands in considerable numbers. In addition to these are perhaps 
a dozen other ducks and geese whose occurrence in the islands is 
more or less casual, and the same remark applies to a dozen or 15 
wading birds. Altogether, including the regular migrants, the 


MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER—HENSHAW. 547 


casuals, and the accidentals, the visiting birds make quite a respect- 
able winged army. 

Islands accidentally discovered by present migrants—It is not 
supposable that birds ever put to sea to seek unknown lands by a 
hitherto untraveled route. We know that millions of birds of many 
species are annually or semiannually driven out to sea by storms, 
especially species that migrate near the seacoast. Many, perhaps 
most, of these storm-driven waifs never see land again, but become 
wing weary and find watery graves. Some few, however, reach 
safe havens in oceanic islands, and in this way, no doubt, such islands 
have received their bird colonists. 

That the golden plover, like the other migrants from the North 
American coast, discovered Hawaii accidentally is hardly open to 
doubt. I see no necessity for presupposing the existence of sunken 
continents or of ancient continental extensions to account for the 
presence on the islands of the plover and other North American 
birds, like the night heron, gallinule, and coot. The presence there 
of the weak-winged passerines is another matter, and it must be 
admitted that proof of the existence of an ancient continent, stretch- 
ing from the islands southward toward Australia, would simplify a 
very difficult problem. So far, however, as our North American 
birds are concerned, it need be assumed only that long ago some 
thousands of Pacific plover and other species, when following the 
usual southward migration route along the Asiatic coast in fall, were 
accidentally driven to sea, and that a greater or less number were 
able to maintain themselves on the wing long enough to make a lucky 
landfall of the low islands to the northwest of Hawaii. The flight 
from Japan to the nearest island eastward would involve a flight 
about as prolonged as that from the Aleutian Archipelago to Hawaii, 
or some 2,000 miles. The chain of low islets once gained, it would 
be but a question of time for migrants, step by step, to reach the 
larger islands of Hawaii, 1,700 miles or so to theeastward. After win- 
tering, a sufficient number may have essayed the flight back across 
the ocean to the Asiatic coast the following spring, and then north- 
ward to their Siberian breeding grounds with their Asiatic fellows. 
Having once discovered the islands and learned their suitability as 
winter quarters, they would no doubt return over the same route, 
and thus in time establish a regular fly line or migration route from 
the Asiatic mainland to the islands. Later, as the position of the 
islands became better known, the part-land, part-water route would 
naturally be exchanged for a shorter all-water route. It is possible, 
however, that the old Asiatic route has never been wholly abandoned 
and that it is still favored by a certain number of the island migrants; 
for plover, turnstones, curlew, and tatlers have been observed on 
Laysan, about 600 miles northwest of Hawaii, late in May. These 


548 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


birds were probably about to migrate across the ocean, but it is, of 
course, impossible to tell whether they were headed directly for 
America or for America via Asia. 

Absence of fog—The original discovery of the Hawaiian Islands 
by birds was undoubtedly greatly facilitated by the fact that, 
although fog is common on the mountains at altitudes of 5,000 fast 
and nrwatirds it never occurs at sea level; and as its abaetets favored 
the original avian discoverers, so it continues to favor annual mi- 
grants. 

Date of discovery of the islands by American. migrants—As to 
the length of time the Pacific golden plover and its fellow migrants 
have been visiting the Hawaiian Islands, or when they first discov- 
ered the group, it were idle to speculate. Their arrival probably an- 
tedated by thousands of years that of the natives, which is supposed 
to date back only some 20 centuries. Certain of the bird colonists 
from America, like the owl, night heron, gallinule, and coot, have 
resided in the islands so short a time that they have changed very 
little from their American ancestry. Others, like the hawk, stilt, 
and goose, have changed more, and hence presumably have been 
residents of Hawaii a longer time. Changes of color, proportion, 
and size, however, be they great or small, can not be used as time 
measures, except in the vaguest way, since practically next to noth- 
ing is known of the length of time they require. We are perhaps 
justified in concluding that none of the above species have changed 
sufficiently to call for isolation from their American ancestors for 
periods to be reckoned by geologic intervals rather than by thousands 
of years. 

Spring migration of plover.—The impulse to migrate in spring 
is by no means simultaneous among all the plover that winter in 
the islands or that winter on any one island, nor, apparently, is it 
the rule for large bodies of plover to migrate together. The plover 
and turnstones, probably often in mixed companies, begin to leave 
for the north early in April, and the migration continues till at least 
the latter part of May (probably even later), being dependent, ap- 
parently, on the state of preparedness or the inclination of individual 
birds. 

When the time to migrate comes, small parties, from a dozen or 
even less, to flocks of 200 or more, strike boldly out to the north- 
ward, apparently without hesitancy or doubt of the result. Mr. 
Haswell, of Papaikou, which is on the coast about 15 miles north 
of Hilo, soon after daybreak during the early days of April, 1900, 
saw several flocks rise to a great height and, after widely circling 
about a few times as if to orient themselves, finally disappear in a 
northerly direction. 


MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER—HENSHAW. 549 


It is probable, however, that day migration is not the rule with 
plover and other shore birds. Apparently it is more usual for the 
flocks to feed by day and leave just before nightfall, as do many 
other birds in different parts of the world. Mr. R. C. L. Perkins 
states that several times he “ witnessed these departures, always late 
in the afternoon or just before dark.” He adds: 

When about to return to the north, the plover frequently assemble in very 
large flocks, and before setting out on their journey rise to an enormous height 
in the air, even beyond the range of sight. I have once seen two such flocks 
start from the same point, the one following the other after an hour’s interyval.— 
[Fauna Hawaiiensis, Vol. I, pt. iv, p. 449, 1903.] 

It is interesting to note that plover are occasionally sighted from 
passing ships. Naturally they attract little attention and never are 
recorded in the ship’s log. I found one ship captain, however, who 
remembered to have seen a flock of plover passing north in spring. 
The date was uncertain, but the ship was about midway between San 
Francisco and Hawaii, and the plover were steering a course which 
would carry them to the neighborhood of the Aleutians. 

Where data are so scarce and difficult to obtain it is worth noting, 
as bearing on the season and course of the spring migration of island 
birds, that Townsend captured a Pacific plover, which boarded the 
Albatross May 19, 1890, when 600 miles south of Kadiak. This bird 
was probably an island migrant nearing the end of its long flight. 
Elliott, also, speaking of the turnstone, states that he “ met with it at 
sea 700 miles from the nearest land, flying northwest toward the 
Aleutian Islands, my ship being 800 miles west of the Straits of 
Fuca.” 

Physical condition of spring migrants—During the last two 
months of their stay in the islands both the migrating plover and 
turnstones get very fat, and it is probable that individuals that are 
not in good condition do not attempt the flight, or if they do, do not 
survive the attempt. Toward April most plover seem to be in full 
breeding plumage, and I feel sure that none of the birds assuming 
the breeding dress remain behind, unless sick or wounded. There is, 
however, a small contingent, both of plover and turnstones, that sum- 
mer in the islands, and these appear to consist wholly of immature 
individuals, which, as a rule, are thin and not in good trim. 

Speed of migrating plover—tThe migration of plover over a wide 
ocean involves two factors: (1) Ability to go without food for the 
time necessarily consumed in the flight. (2) Ability to make the 
journey without resting and yet not overtax the physical powers. 
As stated above, apparently all the migrating birds in spring are in 
good order, and some of them, especially the males, are exceedingly 
fat. They are thus in condition to exert their utmost powers for a 
considerable period and to do without food. I know of no actual 


550 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


tests of the speed of plover. From my own observations I believe 
that when not fatigued the plover can easily enough fly 50 to 75 miles 
an hour, but it is doubtful if such speed can be maintainéd for any 
great length of time. I am confident, however, that a speed of 40 
miles an hour is well within the bird’s powers. At this rate the flight 
from Hawaii to the Aleutians, a distance of about 2,000 miles, would 
consume a little more than two days; or, allowing a speed of 35 miles 
an hour, the time occupied would be two days, nine hours. At first 
thought it does not seem possible for plover to fly continuously for so 
many hours without rest and food; yet the above statement can not 
be far from the truth. If the birds fly faster, the journey requires 
less time but the expenditure of more vital force; if slower, ‘they 
husband strength at the cost of time. In either event the result 
would be about the same. Of the extreme limit of the plover’s en- 
durance in continuous flight we know nothing; nor do we know what 
proportion of the birds that start across the ocean are successful in 
making the flight. That the effort is too much for many individuals 
is hardly to be doubted, especially for young of the year, which are 
comparatively weak and unpracticed of wing. 

A leaf from the notebook of Dr. E. A. Mearns is of interest in this 
connection. On the 9th of October, when on a transport bound for 
San Francisco and one day out of Honolulu, Mearns noticed a lone 
plover, which joined company with the ship for nearly two days. 
On the 10th his notebook records that the bird was still circling 
around and above the ship, as if designing to come aboard. Some- 
times it flew close alongside and whistled plaintively. Once it rose 
very high in air and flew out of sight, probably trying to sight land 
on which to rest, but it soon returned from its fruitless quest. At 
5 p. m. on the 10th it seemed weak and tired, but was still flying 
feebly alongside, its call notes continually growing fainter with 
waning strength. It was lost sight of at dusk, and was never seen 
again, but its fate is ohly too certain. 

It may seem remarkable that this tired wanderer apparently never 
alighted on the water to rest. However, I recall only one instance 
in which an unwounded plover has been known to alight on the 
water and again take wing.t’ In considering this question it must not 
be forgotten that neither by birth nor habits is the plover a swimmer. 
It is a true wader, and though, like all of its family, it can swim 
when compelled to and can even alight on smooth water and again 
take wing, it does so probably only in very exceptional instances, 
and perhaps never for the purpose of resting when in migration. 

Could we assume that the particular individual noted by Mearns 
made a direct course from the Aleutians to the point where inter- 


1 Rothchild, Avifauna of Laysan, pt. 1, xiv, 1893. 


MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER—-HENSHAW. 551 


cepted by the transport, the incident would be valuable as affording 
a tolerable idea of the limit of the endurance and wing power of a 
plover. The bird, however, may have lost its way and have taken 
a very indirect course to the point where it was first seen from the 
ship. Unaware of the proximity of the islands to which it was 
bound, and which it might have reached in a few hours more, it 
became confused, and made the fatal mistake of following the ship’s 
course. Before it finally succumbed to fatigue, it followed the ship 
for about 500 miles. Thus at the least calculation it flew 2,500 miles 
before it succumbed to fatigue, and probably very much farther. 

Time of arrival of migrants in Alaska—As the migration of the 
plover (and also the turnstone) from the islands begins during April 
and continues till into May, and possibly even later, the birds should 
arrive in Alaska at corresponding dates, the flight probably con- 
suming not much more than two days. his a matter of fact, however, 
the mainland breeding grounds of the plover in Alaska are snow- 
bound till well into May, and Turner states that the Pacific plover 
does not arrive at St. Michael till about June 1, a statement cor- 
roborated by Nelson. Although there is no necessary precise corre- 
spondence between the breeding time of the Pacific plover in Siberia 
and in Alaska, it is interesting to note the statement of Seebohm 
that the plover arrives on the Yenesay River, Siberia, June 5; and, 
referring to water birds generally, he adds that “very few eggs are 
laid on the tundra before the last week of June.” (Geog. Dist. of the 
Charadriide, 1888, p. 58.) Where the plover and turnstone, which 
leave Hawaii early in April, spend the interval till the melting snow 
bares the hillsides in Alaska and exposes the previous season’s crop 
of Vaccinium and Empetrum berries, upon which the plover in 
spring chiefly feed, is left to conjecture. As the Aleutian chain is 
nearly 1,200 miles fete however, and as comparatively little is known 
of its Binds in spring, it is posi that early migrating shore birds 
sojourn on them vititil advancing summer prepares the mainland for 
their occupancy. This conjecture is to some extent supported by 
the statement by Elliott that a few straggling plover land on the 
Pribilofs in April, or early in May, on their way north to breed, 
but never remain long. 

Breeding range of the golden plover.—Without doubt the chief 
breeding ground of the Pacific plover is eastern Siberia, but a con- 
siderable number breed on the American coast of Bering Sea from 
the vicinity of Bristol Bay (where taken by McKay at Nushagak, 
June, 1881) to near Bering Straits. The plover breeding on Kotze- 
bue Sound, north of the straits, is dominicus (Grinnell), as also is 
the one breeding at Point Barrow (Murdock). Apparently fulvus 
does not breed at all in the interior of Alaska, these regions being 
occupied solely by dominzcus. It concerns us to note in passing that, 


552 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


unless Palmén is mistaken in his identification, dominicus, not con- 
tent with its wide habitat in the interior of Alaska, crosses the straits, 
and breeds on the Chukchi Peninsula.t Thus the summer ranges of 
the two forms actually inosculate, the Asiatic form crossing to Amer- 
ica and the American form crossing into Asia—an xpparent anomaly 
in the case of geographic forms. 

Hawaiian plover breed in Alaska—It is, of course, impossible to 
absolutely identify the Pacific plovers breeding on the coast of 
Alaska with the winter visitors to Hawaii, yet there are certain facts 
tending to show that they are the same. (1) It is to be noted that 
of the winter visitors to the Hawaiian Islands not one is an exclu- 
sively Asiatic species. (2) The form of the wandering tatler, which 
regularly migrates to and from the islands is not the Asiatic form 
brevipes, but the American form minor. (3) There is evidence that 
the bristle-thighed curlew, also a winter visitor to the islands, breeds 
in Alaska, while it is not known to breed in Asia. As the two last- 
named birds, which breed exclusively in America so far as known at 
present, regularly winter in the islands, it is a fir inference, in the 
lack of evidence to the contrary, that the plover and turnstone, as 
also the other waders which winter causually in the islands, as the 
sanderling, pectoral sandpiper, sharp-tailed sandpiper, jacksnipe, 
knot, and others, also come from Alaska and not from Asia. 

Fall migration of plover.—For some reason or other plover appear 
to arrive in the Commander Islands in fall very late, according to 
Stejneger, not till after the 15th of September; the last ones were 
observed in 1883 on the 28th of October. The turnstone, on the other 
hand, touches the Commanders on its return trip much earlier, ac- 
cording to the same author, as early as the last part of July. 

Arrival of plover in Hawaii in fall—Passing now to Hawaii, a 
small number of plover and also turnstones return there as early as 
the middle or the latter part of August. By inference these are the 
birds which leave for the breeding grounds earliest in spring, and so 
are the first to complete their parental duties; or, the first arrivals in 
Hawaii may be individuals which made the journey to Alaska, but 
for some reason did not breed, or whose nests were broken up, or 
whose mates were killed, for the Arctic tundras have their bird trage- 
dies, as have other lands. Just as the turnstones reach and leave the 
Pribilofs in small straggling flocks, so they and the plover arrive in 
Hawaii; and it appears further that in fall, as in spring, they get 
into good condition for the flight, and then leave in no regular order 
nor at any set time, but just as the impulse seizes them. 

Between the dates of early departure from Hawaii in spring and 
of early arrivals in fall there is thus an interval of some four months 


1Palmén, Vega-Exped. Vetensk. Iak-t., Vol. V, 1887, p. 342-348; also Stejneger, Auk, 
1888, pp. 308-310. 


MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER—-HENSHAW. 553 


or more, quite long enough to permit the pairs to attend to their 
parental duties, to get into condition for the return journey, and to 
make the trip. So far as my observations extend, all the first arri- 
vals in Hawaii in fall, both plover and turnstone, are adults in breed- 
ing plumage. I may add that they are invariably in good flesh and 
that some are very fat. Later arrivals, however, no doubt young of 
the year, are comparatively poor in flesh and require considerable 
time to fatten. 

How migrants find their way across the ocean—It thus appears 
that thousands of birds, large and small, make a 2,000-mile flight 
from Alaska to Hawaii in fall and return in spring. To answer the 
question how they find their way across the trackless waste we must 
leave the realm of fact and enter that of speculation. Ocean migra- 
tion routes have generally been plausibly accounted for on the theory 
that the present fly lines were established ages ago when the land 
connections were very different, and when, by means of continental 
extensions and islands now sunken, part land, part water routes were 
easily followed. As such changes as the raising or depressing of 
continents are very gradual and extend through long periods, suc- 
ceeding generations of migrants are supposed to have scarcely no- 
ticed the difference, and, even after the old landmarks had disap- 
peared, to have been able to follow the ancient routes through the 
power of transmitted habit. 

This explanation, however, does not apply to the case of the 
Hawaiian migrants, since there is no reason to suppose that the isola- 
tion of the Hawaiian Islands in relation to continental areas was ever 
less complete than now; and, although a theory has been advanced 
that the archipelago is the northern apex of a former southern con- 
tinent, it finds little support from biologic, botanic, or hydrographic 
investigations. Moreover, such a continent extending southward 
toward Australia would have been of no assistance. to birds migrat- 
ing from America, though its former existence, could it be proven, 
would render easy the explanation of the derivation of the Austra- 
lian elements of the Hawaiian fauna and flora. The presence of two 
shoals, situated, roughly speaking, midway between San Francisco 
and Hawaii, has suggested the former existence here of large islands, 
now sunken. If such islands really existed, which is doubtful, they 
unquestionably would have aided the passage of American birds and 
plants to the Hawaiian Islands. 

In his interesting article on “The migration of certain shore 
birds,” quoted above, Mr. Clark argues that prevailing winds, espe- 
cially the steady trades, offer a reasonable explanation of the way 
certain birds are or may be guided in migrating. Such an explana- 
tion seems to apply peculiarly to the case of the American golden 
plover, which, as is well known, abandons the North American Con- 


554 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


tinent at Labrador and Nova Scotia, and under ordinary circum- 
stances makes no landfall till it strikes the Guiana coast, a distance 
of about 2,000 miles. It is perhaps more remarkable that instead of 
returning in spring to its breeding grounds by the same route it 
takes in fall to its winter quarters, it follows an all land route and 
traverses the length of two continents, thus furnishing: the most 
extraordinary migration route of any existing bird, as pointed out 
by Prof. Cooke. 

An attempt to apply to the case of the Pacific plover wintering in 
Hawaii the same principles so well worked out for the Atlantic coast 
form is not so successful. About September the wind that prevails 
in the north Pacific immediately south of the Aleutians is from the 
northwest. It is generally believed that migrating birds prefer to 
fly on a beam wind. By heading southwest birds migrating to Ha- 
wali might have the northwest wind abeam till about the neighbor- 
hood of latitude 30°, where they would be almost sure to pick up the 
northeast trades. By then changing their course to southeast they 
would be enabled to fly with wind abeam till they sighted the islands. 
That they follow such a course in fall and steer their way by either 
the northwest wind or the northeast trades there is not a particle of 
evidence that I can bring forward, nor do I know any facts to justify 
a statement that they do or do not utilize the winds as guides either 
in fall or in spring. 

The results of recent experiments by Prof. John B. Watson with 
sooty and noddy terns along our south Atlantic coast go far to prove 
the contention long maintained by many that birds actually possess a 
sense of direction tantamount to a sixth sense. If we grant this, as 
we may ultimately be compelled to do, the ability of birds to find 
their way both by land and sea is explained without further trouble 
and quite independently of landmarks of any kind or of the winds. 
The possession of such a useful sense will explain many difficult prob- 
lems of migration, and among others the apparent confidence with 
which migrants boldly launch out from Hawaii for a 2,000-mile 
flight across the Pacific, without the aid of any compass apparent to 
human intelligence. 

Danger of oceanic migration.—Of the fall migration of the golden 
plover on the Atlantic it may be remarked that, while the birds have 
no landmarks to steer by after leaving the northeast coast, they are 
yet within comparatively easy flight of the mainland, and in event of 
an unfavorable northeastern wind they can, and in fact often do, 
take refuge on the New England coast; and farther on, in bad 
weather or in case of unpropitious winds, they alight for rest and 
food in the West Indies. 

The Pacific plover traverses a much more hazardous route, since, 
when once clear of the Aleutian Islands, it not only leaves all land- 


MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER—HENSHAW. HYS3) 


marks behind, but also all ports of refuge. The Hawaiian Archi- 
pelago, with the chain of low islands and sand spits to the north- 
west, afford a reasonable chance for a successful landfall, since 
unitedly they stretch away in a very thin line for some 2,200 miles. 
Moreover, the islands are close enough together so that migrants 
high in air would not be likely to miss them by passing between. 
Flocks that chance to get to the eastward of Hawaii, however, are 
probably doomed, since they would have to fly another 1,000 miles or 
so before finding islets on which to rest. The Marquesas Group, the 
first islands of size to the south of Hawaii, is about 2,000 miles away, 
or about 4,000 miles from the Aleutians, and it is more than doubtful 
if even the strong-winged plover could fly 4,000 miles without rest 
and food and survive the trip. That many of the migrating shore 
birds actually perish at sea admits of no doubt. 

In this connection it is of interest to note that in a few instances in 
which island migrants have been sighted when near their journey’s 
end, going or coming, they exhibited fatigue and evinced a strong 
desire to board passing vessels. The incident noted by Dr. Mearns 
has been cited. Other instances were reported to me by the captains 
of two island-bound barks, who sighted several small flocks of plover 
during the last days of September, 1900, when from 200 to 400 miles 
off Hilo. These birds appeared much fatigued and exhibited a strong 
desire to board the ships, especially when their calls were imitated. 

EK. W. Nelson, however, while on the Corwin, October, 1881, saw a 
small party of plover about midway between the Alaska Peninsula 
and the Hawaiian Islands. These birds were headed directly for the 
islands, and they flew swiftly on their course, showing no signs either 
of uncertainty or of fatigue. Other similar cases might be cited. 

Molts of the Pacific golden plover.—it is of interest to note that in 
fall this plover migrates before it molts; in spring it molts before it 
migrates. The first birds to reach the archipelago in August are, as 
stated, adults, and while they are practically in full breeding dress, 
they begin to molt into the winter dress almost at once. The molting 
season for the species is long, and many individuals, doubtless birds 
of the year, may be found the last of December still molting into the 
fall and winter dress. By the middle of February numerous indi- 
viduals are already beginning to molt a second time and to assume the 
distinctive nuptial plumage, which in the case of these early birds is 
practically completed during the month of March, though individ- 
uals continue to molt far into April, and some no doubt complete the 
final stages in Alaska.t Doubtless the individuals to molt first in 
spring are the adults which arrive first and finish the fall molt first ; 
and doubtless, too, these are the birds first to leave Hawaii for their 

1]T have several specimens taken in March and April, which were kindly sent me by 


my friends Mr. Henry Patten and Mr. W. B. Newell, of Hilo. These are in spring 
plumage, but show unmistakable signs of molting. 


556 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


breeding grounds in Alaska. So protracted is the molt of the species 
that it is probably true that during the stay of this plover in Ha- 
wali—from middle August till May—there is not a month when some 
individuals are not molting. 

There is no reason for believing that the plover summering in the 
islands, which, as before stated, are chiefly if not wholly immature 
birds, participate in the spring molt. At all events, all the Hawaiian 
summer plover and turnstones I have seen were, without exception, 
in the winter garb. 

Why the plover migrates——We have thus seen that what at first 
might appear a physical impossibility—the 2,000-mile flight of small 
birds across an ocean highway without a single landmark and with 
only the friendly winds to guide them, if indeed they utilize these as 
guides—is not only possible, but the feat is accomplished annually by 
many thousands of individuals, and apparently with no stops for rest 
and food. The wonder of it is but increased when we realize that 
these annual flights are undertaken solely for the purpose of making 
a sojourn of a few brief weeks in Alaska to nest and rear their 
young. The hazards of such journeys are v 
than any land migration, however prolonged—and there is no doubt 
that of the thousands daring the perils of the trip from Alaska many 
are lost, either by missing the islands altogether or by being caught 
in storms, or by reason of insufficient strength and wing power. The 
flight from the islands to Alaska, though not without danger, is less 
hazardous than the southern flight, both because a much greater pro- 
portion of the migrants are mature and experienced and because, in 
case they lose their way, they have two continents as marks to hit. 

The motive for the fall migration of the plover, like that of the 
other waders breeding in the far North, is easily understood. What- 
ever may have been the case in the distant past, to-day the waders 
have no alternative. They must migrate from the Arctic in the fall 
or starve. The only choice offered is as to the selection of winter 
quarters. Thus compelled to migrate, it appears that a certain num- 
ber of plover and of several other shore-birds find the Hawaiian 
Islands a winter resort so attractive that to reach them they brave 
the perils of migration across a wide and stormy ocean. Why, then, 
do they not permanently colonize the islands? If adapted to the 
bird’s needs for nine months of the year, why not for the other three? 

Tt can not be said of the spring migration of these Hawaiian 
migrants as of the fall, that the birds have no alternative. On the 
contrary the choice is open, and they would seem to have every incen- 
tive to remain, with no very apparent motive to migrate. The chief 
cause compelling winter visitors to the Tropics to leave and to seek 
northern regions in which to breed has been supposed to be the over- 
crowding of the Tropics in spring and the resulting lack of room and 


MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER—HENSHAW. 557 


of food. No such conditions appear to confront the winter sojourn- 
ers of Hawaii. During its stay in the islands the plover, as also the 
turnstone, feeds chiefly in the upland pastures and clearings, up to 
6,000 or 7,000 feet, and on newly-plowed cane land. Both the sugar 
planter and the stock raiser have much to thank the plover for, since, 
while the birds feed on small seeds to some extent, they live chiefly 
on insects, and according to Perkins, on insects of much economic 
importance, since they depend largely on the caterpillars of two of 
the most widely spread and destructive of the island “ cut worms.” 
These insects are most abundant when the grass on the island pastures 
is green and luxuriant, and this usually is in winter when rains are 
most copious. That the supply of food in winter and spring is ample 
is sufficiently attested by the fact that the birds get jnto such excellent 
condition. Even if it be assumed that the supply of food in summer 
is less than in spring, and hence inadequate for the needs of the 
thousands that winter here, together with their young, still there is 
enough to sustain very many more than the comparatively small 
number of nonbreeders that summer here. 

From the standpoint of the food supply it is even more difficult 
to explain why the tattler and the curlew leave the islands in spring, 
since these birds feed almost wholly alongshore, where there can be 
no appreciable difference in the quantity of food summer and winter. 

The question why the island plover migrate is all the more diffi- 
cult to answer when we remember that the islands have been perma- 
nently colonized by certain other American birds, such as the 
Hawaiian stilt among the Limicole, the night heron of the Hero- 
diones, the Hawaiian mud hen and gallinule of the Paludicole, the 
Hawaiian goose, the short-eared owl, and the island buteo. These 
birds came to the islands as waifs, as did the plover. Finding room. 
shelter, and food abundant, they wisely elected to roam no more, but 
to become permanent residents, and to forswear for all time the 
perilous and unnecessary habit of migration. Since they successfully 
resisted the impulse to return to their former summer homes to nest, 
then why not the other species? As stated above, the failure of the 
plover and turnstone to become permanent colonists is not because 
they are crowded out by other species. In fall the migrants from 
Alaska find the inviting island pastures unoccupied, and as they find 
them in fall, so they leave them in spring. 

I can suggest no very convincing answer to the question, but I 
may note the significant fact that the present suitability of the islands 
as a breeding ground for the plover and turnstones is very recent as 
compared with the birds’ acquaintance with them. The cleared strip 
around each island now planted chiefly to cane, which may be roughly 
stated to be 3 miles wide, and the extensive clearings above this 
strip which serve for pasture for cattle, are less than 100 years old, 


558 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


most of them less than 50. Prior to their discovery by Europeans 
all the islands were heavily forested, nearly or quite to the shore. 
Possibly then the plover and other migrants have been slower to 
realize the situation than the other species, and do not even yet appre- 
ciate the advantages offered by continuous island life. 

It may be said, too, that the spring migration of the plover and 
turnstone is so intimately interwoven with the function of repro- 
duction that we are quite safe in assuming that, were it not for the 
desire to nest, the birds would never migrate. Those, in fact, which 
are not stirred by the impulse to nest, either because too immature or 
too old, do not migrate; and the intimate connection between migra- 
tion and reproduction appears further from the fact that all the 
individuals that migrate don the nuptial dress before they start, a 
sufficient declaration ef their purpose in undertaking the trip; while 
those that remain retain the dull winter plumage. 

It appears to be true of all birds that, having once reached their 
winter quarters, be they near or far from the summer home, no 
migrating species attempts to return to its summer haunts till stimu- 
lated thereto by the profound physiological change consequent upon 
reproductive activity. This impulse is not primarily due to change 
of season or to change of temperature, but is periodic and physiologi- 
cal. When once felt, every instinct seems to impel birds to take the 
shortest route to the spot where they first saw the hght or where they 
have reared young. This has often been called the home instinct. 
In the case of many species the phrase is not very happily chosen, 
though I myself have used it, since that locality is more properly to 
be called a bird’s home where it spends the greater part of its life, 
rather than where it spends a few brief weeks annually. Neverthe- 
less the power of habit transmitted through thousands of years is 
very great, and it is probably this influence associated with the repro- 
ductive instinct which so far has prevailed over other considerations 
and caused the plover to migrate from Hawaii in spring. 

If the Charadriidine birds, the plovers, sandpipers, and curlews, 
originated in the Arctic, as Seebohm and others believe, and were 
forced by the exigencies of the ice age to become wanderers over the 
face of the earth, then indeed the spring migration of the waders 
from their distant winter resorts is more fitly termed a return home, 
and the instinct prompting the flight the homing instinct. Originally 
forced by the ice invasion to abandon their then Arctic paradise and 
seek shelter and food in distant parts, as the ice receded they grad- 
ually formed fly lines to and from their summer and winter homes 
till the habit formed during thousands of years became so fixed as to 
absolutely dominate many species. That it did not dominate all of 
the original migrants, however, appears from the fact that permanent 
colonies settled here and there even in tropical regions, showing that 


MIGRATION OF PACIFIC PLOVER—HENSHAW. 559 


under certain circumstances the habit of migration can be and is 
overcome. Of the island plover all we can say is that, so far as we 
can see, its spring migration to its Arctic breeding grounds is not 
necessary, except in so far as made so by the tyranny of habit. 

This explanation has at least the advantage that it explains noth- 
ing, and hence leaves the problem open. It simply shifts slightly 
the point of view. We perceive that the island attractions have 
proved sufficiently strong to make permanent residents of certain 
species which have strayed to the archipelago. In the case of other 
strays, like the island plover and the turnstone, either the island 
attractions are not so strong or the birds’ love for their original 
habitat is stronger, and they continue to migrate, though with much 
danger and at a great cost in lives. 

Before leaving this subject I must add that several independent 
observers have reported finding a few young plover and turnstones 
in summer on the coast of Kau, island of Hawaii, and at one time I 
thought it possible that a few curlews also remained to breed; but in 
the case of none of these species was I able to fully satisfy myself 
that the birds reported were nestlings. It is, however, not impossible 
that occasionally a disabled female plover, tattler, turnstone, or curlew 
secures a mate and nests in Hawaii. Indeed, it seems highly prob- 
able that it is in this accidental sort of way that new avian colonies 
are occasionally planted. Such, indeed, may be the explanation of the 
resident colonies of American species like the coot, gallinule, and 
others above referred to. Possibly, too, young birds of the year 
remaining for the summer occasionally feel the breeding impulse 
after their comrades have left for the north, and so breed and found 
permanent colonies. 


te, air, eb seancrnay sett aH DLO an: - 
-_ onal abishqal Reeder arith ogste vs 

7: ~ihto < Oh EAGR® pri pitccr Daneel cf: 
‘3 yd as oTidang sig, Hare titaledonay | 
Natalie ts thetilaioad! itddwarinc eg 6 Tact 
4 OFS 1292 TO) Se ofitehi igyt duadireremes peste i f: fe i nde, 


wey 74 tj ea : 


ph ang > ‘ 
ped TM ARO OY Ptthire SUA Lacritloype,s tis 4 fen? e ashe og 
fase pleas , s ih. : P f ; 
es! Sasa hi crate, ATO MYTLIG none NNG Hoel 20 4 29 ie 
fades 144 34 vow < a ‘ et aN, en? 
OCA set ett oak aban 7 
ie MOR. Ape! mi Nile (ORE Ba Erde Hanoe hogy ‘duns sna 
}. bts ef ry ae 
SAUTE AE RPS, lat git: 3 mi tite ¥ catty feet aga Be ri 
ye APTS Tre L Ss 1ailt, Lig pre «ead bila = 
Seok.” Deas et 
: See he eS : ae 
a bie a Ag j J Fj 5 | eae ty 0 
re to JOG} s Bee OL re Oph fee er sts 
. aan . San ve 
te UF teaisee tlie otvelda:d aur 
whee z = 
(Haat OTST AMO REALS pa segs 
wo saceus! Cty? novela Meine tbe 
by ViOitE S22 e 9 
Pp ase oe ER. “ 
; pa tore kbs ral Lage > 


ak py 2 igldt aie 


i . ifr, 
‘ . ’ M 
— ; rc : : z . 4 
i ce a) c 7 ay 8 % , 
i (a9 j Ay yet POLLY fa ur, ; : ih | rites sui 
r % ‘ - .« - 
cent} bi r- i} aeerire- beevit ty 
it ‘ AoA G ecco 
. ‘ , 
, a i ; fe ' : _« Pe 
4 4 . . ‘ 8 af 
F . : 
{{ af7 .4 } i 
. 
rig ¢ fi i“. t € 
vw : $ ty 277 
af 
- 
- 
- 
ie 
- ' 
i 
‘ gf 
Ti. 7 
‘ 
‘ 
- ¥ 
f *, v 
° 
» ‘ i 
- . 
- i > | 
. ‘ 
| t, : _ 
7 


a. 7 - - = 
— + 3 cre 
: % wa ms 


THE PLUMAGES OF THE OSTRICH. 


[With 8 plates.] 


e 
By Prof. J. H. DUERDEN, M. Sc., Ph. D., A. R. C. S., 


Rhodes University College, Grahamstown. 


By the plumage of the ostrich is understood the entire covering of 
feathers on the bird at any one time.? This is not the same at all 
periods, for the bird varies greatly in appearance between its chick 
and, adult condition, dependent upon differences in the form, color, 
and other characters of its feathers. Visitors to zoological gardens 
in other countries, accustomed to seeing only the adult ostrich, would 
scarcely recognize the same bird in its earlier garb. 

Four well-marked plumages can be distinguished in the ostrich, 
namely, the natal, the chick, the juvenal, and the adult. These repre- 
sent four distinct kinds of feather which each feather socket on the 
bird can produce; but, as regards the bird as a whole, the passage 
from one stage to another is gradual, as there is no well-defined 
molting period involving a complete simultaneous change of feathers. 
Until the adult plumage is reached there is an intermingling or over- 
lapping of the feathers belonging to different plumage stages, the 
older feathers being distinguished by their worn and faded appear- 
ance as contrasted with a freshness and perfection in the newer. 
Many birds, especially in colder regions, vary the character of their 
plumage between summer and winter, but the slight seasonal changes 
of South Africa have scarcely any influence on the feathers of the 
ostrich, and in the adult there is little or no difference in appearance 
between summer and winter and a well-defined molting period has 
not been established. The change from one plumage to the other is 
dependent upon age and nutrition rather than upon climatic con- 
siderations. 

1Reprinted by permission, with corrections by the author, from the Agricultural 
Journal of the Union of South Africa. Pretoria. Government Printing and Stationery 
Office. Vol. 1, No. 1, February, 1911. This article is in continuation of a series con- 
tributed by Dr. Duerden from time to time to the Cape Agricultural Journal. 

2 Among farmers the term plumage is sometimes restricted so as to refer only to the 
white wing quills. Thus, by an ostrich in “full plumage” is understood one in which 
the wing plumes are fully developed; when these have been clipped and the quills only 


remain a bird is said to be “in quills... Throughout this paper, however, plumage will 
refer to the covering of feathers as a whole, 


97578°—sm 1910——36 561 


562 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 
THE NATAL OR BIRTH PLUMAGE. 


Like the young of many other birds, the ostrich chick at hatching 
is already provided with*feathers in the form of down. This is the 
natal or birth plumage, and consists of only down feathers, which 
are very different from the feathers which will clothe the bird later. 
Some of these down feathers, taken from the back, sides, and under 
surface, are shown in the illustration. (PI. 1, fig. 1.) 

Though differing somewhat in size, the down feathers are of the 
same character all over the body and wings, a contrast to the various 
kinds of feathers which the bird produces later. They consist of 
small tufts of plumules, differing in length, and all starting from 
about the same level, there being no shaft or stem, as in the later 
feathers.? ach tuft consists of from 10 to 20 or more plumules, of 
which at least 4 are much longer than the others, being about 24 
inches in length in the side feathers but only about half as long on 
the back. A plumule is made up of a central axis or barb with 
small delicate barbules on each side. Toward their free end the 
larger plumules are without barbules, and on the down feathers of 
the back are prolonged into a rather coarse, flat, curled, strap-like 
portion, but on the feathers of the side and below they are narrower 
and more hair like. The flat naked parts of the barbs give a bristly 
hedgehog-like appearance to the young chick, and stand out con- 
spicuously against the rest of the plumage. (PI. 1, fig. 2.) Most of 
the remaining plumules have barbules all along their length and vary 
in size from an inch and a half to half an inch, while two or three 
are shorter. These soft delicate plumules give the downy character 
to the under part of the plumage of the young chick, though this is 
somewhat obscured toward the surface by the bristle-like character 
of the barbs of the long plumules. (PI. 1, fig. 2.) 

Even at the time of hatching it is possible to distinguish in the 
natal down great differences in the feather-producing capacity of 
various strains of birds. The down feathers in some strains are almost 
double the size of the feathers in other strains, while others again 
are denser and more glossy. 

At all ages the neck and head of the ostrich are, as regards their 
plumage, sharply distinguished from the rest of the body. These 
parts are sometimes described as naked, but as a matter of fact they 
are thickly covered by feathers which are much smaller than those 


1 Down feathers are sometimes termed “‘ plumules,” but in ostrich feather terminology it 
is best to use plumule for each barb and the barbules attached to its sides. Thus each 
constituent of a down feather will be a plumule, as well as each separate part of the 
flue arising from the shaft in the adult plume. 

2It has lately been shown that both the shaft and quill are absent from the first 
down feathers of birds, the barbs of the down feather passing without interruption 
into the new feather below. In the large down feathers of the ostrich, however, there 
is fully half an inch of quill. 


PLUMAGES OF THE OSTRICH——-DUERDEN. 563 


on the body and wings, and have one or more of the plumules pro- 
longed ina hair-like fashion. These hair-like feathers become bristly 
on the head, and form a special tuft around the ear openings, and also 
serve as eyelashes to the eyelids. The head and neck feathers of the 
chick are tufts of plumules like those on the body, only much smaller. 
Examples of the same feathers as they occur in the adult are shown 
in plate 8, figure 1, and are seen to have advanced very little beyond 
ordinary down. They do not overlap one another like the feathers 
on the body and wings. 

The neck and head feathers vary in color in the chick, and on the 
neck the colors are so arranged as to give rise to from five to nine 
longitudinal dark bands, which are either continuous throughout the 
long neck or interrupted. Usually the dorsal three or five bands are 
continuous, while the rest are broken and somewhat ill defined. They 
are shown on the chicks in plate 1. On the head the dark feathers are 
arranged so as to produce a V-shaped pattern, the angle of the 
V pointing toward the beak. The sides of the V are either continuous 
or interrupted, this, according to some, denoting a sexual difference. 
The general color effect of the upper part of the head is a rich brown, 
shading off down the neck. On some chicks a small naked patch 
occurs on the back of the head and disappears later. 

The down feathers of the back and sides of the body also vary 
in color from light to dark brown or nearly black, and, being inter- 
mingled, give a characteristic mottled appearance to the chick, as 
shown in plate 1, figure 2; the feathers on the under surface and in 
front are much paler in color, either yellow or white. But newly 
hatched chicks vary much in the general light or dark brown appear- 
ance of the natal plumage as a whole, dependent upon the relative 
number of the light and dark feathers. In some down feathers, 
light and dark plumules are intermingled, but usually a feather is 
either one shade or the other. 

Both natal and chick feathers are found covering the outer surface 
of most of the upper region of the leg, but as the birds become older 
they largely disappear from this part, leaving the legs altogether 
naked (pl. 3, fig. 1) ; impressions of the sockets, however, remain for 
a long time. 

The natal feathers are not molted in the ordinary manner of 
later feathers. A week or two after birth they begin to be pushed 
out of the feather sockets by the chick feathers growing below, the 
first to appear being those along the sides of the hinder part of the 
body. The down remains continuous with the tip of the new feather, 
and there persists until broken or worn off. On the tip of the wing 
quills the natal feathers remain for six months or more; that is, 
until the feathers (spadonas) are clipped or the tips worn away 
(pl. 2, fig. 4). 


564 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 
THE CHICK PLUMAGE. 


The chick plumage is that which appears soon after the chick is 
hatched, and is completed at the age of about 8 months; that is, 
when the wing quills are fully ripe, these being the last to complete 
their growth. The feathers of this plumage are formed of the 
ordinary quill and plume, the flue of the latter being equally devel- 
oped on each side of the shaft or stem. The chick feathers are distin- 
guished from the later feathers by bearing at their tip the natal 
down feathers, due to the fact that the growth from the birth to 
the chick feather is continuous; they also taper toward their free 
end. The feathers, surrounded by their sheath, begin to make their 
appearance when the chick is a week or two old, but not all at the 
same time, the earliest to push out being those over the sides of the 
hinder part of the body. The flue begins to expand when the chicks 
are between 3 and 4 weeks old. 

The chick plumage lasts for a varied period, dependent partly 
upon the nutritive condition and partly upon the strain of the bird; 
some of the feathers remain on the bird for a year or more, while 
others are molted before the bird is 6 months old, when there results 
an intermingling of the chick and juvenal plumages. 

The distinguishing feature of the chick plumage, as of the early 
plumage of many other birds, is its mottled character, agreeing in 
this respect with the natal plumage. In the chick, however, the 
mottling is not due to an intermingling of light and dark feathers, 
but to the fact that the upper part of each feather is light brown, 
while the lower part is of a dark gray color (pl. 2, fig. 1). The com- 
bination of light brown and dark gray colors gives a peculiar mottled 
or variegated color to the chicks for the greater part of the first 
year, but is more pronounced during the first six months while the 
feathers are young and fresh. Chicks from different parents vary 
much in the proportion of light brown and dark colors on the indi- 
vidual feathers, and hence in the general light or dark mottled 
effect of the plumage as a whole. The dark bands on the neck and 
head are nearly as pronounced as in the natal plumage. 

The various kinds of feathers—body feathers, coverts, and wing 
and tail quills—now begin to show for the first time those differences 
which are such a marked feature of the adult. The wing quills 

1J3t has recently been shown that in many birds the barbs of the new feather are 
directly continuous with the barbs of the down feather, no real break occurring between 
the two. For this reason some writers consider that the down feathers do not represent 
a distinct plumage, but are to be looked upon as the modified tip of the first true feathev 
(the definitive feather). In the ostrich, however, there is a definite though weak quill, 
which makes a distinct break between the barbs of the down feather and those of the 
chick feather. Moreover, the quill of later feathers naturally molted is also continuous 


with the tip of the new feather, breaking off from it more readily than do the natal 
feathers on account of its greater weight, 


PLUMAGES OF THE OSTRICH—DUERDEN. 565 


(remiges) are from 1 to 2 feet in length when full grown, and, 
like the later wing quills, vary much in length, breadth, and other 
characters according to the strain. Like the rest of the chick feathers 
they never form the full rounded tip characteristic of the later wing 
quills, but taper considerably, hence their technical name of spadona, 
derived from the Italian spadone, the name for a long, heavy sword 
(pl. 2, fig. 2). The flue is somewhat narrow and thin compared with 
that of the later wing quiils, and light brown above and white or gray 
below, the white being the more valuable. As the spadonas attain 
their full length they seem disproportionately large for a chick of 
5 or 6 months, and when the wings are at rest the feathers of oppo- 
site sides may cross over one another under the body and behind 
the legs. From their nearness to the ground, the tips are more or 
less worn away as the plumes become fully grown. 

The rectrices, or tail quills, are white below, gray above, and 
tipped with the usual brown, varying much in the proportions of the 
different tints. They are much shorter than the wing quills, and, 
like them, taper toward their free end. 

The body feathers of the back and sides vary somewhat in length 
from different parts of the chick, and also in different strains of 
birds, but they all narrow toward their free end. The wing coverts 
and body feathers are of much the same shape, narrowing consider- 
ably toward the tip. The lower part of each is a light or dark gray 
color, while the upper part is light brown; the boundary between 
the two colors is irregular, and the proportion of the two colors on 
each feather also varies considerably. The chick feathers on the 
under part of the body are white or gray, and do not overlap in the 
same way as the upper feathers. 

