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regret at leaving Washington, none impresses me more than that which forces me to sever my relations with the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.

With great respect, your friend and servant,
W. T. SHERMAN,

Prof. JOSEPH HENRY,

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

On motion of Dr. Parker, it was

General.

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Institution acknowledge the receipt of the letter from General Sherman, and express to him the high appreciation of the members of the board of his services as a Regent, and their regret at the termination of his official connection with the Institution.

The Secretary stated that Congress had passed a joint resolution electing Hon. George Bancroft, who had recently become a permanent resident of Washington, as Regent to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of General Sherman.

On motion of Mr. Wilson, it was

Resolved, That the vacancy in the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, occasioned by the resignation of General Sherman, be filled by the appointment of Hon. GEORGE BANCROFT.

The Secretary presented his annual report of the operations and condition of the Institution, which was read in part. He also presented exhibits of the finances, which were referred to the Executive Committee.

The Secretary stated that the annual accounts had been made up to the 15th of January, the date at which the semi-annual interest was received from the Treasury Department.

Dr. Parker, from the Executive Committee, presented a preliminary report on the condition of the Smithson fund, and the receipts and expenditures for the past year, and stated that all the vouchers for payments had been carefully examined by the committee, who would submit a full report at the next meeting.

The Secretary explained several features of the appropriations and expenditures of the year, the deposits made with the Corcoran Art. Gallery, Army Museum, Department of Agriculture, &c.

A statement of the circumstances attending a theft of $154.50 from the office of the Secretary of the Institution, was made by Prof. Henry, and, on motion of Mr. Sargent, it was

Resolved, That the amount of the loss ($154.50) be charged in the account to "incidental expenses."

The reading of the report of the Secretary was then resumed.

At the suggestion of the Secretary, it was

Resolved, That a committee, consisting of Professors Gray and

Coppée, be appointed to examine and report on the present condition of the museum, especially the ethnological department.

The board then adjourned to meet on Saturday evening, January 23, at 7 o'clock.

WASHINGTON, January 23, 1875. A meeting of the Board of Regents was held this day, at 7 o'clock p. m.

Present, the Chancellor, Chief-Justice Waite, Senators H. Hamlin, J. W. Stevenson, and A. A. Sargent; Representatives S. S. Cox, E. R. Hoar, G. W. Hazelton; Hon. Peter Parker, Prof. Asa Gray, Prof. H. Coppée, Hon. George Bancroft, and the Secretary, Professor Henry. The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

Dr. Parker presented the annual report of the Executive Committee, which was, read and, on motion of Mr. Hamlin, adopted.

Dr. Gray, from the special committee to examine the museum, presented the following report, which, on motion of Mr. Sargent, was accepted and ordered to be printed in the proceedings of the board:

REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE MUSEUM.

Your committee appointed to examine the museum has devoted as much time to the examination as the members of it could secure during the past two or three days, and would respectfully offer a few remarks upon its condition. It is not supposed that any full or detailed report is expected. We will confine our observations to the ethnological museum, the only one we have found time to inspect with any care.

At the previous session of the board, about nine months ago, the large upper hall had barely been made ready to receive the ethnological and archæological collections, and a portion of the wall-cases only were in place. The progress that has been made in the interval is very gratifying. The hall, although not filled, has been well supplied with glazed cases, for the most part excellent in plan and construction; and the very large and varied collection of objects is arranged in them and displayed to public view. There is still much to be done in perfecting the the arrangement and the labeling, and there are recent accessions to be added. But even now, it is a great pleasure to see how well cared for and how important this museum is, and how much it interests a numerous throng of visitors. In this respect it seems likely to be even more attractive than the museum of natural history underneath. It is only when an ethnological collection is brought together upon a comprehensive scale, and is well arranged upon some intelligible principle, that any one realizes its interest and importance.

The arrangement which is, as we may say, technological rather than geographical, appears to be the one best adapted for such a museummost useful to the serious student as well as most instructive and curious to the general visitor. Objects of the same class or subservient

to the same purpose are brought together from whatever country, and of whatever age. Articles of dress, ornament, or food, implements for their preparation, utensils for domestic use, nets, weapons, and the like thus illustrate each other.

Among the special collections, newly put together, we were much interested in the very full one of the food, especially the vegetable food of the different tribes of the North American Indians; in the collection of their cradles or analogous appliances for the care of infants; in the collection of musical instruments, or what was intended to answer the purpose of music; and in the fine pottery of the Arizonian and other tribes.

The museum is especially rich in stone implements of the North American continent, mainly prehistoric; also in specimens of the survival of the art of working stone weapons of the finest kind, in some of our native tribes.

In the further development of the museum it may be thought best to arrange the archæological specimens in a separate series, but, as to America, it is not easy to draw a line between what is prehistoric, and what belongs essentially to the present era.

