OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 189 



" ' (1.) System of extended Meteorological Observations for solving 

 the problem of American Storms. 



" ' (2. ) Geological, Magnetical, and Topographical surveys to collect 

 materials for the formation of a Physical Atlas of the United States. 



" ' (3.) Solution of experimental problems ; such as weighing the 

 earth ; new determination of the velocity of electricity and of lio-ht ; 

 chemical analysis of soils and plants ; collection and publication of 

 articles of science, accumulated in the Offices of Government. 



" ' (4.) Institution of statistical inquiries with reference to physical, 

 moral, and political subjects. 



"'(5.) Historical researches and accurate surveys of places cele- 

 brated in history. 



" ' (6.) Ethnological researches, particularly with reference to the 

 present races of men in North America ; also explorations and accu- 

 rate surveys of the mounds and other remains of the ancient people 

 of our country,' 



" The committee have made this long extract from Professor 

 Henry's Programme, in order to give to the Academy an adequate 

 idea of the proposed plan, as far as it refers to the first branch, or the 

 Increase of Knowledge. It has, in some of its features, been already 

 adopted. It is already announced that one voluminous memoir, co- 

 piously illustrated by engravings, is already on its passage through the 

 press, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution. The com- 

 mittee refer to an elaborate memoir by Messrs. Squiers and Davis, on 

 the aboriginal mounds discovered in large numbers in various parts of 

 the United States, and especially in the region northwest of the Ohio. 

 This memoir was accepted on the favorable report of the Ethnological 

 Society of New York, to which it had been referred by the Secretary 

 of the Institution, and in whose Transactions an abridgment of it has 

 appeared. It is also understood that a memoir on one of the most 

 interesting subjects which engages the attention of geometers and 

 mathematicians at the present moment, viz. the planet Neptune, has 

 been invited by the Secretary from one of our members. 



" While the committee would deprecate all attempts unduly to 

 stimulate the increase of knowledge, as sure to prove abortive, and to 

 result at best in the publication of crude investigations, they believe it 

 quite possible to remove some of the obstructions to its progress. 

 Narrow circumstances are too apt to be the lot of genius when devoted 

 to scientific pursuits ; and the necessity of providing for personal and 



