124 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



Whereas, on account of the appropriations of Congress for a national 

 exhibit at the Centennial, and the liberal donations which have been 

 made by several States of the Union, by ^ndividnals, and especially by 

 foreign governments, the National Museum has suddenly increased to 

 fourfold its previous dimensions, and far beyond the capacity of the 

 Smithsonian building to contain it : Therefore,. 



Kesolved, That Congress be respectfully requested to provide accom- 

 modations for these additional collections by the erection of a suitable 

 building in connection with the present Smithsonian edifice. 



Professor Gray, from the committee appointed at the last se.ssion, 

 " to take into consideration the connection of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion and the National Museum, and to recommend such action as may 

 be thought proper in relation to the matter," made report of progress 

 and requested farther time, which was granted, it having as yet been 

 found impossible to obtain a meeting of the committee for the consider- 

 ation of the subject. 



, On motion of Mr. Clymer, the Board adjourned to meet on Thursday, 

 February 1. 



Washington, D. C, 1st February, 1877. 



An adjourned meeting of the Board of Regents was held this day, at 

 7 o'clock p. m., in fhe office of the Secretary. 



Present, Chief-Justice Waite, Chancellor; Hon. T. W. Ferry, Hon. H. 

 Hamlin, Hon. J. W. Stevenson, Hon. A. A. Sargent, Hon. H. Clymer, 

 Hon. B. H. Hill, Hon. Peter Parker, Hon. George Bancroft, Prof. Asa 

 Gray, and the Secretary, Professor Henry. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 



Mr. Sargent and Mr. Hill stated that they were unavoidably detained 

 from the last meeting. 



Professor Gray presented the following report of the special com- 

 mittee on the Museum : 



REPORT OF SPECIAL COMMITTEE. 



When Congress, thirty years ago. enacted the law which established 

 this Institution, it probably did not anticipate the state of things to 

 which we have arrived. The income of $500,000 must then have ap- 

 peared much larger than it does now, and the several undertakings 

 which were devolved upon it must have been contemplated upon a mod- 

 erate scale, if it was supposed that the means would compass the ends. 

 A library, upon which $25,000 annually might be expended, a gallery of 

 art, a chemical laboratory, a geological and mineralogical cabinet, nec- 

 essary lecture- rooms, and, by implication, lecturers, a museum of natural 

 history and natural products, to include all the materials then belong- 

 ing, and thereafter to belong, to the United States, (and we see how 

 vast that item has become,) these all have assumed a magnitude far 

 beyond what could have been contemplated ; and yet they do not cover 

 those operations for " the increase and ditfusion of knowledge among 



