8 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



to the Board of Regents of the Smithsouian lustitution, the interest to 

 be a]>propiiated biennially for a contribution, paper, or lecture, on a 

 scientitic or useful subject. The money from this bequest has been 

 received and placed in the Treasury of the United States, in accordance 

 with the law of Congress authorizing- the Secretary of the Treasury to 

 receive any money which the Board of Regents may obtain from gifts, 

 or savings of income, on the same terms as those of the original bequest. 

 The tirst instalment of interest of the Ilamiltou bequest has just been 

 received, and will be appropriated in accordance with the will of the tes- 

 tator at the end of next year, and so on continually at the end of every 

 two years. A statement of the manner of expending this income will 

 be given iu the accounts of the operations of the Institution, with due 

 credit to the donor. His name will therefore appear from time to time 

 iu the annual reports, and tbus be kept in perpetual remembrance. 



When the public shall become more familiar with the manner iu 

 which the income of the additional bequests to the Smithson fund is ex- 

 pended, with the permanence and security of the investment, and with 

 the means thus afforded of advancing science, and of perpetuating the 

 names of the testators, we doubt not that additions to the fund in this 

 way will be made until it reaches the limit prescribed by law of one 

 million dollars. 



Since the establishment of the Institution great change has taken 

 place in the public mind as to the appreciation of the importance of ab- 

 stract science as an element in the advance of modern civilization. At 

 the time the bequest of Smithson was made the distinction between 

 original research and educational instruction in science and literature 

 was scarcely recognized. As an evidence of this it may be stated that, 

 in answer to a circular-letter addressed to a number of the most dis- 

 tinguished writers iu this country, asking what should be done with a 

 fund intended to increase and diffuse knowledge among men, the unan- 

 imous rej>ly was, " Establish a national university;" the idea of a uni- 

 versity being at that time an institution simply intended to drill youth 

 in the ancient classics, in the elements of mathematics and physical and 

 moral science. The idea of an institution intended for the higher 

 object of increasing knowledge, or enlarging the bounds of human 

 thought by original research, had not dawned at that time upon the 

 mind of the general public, and the plan proposed for realizing this 

 idea was violently opposed by some of the most intelligent and influ- 

 ential men of the country. Ha[)pily, since then a great change has 

 been effected both in this country and in Europe, and to effect this 

 change the persistent policy of the Institution has contributed in no 

 inconsiderable degree. The plan.a(loi)ted of applying the income as 

 far as possible to the promotion of original research and the distribu- 

 tion of a knowledge of the results through its publications, has received 

 the aiipru\ al of the civilized world. The Congress of the United States 