The wing quills or spadonas of the chick are practically fie only 
feathers of any commercial importance at this stage, the wing coverts 
and tails having but little value. The spadonas complete their 
growth, as regards the whole of the plume and an inch or so of the 
quill, by the time the chicks are from 6 to 7 months old, and are 
then clipped for sale. The quill is, however, allowed to remain 
in the socket in order to complete its development. This requires 
about two months longer, so that the feather has not actually finished 
its growth and ripened before the chick is 8 or 84 months old, by 
which time all the other feathers have ripened and many have been 
replaced by the feathers of the next plumage. As the feather ripens, 
the red blood in the central medulla or pith can be seen to recede 
slowly down the quill, which then becomes white and dry, filled with 
air, and hollow except for the presence of the horny feather cones 
which successively cut off the medulla. By the end of two months 
from clipping, the quills are practically ripe; that is, the blood has 
left the medulla and the whole quill has hardened and is narrowed 


566 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


toward its extremity. It may then be extracted without injury to 
the bird. The plumes are clipped before the lower part of the quill 
is ripened, otherwise their tips would be much worn, and the feather 
as a whole greatly depreciated in value; this applies also to all the 
later feather crops. As the severance takes place through the upper 
ripened part, above the blood in the pith, there is no hemorrhage, 
which should be avoided for the sake of the later feather. 

As regards the feathers of the chick plumage there is no reliable 
sexual difference in the ostrich, nothing to indicate which are cocks 
or hens, a matter often of much importance to the farmer. Usually, 
however, the spadonas from cock chicks are lighter than those from 
the hens. To determine the sex with certainty, however, other char- 
acters are available at this time. 

The wing plumes being clipped at about 6 months, the tail quills 
and two rows of wing coverts are allowed to ripen, and are plucked 
at from 7 to 8 months; being of little value they are rarely clipped. 
All the other feathers of the chick plumage are allowed to follow 
the natural method of molting. The process is carried out at very 
different times in different parts of the bird and will be described in 
connection with the juvenal plumage. 

From 5 to 6 months onward the chick plumage as a whole begins 
to lose its primary characteristics. Many of the body feathers are 
early pushed out by those of the juvenal plumage, and, as the latter 
are larger and uniformly steel gray, they show conspicuously among 
the mottled chick plumes. The chick feathers drop out first in the 
hip region by the time the chick is 5 months old, that is, before some 
of the other feathers of the plumage are fully grown. The chick 
feathers which are not replaced begin to lose their freshness of color 
from about 6 months onward, the lighter brown at the end of the 
feathers especially disappearing. In the wear and tear the tips are 
generally worn away, and the adhering natal feather is broken off. 

The general color effect of the chick ostrich, in both the natal and 
chick stages (pl. 1, fig. 2, pl. 2, fig. 1), would appear to have a protec- 
tive significance, the light and dark mottlings closely resembling the 
dry veld or grass on which the chicks usually crouch in nature. When 
at all alarmed, chicks suddenly scatter and then drop flat on the 
ground, with the neck and head extended, exhibiting death feigning 
to a greater or less degree, and in this condition all farmers have 
noted the difficulty in recognizing the chicks on account of the close 
resemblance which they bear to their surroundings. 


THE JUVENAL PLUMAGE. 


The third or juvenal plumage represents an intermediate stage 
betwen the chick and the adult plumage. It does not, however, fol- 
low immediately upon the second or chick plumage, as molting is 


PLUMAGES OF THE OSTRICH——DUERDEN. 567 


never uniform over all the body. The body feathers of the chick are 
pushed out gradually, one at a time, not simultaneously, from 4 or 5 
months onward, and are replaced by larger feathers of an altogether 
different type. Instead of being mottled, the new feathers are of a 
uniformly dark gray or slate color, often tinged with white for a 
time at the extreme tip, which is no longer tapering but rounded (pl. 
3, fig. 1). The juvenal feathers first appear along the sides of the 
hinder part of the body, a number coming out about the same time. 
Often the chick feather will remain attached to the tip of the new 
feather, hanging loosely, and only breaking off after the juvenal 
feather has protruded for some distance. After a number have 
grown out at the sides others begin to appear along the back, and then 
odd ones push out over the body generally. Some chick feathers 
may, however, remain in their sockets until the birds are 12 months 
or more old, those around the base of the neck being the last to drop 
out. The rapidity of the change is partly determined by the nutri- 
tive condition of the bird and partly by the strain. 

The chick, as a whole, begins to lose its mottled appearance from 
6 to 9 months onward. This is partly due to the replacement of the 
lighter tipped chick feathers by juvenals of a uniform hue and partly 
to the fading and wearing away of the light brown tip of the old ones 
remaining. By the time the chicks are a year old, nearly all the 
body feathers show the slate or drab color of the juvenal plumage, 
those of the cocks being somewhat darker than those of the hens. 
All the feathers of the plumage, however, are not fully ripe until the 
birds are about 16 months old, as usual the last to ripen being the 
wing quills. In the wild chick some of the wing quills would ripen 
much later than this, for, in nature, the first quills are not got rid 
of all at the same time as is the case under farming conditions. 

The ventral or underbody feathers of the juvenal plumage are 
white or light gray in both the cock and the hen, but by 16 months 
some of the true blacks are beginning to show in the cocks, and, ulti- 
mately, the ventrals are all black in the cocks but remain white in 
the hens. 

Under farming conditions the quills of the spadonas are all pulled 
out at from 8 to 9 months, and the wing quills of the juvenal begin 
to show in about a month’s time. They have been found experimen- 
tally to grow at the rate of from 1 to 2 inches per week. The juvenal 
wing plumes, known as “ first-after-chicks,” are sometimes uniformly 
white in the cock, though usually they are tipped with black. 
Rarely some of the juvenal wing plumes in the hen are pure white; 
generally they are tipped with black or have an irregular admixture 
of gray, and though sometimes longer, are usually not as dense nor 
as valuable as those of the cock. The juvenal wing plumes are much 
larger than the spadonas and more rounded at the top, but the wing 


568 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


plumes do not reach their full size until the next stage or even later. 
As a result of the highly stimulating conditions of artificial feeding, 
it is found, however, that the plumes tend to attain maturity at the 
juvenal stage, and advance but little afterwards. This is more es- 
pecially the case in some strains than in others. 

The juvenal tail quills of the cock are now white or tinged with 
light or dark brown; those of the hen are usually a darker or lighter 
mottled gray. The juvenal upper and under wing coverts are, like 
the body feathers, gray or blackish, darker in the cock than in the 
hen. The small black feathers of the neck and head now disappear 
to a large extent in both sexes, so that the dark longitudinal bands 
of the chick are scarcely recognizable. The covering of the head and 
neck becomes a pale gray, almost white in some strains, and often a 
pure white ring intervenes between the neck and the body feathers. 

With the juvenal plumage slight sexual distinctions begin to mani- 
fest themselves. Generally the body feathers are darker in the cocks 
than in the hens; the ventral or under feathers are white in the latter 
but change to black in the former; the wing quills of the cock are 
pure white, usually tipped with black, while those of the hens are 
nearly always tipped or tinged throughout with gray. The plumage 
distinction between the sexes is, however, by no means so decided 
at the juvenal stage as later on, when the true blacks appear in the 
cock while the body feathers of the hen retain the dark gray or drab. 


ADULT PLUMAGE. 


The adult plumage in the cock ostrich is altogether different from 
that of the hen; even at a glance the two sexes are conspicuously 
unlike (pl. 3, fig. 2). The full distinction is reached when the birds 
are about 2 years old, but great variation occurs, some strains com- 
pleting their changes much before others. The adult cock bird is 
characterized by the possession of black body feathers and coverts, 
the hen by drab body feathers and coverts (pl. 4, fig. 1). The differ- 
ence may perhaps be better appreciated by saying that the hen retains 
throughout life the same dull gray color which she had in the juvenal 
plumage, while the cock passes through the juvenal to a stage where 
the feathers are black. Both sexes are practically alike in color as 
far as the juvenal plumage, and the hen retains the somber color 
throughout life while the cock goes a stage further in which he is 
more conspicuous. Similar sexual relationships hold in many other 
animals, the female remaining at an earlier developmental stage 
which is common to both, while the male assumes another more showy 
garb, differences which may perhaps have a bearing upon questions 
of sexual selection and protective resemblance. 

In young cocks there is a marked contrast between the gray or 
drab feathers of the juvenal plumage and the first black feathers 


PLUMAGES OF THE OSTRICH——DUERDEN, 569 


of the adult plumage. The time at which the true blacks show 
themselves varies much in different birds, and as these feathers are 
of greater value than the drabs, the earliness is a matter of some 
economic importance. The blacks on the sides will sometimes appear 
before the birds are a year old, but usually they are later, though 
before the end of two years all the body feathers and coverts will be 
black. Often in birds between 18 months and 2 years a few odd faded 
feathers of the juvenal plumage are conspicuous among the fresh. 
true blacks. 

With the fourth plumage, “second-after-chicks,” the valuable. 
wing quills of both the cock and the hen have usually reached their’ 
full size and show their best characteristics. The plumes attain 
ripeness by the time the bird is about 2 years old, though in forward 
birds the quills also will be ripe by this time. With the exception 
of a few feathers toward each end of the wing, the wing quills are 
pure white in the cock (“ primes” or “ whites”), but are usually 
tinged with gray or black in the hen, either throughout or only at 
the tip (“ feminas”’) (cf. pl. 4, fig. 2; pl. 5). The detailed characters 
of these feathers, which determine their value from a commercial, 
point of view, will be described later. 

The tail quills of the adult also differ in the two sexes. Those 
of the cock are usually white below and yellowish brown above, while 
in the hen they are mottled light and dark gray, the proportions 
of the light and dark areas varying much. At first sight the brown 
color of the cock’s tail feathers might be supposed to be merely a 
discoloration from dragging over the ground, but it is found to be 
the true natural color of the plumes in most cases, though some are 
nearly pure white. As the cocks generally carry their tails erect 
or pointing forward, the light brown feathers stand out very con- 
spicuously against the blacks of the body. 

Except as regards position the passage from the wing and tail 
quills to the coverts and body feathers is gradual. Toward each end 
of the series of wing quills three or four of the plumes of the cock, 
instead of being pure white, are a particolor of black and white. 
These are technically known as byocks or fancies (pl. 6), and are 
very attractive plumes, realizing good prices. The hen likewise shows 
“hen fancies,” a mixture of white and gray. Similarly with the two 
rows of wing coverts; while usually wholly black (pl. 7) or drab, 
many are white in places, particularly toward each end of the plume. 
Likewise the white and brown tail quills of the cock are not succeeded 
by wholly black feathers but by particolored feathers, in which the 
white, brown, or black are displayed in varying proportions. These 
intermediate tail feathers are known as “ black butts.” 

As previously stated, the neck and head of the ostrich are covered 
with small downlike feathers, giving these parts an altogether dif- 


570 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ferent appearance from the rest of the body (pl. 3, fig. 2; pl. 4, fig. 1). 
Examples of the neck and head feathers as they occur in the adult 
ostrich are shown in plate 8, figure 1. In most cock birds a con- 
spicuous ring of small white feathers occurs toward the base of the 
neck; that is, where the black body feathers pass into the gray neck 
feathers (see the cock in pl. 4, fig. 1). Two of these are shown in 
plate 8, figure 1, and reveal that a few of the barbs at the tip are 
prolonged beyond the others in a hairlike fashion. This character 
becomes more emphasized in the feathers covering the rest of the neck 
and head, as shown in the same illustration. They are downlike in 
character, the quill and shaft undeveloped, the barbs delicate and 
hairlike, and the central barb prolonged much beyond the others. 
Owing to these long barbs the neck and head seem as if provided 
with a sparse covering of hair, which is especially concentrated as a 
circular tuft around the ear openings and also around the eyelids, 
forming the eyelashes. 

The under or ventral body feathers are small and black in the cock 
but white or gray in the hen. In the adult the feathers have all or 
nearly all disappeared from the upper part of the leg, which is then 
naked throughout its length; the original feather sockets show, how- 
ever, for a long time. 

The third and fourth clippings are generally considered to repre- 
sent the best efforts of the ostrich in the direction of feather produc- 
tion (pl. 8, fig. 2). The plumes do not improve from this time 
onward, so that the farmer is now fully aware of the feather value 
of his bird. Ostriches which are well treated continue to produce 
feathers of the same quality for a number of years, well authenticated 
cases being known of birds 35 to 40 years old which still produce a 
good plumage. Where, however, the production is forced, as in 
securing a clipping every eight or nine months, some birds are found 
to deteriorate after four or five years; but great variation is observed 
in this respect. The plumes also depreciate rapidly if the practice 
is followed of drawing the feathers or quills before they are fully 
ripe. <A bird almost useless for feather production may yet be valu- 
able for breeding. 

A few general considerations call for notice. The approximate 
ages given above at which the wing plumes attain ripeness only apply 
to ostriches under domestication, in which evenness and greater 
frequency of growth is attained by pulling the quills immediately on 
attaining ripeness. By this means clippings are secured at 6 months, 
at 14 months, and at about 2 years, the last representing the adult 
plumage. When left to themselves; that is, when not drawn arti- 
ficially, the quills are not all molted at the same time; some will 
remain in their sockets for months longer than others and hence 


PLUMAGES OF THE OSTRICH—DUERDEN. 571 


delay the plumage stage of the particular socket. The natural order 
according to which the various plumes appear has not yet been deter- 
mined, but it is well established that the feathers toward both ends 
of the wing develop in advance of those in the middle. It follows 
from this irregular molting that, in a state of nature, the time at 
which all the wing plumes, tail plumes, and even the coverts have 
reached the adult plumage stage will be much later than that given 
above. In a wild ostrich only a few of the wing plumes are growing 
at any one time instead of the full number as in the domesticated 
bird, where the growth is regulated artificially. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden. PLATE 1. 


1. NATAL OR BIRTH FEATHERS, CONSISTING OF TUFTS OF PLUMULES WITHOUT 
ANY SHAFT BUT WITH A SHORT TERMINAL QUILL. 
Some of the plumules are continued into bristle-like portions, which produce the bristly 


appearance of the chick as a whole. All the feathers of the chick on hatching are of 
this type. 


2. GROUP OF CHICKS A FORTNIGHT OLD, SHOWING THE BRISTLY NATURE OF THE 
NATAL OR BIRTH PLUMAGE. 


Owing to the heat of the day when the photograph was taken the feathers are standing 
erect and allow the naked parts of the skin (apteria) to be seen, both behind and at 
the sides, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden. PLATE 2. 


1. A GROUP OF CHICKS ABOUT 5 MONTHS OLD, 
SHOWING THE MOTTLED CHARACTER OF THE 
CHICK PLUMAGE. 


Each body feather is tapering and light brown at the 
tip, while the rest of the feather is dark gray. 


2. SPADONAS OR SPADS, THE FIRST WING QUILLS OF THE 
CHICK, CLIPPED AT ABOUT 6 MONTHS. 


; 


The middle one still bears the natal feather at its tip. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden PLATE 3. 


1. CHICK A LITTLE OVER 6 MONTHS OLD BEGINNING TO 
LOSE THE MOTTLED CHARACTER OF ITS PLUMAGE. 


The juvenal feathers have appeared along the side and are tempo- 
rarily tinged with white at the rounded tip. The feathers have 
almost disappeared from the leg; the neck is more uniform in 
color than in younger birds, and the ventral body feathers are 
light gray. The wing being extended, the naked part of the 
body underneath is clearly seen. 


2. A SMALL FLOCK OF FEATHER BIRDS MOSTLY IN FULL PLUMAGE. 


Note the black body feathers of the cocks and the drab plumage of the 
hens. The wing quills are white in both. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden. 


1. A PAIR OF BREEDERS, SHOWING THE DIFFERENCE IN 
THE PLUMAGE OF THE COCK AND HEN. 

The neck and head are covered with down and uniform in 
color, except for the white ring toward the root of the neck 
in the cock. Thelegis wholly devoid of feathers; the large 
scales along the front of the tarsus can be recognized. 


2. A COMPLETE CLIPPING OF “FEMINAS,” THE WING QUILLS OF THE HEN, 
DISTINGUISHED BY THE BLACK PATCHES AT THE CROWN OF THE PLUMES. 


The clipping weighed 9 ounces. Grown by Mr. James Ford, Kasouga. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden. PLATE 5. 


A COMPLETE CLIPPING OF THE WING QUILLS, ‘‘PRIMES,” OF THE Cock, SHOWING THE 
PurRE WHITE OF THE PLUMES. 


The few black and white feathers toward the back of the bunch are Fancies or Byocks. The 
clipping weighed 9 ounces. Grown by Mr. James Ford, Kasouga. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden. PLATE 6. 


A Cock Byock oR FANCY, A PARTI-COLOR OF 
BLACK AND WHITE. 


Three or four of such plumes, often with more 
black, oceur toward the end of the series of wing 
quills. Grown by Messrs. Walter Weeks & Son, 
Sandflats. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden. PLATE 7. 


A CLIPPING OF BLACK WING COVERTS. 


In clipping, only the first and second rows of wing coverts are taken. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Duerden. PLATE 8. 


1. FEATHERS OR DOWN TAKEN FROM THE NECK AND HEAD OF AN ADULT BIRD. 


The two larger, one at each side of the group, are from the white ring toward the base of 
the neck of the cock, the long hair-like middle feather is from the head, and the others 
from the neck. The ‘‘hair’’ is seen to bea greatly elongated barb. 


2. A HIGH-GRADE PRIME, SHOWING CON- 
SIDERABLE NATURAL CURL. 


Bird owned by Mr. F. W. Holland, Despatch; 
bred by Mr. Oscar Evans, Melrose. 


MANIFESTED LIFE OF TISSUES OUTSIDE OF THE 
ORGANISM. 


By ALmxis CARgREL and Montrose T. Burrows. 
(From the Laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York.) 


I. INTRODUCTION. 


Fragments of tissues and organs of mammals and other animals 
can be kept outside of the organism in a condition of manifested life, 
when they are placed under certain conditions in a proper culture 
medium. Their life is essentially characterized by an active growth 
of the cells from the original fragment into the medium where they 
undergo direct or indirect division. These cells cover a wide area of 
the medium, and are often very densely packed. They grow during 
a period of time which varies from 5 or 6 days to more than 20 
days, without any evidence of necrobiosis. The cells which have 
wandered into or have been born in the plasmatic medium can be 
transplanted into a new medium and produce a very luxuriant 
generation of cells. A culture of tumor transplanted into the body 
of an animal can take and grow rapidly. 

The idea of cultivating tissues as previously defined is far from 
being new. Many experimenters have already thought of the pos- 
sibility of growing tissues outside of the body, and several have 
attempted to develop adequate method for it. In 1897 Leo Loeb 
thought that the culture of tissues in an artificial medium outside of 
the body was possible, and stated that he had found a method for 
accomplishing it. But the technique and the results of his experi- — 
ments have not been published. In 1907 Harrison demonstrated in 
a series of splendid experiments, made in the anatomical department 
of Johns Hopkins University, that embryonic tissue of the frog, 
transplanted into coagulable lymph, will develop normally. The 
central nervous system of a frog embryo, covered with fluid from 
the lymph sac of an adult frog, produced long nerve fibers. These 
experiments demonstrated that the nerve fibers are really an out- 
growth from a central neurone. But they demonstrated also a very 
much more important fact, the possibility of growing tissue outside 

573 


574 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the body. At this time Carrel was engaged in the study of the laws 
of cicatrization of tissues and cutaneous wounds of mammals, and 
resolved to use for that purpose the method of Harrison. Then 
Burrows, under the guidance of Prof. Harrison himself, adapted 
the method to the cultivation of tissues of the chick embryo; that is, 
of a warm-blooded animal. Then, in September, 1910, at the Rocke- 
feller Institute we succeeded in cultivating in vitro, adult tissues of 
mammals. 

We used at first the culture method of Harrison, that is, of small 
pieces of tissue suspended in a hanging drop of plasma. Afterwards 
we developed a method of culture on a plate, which permitted us to 
grow large quantities of tissues. It became therefore possible to 
observe many new facts. 

It was found at first that almost all the adult and embryonic 
tissues of dog, cat, chicken, rat, and guinea pigs could be easily culti- 
vated in vitro. According to their nature these tissues generate con- 
nective or epithelial cells, which grow into the plasmatic medium in 
continuous layers, or in radiating chains. The tissue fragments may 
surround themselves completely with dense new tissue, or, on the 
contrary, the new cells may spread over the surface of the medium. 
We observed the direct division of the nuclei during the life of the 
cells, and many karyokinetic figures in the fixed and stained cultures, 
Other experiments showed that the life in vitro of the tissues, which 
varies from about 5 days to about 20 days, can be prolonged by 
secondary and tertiary cultures, and that a new generation of 
thyroid, splenic and sarcomatous cells can be obtained from cells 
which have developed outside the body. We succeeded quickly also 
in cultivating malignant tissues such as the Rous chicken sarcoma, 
the Ehrlich and Jensen sarcoma of the rat, a primary carcinoma of 
the breast (dog) and two human tumors, a sarcoma of the fibnla, and 
a carcinoma of the breast. A culture in vitro of the Rous sarcoma 
transplanted into a chicken caused the development of a sarcoma. 
Meanwhile the method has been applied successfully in the laboratory 
of Prof. MacCallum by Drs. Lambert and Hanes, who cultivated 
the Ehrlich sarcoma of the rat. We applied also the method of 
cultivation of tissues in vitro to several problems of the redintegra- 
tion of normal tissues and of the biology of malignant tumor. 

The results obtained in this and other laboratories are already too 
numerous to be described in this article. We will indicate only the 
technique, the general characters of the cultures, and some of the 
applications of this new method. 


II. TECHNIQUE. 


The new technique consists essentially in depositing small frag- 
ments of living tissues in fluid plasma or in an artificial medium. 
The cultures belong tothree types—the small cultures in a hanging 


LIFE OUTSIDE OF ORGANISM—CARREL AND BURROWS. 575 


drop, similar to those of Harrison; the cultures in a watch glass filled 
with plasma; and the large cultures on the surface of a plate, which 
can be compared to the plate cultures of bacteria. The technique 
must be elaborate in its details, in order to obtain results which are 
uniformly positive. Tissues, especially the higher adult mammalian 
tissues, are easily killed by drying, chilling, and rough handling dur- 
ing the preparation of the culture. Bacterial infection is also detri- 
mental to tissue growth. A rigid asepsis is necessary for the prepara- 
tion of any tissue culture. The culture must be made in a warm, 
humid operating room, with the same care and rapidity as a delicate 
surgical operation. If the method is to give uniform results, not only 
must the above precautions be closely followed but also the perfect 
teamwork of well-trained assistants is necessary. 

The plasma is prepared from the blood of the animal whose tissues 
are to be cultivated or from another animal from the same or from dif- 
ferent species. The blood is taken from an artery or from a vein. 
When dogs, cats, chickens, guinea pigs, and rats are used, the carotid 
artery is ordinarily selected. For human beings the blood is easily ob- 
tained from one of the superficial veins of the arm. The animal is 
etherized and the vessel is exposed and dissected from the surround- 
ing tissue. The wall of the blood vessel is rubbed with dry gauze and 
covered with olive oil, the circulation is then interrupted by a serre 
fine, the vessel wall is opened laterally, and a glass cannula previously 
sterilized in olive oil is inserted into the lumen of the vessel. It is also 
possible to use a needle sterilized in olive oil and inserted through the 
skin into the vein. The blood is collected in small tubes, carefully 
coated with paraffin, which have been previously cooled at 0° C. The 
tubes are immediately corked, placed in large tubes filled with ice, 
centrifugalized for five minutes, and deposited in a small ice box at 
0° C. The supernatant plasma is removed with pipettes coated with 
paraffin. It is generally used immediately, but it can be preserved 
for some time in a fluid condition if it is kept at a low temperature. 
Artificial media are also employed. They are composed of agar, 
glucose, and salts under proper concentration. We used also the me- 
dium described by Lewis and composed of bouillon, agar, and Ringer 
solution. 

The tissues used for cultures must be in normal condition. They 
are best if taken directly from the living animal or from an animal 
soon after death. With a cataract knife and a fine needle, a small 
fragment of tissue is dissected from the animal and placed on a glass 
plate. This piece of tissue is rapidly cut into small pieces about the 
size of a millet seed and transferred on the point of a needle to the 
surface of a cover glass. For the large cultures, the tissue is cut into 
small pieces with sharp scissors, or, what is still better, into thin, 
broader pieces with a razor. It must be remembered that Christiana 


576 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


has demonstrated that a small piece of thyroid may die if exposed to 
the drying action of the air for more than 10 seconds. Therefore, 
the section and the handling of the tissues must be very rapid, other- 
wise the tissue is killed. The dissection of the tissue may be made in 
a drop of serum, in order to prevent that accident. 

The small cultures are similar to those used by Harrison: One or 
two small pieces of tissue are transferred to a cover glass and quickly 
covered with a drop of plasma. It is best to spread the plasma in a 
thin layer over the cover glass. This is done with the needle before 
coagulation occurs. The cells grow, then, in a few planes and in areas 
about the tissue. If the drop is thick the cells grow in many planes 
and it is difficult to measure the area of growth or to photograph and 
observe the growing cells. The cover glass is then inverted over a 
hollow slide with paraffin to prevent drying. The finished slide is 
immediately placed in a small electric incubator which is used for 
transferring the cultures from the operating room to the large incu- 
bator in the room where the study of cultures is made. Coagulation 
of the plasma takes place either immediately upon the addition of 
the tissue or soon after the slides are placed in the warm oven. 

To grow tissues on a large scale, the same general technique is used. 
A rigid asepsis here is most necessary, as it is very easy to infect these 
large cultures. An entire chicken fetus of 15 days, or small mam- 
malian fetuses cut into small fragments, may be used for these cul- 
tures. These fragments are spread in a thin layer over the surface 
of a large black glass plate and covered quickly with fluid plasma. 
As soon as coagulation of the plasma has taken place the plates are 
placed in glass boxes with cotton sponges soaked in water, which pre- 
serve the proper humidity. The boxes are then carefully sealed with 
paraffin and kept in such a position that the fluid products of the 
culture may drain to the bottom. 

During their growth, the cultures can be removed from the incu- 
bator for a few seconds without danger to their life. Certain tissues, 
like malignant tumor or spleen, grow and extend so widely that their 
condition can be observed without the use of the microscope. On 
a hollow slide, the new tissue of a culture of spleen appears as an 
opalescent area surrounding the primitive fragment. Even the be- 
ginning of growth can be diagnosed by the appearance on the sharp 
edges of the fragment of a very faint and narrow gray band. In 
the culture on plates the appearance of a whitish color around the 
fragments of the tissues shows that they are growing. But it is 
safer to make a few control cultures in hollow slides and to observe 
their growth with a microscope. 

For the study of the cultures we use a microscope placed in a warm 
stage, the temperature of which is kept constant. The slides can 


LIFE OUTSIDE OF ORGANISM—CARREL AND BURROWS. 577 


be kept under the miscroscope for a long time, if necessary, without 
any danger to the life of the tissue. Before the beginning of the 
growth, the fragment of tissue appears as an opaque, sharply outlined 
mass in the clear medium. In the surrounding clear medium the 
growing cells are easily detected. Camera lucida drawings of the 
cells can be made when the tissues develop slowly, like cartilage or 
peritoneum. But even in these cases the motion of the cells and the 
changes in their shape require that the sketches be made rapidly. 
The growth of sarcoma or of spleen is often so rapid that it renders 
impossible an accurate camera lucida drawing. The best method 
of recording the morphology of the living cultures is to photograph 
them. But this is often very difficult because the new tissue is dense 
or the cells are faintly seen, and chiefly because the cells do not grow 
on the same plane. Generally in a very actively growing culture no 
cell can be seen distinctly. Even when the outlines of the cells can 
be distinguished easily under the microscope a sharp photograph 
of them may be impossible if they are surrounded by cells which 
have grown on slightly different planes. 

For exact cytologic study the cultures are fixed and stained. The 
cover glass, to which the culture is adherent, is separated from the 
hollow slides, and immersed in corrosive sublimate, acetic acid, or 
formalin, or the various preparations of potassium bichromate solu- 
tions. Afterwards they are stained in hematoxylin. When the cul- 
ture medium is spread on the cover glass in a very thin layer, and 
when the culture is not too old, the cells appear very distinctly and 
all their structural details are easily observed. When the plasmatic 
medium is thick, and when the cells have grown in many different 
planes, serial sections of the hardened culture are required. 

In order to increase the length of a primary culture secondary and 
tertiary cultures are made. A secondary culture is obtained from a 
primary culture by extirpation with a fine needle of the fragment 
of original tissue, which is deposited on a cover glass and covered 
with fresh plasma. A second generation of cells can be obtained 
from a primary or secondary culture by two procedures, one consists 
of extirpating the fragment of tissue from the culture medium and 
of covering the free space with fresh plasma. Then the cells from 
the old plasma grow into the new plasma. The other consists of 
cutting with fine scissors fragments of medium containing the cells 
from which a second generation must be obtained. The fragment is 
deposited on a cover glass and covered with plasma. 

The cultures can be grafted under the skin of an animal. Small 
cultures, or large cultures on plate are used. A fragment of the 
medium containing the living cells is cut with a knife and introduced 
into the tissues of the animal. 

97578°—sm 1910——37 


578 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 
III. RESULTS. 


It is not possible to give in this article a complete description of the 
results already obtained. We will only describe the main character- 
istics of the cultures during the different periods of their growth. 

Almost all our observations have been upon primary cultures, the 
phases of which can be divided artificially into three periods, namely, 
latency, growth, and death. 

1. The latent period covers the time from the inoculation of the 
fragment in the plasmatic medium until the appearance of the first 
cells. Note must first be taken of the appearance of the culture 
immediately after its preparation; the fragment appears as an opaque 
body with more or less sharply defined edges lying within a clear 
medium. 

The length of the latent period varies according to the nature of 
the tissues. It is very short for embryonal tissues and for malignant 
tumors, which begin to grow 2 or 3 hours after the preparation 
of the culture. In some cases, even, the first evidence of growth can 
be observed after one hour and a half. The latent period of adult 
tissues lasts generally from 24 hours to 3 or 4 days. It endured from 
20 to 72 hours for glandular tissues like kidney, ovary, and thyroid, 
according to the age of the animal and some other conditions. In 
the case of a 6-day-old kitten growth began in 12 hours; in that of 
a young dog it began after 24 to 48 hours. In the case of adult 
animals 2 to 3 years old the period extended to 48 or 72 hours. The 
cultures of connective tissue, peritoneum and cartilage, may remain 
without any evidence of growth for 3 or 4 days. 

2. The period of growth varies considerably. It is indicated by 
the appearance, in one or several regions at the periphery of the 
fragment, of many small points. They are the ends of the fusiform 
cells which wander from the tissue. In the cultures of spleen the 
original fragment is surrounded very soon by a thick crown of round 
cells with amoeboid movements. In the cultures of Rous sarcoma 
these cells can often be seen in less than 2 hours, but in certain cul- 
tures of kidney of 2 or 3 year old cats the first fusiform cells appeared 
after 4 days. It happens also that the growth begins by epithelial 
cells, especially in the cultures of thyroid. Generally the wandering 
and the proliferation of the cells are very active and the fragment of 
tissue reaches the period of full growth. However, in the cultures 
of peritoneal endothelium and of cartilage, a few cells only may be 
seen during several days around the fragment, until the period of 
active growth begins. The beginning of the growth can often be 
diagnosed without a microscope by the appearance of an opaline band 
around the tissues. The period of active growth may extend from 3 
or 4 days to more than 25 days. The tissues like sarcoma and cer- 


LIFE OUTSIDE OF ORGANISM—CARREL AND BURROWS. 579 


tain embryonal tissues, which grow rapidly, die early, while the cul- 
tures of peritoneum and of cartilage, which develop slowly, may re- 
main in excellent condition for 20 or 25 days. The growth of the 
culture is often very active. From the surface and the peripheral 
part of the fragment a great many cells wander out and radiate 
through the medium. They often form a new tissue around the 
original fragment. The surface covered by the new cells may be very 
large. In a culture of spleen artificially stimulated this surface was, 
after 27 hours, almost equal to forty times the surface of the original 
fragment. 

The morphologic characters of the culture vary according to the 
nature, epithelial or connective, of the tissues. The growth of con- 
nective tissue cells was observed mainly in the cultures of spleen, 
cartilage, and thyroid. The connective tissue cells do not give rise 
generally to a continuous layer, as we have observed the cells of the 
epidermis to do. They invade the medium either as isolated single 
cells or in rows or chains of cells. Ultimately their processes unite to 
form an open network. In the cultures of peritoneum the cells may 
tend for a few days to form continuous layers that spread from the 
fragment into the plasma. But sooner or later, the rate of growth 
increases, the continuous layer is dislocated, and after about two 
weeks the cells spread isolatedly through the medium. In the cul- 
tures of spleen the cells can conglomerate around a cotton thread 
and cover it by a layer having the appearance of an endothelial 
membrane. The cells are fusiform or multipolar. Their cytoplasm 
is finely granular, while the nucleus appears as a clear spot, contain- 
ing one or several nucleoli. In the cultures of Rous sarcoma and of 
the sarcomata of Ehrlich and Jensen, we have observed many differ- 
ent types of connective tissue cells. Often they possess amceboid 
movements. Sarcomatous cells, inoculated to a culture of the an- 
terior part of the eye of a fetus of chicken, were observed wandering 
through the pigmented cells and absorbing their dark granules. 

The growth of epithelial tissue was studied chiefly in the cultures 
of thyroid, kidney, skin, and carcinoma. The thyroid cells are 
polygonal in form and appear somewhat later than the fusiform cells. 
They present less distinct outlines and a finely granular protoplasm 
surrounding a large clear round nucleus, which in turn contains one 
or two opaque nucleoli. These cells differ from the others in remain- 
ing in a community and not wandering separately into the medium, 
and in producing sometimes tubular formations and sometimes con- 
tinuous layers. Moreover, these cells grow from the edges of the frag- 
ment as far as the upper surface and in a single plane. In one in- 
stance, the tubular proliferation was traced to the circumference of 
a thyroid vesicle which formed its base. In some instances the 
growth was cup shaped, and later budding occurred, so that rami- 


580 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


fying tubules were produced. In the cultures of kidney, tubules, 
the wall of which is covered with epithelium cells, may grow out 
from the original fragment. We observed also chains of large 
epithelial cells radiating out from the fragments of liver. From 
the edges of fragments of skin grow out layers of epithelial cells, 
which cover sometimes a surface larger than the surface of the 
original fragment. 

Epithelial and connective tissues cultivated in vitro increase really 
in size, and the new tissue is formed by the wandering of the cells 
from the original fragment and by their multiplication. Camera 
lucida drawing of a rapidly growing sarcoma showed that the origi- 
nal fragment of sarcoma and of spleen grows very actively, the 
original tissue resolves itself in living cells after a few days and dis- 
appears almost completely. At the same time there is multiplication 
of the cells. In the cultures fixed and stained with hematoxylin, 
karyokinetic figures may be seen on all the surface covered by the 
new cells. In slowly developing cultures of peritoneum we have seen 
karyokinetic figures 14 days after the preparation of the culture. 
We have observed also in living cultures direct division of the nuclei 
and the production of giant cells. The multiplication of the cells 
can easily be followed under the microscope. When a fragment of 
plasma containing a few cells is extirpated from a culture of spleen 
or of thyroid gland and transplanted into a new medium the cells 
can easily be observed. During the hours and the days following 
the preparation of the new culture, the cells are seen increasing in 
number, wandering out from the plasma and invading the new 
medium. After a few days a very large number of cells have grown 
from the few transplanted cells. 

It seems, therefore, that in our experiments there is a real culti- 
vation of tissues, since the fragments of tissues grow progressively 
into the culture medium, that the fragments of kidney, thyroid gland, 
liver, and skin produces tubules, chains, or continuous layers of 
epithelial cells, since the fixed cells of the tissues, instead of becom- 
ing necrotic, may wander into the medium after more than 10 or 12 
days, since this medium contains many karyokinetic figures and since 
a few isolated cells can be seen producing a very large number of 
new cells. 

During the development of cells the culture medium undergoes 
marked modifications. Sometimes the plasma does not coagulate, or, 
as it happens in the cultures of human carcinoma and of certain 
glandular tissues, it coagulates and after a few hours it liquefies 
again. In these cases no growth is observed. Generally the clot 
remains firmly adherent to the cover glass and to the tissue. If 
a part of the fragment is dead a retraction of the plasma may occur 
in this point after a few days. When the tissue grows normally, 


LIFE OUTSIDE OF ORGANISM—CARREL AND BURROWS. 581 


and when all its parts are active, the culture medium becomes pro- 
gressively modified and undergoes after some time a partial liquefac- 
tion, or it becomes opaque, and the fibrin becomes more apparent. 
The rapidly growing organs, like the kidney, the liver, and occa- 
sionally the thyroid, bring about early modifications of the culture 
medium, while the slowly growing tissues modify it very slightly. 
After three or four days, the plasma of a culture of sarcoma or of 
fetal kidney undergoes often a marked retraction. But the plasma 
of a culture of peritoneum or of cartilage may be, after 18 days, in 
perfect condition. 

3. The diminution in the rate of the proliferation of the cells and 
the death of the culture depend in a large measure on the condition 
of the culture medium. Death is preceded by a period of slow 
growth, during which larger granulations appear within the cells. 
The cellular outline becomes less sharp. Afterwards, the disinte- 
gration occurs and the cells appear as small spherical bodies. The 
length of life of the tissues can be increased by secondary and ter- 
tiary cultures. The new cells can also be transplanted in a new cul- 
ture medium. If a culture of malignant tumor is grafted under the 
skin of one animal it may grow and produce a new tumor. Frag- 
ments of this tumor can be cultivated in vitro and grafted after- 
wards to another animal. The duration of the life of the cultures is 
increased by the procedures which permit of giving to the tissue an 
almost normal nutrition. 


IV. APPLICATIONS. 


The method of cultivating tissues outside of the organism has 
already permitted Harrison to demonstrate that the nerve fibers 
are really an outgrowth from a central neurone. But it can be 
applied also to many other problems. We have already used it in 
studying the characters of growth of malignant tumor, of the growth 
of normal tissues, and the laws of their redintegration. 

Experimental and spontaneous malignant tumors grow easily in 
vitro. Fragments of Rous sarcoma or of Ehrlich sarcoma grow 
often very rapidly in the plasmatic media. In less than 48 hours the 
cells cover a large area. Therefore the modifications in the rate of 
growth brought about by the action of different kinds of plasma or 
by the substances artificially placed in the culture medium can be 
studied easily. It is possible also to study the reactions of normal 
tissues toward the plasma of animals bearing a tumor. The results 
of the experiments can be controlled by grafting into animals the 
tissues produced in vitro. It can show whether the tissues have under- 
gone, during their life outside of the organism, dynamic changes, 
which persist when they are given back their normal condition of 
erowth inside of the organism. 


582 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


It was attempted also to study the action of the changes in the 
composition of the medium on the rate of growth of normal tissues. 
Slight modification of the tension, or of the alkilinity, or of the con- 
centration of the imorganic salts modified the rate of growth. It 
may be possible to discover by this method the physicochemical fac- 
tors which regulate the growth of each kind of tissue. 

It would be important to know why and how a wound heals. The 
laws of cicatrization are actually unknown. Surgeons content them- 
selves by preventing the infection of the wounds and leave to nature 
the care of healing it. However, if we knew the physico-chemical 
mechanisms, which, coordinated by the power of redintegration 
acting as a directing idea, bring about the healing of a wound, we 
might act on the process of the cicatrization itself and activate it. 
The knowledge of these laws would lead to a new and more effective 
form of surgery. But this study is very difficult on living animals, 
while by cultivating tissues in vitro, in a given medium, it becomes 
possible to observe exactly the modification in the rate of growth 
under the influence of certain substances. In this laboratory, Dr. 
Ruth has observed that small wounds made in the center of a frag- 
ment of skin heal normally in vitro. Al the stages of the cicatriza- 
tion can be foilowed. The edges of the wounds are brought together, 
and at the same time, the epithelium proliferates, and a complete. 
epidermization of the surface of the small wound occurs. This 
method permits us to observe very easily the different stages of the 
cicatrization and the modifications of it produced by the changes in 
the composition of the medium. 

The solution of various problems may be helped by the use of this 
method of cultivation of tissues in vitro, because it renders possible 
the observation of cells growing under given conditions. It is a new 
instrument which can be used in the study of the mechanisms of 
cellular growth and of its unknown laws. 


THE ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM. 


By Juttus PoKorny.* 


Schrader, in his Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertums- 
kunde, says: “The Celtic Druid caste stands outside of all priestly 
connections of ancient Europe. The impulses to its formation 
remain shrouded in darkness.” I hope to succeed in bringing some 
light into this darkness. 

In the attempt tc find the origin of Druidism the most curious 
ideas have been resorted to. Some consider the Druids as disciples 
of Pythagoras, others as Buddhists, and the origin of Druidism has 
been variously traced to Phenicia, Chaldea, and India. Already the 
ancients showed a keen interest in this priesthood, and the past two 
centuries produced a large literature on the subject, which, how- 
ever, is of little value, for it is too much given to symbolical and 
occultistic fancies. Nevertheless, until now no one could shed 
further light on the history of the Druids or explain apparent con- 
tradictions. When, therefore, in 1906, there appeared “ Les Druids 
et les Dieux Celtiques & Forme d’Animaux,” by the noted French 
Celtist d’Arbois de Jubainville, the scientific world hoped to at last 
be enlightened concerning this enigmatic institution. But d’Arbois 
offers scarcely more than a synopsis of the most important things 
that we already know about the Druids; he gives an historical survey 
of the invasion of the Celts in Britain but says nothing which we 
do not already know from, other sources. 

In the first chapter of his book, speaking of the priests of the Gauls, 
d’Arbois de Jubainville says: “They have two main classes of 
priests, the Druids and the ‘Gutuatri.’ When Julius Cesar in the 
first century B. C. subjected independent Gaul, the Druids held there 
an important position; but he was told that Druidism had its origin 
in Britain and was thence introduced into Gaul.” 

Prior to the arrival of the Druids on the Continent the Gauls had, 
besides the vates, no other priests than the gutuatri. He derives 

1Translated, by permission, from the German (with author’s revision) : Der Ursprung 
des Druidentums. Von Julius Pokorny in Wien. Lecture delivered in the monthly 


meeting, November 13, 1907. Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gessellschaft in 
Wien. Vol. 38, 1908, pp. 34-45. 
583 


584 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


their name from the Celtic gutu, Irish guth (voice), and compares 
our “ Gott” (God), which originated from the Indo-European Ghut- 
tom (that which is invoked), from the root ghu. “Gutuatri” thus 
means “the invokers ” from the same root as the Gothic gudja 
(priest). They were all priests of a temple or sacred grove. The 
gutuatri survived down to the time of Roman rule; their names are 
preserved on four inscriptions. D’Arbois quite properly compares 
the gutuatri with the Homeric fepevs (hiereiis—priest), with Chryses, 
who has the surname of dpyryp (areter—the praying one), which 
has the same meaning as gutuatros, and as the flamines of the 
Romans, who formed no corporation. He says: 

The Druids, on the other hand, formed a corporation, with a chief Druid at 
its head, in Gaul, Ireland, and probably also in Hngland. 

I can not agree with D’Arbois in the last statement. In Irish 
literature no mention is made of a chief of the Druids. From the 
passage from the Life of St. Patrick, “A great multitude of sooth- 
sayers gathered around the chief soothsayer, Recradus by name” 
(Congreata est multitudo nimis magorum ad primum magum Re- 
cradum nomine), it can not be concluded that the Irish Druids had 
a supreme head. The passage can also mean that Recradus was at 
that time the most famous Druid; we may even credit the Christian 
writer, who wished to magnify the fame of the saint, with a little 
exaggeration, for farther on is narrated how St. Patrick had by a 
miracle killed that Druid. The chief Druid is thus a specifically 
Gallic institution. 

In the art of soothsaying the Druids had rivals in the watis, who 
are called by Strabo otdras (ouateis), by Diodorus pdvras (manteis). 
St. Patrick triumphed over the Druids only after he had allied 
himself with the vatis, Irish, faith, filid. 

