2 REPOET OF THE SECRETARY. 



his removal from Washington to Saint Louis, Mo,, rendering him ineli- 

 gible for re-election, the law of organization requiring two members 

 of the Board to be citizens of the District of Columbia. Dr. Welling, 

 president of Columbian University, is the only member from this city at 

 present, he having been elected by Congress at its last session a Regent 

 for six years, until May 13, 1890. 



The term of service of an unusually large number of Eegents will 

 expire during the winter of 1885-1886. As "members at large," Eev. 

 Dr. John Maclean, of ISTew Jersey, Prof. Asa Gray, of Massachusetts, 

 and Dr. Henry Copp^e, of Pennsylvania, will cease to be members on 

 the 19th of December next; and as the Forty-ninth Congress will com- 

 mence its session in the same mouth, it will become the duty of the 

 Speaker to appoint three Eegents from the House of Eepresentatives. 



The term of Hon. N. P. Hill, of Colorado, as Senatorial Eegent, expired 

 on the 3d of March, 1885, and on March 25, 1885, the Vice President, 

 Mr. Hendricks, appointed Hon. Shelby M. Cullom, of Elinois, as Eegent 

 during his term of service as United States Senator. The Vice-Presi- 

 dent on the same date also reappointed Hon. J. S. Morrill, of Vermont, 

 for a new term of six years. 



Until the next meeting of the Board of Eegents, in January, 1886, the 

 vacancy existing in the Executive Committee by the expiration of the 

 term of General Sherman was filled by the appointment of Dr. Henry 

 Coi)p6e ad interim, by the remaining members of the committee. 



The Board at its last meeting adopted an important resolution, order- 

 ing that the fiscal year of the Institution shall terminate on the 30th of 

 June of each year. This changes the practice of the Institution since 

 its organization, and will occasion some difficulty in arranging tables 

 of comparison of receipts and expenditures for annual periods. The 

 reason for the change is that the fiscal year of the Government termi- 

 nates in June, and as the appropriations made by Congress for the 

 Museum, the exchange system, ethnological researches, &c., are for this 

 period, it was thought advisable for the accounts of the Institution to 

 conform to those of the General Government. The accounts of the In- 

 stitution have therefore been given in this report only for the six 

 months terminating on the 30th of June, 1885. 



Change in the time of ;printing the Report. — It was also ordered by the 

 Board that "the Secretary shall hereafter prepare and cause to be 

 printed and sent to each member of the Board, on or before the 1st day 

 of December in each year, his annual report." 



Difficulty has always been experienced in the early printiog of the 

 Annual Eeport of the Institution. The organic act, August 10, 1846, 

 provides that "the Board" of Eegents "shall submit to Congress, at 

 each session thereof, a report of the operations, expenditures, and con- 

 dition of the Institution.* In accordance with this law the Board has 

 annually submitted to Congress a report of the operations of the Insti- 

 tution, which ha s been ordered to be printed and a number of extra 

 * Revised Statutes, Title LXXIII, Section 5593. 