A great number of duplicates will soon be ready for exchange. Besides proper duplicates, freely available for exchange, there is, wherever the materials and the subject admit of it, a selected series carefully packed away in the lower part of the cases, or directly underneath the typical specimens or specimens selected for exhibition. For public inspection in very large museums it is now a recognized principle that the half is better than the whole; that typical specimens, those that best exemplify the leading forms or plans, should be exhibited in preference to full series of gradations and modifications. But the serious investigator needs all the forms, and this selected students' series, which is mostly out of sight, is carefully preserved for, and is accessible to, his use.

A great deal of important ethnological matter has of late years been collected in the form of photographs, and it seems obviously important that such collections should be systematically made and preserved, is not on the large scale, yet in the compact and effective form of stereoscopic views. If the figures, the costumes, and the dwellings of our various tribes still remaining are not perpetuated in this way very promptly, much which is now easy to preserve will be irretrievably lost to the future.

In this connection we would suggest that it might be well to provide a series of figures characteristic of the races of men, and especially of the North American races and tribes. This would require considerable room for exhibition and a great deal of judgment as to the mode of getting up the material to be employed, and the extent to which this kind of illustration should be introduced.

This museum is very rapidly increasing, and it is remarkable that the

accessions are made almost without pecuniary cost. Hardly any have been purchased. They came from scientific or curious explorers, whom the Smithsonian Institution is everywhere exciting and furthering, and from Government expeditions commissioned mainly for other important objects; and the facilities in the way of transportation controlled by the Institution are such that even the cost of their delivery in Washington is trifling.

It will be interesting to know to what extent the museums which the Smithsonian Institution has in charge are visited by the public. The committee would suggest the use of a recording turnstile at the entrance, by which the number of visitors might be indicated and preserved with very little trouble.

Respectfully submitted.

ASA GRAY.
HENRY COPPÉE.

Doctor Parker, in behalf of the Executive Committee, stated that the heating-apparatus now employed was found insufficient in extremely cold weather to warm the building, particularly the new ethnological hall, and suggested the propriety of asking Congress to appropriate $2,500 to increase the means for heating the building.

Mr. Bancroft remarked that this was not asking anything for the benefit of the Smithsonian Institution, but for the comfort of the people of the United States who come here to see the great collections of the Government, and who should certainly be provided with the means of doing this without the danger of taking cold.

On motion of Mr. Bancroft it was

Resolved, That Congress be requested to make an appropriation of $2,500 to increase the heating capacity of the apparatus used to warm the rooms occupied by the Government collections.

The reading of the report of the Secretary was then continued.

On motion of Mr. Cox, it was—

Resolved, That the report of the Secretary be accepted and transmitted to Congress as usual.

The board then adjourned sine die.

LAPLACE.

EULOGY BY ARAGO BEFORE THE FRENCH ACADEMY.

TRANSLATED BY PROF. BADEN POWELL.

Having been appointed to draw up the report of a committee of the Chamber of Deputies, which was nominated in 1842, for the purpose of taking into consideration the expediency of a proposal submitted to the chamber by the minister of public instruction, relative to the publica. tion of a new edition of the works of Laplace at the public expense, I deemed it to be my duty to embody in the report a concise analysis of the works of our illustrious countryman. Several persons, influenced, perhaps, by too indulgent a feeling toward me, having expressed a wish that this analysis should not remain buried amid a heap of legislative documents, but that it should be published in the Annuaire du Bureau des Longitudes, I took advantage of this circumstance to develop it more fully, so as to render it less unworthy of public attention. The scientific part of the report presented to the Chamber of Deputies will be found here entire. It has been considered desirable to suppress the remainder. I shall merely retain a few sentences containing an explanation of the object of the proposed law, and an announcement of the resolutions which were adopted by the three powers of the state.

Laplace has endowed France, Europe, the scientific world, with three magnificent compositions, the Traité de Mécanique Céleste, the Exposition du Système du Monde, and the Théorie Analytique des Probabilités. In the present day (1842) there is no longer to be found a single copy of this last work at any book-seller's establishment in Paris. The edition of the Mécanique Céleste itself will soon be exhausted. It was painful, then, to reflect that the time was close at hand when persons engaged in the study of the higher mathematics would be compelled, for want of the original work, to inquire at Philadelphia, at New York, or at Boston for the English translation of the chef d'avre of our countryman by the excellent geometer, Bowditch. These fears, let us hasten to state, were not well founded. To republish the Mécanique Céleste was, on the part of the family of the illustrious geometer, to perform a pious duty. Accordingly, Madame de Laplace, who is so justly, so profoundly attentive to every circumstance calculated to enhance the re

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