D’Arbois derives, with Thurneysen, the name of the Druids from 
the root dru- (Irish in dron, from dru-no, strong) and the root vid 
(compare Latin videre, to see, German wissen, to know) and renders 
the name druis (from dru-vid-s) “ supreme-wise,” the Galatian dru- 
menton, “ chief-sanctuary,” quoting the Gallic synonym, vernemeton. 
(Still there are other derivations of druis possible. Compare Cym- 
rian derwydd, Gallic dervum.) 

The second chapter seems to me the most important of the whole 
book. I shall therefore give it almost complete in translation. 


It seems that the Druids were known to the Greeks since about 200 B. C., 
when Sotion speaks of them. They thus existed already at that time in Gaul, 
this side of the Rhine, a territory which was much frequented by traders from 
Massilla. This was not long after the Gauls had conquered Britain, which was 
occupied by the Gaels.’ 


1 Already before the appearance of Zimmer’s work I had pointed out in the Mit- 
teilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien, volume 39, page 94, note 3, that 
the Gauls could have come to Ireland directly from the continent without touching 


ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM—POKORNY. 585 


And, indeed, this conquest seems to have taken place between 300 and 200 
B. C. The Gauls found the Druids in Britain and transplanted this institution 
to the continent. Julius Caesar says explicitly: “‘ It is assumed that the system 
found in Britain was thence transplanted to Gaul, and at present those who 
desire to know it more carefully mostly go thither to obtain information ” 
(Disciplina in Brittania reperta atque inde in Galliam translata esse existima- 
tur, et nune qui diligentius eam rem cognoscere volunt plerumque illo discendi 
causa proficiscuntur). We conclude from this that the Druids were originally 
a Gaelic institution, at first peculiar to the Gaels, not including the Gauls. 
The Gaels are a Celtic tribe, whose language survives in Ireland and the High- 
lands of Scotland. By this tribe, who for a long time dominated the British 
isles, Druidism was introduced into the vast regious south of the Channel be- 
tween the Atlantic Ocean and the Rhine; but it was unknown in Gallia Cisal- 
pina and in the ancient Celtic territories east of the Rhine, as also in the 
Danube basin and Asia Minor, where the dru-nemeton (chief-sanctuary) is in 
nowise connected with the Druids. 

So far d’Arbois de Jubainville. 

Before proceeding there may be given a brief summary of the 
accounts of the Druids by the ancient writers. 

According to Caesar there were in Gaul two ruling classes, the 
military nobles and the Druids, who were free from military service 
and from paying tributes. On account of these advantages many 
were attracted to this vocation, which was quite an easy matter, since 
“ Druidism was based not on birth but on the gaining and training 
of novices.” 1 

The Druids were philosophers and teachers of the youths. They 
taught not only theology and mythology, but also much of the course 
of the stars, of the nature of all things, and the magnitude of the 
universe. 

Of all the moral teachings of the Druids only a single sentence is 
preserved (Diogenes Laertius, proemium, 5): “'To be pious toward 
the gods, to do wrong to no man, and to practice fortitude.” But 
their chief doctrine was that the souls do not die, but pass after death 
into another body. So strong was the popular belief in it that credit 
relations were entered upon with the promise to settle them in the 
other world. The novices had to learn a large number of verses by 
heart, some of them spending as many as 20 years in study. Of the 
tradition of the Gaulish Druids almost nothing survived, because 
Britian. And now I am firmly convinced that this theory is the only correct one. It 
also agrees best with the hoary Irish traditions which report of immigrations from 
Spain (i. e., western France). The older theory, according to which the Gauls had 
come to the British Islands already in the tenth century B. C., is not only entirely 
unprovable but there is everything against the assumption that the Celts had already 
at that early time penetrated so far westward, as I hope to prove at a later time. 
The conquest of Ireland is certainly connected with the great movement of the Celtic 
peoples of the sixth century. From Ireland the Gaels then conquered parts of Wales 
and Scotland. Somewhere in the fourth century B. C. the Brythonic Celts of northern 
France conquered Britain, where they met in the west with the Gaels, who had come over 
from Ireland. <A further immigration of Brythonic Celts (Belgae) followed there in the 


course of the third century B. C. 
1 Schrader, Reallexikon der Indog. Altertumskunde, ii. p. 648. 


586 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


they strictly prohibited reducing it to writing. The case was different 
in Ireland. The author of the “ Yellow Book of Lecan ” relates that 
St. Patrick burned 180 Druidic books, and, following his example, all 
the Christians did the same, until all the Druidic books were annihi- 
lated. The Druids were also soothsayers, and assisted at sacrifices. 

They assembled annually in the lands of the Carnutes, when law 
cases were submitted to their decision. The utmost punishment that 
they could inflict was excommunication. Those affected by it were 
avoided by everybody and treated as outlaws. At the head of the 
Gaulish Druids stood the chief Druid, who was created, after the 
death of his predecessor, by election. 

Caesar seems to comprise under the name of “ Druides” also the 
bards and seers (vatis) who by later writers are treated separately. 

The similarity of the Druidic doctrine to that of Pythagoras gave 
occasion for many fables. That the Druids did not live as monks 
(a theory set up by Alexander Bertrand) appears from the fact that 
the Druid Divitiacus, Caesar’s friend, had wife and children, and 
that the Irish Druids also were mostly married. 

Criminals were sacrificed to the gods, but also innocents. Large 
figures of wicker work were filled with living persons and set afire. 

The Romans soon prohibited Druidism, but it continued in secret, 
and the most prominent Gaulish youth practiced the doctrines in 
secreted woods, as Mela (45 A. D.) relates. 

Thirty-five years later Pliny the Elder draws an entirely different 
picture of the Druids. He shows them as priests of the oak, as 
physicians and sorcerers, as common charlatans. They prepare from 
the poison of snakes the mystic egg which guarantees the winning of 
every lawsuit. 

How is this change to be explained? Was it a result of their sup- 
pression that they laid aside their lofty doctrines in order to make a 
living in a less dignified way? It will presently be shown that the 
Druids had been ere that necromancers. But how is it to be ex- 
plained that alongside of such serious knowledge they engaged in 
low sorcery? For the present it will suffice to point out that often 
the wisest men are the greatest charlatans, since they know that the 
large majority is governed not so much by lofty wisdom as by cun- 
ning trickery. 

As regards the belief of the Druids in immortality and the doctrine 
of transmigration, d’Arbois quotes many examples for the belief 
of the Celts in a continued existence in the other world, but declares 
the assumption of the doctrine of reincarnation an error which 
arose from the fact that the Greeks who heard of Druid myths in 
which transformations occurred falsely interpreted them and thus 
came to the belief that the Druids taught the transmigration of souls 
after the belief of Pythagoras. 


ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM—POKORNY. 587 


Another conjecture may be permitted here. May we not see in this 
doctrine a remnant of the belief of the pre-Celtic aborigines? The 
belief in transmigration is mostly found among peoples of low cul- 
ture, and the next step is reincarnation, of which, indeed, Irish 
myths exhibit some instances. 

D’Arbois has shown that the Druids were originally the priests of 
only one Celtic tribe, who first conquered a part of Britain. Now, 
it is passing strange that between brother tribes, whose customs, 
manners, and language did not vary much, there should have existed 
such a fundamental difference. For nothing characterizes a people 
better than its religious views. Druidism, as will be seen, is con- 
trary to Indo-European religion. There is only one way to explain 
such a peculiar, almost essential difference which should have existed 
between the Gaels and the Gauls before the conquest of Gaul by 
Ceesar. 

It is true that the Gauls received Druidism from their brothers 
in Britain, but these latter likewise did not have the institution when 
they crossed the channel; for the Druids were the priests of the pre- 
Celtic aborigines of the British Isles, and were adopted from them 
by the Celts. 

The Gaels, a main branch of the Celts, when, in the fifth or sixth 
century B. C., they conquered Ireland, and from there parts of 
Wales and Scotland, had already attained to a higher grade of 
civilization. Their rulers were priest kings, whom at that time we 
also find among the Greeks, Latins, and Germans, with whom the Celts 
shared many other traits of Indo-European descent. We have no 
reason to assume that at that early time the Celts differed much 
in custom and religion from their surrounding Indo-European brother 
tribes, which would have to be supposed if the institution of Druid- 
ism existed with them from prehistoric times. Even in historic time 
there are found with the Irish kings traces of the former priesthood, 
which had developed in the remotest past from the divine veneration 
of mighty sorcerers; for the belief of the savage that his divine? ruler 
is the center of the universe, who with a motion of the hand can upset 
the course of nature, and therefore can protect him from the dangers 
which, in his opinion, threaten every common mortal through in- 
numerable taboos, was also once held by the Indo-Europeans, though 
long before they had left their common cradle. 

Such belief in the divinity of kings appears in Homer, when he 
speaks of a king (Odyssey, XIX, 109) who honors the gods and 
mightily reigns, and on account of the piety of the king? the earth 
is fertile and the people prosperous, and traces of like belief appear 
also in Ireland and Wales. Thus the Celts believed that crop failures 


1See Hrazer, The Golden Bough, London, 1900, vol. 1, pp. 233, 234, 
2 Frazer, The Golden Bough, vol. 1, pp. 156, 157. 


588 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


were due to the wickedness of rulers. In the “ Book of Leinster” is 
related that under Cairbre Cinnchait, who acceded to the throne by 
violence and caused the children of the nobles to be pitilessly killed, 
each ear bore only a single grain, each oak only one cone. But when 
the old dynasty was restored Ireland regained its fertility. To each 
new king the Ollamh, the chief bard, chanted some verses, in which he 
admonished him to reign well, else famine and disease would devas- 
tate the land, and in a Welsh poem of the twelfth century is read: 
“With false kings and [in consequence] failure of crops we will 
have bad years and (long) days” (the Black Book of Carmarthen). 

We hear, besides, of many taboos which the Irish kings, even 
in historic times, had to observe to keep off misfortune from the land. 
(Book of Rights, pp. 3-8.) 

Thus the high King of Ireland in Tara must not be in his bed 
when the sun rises. He must not settle on a Wednesday on Magh 
Breagh, not cross Magh Cuillinn after sunset, not drive his horse 
on Fan Chomair, not on Monday board a vessel in the water after 
Bealltaine, nor must he on Tuesday after All Saints leave behind 
traces of his army upon Ath Maighne. 

The King of Connaught must not make a treaty over his old palace 
after he had concluded peace on All Saints Day (the 1st of Novem- 
ber was a Celtic pagan holiday); he must not in variegated dress 
ride on a gray-speckled steed to the heath of Dal Chais, or visit a 
gathering of women at Graghais, or sit in the autumn upon the grave 
of the wife of Maine, nor run a race between two stations at Ath 
Gallta with the rider of a gray, one-eyed horse. 

Similar taboos had to be observed by the kings of Leinster, 
Munster, and Ulster. 

From this it follows that the kings of the Gaels, like the other Indo- 
Europeans, evolved from priests, and we may conclude, since espe- 
cially in Ireland the remembrance of it remained so fresh and dis- 
tinct, that the kings of the Gaels when they conquered Ireland had 
also been their priests. 

As archeology clearly shows, the Celts were obviously not the first 
inhabitants of the British Islands, but had already found there an 
aboriginal people. My own unprejudiced anthropological observa- 
tions during a sojourn in Ireland have convinced me that we have on 
Irish soil to do with two pre-Celtic, non-Indo-European races. 

One of these races, found chiefly in northern Ireland (also in Scot- 
land), is of small, but well-proportioned stature (I was obliged to 
stoop at almost every door in order not to knock my head), pre- 
dominantly brachycephalic, with the lower half of the face of un- 
usual length, the profile line running almost straight from the under 
lip to the chin, swelled, thick lips, slightly prognathic, with black 
wiry hair and dark eyes, resembling the Samoyeds; the women of a 


ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM—POKORNY. 589 


peculiar, fascinating ugliness, which could almost be called beauti- 
ful. We have here undoubtedly to do with a neolithic northern 
race, perhaps related to the Lapps or Finns. I would like to merely 
mention here that certain archeological traces point to an early con- 
nection between the British Isles and Scandinavia. (British Mu- 
seum Guide of the Bronze Age, pp. 24, 31, 146.) 

The other pre-Celtic race, found chiefly in southern Ireland, is of 
tall and slender build, predominantly dolichocephalic, with dark 
hair and eyes, of the Mediterranean type, and so much resembling 
the Spaniards that there is a common legend that these people are 
descendants of the Spaniards who, after the destruction of the great 
armada, found refuge on the coast of Ireland. They can not be 
Ligurians, as Jullien assumes, because the Ligurians were small and 
weakly, and the Iberians suggest themselves as the nearest approach 
to the truth. Numerous other archeological traces of the neolithic 
and bronze ages point likewise to a close connection between Spain 
and Ireland. There is added to this the testimony of Tacitus about 
the Silurians in Wales. 

I was not able to pursue close anthropological studies in Wales, 
still I could also here clearly discern the predominance of the non- 
Indo-European element. The same traces could also be followed up 
in Scotland and Cornwall. 

But if we assume that the aborigines did not entirely succumb to 
the invading Celts, and even forced on them their sorcerers, their 
national consciousness must have been very strong, and this it was, 
for to the present day it has left its traces in the British Isles. 

Passing over the linguistic remains, which have survived in the 
topography and the Celtic languages, also the innumerable fetish- 
stones which are met with in the British Isles and which are still 
venerated—there may be mentioned only a few interesting points out 
of the rich material. 

The testimony of Diodorus and Strabo about cannibalism among 
the British is confirmed by St. Jerome, who, in his Adversus Jovinia- 
num, says: “ What shall I say of other nations when as a young 
boy I myself in Gaul saw the Atecotti, a British tribe, eating 
human flesh? And while they have in the woods herds of pigs and 
cattle they are in the habit ef cutting off the soft parts of the 
shepherds and the breasts of women, considering these alone as 
delicacies.” (Quid loquar de ceteris nationibus, cum ipse adolescen- 
tulus in Gallia viderim Atecottos, gentem Britannicam, humanis 
vesci carnibus? Et cum per silvas porcorum greges et armentorum 
pecudumque reperirent, pastorum nates et feminarum papillas solere 
abscindere et eas solas ciborum delicias arbitrari?) Nobody will 
maintain that such customs can be ascribed to Indo-Europeans. A 
dim recollection of those times still survives among the Celtic people, 


590 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


and we find in Wales and Scotland numerous tales of giants and 
spirits who ate their captives and drank their blood. 

Another custom mentioned by Strabo, that the ancient Irish con- 
sumed the corpses of their fathers, can certainly not be credited to 
the Celts, since it is well known what an important part the ancestor 
cult plays among the Indo-Europeans. This custom goes back to 
the belief of the savage, that with the blood he also takes in the soul 
of the dead, and traces of the custom can be followed up even at the 
present day. 

Wood-Martin relates that the still subsisting custom in Ireland 
of taking food at a funeral in the presence of the dead is a later form 
of an ld custom of consuming the food after it was laid on the corpse, 
with the object of Serres certain qualities of the departed. It 
may be considered as a remnant of the old barbarous custom of con- 
suming the corpse itself. 

Schrader has shown that the family conception of the Indo-Euro- 
peans in prehistoric times must have been entirely agnatic—the prin- 
ciple of relationship by the father’s side was carried through in the 
common prehistoric time of the Indo-Europeans. When in the Brit- 
ish Isles traces of the matriarchate are discovered they must be as- 
cribed to the pre-Celtic peoples. 

Zimmer has positively established the fact that among the Picts of 
Scotland the matriarchate prevailed down to historic times. The 
Picts are to be sure non-Indo-Europeans, but they were celticized ; 
they had absorbed numerous Gaelic elements at about 500 B. C. 
from the Irish Gaels, 100 to 200 years later from the “ Brythons,” 
and were gaelicized again in the first Christian centuries. 

In Wales traces of the matriarchate are found in the families of 
the Mabinogion, and also as regards Ireland a clear proofs can 
be adduced. 

Matriarchate among the Iberians in antiquity is well attested, and 
Solinus relates that in Ireland it is the mother that offers to the new 
born the first food on the point of the sword of her husband, with 
the wish that he may die in no other way than in battle. On the 
other hand, among the Indo-Europeans it is the father who gave the 
child the first food, as is proved in India by the Grihya-Sitren of 
the Apastamba and Hiranyakesin,‘ and which Speijer in Jatakarna 
(p. 103 ff.) has shown to hold good also for the other Indo-European 
peoples. 

F. A. Potter relates (Description of West-Meath, 1819) that all 
married women call themselves by their maiden names, which is still 
customary in Ulster. According to Wood-Martin, women retain in 
many places their maiden names and follow more often the relatives 
of their mothers than of their fathers. 


1M. Mueller, Sacred Books of the Hast, xix, pp. 213, 281. 


ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM—POKORNY. 591 


The couvade, certainly a non-Indo-European custom, is also found 
in the British Isles. In Ulster the couvade (men’s childbed) was 
customary in hoary antiquity, for the Book of Leinster relates that 
when Queen Medb of Connaught marched with an army against 
Ulster all the men were lying in bed incapable of fighting, with the ex- 
ception of Cuchulains and his father. A pregnant woman had cursed 
them so that once a year they should experience the pains of labor of 
the women. 

In England, too, the custom of the couvade once existed, for in 
Yorkshire! the mother of a girl who has borne an illegitimate child 
used to go out in search of its father, and the first man she finds in 
bed is the one sought after. 

Even for the Iberians is the custom of men’s childbed attested, and 
it is still found among their descendants (?), the Basks. This makes 
it probable that there was a connection between the aborigines of the 
British Isles and the Iberians. 'This custom is also found in south- 
ern India, China, Borneo, Kamchatka, Greenland, and among many 
tribes of North and South America. Irish women before the birth of 
a child often wear the coat of the husband in order that he share in 
the pains of labor and thus relieve the wife. 

It has been seen that the race of the aborigines of the British Isles 
was not exterminated by the conquering Celts. It is also certain that 
it was not completely suppressed, but that the conquerors to a large 
extent amalgamated with the subjugated. For even in the earliest 
times there is not found in Ireland a servile plebe as in other coun- 
tries conquered by the Indo-Europeans. There were there no castes, 
only different social strata and a family could easily, by the acquisi- 
tion of riches, rise from the lowest rank to the highest. There was 
perhaps rather an infiltration of the Celts than a real conquest, 
but the reason for it may perhaps be justly looked for in the great 
beauty and the extraordinary charm of the women of the aborigines. 
The beauty of the Celtic women is well known, also the fact that most 
of them had black hair and dark eyes, which evidently points to a 
non-Indo-European descent. 

Among no other people does woman play such a great réle as among 
the Celts. Their literature is the cult of women. No literature is so 
rich in love stories as the Irish. 

It was pointed out that in the oldest hero songs of most nations women play 
but a small part, excepting among the Germans with whom women always held 
an important position. But the position of women in the Celtic tradition is 
incomparably more important. The love of a man for an immortal or, at least, 
semidivine maiden regularly recurs in the hero tales. Germans and Celts have 


treated: this subject but in a very different manner. In the tales of the Ger- 
mans the man plays the chief part; he woos the goddess and sometimes even 


1The Academy, vol. 25, p. 112. 


592 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


compels her to rule at his hearth. Usually, however, overcome by the boldness 
and beauty of the hero, she becomes voluntarily his subject. 

Different is the case with the divine mistress of the Celtic hero. She stays in 
her own land and entices or compels the mortal lover to seek her. Connia, 
Bran, Ossian have to leave this earth in order to become united with their 
beloved. Even Cuchulain, the mightiest of all heroes, is compelled, notwith- 
standing all resistance, to follow the fairy queen Fand and to dwell with her. 
The divine beloved always retains the upper hand; when the mortal becomes 
tired and returns to the earth she remains back, wise and beautiful, to bewitch 
and receive a new generation of heroes. She chooses whom she likes, and is no 
man’s slave. She surrenders freely, but she gives up neither her freedom nor 
her divine nature. Even when the love story plays among human beings, the 
position of the women is much more emphasized than in the German tales. 
She is no mere puppet upon a flame-girt rock who is ready to run straightway 
into the arms of the hero destined for her by fate. The Celtic woman takes her 
fate into her own hand and chooses herself her husband or names to him her 
conditions.’ 


It often happens that the woman woos the man instead of the 
reverse. 

In one of the oldest Gaelic chronicles is read: 

But the fairest woman who came with the Milesians to Ireland was Faele, 
Luaidh’s wife who had lived lonely in western Spain till Luaidh wooed her— 
and people said of Feale she was too beautiful to live. 

The Irish historians used to designate as Milesians the non-Indo- 
European dark-eyed and black-haired people of Ireland whom they 
considered, on account of their appearance, as immigrant Spaniards. 

All this makes possible a great influence of the aborigines on the 
Gaels. But before assuming the probability that they have exer- 
cised such a great religious influence, it is necessary to find an 
analogy for such an occurrence. 

The aborigines of the British Isles stood, as has been seen, on a low 
grade of civilization—they were savages. Let us first investigate 
what conceptions one savage people forms of another. 

The savage fears everything new and believes it bewitched. 

Thus the inhabitants of the Nikobares ascribed the unusual violent rains of 
1886 to the anger of the spirits because theodolites and other strange instru- 
ments were put up upon their favorite places.” The savage obviously considers 
a foreign country as bewitched. Among the Ovambos the army, when going to 
war, is preceded by a man who is next to the general in rank, and on the 
march carries a burning torch. This has probably the object of purifying the 
air from the evil spirits who inhabit the enemy’s country, for when the fire is 
extinguished it is taken as a bad omen and the army returns.’ 

The inhabitants of a foreign land are the more believed by the 
savages to be sorcerers, especially when they belong to a strange, less 


1A. Nutt, Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail, London, 1887, p. 231-233. 
2Internationales Archiv. fiir Ethnologie, vol. 6, p. 13. 
3H, Schinz, Deutsch-Suedwest-Afrika, p. 320. 


ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM—POKORNY. 593 


civilized race. This same fear is met with not only among savages 
but also among peoples of a higher degree of civilization. 

In the Ontong-Java Islands all strangers at their arrival are solemnly re- 
ceived by the sorcerers, sprinkled with water, then anointed with oil, ete. 
Only after they have been uncharmed can they be presented to the chief. 

It is also known that the Hindus despised the aborigines as unclean, 
but, on the other hand, also feared them, because they believed that 
the pariahs were in possession of secret magic virtues and in alliance 
with the old gods of the country. 

It is therefore very probable that the invading Gaels considered 
the aborigines as beings endowed with supernatural powers and 
possessing great knowledge of the secrets of nature. 

How much superstition is attached among the people of Great 
Britain and Ireland to the so-called “ fairy arrows,” 1. e., arrow points 
of flint, which were used by the pre-Celtic aborigines in the stone age. 
Perhaps this superstition goes back to a time when the Celts warred 
with a people that employed flint weapons and was already then 
feared as being endowed with supernatural power. With this agrees 
well another folk-belief which is connected with iron. 

Iron is supposed to have the potency of warding off all spirits. 

In northeast Scotland a piece of iron is inserted into all viands in order that 
“death” should not enter.” In many Welsh tales the fairy abandons her be- 
loved at the moment he touches her with a piece of iron.* 

In the western islands of Scotland it is said that any one who enters 
the interior of a mountain in which the fairies dance must leave a 
piece of iron before the entrance. -Only so can he prevent the fairies 
from closing the gate and retaining him forever. 

This fear of spirits seems to be an inheritance from the aborigines 
who had no knowledge of the metals and may have often retreated 
before the better arms of the Celts. The crude inhabitants of a coun- 
try often appear in the later popular beliefs as spirits, giants, or 
dwarfs. 

The Celts must have naturally felt a special reverence for the 
aboriginal medicine men, the Druids, whom they saw feared by their 
own people. Among savage peoples the king is usually evolved from 
the sorcerer, who, in their belief, can, through his arts, bring on mis- 
fortune and death. With admiration the Gaels called these sorcerers 
“ Druids,” the supreme wise. 

The peculiar character of the Druids was that of mighty sorcerers, 
and is in complete contradiction to the conception of an Indo-Euro- 
pean priest. In Ireland, which was least exposed to foreign influ- 
ences, we can best hope to find Druidism in its original form. We 


1 Internationales Archiv. fiir HEthnographie, vol. 10, p. 112. 
2 W. Gregor, Folklore of the N. E. of Scotland, p. 206. 
’ Transactions of the Hon. Society of Cymmrodor, vol. 4, p. 2. 


97578°—sm 1910-38 


594 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


meet them there chiefly as magicians and jugglers. They can turn 
day into night, wind and sea obey their words, they can cause fire 
and blood to rain. Such views as that man has power over the ele- 
ments are found only among uncivilized peoples, who lack the concep- 
tion of the supernatural. That the Druids were physicians is closely 
connected with their calling as wizards, so also their gift of prophecy. 
So great is their power that even St. Patrick implores God to protect 
him against the conjurations of the Druids. In old Irish literature 
the word “drui” is used synonymously with “ magus,’ and in the 
new Celtic languages the word sorcerer stands for “ Druid.” 

The Druids are sorcerers and rain makers, who pretend that they can conjure 
storm and snow, and frighten the people through fluttering wisps of straw and 
other childish tricks. They soothsay by the observation of sneezing and other 
omens, by their dreams after a festival, or by chewing raw horse flesh in the 
presence of their idols, by the croaking of their ravens and the chirping of tame 
wrens, or by licking of a bronze blade, which was made red hot in the fire of a 
mountain ash. They are dressed, like the medicine men of the redskins or the 
Angekoks of the Esquimaux, in ox skins, upon the head a bird cap with waving 
plumes.* 

In the mountains of Scotland, north of the Grampian Hills, the 
aborigines remained longest independent, and therefore also longest 
preserved the institution of the Druids as sorcerers, for we hear that 
those who wish to learn the nefarious art of conjuring more thor- 
oughly travel to Alba (Scotland). 

Pliny the Elder also says that Britain is in bad repute on account 
of its magic arts, and from the narration of Tacitus of the destruc- 
tion of the Druid sanctuary at Mona, it becomes evident that the 
Druids were sorcerers. 

But how can it be explained that they should be described by the 
writers of antiquity as philosophers, as teachers of a pure morality? 

In Gaul Druidism rested not on birth, but on the gaining and train- 
ing of novices; in Ireland, too, we find the Druids as teachers of the 
youth, and of the Druid Cathbad it is expressly said that he is teach- 
ing his pupils the Druidic science (druidecht). It can therefore be 
safely assumed that also among the aborigines the art of conjuring 
was conveyed through instruction and initiation. 

Where the Gaels entered into friendly relations with them they, 
no doubt, also endeavored to participate in that instruction, and we 
find in Ireland not a closed Druid caste, but we know also poets who 
were Druids; even some kings, as the grandfather of the famous Irish 
national hero Finn and King Connor’s father, belonged to that 
priesthood. Thus the Druids gradually became a Gaelic institution 
and the priestly power of the king was also transferred to them so 
that they held after him the highest rank; it even was the rule that 


1Compare O’Curry’s Lectures who, however, gives another explanation, 


ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM——POKORNY. 595 


the king in the presence of his Druid was not allowed to vi until 
after the latter had spoken. 

A dim recollection of the fact that the Druids were once the sor- 
cerers of a hostile race survives in the Celtic myths, which relate 
that the magic virtue of the Druids was so great that they even 
triumphed over the gods, a trait which, on the one hand recalls 
the shamans, on the other, becomes easily intelligible when it is 
remembered that the Druids having been originally the sorcerers of 
the aborigines were the enemies of the Celts and also of their gods. 

So also the peculiar contrast between the Druids and the Celtic 
gods, which, for instance, makes itself prominent in the “ Echtra 
Connla,” is explained in this way. 

No wonder that the Gaelic poet prophets (Irish, filid, faithi, for 
the Celts had also their soothsayers), considered their new rivals 
with jealous eyes, a jealousy which finally led to the extermination 
of the Druids (637, battle of Mayrath) in Ireland, for when St. 
Patrick wanted to introduce Christianity into Ireland he found in 
the Druids his worst enemies, and he could only overcome them by 
allying himself with the filid. 

Tt is not strange that the more highly civilized Celts considered 
the priests of the savage aborigines as mighty sorcerers, since we find 
something similar among the Germans. 

The Finns, who in prehistoric times had occupied a large portion of the 
Scandinavian Peninsula, were considered by the invading Germans as conjurers, 
so that old Norse finngert, literally Finnish work, is unequivocally used for 
witchcraft, and in their own religion the wizard, the shaman, who mediates the 
relations between men and gods, nay even coerce the latter through his art 
into his service, holds the central position.* 

Prof. Much calls my attention to the fact that in the Edda poem, 
Hyndlulioth, p. 31, all sorcerers are derived from “ Schwarzkopf ” 
(Blackhead), who by his name is marked as the representative of a 
non-Indo-European race (Lapps). Thus the Germans, while they 
knew sorcerers, referred them to the Lapps, a non-Indo-European 
people. And as the Irish, in order to learn the art of sorcery traveled 
to Scotland, so we also have the Norse expressions, as “ fara til finna ” 
and “gera finnfarar,” i. e., to travel to the Finns (Lapps) in order 
to learn the arts of sorcery. 

Is it too rash to assume that the crude aborigines of the British 
Isles had a civilization similar to that of the Finnish-Lappish peoples? 
Similar primitive conditions produce similar civilizations, and J. F. 
Campbell, an eminent authority on Finnish antiquities, was so aston- 
ished at the surprising similarity between many Scottish cave-dwell- 
ings and those of the Finns that he did not hesitate to declare the 
aborigines of Britain a people related to the Finns. 


1R, Much, Deutsche Stammeskunde, p. 31, 


596 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


When the Gaels allowed their sons to be initiated in the Druid 
teachings they certainly did not forget their own Indo-European 
religion, and the same was the case with the Gauls who later con- 
quered Britain and adopted Druidism from its inhabitants as the 
Gaels had from the aborigines. Thus the peculiar contrast between 
higher and lower doctrines as found among the Druids is easily 
explained. When Pliny the Elder described the Druids as merely 
conjurers and priests of the oak, he told his contemporaries something 
new ; their lofty doctrines were long before that generally known. 

There are elsewhere instances of an advanced religion tolerating 
the old, crude faith. When to the present day in Catholic countries 
the Adonis festival is observed and the old heathen feasts of the 
solstices and harvest are tolerated by the church, it can be assumed 
that in the British Isles even under the domination of the Celts the 
non-Indo-EKuropean religion was in part preserved. 

Andrew Lang, in his work “ Custom and Myth,” quotes an instance 
of a similar toleration which was transmitted by Garcilasso de Vega, 
the son of a Spanish conqueror and an Inca princess. 

Before the time of the Incas every Indian believed himself a descendant of a 
river or of a wild animal and sacrificed to them. But descent was also derived 
from insignificant creatures, such as frogs and toads. When the Ineas 
appeared and introduced the sun cult, they allowed the old animal worship to 
persist and the magnificent temples of the sun also harbored images of the 
animals which the Indians formerly worshiped. 

That Druidism had its origin in the British Isles and was not 
brought thither by the Celts, there is almost certain proof. 

Pliny the Elder depicts the Gallic Druids as priests of the oak 
cult in which also the mistletoe played an important role. (Hist. Nat., 
xvl, 279 sequ.) The worship of the oak as part of the Indo-Euro- 
pean religion is well attested and it also can be proven that the 
mistletoe had a great significance in this cult. The fact is so gen- 
erally known that it does not require special proof. Besides, Max. 
Tyrius also says that the Celts worshiped Zeus in the image of a 
high oak. The Druids are thus seen as priests of an Indo-European 
cult. 

If then the Celts before the conquest of the British Isles already 
had Druids, who were priests of the oak cult, they would certainly 
have brought this cult to Ireland; for Ireland was in ancient times 
exceedingly rich in oak forests and even now there are more than 
1,300 place names which begin with “ doire, daire” (oakwood), An- 
glicised “ derry ”’—not to mention other compounds—so that the 
name of the oak in place names is much more frequent than that of 
any other tree." 


1 Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 3d edition, p. 487. 


ORIGIN OF DRUIDISM—-POKORNY. 597 


How strange must it then appear that the oak is so rarely men- 
tioned in the rich legendary literature of Ireland. Not a single 
Trish superstition is known which is connected with the oak, and the 
Druids in Ireland are never brought in relation to the oak. Their 
sacred tree is the mountain ash, and they carry in their hands staffs 
made of this wood. The Druid fire also is kindled with the wood 
of the mountain ash. 

The peculiar fact that the oak plays no part whatever in the 
life of the Irish Druids and in the superstition of the people can 
only be explained by the assumption that the Druids were originally 
priests of a people that did not know the oak cult. 

The Gauls who remained longer in their country were less under 
the influence of the pre-Celtic inhabitants of the British Isles than 
the Gaels, and therefore preserved alongside of the new Druid doc- 
trine the old customs of their Indo-European ancestors. 

It is thus seen that the Druids must once have been the priests of 
a people that did not know the oak cult. The oak cult of the Celts 
is repeatedly attested; hence the Druids can not originally have been 
a Celtic priesthood. It is also known that Druidism took its origin 
in the British Isles, and it can only be derived from a people which 
inhabited those lands before the Celts. It has been seen that such 
a people had existed in the British Isles and that it was strong 
enough to exercise a decisive influence upon the conquering Celts; 
it is also known that it is possible and often happens that a people 
which is lower in the scale of civilization influences the religious 
conceptions of a more advanced one. 

Aside from this, Druidism exhibits so many non-Indo-European 
traits that on this account alone the origin of this priesthood must 
be sought amongst a non-Indo-European people. 

It can therefore be maintained with great degree of certainty that 
Druidism had its origin among a people that inhabited the British 
Isles before the Celts, and probably belonged to those great tribes 
_ who dominated western or northern Europe long before the first 
Indo-European had planted his foot there. 

We can even determine the origin of this people still more defi- 
nitely. Rhys doubts Caesar’s statement that Druidism took its 
origin in the British Isles, because the same pre-Celtic people is also 
met with on the Continent, and the Iberians of western Europe had 
Druids. But this difficulty can very well be solved if we assume that 
Druidism had its origin among the prehistoric people of northern 
Treland, who were different from the Iberians. The analogy with 
the Germanic conditions described above thus becomes still clearer. 
Caesar’s assertion thus remains unshaken. 


any cmt ary urn. oa ‘oa 


“ith tone [idea algo ait Yo iuito ‘odt sain va h ae 


. 4 P ‘bY at 
SY OUR AP Te fevina sd Hay cy, hey ya pi” whet 
TOL) TAT te Hybag’ revert het ‘EC ity % LTO CO era PO eh act thy 
AL 


ePieivy UI 1 ft imnosed 


hn: bab ici 
crap Ve Ltheles, owed cord an cc ski uh 7 
tikaly + arte deoxy mie ener todd Lite shot 

hea ey dtr bol barrict; ba: eel es ott shite 


path: Whe tir, Y the la cite: sri i 
wh} ti novetbdvindiagy ote eogsidefi deo eu 


ee Lzoges! oily Wohlers poegine ! lone isi ay Singh fet 
UU erie orodmbtie€l enki da vad: yaareeemessthby ck fig jal 


bie vilet Ea? ‘* ttn Lee ‘Sle UA nihy nes fois bidkentedl tle x 
any nak ovdem ivadiruo bled: iii ond ceil 1 fvenikdscitses une boku 


ta iivhty ale J: ide tind cick tho elegy ican shitochern oki, hone! 

ne hos ie Wyn cael To cohytin. es ie of diny't TIRE oxobtnadh 4 a A 
Tithe: Ets wargurhecrannaligrhocy woiclual risk to: eos ate blot 

Yo penn Gilt pec Svurhsone Jeti ebinerGl aie setisnas | 

eet An WMeavdso ol'h tina dee ode vedo toe hihi ang 
(havust vifenin: 


‘a 
BO domi ebaral calf sous cbodeotin ib 


OmpisG. 2h Aood owibinnl. tnd GWopd.o¢le.2l 4] hood tewiwanas 
vida akposare caontihaeisel, whet bene mae ‘ithe fi 2olal chet 8 vel sash 
disie forkbe ties pode waked Ton bileD trite tcf abil neon, f voile 
iat baw ry slat Hee? adv nt F betes By 
> Hh rit MIT ogy 4onecKar 4% ny fs vaLyioats 
OMT M a el ito ; PEs ahd tern ai 3 OE ast a 
ara tlor” bey FINS: TOMMS vig Ty ole | sty tt Wl a 
~ dss mi) bods 
ti yrti wr! it rG ray ty : HELP Th Ath 
reir MTBOTIG Ht OTs in “tare Gee 
POO Mi ti Hil =(0iF g 
Pe! Me Oe TO Satoh sre ‘diver Badhaliti an a ie 
eerie wrt} rfiiliin PRAY TTOR A VTOti A Hipind Bh Dill a “if 
OMT They sarily a? bee urct ¥iiadoud ; baths: ANS sth} } . 


Sere SUP HOTA wa ddr TaditeH cad frintesy hn 
oe Sard ot dil baditnley Hii i 


PTS “Fsith? hreina hei a %Reie 


9 


os eat vob ‘BY Beal 
1 Ufuig POX) OTT he F(a) ba tuat sel wad fa} eA iinet mie aA 
EE er io fr To erent ott Were Saw Sita Wed 


mie AL GACNyer 


if LOL dey gy, r= Mita trod 3 vay erik Showhih” Hoy ad! in 


attr i Petts hat aay nro EN 161" 


f , tod aise aciins tort edt agi 
ar ty ‘ ,f ‘i 


GEOGRAPHICAL AND STATISTICAL VIEW OF THE 
CONTEMPORARY SLAV PEOPLES.’ 


[With colored map.] 


By Luspor NIEDERLE, 
Professor of Archeology and Ethnology, Bohemian University, Prague. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The original Slav people arose in central Europe by a gradual 
linguistic and cultural division from the old Aryan or Indo-Euro- 
pean units. 

From the physical standpoint, the original Slavs were in all proba- 
bility somewhat composite, with differences in the type of the skull, 
as well as in the color of the hair and eyes. They were probably 
never entirely homogeneous, either culturally or linguistically. This 
is substantiated by the fact that in the region occupied, evidently 
from an early period, by the first Slavs there are found different 
cranial types; and as to complexion, one portion of the Slavs, at the 
commencement of historical records concerning these people, is spoken 
of as possessing light hair and eyes, while another portion is said to 
have been dark in these respects. The remains of hair in the graves 
support these statements. 

There existed also, before the present era, several distinct cultural 
regions among the old Slavs, for we find in the west, between the 
Elbe and Veser, other types of graves and with different contents 
than on the east of the Veser. The former region connects in these 
respects with that farther south, in central Europe, while the latter is 
more nearly related to that north of the Black Sea. 

The linguistic differentiation was equally of ancient origin, and 
was undoubtedly favored not merely by regional developments, but 
also by isolation, migration, contact, mixing with foreign ele- 
ments, etc. The eventual result of this differentiation in language 
was that ancient Slavs, who must still be regarded as originally only 

1 Prepared for the Smithsonian Report, under supervision of the author, on the basis of 
the publication bearing the title Slovansky Svét (The World of the Slavs), 8vo. Prague, 


1910, pp. 1-197. Published also in Russian in the Slav encyclopedia, and in translation 
in several other Slavic languages. 


599 


600 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


one body, fell into a number of separate parts. At the present time, 
and even throughout the period covered by history, Slav people as 
one national unit no longer exist; their place is occupied by a line of 
more or less related Slavic nations. 

The details regarding the causes and progress of the above indi- 
vidualization are problems that are still to a large extent unsolved. 
It is most probable, however, that the original Slav people, the 
aucleus of which occupied the region of the rivers Oder and Dnieper, 
but who already in the prehistoric times were reaching in places to 
the Elbe, Saal, and Donau, as well as to the Baltic Sea, fell gradually 
apart into three primary groups. The first of these, to the west of 
the Veser and the Carpathian Mountains, expanded still farther on 
toward the west and became a branch of the Elbe, Pomeranian, 
Polish, Bohemian and Slovak Slavs; the second main branch, whose 
original territory was most probably somewhere near the Upper 
Vistula, the Dniester, and the central Donau, moved in the course of 
time—with the exception of small remnants—to the south of the 
Carpathian region and into the Balkans, separating secondarily into 
the subdivisions of the Slovenians, Srbo-Chorvats (‘ Serbo-Croa- 
tians”), and the Bulgarians. The third main branch of the Slavs 
finally expanded from the lower Dnieper northward to the Gulf of 
Finland, westward to the Don and Volga, and southward to the 
Black Sea and Lower Donau, evolving eventually the Russian 
nation, which, due to various circumstances, became itself in differ- 
ent localities somewhat heteromorphous. 

The degree in which various Slav groups differ from each other 
to-day, while nowhere excessive, is not everywhere alike. Between 
the Bohemian, for instance, and the Pole there is a greater gap than 
betweeh the Bohemian and the Slovak, and that between the Velkorus 
(Great-Russian) and the Pole is also decidedly greater than that 
between the former and the Malorus (Small-Russian). In conse- 
quence of the less well-defined differences, we constantly meet, in 
literature and elsewhere, with controversies as to which groups of 
Slavs can be regarded as independent ethnic units or peoples, and 
which can not be so regarded. Furthermore, these conditions give 
rise to disputes in the application to the different groups of the 
terms nation, nationality, stem, branch, race, etc., and, finally, to 
disputes concerning the number of present Slav nationalities or 
peoples. There is no agreement in this regard, different classifica- 
tions depending on different points of view, such as philological, 
ethnographical, historical, or political; and even from one and the 
same standpoint, such as the basis of language, different philologists 
form unlike classifications. In many cases the tendencies at separa- 
tion and individualization are given more weight than the actual 
differences, while elsewhere political motives are responsible for the 


THE SLAV PEOPLES—NIEDERLE. 601 


making of new nationalities of whose existence, and with full right, 
others will not even hear. It is in consequence of these conditions 
that the number of separate Slav groups, and hence the entire Slav 
classification, varies so much with different authors. 

The best authenticated division of the Slavs to-day is about as 
follows: 

1, The Russian stem; recently a strong tendency is manifested 
toward the recognition within this stem of two nationalities, the 
Great-Russians and the Small-Russians. 

2. The Polish stem; united, with the exception of the small group 
of the KaSub Slavs, about whom it is as yet uncertain whether they 
form a part of the Poles or a remnant of the former Baltic Slavs. 

3. The Luzice-Serbian stem; dividing into an upper and a lower 
branch. 

4. The Bohemian or Cech and Slovak stem; inseparable in Bohe- 
mia and in Moravia, but with a tendency toward individualization 
among the Hungarian Slovaks. 

5. The Slovenian stem. 

6. The Srbo-Chorvat (Serbian-Croatian) stem, in which political 
and cultural, but especially religious, conditions have produced a 
separation into two nationalities, the Servian and the Croatian; and 

7. The Bulgarian stem, united. Only in Macedonia is it still 
undecided whether to consider the indigenous Slavs as Bulgarians or 
Servians, or perhaps as an independent branch. 

The following pages contain brief data concerning the above 
divisions: 

THE RUSI, OR RUSSIANS. 


The beginnings of the Russian nation are hidden in antiquity. 
There are names of tribes in the works of the old historians, some of 
which evidently belong to the old Russians, but as yet it is not 
known positively which can be safely so regarded. 

In the fourth century A. D. there appear some hazy notices of the 
great tribe of Anti. Under this name, it is now known, were com- 
prised the southern Russians of the territory between the lower 
Donau and the Don; but later this tribal name disappears. 

Some misty mention concerning the Russians exist also in the 
Arabic notes dating from the tenth century. But it is first from the 
work of Constantine Porfirogennetes, and especially from the 
famous first Kiev record, preserved from the beginning of the twelfth 
century, that we learn that toward the end of the first millenium of 
our era there lived in what is to-day European Russia, a whole series 
of Slav tribes existing as more or less independent units. The 
Kiev record mentions 12 such tribes and at the same time gives 
for the first time to all these people the collective name of Rusi. 


602 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


How the term “ Rusi” arose is still doubtful, but whatever may 
have been its origin, it is certain that the term was applied foremost 
to the Kiev center of the population. It was in Kiev, also, that the 
first Russian state was founded. The name extended thence over 
broader territory and eventually covered even some tribes that were 
of a different ethnic origin. 

The eastern part of the Russian territory at this time, however, is 
not one of the parts originally occupied by the Russian people, but 
is a territory that was colonized by them after other settlers. Similar 
colonization also progressed from an early period toward the north- 
west among the Baltic tribes and toward the north and northeast 
among the Finns. 

In the west and southwest, Russian spread was restricted by the 
presence of the solid body of the Poles; and in the south it was 
interfered with from early periods of our era by various invasions 
and migrations of foreign peoples. Into this region, bordering on 
the Black Sea, came in the third to fourth century the Goths and 
Heruls; in 376 it was traversed by the Hunns; in 482 by the Volga 
Bulgarians; before the year 557 by the Avars; in about the middle 
of the seventh century by the Chazars; and during the ninth cen- 
tury it was occupied for a time by the Uralian Magyars, on their way 
from the Volga to the Donau. 

