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Statement of expenditure in detail from the Smithson income, 1874.

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As usual, the Institution has during the past year made temporary advances for the payment of freight on Government collections, purchase of instruments for exploring parties, &c., the repayments of which, together with the amount received from sales of publications, have been deducted from the several items of the foregoing expendi tures, as follows:

Repayments.

From exchanges, repayments for freight, &c.....

From postage, repayments...

From researches, repayments......

From Smithsonian Contributions, sales.

From miscellaneous collections, sales..

$1,205 14

45 45

95 76

115 60

From salaries, repayment of advance..
From incidentals, sales of old material.

157 67

40.00

7 27

$1,666 89

The following are the estimates of receipts and appropriations of the Smithson fund for the year 1875:

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The annual appropriation of Congress for the preservation of the Government collections intrusted to the care of the Institution has been continued during the past year, and an additional sum of $10,000 has been granted for the fitting up and completing the cases in the new halls required for these collections.

The latter appropriation has been expended in the construction of walnut table-cases with glass tops and sides, for the exhibition of the smalier ethnological specimens in the upper hall, and for large cases for mammals and fishes in the lower hall. The latter cases have also been so constructed as to serve as bases or platforms for restorations of the megatherium, hadrosaurus, glyptodon, &c., thus utilizing a large space, and forming a very striking and imposing feature of the collections. The following is a tabular statement of the condition of the Museum funds:

For preservation of the Government collections.
Balance unexpended of appropriation for the
fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. (Statutes at
Large, vol. 17, p. 518) See Report for 1873,
page 145

Amount expended to December 31, 1874. (See
Museum Journal A, p. 73.) ..

Balance.

$7,500 00

7,500 00

Nothing.

Appropriation for fiscal year ending June 30, 1875. (Statutes, 1874, p. 216) ... Expenditure from July 1, 1874, to January 11, 1875. (See Museum Journal A, p. 106) ...... ..

Balance unexpended...

$20,000 00

12,011 38

For fitting up halls for Government collections.

Balance unexpended of appropriation for fiscal
year ending June 30, 1874. (Museum Journal
A, p. 519) ....
Expenditure on this account in 1874. (Museum
Journal A, p. 527) .

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$5, 550 92

$7,988 62

5,550 92

Nothing.

For steam-heating apparatus for Museum.

Balance unexpended of appropriation for fiscal year ending June 30, 1874. (Museum Journal A, p. 533)...

3, 462 03

Expenditure on this account in 1874. (Museum
Journal A, p. 527).

3, 462 03

Balance

Nothing.

For fitting up and completing cases for collections.

Appropriation for fiscal year ending June 30,

1875. (Statutes, 1874, p. 216)..

10, 000 00

Expended on this account in 1874. (Museum
Journal A, p. 106)

Balance

10,000 00

Nothing.

From the above statement it appears that of the congressional appropriations for the National Museum, the only amount unexpended and now available for the collections is $7,982.62. The estimates submitted by the Institution to Congress for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1876, were as follows:

For the preservation of the collections...
For fitting up and completing the cases....

Total amount required....

$25,000 00
10,000 00

$35,000 00

We have no reason to doubt that this sum, or the greater part of it, will be appropriated by Congress during the present session.

All the payments on account of the National Museum have been made

during the past year, directly by the disbursing officer of the Department of the Interior, on the presentation of vouchers approved by the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

The executive committee have examined five hundred and seventeen receipted vouchers for payments made from the Smithson income during the year 1874, and four hundred and seventy similar vouchers for payments made from the congressional appropriations for the National Museum, making a total number of vouchers of nine hundred and eighty-seven.

All of the vouchers have the approval of the Secretary of the Institu tion, and a certificate setting forth that the materials and property and services rendered were for the Institution, and to be applied to the purposes specified.

As authorized by a resolution of the board 26th May, 1874, the committee have also examined the account-books of the National Museum and find the balance of $7,988.62 to the credit of the appropriation for the "preservation of the collections" remaining on the 11th January, 1875, to correspond with the certificate of the disbursing clerk of the Department of the Interior.

The quarterly accounts current, bank-book, check-book, and ledger, have also been examined and found to be correct, showing a balance in the care of the Treasurer of the United States 15th January, 1875, of $15,909.99.

Respectfully submitted.

PETER PARKER,
GEO. BANCROFT,

Executive Committee.

WASHINGTON, January 23, 1875.

JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS

OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

WASHINGTON, D. C., January 20, 1875.

In accordance with a resolution of the Board of Regents, fixing the third Wednesday of January as the time for the commencement of the annual session, a meeting of the Board of Regents was held on Wednesday, 20th of January, 1875, at 7 o'clock p. m., at the Smithsonian Institution.

Present, the Chancellor, Chief Justice Waite; Hon. Henry Wilson, Vice-President of the United States; Senators H. Hamlin and A. A. Sargent; Representive Hon. E. R. Hoar; Hon. Peter Parker, Prof. Asa Gray, L. L. D., Prof. H. Coppée, L. L. D., Hon. George Bancroft, and Professor Henry, the Secretary.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.

Excuses for non-attendance were received from Prof. Dana, Doctor Maclean, Hon. Mr. Stevenson, and Hon. Mr. Cox.

The Secretary presented the following letter from General Sherman, which was read:

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES,

Saint Louis, Mo., November 12, 1874. MY DEAR PROFESSOR: Having removed my headquarters and resi dence from Washington to Saint Louis, it is proper that I should resign the post I have held for a few years as a Regent of your most honored Institution. I beg, therefore, that you will construe this letter as a tender of my resignation to the Board of Regents, or to such official as can accept the same.

In thus severing my official connection with the Smithsonian, I beg leave to express to you and your associates my sense of the noble task in which you are engaged, and of my earnest prayer that the Institution under your management will continue to fulfil its magnificent design.

A knowledge of science, that is of the laws of nature, is so intimately connected with the advance of higher civilization, that Mr. Smithson displayed unusual wisdom in so endowing his institution that it should give its principal labor to the increase of knowledge, to accumulating and securing new knowledge to be added to the old, which should be a special province of the universities of the whole earth. I therefore coincide with you perfectly in your special construction of the will, and hope that the Regents will continue to construe it literally, as a legacy sacred in its nature and beneficial in the highest degree.

I beg you will assure your associates that among the many causes of

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