REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 39^ 



this city from the state funeral, he went into a somewhat rapid decline, 

 and though able to walk about his house to the last day of his life, he 

 died rather suddenly of j)ulmonary consumption at his residence in 

 Washington, on Sunday morning, April 9th at 7 o'clock, at the age of 

 43 years, after a service in this Institution of sixteen years. 



One of the collaborators of the Institution, whose death we have to 

 deplore, is Lewis H. ^Iorgan, author of a very original and elaborate 

 " Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge." He was born in Aurora, 

 Cayuga County, Xew York, November 21, 1818, and died at Eochester, 

 N. Y., December 17, 1881. His first communication, published by the 

 Institution, was a short paper comprising "Suggestions relative to an 

 Ethnological Ma^j of Korth America," which appeared in the Smithson- 

 ian Eeport for 1861. Devoting himself to the study of anthropology, 

 he published various treatises in relation to the North American Indians. 

 His most important work is a discussion of "Systems of Consanguinity 

 and Affinity of the Human Family," a large quarto of 616 pages, which 

 forms Volume XVII of the "Smithsonian Contributions," published in 

 1869. His last work, entitled "Houses and Home life of the American 

 Aborigines," forms Volume IV of the Contributions to American Eth- 

 nology. 



It is also my painful duty to announce the death of another esteemed 

 collaborator and eminent man of science. Dr. Henry Draper, of New 

 York, a son of the distinguished philosopher, Dr. John Draper, and a 

 member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was born in Vir- 

 ginia, May 7, 1837, and died in New York, November 20, 1882, at the 

 age of 45 years, in the prime of his mental activity and usefulness. He 

 distinguished himself by his original researches in astronomy, chem- 

 istry, and in celestial i)hotography. In recognition of his valuable 

 work in connection with the transit of Venus in 1874, a gold medal 

 was struck in his honor, by order of Congress, at the Philadelphia mint. 

 Perhaps his most celebrated work was the difficult discovery, in 1877, 

 of oxygen in the sun. 



Like most original investigators he was a skillful manipulator and 

 artisan. He prepared for the Institution in 1864 a memoir "On the 

 construction of a silvered glass telescope, fifteen and a half inches in 

 aperture, and its use in celestial photograjDhy," which was published 

 in the " Smithsonian Contributions," Vol. XIV. This work has been 

 very popular, and is recognized as the standard authority on the sub- 

 iect. The demand for it has been constant, and still continues. 



In the death of Joseph Duncan Putnam, president of the Davenport 

 Academy of Sciences, and one of the correspondents of the Institution, 

 December, 10, 1881, a great loss has been sustained by the workers in 

 natural history and anthrojiology, particularly in the western part of 

 our country. He was a valued correspondent of the Institution and 