These invasions, however, only interrupted and delayed the Rus- 
sian colonization of these more southern regions. Toward the end 
of the tenth century the tendency southward of the Rusi is more 
marked than ever, but it becomes again interrupted by the advent of 
farther eastern hordes, principally Turkish, resulting in long years 
of wars. During the thirteenth century follows the Tatar invasion, 
and the victory of the Tatars in 1224 results in a devastation and de- 
population of a large part of southern Russia. 

The effect of these attacks on the Russian people was deep and 
lasting. On one hand they detained for a long time their advance 
southward and westward, and on the other hand they resulted in a 
counter pressure of the ever increasing Russians against the non- 
Russian tribes of the northwest and north, with a gradual occupa- 
tion of piece after piece of territory formerly belonging to peoples of 
different origin. 

During this period also an important political transformation took 
place within the Russian nation itself. The old tribal system gradu- 
ally disappeared, giving place to fewer territorial political units, 
from which eventually arose the three great divisions of the Russians, 
differing somewhat in tongue, in habits, and occasionally in politics. 

These branches ‘were the Velkorusi, the Malorusi, and Bielorusi. 
Corresponding to these divisions, there arose also during this period 
the territorial names of Mala Rus (Small Russia), Bila Rus (White 


THE SLAV PEOPLES—NIEDERLE. 603 


Russia), and Velika Rus (Great Russia). The Malorusi branch 
remained apparently the purest linguistically. But notwithstand- 
ing their differences, these three branches continued as parts of one 
greater nation, bound together by all that was most important in 
their existence. 

The further development of the Russian people belongs to well- 
known history. They have not advanced any toward the southwest 
and west, due to the presence of other solid and strong ethnic units, 
especially the Poles; but they have progressed greatly toward the 
north and especially toward the southeast and east. The colonization 
southward and eastward dates particularly from the fifteenth cen- 
tury, and especially from the time of Peter the Great. From then 
on we see an elementary, peaceful, and military advance of the Rus- 
sians over the territory formerly subdued by the Tatars, culminating 
in 1783 in the fall of the Krimean Dominion, and extending to re- 
gions far beyond the original boundaries of the State. Expansion 
into Siberia, the population of which to-day is already more than 
four-fifths Russian, commenced in the sixteenth century. 

The total number of Russians existing in 1900 amounted to about 
94,000,000; at the present date, judging from the average annual 
increase of the people, their number must be somewhere about 
110,000,000.7 

The regions at the present day most thickly settled by Russians 
are the black-earth belt east of Poland, and Small-Russia, the least 
settled being northern Russia and many parts of Siberia. 

The proportion of males and females is, in general, 103.4 females 
to each 100 males, which is close to the condition among other whites. 
But the birth rate is very large—48 per thousand; the death rate is 
also large, amounting, on the average, to about 34 per thousand. _ 

Physically, the Russian people everywhere, barring some limited 
localities, are predominantly brachycephalic. In complexion the 
Malorusi are, in general, the darkest, the Bielorusi the most blond. 
The principal differences are observable, on the whole, between the 
Velkorusi and the Malorusi, but even these are such that to an out- 
side scientific observer both of these branches must remain parts of 
the same great Russian stem of people. 


THE POLACI OR POLES. 


The Poles constitute the principal western branch of the Slavs, 
and of them alone is it possible to say that from immemorial times 


1In these numbers the Velkorusi are represented by about 67 per cent, the Malorusi by 
about 27 per cent, and the Bielorusi by about 7 per cent. The Kozaci (Cossack), who are 
partly of Velkorus and partly of Malorus origin, but who in the course of time have 
acquired many habits differing from those of ordinary Russians, count, approximately, 
3,500,000. 


604 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


they have occupied the same territory, which is located between the 
Oder, the Carpathians, and the Baltic. They were always situated 
centrally as regards the other Slav tribes, and the Polish philologists 
are of the opinion that even the language corresponds to this central 
position of the people. 

But very little is known about the ancient ethnography of present 
Poland. It is only with the advent of the ninth century that a little 
light begins to appear concerning these Slavs. The boundaries of 
Poland, however, were then unsettled, and the nation itself was still 
composed of a number of tribes or groups; nevertheless, the people 
were already looked upon as one by the-neighboring Slavs and known 
under the common name of Liachove or Liachi. 

Toward the end of the first millenium, the Poles still consisted, as 
far as known, of at least five tribes. Between 960 and 1025 the tribe 
of Poles proper (Polane) succeeded in uniting all these groups, and 
its name extended over the entire resulting unit. The principal in- 
centives toward this unification of the tribes were wars with the 
Germans, following the subjugation by the latter of the Slavs along 
the Elbe. 

The tenacious struggles with the Germans, thus initiated, continued 
and exercised a far-reaching influence on the entire internal and ex- 
ternal development of the Polish nation. They resulted in a slow 
retirement of the Poles on the west and in their corresponding expan- 
sion toward the north and the east. Disastrous events to the Poles 
in the thirteenth century were the invasion of the Tatars, and espe- 
cially the battle of Lehnice, in 1241, which, among other effects, re- 
sulted in the tearing apart of Poland and Silesia. 

Quite as disastrous as the above, however, were the continued, exten- 
sive, and intense efforts at germanization, proceeding from the west. 
It was due to these combined agencies that in the thirteenth century 
the Polish nation was almost at the point of destruction. In these 
extremes, however, there became manifest a great internal reaction 
among the Poles, directed particularly against the oppressing Ger- 
mans. This was accompanied by numerous political and other suc- 
cesses of the nation, and finally, in 1410, in a decisive victory of the 
Poles at the battle of Grunwald over the German Knights, the prin- 
cipal agents of germanization. 

The provinces, however, that were meanwhile lost on the west 
and northwest, could not be regained, and henceforth Polish expan- 
sion was directed principally toward Lithuania and toward the east 
and southeast into Russian territory. The latter eventually en- 
countered the opposition of the Russians, leading to wars and strug- 
gles that lasted for centuries, and which were unfavorable to the 
Poles, resulting, with other circumstances, in the years 1772, 1793, 
and 1795, in the tri-partition of the Polish State. 


THE SLAV PEOPLES—NIEDERLE. 605 


These conditions had of course a deleterious effect on the Polish 
people, and it was only their great inner vitality, coupled with their 
traditions and with strong hopes for the future, that kept the nation 
from annihilation, and that eventually again strengthened and uni- 
fied it to such a degree that its destruction became impossible. 

The tendency toward the germanization of Poland, or at least that 
part of the country under Germany, continues, however, as intense 
and active as ever. 

The total number of the Poles living at the present date is esti- 
mated at approximately 19,000,000. Of that number there lived in 
Russia in 1900, about 8,500,000; in Austria, 4,250,000; in Germany, 
3,450,000; and in the United States of America, 1,500,000. 

There are still recognizable within the nation a number of terri- 
torial or tribal groups differing somewhat dialectically, but ethni- 
cally none of these divisions can be constituted into separate units. 

Physically, the Poles show especially a close similarity with the 
Velkorusi (Great-Russians). 


THE LUZICE (LAUSSITZ) SERBS. 


From the powerful branch of the Slavs who centuries ago occupied 
the territory along the central and lower Elbe there remains to-day 
only an insignificant body of the so-called Serbians in the Upper 
and the Lower Luzice. 

The Elbe Slavs, at the time from which we have the first historical 
notices concerning them, that is, in the ninth to the tenth century 
A. D., consisted of three large groups. From the time of the first 
records these groups were in constant and intense struggle against 
two powerful agencies, the Germans and the Roman hierarchy. The 
inevitable result was that they fell before such odds and became ger- 
manized. 

From the fifteenth century onward we find only scattered groups of 
the Elbe Slavs. The more northern examples of these disappear 
gradually one after another, and the only remnants surviving to this 
day are the “ Laussitz” Serbs, settled near the northern boundary 
of Bohemia. The cause of the survival of this remnant was, besides 
other circumstances, the fact that Luzice belonged for a long time 
to the Bohemian crown. The numbers of the “ Luziéani” are, how- 
ever, steadily diminishing by absorption. 

According to the German statistics of 1900, there were still living 
in Laussitz 93,032 “Serbs,” who spoke nothing but their own 
language. According to other estimates the total number of these 
“Serbs ” at that date was between 150,000 and 160,000 individuals. 
In 1910 the estimate was 20,000 less. As the people are surrounded 
by Germans, their complete assimilation with that people can only 
be a matter of a relatively short time. 


606 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


An interesting fact is that emigrated Luzice Serbs have founded 
a number of settlements in the United States, especially in Texas, 
as, for example, Serbin, West- Yewa, Warda, Burleson. 

The language of the upper and lower branches of these peoples, 
as mentioned above, differed to such an extent that the two must be 
regarded as distinct dialects. 


THE BOHEMIANS (CECHS) AND SLOVAKS. 


The Bohemians and Slovaks, also, are derived from the western 
body of the Slavs. The Slovaks can in general be regarded as a part 
of the same ethnic group, although considerably separated by various 
conditions. Both parts arose from a common center somewhere near 
that of the Poles and that of the Elbe Slavs, to the north of the Sudet 
Mountains, reaching, perhaps, into Moravia. 

The Bohemians and Slovaks came to their present abodes from 
the north possibly in one, possibly in separate ways. Historical 
data concerning these facts there are none, but some light on them 
begins to rise on the basis of archeological researches. According 
to the latter investigations both branches had settled their respective 
territories before the latter half of the first millenium B. C., and 
hence they can well be regarded as autochthonous in their countries. 

Linguistic relations show clearly that both the Bohemians and 
the Slovaks belong to the same stem as the Poles, the Luzician Serbs 
and the Elbe Slavs, and that they expanded in connection with these. 

Historical data concerning the Bohemians begins in the seventh 
century. At that time these people occupied a more extensive terri- 
tory than they do to-day, reaching in places into what is now Bavaria 
and on the south to the Donau.- They also extended farther than 
they now do into ancient Pannonia (Hungary), and the Slovaks occu- 
pied a large portion of the latter country, connecting in the south 
with other Slavs. 

As all the other Slavic branches, so also the Bohemians were 
at the beginning separated into a number of more or less distinct 
groups. Among these the Cechové (Cechs) exceled in number and 
power, and, as with the Polane in Poland, the name of the group even- 
tually became extended over all the other subdivisions, barring the 
Slovaks. In the ninth and tenth centuries the word Cechové or 
CeSi was already used in the larger sense, embracing the whole people. 
The territorial term Bohemi was in like sense employed even earlier. 

The naturally highly favorable and protected situation of the 
center of the Bohemians resulted in a rapid and auspicious develop- 
ment of the people, and had it not been for some of its rulers with 
their foreign sympathies, the nation would have played an even more 
important role than it did among the Slavs and would doubtless 
occupy to-day a different political position, 


THE SLAV PEOPLES—NIEDERLE. 607 


The most detrimental procedure of some of these rulers was the 
colonization of parts of Bohemia and Moravia by Germans. This 
colonization and contemporaneous germanization continued, favored 
also by the nobility and the clergy, until the fourteenth century, when 
it was checked effectually for a time by a revulsion of the people, 
manifested in part in the wonder-inspiring Husite wars. The pro- 
cess of Germanization at that time extended even to the Slovaks in 
northern Hungary. 

The Husite (after Jan Hus, the martyred reformer and patriot) 
wars were conducted victoriously mainly under the banner of religion, 
but at the same time it was a struggle for Bohemian nationality and 
against the invading Germans. As a result of these wars, the Bohe- 
mian language again became the official language in Bohemia, Mora- 
via, and Silesia, and there was a general national rejuvenation. 

The German waves, however, could be stayed only for a time, and 
in the sixteenth and particularly the seventeenth centuries their effect 
again became manifest. 

The early part of the seventeenth century (1620) marks the dis- 
astrous battle of Bila Hora, near Prague. Then followed a period of 
intense religious oppression, confiscation of property, exile of tens of 
thousands of the best families, and the repeated destructive invasions 
of the Thirty Years’ War, all of which left the Bohemian element 
greatly reduced in numbers and on the verge of exhaustion. Then 
came further German colonization and more germanization. 

Toward the end of the eighteenth and at the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century it seemed as if the Cechs were to follow the fate of the 
Elbe Slavs. Instead of this, however, there became manifest a 
marked and gradually growing reawakening of the national spirit, 
attended with a purification of the language, and not merely a suc- 
cessful opposition to further germanization, but a slow and continu- 
ous gain of old positions in all directions. 

A century ago it seemed as if the nation was doomed. To-day it 
stands among the most cultured and united, as well as intellectually 
and industrially productive, in the compact strength of nearly 
7,000,000, exclusive of the 2,000,000 Slovaks in Hungary. The history 
of the people from the fourteenth century to date reads like a fable. 

The Slovaks are subject to forcible magyarization which, with 
their environment, has retarded their progress in all directions. 

The total number of Bohemian Slovak people in existence is esti- 
mated at somewhat over 9,000,000 individuals, and of that number 
at least 300,000 Bohemians and 500,000 Slovaks live in the United 
States. 

There is a considerable difference between the Bohemians and 
Slovaks in education. Among the former the percentage of those 
able to read and write exceeds even that among the Germans, and is 


608 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


the highest (for larger groups) in Europe; among the Slovaks, due 
to the highly unfavorable local conditions, the percentage of analpha- 
bets ranges from 32 to 42 per cent. 

As to occupations, there are among the Bohemians 43 per cent 
devoted to agriculture, 36.5 per cent to industry, and 9.3 per cent to 
transportation, while 11.1 per cent are in civil service. 
_ Tribal differentiation among the Bohemians has to a very large 

extent disappeared. Highly interesting remnants of tribal differ- 
ences, however, are met with in numerous localities, as indicated by 
dress and eset habits of the people, and also in a few places by the 
dialect. There are recognized three strains of these dialectic shades, 
but none is of any special importance. 

Physically, the Bohemians are characterized by a good stature 
(average of men 169.2, of women 157.3 centimeters) with a brachyce- 
phalic skull of, on the average, a considerable capacity (Weissbach). 
They are somewhat predominantly of a darker type, but blond and 
mixed individuals and especially those with lighter-colored eyes are 
quite common. It is evident that the type is not strictly homogene- 
ous, but the differences are very largely only individual. 


THE SLOVENIANS. 


The Slovenians are the northwestern portion of the southern Slavs 
and a remnant of a once powerful branch known at Slovieni, which 
at the beginning of the Middle Ages spread over the territory between 
the Pannonian bend of the Donau and the Adriatic Sea, reaching at 
the same time far into the Alpine regions. 

Nothing is known historically as to the date and circumstances of 
the first appearance of the Slovenians in this territory. It seems that 
their penetration there had commenced at or even before the begin- 
ning of the Christian era, but definite proofs of this supposition are 
still lacking. What is certain is, that from the sixth century onward 
the territory became filled with Slavs, and in the year 600 we read 
that they were then imperiling Italy. They occupied what are now 
the southern half of Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Gorizia, 
and Carniola, as well as a part of Tyrol and Upper Austria. This 
distribution is authenticated by the topographical and _ historical 
nomenclature as well as by a number of direct historical notes regard- 
ing these Slav settlements. 

In the earlier part of their history, however, the Slovenians were 
subjugated by the Avars. They were liberated from this yoke dur- 
ing the first half of the seventh century, but during the eighth cen- 
tury were overcome in turn by the Bavarians, who initiated a 
progressive and long-lasting germanization. Still later, after the 
invasion of the Magyars, germanization was rapidly replaced by 


THE SLAV PEOPLES—NIEDERLE. 609 


magyarization, the cause of both being the preponderance in numbers 
and power of the Germans on one side and of the Magyars on the 
other, over the Slovenians. 

To-day the Slovenian territory is limited to Carniola, the northern 
part of Istria, Gorizia, and parts of Styria and Carinthia, with small 
regions in northeastern Italy and in western Hungary. 

The total number of Slovenians is now only about 1,500,000, of 
whom about 100,000 live in the United States. 


CROATIANS AND SERBIANS. 


Croatians and Serbians arose, with the Slovenians and the Bul- 
garians, from the southern main Slav stem or division. They formed 
at the beginning a linguistic unit, which did not become separated 
into two parts or two nationalities until during historic times. Both 
of these units, although aware of their close relation, to-day defend 
a nationalistic individuality. 

The conditions leading to the separation of the two branches were, 
as elsewhere, territorial, tribal, and dialectic differences. The orig- 
inal body at first consisted of a series of tribes belonging to one 
linguistic group, but dialectically slightly differentiated, which ex- 
panded from their more northern cradle, near the Carpathians, 
toward the Donau and beyond that to the Drava, Sava, and farther 
on to the Balkans. It was only in the latter region, with the Balkan 
Mountains presenting boundaries difficult to traverse and hence im- 
peding communication, that some of the subdivisions became sepa- 
_rated and further differentiated, leading eventually to the present 
grouping into two nationalities. 

In the northwest and west the original segregation of the tribes 
gradually gave rise to the Croatians, while the more eastern group 
became the Servians. The Croatians led an independent political 
existence from probably as early as the seventh century until 1102, 
when the Croatian Kingdom became attached to Hungary, with 
which, in 1526, it became a part of Austria-Hungary. The Servians 
were organized as a separate political body somewhat later, between 
the 10th and 11th centuries, and retained their independence until 
after the battle with the Turks on Kosovo Pole, in 1389, after which 
their territory was made a part of the Ottoman Empire. 

The Turkish subjection of the Servians resulted in the emigration 
of masses of the Servians and also of the Croatians northward into 
southern Hungary and into other parts of the southern portion of the 
Austrian States. 

At the present day the Croatians are settled entirely within 
boundaries of the Austrian Empire. They occupy parts of the 
coast land and Istria, portions of Dalmatia and Bosnia, and entire 

97578°—sm 191039 


610 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Croatia, in addition to which they are found in numerous localities 
in southern Hungary and in Slavonia. 

The nucleus of the Servians rests in Servia and Montenegro, whence 
they extend to Bosnia and Herzegovina, now annexed to Austria- 
Hungary, to parts of Dalmatia, Slavonia, southern Hungary, and 
to northwestern Aibania and Macedonia. 

Separate statistics of the two nationalities are not available. 
Together they numbered in 1900 approximately 9,000,000 individuals, 
of whom somewhat more than 3,500,000 were in Austria-Hungary, a 
little less than 2,000,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 350,000 in 
Montenegro, 2,300,000 in Servia, 400,000 in old Servia, Macedonia, 
and Albania, and about 300,000 in the United States and elsewhere in 
America. 

Both the Servians and Croatians are predominately agricultural 
people, the percentage of farmers in different localities reaching 
between 80 and 90 per cent of the population. 

As in all the other Slav branches, so among the Servians and 
Croatians, there exist a number of secondary groups, differing from 
each ails dialectically; but none of these interesting divisions is of 
great importance. 

From the anthropological standpoint the Servians, as well as the 
Croations, are predominantly of a darker complexion and are 
strongly brachycephalic. 


THE BULGARIANS. 


The last Slav nation which resulted from the differentiation within 
the southern stem or main division of the Slavs, are the Bulgarians, 
who to-day live almost exclusively on the Balkan Peninsula. 

As was the case with the other branches of the southern Slavic 
division, so the Bulgarians had their cradle much farther to the 
north, somewhere above the Carpathian Mountains, in the neighbor- 
hood of the Russians. From these regions they had already begun 
as early as the third to the fifth century A. D. to penetrate toward 
the lower Donau, and in the sixth century they reached the Balkans. 
At this time and even during the seventh and eighth centuries of our 
era, the people consisted of a considerable number of separate groups 
more or less loosely united. 

In the year 679 there arrived in the region occupied by these groups 
a body of Volga Bulgars, of Turkish descent. These invaders sub- 
jected the nearest of the aforementioned groups, united them, and 
subsequently the union extended to the remaining Slavs in the central 
part of the peninsula. 

The Volga Bulgars very soon became assimilated into the Slav 
element and disappeared as a separate body, but they left their name 
to the united new people. In general, it may be said that the Bulgars 


THE SLAV PEOPLES—NIEDERLE. 611 


were always Slavs, although they suffered a considerable admixture 
of foreign elements. 

The Bulgarian Kingdom during the ninth and tenth centuries had 
spread over a large territory. It carried on numerous wars with 
the Byzantines on one hand and the Servians on the other. until 
the time of the Turkish invasion. In 1396 the battle of Nikopole 
resulted in the forcible submission of Bulgaria to the Turks, a sub- 
mission lasting until 1878, when, with the help of Russia, the country 
again gained a limited freedom. In 1885 Bulgaria succeeded in 
regaining a large part of Roumelia; and recently, on the occasion of 
the annexation by Austria-Hungary of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 
that of political disorders in Turkey, Bulgaria again attained com- 
plete independence. To-day it is the strongest and most progressive 
nation of the Balkans. 

Throughout its history, but especially during and even after the 
Turkish occupation, Bulgaria has witnessed many internal move- 
ments of population. At present the restlessness is confined to the 
Bulgarians of Macedonia. 

The total number of Bulgarians at the present day exceeds 5,000,- 
000. Of these approxjmately 3,000,0000 reside in Bulgaria proper, 
1,200,000 in Macedonia; 600,000 in other parts of the Balkan Penin- 
sula and Turkey, 180,000 in Russia, and about 100,000 in Roumania 
and Dobrudza. In America, particularly in the United States, the 
Bulgarians are represented by only small numbers. 

Exclusive of groups belonging to other nationalities which are 
settled in Bulgaria, the Bulgarians themselves show an internal dif- 
ferentiation into three principal subdivisions, differing somewhat 
dialectically and in other respects. None of these divisions, however, 
is sufficiently apart from the body of the people to make possible any 
actual separation. Besides this, there are met with in Bulgaria (as 
in Servia) many local names of groups, with no, or but very little, 
ethnic significance. 

From the anthropological standpoint, according to the most: reli- 
able data, the Bulgarians are somewhat heterogeneous. The typical 
Bulgarian is of medium height (166.5 centimeters for men and 156.7 
centimeters for women), and predominantly dark (50 per cent dark, 
5 per cent light, 45 per cent mixed complexion). The head is pre- 
dominantly mesocephalic, with a rising proportion of brachycephaly 
in the southwestern part of Bulgaria and in southern Macedonia. 
Dolichocephalic forms appear in parts of southern Bulgaria. 

Regarding the Slavs in Macedonia, there is still a difference of 
opinion as to whether they are nearer the Bulgarians or the Servians, 
or whether they constitute an independent Macedonian Slav people. 
As the matter is complicated by politics, a continuation of the discus- 
sion must be expected. There is no doubt that a large part of the 


612 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Macedonian Slavs feel and proclaim themselves to be Bulgarians, 
and also that the dialects of the people are nearer the Bulgarian lan- 
guage than the Servian, with the exception of the northern part of 
the region, which in turn is more Servian. 


CONCLUDING REMARKS. 


The Slavs are of central European origin and of the same descent 
as other Indo-European or Aryan whites, though in some regions 
they have in the course of time become mixed with other elements. 

The total number of Slavs at the close of the year 1910 may be 
estimated at about 156,000,000 to 157,000,000. In this number the 
Russians are represented by nearly 70 per cent, the Poles by 13 per 
cent, the Bohemians and Slovaks by a little over 7 per cent, the Ser- 
vians and Croatians by a little less than 7 per cent, the Bulgarians 
by about 3.7 per cent, the Slovenians by a little over 1 per cent, and 
the Luzice (Laussitz) Serbs by a little over 0.1 per cent. 

The stock is in general a naturally well-preserved and sturdy one. 
The mean annual increase in numbers amounts to about 1.4 per cent. 

Anthropologically, the Slavs are characterized by a mostly rounded 
head, good cranial capacity, medium stature, and a good physical 
development. In complexion they range from brunette to blond, the 
former predominating among the southern Slavs and among the 
Malorussians, while blonds are more numerous among the northern 
parts of the stock, and especially among the Bielorussians. 

Culturally, numerous parts of the people are as yet more or less 
retarded, due not to any want of natural abilities, but to lack of 
facilities of education, and to oppression. 

Those Slavs who emigrate, particularly to North America, become 
generally (with the exception of a certain percentage of the Slovaks, 
who return to their families) completely assimilated with the indig- 
enous population within two generations. 


Norn.—Prof. Niederle’s work contains many special details which could not well be 
included in this abstract, due to limit of space, and there is also given an extensive bibli- 
ography relating to the different stems and branches of the Slavs, for wkich the reader 
must be referred to the original, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Niederile. PLATE |. 


Great R 

White Russians 
Small Russians 
Poles @ Kashubs 
Luzice Serbs 
Bohemians, Slovaks 
Slovenians 
Servians Croatians 
Bulgarians 


THE NORRIS PETERS CO.,, WASHINGTON, D.C 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Niederie. 


Great “ae i Ligal <c 
White Russians e ° 
Small Russians hw YY AA. 


Poles @ Kashubs rw, 
Luzice Serbs roo 


Bohemians, Slovaks 


Slovenians 


Servians,Croatians 
Bulgarians 


en 


f 


Munch 


LAV PEOPL 


‘ 


. 


| oad a 7 
¢ ' : 
, A 
4 , a - 
4h r ; " 
v a >. 
Pe ¢ aL 
df. = “ * 
7 . * . 
7 2* 
7 > - ’ 
PTR? 6 .* 4 
'_ « 
. af 
P 
= 
. 


Ct 
A. 


THE CAVE DWELLINGS OF THE OLD AND NEW WORLDS. 


[With 11 plates.] 


By J. WALTER FEWKEs. 


In considering many subjects suitable for a presidential address 
that of “The Cave Dwellings of the Old and New Worlds”? has 
seemed to me timely as illustrating certain aspects of culture history 
that are only vaguely comprehended by those unfamiliar with our 
science, and often overlooked by professional anthropologists. The 
subject enables me to call attention to the intimate connection existing 
between history and geography, and to lay before you data bearing 
on the theory that culture similarities in distant lands are due not so 
much to derivation as to a mental unity on account of which human 
thoughts are similarly affected by a like environment. This subject 
also brings into relief significant limitations of the theory that cul- 
ture development is due wholly to external conditions, while the data 
here presented show the existence of diversities in culture which have 
apparently no relation to those conditions. 

There is nothing produced by the human mind and hand that 
reflects individual and racial characters more accurately than man’s 
habitations. It is a far-reaching ethnological law that the house is 
the most truthful expression of the mind of the inhabitant; natural 
man in constructing his dwellings must avail himself of the material 
which is nearest at hand for that purpose. 

It is convenient for purposes of study to consider human habita- 
tions as arranged in two series which are not necessarily local lines of 
evolution—houses of wood including those of sticks, bark, grass, 
hides, and those of stone embracing earth, clay, and the like. Our 
subject is especially concerned with the origin and development of 
the latter. The simplest kind of durable house or shelter is the cave, 
the choice of which for habitation generally leads ultimately into 


1 Presidential address delivered before the Anthropological Society of Washington, 
April 12, 1910. This address was accompanied by stereopticon views illustrating many 
of the points presented, which can not be reproduced as illustrations. 

Reprinted by permission from American Anthropologist, vol. 12, No. 3, July—Sept., 
1910. 


618 


614 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


permanent structures. The cave as an element in the history of 
human habitation is conditioned in its influence by its geographical 
extension. 

You may have noticed that I have spoken of the intimate connec- 
tion of history and geography, and it may be added that in using 
the former term I include in it both ethnology and archeology. It 
seems to me that the time is coming when the science of history will 
no jonger be made up solely of descriptions of past events, even when 
including within its ken economics and institutions, but will embrace 
a study of cultural life in its broadest significance. The time is not 
far distant when the discoveries of the ethnographer will enlarge the 
scope of history, so that this science will embrace all forms of culture, 
among all men, both low and high in development. Ethnology is 
destined to infuse into history a meaning more comprehensive than 
it has yet had and to bring into sharper relief the relation of cultural 
life and geographical surroundings. 

Human thought, as expressed by material culture, language, and 
beliefs, is modified to a certain extent by survivals of past environ- 
ments. In early conditions this modification was strong, but later, 
when man had obtained greater control over his surroundings, ex- 
ternal conditions lost some of their power. The character of primi- 
tive habitations is perhaps more influenced by environment than any 
other product of man’s intelligence, but even in them>we find surviy- 
ing traces of former conditions.t. The effect which the adoption of 
caves as habitations has had on the construction of buildings within 
them illustrates this statement. Originally caves were sought out 
for protection from elements, but in the course of time, possibly from 
conservatism, man continued to construct buildings in caves and to 
live in caverns long after necessity for them had ceased. The fact 
that nothing of man’s manufacture is more profoundly modified by 
environment than his habitation gives to caves or cave dwellings a 
great importance in the study of the interrelations of history and 
geography. 

he reason that led man originally to seek caves for habitation 
was a desire for shelter from the elements, but not so much protec- 
tion for himself as for others—for his offspring. Caves were early 
used for the hiding away of food and secretion of other property, 
as sacred images and ceremonial paraphernalia, for burial places, 
and as chambers for the performance of sacred rites. Their use for 
habitation was secondary, the primary motive being mainly altruistic, 
the same as that which leads the insect, bird, and mammal to make 
their nests. 


1The effect of migration and retention of cultural survivals of former environments 
should not be overlooked, although as time passes it becomes more and more obscure. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 615 


As one of the few crafts man shares with animals is the building 
habit, it is natural for us, on the very threshold of the subject, to 
consider the influence of environment on lower intelligences as 
expressed by insects, birds, mammals; or perhaps it might be better 
to say the study of the habitations of lower animals should go 
hand in hand with those of natural man.t_ We are immediately 
informed that the bird acts not from reason but from inherited 
habit or instinct. The first swallows which built under the eaves 
of a house or in a chimney of the same surely had no inherited 
instinct to guide them. This choice was certainly not due to former 
teaching in the site that has been inherited, but to an independent 
use of mind which recognized the advantage of a new environ- 
mental condition. It does not seem unreasonable to suppose that 
the birds that first built their nests under overhanging cliffs did 
so for the same reason that men built in similar places. Both bird 
and man saw that the caves were advantageous for shelter and built 
accordingly. 

The cave swallow builds its nest of available material, as stones, 
clay, and twigs. I possess a photograph showing one of these animal 
cliff dwellings which indicates how close a parallelism can be traced 
in the choice of a site and material for a building by animals and man 
as determined by their environment—a most fascinating subject to 
which I can give only brief mention at this time. The outcome of 
the comparison is that there appears to be a general psychic law show- 
ing identity of thought among animals and men in the construction 
of buildings or nests where available material and geographical con- 
ditions are the same. 

Life in caves passes naturally into one in permanent houses of 
stone or clay. If we follow Ratsel in his conclusion that “ the germ 
of stone architecture” arose from “the habit of dwelling in caves 
widely spread in primitive times and not yet obsolete,’ then the 
geographical distribution of caves has largely determined the sites 
of monument development and consequently of civilization. The 
effect of stone buildings made by one generation on development 
of the culture in the next and subsequent generations is very con- 
siderable, and the perpetual existence of monuments is a continual 

1This great ‘untilled field of comparative psychology,’ as pointed out by a re- 
viewer in The Atheneum (Aug. 20, 1910), of Dr. H. C. McCook’s Ant Communities 
and how they are Governed, ‘‘ will be extended from the primitive human type to the 
conceptions of other animals, but zoologists must find the materials.” Although 
somewhat foreign to my subject the following comment by Dr. Cook on the discovery 
of a story in an ant’s nest 8 feet deep is instructive: 

“Those who are curious in such comparisons might find grounds here for a striking 
parallel between the achievement of an ant three-eights of an inch high (long) and of 
a man 176 times as high (53 feet). Were we to reckon on a proportionate rate of 


progress between the two on the basis of height, our man would have to be credited 
with a storied structure 1,408 feet deep.’’ 


616 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


stimulus acting on the mind to interest it in past history and create 
a pride in former achievements. It is self-evident that a race, each 
generation of which builds houses of perishable material, leaves 
little evidence of its past history, and whenever the creations of one 
generation fall into decay in the next there remains nothing to 
which tradition may point with pride. If the past adds nothing 
to the present a race progress is not possible. Stone habitations 
become monuments and endure, not only serving as an inspiration 
for new endeavor but also securing lasting models for future gen- 
erations. It is on these accounts that the limits of artificial cave 
habitations are almost always the same as those of higher human 
culture, historic and prehistoric. 

Caves showing evidences of habitations are widely distributed 
geographically. Beginning with China, a belt of cave dwellings ex- 
tends across India to Asia Minor and Arabia, following both shores 
of the Mediterranean, continuing into the Canary Islands, the West 
Indies, Mexico, North and South America. Wherever geological 
conditions furnish a rock that can readily be worked into suitable 
caves there are generally found ruins of stone buildings, and where 
these exist there we are almost sure to see other evidences of past 
culture. 

Two lines of architectural evolution reach back to the cave as the 
original form: (1) Growth of a building within a natural cave, and 
(2) evolution of a building from an artificial cave. While natural 
caves must theoretically have formed the earlier shelter, we find. 
when the character of the rock permits, that artificial caves were con- 
structed almost contemporaneously with them. 

The use of unmodified natural caverns for shelter can not be con- 
sidered at length at this time, but in passing it may be pointed out 
that, while not limited to any one geographical location or climatic 
condition, they are necessarily found under certain geological condi- 
tions. Existing historical, legendary, and archeological accounts? of 
human habitations in natural caves of Europe are very numerous, but 
no extensive literature exists on the natural cave man of Asia, Africa, 
and America. The association of human remains with those of 
extinct animals in European caves carries the antiquity of man into 
late geological formations. The limited observations on New World 
caves rather than the poverty of the subject makes it difficult, almost 
impossible in fact, to institute an adequate comparison of the culture 
or relative age of the natural cave man of America and Europe. 

In order to show how little work has been done on this subject in 
America, let me call your attention to one of many examples. At the 


1 Higher culture without permanent habitations or sacred edifices is almost incon- 
ceivable. 

2Wm. Boyd Dawkins, Cave Hunting: Researches on the evidence of caves respecting 
the early inhabitants of Europe, London, 1874. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 617 


close of the fifteenth century, when Columbus discovered America, 
there were cave dwellers in certain regions of the West Indies, which 
were mentioned in the writings of early historians. The people who 
inhabited the greater part of these islands were dwellers in the 
open and had attained a considerable cultural elevation as shown 
in the polished stone objects called “collars” and three-pointed 
idols or zemis. The germ of this culture came from South America. 
In addition there were settlements of Caribs who had migrated north- 
ward from South America along the Lesser Antilles as far as Vieques 
Island and the eastern shore of Porto Rico. It would appear from 
history that there were at least three distinct stocks, indicating three 
kinds of culture, in the West Indies at the epoch of discovery. The 
first and most primitive of these three were the cave dwellers, rem- 
nants of an aboriginal people once spread all over the West Indies, 
but at that time inhabiting the western ends of Cuba and Haiti. 
They were known to early writers as the Guanahatibibes,! and were 
said to have been low in cultural development, possessing a character- 
istic idiom, their livelihood being obtained by fishing, hunting, or 
gathering wild fruits or roots. ‘These apparently had not yet become 
an agricultural people, and had no knowledge of how to prepare 
cassava from the poisonous root of the yuca. 

The existence of this race of natural cave dwellers in the West 
Indies has long been known through legends extant since the time of 
Columbus. Roman Pane, the oldest folklorist of the American 
Indians, in one of the legends of the natives of Haiti refers inci- 
dentally to their fermer life in caves—a legend which was no doubt 
founded on historical fact. It is known that some of the Haitian 
caves were inhabited by man at the discovery of the island, and we 
may infer that these troglodytes were survivals of an antecedent 
epoch, referred to in the legend, when the aborigines of the island 
were cave dwellers. 

While, as seen from the above remarks, evidence drawn from folk- 
lore supports history, the archeological verification has yet to be 
gathered. Our knowledge of the character of the West Indian cave 
culture is fragmentary and can be greatly enlarged by systematic 
excavation of the caves of Cuba, Haiti, and Porto Rico. Skeletal 
remains which may be referred to the cave men of Cuba have been 
investigated by several Cuban anthropologists, who have regarded 

1In western Cuba; their province in Haiti was called Gaucarima. The structures 
called ‘‘cacimbas”’ in the Isle of Pines and elsewhere in western Cuba may have been 
made by the prehistoric cave dwellers of Cuba. These cacimbas are large earthern jars, 


apparently fashioned and baked in place, filling a hole 6 feet deep, with rim level with 
the surface of the ground. Additional study is necessary to determine their age and use. 


Norny.—A careful study of 25 of these cacimbas in May, 1911, showed that while they 
are almost universally shaped like jars their walls were not of clay baked in place, as I 
had been informed, but made of masonry plastered or excavated in solid rock. A thin 
layer of tar on their sides and floors seems to indicate they were used as receptacles for 
turpentine or tar. Their construction as well as their use is still doubtful—2J. W. F. 


618 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


them as among the oldest in America. A comparison of the culture 
of these cave men with those of Europe would be very instructive, 
but it is manifestly impossible considering our limited knowledge of 
the former. Here is an opportunity for the study of cave men at 
our very door, practically within our domain, which offers a most 
fascinating field rich with harvest to our historians, folklorists, and 
archeologists.1 

A comparison of artificial caves and buildings constructed in 
natural caverns in the Old and New Worlds is much easier to make 
than that of the natural caves of the two hemispheres on account of 
the abundant known material. Both America and the Old World 
have an extensive literature of artificial caves used for habitations or 
natural caves sheltering buildings of size. Historically speaking we 
have little information regarding the life of man in artificial caves 
or in buildings in natural caverns in America, but this lack may be 
supplemented by the contributions of archeology, and our knowledge 
may be enriched by a study of the folklore* of the Pueblo Indians. 

In addition to legends capable of verification by archeology, the 
Hopi also have others less definite which, although vague, are still 
as worthy of belief as those dealing with the period of history, if 
taken symbolically. Pueblo legends all agree that the human race 
orginated in an underworld and climbed to the surface, where it 
now dwells, through an opening which the Hopi call “the Sipapt.” 
A comparative study of these stories among different pueblos reveals 
the fact that this emergence opening does not always have the same 
position, creating doubts as to the authenticity of the location of 
Sipapi and raising a suspicion that geographically it is not to be 
taken literally, but varies with the clan or larger group. Moreover, 
the legend, greatly obscured by esoteric and symbolic interpretation, 
may indicate a local prehistoric event.? It is usual to interpret “ the 
Sipapt” as the original orifice of emergence common to all members 
of the human race, but it is worth while to consider whether it does 
not sometimes refer to the passage from a previous culture. If we 
interpret the underworld ‘ to be a prehistoric underground habitation, 
we can bring several facts of archeology and ethnology to its support. 


1Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt has also called my attention to the following legend on an old 
map by De I'Isle near what is now Williamsport, Pa.: “les Tionontatecaga qui habitent 
dans des cayernes pour se deffendre de la grande chaleur.” 

2The legends of the life of some of the Hopi clans in the cliff houses of the Navaho 
National Monument, possibly vague as to the exact site of these cliff dwellings, are as 
vivid to them as their life in any historic ruin like Awatobi. These legends do not 
always refer to historic times, but often indicate the individual cliff dwelling once in- 
habited by specific clans, as those in the Chelly Canyon, which comes well into the his- 
toric period, although not recorded in historical documents. 

’ Or the present conception of a universal Sipapf may have been a generalization from 
a purely local historical account of the passage of culture from the caves to the open. 

4The ‘‘ pit dwelling,’ or as they are sometimes designated ‘“ underground habitations,”’ 
referred to throughout this lecture are allied to but not identical with cliff dwellings and 
pueblos. Cliff dwelings are of two kinds: Cavate rooms or those artifically excavated in 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 619 


There can hardly be a doubt that the remote ancestor of the cliff 
pueblo was an inhabitant of a natural cave, and that the construction 
of an artificial.cave and a pit dwelling was also early in time. As 
man developed into a mason? he outgrew the narrow bounds of a 
cavern and, erecting buildings in front of his artificial caves, rele- 
gated the latter to storage or ceremonial purposes, just as in certain 
places in Asia Minor caves are granaries and have houses in front of 
them which are inhabited. 

Knowing as we do that early man in Europe inhabited natural 
caves, the question naturally arises why there is a total absence in 
Europe of large villages like the great cliff houses of Arizona and 
Colorado. This is partly due to the limited size of the caves, for 
there are no European caverns suitable or ample enough to contain 
large villages. The step from the cave dwelling to the construction 
of stone buildings in the open was an early one and was probably 
brought about by overcrowding. After the population of the cave 
had outgrown its limits two remedies were possible for accommoda- 
tion of the increase. Crowded out of caves by enlargement in num- 
bers, man was forced either to build rooms in front of the caves he 
had excavated or, cutting free from the cliffs, to construct an inde- 
pendent house in the plain or on the mesa. 

It is not unhkely, also, that in some instances he first inhabited 
pit dwellings or habitations underground. Such simple dwellings 
as these were not unlike some ancient aboriginal habitations of Cali- 
fornia or the earth lodges in the plains east of the plateau region. 
Tf we regard the so-called cavate lodges and the pit dwellings as 
primordial dwellings, much that is incomprehensible in cliff-dwelling 
architecture can be readily explained. 

Although numerous examples of pit dwellings in the Southwest 
may be mentioned, the Old Caves near Flagstaff, Ariz., are among the 
best representatives. A visitor on approaching one of these habita- 
tions first observes on top of an elevation broken down walls of one- 
storied rooms forming a cluster, the ground plan of which would not 
be unlike a checker board.?2 These walls, constructed of lava blocks, 
gave to this cluster of rooms the appearance of a small one-storied 


the walls of cliffs and cliff houses, or cliff pueblos, houses or pueblos with walls built in 
natural caves. There is of course no strict line of demarkation between these different 
types and some settlements are composites of two or more kinds of dwellings. The pit 
dwellings belong to a distinct type of southwestern ruins, represented in cliff dwellings 
and pueblos by the substerranean sacred room or kiva. 

17The training of primitive man into a mason was rapid wherever rocks about him 
could be worked with rude implements. The excavations of caves led to stone buildings. 
No better illustration of the dependence of architecture on the character of rock can be 
found than by a comparison of the prehistoric monuments of Cuba and Yucatan. LHasily 
worked rocks of the latter country made possible the magnificent temples that have 
been the wonder of archeologists. 

2Similar walls forming an inclosure into which open the doorways of cave dwellings 
are figured in a cut of Madeba, by Libbey and Hoskins, the Jordan Valley and Petra, 
vol. 1, 


620 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


pueblo, but on entering the inclosures one sees in the middle of each 
floor a vertical entrance through which the the inhabitants descended 
to a subterranean chamber, excavated in the solid rock. This under- 
ground chamber was entered from lateral rooms by doorways which 
also had been excavated in the lava conglomerate. From the plaster- 
ing on the walls of these rooms it is evident that they were not used 
simply for storage, but served for habitations and were true pit 
dwellings... Let us consider still another example of these early 
subterranean houses with vertical entrances inhabited by the abo- 
rigines of Arizona. Certain ruins on the Little Colorado have under- 
ground rooms that indicate even better than the Old Caves the char- 
acter of pit-room culture antedating the free buildings called pueblos. 
Some of the best of these exist in considerable numbers in a cluster 
of ruins near the Black Falls of the Little Colorado. These rooms 
are underground, single, multiple, or arranged in rows, being gen- 
erally found in the shelter of a low outcropping rock formation some- 
times occurring at the base of a low cliff on top of which is a pueblo 
ruin. Their form is generally round or they have rounded corners, 
one side being the cliff walls. A row of underground rooms of this 
type morphologically resembles a series of subterranean kivas. There 
is nothing to show that they were specialized for ceremonial pur- 
poses, but they are believed to belong to the type of subterranean 
dwelling called a “ pit room,” of which the kiva is the modern sur- 
vival. 

Some of the Armenian cave dwellings belong to that type of cavate 
house characterized by a vertical entrance. In the writings of Xeno- 
phon there is said to occur the following reference to these troglodytes 
visited by Polyecrates and certain others of his command: “ Their 
houses were underground, with entrances like that of a well, though 
they were spacious below. The entrances for the animals were dug 
out, but the men descended by means of ladders. In these houses 
there were goats, cows, chickens, and the young of the same. The 
animals were fed on hay inside the houses, which also held a store 
of wheat, barley, vegetables, and barley-beer in great. vessels.” 

As in certain Southwestern cavate houses some of the cave villages 
of Asia Minor had a series of houses above ground which were occu- 
pied, and another series, subterranean in position, entered by tunnels, 
and advantageously situated for protection from foes. The use of 
the underground rooms as places of refuge, those in the open serving 
as habitations, may furnish a clue to the use of cavate rooms under 
or behind houses in prehistoric New Mexico and Arizona. 

