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SECTION II.

Plan of organization, in accordance with the terms of the resolutions of the Board of Regents providing for the two modes of increasing and diffusing knowledge.

1. The act of Congress establishing the Institution contemplated the formation of a library and a museum; and the Board of Regents, including these objects in the plan of organization, resolved to divide the income into two equal parts.

2. One part to be appropriated to increase and diffuse knowledge by means of publications and researches, agreeably to the scheme before given. The other part to be appropriated to the formation of a library and a collection of objects of nature and of art.

3. These two plans are not incompatible one with another.

4. To carry out the plan before described, a library will be required, consisting, first, of a complete collection of the transactions and proceedings of all the learned societies in the world; second, of the more important current periodical publications, and other works necessary in preparing the periodical reports.

5. The Institution should make special collections, particularly of objects to illustrate and verify its own publications.

6. Also, a collection of instruments of research in all branches of experimental science.

7. With reference to the collection of books, other than those mentioned above, catalogues of all the different libraries in the United States should be procured, in order that the valuable books first purchased may be such as are not to be found in the United States.

8. Also, catalogues of memoirs, and of books and other materials, should be collected for rendering the Institution a centre of bibliographical knowledge, whence the student may be directed to any work which he may require.

9. It is believed that the collections in natural history will increase by donation as rapidly as the income of the Institution can make provision for their reception, and, therefore, it will seldom be necessary to purchase articles of this kind.

10. Attempts should be made to procure for the gallery of art casts of the most celebrated articles of ancient and modern sculpture.

11. The arts may be encouraged by providing a room, free of expense, for the exhibition of the objects of the Art-Union and other similar societies.

12. A small appropriation should annually be made for models of antiquities, such as those of the remains of ancient temples, &c.

13. For the present, or until the building is fully completed, be-sides the Secretary, no permanent assistant will be required, except one, to act as librarian.

The amount of the Smithsonian bequest received into the Treasury of the
United States is....

$515, 169 00

Interest on the same to July 1, 1846, (devoted to the erection of the building)....

242, 129 00

Annual income from the bequest

30, 910 14

14. The Secretary, by the law of Congress, is alone responsible to the Regents. He shall take charge of the building and property, keep a record of proceedings, discharge the duties of librarian and keeper of the museum, and may, with the consent of the Regents, employ assistants.

15. The Secretary and his assistants, during the session of Congress, will be required to illustrate new discoveries in science, and to exhibit new objects of art; distinguished individuals should also be invited to give lectures on subjects of general interest.

This programme, which was at first adopted provisionally, has become the settled policy of the Institution. The only material change is that expressed by the following resolutions, adopted January 15, 1855, viz:

Resolved, That the 7th resolution passed by the Board of Regents, on the 26th of January, 1847, requiring an equal division of the income between the active operations and the museum and library, when the buildings are completed, be, and it is hereby, repealed.

Resolved, That hereafter the annual appropriations shall be apportioned specifically among the different objects and operations of the Institution, in such manner as may, in the judgment of the Regents, be necessary and proper for each, according to its intrinsic importance, and a compliance in good faith with the law.

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY.

To the Board of Regents:

GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to present, at the commencement of another session of your honorable board, the annual report of the condition and transactions of the Smithsonian Institution during the year 1863.

The general operations of the Institution are so uniform from year to year that the several annual reports can differ but little from each other; the usual order will, therefore, be observed in this communication, with only such variations as the special incidents of the year may require.

It will be seen by the report of the Executive Committee that the finances of the Institution are in as favorable a condition as the state of public affairs would authorize us to expect. First. The whole amount of money originally derived from the bequest of Smithson is still in the treasury of the United States, bearing interest at six per cent., paid semi-annually, and yielding $30,910. Second. Seventyfive thousand dollars of an extra fund are in bonds of the State of Indiana, at five per cent. interest, also paid semi-annually, yielding $3,750. Third. Fifty-three thousand five hundred dollars of the same fund are in bonds of the State of Virginia, twelve thousand in those of Tennessee, and five hundred in those of Georgia, from which nothing has been derived since the commencement of the war. Fourth. A balance of upwards of $32,000 is now in the hands of the treasurer of the Institution.

The unsettled accounts at the close of the year do not exceed two thousand dollars.

