550 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



beginning until now tliere have been numerous private collec- 

 tions, deriving their materials, their literature, and, to a consid- 

 erable extent, their enthusiasm from the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and consequently in correspondence with its officers. The Smith- 

 sonian * Instructions to Collectors,' which has passed through 

 several large editions, as well as numerous circulars written with 

 a similar jDurpose, were prepared by Prof. Baird in connection 

 with this department of his work. As a result of this extensive 

 work of organization, a large number of young men have been 

 trained as collectors and observers, and not a few among them 

 have become eminent in various departments of science. In ad- 

 dition to this extensive branch of his work, the assistant secretary 

 had, from the start, the charge of certain departments of the rou- 

 tine work of the Institution ; the system of international ex- 

 changes, for instance, which had ever been one of the leading 

 objects of the Smithsonian Institution, was organized by him in 

 its details." Major Powell, speaking of the comprehensiveness of 

 his methods for enlisting co-operation in these enterprises, says : 

 " When our army was distributed on the frontiers of the land, he 

 everywhere enlisted our scholarly officers into the service of sci- 

 ence, and he transformed the military post into a station of re- 

 search, an Indian campaign into a scientific expedition. Scott, 

 Marcy, McClellan, Thomas, and many other of the great generals 

 of America, were students of natural history and collectors for 

 Baird. When our navy cruised around our shores, its officers 

 were inspired with that love of Nature which made every voyage 

 of military duty a voyage of discovery in the realms of natural 

 science." Explorations, railroad-surveys, and travels throughout 

 the world, were thus utilized by him in the interests of science. 

 The main duty of the assistant secretary, however, was the de- 

 velopment of the natural-history collections. Prof. Baird had 

 brought his x^rivate collection to form a nucleus around which 

 the others should be gathered. The Institution was in the pos- 

 session of a few boxes of minerals and plants ; and the collec- 

 tions of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition were under the charge 

 of the National Institute, to be ultimately, as was provided in the 

 act of incorporation of the Smithsonian Institution, transferred 

 to it. To the care of these collections, and the management of the 

 National Museum which has grown up from them, Prof. Baird 

 brought the methods of work which had been developed in his own 

 experience at Carlisle ; and these methods are substantially those 

 on which the museum is organized and conducted to-day. His 

 faithful attention to the arduous duties of his position here did 

 not prevent his publishing a considerable number of elaborate 

 original memoirs, among which were a catalogue of North Amer- 

 ican serpents, the " Mammals of North America," and three 