The Asiatic excavated rooms were used by their inhabitants for 
protection against Ibrahim Pasha, who, with an Egyptian army in a 


1TI recognize in these pit rooms the precursors of the subterranean kivas, the vertical 
entrance representing a hatchway. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES §21 


campaign against Turkey, came to a town of this character in Asia 
Minor. The people fled to their subterranean rooms, closing the 
entrance behind them by rolling great stones over the doorways,: so 
that the Egyptian soldiers could not force their way into these re- 
treats. When the latter were sorely in need of water and lowered 
buckets to draw it up from the wells, it is said the people under- 
ground cut the ropes, causing the soldiers to withdraw. 

Dr. Ellsworth Huntington, in an interesting account of his visit 
to certain Druse caves in Syria, published in Harper’s Magazine, for 
April, 1910, has shown how this was possible. It appears that these 
caves were safe retreats in time of danger, being in communication 
with houses above. He found in them remains of tanks, from which 
water could be drawn by those in rooms above. It would not be 
possible to obtain water if there were hostile people in the caves below 
near the tanks. : 

The most instructive résumé of the dwellings of the aborigines 
of North America has been written by Herr Sarfert,? who has con- 
sidered many points of interest to the student of subterranean or - 
cave habitations. It would seem from his studies that underground 
habitations had a wide distribution in the New World in prehistoric 
times, and that there was a line of such, interrupted at intervals, ex- 
tending from the Aleutian Islands along the west coast of North 
America into Central America. The relation of the underground 
ceremonial room in California and the kiva in the pueblo region is 
not the least of many interesting suggestions in Herr Sarfert’s article. 

Cavate habitations in cliffs on Oak Creek, a tributary of the Verde, 
Ariz., correspond with caves used by Guanches for ceremonies and 
burials in the Canaries. Many similar examples from the Old and 
New Worlds might have been chosen, some with buildings before 
them, others destitute of the same. In many instances these former 
habitations have become burial chambers, once deserted by the in- 
habitants; they were used later as catacombs for the dead. Instances 
of this secondary use can be found all the way from China to the 
southwestern part of the United States. 

These artificial caves are not confined to Asia and America, but 
are also abundant in Europe. Many are found in Germany,’ in 
France (pls. 1, 2) along the River Loire, where the older cave rooms 
now serve for storage, and new, occupied dwellings have been erected 
in front of them.* The caves of Dordogne, France, have been studied 
and their contents figured and described in the magnificent work, 


+The method of closing the doorway by rolling a great circular stone before it seems 
to have been common in the cave habitations of Asia Minor. 

* Haus and Dorf bei den Higeborenen Nordamerikas, Archiv f. Anthrop, vol. 25. 

®See Lambert Karmer, Kiinstliche Héhlen aus Alter Zeit, Wien, 1903. The examples 
described are from Germany and America. 

4T am indebted to Professor Partington, of the National Park Seminary, for the use 
of the photographs used for plates 1 and 2. 


622 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Reliquiae Aquitanicae, by MM. Lartet and Cristy. The Aquitani of 
Cesar’s time lived in caves, and the caverns of Dordogne were in- 
habited in the Middle Ages. According to M. Desnoyers, writes 
Boyd Dawkins: 


In France there are at the present time whole villages, including the church, 
to be found in the rocks, which are merely caves modified, extended, and altered 
by the hand of man. 

The so-called Heidenlécher, Pagan holes (pl. 3), at Goldback, over- 
looking Lake Constance in South Germany, may be taken as typical 
examples of certain European cave dwellings excavated in the loess 
formation, recalling those in tufa along the Verde in Arizona. My 
attention was first called to these interesting caves by H. von Bayer, 
who has given me an English translation from a German account 
published in the Ueberlinger Badblatt (Nos. 6 and 7, Aug. 6, 22, 
1910), and a short notice published in 1827 in Gustav Schwab’s Der 
Bodensee nebst dem Rheinthal. As these descriptions are too long to 
quote in my address, I have introduced a condensed account embody- 
~ ing the main features of the two. These caves are excavated in a 
cliff rising perpendicular from the lake about 7 meters above the 
water level, and were formerly approached by ladders from a narrow 
path that once skirted the shore. 

The Heidenlécher formerly consisted of a series of rooms, chambers, cel- 
lars, and niches connected with each other by hallways and stairs, extending 
for a distance of almost a kilometer * * *. The single rooms are of differ- 
ent sizes and shapes, some have groined arches, or at least the beginning of 
them with the springers; others have flat ceilings, some have columns, pilasters, 
architraves, and cornices; others are simple and without ornamentation. In 
nearly all of them, however, are to be found stone benches, niches, window and 
door openings with grooves cut out to receive the frames, and even the remains 
of wooden dowels. In some places in the cliff are to be seen niches and rifts 
which no doubt are remains of a former cave dwelling. 

The present approach (pl. 4, fig. 1) is by stone steps along the face 
of the cliff, the former stairs being badly disintegrated. There are 
now seven caves, a large number having been destroyed in 1846-1848, 
when a road was constructed between Ueberlingen and Ludwigshafen. 
The first cave, entered by an arched doorway, is 3 meters high and 
has niches near the entrance. The second cave has two windows 
open and a chimney. A niche in this opens into a third cave 1.8 
meters high and 2 meters wide. The fourth cave (pl. 4, fig. 2), over 
2 meters high, has a groined ceiling and stone bench at the opening. 
On a lower level lies a cave called “the chapel,” from which one 
descends seven steps to a path which bifurcates, one branch leading 
to the open, the other to a fifth cave, which has two stone columns 
in the middle supporting Gothic arches. Two additional caves with 
niches and benches are extended a few steps along the level of the 
meadow lands. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Fewkes. PEATE ls 


INHABITED CAVE DWELLINGS NEAR TOURS, FRANCE. 


"SONVH4 ‘NOPHOOSHOOY LV SONITTSAMG 3AVO 


9d “an UOqLooayIoy. Sp samy > 


? 
~ eS 
a 3, ae Saar, 
_ SFL +. —— = = 


= 


ANNAN 


Nena 
x ) 


‘6 ALVId *sayMe-J—'O1 6] ‘Hoday ueiuosy}IWS 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Fewkes. PLATE 3. 


CAVE DWELLINGS AT LAKE CONSTANCE, SOUTH GERMANY. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Fewkes. PLATE 4. 


1. ENTRANCE TO OUTER ROOMS. 


2. INTERIOR OF ROOM, WITH BENCHES, PILASTER, AND WINDOW. 


CAVE DWELLINGS AT LAKE CONSTANCE, SOUTH GERMANY. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 623 


Regarding the origin and purpose of these Heidenlocher there is not the least 
historical information. No one knows who built them or lived in them, how 
old they are, nor the purpose for which they were built. No chronicle nor 
historical record contains a single mention of them. Nothing has ever been 
found in the caves themselves which would aid in explaining them. In the 
family Beurer at Brunnensbach there figured for centuries as an heirloom a 
rare stone image which was found in the Heidenloécher—a large piece of quartz, 
in form similar to a sitting man. This was perhaps of Celtic origin, for similar 
figures are frequently found in Gaelic graves; or, as others think, it may have 
represented ‘‘ Godfather with the globe,’ pointing to the former use of the 
Heidenliécher by Christians. * * * The results of the various theories may 
be summed up as follows: Our Heidenlécher were originally but few, simply 
caves dug in the’ rock; they were in time enlarged, multiplied, improved, and 
embellished, and lastly treated with a sense of art. The small and simple ones 
are the oldest; they were the dwellings of the inhabitants of our region, first 
of the Celts, then the Suevians, the Romans, and lastly the Allemanni. The 
name Heidenlocher must be ascribed to the Romans. 


The modern history of these heathen caves is interesting. 


_ As early as 1760 the city council of Ueberlingen ordered the destruction of 
the major portion of these caves because of their general use by low tramps 
and vagabonds. 

When in 1846 to 1848 the new road was built between Ueberlingen and Lud- 
wigshafen, a large portion of the Heidenlocher cut in the cliff bordering on the 
lake was sacrificed. There are now only seven caves left of the former large 
number; they are visited annually by many tourists and are well cared for 
by the city as interesting relics of ancient times. 


Joseph V. Scheffel has chosen these caves as scenes for some of the 
incidents of Ekkehard, an interesting story laid in the tenth century. 

We must not overlook in our studies underground dwellings in 
England or such structures as the chambered mound at New Grange 
in Ireland, which may be described as roofed subterranean chambers, 
counterparts of which are found in other parts of the world. Rooms 
of this kind somewhat different in structure appear in the megalithic 
underground habitations, “ weems” or “ Picts’ houses” of Scotland, 
and the Hebrides, the pit dwellings of Jesso, the subterranean rooms 
of the California Indians, and the “ pit rooms” in southern Arizona. 
Spain has many artificial caves that were once inhabited, and those 
in full sight of the Alhambra in Grenada. are still used by Spanish 
gypsies. Some of the Andalusian caves figured and described by 
Sr. Gongora, in his valuable memoir, Antiguedades Prehistoricas de 
Andalusia, closely resemble those of the southwestern part of the 
United States. Many accounts might be quoted in which the 
Etruscan caves, largely mortuary, are described. The remains found 
in caves along the Riviera, as those near Montone, have been de- 
scribed by several archeologists. 

To enumerate all varieties of artificial caves, pit dwellings, and 
related forms of cliff dwellings would take me many hours—even 
a list of geographical locations where they occur would be of con- 


624 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


siderable size. I should not omit to mention the monastic establish- 
ments and chapels of the Crimea built in caves, and those of the 
rugged Thessalian Mountains, views of which appear in plates 6 
and 10. 

Among the most interesting forms of Crimean troglodytic dwell- 
ings are those described by Prof. G. F. Wright in Records of the 
Past (vol 6, part 1) near Bakhtci-Sarai, the crypts of Katchikalen. 
and the “ Valley of Jehoshaphat” (pl. 7). At the last mentioned 
locality there is a “promontory with precipitous faces on either 
side several hundred feet in height. The surface is covered by 
massive ancient ruins, while many passages lead down to extensive 
excavations with the windows open out upon the face of the precipice 
below.” 

Fergusson reports more than a thousand caves of architectural 
importance in the western part of India, and the cave temples of 
Ellora may be regarded as the culmination of Braminic cave 
architecture. There is a remarkable locality for the study of cave 
dwellings, called “ The Thousand Caves,” in the mountains of Koko- 
Nor, in Cambodia. The loess formation in certain parts of China 
is fairly riddled with artificial habitations. Mr. F. B. Wright has 
called my attention to caves of this kind at Shi-wan-tse, a place 
visited by him outside the Great Wall. 

There might also be called to your mind the rooms inhabited by 
Greek priests, which have been excavated in large bowlders, and 
inhabited natural caves in the Caucasus Mountains; in some cases the 
cave mouth is filled in with an artificial wall made of stones, reeds, 
or bamboo. I can not do more than mention the cliff buildings of 
this kind reported from our possessions, the Philippines. 

Certain climatic resemblances between the oases of the Sahara, in 
northern Africa, and the deserts of the Southwest have brought about 
remarkable similarities in habitations. We have in the Sahara 
region, extending from Egypt, through Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco, 
to the west coast of Africa, a region of subterranean dwellings repro- 
ducing in appearances those common to the arid belt of the New 
World. It is instructive to note the similarity of these ancient 
Berber homes and certain Pueblo dwellings. It is perhaps more than 
a coincidence that we have coexisting among the former, as with the 
latter, two architectural forms, one above ground, the other below, 
the one a cliff and pit dwelling, the other an independent village. 

The character of Tunisian Berber towns can best be illustrated by 
a typical pit habitation and town, and for this comparison I have 
chosen Matmata and Medinine. The village of Matmata (pl. 5, fig. 
1), near Gabes, is certainly one of the most extraordinary under- 
ground settlements yet described.t As the visitor approaches it, we 


1Die Troglodyten des Matmata, von Paul Traeger. Zeit. fur Hthnologie, 1906, p. 100.. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Fewkes. PLATE 5. 


1. MATMATA, SOUTHERN TUNIS, AFRICA. 


2. MEDININE, SOUTHERN TUNIS, AFRICA. 


PLATE 6. 


S. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Fewke 


CAVES WITH WICKER GRANARIES. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 625 


are told, he sees no sign of a village but only a number of cisternlike 
depressions in the earth, each measuring about 30 feet in diameter. 
But standing on the edge of one of these depressions and looking 
over the side into it what a strange sight meets his eyes. Deep in 
these sunken areas he sees the inhabitants, dogs, camels, and human 
beings. This depression is a breathing place or sunken plaza into 
which rooms open through lateral passageways, which are exca- 
vations in the walls of the depression. Some of these chambers are 
adorned with rugs and furniture. The sunken plaza is apparently 
the living place, entrance to it being by means of a subterranean tun- 
nel, slanting upward, large enough for passage of man or beast. 
The troglodytic people which inhabit these subterranean chambers 
now number 1,200, and there is historical evidence that they have 
lived in these sunken pits for centuries. The court or sunken area 
into which the different rooms open is a common gathering place for 
the inhabitants, in which most of the household work is performed, 
the excavated chambers being often arranged one above another, 
serving as the sleeping rooms. 

There are several of these troglodytic towns in the arid deserts of 
Tunis, some of them wholly below the earth’s surface, while others 
are partly above ground. The reasons man has resorted to this sub- 
terranean life in this region are to escape from the torrid sun that 
fiercely beats down on the parched desert and to obtain shelter from 
the rain and sand storms. A remarkable similarity between pueblos 
on the one side and another type of Tunisian town like Medinine on. 
the other is worthy of mention. Medinine, regarded by Hamy! as 
the Mapalia of Sallust, and probably the same as the troglodytic 
town mentioned by Strabo, according to Traeger, is composed of long, 
narrow rows of rooms destitute of windows, their doorways looking 
out on a common court. The rooms of this village, as shown by the 
doors, are built one above another, facing in the same general 
direction. 

A comparison of the accompanying view of Medinine (pl. 5, fig. 2) 
and the Hopi pueblo, Oraibi, can not fail to reveal to the observer 
general likenesses with special differences. The buildings ate four or 
five stories high, with lateral doorways at different levels. Of minor 
resemblance, visible in the figure, may be mentioned the steps, stairs, 
or other foot rests by which one ascends from the ground to the upper 
rooms. The row of these last, seen near the standing human figure 
about halfway up the side of the building, closely recalls similar pro- 
jecting stones found in some of the cliff dwellings in Arizona, Colo- 
rado, and New Mexico. 


1La Tunisie au debut du XX Siécle, Paris, 1904, 
97578°—sm 1910-40 


626 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Traeger and Bruun have pointed out that a Saharan town like 
Medinine is architecturally an imitation in relief of the subterranean 
village, Matmata, one being above the other under ground. In the 
southwest there is a similar relation of the cave dwelling and the 
pueblo built in the open. 

The relative age of Matmata and Medinine, as representing the 
African troglodyte and a village in the open, may aid us in deter- 
raining the relative age of the cliff houses or rooms in artificial 
caves and the pueblos. Traeger regards the dwellings underground 
as constituting the older or the original form, and it would seem 
that the same is also true in the New World where there is evidence 
that the cavate rooms are older than the pueblos. The existence of 
several-storied dwellings in the Sahara and in our Southwest are 
explained as follows. The limited capacity of the caves in America 
had so crowded together the inhabitants that they were compelled to 
construct rooms one above another, a condition of congestion which 
survives in the pueblo. The multiple-storied Berber villages in 
the open have a pueblo form for the same reason. 

The Tunisian pueblos are inhabited by the Berbers, an aborig- 
inal people of North Africa, whose ancestors, there is every reason 
to believe, lived in similar habitations in the earliest historic times. 
In fact, it is not impossible that the very people now inhabiting 
them are descendants of those who lived there in the time of Strabo 
or Sallust. It would appear that a residence for centuries in this 
peculiar form of dwelling may have led to certain habits of life 
which they share with our pueblos. It is foreign to the purpose 
of my address to enter into any intimate comparison of the culture 
of the sedentary prehistoric aborigines of the desert region of 
Africa with those of our Southwest, but it may not be out of place 
to state en passant that there are deep-seated similarities in their 
customs, arts, and institutions, which are heritages of a cave life. 
Instructive parallels, for instance, might be detected in house owner- 
ship, matriarchal rights, and clan descent between the two. It would 
be strange if their ideas of building were not alike. 

To-day; as of old, the Berber tribes are distinct from the nomads 
and are reputed to live in stone-built hill villages with two-storied 
houses,! in marked contrast to the nomadic Arabs, who dwell in 
towns of tents. According to Ratzel, in villages of the western Atlas 
“the greater part of the upper story consists of a sort of rough 
veranda ill suited to the severe climate of that mountain country. 
* * * The natives pass the winter in cellarlike vaults beneath the 
houses; and for the sake partly of warmth, partly of defense, the 
houses are built so close together that they often produce the im- 


1The upper story of a Kabyle village is ordinarily added after the marriage of a son. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 627 


pression of a village.” This applies also to certain prehistoric 
Arizona house builders. It is not too great a stretch of the imagina- 
tion to fancy that the former inhabitants of the Old Caves in the 
black lava hills that surround the San Francisco Mountains near 
Flagstaff, and those‘ in the neighborhood of the Black Falls, Ari- 
zona, may also, like the Berbers of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, 
have retired in winter for warmth to their “ cellarlike vaults beneath 
their houses.” They likewise built close together, partly for warmth, 
partly for defense. 

But cliff dwellings in the Old and New Worlds are not always 
limited to arid climates although they are elsewhere used for warmth, 
or retreats from cold wintry blasts. The Eskimo villages at King 
Island, in the Aleutians, is a noteworthy example of cliff dwellings 
overlooking the sea. This settlement, consisting of 40 dwellings, 
is literally lashed by cords to the side of a precipitous cliff, each 
habitation consisting of two chambers, an inner, partially excavated, 
and an outer constructed of poles or driftwood, the two communi- 
cating by a tunnel several feet in length. In the summer the hardy 
fishermen who inhabit this village live in the outer rooms which 
are little more than verandas, but in winter they withdraw to the 
excavated rooms for protection from the cold sea breezes. 

The student of archeology of our Pueblo region has reason to 
congratulate himself on being able to interpret both major and minor 
antiquities by ethnological data. It is a great help when Pueblo 
priests, descendants of the ancients, can serve as mentors in archzeo- 
logical research. The same may also be said of the archeologist 
who attempts a study of the past culture of the cavemen of Morocco 
and Algiers, always considered in the greater perspective of time. 
Unfortunately the archeology of the Berber region, prior to accul- 
turation and influx of foreign tribes, is almost unknown. A knowl- 
edge of the cave life of northern Africa, reaching as it does so far 
back in time, ought to aid us in comparison with more modern Ameri- 
can cliff dwellings. 

It rarely happens that so close a likeness between cave dwellings 
of the two hemispheres can be pointed out as in those found in 
Cappadocia and New Mexico. Perhaps the most striking types for 
comparison are the so-called “cone dwellings.” None of the various 
cavate habitations of the Old World are more suggestive to the 
student of American cliff houses than those of the volcanic area west 

1The Navaho call the Hopi, whose ancestors according to lengends probably lived 
in these ruins, the Ayakhini, people of (the kiva) underground houses. (See the Fran- 
ciscan Fathers of St. Michael, An Ethnologic Dictionary of the Navaho Language, p. 135. 
This name is especially applied to Walpi.) When this name was given them, before the 


present Walpi was built, the ancestors of the predominating clans of the Hopi may have 
been living in underground houses at Black Falls or elsewhere, 


628 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


and southwest of Mount Argeus and Cesarea* Mazaca, overlooking 
the Huyler and the valley of the Geureme in Cappadocia (pl. 8, fig. 1). 
Many, perhaps the majority, of these were the works of Christian. 
monks dating from the time of St. Basil. 

Many travelers have commented on resemblances in the geology 
of Syria, Palestine, and the arid regions of our Southwest. In some 
parts of Asia Minor we find the geological formations of Arizona so 
closely reproduced that one is amazed at the similarities. In one as 
in the other there are regions of volcanic tufa eroded into fantastic 
shapes. We should expect to find in countries the geological features 
of which resemble each other so closely a similarity in human 
habitations. 

This resemblance is evident in the cone dwellings near Martchan 
and those of the Otowi, New Mexico (pl. 8, fig. 2). These cones are 
geologically considered the last stages in the erosion of tufaceous 
cliffs and, as would be expected, we find associated with them all stages 
from the massive wall to a conical structure sometimes capped with 
the harder lava rock which has preserved it. The whole region in the 
neighborhood is volcanic in origin, and consists of a thick layer of 
tufa overlaid with lava which is comparatively thin. This tufa can 
be easily worked with primitive implements as stones or sticks; with 
a little patience chambers of any size could be excavated in it. 
Although some of the Asiatic excavations are 25 feet long by 13 feet 
wide, they might be made in a single month by one industrious 
workman. 

In the past centuries the tufa has been eroded into deep canyons 
lined by cones often tipped by a lava cap 300 feet above the level of 
the canyon. In places the sides of these cones have been eroded, so as 
to expose the chambers in their interiors that are now used for drying 
grapes or other fruits. Ingress is generally by means of parallel 
holes arranged in rows which, when the sides have been worn away, 
are no longer visible. The rooms are commonly small, a fact that led 
the older writers on the troglodytes to speak of them as a dwarfish 
race, from which arose the supposition that the ancients knew of the 
race of pygmies in Africa. This supposition, that the cave dwellers 
are pygmies,? is world-wide in distribution, always due to the same 


1Cxsarea was the home of Basil, the founder of the rule of St. Basil first accepted in 
Cappadocia, as far back as the fourth century, but others date back to a much earlier 
period. 

2The most ancient sedentary people of New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado which 
preceded the Pueblos lived in caves or pit rooms and practiced cremation. Their culture 
center was in the neighborhood of the Rio Grande. Another stock which also cremated 
their dead lived along the Gila and its tributaries. In early prehistoric times the Little 
Colorado Valley from Zuni to the Great Colorado, including Hopi, was practically unin- 
habited by sedentary people. Later it was peopled by colonists from these two cultural 
centers, possibly a race largely composed of extra-Pueblo peoples that did not cremate 
the dead, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Fewkes. PLATE 7. 


Photographs from ‘Records of the Past.’’ 


a-e, CRIMEAN CLIFF DWELLINGS; /, ROCK TOMB, AMASIA, ASIA MINOR. 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Fewkes. PLATE 8. 


. Cone dwelling, Mazaca, Cappadocia. Photograph from ‘‘Records of the Past.” 


2. Cone dwelling, Otowi Canyon, New Mexico. From Bull. 32,B. A. E. Photograph by Craycroft. 


CAVE DWELLINGS. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 629 


cause—the small size of the excavated rooms. Thus, although many 
people believe that the former inhabitants of the cliff dwellings of 
Arizona were pygmies, as every tyro knows, skeletons that occur in 
them do not support this theory. 

On entering one of these cone dwellings of Cappadocia we find 
ourselves in a spacious chamber with shelves or niches excavated in 
the solid stone of the walls. The stairways resemble round tunnels 
through which one ascends to an upper story through holes like those 
lateral openings by which one enters the room. The floors separating 
the upper from the lower stories were usually thick enough to hold 
the weight that might rest on them, but occasionally these floors have 
given way and fallen to the floor below, thus enlarging both rooms 
and forming a lofty chamber. In one instance nine stories were 
counted, but generally there are one, two, or four stories, their posi- 
tion appearing on the outside as small windows or peepholes. 

Many of the cave dwellers of Cappadocia have in front of the 
excavated rooms a portico later in construction than the room, as 
indicated by Greek or Roman arches and columns. In the interior 
occur also evidences of later occupation showing Christian origin 
or Byzantine culture. The customs of the natives living near the 
caves of this region differ slightly from those of an ordinary Berber 
village.? 

I ask your permission to depart a little from the trend of my 
address and to consider the antiquity of these Cappadocian cave 
dwellings, many of which are no doubt comparatively modern monas- 
tic dwellings, though others reach back to a remote antiquity. Sayce 
regards Cappadocia as the original home of the Hittites, considering 
that in the hieroglyphy of this ancient people “ cones are used as 
ideographs for king and country.” If this be true the cone dwellings 
of Cappadocia were known and perhaps inhabited at the epoch of 
Hittite supremacy, or about 1900 B. C. Although these caves were 
probably inhabited before this remote time, no one has assigned 
them an older date. 

Diodorus, Strabo, and other early historians or geographers of 
antiquity have embodied in their writings an account of the trog- 
lodytes living on the coast of the Red Sea written by Agatharcides 
about 250 B. C. This account is instructive as perhaps the oldest 
known historic record of the culture of cave dwellers. These troglo- 
dytes are described as a pastoral people, governed by chiefs who 
fought valiantly for their farms. ‘“ They made use of stone imple- 
ments, spears, and arrows. Women always finally parted the com- 

1¥For this material I am partly indebted to an instructive article by Prof. J. R. S. 
Sterrett in the Century Magazine for May, 1900, from which the statements here made 


are quoted. here is considerable general literature on the cave dwellings of Cappadocia, 
one of the most accessible accounts being that in Records of the Past. 


630 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


batants, for their laws forbade a troglodyte to strike a woman. Their 
food consisted of meat of their herd, milk, and blood and of bones 
which were crushed and mixed with meat so as to form a kind of hash 
which was wrapped in raw untanned skins and roasted. Butchers 
were regarded as unclean persons. They slaughtered only old and 
sickly animals for food. They did not regard human beings as their 
ancestors but looked upon the cattle and sheep which furnished them 
food as their parents. They went nude or dressed in skins. Those 
who were too old to work committed suicide by hanging themselves 
by the neck to the tails of wild bulls, who dragged them to death. 
Cripples and those afflicted with incurable diseases were put to death. 
Herodotus says of the Ethiopian troglodytes that they were swift 
runners, fed on serpents and lizards, and had no real language but 
screeched like bats or twittered like birds.” ? 

The highest form of cliff habitation in the New World is the cliff- 
pueblo which is practically a village built in a large natural cave. 
When the cliff dwellers of Colorado had arrived at such perfection in 
masonry that they could construct a village like the Cliff Palace of 
the Mesa Verde National Park they had progressed far beyond the 
primitive cave house. This was the highest and most characteristic 
American form of stone cliff dwelling north of Mexico and its counter- 
part is not known in the Old World. 

There are true cliff houses of this type in Asia as well as in Amer- 
ica. The examples which have been chosen for illustration of this 
point are cliff dwellings situated in Shansi, the northern Province of 
China (pl. 9, fig. 1). The cliff temple of the Mienshan Mountains, 
one of many in that region, lies in a great mountain cave which re- 
minded Boerschmann? of the “Cave of Winds” behind Niagara 
Falls. Although there is no architectural resemblance between this 
temple and a cliff dwelling in Arizona (pl. 9, fig. 2), both are con- 
structed under an overhanging cliff and it is interesting to note that 
the country in which both occur is semiarid. A necessity for shelter is 
not so evident in the Chinese cliff houses as in Colorado, but the 
same thought is apparent in the choice of the sites of these cliff 
houses. They show that in localities thousands of miles apart, where 
geological conditions favor the custom of constructing villages in 
natural caverns, there these structures have been found. It must be 

1It is instructive to note the evidences of totemism and matriarchial descent that 
erop out in the above account. If we regard the Berbers or Tibbus as the lineal de- 
scendants of the cliff dwellers of North Africa, and the pueblos as living representatives 
of American cliff dwellers, several other common characteristics can be traced to a 
common infiuence, 

Dawkins says that ‘“‘ Dr. Livingstone alludes in his recent letters to the vast caves of 
Central Africa, which offer refuge to whole tribes with their cattle and household stuff.” 

Ernst Boerschmann, Architektur und Kulturstudien in China, Zeit, f. Ethnol, 42. J. 


3. 4. 1910. I am indebted to Herr Boerschmann for the use of his photograph of this 
temple. 


“SONITTSMG 449 


“"BUOZIIY ‘UlB({ J[aAosooy TRU SUITTOMp BUDO G “QUULAOI ISUBYS ‘SULBJUNO]Y URYSUST]T oY} UT a[dute} YIP ssoulyyD “T 


*6 a1lvid "seyM34—O16| ‘Hodey ueiuosyzWS 


Smithsonian Report, 1910 —Fewkes, 


PLATE 10. 


MONASTIC CLIFF DWELLINGS, METEORA. 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 631 


inferred, however, that, aside from the site occupied, the architectural 
features of the two are unlike although characteristic. The cliff 
temples in the Shansi are thoroughly Chinese, the Colorado cliff 
dwellings are aboriginal American, a diversity pointing to an in- 
fluence to which the cave is secondary, to some power which is 
stronger than the external influence in its effect on the formes of cliff 
dwellings. While this power exerts itself strongly on the highest, 
it is not as potent on the lowest. The excavated caves of lower cul- 
tures in regions widely separated show closer resemblances than 
those made by more civilized men. The simpler the cultural life the 
closer its resemblance in different regions of the globe where environ- 
ment is identical. 

Another secondary use for caves which connects them with habi- 
tations and is found on both continents dating back to early times 
is their adoption for mortuary purposes. The cave originally built 
for a habitation in course of time is deserted by the living and 
becomes a burial place just as the subterranean cavern becomes a 
catacomb. This secondary use is connected with its adoption as 
a resort for priests, who would withdraw from the world for cere- 
monial or other reasons. The custom of burial in caves once estab- 
lished led to the construction of caves de novo for tombs and cave 
shrines, possibly temples, which latter are made difficult of access 
and isolated to add to their mysterious character. Ancestor worship 
and fear of the dead intensifies a feeling of awe, and other men are 
unwilling to enter caves which were once inhabited and now contain 
the dead. 

Of many subjects connected with a comparative study of cave 
dwellings in the Old and New Worlds a comparison of burial places 
and tombs of the two continents parallel with that of habitations 
is one of the most instructive, but a consideration of this subject 
would manifestly enlarge my address to undue proportions. 

Although examples of prehistoric tunneling occur in several lo- 
calities in the New World none of these can compare in extent with 
the subterranean passages of Syracuse in Sicily. 

As in the Old World, so in the New, the cave is a resort for the 
priest who remains there to intercede with supernatural beings. As 
a place of burial it is sacred and in it at times are kept the sacred 
images and paraphernalia of worship. A fear of the cave due to 
superstition is not wholly confined to the Old World but is also 
found in the New. Neither Navaho nor Ute, successors of the cliff- 
house people, would enter the cliff dwellings in early times before 
white men took the lead. Such an act would, they believed, bring 
direful ills, as blindness or even death, to anyone who ventured 
within these old habitations, 


632 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


As the cave life is probably older in the Old World than in the 
New so the cave dwelling of that continent is the most highly de- 
veloped architectually. Many of the rock temples of Egypt—as 
the far-famed rock temple of Abu-simbel—China, and India‘ are 
among the highest known examples of man’s skill and expertness 
in rock cutting. Of all these none surpasses in interest and beauty 
the ancient far-famed cliff city of the Syrian deserts, called Petra. 

Situated not far from an old caravan route across the desert from 
Damascus to Mecca and protected from nomadic marauders by its 
marvelous position, Petra has been occupied successively from most 
ancient times by Edomites, Pheenicians, Egyptians, and Romans, 
all of whom have left examples of their art in its rock-hewn temples 
and amphitheaters, shrines, and house walls. After passing through 
a narrow defile called the Sik, whose perpendicular walls tower 
above on each side, a visitor suddenly beholds the magnificent 
“Treasury of Ptolemy ” cut on the side of the cliff. This beautiful 
temple, empty because without cave behind it, is but the beginning 
of a series of facades covering the high cliffs in the enlargement 
of the canyon, at the base of which lies in ruins the fallen walls of 
buildings long ago deserted. As one studies this greatest of all cliff 
cities,? built by human hands in the variegated rocks of a Syrian 
desert, he realizes the height cliff dwelling architecture long ago 
reached in the Old World, as a protection from foes by isolation. 
This ruin, with all its wealth of beauty, is connected with a desert 
and an arid climate, the same conditions which characterize its hum- 
ble representatives in the New World. 

I have sought for some explanation of the fact that the cliff 
dwellings and pueblos built in caverns are confined to our southwest 
and northern Mexico, and to the arid belt of Asia, Europe, and 
Africa. Why, for instance, is the distribution so circumscribed, 
especially when we find evidences that man elsewhere, as in the 
West Indies, once lived in a previous stage in natural caverns. I 
am inclined to recognize here the most striking instance of the in- 
fluence of environment and geological conditions. Nowhere else were 
there caves capacious enough, open to the air, and in many other 
ways suitable for the erection of dwellings. Other caverns are 
deeper, the limestone caves of the Alleghanies are more extensive, 
some of those of the West Indies as inaccessible, but the majority 
have narrow entrances and are otherwise unfitted for the development 
of cave dwellings. 


iBmil Schlagintweit, Indien in Wort und Bild, Leipzig, 1890. _Fergurson and Burgess, 
The Caye Temples of India, London, 1888. 

2 Alois Musil, Arabia Petra, Wein, 1907. Gustay Dalman Hermann, Petra und 
seine Felsheiligtiimer, Leipzig, 1908. Wm. Libbey, jr., and Franklin EB. Hoskins, The 
Jordan Valley and Petra, New York, 1905. Also a popular account by the latter in the 
Geographical Magazine. See also Scientific American, 1900, et alii. 


"3ONVY4 HLNOS ‘SAVD Ni SSNOH HSVM 


SP Seley alict ‘soyMeaj— O16] ‘Hoday ueluosyiiWws 


CAVE DWELLINGS—FEWKES. 633 


A study of the cliff dwellings of the Old and New Worlds while 
showing, on the one hand, that surroundings have exerted marked 
influences in history, reveals on the other the weakness of the posi- 
tion that human history is solely a product of environment. If we 
were dealing with organic structures alone and the mind of man were 
wholly subservient to them, cave men throughout the world would 
have a greater uniformity in culture, but there is another factor in 
the case, there is the human mind and will with its powers of over- 
coming environment, and there is in man a strong desire for socio- 
logical and therefore institutional development. Man’s mind, 
especially in the higher stages, is not altogether plastic to conditions; 
the desire to live in families, tribes, and other groupings is strong 
enough to offset climate and physicial conditions or to modify their 
influences as man wishes. Animals also have gregarious instincts, 
but these have not overcome environmental influence. Primitive 
man is also more or less subservient to it, but civilized man rises above 
. external conditions, creating for himself sociologic and institutional 
laws independent of his surroundings. 

It is evident that while cave life has exerted a marked influence 
on natural man in the creation of the monumental habit of building 
and thus led to higher civilization, this habit is only one influence 
acting on human culture history. The higher culture of man is 
more complex and due to more complicated influences than this 
would imply. History is the result of external environment, geolog- 
ical and climatic, but this cause is not the only influence acting on 
man’s mind through the centuries. Whether we approach our sub- 
ject from the historical, the cultural, or the geographical side we can 
not overlook the psychic or mind element in culture. It is instruc- 
tive to see how in different regions of the earth natural man has 
been similarly influenced by like environment in constructing habi- 
tations, that limited influence from its nature is not lasting although 
in a measure hereditary but it will ultimately be powerless. Simi- 
larities of cave dwellings in widely separated geographical localities 
mean that the human mind in early conditions is practically the 
same everywhere, a principle that has the support of psychology. 
In later conditions the mind of the individual, while not necessarily 
superior to that of earlier times, enjoys the influence of accumulated 
survivals or the race inheritance of centuries of thought of other 
minds called culture. 


Norr.—Since the delivery of the above address several pamphlets 
and one or two books have been published on related subjects; the 
most important of the latter is by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, on 
“ Cliff Castles and Cave-dwellings of Europe.” Among many in- 
structive examples of European troglodytes, mentioned by the author 
of this work, the caves of Balmes du Montbrun near S. Jean de Cen- 


634 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


tenier, in the Vivarais, are interesting in a comparative way. Here, 
according to Mr. Baring-Gould, is found a volcanic crater “ 300 feet 
in diameter and 480 feet deep; and man has burrowed into the sides 
of the porous lava or pumice a series of habitations, a church, etc.” 
Similar excavations of habitations in the sides of a volcanic crater 
occur at the “Old Caves” near Flagstaff, Ariz. The view of the 
Cave Castle, Kronmetz, given by the same author, recalls several of 
the cliff-dwellings in the Canyon de Chelly and the Navaho National 
Monument. Many parallelisms to American pueblos in caves or 
cliff-dwellings may be found in European cliff refuges and cliff 
castles, although these structures are not as complicated in the New 
World as in the Old. One is strongly tempted to compare the pre- 
historic refuge platforms supported by beams found in some caves 
of France with the scaffold of Scaffold Ruin in the Navaho National 
Monument. 

Mr. Baring-Gould brings out clearly in this work a most instruc- 
tive fact in human geography, the relation of the European cave- 
dwellings to the chalk formation tufas and sandstones extending 
almost continuously from England to Asia Minor. In this we see 
relation of artificially excavated cliff-dwellings and geological condi- 
tions, a correlation that also exists in the distribution of cavate lodges, 
cave-dwellings, and easily worked geological formations in our South- 
west.—J. W. F. 


THE ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS.' 


[With 1 plate.] 


By Henry Batrour, M. A. 


Considerable interest has been aroused in the discovery, now many 
years old, of crossbows in certain parts of western Africa, amid con- 
ditions of primitive culture; and the fact has given rise amongst 
ethnologists to speculation as to how a somewhat specialized weapon 
of this kind, which does not belong at all to African culture in gen- 
eral, has come to be adopted by uncivilized tribes in a restricted por- 
tion of the African continent. The range of the crossbow in Africa 
is very limited and more or less connected, and its isolation is a 
noteworthy feature. 

To account for the presence of the crossbow in West Africa as an 
article of native manufacture and use, two alternatives are, of course, 
open to us. It must either be indigenous and have been evolved by 
the natives themselves, or its prototype must have been introduced 
from some foreign source. Paul du Chaillu, who recorded the use 
of a crossbow amongst the Ba-fan in 1861,? and who brought home 
specimens, two of which are now in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Ox- 
ford, does not offer any suggestions as to its origin, and is content 
with a description of its use. Sir Richard F. Burton,’ on the other 
hand, in referring to the nayin (the native name of the crossbow 
among the Mpongwe of the lower Gaboon), describes it as “ peculiar 
to this people and probably a native invention, not borrowed, as 
might be supposed, from Europe.” The contrary opinion is, how- 
ever, held by most modern ethnologists, and there seems to be but 
little doubt that the theory of the exotic origin of the West African 
crossbow is correct. There are probably few nowadays who seriously 
maintain that the weapon is either indigenous or of any considerable 
antiquity in the region. At the same time, the details in regard to 
the source whence it was derived do not appear to have been dis- 
cussed, and I venture to bring forward some evidence of a very sug- 
gestive kind. 


1 Reprinted by permission from the Journal of the African Society, London; No. 32, 
vol. 8, July, 1909. 

2Bxplor. in Equatorial Africa, 1861, pp. 77, 78. 

3 Gorilla Land, 1876, vol. 1, p. 207. 


635 


- 


636 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Dr. Bastian * appears to have regarded the very simple “ release ” 
of the Fan crossbow as being due to the inability of the natives 
of the interior to imitate the complicated release-mechanism of 
European crossbows, and as representing merely the best they could 
do in the direction of imitation of a perfected type. Dr. F. von 
Luschan, too, speaks? of the method of discharging the Fan cross- 


Fic, 1.—Side view of stock of Norwegian whaling crossbow (pl. 2, a). 


bow as a degenerated derivative from a European form. I propose 
to offer evidence which renders unnecessary the view that the Fan 
weapon is degenerate, evidence which points to the native form 
being a direct and but very slightly modified imitation of an actual 
European type, itself of extremely. rudimentary construction. In 
other words, my view is that the crossbows of the Ba-Fan and other 
allied native types are strictly primitive rather than degenerate. 


Fig. 2.—Side view of stock of crossbow from Oboru Kitty, in neighborhood of Benin, 
Nigeria, length 3334 inches. Collected by G. F. Martin. Pitt Rivers Museum. 


Distribution and varieties of the crossbow in Africa—Of the 
African crossbows the best known is undoubtedly that of the Fan 
and Mpongwe tribes of the Gaboon and Ogowe Rivers, of which 
numerous examples may be seen in museums. A typical specimen 
(pl. 1, fig. 1, a), collected by P. du Chaillu and belonging to the Pitt 
Rivers collection at Oxford, consists of a short and very rigid bow, 

SS eS a 


Fe ee a mee 


— 


Fia@. 3.—Side view of stock of Fan crossbow (pl. 1, a@), length 50% inches. 


254 inches across the arc, having a nearly rectangular section, stout 
at the center, and tapering toward the ends. The bow is not straight 
in the unstrung state, but has a set curve when free from strain. 
It is set symmetrically through a rectangular hole near the fore 
end of a slender wooden stock, measuring 50% inches in length, and 
is fixed with wedges. This stock (fig. 3) is split laterally through- 


1 Zeit. fur Ethnol., vol. 6, 1874, p. (264), and vol. 10, 1878, p. (96). 
2 Zeit. fur Hthnol., 1897, p. (204). 


ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS——BALFOUBR. 637 


out the greater part of its length, so as to form an upper and lower 
limb, whose hinder ends are free and can be forced apart, while 
they remain united in the solid for end of the stock. When the 
two limbs are brought together, a square-sectioned peg fixed to the 
lower limb passes upwards through the upper limb and completely 
fills up a notch situated on the upper surface behind the bowstring. 
The distance between the latter and the notch is 34 inches, and this 
represents the full extent of the “draw.” When drawn or set, the 
bowstring is held in the notch and the peg is forced downwards, 


a 


Fic. 4.—-Side view of stock of Fan crossbow (pl. 1, 6), length 522 inches. 


causing the two limbs to separate. By bringing these together again, 
with a squeezing action, the peg as it rises in the notch forces out 
the bowstring, and in this very simple manner the release is effected. 
There is a very faint groove in which the arrow lies. 

The second example (pl. 1, fig. 1, 6), also in the Pitt Rivers collec- 
tion was obtained by the well-known West African traveler, R. B. N. 
Walker, from Du Chaillu, and is a very handsome specimen, deli- 
cately carved. It resembles in general the example above mentioned, 
but the stock (fig. 4) is somewhat longer, 523 inches; the bow is 


Notch § peg 


! GY Ye G GY ty 
a eesea 


Side 


Under Surface 
Fic. 5.—Details of carving upon Fan crossbow (pl. 1, fig. 1, 5). 


angular in outline, square in section at the center, and slightly con- 
again later, is engraved upon either side. The chief point, of de- 
vex along the back; it measures 28 inches across the arc. The dis- 
tance of the bowstring from the notch is 3? inches. The release peg 
is semilunar in section, the convex edge directed forward. The stock 
is very neatly carved in linear designs in the neighborhood of the 
notch, the pattern extending as far forward as the union of the two 
limbs (fig. 5), at which point (a) a small circle, to which I refer 
parture from the other specimen lies in the stock being incompletely 
divided. In the former example the two limbs of the stock are quite 


638 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


separate at the hinder end (fig. 3), whereas in the present specimen 
they are reunited at this end, which is solid (fig. 4). This attach- 
ment of the two limbs at both ends accentuates the tendency of the 
lower limb to spring back when forced away from the upper, and the 
release becomes more automatic. When the bow is set the limbs are 
kept apart with a short stick, which is withdrawn to effect the 
release. In both examples the bowstring is of twisted bast or root 
fiber and a “ whipping” or “serving” of fine yarn at the center 
protects it from friction against the stock. Du Chaillu, in describing 
the use of these crossbows, tells us that either iron-headed arrows or 
small darts poisoned with vegetable sap are shot from them. The 
little darts, being extremely light and easily blown away, are held in 
position in the arrow groove by means of a patch of gum. He tells 
us that they attain to a considerable range; that they are effective at 
15 yards, and that the merest puncture kills immediately. He, also 
speaks of the natives as good marksmen. The iron-headed arrows 
are about 2 feet long and are used for big-game shooting. In bend- 
ing the bow, which is very strong, great force is required. The 
archer sits down, applies both feet to the center of the bow, and pulls 
the bowstring with all his force till it reaches and is held in the 
notch. Du Chaillu’s illustration depicts the process. Sir Richard 
Burton also mentions that amongst the Mpongwe the dwarf bolt, 
ebé, is always poisoned with the boiled root of a wild shrub. He was 
not impressed with the marksmanship of the Mpongwe and never saw 
a decent shot made. He adds, “ It is believed that a graze is fatal 
and that the death is exceedingly painful: I doubt both assertions.” 
Comparing these two accounts by Du Chaillu and Burton, and as- 
suming their accuracy, we may infer that the Ba-Fan were at the 
time the more skillful archers, and that they employed a more 
deadly poison that the Mpongwe. This is in keeping with the higher 
organization and culture of the former tribe, whose dominance 
amongst the other tribes of the region has been remarkable. 