From this statement it appears that the Institution, after erecting: a building, accumulating a large library and an extensive museum, supplying the principal museums of the world with specimens of natural history, and publishing a series of volumes which have been distributed to all first-class libraries abroad, and still more extensively at home, has upwards of one hundred thousand dollars in addition to the money received from the original bequest. In addition to this, the stocks of Virginia and Tennessee are quoted at about half

their par value, and it may be a question whether they should not be disposed of and the money otherwise invested.

A part of the original bequest, amounting to £5,015. was left by Mr. Rush in England, as the principal of an annuity to be paid to the mother of the nephew of Smithson. The annuitant having died, a power of attorney was sent, in November, 1862, to Messrs. Fladgate, Clark & Finch to collect the money; but it has not yet been received. Although the whole legacy was awarded to Mr. Rush in behalf of the United States, after an amicable suit in chancery, various objections have been raised to allowing the small remainder to be sent to this country. These objections appear to be principally of a technical character, and are scarcely compatible with an equitable interpretation of the facts of the case. There should be no prejudice in England in regard to the construction placed upon the terms of the bequest and the policy which has been adopted, since one hundred and sixtynine institutions in Great Britain and Ireland are recipients of the Smithsonian publications and specimens of natural history, and have enjoyed the advantages of its system of international exchange.

Although the financial affairs of the Institution are still in a favorable condition, its ability to produce results is materially diminished on account of the advanced prices of labor and materials, and especially the high rate of exchange under which its foreign operations are necessarily conducted. Still, all parts of the general system have been carried on with less abatement than might have been. expected, as will be seen from the following account of the various operations:

Publications. The publications of the Institution, as stated in previous reports, consist of three series: 1st, Contributions to Knowledge; 2d, Miscellaneous Collections; and, 3d, Annual Reports.

The Contributions include memoirs, embracing the records of origi nal investigations and researches, resulting in such new truths as are considered interesting additions to knowledge. Twelve volumes in quarto of this series have been published, and the thirteenth is nearly ready for distribution.

The Miscellaneous Collections include works intended to facilitate the study of the various branches of natural history, to give instruction as to the method of observing phenomena, and to furnish a variety of other matter connected with the progress of science. Of this series four large octavo volumes have been issued, and two more are nearly completed.

The Annual Reports to Congress consist, each, of an octavo volume of 450 pages. They contain the report of the Secretary on the operations and condition of the Institution, the proceedings of the Regents, and an appendix, giving a synopsis of the lectures delivered. at the Institution, extracts from correspondence, and articles of a character suited to meteorological observers, to teachers, and other persons especially interested in the promotion of knowledge.

The thirteenth volume of the Contributions has been completed, and is now in the hands of the binder. It contains the following original papers:

1. Tidal Observations in the Arctic Seas; by Elisha Kent Kane, M. D; made during the second Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin in 1853-55. Reduced and discussed by Charles A. Schott, assistant United States Coast Survey.

2. Meteorological Observations in the Arctic Seas; by Sir Leopold McClintock; made on board the Arctic searching yacht "Fox" in Baffin's Bay and Prince Regent's Inlet in 1857-'59. Reduced and discussed by Charles A. Schott, assistant United States Coast Survey. 3. Ancient Mining on the shores of Lake Superior. By Charles Whittlesey.

4. Discussion of the Magnetic and Meteorological Observations made at the Girard College Observatory, Philadelphia, in 1840-'45. Part II. Investigation of the Solar-Diurnal Variation of the Magnetic Declination and its Annual Inequality. By A. D. Bache, Superintendent Coast Survey.

5. Part III. Investigation of the Lunar Effects of the Magnetic Declination. By A. D. Bache.

6. Parts IV, V, VI. Horizontal Force. Investigation of the ten or eleven year period, and of the disturbances of the horizontal component of the magnetic force; investigation of the solar-diurnal variation and of the annual inequality of the horizontal force, and of the lunar effect on the same. By A. D. Bache.

7. Records and Results of a Magnetic Survey of Pennsylvania and parts of adjacent States in 1840, 1841, with some Additional Records and Results of 1834, 1835, 1843, and 1862, and a Map. By A. D. Bache.

8. Researches upon the Anatomy and Physiology of Respiration in the Chelonia. By S. Weir Mitchell, M. D., and George R. Morehouse, M. D.

Accounts have been given in previous reports of all the papers contained in this volume, excepting that on the Chelonia. This

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