I have a note of a crossbow of the usual Fan shape from the Sanga 
tributary of the Kongo; but, unfortunately, I have no details regard- 
ing it. This type appears also in the Kamerun region, in the 
Ya-unde district, 4° N., 12° E., as may be gathered from a figure in 
a work upon the German colonies! The Ya-unde people are be- 
lieved to be closely related to the Ba-Fan. Sir H. H. Johnston * 
mentions the use of the crossbow among the Bali (N. Kamerun) and 
Indiki (Middle Kamerun), and also among the Baya tribes of the 
Sanga sources. 


1Das iiberseeische Deutschland, 1890, p. 113. See also F. von Luschan, Zeit, f. 
Hthnol. Verhandl., vol. 24, 1892, p. 209. 
2 George Grenfell and the Kongo, 1908, vol. 2, p. 766, 


Smithsonian Report, 1910.—Balfour. BATES. 


1. a. Crossbow of the Ba-Fan, Gaboon, West Africa; length, 503 
inches. Collected by P. du Chaillu, Pitt Rivers Museum, 
Oxtord. 6b. Ditto, carved specimen; length, 523 inches. 
Collected by P. du Chaillu, Pitt Rivers Museum. 


2. a. Whaling crossbow, Skogsvaag, Store Sartor, west coast of Norway. Specimen fully set up and 
ready for use, with bolt in position. Author’s collection. b-f. Similar specimen with the parts 
separated. Collected by Dr. Bronchorst, Pitt Rivers Museum. (b, The bow with fixing collars; 
c, the stock; d, the bar and wedge by which the bow is held in position; ee, ‘‘goat’s foot” levers for 
bending the bow; /, arrow or bolt.) 


_ ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS——BALFOUR. 639 


An interesting native crossbow (fig. 6) was presented by Capt. 
Latherington in 1832 to the Scarborough Museum, and is said to 
have been obtained on the “South coast of Benin” and to have be- 
longed originally to a chief of the Mandingo tribe.t It is of dark- 
red brown and hard wood, polished. The bow is curved, 27 inches 
long and 1? inches wide at the center, tapering to 1 inch at the ends, 
which terminate in projections for the bowstring. The “back” is 
convex, the “belly” flat, and the edges are squared. The bow is 
passed through a rectangular hole in the thickened end of the stock 
and is fixed with wedges driven in from opposite sides. The stock 
is 24 inches in length, and consists of two parts (fig. 6, c). The 
upper part extends in one piece the full length of the stock, of which 
it forms the major part. The lower part consists of a separate bar 
or limb, fitting closely underneath the stock and butting against a 
sloping shoulder. A short distance behind the shoulder there is a 


Cc, 


Fic. 6.—Crossbow of the Mandingo tribe, ““S. coast of Benin,’ length 24 inches. Col- 
lected by Capt. Latherington. Scarboro’ Museum. (da—upper surface; b—lower sur- 
face ; c=side view.) 


transverse hole through the upper limb, and a string loop passing 
through this embraces the lower limb and keeps it in its place, form- 
ing also a kind of rudimentary hinge uniting the two limbs in front 
and allowing their hinder ends to separate. The “release” is iden- 
tical with that of the Fan crossbows, being effected with a notch-and- 
peg mechanism of precisely similar form. An arrow groove is also 
seen in this form (fig. 6, a@). The principal difference between the 
Mandingo and the Fan types lies in the latter having a split stock 
while the former has the stock in two separate pieces hinged 
together. 

In the Yoruba country the crossbow is used among some Yoruba- 
speaking tribes in conjunction with the long bow,? and a local proverb 
referring to them has been recorded by Bishop Crowther of the 


1T am indebted to Dr. John Irving, of Scarborough, for details and sketches of this 
specimen. 
2Goy. Moloney, Journ. Anthrop. Inst., vol. 19, 1890, p. 213, 


640 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Niger: “A crossbow is not enough to go to war with; whom do 
you dare to face with a stick?” Gov. Moloney produced exam- 
ples of crossbows through the chiefs of Ibadan. They are called in 
Yoruba akatanpé (the long bow being called oron or orun). The 
release is like that of the Fan and Mandingo forms, i. e., effected by 
means of a divided stock with peg and notch. The bow is drawn, 
as is that of the Ba-Fan, with the aid of the feet. The string is of 
bast, twisted fiber, or animal skin. 

In the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford there is the stock of a cross- 
bow (the bow is missing) which closely resembles the Mandingo 
example (fig. 2). It was obtained by Mr. G. F. Martin from a Benin 
tribe at Oboru-Kitty, about 14 miles from the right bank of the Niger 
and 30-40 miles east of Benin, and was presented by him to the 
museum in 1902. The length of this stock is 384 inches. The head 
is carved in rectilinear designs. The loop which forms the hinge 
uniting the two limbs is of cane, and allows the free ends of the two 
limbs to separate to the extent of 3 inches. The release peg is fixed 
to the lower limb somewhat diagonally, pointing forward. From 
the shape of bow slot we may gather that the bow was rectangular 
in section. There is a well-marked arrow groove upon the stock, and 
close to the notch there are traces of wax, evidently employed for 
causing the arrow to retain its place until the detente. 

It is clear, I think, that the Mandingo, Yoruba, Beninese, and 
some of the Kamerun crossbows which I have mentioned are closely 
related to those of the Ba-Fan and Mpongwe. ‘The principle of the 
detente is identical in all, allowing for the difference between the 
hinged and split stocks; the tendency of the bows toward a rectangu- 
lar section, the arrow groove and the use of wax to keep the darts in 
place, are all features common to these varieties of the weapon. 
That these crossbows form one family group with local variations 
can hardly be doubted. 

Dr. F. von Luschan has described and figured ! a peculiar form of 
crossbow from the Ba-Kwiri in the hinterland of Kamerun. Two 
specimens were obtained by Lieut. Freiherrn, and are now in the 
Berlin Museum. This type differs from those already referred to in 
certain prominent characteristics. The crossbow itself is of small 
size, the length of the stock being about 34 inches, but the total length 
is enormously increased by the addition of a wooden barrel nearly 5 
feet in length, through which the featherless darts (about 10 inches 
long) are discharged. In use, the bowstring is drawn back into a 
notch, as in other West African crossbows; but, unlike the latter, 
there is no mechanism for the release. The stock, which is shaped in 
imitation of that of a European musket, is solid and not divided, and 


1 Zeit. fiir Ethnol., 1897, p. [204]. 


ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS—BALFOUR. 641 


there is hence no peg with which to push the bowstring out of the 
notch; this action is performed simply with one of the archer’s 
fingers. In respect of the detente, this particular type appears, as 
von Luschan justly remarks, to exhibit degenerate rather than merely 
primitive characteristics. An almost identical form of crossbow 
with long barrel and stock of European shape, from. Buea, Kamerun, 
may be seen in the missionary museum at Basel. Crossbows fitted 
with barrels are everywhere uncommon, though I have noted in the 
Berlin Museum an example from Goram Island, in the Malay Archi- 
pelago. A barrelled crossbow was much in use in western Europe 
during the seventeenth century. 

Although the distribution in Africa of the crossbow as a serious 
weapon is so restricted—being confined mainly within the limits 
of the region extending from the Mandingo country to the Sanga 
and Gaboon districts—there are to be found outside this area certain 
appliances in which the general principle of crossbow mechanism is 
adopted, and to which brief reference may be made. J. A. Grant 
mentions toy crossbows as in use in 1861 among the children at Ukuni 
in the Unyamwezi country to the south of the Victoria Nyanza.t| Mr. 
Emil Torday discovered among the southern Ba-Mbala of the Kwilu 
district in the Kongo State a toy crossbow used by children for shoot- 
ing seeds and berries.? In this the form of the stock, which is of 
palm midrib, is clearly modeled upon a European gunstock, and the 
method of release, by means of a toggle and short string attached to 
the bowstring, is, to the best of my recollection, only to be paralleled 
amongst crossbows with the crossbows of the Nicobar Islands. Sir 
H. H. Johnston also mentions the use of toy crossbows among the 
Ba-Yaka and the Ba-Kongo. These various miniature crossbows, 
which may very likely be still more widely dispersed in Africa, have 
but little in common with the West African crossbows with divided 
stock, and they may well be regarded as referable to a different 
origin, and as having been introduced independently into West 
Africa via the northeast and through Moslem influence, as has been 
suggested by Sir H. H. Johnston.’ 

Again, there is that peculiarly widely distributed applance, the 
- crossbow trap, varieties of which are to be found in so many widely 
separated regions of the world. Rat traps of crossbow form are 
familiar appliances in the French Sahara and Bornuese territory 
and occur also in German East Africa and, no doubt, elsewhere in 
Africa; but it may be doubted whether these have any direct morpho- 
logical connection with the true West African crossbow weapons, 
and it is unnecessary to consider them in detail in the present memoir. 


1A Walk Across Africa, 1864, p. 100. 

2Figured and described in Man, 1907, No. 52, fig. 2. 

’ George Grenfell and The Congo, 1908, vol. 2, pp. 766-767. 
97578°—sm 1910——41 


642 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Origin of African crossbows.—I have now described the varieties 
and distribution of the crossbow in Africa as far as the evidence at 
my disposal allows, and it remains for me to deal with the interesting 
problem of its origin in this part of the world. 

The theory of an indigenous origin for the crossbow in West 
Africa, which has been held by some authorities, e. g., Sir R. F. 
Burton, has, it would appear, been put forward in the belief that 
the West African forms are of a far more rudimentary type than 
any European forms, and that the differences between the crossbows 
of the two regions are such as to preclude their having a common 
origin, the crude and peculiar method of effecting the release being 
the principal distinguishing feature in the African examples. Those 
observers, on the other hand, who maintain, as I think rightly, the 
exotic origin of this West African weapon, have endeavored to 
account for the extremely simple release mechanism by urging that 
this is a degenerate form, arrived at as a result of attempts on the 
part of the savage to approximate to the more complex European 
mechanism, and representing the best that he could do in this direc- 
tion. Both these views are, I believe, based upon a misconception, 
and are due probably to their promoters being unacquainted with one 
very interesting type of European crossbow, which to my mind fur- 
nishes the key to the solution of the problem. 

The theory of indigenous origin may, I think, be finally dismissed. 
I propose to bring forward evidence which gives one good ground for 
believing that the Fan and some other West African crossbows are 
neither degenerate to any extent, nor even more primitive in con- 
struction than some rude types of crossbow which remain even at the 
present day in practical use in northwest Europe. 

Although it is unlikely that the crossbow is of any considerable 
antiquity in West Africa, we may feel sure that it is not at any rate 
a very recent introduction among the natives of this region. Du 
Chaillu, Burton, Walker, and other early explorers of the inland 
regions, found the weapon well established and in general use among 
the Ba-Fan and Mpongwe tribes of the Gaboon district, among whom 
it had assumed a well-defined and constant type, subject only to 
minor variations. The opening up of other parts of West Africa 
has here and there revealed the use of native-made crossbows, which 
also exhibit a considerable uniformity of type, though well-defined 
local varieties occur, as I have pointed out. The general uniformity 
leads one to assume that all, or nearly all, are traceable to a common 
prototype. These weapons are likely to become obsolete very soon, 
since, just as the general use of the crossbow in Europe died out as a 
result of the successful rivalry of firearms, so the process is being re- 
peated in Africa to-day, where European muskets are rapidly ousting 
the descendants of the European crossbow. 


ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS—BALFOUR. 643 


It seems to me unlikely that the crossbow was introduced into 
West Africa overland from the northeasterly’ portion of the con- 
tinent—though this has been suggested by some’—since this weapon, 
though probably known in early days through European contact, 
can not be regarded as characteristic of or as having been adopted 
in that part of the world, which is therefore unlikely to have afforded 
the source of inspiration through the medium of Arab traders and 
explorers. The more probable and more generally accepted theory 
is that West Africa owes the crossbow directly to western Europe, 
and I hope to show that this theory is far more plausible even than 
is generally supposed. 

The reputed French trading adventurers of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, the Portuguese explorers from the middle fifteenth century 
onward, and the Dutch, English, 
and Danes, who followed closely 
upon their heels and vied with 
them for commercial supremacy, 
may be regarded as the possible 
introducers of the crossbow into 
western Africa, in the region of 
the Bight of Benin, the scene of 
their keenest investigations and 
most strenuous rivalries. The 
famous bronzes, cast by the cera 
perduta process by the natives 
of Benin, afford evidence of the 
use of the crossbow asa weapon ,, ,_,, ° ish9 By 

: . ft Ig. 7.—European crossbow, represented in 
by invading Europeans in the relief upon a bronze plaque, from Benin, in 
sixpesora ork seventeenthtven~ 67 Heeb ritisi Museum. (g- aR Bes ~ Mews 

B b=side view.) 

tury. A bronze plaque in the 

British Museum? carries a figure in relief of a European, probably 
of the sixteenth century, carrying a crossbow (Fig 7, a) and three 
different. kinds of bolts or quarrels (pointed, blunt headed, and 
chisel ended), and the realistic manner in which these are portrayed 
is evidence of an accurate appreciation of their utility and detailed 
construction by natives already acquainted with the long bow. On 
the other hand, none of the numerous figures of armed natives repre- 
sented upon these bronzes are equipped with this weapon, and this 
negative evidence may be regarded as indicating that the crossbow 
was still purely exotic at the time, and had not yet been adopted 


1Sir H. H. Johnston in his book already referred to, as also in a letter which he 
kindly wrote to me, expresses the opinion that the crossbow reached West Africa by 
two routes: (1) from Egypt, where it was introduced in Crusading times, and thence 
transmitted by Moslem influence, (2) from Portugal by the West Coast sea route. 

2 Figured by Read and Dalton in The Antiquities of Benin, London, 1899, pl. 14, fig. 1. 


644 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


and imitated by the native craftsmen of this region at any rate; while 
a suggestive clue is afforded as to the possible date at which an appre- 
ciation of the capabilities of the foreign weapon may have led to 
early attempts by the natives to produce weapons of similar type. 

It is generally supposed that the art of the bronze founders of 
Benin was itself introduced from western Europe, and the Portu- 
guese have usually been suggested as the likely teachers of the process. 
This very plausible theory is not, however, conclusively proved as yet, 
and arguments against it have been presented by Mr. H. Ling Roth.* 
Be this as it may, even if we assign to the Portuguese the credit of 
having introduced to the natives the difficult art over which the latter 
obtained so complete and remarkable a mastery, it is not necessary to 
assume that every European represented upon the plaques and other 
castings is of necessity a Portuguese. Once the art was developed by 
the natives, any Europeans with whom they came in contact would 
be equally liable to have their characteristics portrayed, and, as I 
have pointed out, there were among the early explorers of the region 
not only Portuguese, but also Europeans of French, English, Dutch, 
and Danish nationalities. It is of importance to bear this in mind 
in connection with the probable introduction of the crossbow. 

The prevalent idea that the native African crossbows are degener- 
ate imitations of European forms is based upon the notion, a per- 
fectly true one, that the well-known types of this weapon used for 
military and sporting purposes from the fifteenth century onward 
were complex weapons of elaborate construction, involving a bow of 
steel, an elaborate wooden stock, and a skillfully designed and com- 
plex mechanism for the release. This is undoubtedly so, the cross- 
bow having already been in use for centuries in Europe, and having 
been developed through successive stages of improvement into a 
highly perfected appliance. It had reached almost the zenith of its 
development. At the same time, we should not lose sight of the fact 
that not only had more primitive types necessarily existed—proto- 
types whence were derived the later, improved forms—but, further, 
that under certain conditions some of these archaic forms persisted 
into quite late times, and continued to be manufactured alongside of 
the more perfected varieties. The older forms survived, in fact, as 
long as their simpler construction and relative cheapness continued to 
supply a want. 

Now, in a single small district on the western coast of Norway 
there may still be seen in serious use a form of crossbow which it 
would be hard to parallel for simplicity and rudeness of construction. 
It seems like an anachronism in an environment of highly special- 
ized weapons of modern type. It is, however, no mere plaything, but 
an appliance of practical utility, upon which the livelihood of its 


1Great Benin, 1903, Chap. 19. 


ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS—BALFOUR, 645 


owners largely depends. In former times, no doubt, it was far more 
widely dispersed, but, having been gradually given up or superseded 
by improved weapons, it is now reduced to a state of struggling sur- 
vival in its last home, whence, too, it will finally disappear ere long. 
The district in question is the southern portion of Store Sartor, a 
large island adjacent to the port of Bergen.t The island is deeply 
cut into by three narrow fjords, Ostfjordspollen, Tellevaag, and 
Skogsvaag. These fjords are visited periodically by whales, espe- 
cially by the Lesser Rorqual, Balenoptera rostrata, the “ Vaagehval” 
of the Norwegians. The capture of these cetaceans is a matter of 
considerable concern to the inhabitants. For the details concerning 
this local whale fishery I must refer readers to Dr. Brunchorst’s 
interesting paper. Suffice it to say that when one or more whales 
have entered the fjord their retreat is cut off by a net drawn across 
the narrowest part, and they are then killed from boats by means of 
the extremely crude and barbaric crossbow which I will now describe 
(pl. 1, fig. 2). Several years ago I procured one of these whaling 
crossbows through a friend in Bergen, and lately a second example 
has been sent to me by Dr. C. G. Seligmann, who obtained it from Dr. 
Brunchorst. The construction is as fellows: The bow (pl. 2, a and db) 
is of large size and very stout, roughly hewn out of yew (Taxus 
baccata) procured from the Hardanger; it tapers somewhat toward 
the ends, which are “shouldered” for the bowstring. The latter is 
“thick and of tanned hemp, in strands loosely twisted into a cord 
which is “served” at the center to protect it from friction against 
the stock. The stock (pl. 1, fig. 1 ¢, and fig. 1) is of ash, and consists 
of an upper and a lower limb. The upper limb, or stock proper, is 
deep at the front end and terminates in two projections forming a fork 
in which the bow lies. Close behind the fork is a rectangular perfora- 
tion, and further back its lower edge is cut suddenly away to form 
a sloping shoulder. From this point the limb tapers gradually away 
to its hinder extremity. A short distance behind the shoulder a short, 
flat bar of wood is set transversely through the stock, its ends pro- 
jecting on either side. <A little behind this the stock is perforated in 
a vertical direction, and is notched to receive the bowstring when the 
bow is drawn or set. To this upper limb, or main portion of the 
stock, is attached the lower limb, which is shorter and butts up against 
the shoulder to which it is hinged by means of a tenon and wooden 
pin or rivet. This limb also tapers toward its hinder extremity. A 
stout wooden peg fitting loosely in the vertical hole in the upper 
limb is driven into the lower limb, to which it is firmly fixed. The 
hinge joint uniting the limbs enables their free ends to be separated 


1An interesting illustrated paper upon the construction and use of this crossbow, 
“Hyalfangst med bue og pil,’ written by Dr. J. Brunchorst, appeared in Naturen, 
issued by the Bergen Museum, 1899, pp. 138-154. I have borrowed from this account 
many of the details here referred to. 


646 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


or closed together. The bow is fixed firmly in position in the forked 
end of the stock by means of a pair of wooden collars, each formed 
by bringing together the ends of a flexible split rod and binding them 
together to form a pear-shaped ring. These collars encircle the bow 
and brace it to a transverse bar (pl. 1, fig. 2 d), which passes through 
the forward rectangular hole in the stock, and are tautened with a 
wedge. In use, the bow is “ set ” by drawing the bowstring backward 
until it is caught in the notch on the upper surface of the stock, the 
limbs being separated so as to withdraw the head of the release peg 
from the notch. The huge bow is too powerful to be bent by hand, 
so the operation of drawing is performed with a simple but effective 
wooden “ goat’s-foot ” lever (pl. 1, fig. 2 e, e), the prongs of which 
rest against a fulcrum formed by the ends of the transverse bar 
immediately in front of the notch. The arrow or bolt (pl. 1, fig. 2 /)— 
which consists of a head and foreshaft of iron set in a shaft of pine 
“feathered ” with thin wooden slips—is laid in the arrow groove, 
the slightly notched butt being just in front of the bowstring notch. 
To discharge the bow, the two limbs of the bow are simply squeezed 
together, with the result that the release peg is driven upward through 
the notch, out of which it forces the bowstring, which drives the bolt 
in front of it. Experience has taught the peasant whalers that new or 
cleaned bolts are far less deadly than old and uncleaned ones, the 
reason for this being that the latter are highly poisonous from the 
septic condition of the decaying matter adhering to the rusty surface 
of the iron heads, which are never burnished. They are even buried 
sometimes in gangrenous flesh so as to induce this septic condition. 
The true nature of the poison is, however, unknown to the peasants. 

The simple release mechanism of this modern Norwegian crossbow, 
it will be at once noticed, while differing completely from that of all 
other European crossbows, whether ancient or modern,! is precisely 
similar to that of the crossbows of the Ba-F'an, Mpongwe, Mandingo, 
Yoruba, and Benin natives of West Africa, which I have already 
described. The identity in structure is so absolute that it is impossible 
to avoid the belief that all are traceable to a common origin. It is 
most unlikely that this contrivance, which, simple as it is, required 
some real ingenuity for its invention, should have been independently 
arrived at in two widely separated regions of the world, by a civilized 
people in the one region and by a savage people in the other. The 
probability of the crossbow having been introduced into West Africa 
by Europeans in the sixteenth or seventeenth century becomes almost 
a certainty when we know that the structural details of the African 
forms are actually those of certain European crossbows. It was 
only ignorance of this fact which has caused any hesitation in accept- 


1Sir R. Payne Gallwey makes no mention of the Norwegian wooden crossbow in his 
important monograph on the crossbow. 


ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS—BALFOUR. 647 


ing the theory of a European origin. The principal difference exist- 
ing between the crossbows of the Goboon and of Norway, the two 
extremes, lies in the fact of the Scandinavian examples having the 
lower limb of the stock hinged to the upper (fig. 1), while the Gaboon 
type has the stock made in a single stave, split to form the two limbs 
(figs. 8 and 4). This distinction is at the best a minor one, and is 
due probably to the lowly cultured savage not comprehending readily 
the structure of a hinge joint. In any case, this difference becomes 
quite insignificant in the light of the Nigerian and Mandingo cross- 
bows (figs. 2 and 6), which effectively link the two extremes together, 
and in which we see a hinge joint of a simplified type, a loop replac- 
ing the more complex tenon-and-rivet joint of the Norwegian whaling 
crossbow. <A significant piece of evidence, helping further to link the 
latter with the Gaboon weapon, is to be noted in the Fan crossbow 
represented in fig. 4 (and pl. 1 fig. 10). It will be noticed that just 
at that point (figs. 4, a, and 5, @) where the end of the wooden hinge 
rivet of a crossbow of the Norwegian type would be seen [cf. fig. 1], 
an engraved circle appears. This is quite distinct from the rest of 
the carved decoration, and may well be a “ skeuomorphic ” reminis- 
cense of the hinge of the European prototype, which in this particular 
it was impossible to imitate so as to form a practicable joint. Or, 
and perhaps this is rather more probable, this circle may represent 
the perforation in the upper limb of the stock, through which the 
loop forming the hinge of a Nigerian crossbow is passed. In either 
case this design seems to point to the Gaboon weapon having been 
derived from a model of the hinged variety, and serves to link the 
various local forms together. Viewed in the light of the other cor- 
respondencies, this decorative feature acquires a phylogenetic value 
of considerable interest. 

The European origin of West African crossbows, notably those of 
the Gaboon district, is further exemplified in the form of the bow 
itself, which is clearly modeled upon the rectangular-sectioned steel 
bows of the European type, and differs completely from any native 
long bows. Here there is a departure from the crude Scandinavian 
type, but it seems very possible that the simple method of release 
which still survives in the clumsy Norse weapon may also have been 
applied to better-class weapons fitted with steel bows. Indeed, an 
examination of the form of crossbow represented upon the Benin 
bronze plaque in the British Museum (fig. 7, @ and 6) affords most 
suggestive corroboration of this view. The bow there shown is 
evidently of steel, and is of the “ Cupid’s-bow ” form. The stock is 
evidently in two parts, with a movable lower limb recalling the struc- 
ture of the Norwegian stock (fig 7, 6). The lower limb as repre- 
sented is, however, decidedly shorter than the upper, and it may be 
urged that we have here merely a clumsy representation of the long 


648 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


steel lever which held and released the revolving catch or “nut” of 
the typical medieval and later European crossbows. ‘This may be so, 
but there is undoubtedly a greater resemblance to the divided stock 
(with peg-and-notch release) than to the stock with lever and “ nut” 
mechanism, and there is no suggestion of a revolving “nut” in the 
simple transverse groove which appears to represent a plain notch 
for the bowstring. Moreover, when a lever was employed this neces- 
sarily did not extend farther forward than the catch which held the 
bowstring, whereas, in the crossbow represented upon the plaque, 
the union of lower and upper limbs is placed considerably in front 
of the notch, as is the case in all the crossbows having divided 
stocks—a significant fact. It has occurred to me that the lever of 
the better-known European crossbows may itself have been sug- 
gested by and derived from the movable lower limb of the ruder 
types. The muscular action required to effect the release is in both 
cases the same, viz, a squeezing together of the two parts of the 
stock in the one case, and of the lever and stock in the other; the 
revolving wheel-lke “nut” in the latter form having supplanted 
the more sluggish thrusting-peg action of the former. But this is 
by the way. The combination in many of the African crossbows 
of a bow apparently modeled upon a steel original, with a simple 
divided stock, may thus perhaps be explained by the evidence as to 
the introduction by Europeans of a crossbow in which these char- 
acters are actually combined, as recorded upon the bronze plaque 
from Benin. . 

One can not readily determine which of the European peoples may 
have first introduced the crossbow with divided stock into Africa. 
This primitive form, now restricted to a very limited area in Nor- 
way, was probably at one time far more widely distributed over 
Europe, and the Portuguese may quite well have known and used 
this type, and have carried it with them to West Africa; but the 
probability lies, perhaps, rather with the Danes or the Dutch, who 
may be regarded as more likely to have employed a form which we 
know to have been associated with Scandinavia. In this case the 
introduction would not have taken place earlier than the later por- 
tion of the fifteenth century. The European figures upon the Benin 
bronzes appear for the most part to belong to the sixteenth century, 
and the Beninese bronze founders were sufficiently familiar with 
the European crossbow to represent it with wonderful accuracy in 
matters even of detail. May we not regard it as probable that the 
weapon was first adopted in the sixteenth century by the natives of 
Nigeria, who to this day are using a hinged form of crossbow with 
divided stock, and that from this region the weapon was dispersed, 
varying somewhat in detail as its range extended farther from the 
original center, and becoming simplified to some slight extent as it 


ORIGIN OF WEST AFRICAN CROSSBOWS—BALFOUR. 649 


reached the more remote tribes of yet lower culture, such as the 
Ba-Fan and Mpongwe, amongst whom the stock of the crossbow is 
merely split instead of being hinged. The simplification is in any 
case so slight that it can hardly be said that the crossbows of the 
Gaboon district are really a degenerate development, as compared 
with such a European form as I have suggested may have been their 
prototype. If on the one hand the release mechanism is slightly 
degraded, on the other hand in point of finished workmanship the 
Gaboon examples are far superior to the Norwegian. The change 
from a hinged stock to a split stock is associated with the gradual 
disappearance of the arrow groove, owing, no doubt, to the use of 
much lighter arrows which are held in position with wax or gum. 
‘This method of causing the dart to adhere to the stock is employed 
also in the case of the native hinged crossbows, in which the arrow 
groove is often well defined, though usually much less so than in 
most European crossbows; in this respect, too, therefore, the Gaboon 
type is linked to the European indirectly by the Nigerian type. It 
is most unlikely that the crossbow-using natives of the Gaboon re- 
ceived the idea of making this weapon direct from Europeans, since 
they appear to have only recently migrated toward the coast from 
the interior. In their former home they would have been out of 
reach of contact with the early European explorers; and apart from 
this, the special features of this local type are most readily ac- 
counted for as due to indirect connection with the European prototype 
and to the distance from the original center of dispersal in West 
Africa. 

The method of release with a divided stock is paralleled, as far 
as I am aware, in but one other region of the world. The well- 
known and specialized repeating crossbow, nou koung, of China is 
discharged in a manner closely analogous to the mechanism of the 
West African and Norwegian forms which I have described. I must 
not here enter into the possible affinities of this Asiatic form, but 
merely refer to it as having certain marked characteristics in common 
with these western types of crossbows. 

As regards the Ba-Kwiri crossbow of the Kamerun described by 
Dr. von Luschan, we may judge from its structure that, while it is 
probably allied to the other West African forms, it is a strictly 
degenerate variety of the weapon as regards its mode of discharge, 
since there is no mechanism for the release, which is effected by 
merely pushing the bowstring out of the notch by hand. The form 
has evidently been much modified through imitation of firearms, as 
the form of stock and the long barrel prove. We must regard this 
form as an aberrant local type which has developed largely upon 
lines of its own, diverging from the more usual type. 


650 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


' 


To sum up briefly. It appears to me that the exotic origin of the 
West African crossbows is practically certain. The evidence points 
to the prototype of those crossbows which have divided stocks having 
been a European crossbow of a type nearly related to that which now 
survives only in western Norway, where it has persisted for a special 
purpose. It seems probable that the introduction of this weapon 
into West Africa was effected by the early European expeditions, 
probably some time in the sixteenth century, and that the natives 
of Nigeria were the first to adopt it from them; also that from this 
center it was dispersed westward to the Mandingo country, and 
eastward through the Kamerun district to the Gaboon, and that the 
local varieties are for the most part, at least, derivatives from one 
original prototype. 


SANITATION ON FARMS. 


By ALLEN W. FREEMAN, M. D., 


Assistant State Health Commissioner of Virginia. Richmond, Va. 


The careful student of sanitary progress in the United States to- 
day is early impressed with the great contrast between the sanitary 
conditions in country districts and those in the cities. Recent years 
have witnessed great progress in the cities. Effective health depart- 
ments have been organized, and the effect of measures, such as the 
supervision of water and milk supplies, the visiting nurse, and the 
tuberculosis dispensary, medical inspection of schools, and the accu- 
rate control of contagious diseases, has been so pronounced as to place 
their work on a firm basis, and to insure its continuance and exten- 
sion. While much remains to be done in the cities, the foundation 
has been laid and the methods of work more or less standardized. It 
is not too much to say that we are within sight of the solution of 
many of the problems of municipal sanitation. 

While these facts are true of the cities, in those States with which 
we are familiar no such condition exists in the country districts. 
They remain as they have been for years, without efficient organiza- 
tion, depending on the methods and beliefs of 30 years ago. In only 
a few States is there adequate supervision of the rural communities; 
only a few States require the reporting of even the most dangerous of 
contagious diseases, and in most cases what activity there is in the 
country districts is confined to the control of smallpox, diphtheria, 
and scarlet fever, with occasional attention to a flagrant nuisance. 
The vast contributions of modern science to the prevention of disease 
are for the most part lost to the people of the country for the lack of 
organization and education. There are, of course, isolated exceptions 
to this statement, such for instance as the wonderful work of the 
Pennsylvania department of health in connection with tuberculosis 
in rural districts, but for the most part conditions are as stated. 


1 Read in the section on preventive medical and public health of the American Medical 
Association, at the sixty-first annual session, held at St. Louis, June, 1910. Reprinted by 
permission with author’s revision from Journal American Medical Association, Aug. 27, 
1910. 


651 


652 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


The reasons for this contrast are, in the main, perfectly obvious. 
There is in the first place a greater survival of the individualistic idea 
of life in the country than in the city. Government touches the life 
of the individual in the country to a limited degree only. His per- 
sonal liberty, so called, is seldom invaded. He is, and he considers 
himself to be, a law unto himself. In the city the communal idea 
prevails; no man lives unto himself alone; government is at the elbow 
of every citizen. In the second place, the very isolation of the country 
makes it almost impossible in the circumstances to educate the coun- 
try people in the importance of health measures. <A single successful 
campaign against measles or diphtheria or impure milk will generally 
convince the people of the city of the importance of health measures. 
As such a campaign is difficult or impossible under present conditions 
in the country, education comes more slowly and the support of 
health measures is always more doubtful. In the third place, the con- 
trast between country and city is largely due to the fact that health 
measures are more obviously necessary in the city than in the country. 
The crowded city demands health protection. Where our nearest 
neighbor lives half a mile away he may suffer from a wide variety of 
diseases and we may never feel the danger, but where we are sepa- 
rated from contagious disease only by the partition wall of an apart- 
ment house, we feel the necessity for and yield more readily to pre- 
ventive measures. 

The explanation for this contrast, however, is not its justification. 
The country no less than the city needs health education. The 
country, even more than the city, stands in need of fundamental 
health precautions. The very mass of disease in the country districts 
of itself requires that this problem be attacked, but the bearing of 
rural sanitation on the health of our cities is perhaps a still more 
immediate reason why our point of attack should be shifted. The 
health of the city depends in a large measure on the health of the 
country. Practically all the food products of the city come from 
more or less remote country districts. A single case of typhoid fever 
on a dairy farm may, under certain conditions, infect a whole city, 
and emphasize to all the intimacy of the sanitary connection. In the 
same way close intercourse between cities and the country renders 
the former particularly liable to infection from the latter. Expe- 
rience in many places has convinced us that the prevention of small- 
pox in the cities is very largely dependent on the close inspection of 
smallpox in the country, since most cases of this disease are brought 
into the cities from rural districts or small towns. Then, again, there 
is a crying need for better rural sanitation because of the more or 
less general residence of city people in the country during vacation 
time. The country boarding house has been one of the great sources 
of typhoid fever, and many of the cases which appear in the cities 


SANITATION ON FARMS—FREEMAN. 653 


after vacation can be traced directly to the bad sanitation of country 
resorts. If, therefore, the health of the cities is to be improved the 
health of the country must also be bettered. And if the nation is 
~ever to stamp out disease it must be by a general attack in both the 
city and the country. 

In addition to the erying need for such work rural conditions offer 
to the scientific sanitarian the attraction of almost unparalleled oppor- 
tunities for research work in the transmission of disease. In typhoid 
fever, particularly, the key to the eradication of summer typhoid is 
to be found in the country. To trace the means of dissemination of 
typhoid bacilli in a city, with its manifold sources of food supply, 
the complication of the milk supply, with daily contact between 
thousands of persons, any one of whom may be in the incubative stage 
of the disease or may be a typhoid carrier, and with the constant 
temptation to attribute the infection to the water supply, is beset 
with so many difficulties as to make it almost hopeless. The best 
that can be done is to draw general conclusions from the study of 
large groups of cases, and even here it is difficult to exclude the 
general factors of flies, milk, and water. 

In the country conditions are very different. Given a country 
district free from typhoid for several years, the first case is easily 
discovered, and the transmission of the disease may often be worked 
out with mathematical accuracy. Water and milk are of course 
easily excluded; flies may be considered with some accurate idea as 
to their importance as a factor in transmission; and the actual amount 
of contact resulting in infection may often be determined exactly. 
If this work be extended over a largre area and be combined with 
careful statistical studies it will throw more light on the city problem 
than can be obtained in the city itself by any means known at present. 
- Nor is typhoid the only disease which can be advantageously studied 
in the country. We have found the study of the transmission of 
smallpox in rural districts to be of great interest by reason of the fact 
that the time, place, and manner of contact can be worked out with 
ease and certainty. Diphtheria and scarlet fever, studied case by case 
in rural districts, should throw great and much-needed light on the 
transmission of these diseases. 

It may not be amiss at this point to call attention to the value of 
the case method of study of infectious diseases in rural work. <A per- 
sonal visit to each patient, the collection of the data needed at the 
place where the disease occurred, and the interpretation of the epi- 
demiologic evidence in the light of the other information secured by 
a visit to the premises, offers by far the most promising method for 
the solution of the problems now pressing for solution. 

The rural districts, however, offer even greater possibilities in 
practical prevention than as a field for studies in the transmission of 


654 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


disease. The separation of individual cases, the slowness and free- 

dom from complication of the intercommunication, render health 

work in the country much easier than in cities. With trained men 

and an adequate system for promptly collecting and studying mor-— 
bidity statistics, preventive work in rural districts may be made to 

have the efficiency of a well-oiled machine. 

Even here, however, it is obvious that all the phases of sanitation 
which arise in the study of rural conditions can not be studied fully 
by the limited force at the disposal of the average state health de- 
partment. Some limitations must be made and some problems in the 
country must receive more attention than others. We have carefully 
considered the subject and have concluded that, for the present at 
least, particularly in the South, typhoid fever and hookworm diseases 
should receive first attention. The reason for this decision will, I 
think, be obvious to all. Typhoid fever is and will probably remain 
the greatest single problem of rural hygiene. High as is the death 
rate from typhoid fever in the country as a whole, it is highest in the 
South; and awful as is the toll which most southern cities pay to 
this disease, their burden is not so heavy as that of the rural sections 
of the same territory. _Hookworm has been placed beside typhoid 
fever in this work because we are convinced that hookworm plays a 
part hardly less important than that of typhoid fever in the South 
and is essentially a disease of the country. 

If we must study rural hygiene for its own importance, and if we 
must limit our study for the present at least to these diseases which 
are the most disastrous, we must begin our study on the farm. We 
should not, of course, omit the small towns, as they offer problems 
intermediate between those of the city and those of the country. But 
a study of these towns convinces us that in the main the dangers are 
essentially those of the farm, and the problem is practically the same 
in its fundamental aspect as that to be encountered in the country. 

The farm is the point of attack, and in the work against the dis- 
eases I have mentioned the farm is the unit both in the spread and 
prevention of infection. Each farm is, to all intents and purposes, a 
separate community, with its own population, its own problems of 
sanitation, and its own forces for good and evil. The work we 
would do for the improvement of rural conditions of sanitation must 
be done for the improvement of the farm. 

Studies of sanitary conditions on farms show facts that are almost 
unbelievable in the ight of our knowledge regarding soil pollution. 
We have inspected in the course of our work against typhoid and 
hookworm diseases thousands of farms, and it is the exception rather 
than the rule that we find adequate sanitary arrangements in use. 

Wells are often carelessly dug, carelessly protected, if protected at 
all, and carelessly kept. The well tops, almost without exception, 
show wide cracks through which filth is washed at all times into the 


SANITATION ON FARMS—FREEMAN. 655 


well; the buckets are handled by all kinds of hands and then carefully 
lowered into the well for the only cleaning they ever get. The per- 
sonal habits of the average inhabitant of a rural distict are of a char- 
acter in keeping with the other sanitary conditions. The absence of 
running water, and particularly hot water, make effectual cleanliness, 
especially in cold weather, difficult, and the amount of water used per 
capita per day is exceedingly small. 

It must, of course, be admitted that in every rural community there 
are those of sufficient intelligence, self-respect, and ability to rise 
above these conditions and to provide themselves with modern sani- 
tary conveniences, but, particularly in regions where the economic 
standard of rural life is low, these exceptions are few, and for the 
most part conditions are as I have described them. 

Even under these conditions, amazing as it may seem, there are 
many rural communities which are and have been for many years 
practically free from typhoid, despite the prevalence of the disease in 
this country. There are others in which hookworm has apparently 
never gained a foothold, but the introduction of a single case of 
typhoid under favorable conditions is sufficient to give rise to a wide- 
spread outbreak of the disease, and hookworm infection, though 
slower in its spread, is equally certain to infect the entire community 
under these conditions. 

These conditions, then, fix the problem of the farm, if they do not 
solve it, and indicate the direction our work must take. Proper sani- 
tary conditions, the safeguarding of the water supply, and the instruc- 
tion of the people as to the necessity of obeying the Scriptural injunc- 
tion to wash before meat are not of themselves difficult, expensive, or 
revolutionay procedures. Moreover, when we take into account the 
fact that the carrying out of these procedures will do much to secure 
the immunity of the inhabitants of the farm from soil-pollution dis- 
ease, it does not seem that it would be difficult to secure their adoption. 

The problem must, of course, be attacked in detail, county by 
county, district by district, farm by farm, and individual by indi- 
vidual. 

It has seemed to us that in attempting to solve this problem we 
could well take a leaf from the book of modern industrial enterprise ; 
that the methods which have been worked out by the marvelous 
organizations of commercial interests might well be of use in a work 
ef this kind. The problem of a man who would teach the people 
proper sanitation is not essentially different from the problem of the 
man who would sell them a book, or a safety razor, or induce them to 
buy an improved churn. The proposition is a selling proposition, 
and our forces may well be modeled on the sales force of any modern 
industrial enterprise. 

The first question is that of advertising, or, as we are accustomed 
to speak of it, of education. At the outset it should be insisted on 


656 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


that such health education or advertisement should be an education 
regarding the fundamental principles and established facts and not 
regarding individuals or experimental ideas. In our advertising 
campaign to reach the farmers we must suppress all personal refer- 
ences and make our advertising carry sound and proved facts of sani- 
tation. We must advertise our product and not our sales manager. 

The forms of publicity to be used in this educational campaign are 
varied, and practically all of them are to-day being used in common 
by commercial and health organizations. Press notices, which are 
easily secured at small cost by a proper press agent, are of enormous 
value. Special stories are gladly carried by newspapers if they do 
not carry too much self-advertisement; billboards, magazine stories, 
and articles, and special publications of various health departments 
are being used daily in this work. In addition, lectures, exhibits, 
special railroad exhibit cars, demonstrations in railway stations and 
public places, all have their place and all are being used by public 
health agencies. 

But these are not of themselves sufficient. They arouse the interest 
or excite the curiosity of those whom we wish to reach, but they do 
not give the individual the necessary impulse for immediate action. 
We must have something more personal, more direct and impelling, 
to obtain the results that are necessary. Here again the analogy with 
selling forces of commercial concerns becomes striking. 

We must have a detailed field force. We must have a force which 
will personally reach every farm whose sanitary condition we would 
improve. While all local health organizations have this end in view, 
and the individual physician constitutes a powerful force, even these 
must be aroused to their opportunities, must be educated and stimu- 
lated as much as our lay constituency. They correspond, in the 
analogy we have drawn, to the trade for the regular distribution of 
our product. We have not created the need for the product until our 
detail man has visited the consumer. 

In practice the effort to meet the need for detail work, especially 
in connection with the hookworm, could be accomplished by the ap- 
pointment of rural district inspectors. Each rural district inspector 
could be assigned to an area of four or five counties, conveniently 
located and accessible from some one point as headquarters. ‘This 
district inspector would correspond to the detail man in our selling 
campaign. He goes into the district and visits first the physician, 
taking with him his microscope, his literature, and a small amount of 
properly prepared medicine. He should be a graduate physician, 
qualified to practice medicine, but his whole time should be devoted 
to the work and he should be allowed to accept no fees. On his visits 
to the individual physician he interests him in the hookworm disease, 
diagnoses a few cases for him, and treats several, in order to be sure 
that the physician is thoroughly acquainted with the practical details 


SANITATION ON’ FARMS—FREEMAN. 657 


of the work he is going to be called on to do. Then, with the coopera- 
tion of the physician, working in the practice of one physician at a 
time, he visits the individual farm, talks with the head of the family, 
or better still, with the mother, points out the children who are prob- 
ably infected, gets specimens, leaves literature, suggests treatment, 
and refers them to the family physician. In this way, within a com- 
paratively short time, he would cover the territory of the physician 
with whom he is working, secure a few object lessons of treatment, 
prepare the physician to take care of the cases when they come, and 
would thus start the current toward the physician. He also inspects 
schools, gives public lectures and demonstrations, and in general agi- 
tates the question until every one in the community is thoroughly 
acquainted with the facts regarding the disease. 

This detail work so far has been very successful in some States. 
The patients who are treated recover so rapidly and exhibit such 
marked improvement as to constitute an unanswerable argument for 
the truth of the contentions of inspector and physician as to the im- 
portance of the disease. 

The whole community rapidly becomes interested in the subject; 
the worst cases are soon treated and the mild cases come later; and 
with the spread of the truth regarding the prevalence of the disease 
and methods of its spread comes the desire for better sanitary condi- 
tions, 

The amount of territory which can be covered by an active man in 
this way is very large, and, though we have not exactly determined it, 
we estimate that four or five badly infected counties can be cleaned up 
in a year’s time, and that then the inspector may be moved to a fresh 
district. In this way four or five years should see a State thoroughly 
canvassed for hookworm disease, and the extermination of the disease 
should be in the way of accomplishment. 

The work in connection with the hookworm will undoubtédly yield 
an extra result in typhoid fever equal in value to that from hook- 
worm, and we believe that the successful carrying forward of the 
present campaign will result in a marked reduction in rural typhoid. 
In addition—and by no means least important—the demonstration of 
the practical benefits of systematic and scientific work in rural dis- 
tricts afforded by a successful campaign of this character will place 
preventive work on a new and firm basis before the country people 
and should render the systematic and permanent extension of this 
work, embracing all diseases, easy of accomplishment. 

We believe, therefore, in conclusion, that present rural sanitary 
conditions must not be allowed to continue; that the problem must 
be attacked in detail; that detail work will’ yield tremendous benefits 
both in contribution to our present knowledge regarding the transmis- 
sion of many diseases and. in the actual prevention of thousands of 
unnecessary cases of preventable diseases. 

97578°—sm 1910——42 


laprhege oh ooh ie 2 rea 

Benen Amite isgtebioek (fend teesbibeneind pes a 
yebbowtduents ad bsiviedidel bata Fees ventas cnet) 

‘ rs cry ote. bel wena fot kde Sockte hte aed 


My ated Se 


os desan ns snakes mt arn ba sane 


moi cmon 
rita dep wt dq: Hwidiryt nib aiivicicy bl bisierveltin ence ates my 
thetidinnall ter anges! iodide! whitun enrsdanithany aisad. i pees . 
poe yeeros: WaxLt tneril veravento orkhr ie wn sulle WeaoReENt colt she 
wtoupemrmoiial ad |, <eenadion Tiles hi iret Ds eS TED oul Pes ie ded 
eels virey vl bine lecodheyind ay-skaalor i ee 
ivkhganno:kt Ei Friis ecetchens! ert? caine “(cova dais, nde pati 
i i, BAY muhzsl ti : esber reat Srbh tinue 
: ser gee Peart: Clan ree Py aed vee Cr aad doer prieie 
: tele dap nienas ees ee ey were atime {i vormaad) efreny teu 
: , ainy M strhetasay lal ies hia Loree se (eek LUAU? 42a dim werd i 
"a aL ike BU Salsizyi | A, TOM RITS 1 motnahnos as a ie 
7 eM eats ey it Bort 


ee.’ 


‘5: . 
1 
’ ery. , : ‘iy Ayn’ f é 
? ‘ } ; } ’ at ‘ ‘ ' 
i oft ee 
’ bie ties! ] Th. DT ay Mims tk 
ae 5 by 
l 4a et i ben aaa! ‘ I 5 "ae eT ‘ : | bey’ upon + andl 
POMEL See CTR Reet BIST Te 4 LT: Tals Peni 5 
<a ised. 91883 iit bebe Ponus base taltoadelelale 
fil ; ? 7” 
I 
y } I i 
. ; 
ty j 1 el ' 5* i 
| ’ 
7 ‘ 
Tinh . rere) Pte hi 
* fi s 
; a ee 
-~ 
by t 
bx ‘TS Ti . f ; Hy 
(Uh { f i PS { wa 
rota (j \ y WV apvr 
j ' 
; 5 iti i : rt he ‘ tit 
‘ } 4 
1 ' ' I ' - tj 7] a 
' : ’ f ; . . ‘t *) . i) 
: j ae ; tr eha Sithy er] Jet Lie HAA “iy "| ht} if] list shit 
: id J . af - * , é 
f ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ pre, 3 ic , 
7” h o eh, i vad RESALE STAR Oh Lael “ 
Ns 
: te . > ‘ eee 
) peti ? ; J fitis ri Whee ¢ i’ Ve oA) pened aes My 
i < eal 
ia ' y 4 4 heypet be . * , * ii i ‘ 
AFR ea lorve 7 Say 1332 fy i TREY MPR 7 Alf sa 
| rts > - 4 ; F A ol ft kt 
MoGeadt darn (ie ore bie» cer ih ana ve Oa: ae ibe 
Sle D> va 4 aoe ’ at 
pa) Mie 1 MENTS TOLLS TD Tee UE Per oY cans | plore 
| eee Font thi me oe shchnaiiney Of mr ak 
ae mete TUL WO FR tiie Ff a sen lai 
F (a 2 ial . ‘ ; é 
oe i . ra Lehre ls > ; sas ee fpinia 
4 sh ted isa cP A et am 
] 4 em ees at bale eh Bo) Cs it Oe Pie, e! Ge ot 


alo ndels (Ebi oD 
Ww’ 

- PRY i ena 
ob j ; Uiemoite ty, erapioeays up inuidws ‘oh i “i Pet rm heaved 0 iaah 


att Lcrnertagae nr oli hictey verb tt th 


oe | 
ie ae ¢ ew murat 
; 
, 


MM) te agli ial vaqnts = . ire 


re” 7 a ‘ » ae in | 7 Pita n 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS. 


By Roserr Kocw. 


(A. lecture given before the Academy of Sciences of Berlin at its session of 
Ape are /1910:)* 


Investigations into the epidemiology of tuberculosis have brought 
out some facts of interest and also of practical importance which will 
be the subject of the present paper. 

First some preliminary remarks concerning the character of the 
investigations. They are in all essential respects statistical. If at- 
tempt had been made to cover the entire field, insurmountable diffi- 
culties would have been encountered. 

Tuberculosis, as is well known, manifests itself in the most varied 
ways, frequently occurring in such insignificant and latent forms that 
no sharp distinction can be made between those affected and healthy 
persons. For that reason it was necessary to limit the present dis- 
cussion to a form that is sufficiently well marked and also diagnosed 
with certainty. These conditions are best fulfilled by tuberculosis of 
the lungs, the so-called pulmonary consumption. This form is also 
to be recommended for such investigations because it is by far the 
most frequent, the one chiefly concerned in disseminating tuber- 
culosis and therefore the most important in medical practice. 

A still further limitation must be made. Owing to the long dura- 
tion of pulmonary consumption and the difficulty of making sharp 
distinctions as to its beginning, we must disregard the statistics of 
illness from this disease and consider only the statistics of death. 
In these we have original data that are, to a certain extent, trust- 
worthy, and that may serve as a basis for investigation. 

It is true that this trustworthiness could only be absolutely as- 
sured if in every case of death by pulmonary consumption the diag- 
nosis were confirmed by an autopsy made by a competent expert, 


1 According to a manuscript kindly placed at the disposal of the editor of the Zeit- 
schrift fiir Hygiene und Infections-krankheiten after the death of the author. Translated 
from Zeitschrift fiir Hygiene, Leipzig, 1910, vol. 67, Part 1, pp. 1-18. 


659 


660 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


which by no means really occurs. Autopsies are held only in a small 
proportion of cases, and therefore some uncertainty exists. Besides 
this, in many regions, even in entire countries, there is, for well- 
recognized reasons, a certain hesitation attached to pronouncing a 
diagnosis of pulmonary consumption, and the disease is called in- 
stead chronic catarrh of the lungs, or something similar. It is, there- 
fore, not always admissible to compare with each other the death 
rates of pulmonary consumption of different countries without fur- 
ther examination, and it is to be supposed that many cases of strik- 
ing differences may be explained by circumstances of this kind. 
This source of error has, however, no essential influence when we con- 
sider the increase or decrease of mortality in the same country or city. 

On the other hand, it may be said that pulmonary consumption 
is a very satisfactory subject for statistical investigation, because 
its. characteristic symptoms make its diagnosis quite certain, even by 
the laity, so that for many matters where absolute exactitude is not 
required, data are available, even though not supported by medical 
authority or by autopsies. 

If in an investigation of the epidemiology of tuberculosis we go 
back to early data concerning mortality from consumption, we find 
the disease mentioned in the oldest records. 

In the writings of Hippocrates a very characteristic description 
of pulmonary consumption is given, and we may conclude from it 
with certainty that the physicians of that time were quite familiar 
with the symptoms of the disease. It is stated in several places that 
numerous persons have been affected by it. We must therefore con- 
clude that phthisis already at that time played a part similar to that 
which it assumes at the present day. 

We find the first numerical data, however, much later, and these 
relate to Sweden, where they were collected by the clergy. 

From these we obtain the highest figures which mortality from 
phthisis has hitherto reached (Table 1). About the middle of the 
eighteenth century the mortality in Sweden was, for the country, 
21.5 per 10,000 persons, and it rose very slowly to 27.7 about 1830. 


1¥rom the writings of Hippocrates (Grimm’s translation). On Epidemics, p. 16: 
“For consumption alone, as the most important single disease among those prevailing 
at that time, killed many people”; p. 57: “The greatest and most terrible disease, 
and the one which was the most fatal, was pulmonary consumption.” 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—KOCH. 661 


TABLE 1.—WMortality from pulmonary consumption. 


[After Sundbarg. Calculated for every 10,000 persons. ] 


In Swe- | In Stock- 


den. -} holm. 

STG Oe sae det oe mci bac erste). Bete) weed cece ese tes baa Sagas amtdianrs 21.5 TRAP 
HAST) ABBR Gee ee GE SE Lae GASB EE oo OOO ee ae Create ee ner ae ent ere nae 20.6 69.8 
UNL aliiclWesite so GU RSRetas Serr aaete Se Gee preg ieal ed a aoe Pe elie tal ea les laa ania 20.8 74,4 
Titel SORES LEE. eae Ned EERE OE 28 PASS hk oo aR SSP SELLE 23.1 87.7 
1 OENI0 0 ee ee 9 Sono eenn Ap Bee OS ae Ae aaa eee Ree Oe een Cee A Pen ae 24.0 85.0 
EEN Peer ey oars arya ieee nlm sero is Swe asiatalaicriis as mypitge Sina aisles cise Sew ces keeles Olean 25.1 83.7 
ASIN USD Dee esas & cae 25 Me aaa awe a. acta acts’ nati ccekeac cclec santas seem eceme 26.9 87.2 
1871-1831) eee Ree ee en ans ee See ee oa ied eak «od dasen Qofasadaceee dee Dies 93.1 
1831-160 Lee ee ern ee re aA KY re Ndi 7 2) Ae See BE (2) (a) 

TSG 1S ea eer ele iainic Se Se ces ia Rot a ejeina die sesleieSasive adie eciee omnsisumiet cecee sie 30.6 43.3 
USTASISSU Re Seek she ot oe = oe Scecet ERS see alate tan Gokchs secu beings Setesd some eee ce 32.4 40.6 
DSB GO ee ere eet ee bic heed initial oe Gy nes aSeeas sokieetiveegut os cbceresepieetee 30.0 34.6 
TSO TO eee eer mee ae ek eta SRE oOo a ie nis che emratae caGica ssc cieels mop ectee 27.0 29.2 


“No data given. 


Considerably higher figures prevail in the chief city of the country, 
and this corresponds to the usually accepted opinion that the cities, 
on account of the crowded buildings and the bad dwelling conditions 
connected therewith and also because of the less resisting power of 
their inhabitants, are more unfavorably situated as regards tubercu- 
losis than is the open country. Stockholm had in 1750 a mortality 
of 73.2, which in 1830 had advanced to 93.1; that is to say, nearly 
100 per 10,000, or 1 per cent. 

The increase of mortality from phthisis in Stockholm is said by the 
Swedish physicians to be caused by the misuse of alcohol. The rate 
of 100 per 10,000 is only met with where the most unfavorable sani- 
tary conditions are encountered, for example, in jails, at least in 
former times; and also among the perishing races of North American 
Indians where alcohol is also the principal cause of decay. Accord- 
ing to the concurrent testimony of various travelers, the inhabitants 
of Greenland, compelled by the northern climate to live crowded to- 
gether in their huts, thus greatly increasing the possibility of infec- 
tion, suffer in an extraordinary degree from tuberculosis, reaching, it 
appears, even a higher figure than 100 per 10,000. 

A death rate of 50 per 10,000 occurs rather frequently in the last 
quarter of the nineteenth century, especially in cities. I will cite as 
examples among the German cities: Diisseldorf, 55; Elberfeld, 59; 
Osnabriick, 52; Cologne, 504; Munich, 50. Especially high figures 
occur in Austria-Hungary where there is 50 for Buda-Pesth; 58 for 
Presburg; 66 for Fiume; 72 for Vienna. 

From these figures we have a gradual descent until we reach a total 
absence of mortality. In certain regions, as in central Africa, tuber- 


662 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


culosis occurs only in quite isolated cases, the patients being of Euro- 
pean or coast origin. At the present time the lowest figure for some 
regions in Australia is about 7 deaths per 10,000. But this figure 
is also reached in some sections of our own country, as for example, in 
the district of Osterode in the Province of Allenstein. 

Such low death rates have only been observed during the last few 
years, and this leads me to the most notable phenomenon in the epi- 
demiology of tuberculosis, to which I would especially invite your 
attention, namely, the almost universal marked decrease in pulmonary 
consumption which has become evident during the last 30 or 40 years. 

The lowering of the death rate began first in England, and it also 
happened that the English hygienist Farr was the first who was 
struck by this and who called attention to it. In our own country 
Hirsch, the author of the well-known Handbook of Historico-geo- 
graphical Pathology, was the first to mention it. 

This remarkable phenomenon was at first received with great scep- 
ticism, and it was alleged that there were either errors in the statistics 
or that it depended upon the decrease in the general death rate which 
had been previously noted, though not to the same degree. But as 
the decrease in pulmonary consumption was shown to occur almost 
universally and also continued, there remained nothing to do but to 
acknowledge it as a fact and to find an explanation therefor. 

In order to give an idea of the decrease of consumption, the course 
of the death rate from that disease in the Kingdom of Prussia may 
serve as a specially characteristic example. ' 

It is shown graphically by a curve in Table 2. Up to the year 
1886 the figures representing the mortality remain with irregular, but 
not marked variations a little above 30, then begins a decrease which 
has kept up with but little variation to the present time. In the year 
1908 the figure fell to 16.24, a decrease of nearly 50 per cent. 

For the German Empire the statistical records do not go back far 
enough to demonstrate the reduction in consumption in a similar 
manner. Yet the curve for all Germany resembles, as far as it goes, 
that for Prussia; it is somewhat higher, because the States of southern 
Germany are not as favorably situated as Prussia with regard to the 
disease. 

The significance of this reduction in consumption will be noted 
when we observe that if the same relations prevailed now as 30 years 
ago about 100,000 more persons would die annually of consumption 
than is now actually the case. It is therefore very important for us 
to ascertain the causes for this decrease, in order to know whether it 
is subject to any influence under our control; whether it would be 
possible, were it arrested, to overcome the obstacle, also whether it 
would be practicable to hasten its decline beyond the present rate. 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—KOCH. 663 


The question, therefore, arises as to what is the cause, or rather 
what are the causes of this decrease, for it can hardly be supposed 
that it depends on a single factor alone. 

Concerning this it might at first be supposed that the death rate 
from consumption decreases because the general death rate, as is well 
known, is also decreasing. This need not necessarily be so, for it 
would only occur in case the causes which influence the general death 


TABLE 2.—Mortality from consumption in Prussia. . 


aetna dan 


$ 


$ 
ESE RG aS ina: aie Sah 


tate Bistin EEN . 


i 


Bae Rees See 


aeet cca ee 


j 


paki cid Bs a 


$ 


Sipe gs eee aie] 
j 


jGeeee acti Sipe Soe eaidenp Sass BREE 


y 
1 
ie 
j 
me 


oo 


tee pe 


rate have a similar influence upon the death rate from consumption. 
But we now see that the decrease in the latter is much more rapid than 
that of the general mortality, this being more probably influenced in 
a considerable degree by the decrease in pulmonary consumption. 
Therefore that disorder must be influenced by factors peculiar to 
itself. 

It might also appear possible that the decrease in tuberculosis 
depends upon the general epidemiological course of this disease; that 


664 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


this epidemic in itself, like other epidemics, such as the plague and 
cholera, must decrease after a certain lapse of time. 

If this were its natural course then the decrease would proceed 
everywhere in a uniform manner. But this is by no means the case. 


TaBLe 3.—Mortality from consumption in Massachusetts, Japan, Great Britain, 


166, Uh, 76. 81,96, 1 96. OL 
ee 65 - ry! Vag! 40 195° %” % 1900 03. 
3 er = me | ‘ 3 
1 te ah See [Prt a sn 


q 


eb seagrass inte eee 


: ae 
$ * ' 
+ Sieh aay ee Sages 


: ig Island oe es ee 
: (6 — eae . - — : e 
Ce ee Boing = 


BLT a Sa Oa ep ee : pe es 
i i 


Nad decid ‘ : 


1, M9 yt! sa sy AW 03 


In most countries, it is true, the curve descends, but there are others 
in which it rises. It will be seen by consulting Table 3 that England, 
Scotland, and the American State of Massachusetts (chosen because 
its statistics reach far enough back) have a decreasing death rate 
from consumption, while in Ireland, Norway, and Japan it is increas- 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—KOCH. 665 


TABLE ty eae from consumption at Paris, Hamburg, Copenhagen, and 


London. 


vie 
Peta D WLAN 


ths ty "5 re Mes Shay Nog Mya ws 


ese 


[ae 


pe Oy! ly go y Mag °8 


666 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


ing. We meet with the same phenomenon in certain cities; so London, 
Copenhagen, and Hamburg have curves of decrease, while Paris, on 
the contrary, has a high-lying curve which shows but little tendency 
to descend (Table 4). 


TABLE 5.—WMortality from consumption at Hamburg. 


C2 


-_ YY Ww + 


Ss 


So ee Ne 


Lo) 


io C2 7S 5 


ae mime 
POE CGG Gur 
es 
qed Eom ED aomeiee 
aH BOCeRaee cas es 
| Cease i 
ate Bocas Baraaeeraa 


$°gal 


France has a death rate from consumption that is especially un- 
favorable. In cities of more than 5,000 inhabitants, the only ones 
for which statistics are available, 27 out of every 10,000 persons die 
of this disease, and there was no decrease in the years from 1901 to 
1906 (so far as the data have been published). 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—KOCH. 667 

Very characteristic examples of favorable indications in the mor- 
tality of consumption are shown by Hamburg (Table 5) and Boston 
(Table 6). 

Before 1860 Hamburg lost by consumption 37 for every 10,000 
inhabitants, and in 1880 the figure stood at 33.5. In 1907 the mor- 
tality had decreased to 13.7. 

Boston had in 1886 a mortality of about 40, in 1907 it was 18.5. 


TaBLE 6.—Mortality from consumption at Boston. 


A, 


Westen pelos 


4 


= 


fa EE UM BS SS 


ry 


HU 


tl 


T 


i 
fa 
4 
1 
a 


: 3 Bhs 68 BE Cae NS ES FG SERS 


Ee 
+! 
rime wt 
yet 
Teal 
ei 
i 
a 


+ 


je 


i 


al Per 
23456189002 z 


These figures are still more significant if we compare them with 
those of cities which are exposed to conditions similar to those of 
Hamburg and Boston. For this purpose we will compare Hamburg 
with Berlin (Table 7) and Boston with New York (Table 8). 

The mortality curves of Hamburg and Boston descend at once and 
the decrease continues at a uniform rate, while in New York and 
especially in Berlin it has slackened for several years past. 

The examples I have submitted, and which might easily be in- 
creased in number, show that there can be no question of a general, 


668 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


regular, uniform decrease in mortality from consumption, and that 
we must therefore seek for other factors than those dependent on a 
spontaneous cause of decrease connected with the epidemiological 
course of the disease. 


TABLE 7.—Mortality from consumption at Berlin. 


| 


t 


ste ha Se 
leedhod’ 4 
Dab nee ea pei ae ae 


eee 
. fe eine 
ater § 


sane nee stn be ig meron et oe to Oe + onea 


falar 4 : 
| 


SO ee sR Bat OS, Bis fas 


EDs Lo ease 


te 
ee ke 
{ee gad ite 
f ; : ; 
wetter ints 
4 


‘i | eas 
Sip eee 
mggune 2055 


y bas 
: ; | 
es aa ees as { me PERE 
Sj Peril eee t boar 
ee teas IE ie 


Pes 228 CEE 
T 
Teac 


egret ae ee ase marca 
‘Olean ae z ss 23 ee ff) ps | 


It might be alleged that the virulence of tuberculosis has abated. 
But in ply to this it should be said first that the decrease in tuber- 
culosis began quite suddenly, and after a few decenniums has 
reached, in many cases, 50 per cent and over. As the mortality from 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—KOCH. 669 


consumption has been marked and often slowly increasing during 
2,000 years it is not reasonable to suppose that it would decline all at 
once without any assignable cause. Besides, the decrease of viru- 
lence would first be manifested by an amelioration in single cases 


TABLE 8.—WMortality from consumption at New York. 
Saas rT ae 
Dp O pace (ear te) me ses ©) sedan 


OE 123 sDerss ‘sdcinaubuehmunmds 
SSSA een 
er aaa ee eeoeeeen. eae 
fie BHA Se aeennace 


Ba: ae 
es 


ae ae ict 


He 


el 


[os jolts Bens 
Bey aoe senuaBeee: 
Brac ae ot mons 


tH 
st 
: esa ge saceee 
ae a Pouoeaaean 


Serie 
0. 


saeaaaat 
4 destaeereataeeee eRe oees 
Oy TSSDaEEGSEeteceeoguaei zee: 
teat lil 7 8 MH E SHE MAYES 


We pers: ge st 89 234 


& 
Eee 
JESS OSU ae Ae Maia 


which would also more frequently terminate in recovery. But noth- 
ing of this kind occurs. It is indeed true that in modern times great 
advances have been made in the treatment of tuberculosis, and that 
we succeed, through the so-called hygienic-dietetic treatment and 


670 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


especially by the specific treatment, in curing many cases. At pres- 
ent, however, only a comparatively small percentage of cases share 
this advantage, and for the cases not so treated we are unfortunately 
convinced again and again that pulmonary tuberculosis maintains 
the same deadly characters as formerly. Besides the decrease in con- 
sumption had already been going on for several years before the new 
methods of treatment had been widely disseminated. 

The decrease in consumption has often been ascribed to the dis- 
covery of the tubercle bacillus. It has been said that by this, the 
infectious character of the disease was proved and that, in conse- 
quence of this, people became more cautious and avoided infection 
as much as possible, while previously physicians did not admit the 
infectiousness of consumption and the public at large followed them 
in this as a matter of course. 

There is certainly much to be said for this argument. In any 
case it is very striking that, with a few exceptions, the decrease in 
consumption set in everywhere within a few years after that dis- 
covery. Yet the exceptions prove at once that this new-born fear 
of infection is not the only factor involved, although we must allow 
to il a certain influence which is by no means slight. 

German authors have frequently claimed that social regulations, 
particularly insurance against illness, has had an effect upon the 
decrease of tuberculosis. To a certain extent this is undoubtedly 
true, particularly as regards present conditions in Germany; yet in 
most other countries, where such regulations have not yet been estab- 
lished, the decrease has been just as great and has been going on at 
the same time, so these regulations can not be with us the most 
weighty cause. 

It would take me too long to enumerate and discuss all the attempts 
at explanation that have been made, and I will therefore confine 
myself in conclusion to those investigations of this question which 
appear to me to be of the most importance. These investigations 
were suggested by the striking fact that the death rate from tuber- 
culosis shows great differences in the three countries belonging to 
Great Britain. In England and Scotland it is decreasing; in Ire- 
land, on the contrary, it is slowly but evidently increasing. News- 
holme, the well-known medical statistician, has endeavored to find 
the prime cause of this. With the greatest thoroughness he has ex- 
amined all the factors in the question, chiefly lodging, food, condi- 
tions of service, care of the sick, emigration, and has finally beceme 
convinced that for Ireland the method of caring for the sick is the 
determining factor. While in England and Scotland phthisical 
charity patients are committed to isolated institutions, in Ireland 
they are supported without being required to place themselves in 
an institution; they therefore remain in their own lodgings and con- 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—-KOCH. 671 


tinue to spread infection about them. Newsholme endeavors also to 
prove that in Norway, too, the mortality from consumption is on the 
increase because insufficient care is taken for the placing of phthisical 
patients in hospitals. I might remark here that in Norway this 
defect has already been recognized and care has been taken to remedy 
it by founding special hospitals for consumptives. It appears that 
on account of this precaution the mortality curve in quite recent 
years no longer ascends. Newsholme says further that the very high 
mortality in Paris results from the insufficient hospital facilities, in 
consequence of which patients are not kept in long enough to insure 
protection of others against infection. 

With reference to this I entirely agree with Newsholme that a 
commitment to hospital for as long a time and with as careful atten- 
tion as possible is the most effective means of preventing infection 
and thereby the spread of consumption. My experience also shows 
that wherever consumptives are kept in sufficient numbers in hospi- 
tals there consumption is most diminished, and vice versa. It is 
also apparent that in no way can the danger of infection, which 
attends every phthisical patient, be so successfully combated as by 
isolation in a hospital. The value of hospital isolation is shown in 
a striking manner by such treatment of leprosy, as by its means we 
have attacked that disease with good results. . 

Besides this factor there is still a second one that plays a very 
important part. This is the housing of patients. The more con- 
tracted this is—the more lack there is of light and air—the more is 
infection favored. By many authors poverty and density of popu- 
lation have been mentioned as having a decided effect on the fre- 
quency of phthisis, and quite correctly so; but, in truth, this is 
caused by the defective and too small dwellings in which, through 
poverty and the increased density of population, people are forced 
to live. I might even goa step further and say that it is not so much 
the contracted character of the dwellings as a whole as the condition 
of the sleeping rooms that favors infection. Even in a spacious 
dwelling, in itself hygienic, the danger of infection may become 
very great if the inhabitants crowd together at night in a small 
sleeping room. It is certainly not an accident that with us the 
highest mortality from consumption is not found in the poor regions 
of the eastern provinces, but in the relatively prosperous and amply 
cultivated regions along the coast of the North Sea, where from 
olden times the evil custom has prevailed of using: for sleeping 
rooms small, cell-like apartments built in the wall, the so-called 
cubbies (Butzen), which are shut up at night, and that in the north- 
ern parts of Sweden, with a climate that is notoriously healthy, the 
highest death rate for consumption occurs where people also sleep 
in closets quite similar to the cubbies of Frisia. 


672 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. . 


The striking fact that with us the cities often have a lower con- 
sumption death rate than does the surrounding country is apparently 
due partly to the want of hospitals and partly to the bad habits of the 
rural inhabitants, in that they, even when they have at their dis- 
posal several living rooms, select the meanest and smallest for a 
sleeping room. As an example of the distinction between city and 
country, the following statistics for certain Prussian provinces may 
serve (Table 9): 


TABLE 9.—Mortality from pulmonary consumption per 10,000 inhabitants. 


[After Hirsch, Historico-Geographic Pathology. ] 


In the In the 


Province. city. country. 
Marieniwerder. --sscoc aaapseaasenc me dee wc8 syaaady qunee sea Siee = Ose emecaaeie heed 25.4 13.5 
DRDZAE oasis cn sicoe sisep sonics aren tnigun pues en sc wnslainie sa aie giabia/siamatt rs Sapeeinte es Seis See ae 23.9 14.1 
RiGnigSDeTE Ss. so ican soot se aoa s etee ott seen cao acet ct dee tee sas eae eeaes et dane meas oer 24.9 15.5 
Bromiberm tie ses 2. Aouad... dad ts ake Ra Le = Re Se i es 81.3 18.5 
TU oa cto i Si EE ae wc eis coe Na eee ian eae metals gee Semen aie 26.9 27.0 
IBTORMMG  a.o cpm ciniseutsisis, sos aiserigicie pioisiare l= nicer cits Siete Rei py sIuln See R em Mets eine clciciwi alae gereye 37.3 27.5 
HEMNOVER So. cce coor eee Po otae ce aoe co ese « Sates meee caehise cence cee tee eeembce oaine 6 ae ome 33.8 44.4 
Osnabritek s:2025. Qisd pdseaige~ see 2 ts ss fh Pp PH ah wc PEE 48.7 52.2 
C0) (ona 8's ee RR I< PRE CIE NESS Cees a. eR, Yin SR SNR VSE gE Eee yee er aoe 47.6 53. 4 


But in cities, also, housing conditions are poor. There are numer- 
ous dwellings that consist of a single room, in which families, often 
with several children, live, cook, and sleep, often in a single bed. 
According to Rubner there are in Hamburg, Berlin, and Breslau 
10 to 14 per cent of overcrowded dwellings, if we consider as such a 
room with but one window housing more than 5 persons. 

Kayserling has estimated that, of the phthisical patients who 
die in their own rooms 40.6 per cent inhabit but one room, 41.7 per 
cent but two rooms; that in Berlin, during three years, 8,229 per- 
sons were exposed to the greatest danger of infection because of con- 
sumptives.dying in one-room dwellings. It is well known that con- 
sumptives in the last stages of the disease, when they are helpless 
and expectorate sputum crowded with tubercle bacilli, are especially 
liable to spread infection. 

If we adhere to the view that the most effective protection against 
infection is the isolation of consumptives in hospitals, and then 
reflect further that the number of such adult persons for which, on 
account of tuberculous disease, hospital treatment is necessary, 
amounts in the German Empire to from 150,000 to 200,000 annually, 
and that it is quite impossible to place these all in hospitals, nothing 
else remains but to isolate the greater part of them in their own 
dwellings. If it were possible to assign to each patient a separate 
sleeping room, this might be to some extent effected; but how can it 
be done if the entire dwelling consists of only a single room? 


EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS—KOCH. 673 


These considerations show that the decrease in consumption in 
recent times depends upon various factors, of which the two most im- 
portant ones are the care of those affected by isolating them in hos- 
pitals and the improvement of housing conditions, especially as 
regards the sleeping rooms. 

It is apparent from this that vast obstacles have yet to be over- 
come before we can succeed in reducing still lower the mortality 
from consumption, and finally reach a level which will possibly be 
below the lowest existing at the present time. namely, 7 per 10,000 
persons. 

We are now enabled to realize the great benefit that accrues from 
having an exact knowledge of the statistics of mortality from con- 
sumption in countries and cities. The mortality curve informs us 
at once whether the conditions are favorable or unfavorable, whether 
the mortality is decreasing and the measures taken are still effective, 
or whether improvements, supplementary regulations, etc., should be 
instituted. So in Norway the course of the consumption curve 
induced the authorities to take in hand the building of hospitals, and 
thus cause it to descend. 

New York resolved, as soon as it was shown that the curve began 
to flatten and show greater variations, to take more care of the sick 
and to increase the number of beds assigned to consumptives from 
2,500 to 5,000. In Berlin, for the same reason, there was erected a 
special hospital for pulmonary consumptives, with 1,000 beds. 

It is very desirable that exact mortality statistics should be every- 
where obtained and that studies of the same should be extended to 
smaller and smaller districts, so as to ascertain more fully the con- 
ditions that control the development of tuberculosis, especially in the 
case of small hamlets and country districts, and thereby to relieve 
them. 

In our own country statistics are already developed far enough to 
enable us to scan the death rate from consumption in single districts. 
I have here the record of mortality in two departments, which ex- 
emplifies in a striking manner the interesting problems that result 
from a comparison between different districts. (Table 10.) 


TaBLE 10.—Deaths from tuberculosis in 1907 per 10,000 inhabitants. 


Allenstein department (10.33) : 


OSTEO Co eee eer ey ee Wenes 
BU Merny og 
SETS) OUTS gat OT eee eee 8.5 
NTO Camis eemeeereene mn cs Lg RS PA Ne eS 9.5 
ECG) SSG enn ene Se 8 2 Ae le 2 SS 10.0 
WETEIS eee a mre ee ae ee ee 2 ee ee ee alee) 
TY xc ee ee 2 a de ils} 
AGC ZC Ree re ete ee a ee ee ot Se eee 11.5 
CANTATAS es nl nee ee et Del ee GR a 2k ee ee 13.0 


97578°—sm 1910-——43 


674 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 


Osnabriick department (23.384) : 


Osnabruck. (Country) = Sj. me Re ee ee eee 15.0 
AD Ue a ee 17.0 
ROUSTAUS LE WC KCC LOY feces te re en een re ee ee ee 18.0 
Me p pene Soest ae Loe ee ae NY Pe ee ee Ve ee eee 22.8 
Miell@sa<: 2. Js of eyes - wee) a et Te AMEE SY ee eee oe 24. 0 
Aschendotificr _ axe of ey bey tog fhe... pe gln 5b 1) pet lp eears Da tee yee ee 24.0. 
Grafseha thi Rentheniyr ss. 458 Bos Be ee eee 25.15 
ReESen DIUGi = 2 = oes i ee ae 28. 0 
WRIT Geo Se a ee oie eee eee 30. 0 
Wittiase 2. 25ers ee nee eee ee ee 30. 0 
ERM ee se oe Pe SE Oe ee ene eee 35. 0 


For an effective campaign against tuberculosis it would be necessary 
to go still further and divide each district into smaller areas, each of 
which should be specially investigated and provided with detention 
houses or other devices for combating the disease. 

The statistics of mortality and the epidemiological researches con- 
nected therewith constitute an important feature of the measures by 
which tuberculosis is to be combated. 


A. fied 

PAN aap eat! fromm eu] ye beni) ene al ee Se ee ee ee 17, 83 
AN ovate 0 CE Ge ee ee Sey ee Se 4, 16, 21, 37, 74, 76, 83, 99 
hota wen (solaim constant of radiation) {20 22 2 ee ee eee 319 
SSIES OCG AELS, SLD ey 247.) ULL TS) et a ea a al Ok St here pes Serpe: ted 43 
JN D SNL, ANTE KD [ae Sas a eS eS eS 88 
ANCOESNTNSY aE ee Oe ster See ie ke EER NNN I Pe Tae gf ag a 28, ol, 40, 44, 71, 77, 79 
sf CONSULTS] BAGG OY SS ee i aca wr am eg ana on AN ene hemes Seale (ae 33 
GET URS ENYA GPL Se a eae ia eS i te 3, 21 
NCTC) OE CLINE eA SSO CLA OU =.= ee ke ee ee ee ee 157 
INGCTOOLOMICICS DeLIMeENtS OLIN. JE. Waneley ee Ie 105, 147 
PRETO TAH UL Call exe SAPO lO Mi se kes a es Be ee ee ee 26 
PNET CTI UU A ERIS Hts = te a par ome ara Nan at meh er alae eS Seeks Oe hen we Eee 26, 105, 145 
TOLL O tea ee ee ee ag le ee fe 78, 83 
ANTETE KOT STO EYER HOT YET ENS HOG Er tO 0 RII Srl i a a Ta a Ry Raa re as Se ear m= 43, 83, 84 
African expedition, Smithsonian___________________ 10, 28, 43, 44, 83, 84, 101, 102 
African monkey of genus Cercopithecus, new subspecies of (Elliot) _—_____ 84 
PANE USSU Zar Aol ON ATCT as (GILCU VO Tg aa es ee Se aw ee eer Se 447 
AOTICWEULe. MO CWATeCMent, Olea. 2 ei See 28, 44, 69, 74, 76 
Agriculture, Secretary of (member of the Institution) --________________ 3 
AUS ane X DEOMI OME ET AIL IM AN ate ee te ee ee 20 
AN ESS Keel CESS Sis Os te era see ee a a ee ee a ee 2, 87 
SNAG TENE) Rage) IS a Bg ee een a ae NP te nels Cem age OS 74, 75, 76 
ATG lo we Ulin s OV Oe ee ke ns eat nas 2 ee Sn ee 86 
Alligator, development of brain of American (Reese) ___-______-________ 83 
PULL MINT ETN uel (ONO MT NGE UN UN ees tee = eee he ee ee 21 
ANTBAVENEN Tra Gyo 1 ETD RG EN ic ie a EN NE rene SRI EID nie PS oe 14, 15 
PANELS Te Coed em LASS COULSON Bsmt ee a ee ee ee cs Be 36, 58 
American Association for the Advancement of Science_________________ Piles 
ATMETIcan: (HIStOnIGA! ASSOCIAtION. 2.= = 225-2 20, 21, 27, 78, 88, 1038 
PRETTET Ceili MTT A Soe Sel Va Ole a ee ne pe a ee 12 
AMEMICAMISES, International, CONSTESS Of. =e ee ee 25 
eee aes isms ChCP CMU) sas aaes— Se ee ee ee 3, 96 
Antelope from British East Africa, a new sable (Heller)_______________ 84 
AMTIGUIGYLOtaManl im SOUtM, AMEN Calo... 22 ee ee 14 
Arid lands, progress in reclamation of (Newell) __-----_-________________ 169 
AI ZONA Elie rOMe Ny ROjeCheu IM = = = ke eee ee ee 188, 184 
Tabs iN LU TORD lane eUNL tee Ole Sees ees et ee Cs Oe Oa ao) 
SNP GaN H ES 1D ee oe) ONSET. fermen ae i i PN Ae Fe RS A wt, A Spel Sh led te Sh 26 
Ascent OL Sap irauspiration and: the (Dixom)\-- == ee 407 
ASSistant, secretary. of the Institution. ___-_ = 3, 4, 20, 28, 30, 45, 87 
Astronomical problems of the Southern Hemisphere (Curtis) _-_________ 329 
Astrophysical Opservatory=—_—_—_—-_-—— 5, 9, 16, 19, 21, 37, 73, 77, 88, 91, 94, 99 


675 


676 INDEX. 


Page. 
Astrophysics, recent progress in, in the United States (Bosler)---_______ 357 
Atmosphere, mechanics of earth’s (Abbe) ----------------_---__-_--___ 83 
Atmosphere,of the:sun’(Weslandres) 2225 ee 341 
Atmospheric ‘air in: relation to tuberculosiss=- 22225 = ee ee 17 
Atomic weights, (Clarke) Wu. <2. Woe 38 ee ee 83 
Attorney General (member of Institution) #--— “-—--—— =) === es eee 3 
Audit. of Smithsonian’ AeCCOUDtSS— 2-222). 22 aS eee 93 
Avery, ReoS> (bequest )=--2=- 2) SS ee 9, 22 
Aviation. recent progress in) (Chanute) _-_—==--- > = eee 145 
Aztecs, sacred ear-flower of (Safford)!=2-—--- eee 427 
B. 
Bacon. Senator Aucustus, OO. (Rerent) = 8 = see eee 3, 96, 97, 98, 101 
Baggallay, i. Wo222 2200 es 2 eS ee eee 86 
Baker,* Alt Bish 2k Ses CUE er ee ee 2 tae ee 4,70 
Baker: Dra wank. 22) =5204 53227 229 2h oe et ee ee 4. 2A 
Baker, T. Thorne (telegraphy of photographs, wireless and by wire) —--~-- 257 
Ralgiwith) oh a aW lee So = oS ae ee ee ee oe eee 166 
Balfour, Henry (origin of west African crossbows) —_-_----_--_-_______ 635 
Ballinger, Richard A; Seeretary of the Intenior-22=) = 222-22 R: 
Ialouobrore ib. Mise iat ee eee ee 47, 51 
Banks: Nabhan. — 2 2 2 es 2 Se ee ee eS ee 87 
Barrett, C:~ Uli 2 522242202252 sss 5 Se ee se eee 86 
Bartsch Pal. 2. 22 2223 oe ee Oe ee ee 87 
IBASKIET UR. Neo ee ee ee ee ee 4, 87 
Beale Bidwartd: We. 22255222 ee Se ee eee 42 
Beale. Hon, JRruxtON=s2220 2. oe oe eo ee 42 
Bean; “Barton ‘Aj: 222 2 222 2.2 2 a ee eee 82 
Beeker, dr; Georze "WN .... 222 o eae haeeaS eee 20, 25, 84 
Becquerel, Jean (modern ideas on constitution of matter) —--__-________ 275 
Beene. ©. William (ecology of adult Hoatzim) 222222 =25s22 = ee 527 
Bell, Dr. Alexander Graham (Regent) —------_-- 3, 6, 22, 96, 101, 102, 104, 157, 165 
Bell sMleanor WORKCl.. 2 ease ee eee 86 
ee IMTS 2 ae oe ee a ea ee ee aay 
Benjamin, Marcus 2-2 -=_ 23 2208 ee a ee 4, 79, 87 
POQUCSES isan = 8m Se ee eS ee 6, 8, 9, 16, 22, 30, 37, 91, 97, 104 
Berry, Merdinang! “Ves. - 2 2 oe eee oe ee 67, 104 
Beyer, David S. (safety provisions in the United States Steel Cor- 
DOTAUON) 352 a eee one ae ee ee 211 
Billings; Dr. JGhn: S2.2--- oe ee eee 18 
Biological Survey ot Eanama:, Canal Zones == 52 3 =e ee 13 
SIT Gi a ee ee a es ee 527, 545, 561 
Blashfield, Bawin Hao. 222.2 a ee eee 33 
Bleriot, WOUlS= 5 222-2 22 ee ae ee 153, 158, 159 
BOASS PIOL, Wnany =. sts A a 4, 46, 51, 52, 54 
Bohemians. (division of Slav peoples) _""2 02 - "eee 606 
Bosler, J. (recent progress in astrophysics)——- = = eee 357 
Botanical jistory, landmarks of (Greene) so eee 83 
Botany,, CONLTCSS Ol... 225. See eee SEE eee 26 
British Hast Africa, specimens trom= 22.2 ee ee ee 48, 88, 84 


Y EArt a 0 Pal ae) (Pe eS aes eS eae See = 87 


INDEX. 677 


Page. 
Brockett Palen ne inlay, tpolbalnod an 17, 27, 79, 83 
EURO YIN se OEE SES NE SS 8 Me Ye 4 
ee NANG ONO 8 a ei ee A Ny ee ete 43 
Buchanan, Florence (pulse rate in vertebrate animals)______-_-__-_-_ 487 
Biulearignse(divisionvoL slay peoples)i2 1s 2) ie pe 610 
PNA Va ae ee ott = seep eerie Fob a 156, 167 
Burrows, Montrose T. (See Carrel and Burrows.) 
PIPLON. SCN al Ons =ae nae ch oe a es = Ue IR om te tis Bs Sats 1038 
ISCk:, . AUS Sie= eso = A ever eth sti eit _jetaty is Mabe eer Ye ehtn 84 
‘eS amore 1D eile) Les fe ee ee ee 2 ee ee See ieee es a a 54, 88 
IE ES oe i eS 48, 54 

C. 

CAN CILC s OST) eee ae a Se en ee 83 
SEAL CR Tear lage MENT (0 ne ea St ee 156, 165 
CHORAL eaulOny PrOyeCusni 2. 2 = ee ee 184, 185, 194 
Cambrian runes ime NOrtncamertea: (Walcott) 22-2) ee 84 
Cambrian geology and paleontology (Walcott) _______________ 11, 12, 20, 44, 84 
Ope ea OY Ove A ARTS RR es ee ae eo ye 16, 17, 86 
Campbells Wap We (ole William Ele ein S)pe. oo ee 307 
Canal’ Zone: Pandma. piological survey Ob... 6. ee 13 
Carnivore on British Mast Airica, a new Miller). ses 2 soe ee 83 
Carpets, ornamentation of rugs and \(@ole))22.--2 125 
Carrel, Alexis, and Montrose T. Burrows (manifested life of tissues out- 

Sid TOL Ne TOFS ATI SOM) a= ae ee Fee Se ee 573 
Wanso uy Keil 5 Se ee ee od Sie YD pee rsh 25 Bd ge Paneer et ot 43 
Cave dwellings of the Old and New Worlds (Fewkes)-____-____________ 613 
Cenimaly@America. wlants: from — 4 — Hel pele gh oe eee fier ey oer 87 
ESCO GES OLA 10 CS meee err ea ae ee eee 87 
@etuceans, new. genus of fossil (True) =... =. CS ee tee eae 82 
Chamberlin, T. C. (future habitability of the earth) ___________________ 371 
Chancellor of the Institution (Chief Justice Fuller) ______ 3, 5, 6, 23, 96, 101, 113 
Chanute, Octave (recent progress in aviation)_-______________-_________ 145 
Characinid fishes, scales of African (Cockerell) -22--+252_ +) jenni oe 84 
@hemical tenndabionu(@arike ice ol? we. esecsusiie eee ole Ny. ete 84 
Chief Justice M. W. Fuller (Chancellor) —___.__-_-______ 3, 5, 6, 23, 96, 101, 113 
Choate;.Charles jr. (Regent) 2seheslf Jeanie lA a etal OB, ears 3, 96 
Whoctaw or Lowisiana_._.. foes Soya teen bere | ceed) ot poe ey 8 ae ee 88 
“OEE ET Wahl g (04511 Lee ene Se oe eee ge SM eee Ts 3, 4, 21, 26, 89 
ROSAS UAL Sa eh eae, 26 
Clark, Chester M. (electric power from the Mississippi River) ___________ 199 
fy LAG OTT IE) Woe a a a 2, ena 4, 20, 83, 84 
QUE Ty Ager aNs Ll Bee Rs ee ee ee ee ee SS A eee) aes Le 55 
Govind Geoderncu survey. = Se a GAT 
ABO CIRO TCU a ae Ne ae eel 84 
NOON ys He ak NON Se iene. te 162 
Cole, Alan S. (ornamentation of rugs and carpets) ____________- 125 
CCFO UNIT CVS RUG. “eh SS ee nee ee ae PVE SEES Sees FY 1 es 87 
Colombingmlamis chrom 2s 620 ee i a eee 87 
Coloradovomrnicaiione proyects gins es en ee 185 


Commerce and Labor, Secretary of (member of the Institution) _________ 3 


678 INDEX. 


8 Page. 
Commission on Zoological Nomenclature____________-_ 24 
Bonimittees 253. a ts ey Ds 3, 18, 21, 24, 33, 89, 91, 93, 95, 96, 99 
onterenceof, librarians, 24250! £8 Vl bone oe eee 27 
Gongress_of the United. States s-ehertsoy 4: sitet sein) aagem 111, 5, 6, 9, 20, 
29, 30, 32, 34, 40, 46, 57, 58, 61, 63, 85, 88, 91, 92, 93, 94, 104 
Congresses. and celebrations, international. __..___.__________ Lakes. 25 
Constant of radiation, the, solar ‘(Abbot )/s24517 8) 994) __'T saree ee 319 
@onstants_of nature.(Clarke) <2 .. = 225 oe 83 
Constitution of matter, modern ideas on (Becquerel)______-___-_-_- 275 
WOOK On fsa Sa esess op LO bee). en EE ee 87 
PoRrespond ents... S2se se oF te Bee) 2 eee 63 
Cowlter; Johns M8 2 <2 ee 87 
Coyle Or: WW Ven Se se ee ee eee 4, 26 
Crossbows, the origin of west African (Balfour) 22 ee 635 
Croatians-(Givisions Of Slav PeOples ) at eee ee ee ee eee 609 
CrowmMinsneld, A rederick=<== = 2 =o et ee ee ee Oe ee 33 
Collom, Sensktor SV CRELENT) 22 eee eee 3, 96, 100, 101 
CHIMINSNAING: Niwas ses Ea oe ee ee BLD eps to | 
Crier, eve Charles “Waren. oe ae eee eee eee ee 25 
Cunt pa Glen yt Ss ses = ASO Sea Se RE ee ee ee ee oe 156, 157, 166 
Curtis, Heber D. (astronomical problems of the Southern Hemisphere)__ 329 
COISHUMTATES OSC D Me AUS USUING se a nn aera eee ee eee 87 
D. 
[FEN 20 & ES SARS Pas cepa One ane ea Oe en ene eeu Lies og TA 4, 87 
Balzell) svepresentative John (Regent)... -— a 3, 6, 95, 96 
Hamas, Des = ss. 21 29a) Bite wie Dige pt) Git to penis 86 
Daughters of the American Revolution______-~-_L 422) obi 20, 88, 103 
Nae Tey re Tea ON es ae 152, 161 
Densmore, -Miss;,Hrances.... 2222-2221 BUTE) tae) Je Bian ait 2 46, 52, 54 
Deslandres, H. (progressive disclosure of the entire atmosphere of the 
Siti) aA RL a eae Ta Nites an) ehh To ee 341 
Determination of sex, recent work on (Doncaster) -~-~----______-______ 473 
Diekinson,,.JJacob-M..,. Secretary. (Of TWark)) soir f. fey seal foe peer Pacee ee 3 
Disclosure of the entire atmosphere of the sun, the progressive (Des- 
landtes)i22 46.8. t= olan) eh) i ere 341 
Distribution of specimens (National Museum) -_—~~~~_--__~______-_______ 29 
Dixon, Henry H. (transpiration and ascent of sap)_---_--_-_________"__ 407 
Doli. Dr fAmiom Fe eee lage 55 she Dee ee ee 17, 100 
MOUs MOT lt CUMIN 2 Se ee eee 17, 100 
Doncaster, Leonard (determination of sex) ._--~--_--__--+---_----=---- 473 
Donehoo Dr eG eoree PP si7 ain Hoke tO Ae oe bi 46 
Ty EMS a a Ce SSM METMe OUET EE Ce oe ae 
Densey, al Owen 3 oa eee ease 48, 54 
SOQ 5) S68 DTN et a a 86 
Drnidism-theconicinlol CPokomy,)) 1-5. 583 
Duerden,, J..E...(plumages' of theostrich)._ 224 1 12 sus siasstesiel & aes 561 
Dmont Santo Sit rarer sas Ne a a es 151, 152, 161 
Duniway,.ClydevAne- 2-=322-2es_-! £6 _ ee eee 88 
PO I sd a ee aol eee ee 46, 53 


Dutcher, William (president National Association of Audubon Societies) — 26 


INDEX. 679 


HB. 

Page 

EKar-flower of the Aztecs, the sacred (Safford) _-.--..._____ =. ne 427 
ep OlmN tls. ge I Bees ee ep lag 88 
Hirih acer Oeuhe x GB CCliex,)| 2 2 e482 eee By lees see ee 84 
Marth: tuture habitability of the (Chamberlin) ___.......___.___Bssee5) 3 Bal 
Harth-sratmosphere, mechanies of the (Abbe) _—._____.-_____-_. ___. 83 
IDcheverias meweSpecies OL... en ee eee ST 
Beology of theradult, Hoatzin ((Beebe)).-..2..-2.-__=_----...___. sina F_ aed 527 
PAiiopcofihenimnstituton. —.— Bete ve speck visi yy A Se 3, 4, 21, 26, 89 
Hipiwands wie TOr w@Narles Wy: 2s. a) 18 
Hieenmann, Wor: Carl Hi. 2. bee I ee ee ey ee 18 
Electric power from the Mississippi River (C. M. Clark) —~-_-___________ 199 
MMilehamme;nr Mis 2 os ee Ere teh eee EE Re 165 
TAGE, OE Ce eS aS ee ee ee ee eee! EPs Ses ae 84 
TE SOT ere 1) forms Nine eee Re eee ee ee ee ee 20, 44, 54, 87 
HMiomolozicaly Society, mUSSIaN =~ ee eee 27 
EI TLOMIOLOD ye Nea eO les see De ee ee eee 28, 44 
Epidemiplocyromtubercnlosis, (och) 2.22 = "en eae ee eee 659 
PISA eel beer es er ee ee teen Snes See ee ee eee 154, 163 
Hsiaplushimentssthe = Simi tnsonin 2 22 2S" ne ha eae See ee 5 
HWiMnNolosyAwsNreTULOL AMeriCcan= =9—-— 22" = 2 Ser se renee ee 5, 9,19 
20, 21, 22, 33, 44, 45, 46, 78, 79, 82, 87, 88, 91, 94 

3 AWTS ATT 0 ght Ba al ce tl <a ct ln cee Re 8, ee ah Sap he 29, 31, 41 
ESTAR eATAT® Este VV eee a Sie en a NS ee oe ee ee 4 
Hxchanses: Mternational! == === =" == =e eee 5, 9, 21, 34, 57, 77-79, 91, 92, 94 
Hchanress bran SmiSslOnvOL === ae" ee Sete ees tree eee ene ee eee 63 
HReCUbIVe? COM pees es 9S ers Baers Ses Sea eee oe eee 3, 91 
Bxploravions and researches = ee Oy TOP dst, 12513, wae 1G, 17, 205,92 


Explosives, some modern developments in methods of testing (Munroe)__ = 291 


F. 

TL EATL CLOTS Beals) CORSTSY, 75 VIOLA C7 iy J Bo, eae ee ee eee naeN SSE Meme Fe 42 
eVGA MET GTN y see eee ee Oo 8 Ss a Be et 153, 162 
Harms asanitationgon (Greeman) = 222222... 2s 651 
Moreacue, Admiral (personal relics of)... 2. = 45 
AETANG Sw erOrlnivinestON=— 2 2 = a ee es 52 
RMERH eT sl yiW ees ee 2 ee ee) 8 oe 154, 155, 163 
Hewices race Wralter® 2222 st Fe A 4, 20, 44, 47, 48, 54, 82, 88 
Fewkes, J. Walter (cave dwellings of the Old and New Worlds) --------- 613 
TRON GL TD re, 18 CS Lak oe ey oe en ee I Dan nS) ee ee ae 2 Se 26 
MNANCeSLORMINSthiiOMe= = t= Abe eS 8, 9, 21, 58, 68, 69, 80, 91, 98 
RRL 1G me eee i Ee ee ke eee ee 87 
Hishemecs Umiteds States Bureau, of -__=..-2 = =.=. 43 
HishesnC@hanacimidseseales ofiemet: Beetss . 2 eee ee ee 84 

Morimiyrida sees: Ofee= =. 55 2 0s ae os ee ee ee 84 
Flagstaff observatory (astrophysics in the United States) ______________ 363 
TOTES TTU ARR) Ty Ss gS eR NE a EN IS I SENN OHS 86 
ROUT MINIS SRA CCR) pees eileen eee 46, 53 
PME a1 Toes Sy e100 Nm Oe ee pg Be EL a ae eee 86 
PED Iini00 free el mea OG ie Se ee 4 


Hug inic: GEEditeOt BBCCES BUG DITOR. 22 16 


680 INDEX. 


Page 
Horaminifers ‘of INOEbh Paces 2. ee eee 87 
Forest. preservation: .(Graves)..l 010 one | betete et Posie ent 70 we 433 
Fossil cetaceans, new. genus, of -(True)—--—-- = ee 82 
Fossil ‘plants from mesozoic and cenozoic of North America (Knowlton) __ 88 
Howke, Gerard....=-..-...-.-.. Seu se St) 10 “Che a ee 54 
owle,, Wy Ma = ea ee 4, 74, 75, 76 
Krachtenburg, Dr... L60.J —--<-<=-2--222==2===--==--- Se ae eee 52 
iranchet,-LOwIs.-=2-22 ---21=-2--=--22.-- 150s Y oisinol Jobe ent ieee 86 
Freeman, Ajlen W. (sanitation on farms) —-==--.-~--~-iitien hs ae 651 
reer: uChgries Waa. --22= saan ee a ee ee, ee ee 27, 31, 32, 42 
Frog from the Philippines, new (Stejneger)_____----_____________- 82 
Fuller, Chief Justice M. W. (Chancellor) ——---- == 3, 6, 23, 96, 101 
Fuller, Melville Weston (Charles D. Walcott) ---..----__-_-__--_ 2 luL 113 
PEST IGT we ED Ta OO ENTN i a a Sc ee needa ie a 99 

G. 
Veg gy CM Soc. ae a an ee ee See Mey mame irri tii 88 
fcatschety Dr: AUbertiy v erese eA SL eee 48, 53 
GU CIs te pe ee a ee, ee eee 86 
Geare; Randolph ist bce k 2st pres of vi ee ey. Ni oes eee 4 
Geoloritalg@onaresseintemationalne 22522 8282 ee 25 
Geological investigations in Far Hast and Newfoundland________________ 12 
Geological Sutvey, United) States< 25.20 = 222 ee eee 7, 26, 44 
Geology, and paleontology, Cambrian_____.__....____.___=.___ 11, 12, 20, 44, 84 
Georce Washington Memorial Building_= = = 292" eee 27, 103 
TAT s=. WPL LE TIN Pe gee ee nee ran rte ee ete, en 46 
Gifts and.loans... 6, 8, 27, 29, 30, 31, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 69, 71, 77, 78, 79, 91 
Gila Valley, prehistoric ruins of (Fewkes)--_____ II Des aie ah Sree et ores. 82 
CEBU bg Be eat Bs i, aan ep ee aR ea a 4, 54 
Gall: sr, “WNeOdOne: Nes a. cae een ee ee ee 18, 79 
CEES SYS SECT GI gt Bia peer lal al Par lin pe cb agent toler A ge 86 
Goldtneh Gh. s 58 Se eo See eee ee eee 69, 71 
SLO INES TeV 6 TRE A BRS |e ar al Ses Raa et et See De obit ra OR EE ln pers es 4 
Grant, Madison. .-— = =-2----- 2 ===. Laois. fee es ne ee 86 
Gre plolites.<~ <1. --22s--225-555e2ees5— 4 20 Re See) eee 87 
REVS VTLS Hye Ales 0 Ss ee 76 
Graves), Henry 'S..-CLOrest- PRCSEEV atl OW) esas ae ge 483 
Gray, Hon) George: (Regent )=-22=2--2=2=2--2-2-2122555 eee a eee 3, 101 
Greene, -Prot. Chatles? W 24572 Luin Tit) pl) Yo artis tee ey) eee 18 
MET ETT Cpa SMI WAST ie ates a  e e s 83 
GreCheMmHVALES ps. 0a Poo eet ee eo eee 88 
(CoV Te 612) LAP RET © Ae pene aa Dre ae ais ah op De Pale ed et AE Raper ote cme Se 4,81 
GULLCY; oe Glos 2 seoca ot LESS Se See ie Sat ne ate 4, 53, 87 
EA 

VERSA) AU Vs an a ee re ey oe ee re 86 
Habel Simeon: (D6Quest) oo: 2 ose a Se een a ee 8, 91 
Habitability of the earth, futuré (Chamberlin) ee 371 
Hacker l rank W 2252" =. 235 See eee oe eee ee ee ee ee 104 
Hamilfons James: (Deguest) S252 2c eee ee a a ee eee 8, 91 
Harlan, Justice (Melville Weston Wuller) 2222222 ee eee eee 122 


Harriman. Mrs Sikhs 2 oe ee ee ee 12, 27 


INDEX. 681 


Page. 
PACeCMIMN ANAL A Sc eC MOM see so. Se ee Se eee 20 
Harrisons hirs Ose phe (bequest) EN ES Oe 30 
Harvard College Observatory (astrophysics in the United States) _______ 357 
DELO OCI Rennes ee arenes = le he oy dea en See a ee Ree gE 86 
ELS leu Ses OMCs Elta ese mn ae SEY CD ee aa ae Se 88 
Haweiian tolinds"Pacitic plover of thes)?!" 1 40 Pani) ees 545 
EEA r en teL tes saa 8s a= Hn ae ae ON ee yl eee Re Re eee 87 
LE Res LEE Se CO) 1 Be a a ea SN TRE Ty bint oe etn td 79 
EMU eres MECC Tn UE) Ol ee ee Se = et A ee ee Ee 10, 11, 48, 88, 84 
Henderson, Hon; John B: (Regent) —....._..._____- 2 3, 6, 95, 101, 102 
Henshaw, Henry W. (migration of the Pacific plover) _________________ 545 
TS HSN NTRS CLG INE, DBR a a ek OR hee ale ee de ae lh Sy: el) a Sta 5° 
Hippopotamus, new. species, of «(Miller) 2. 2. 22... 2 es 84 
Huccheock hank 4a... Postmaster General... _-_ $= 33 
Hoawin, ecology of the adult (Beebe). _--__-- 527 
Tay Re WE mY Ve eee ee ee Se a Be 4, 21, 46, 47, 58, 55 
od skinssunhomasvG: (DeCiuUeGSD a2 2442 2228 ee ee oe 8, 37, 91, 92 
ARE Chehab ir Se SUTIN Oe wee pa raat ee a 16, 17, 83 
PETRIE S GG aN oe ere ee Cae ee Saree Ss eS Ss et 84 
TS UNYERE VOGT 8 fe RE Oe es a eS ee 4, 14, 33, 34, 45, 46 
US Faye NTIS TD Wee ENG BD I a A A a ee een ye 44 
TSAO Tr get a ACETATE Se ROPE a nae Ra eS RES CS egies 4 
TSRaRL 1D CERO Meee > een cea Se ea tee EP aD ee a es 4 
Howard, Representative William M. (Regent)____--____-_________ 3, 6, 101 
1S aN PS] Da, a ee eo ee ee eee ee 18 
1S SHOOT) Oy ees Oe ea SS ee ee ee eae 4, 14, 15, 25, 44 
Ee eINS Sin William. Kee. B.. ©; M. (Campbell). 307 
tla, 2 CCOUNt Ol GO Ss meee ne ae Se ae ee 87 - 
Hygiene and Demography, International Congress on______-___________ 99, 103 

if 
Tea ahO,- ITM Patron pPrOyeCtsc aes cs = se Ee em yy aye Bias sap h 186 
NONE Ss “Bror. JOSephP =~ 2 Sees ee a es gee ee 12 
Indian Languages, Handbook of American____________________ 47, 50, 51, 52, 55 
RUE TEN HS ODD ed Bi] Legh = a ele ee ean ee ea Pe eR ee eck 75, 76 
MA SCCESs ULeSEE Va tlON Oli a ==" Ohi ee eo stata ee 1 a, op ee ee 87 
BITES GOES. VV LOO WHI CU ee aoe Sot Aenea ele ee ae ee 87 
Interior, Secretary of the (member of the Institution) -_______________ 2 
Imternational Americam Scientific Coneress aoe 26 
International Catalogue of Scientific Literature__________ 5, 9, 21, 38, 80, 91, 94 
Imtermational congresses and, celebrations - 22.2.2 et 25 
international exchanges =. 2 2 ee eae 5, 9, 21, 34, 57, 77, 78, 79, 91, 92, 94 
UGiMyerkKoN AO) ai, COneaes oy (uy HO ULT Egs 1s 0) |e selene ee re 231 
Lericanion- im tie western Wmited Statess22- <2 + = 22 ee ee 169 
HSOM DG LO UO Ny cata LOTMA eATI ) oat, oe ee ee 2 ek 231 
Isostasy, review of current research in (Willis) __-__-_-----_--_----__------ 391 
J: 

Johnson, Harriegsmane. (bequest) .s-.--2..4-..---2enuen 2 30, 31 
Ij) ENTS EES Teka NTS Des fag ee eee ee a i 86 


BION es lei MeV LETT Be iene on ee ee ea 2 52 


682 INDEX. 


K. 
Page. 
Kansas? irriaation) projects dnt... oS eee ee ee ee eee ee 187 
Kreellicotty dOr Wii) Hite eet, se PO 1 ye es eS oe ee 26 
Kano witon ASAE eet See ee Bel ee et Ae Bll tee ee a ee 83 
Knox, Philander .C.,..Secretary of States 2) =. sss 5. eae ee =) 
Koch, Robert (epidemiology of tuberculosis)____---_-__-_--_ 659 
soni sisid@re ston - Fes ee eee eee 42 

L. 
Tae SsEVeSC Ne. Se Hirai Cia 2 oe ee ee ee eee ee ee ee 4, 46, 53 
amber: “COUlIGsOG== et ban Ree eee ee ee ee eee 156, 165 
Page scripner. Bo- 902° ao re eee ea eee eee ee eee 87 
Langley, Samuel P_________- 16, 19, 28, 24, 26, 73, 74, 75, 82, 97, 102, 105, 107, 147 
baneleyomedal and sta plete =e ae ae et ee ee 22, 23, 24, 97, 102, 104 
ipacham= Eup erga. 2 ee ee ee eee eee 155, 163 
TGA TS WOU CO, pedis gb are ee en ee ee re ee eee 86 
esti ye Missekr eee Se oe See ee Se re ee eee 54 
eS 1 ae Sear, Serene Te Se ee ee ea Se er eer 166 
Mere bh yieey hae ne ee” See Se ee ee eer ee ee 156, 165 
[ie sae ie kee ae ee en eee er ee eee 156, 167 
hendenteld? Profisvones Sse ee eee ee eee ae oe Lee ee 16 
uepidoprerous“lawan (Buse) os oe es eee eee 84 
ATE Ole COMGLCNS 2 = eine Shee nea Se ee ee 21,22, 54,50; 51, OF, (17 lose 
Ini praney- Othe cn Stiibone "2 Se eee Ae ee oe eee avin 
Lick Observatory (astrophysics in the United States)--__-__________ 360 
JANGHENS (OL VEIMeSOfd =o ate a a eee Sree ae eee 87 
aStot publicabiony == 2 ate ees See ee ee ee ee ee eee 87 
’ Littlefield; Charles HE. (Melville Weston: Fuller) 222 222222223! ee 118 
PAGANS OOS S = eee ee ee ee ee 6, 8, 27, 29-81, 37, 41-45, 69, 71, T7T—-79, 91 
Modo SSenathorie iG mee 5 oa ee 3, 23, 96, 98, 101, 103, 108 
JO PERUSE [es JAG 1 0 Pea Res Been ORM RRB A SIRE Ol rp ie ete aes Oe i hE Ee 10, 11, 43 
Bowell, inauguration._.o£. President... ______._._._ #3 stele sliaw tit 26, 99 
buzice Serbs. (division of Slay, peoples) ___.__-_.._._.__.-___. 4? inten} Sane es 605 

M. 
MacCurdy. Georre Glatt n-ne ee ee 86 
MacVeseh, Branklin; Secretary of the Treasury 22222222" 222 3 
Mammals collected in British East Africa (Hollister) __________________ 84 
Mangroves, geologic work of, in Florida (Vaughn) a eee eee 83 
MEATY (Ola LOn my iene See eee ee 19, 82, 147 
Mann, Representative James R. (Regent) —_---_-_-_____-_-__=_ 3, 6, 96, 100, 101 
VTE el eee ae a eee eee ee ee eee ee ee ee ee ee 86 
ITATOUGT rte ete en en ee en ee ee 86 
Tp ESTO a Ng Bo gear meth ce ete atu te a SAN se ry ne Bish nigh BB PD 16 
Matter, modern ideas on the constitution of (Becquerel)—~---__-__-__-____ 275 
MVM eeSs LTTE OEE Poet Na eens ae ee ee ee 146, 147 
Mayer, Alfred Goldsborough (Alexander Agassiz).----__-___--_-_____-__ 447 
MeCurdyis Ad Det ae th. Stee ee ee eae 157, 166 
MicNiilian, “WU IN’ a SSeS eee F Sle ar 37, 69, 71 
MeatnA HDT) Unga. (Sawiteee en  e e e e a ieee 10, 11, 48 
Medal (Langley: memorials Ae 22 es ere et 8 eee 22, 23, 97, 104 


Me prs rT cae a ee 13; 27 


INDEX. 683 


Page 

ATOR eesire rel peas Sinn Temeid eases eee eee En a es 87 
Sea VCENCTRTOUS, TDM CG ype Erase gece pd a ae en a a ee et eae ola ft agli) ed 4, 21, 83 
DSS NTR US rc ct a A So i Ea ie NA yey bl Wc 88 
Metcoritesrrom~s Georsiaw (Merril) sls" 2 ke ee eee 83 
NEM CO eaAn-HOWerarrOnl =e 22 2 2 Oe bt So tr Be ee RE ee eee 427 
Meyer, George von I. Secretary of the Navyl2. 2/8) *. he Be 3 
Miche SOTiemD Tee nti = ee ee eS Oe Le 4, 51, 52 
PTET SCOTS VY ee As ee eae ek a ee I? FD ee eee 74 
Misration oF theyeacine ployer (Henshaw) a222"2 "222" ) ose ee 545 
Millers Gernite Serolbea= 2 | 2. 2 se we 1G bs - 3) OE a eee 4, 88, 84 
JTBE i cl NNECEOKGIIS) 3) 0) ee ie ee la A le MS tl La 33 
Moalliememroe As Crsolationsot an ion) = 22. === as ee ae Dew 
Te WAC EV OTN Ghee ees 2 Ro ee ee ee ee ee 86 
Miscellaneous Collections,-Smithsonian’ <___ =~ = 18, 20, 82-84 
Mississippi River, electric power from the (C. M. Clark) _~~_---___-_____ 199 
DROS Ss eer ae ashe ee Se Be eee 87 
Nonkeys eAchnican= (GHG) pe ee se Le Be oe ee ee era 84 
Monta) .irhication | projecis: in ——--- s  ee aeree in ae 187, 188, 189, 190 
INPDOWE Veeck e Sin eee ere eis | Fa ee ee ee 4,47 
MOOK Tab azo mvs eee 2s eee ho ee a Nie 1638 
Mroncwlhist Or Senrciuse. ==. oes ee ene ee 18 
MaSsesmibenmamdits: 2.5. eS a8 oe ee ee ee eS oe eee 88 
Mountew hitney: Observatoryo2. 2-222 > beeen ieee ppt ee 16, 37, 75, 76, 83, 99 
Mount Wilson Observatory) Sy les gif ute Sootaiy 37, 38, 73, 74, 75, 76, 99, 365 
Weer! JOT SO BUNS S 42>: Des ee pr oe ee 16 
NEWINOG MO He = ere Fee eae ee eae eh 86 
Munroe, C. E. (methods of testing explosives) ____________-_____-__ 291 
Minsterbure dor: Ego eS ee se ee einai eS 36, 58 

N. 

Nagel, Charles, Secretary of Commerce and Labor_____________~-_-_____-=__ 3 
INSMles; ZOOLOS GA Stadion = 2 Se a ee a 17, 100 
National ‘Acad emycoLiSGlences=— 2. 2 5 eee ee a 103 
NGO eG eulleryen Oi wAmi ee ee Ps 7, 28, 29, 41, 87, 99 
Nant Ti a reer perenne ek ea 2 ee ly a 14, 20, 29, 87 
INGO MEN DOS ah Able eee oe eee eee ee ee ee ere See Sree) ee 30 
National Museum, wibrary of.) - 9 2) see | EL re 78, 98 
WAG OWN onal eee i a ee eee, Sens eeneney gna, See ey. een he ae AT 103 
MET AGIOS: Oi es ee ee ee ee ey 28, 40 
tip ItentdOn GO ee eek oe Se ee ie 20, 87 
National Zoological Park ==. 2 5, 9, 21, 36, 68, 77, 78, 79, 91, 94, 101 
Navy, Secretary of the (member of the Institution) _____________________ 3 
NEULASKeaeiEn SatlOn™ PLOJCCUS) MMs See ee ee eee 190 
NGraAGar ini a hOnnprojGCus! Mile Sy wen ee yee Se 191 
INEN ACCOLC0 Coal STONEY S10 01 0) 01 Soo Sen ee es ee ee So na ee NEES eee 45, 86 
Newell, F. H. (progress in reclamation of arid lands) _-_-_______-~-___-_ 169 
Newfoundland, geological investigations in-________________-____---____ AD, 
New Mexicosirrication projects mss 4s — .o- e  e e 191, 192 
INTCHOLSap Vian Smee noe wee eee Meee es ae. be So re ee 53 
Niederle, Lubor (contemporary Slav peoples) _____-------______________ 599 
Nomenclature: Zoological. Commission) on_- 0-2 24, 87 


North Dakota perieatlon projects tia... ___ | "5-2 oe ce 192 


684 INDEX. 


0. Page 
Oldroyd collection. 2. =* 2.02. a ee ee ee eee 104 
Olenellus and other genera of the mesonacidie (Walcott) ________________ 84 
Olney, Richard (Melville Weston Fuller) =— = -222 220 5 2 ee ee 114 
Oneron; ATTiSAtlon PrOJeCtS ANS ee ee ee 193, 194 
Organism, life of tissues outside, the. 2-2. 5 see ee 573 
Orizinsol Druidism, the: (Pokormy )- -- = = = ee eee 583 
Ornamentation of rugs and carpets (Cole)_—--— = 2 a eee 125 
Ornithology, Congress: ON. 2.22 a a Se a oy ee 26 
Ostrich, plumages of the (Duerden)) 222-2 = a eee 561 
Overman, Lee*S. (Melville Weston Muller) =... 2 eg 117 
Ovaedo!, University of - os ne ee ee eee 27 

lee 
Paleontology, Cambrian geology and (Walcott) ________________ 11, 12, 20, 44, 84 
Ian re, - VV sD a te poe a ee 43 
ea Lass MV Oye he Se on eS 87 
Panama Canal Zone, biological survey of______2) 2) -22 2s te :s 13 
Banilhan,. LOWS a- 2. oe eee eee 164 
iRabctom; Wirederiewlire = ee ee 88 
EET IID ire SEL GC ee ee ee See ge 96 
PElienieobismatiht: § 2 es 2 ee ee ee 154, 163 
Philippines; amew. froe-from- (Stejneger,) Se se) pea 82 
Photographs, telegraphy of, wireless and by wire (Baker)______________ 257 
PHELCE, LW = WO Wig ee es ee 87 
PAIN ChoOt, sWVirsy Co AIMeS VVVA Ls ee 3 ee ee a ee eee eee 28, 42 
eitniery Tenmny See 2 Ee ie sortie | Le when toasty 9 OE Sa 87 
ilanmts! fossil (Kilo wilton)) Ss ce ee ee ee 83 
Plover -Eacine micration of the ((@ienshaw)l eee 545 
Plamacesior thesostriceh, the.(Duerden)e = 2. 2 eee eee eee 561 
ehivinel Maer deta Vamenta ok Se ee 86 
AF UL sorbeg IS) es cert oh at res ALE MES Sie do, Le ee Se 83 
IPOIMea TE MECnriV ete she 1 Bae eh eet soa con a Bea 86 
POkOMy UUs (OnginvOL Wruidisnl)=-<--4-2 ==" ee eee — 6583 
‘Poles (division: Or Slaiv-peoples)- <a ee ees Se eee eee 603 
Postmaster General (member of the Institution) ___________________-__ 3 
Power from the Mississippi River, electric (C. M. Clark) ______________ 199 
Pre-Cambprian shocks. (Walcott) @22="2=<+.---=4=-2) Ce ee 84 
Prehistoric ruins of -Gilay Valleys (Hewkes) 22=- = == ee ee 82 
Presentation of Langley medal to Wright brothers____________________ 104 
Preservation, ol Americanrantiquities 2-22 == =. === 2 - i BRE 27 
President. ofthe. United, Sta tes sean en Ee 3, 5, 103 
Price, ‘George HB. (Melville -Weston Fuller) 22-2 eee) oat eee 119 
Printing and: publication ~(advisory committee) 2_—22 2"! 2 ee ee 21 
PUplCA ONS eens ee eres 12, 16, 17, 18, 22, 24, 45, 48, 53, 54, 77, 78, 82-89, 92 
Pulse rate, significance of, in vertebrate animals (Buchanan)__________ 487 
PUrpusydorAcs22e coon See ESE EE OD A ee A See ae, ee 87 
Py rhehometeis:= 22-2 ssn ever s = <0* SAVE SAME ee, NEE ao 37, 74, 76, 319 
Pyrite carrying gold and galena, cube of (Pogue)_-_____________-___-_- 83 

R. 
Radiation; thessolar-eonstant. of (Abbot) —___._.___. _-... 3519 
Ter @himns ere Pea eee ee ee 4,51 


Ransom, Brayton Howard] 222 = =. ee ee ae ec pee ER 87 


INDEX. 685 
Page. 
TEI Eay ODE OVE A) Bec! SN 0 [epee ee ee ee Pe 3, 4, 20, 28, 30, 45, 8T 
Enel mV Vemn (he a © see eet Bee nN 8 Seed ee a a ene 4 
Reclamation of arid lands in the western United States, progress in 
Newell) Seesm as SSE eS eh en De eee aoa 169 
EES Someta errno eA 83 
Regents of the Institution___________ 1, 3, 5, 6, 21, 22, 23, 27, 30, 85, 91, 98, 96, 112 
Je ST Gis bpd G2 Will es a ee ee Se PO ee Me ere errr Perego Tes forge 86 
EVE OELS a eens ee 2 ek ee dD 20} Dla 
24, 28, 29, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 46, 57, 68, 73, T7, 80 82, 84, 91, 96, 97 
mesearches angdeexploratlons. 22. — 222 2 te Sylyeries 9-14, 16, 17, 92 
mesearchesuindervbodekins fund 22 +2 2 = ten oe ee ete a ee ee 16, 17, 83 
Rhees:, Walliam Jones: (bequest) -—__- -.2 1-255 Wy Ee ee 9 
michmond: Oharles swe =< = — = 8 = 2. eat faa ye eee ie ee ee, 79 
eau aly ai COD CI ae ee ee = Se tk ee ae penapesees 4 
SEU ON aN eg ee ee 86 
MOUEL ESON.) Wy GU SINB SS 3 ee = se) lp eee ea 88 
Redent of senus Georychus, new (Heller) 2 28.424 Josh eh ta 83 
Rodent of genus Saccostomus from British East Africa, a new (Miller) __ 84 
Rodents from British Hast Africa, five new (Heller)___________________ 83 
Rodents from British East Africa, two new (Heller)______________*____ 83 
Rodents, two new genera of Murine (Miller)_____________________ 83 
Honsereles iienmit? = oo. 3. SoS eke) 8 et ee Wi erp ags ede 10, 11, 438 
Roosevelt, Theodorés == 254 eer 4 Seed Be re es 10, 11, 28, 48, 101, 103 
TESST 2p) Oe ipl esac cece 2, rea OE a OE sk + ETE 4, 44, 87 
Roubaud, EH. (solitary wasps of the genus Synagris)_____-_______._______ 507 
FROUCTCH, ERG peek ae ee ge SR she eh eel pep tee tis eh th balay nce 156, 167 
Russ and carpets: ornamentation of (Cole)... tape ee ne 125 
EAU SS ll aN cOMOLOPICH ly NOGIChY = ats k= aN a BP ee fi 
SSIS (Civision! Of Slava PeOples ro 5-5 ee 601 
S. 
Sacred ear-flower of. the;Aztecs (Safford) —---- ~~~. == 427 
NALChyMULOVISIOUS (CVG) oa = 2-282 oo) ee a ee ee Pati 
Safford, William Edwin (sacred ear-flower of the Aztecs) _______________ 427 
DaAMibahHonsOnet arms, GHRCEMAN)) 22- ee ee ee 651 
Sap; transpiration ang the ascent of ((Mimon))j2-..-_--- --§ 2 -_ . 407 
SEVRERE MR eI (OGAYS a) Oo es ek en ee oe eee 52 
Schimitter Cather ina Geass rr ne es ee ee SR) ee Ee os 84 
Seucherice corn Natl CS ae: Ste asa ree ee ee ner eee 2 aan EMER 12 
BS CSPI UT ATs [7am Tote) Ane te Beets eo. te eb oe ne meeey Oneonta oe TEAS lel 79 
Scientific. @oneress, International’ Americane* = 94 ee 26 
SChOner wheel NOM sae eens Se AeA ee ea ea ee 87 
Sculpin, life of Alaskan freshwater (Bean and Weed)______--_____*___ 82 
BS ea SSS rca) ny eee eee er ar een seng ee 28) A ee ee ee ee OUI S 53 
eGO FENG KEL PANG FEW GUY, oe = es I BE EB nan eae el SI aL ai at 86 
peismolorical laporatory, need of a national. =. = ee ee Grias 
SOLOS Ear Oi anil eee Db) aes en ees rene Re ee ft eh PER Sete ee ee 18 
Serbiansr (GivisiontoL. slaw: PeEOples == — = 22 eS Se eee eA ee 609 
Sex, recent work on determination of (Doncaster) _______-______________ 473 
SOUT ACL CLOT apt nie el tere sk meee wee NES ee ee a nh SE ee as 86 
Sherman, James S., Vice President of the United States_._________ o. Os 905 LOL 


ry LOCATORS HES EY ad Cr pees Pee oc Learn ell a RS er gape Sal te 4, 67 


686 INDEX. 


Page. 

Slav peoples, geographical and statistical view of the contemporary 
(.Niederle) 4.22sec ete es Ae, nas 8 Oe Os 599 
Slovaks) (@ivisionnofSlay peoples) oe) ne Se ee 606 
Slovenians.(division,o£- Slav «peoples) == 2 ee 608 
POET AD Where ete ee set felt 8 a ce nl nt a petri pe wey a 4 
Smifhsoniant African \Dxpedition= +o. 4... =... 10, 43, 44, 83, 84, 101, 102 
Smithsonian. Contributions. to, Knowledge... 2 = ee EE 18, 82 
Smithsonian-establishment.- =<» +. -<--2is-n.s.n2-seesce6. 5-5 eel ry 
Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections_____________________ 18, 20, T8, 82-84, 89 
Smithsonian spam philet=a.u 22 oat oe We es oe on BO TONLE DOR. eee 86 
Smithsonian table at Naples Zoological station________________________ 17, 100 
Smithson,:James-(founder-of Institution)_-—--!/S9U Dee) Pauo) Wns 8,9 
Solar constant..of. radiation, the- (Abbot)iz2-2— == a ee 319 
Solar vadiation..<2 3-25-4455 = See 5 ek bee ne en a ee 37,03 
SOmMmMer, . ROSCR. == += -.22 == 4 saw o sees canner ee ee 155, 164 
South America; antiquity: of man-in---.-=s=---4-.-~2~- 2. MR ee 14 
south Dakota, irrigation. projects. inl I9Ue2)) Wat Aone) Abe es 194 
Southern Hemisphere, astronomical problems of (Curtis) Sie BUNS ts 329 
Spalding,.. Volney Mi -- = 1 ULC )_ Wen 88) ON Se Oe TOTS Be 86 
Spiders, Nearctie.... --....! SOIIOL)) NOG Ol) _ forts, Jane MR ee 87 
Spruce-Tree HOUSe. 2-22222252<2s.s 19) Se. 30 Stes We OF 88 
State! Department, isa ct ae pe tat oe eo 25, 26, 35, 100 
State, Secretary of (member of Institution) —~________________ 3 
HS" (CIE si Oa 8 iS 5 ee ee ee ee ee ee ere ay 52 
prearmns,.Dr., Robert... Cat Seen e: SU §03_tO MR PIE ok ee 45 
Steel Corporation, safety provisions in the United States (Beyer) ________ 211 
Siejnecer;. Dr... .ueonhard = -<-.22-1 0) Jo OLIN Ten) RYO eed 4, 21, 82 
DEE VETISOI MUR GT Cn et he SIO LOOLOTIO FI 4,48 
Stiles, -Dr. Cre Wiad e Ue nae oa ee en JOIN TEI 10 BOIASID) Be 18, 26 
BSCS ie eras ee ee ee ee i ee ee ee ee ee ee 231 
STON GMO) IO MG se cos kets foe ee Pe ee te ee Be eee ee 86 
S RODE ABI eins Mie a) 4 nt a Be Se Be ee 18 
Sun, progressive disclosure of the entire atmosphere of the (Deslandres)__ 341 
Sia OMe te hn ghee ee ee See eee 4, 48, 51, 54, 88 
Synagris, solitary wasps of the genus (Roubaud)—-_____________________ 507 

7, 

Tablet; duangley sMemoriale 22 SSs = * Saei eae lesan Saas ee eee 23, 24, 97, 102 
Taft, William H., President of the United States_______-_____________ 3, 5, 1038 
Darton. Meslie je ashes ee Re a ee Se eee 10 
ALOT ieee eS ee SN ENE PS ae ee 52 
Telegraphy of photographs, wireless and by wire (Baker)_-_--__________ 257 


Terra firma, what is? Review of current research in isostasy (Willis)__ 391 
Testing explosives, some modern developments in methods of (Munroe)__ —s-_- 291 


ewal peoples .(MrsaiStenenson)) i: Shee he te eee ee eee eee 48 
Wexss Mrrigation: .PrOjectS MUNK. 2s ee 4 te el nee Ss eae Boe ee 192 
SHHOMaS pb ret Oymr Us 2 a a ee a et ee 47, 51, 53, 54 
no mson, (Sirti 202 4) BPal Soe Cee b6 A SS Sn nh a Oe a ee 86 
J MECC NOG LS ie ot: ee eae” ar eel ORein a aun Senoe ere Seo 156, 165 
Tissues, manifested life of, outside of the organism (Carreland Burrows) 573 
Mlingit myths sand texts ope sa el ee ee ee 88 


Rownsend.«@hanles i - = ee a ee 43 


INDEX. 687 


Page 
Baers Vit SCT Cham DO) eal Val) eee ee eee ee Ed oe ne ee ee 45 
‘—ranspiration and thée\ascent*of sup (Dixon) 222 i424 Desass air _ipigsses 407 
Treasury, Secretary of the (member of Institution) ______--____________ 3 
SRC ASUIny 4 UmMItC OMS tALCSas = eee ee eet Be 91, 92, 93, 95 
BGO thei a Sel COIs = ae oe Sk Do ee a BO 86 
Mme) Tot. TW. Wiese aa = Ree tay eh eee 8 oes ches eee el SY ps ere A 4, 21, 82 
Muberculosis, epidemiology Of ((ISOCH)=:tee soot the hele eee tee ate 659 
Meee YR CU ETC Kee ee ee ee ee ee ee eee 88 
Ue 
Mtah® irrigation projects: in... =~ + 2 beeen 2 eee ty Bae 195 
Ve 
AVES OT oe clue V\elny] aith le ee ee EE ee ees ae eee ee ee 83 
Vertebrate animals, significance of pulse rate in (Buchanan)____________ 487 
Wiee President of the: United States. 42-2. pois ee 3, 5, 96, 101 
Veil Nes poeta ese ee ee a Se eee Se ee es 86 
Wisitors! to: National Museum==== = -2 ae Pe ee yes BA a el 45 
RASILOLS hOs OOlOCTC AlN dil wesese = es Se ee ee ee 36, 70 
Vonpeendenteld grote = === =a ee ee ee ee ee eee 16 
W. 
Wiaithen ent y 2-2... -22 = Se ee 54 
WLC OGtaE CO Hele S icil)pe = = ee ee Rene yd Se Re Se en Poe ee ee MT p yc tay Ik 
12, 20, 26, 27, 39, 44, 45, 55, 56, 67, 72, 76, T9, 81, 84, 89, 96, 97, 98, 101 
Walcott, Charles, D. (Melville Weston Puller) — -___--. = = - ay 
Waterers SCO Sa. ee =e eens ee ee ee a oe ee ee 16 
ASV ete] tenn Yo pc TN Say ee i ce AE ec et ame ep ye Dao le Bk ee | 54 
War: Secretary, of (member of the Institution) ~---- === 2-2 3 
Wa Shit SLOn eEleCniny ase = 2 ee ee ee ns SY ee ee ee 86 
Washinton arrieaclon sp LOjeCtS aM = = Sake ees 2 ee 195, 19) 
Wasps, solitary, of the genus Synagris (Roubaud)___________-__________ 507 
Wieather Buren. Wmited IStates=— = 2 eee ee ee 7, 14, 76 
DUE AT eas hla Co ae pe a a are EL he Re 82 
WHECISTIAATIN ANUS: 3 ee epee ee ee ee Os Saas Be * 86 
West Atrican crosspows:; the: origin of -(Balifoum) 222 2-2 ee 635. 
Write: Andrey ss (Rel ent) Ss: ee me aE ee eee SE 3, 96 
Kite. Ors Charles tlt eon see eee ee ee ee eo te 45, 79 
SVN BLOGS fy 0) tv CL A eee ashe Se renee rie en eee Sea ele oo zt 
NA ELS red OLN ge) ne ee ee we ne tA oe Dee se 84 
Wackersham: George Wi Attorney Generali =. 2520 20 335 dal 
Walikes: (RearcAdmminale@harless (sift) == = a Se 45 
IWAN COCKS a Siureay Vall linea eee rete eee eS ee Se ee 86 
VOU Te a a BSI TD ey BS a en bah a A rag A mr ee 18 
WAILLTS S31 ci) @ yee ee ee ten Tee dT ee 14, 15, 25, 26 
Willis, Bailey (What is terra firma? <A review of current research in 
USO [el Si ya) pee ee we Seeger ee Oe ts A I 391 
SU GTCTILES (nana TB) ee) ee ee Pree a 18 
Wilson; JamessSecretaryof Agriculture: 2-8. oe 3 
Wiisht. Bros se os .. 22, 23, 97, 104, 106, 107, 108, 145-151, 156, 160, 161. 


Wyoming wirrization projectsmle ---9-- oc 2 225 oe 190, 197 


688 INDEX. 


X. 
Page. 
Xochinacaztli, the sacred ear-flower of the Aztecs (Safford) ~---_-_-____ 427 
: ® 
Yaeger, Wiliam -Dines22+-22..retseeeeee eee eee ee 93 
Yerkes Observatory (Astrophysics in the United States) ---_____________ 362 
Yukon native customs and folk-lore (Schmitter)________________________ * $4 
Z. 
Vammermann, NVUrice 22 Se ae ie eee 86 
Zoological Congresses, International=—-2— eee 24, 26 
ZFoological Nomenclature, ‘Commission 00-4 = ee 24, 87 
Zoological Park= 222s 22o" 2 ee eh eee 5, 9, 21, 36, 68, 77-79, 91, 94, 101 


Ui « Sy my. 


Me oth a) mh ay, Die 
1 ie Gaerne hoy 


vert a OC aR Meee Centar a ge sy a eae 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION LIBRARIES 


3 9088 01421 6964