REPORT OF SAMUEL P. LANGLE7, 



SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, FOR 1887-'8d. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution: 



Gentlemen : I liave the honor to preseut with this the customary 

 report for the year ending eJune 30, 1888. 



This year is memorable for the loss to the Institution, not only of its 

 Chancellor and of others to be mentioned later, but of its late Secretary, 

 Spencer F. Baird. 



I have endeavored elsewhere to characterize his character and serv- 

 ices, while yet feeling that one who has been so recently called to fill 

 his place is hardly the fittest person to adequateij^ describe them ; but 

 that may surely be repeated here which is no secret to any one, that 

 a most honored and useful life, which might have been prolonged for 

 many years, came to an end which can not but be called premature, 

 largely through a too self-sacrificing devotion to the public service. 



I shall also have to speak later of the loss to the Institution of its 

 Chancellor, the late Chief-Justice of the United States — a man whom 

 those honored with his acquaintance grew, in proportion to their 

 knowledge of him, to look up to and trust ; and of one of its Eegents, 

 Prof. Asa Gray, pre-eminent in science, but in whom, as in the Chief- 

 Justice, the qualities of the intellect were supplemented by others, such 

 that both inspired even in their official relations, a feeling not only of 

 respect, but of afi'ection, which the formal intercourse o£ public life 

 rarely brings. 



The past has, indeed, been a fatal year to the Institution ; but these 

 great losses have been spoken of at length in its necrology, and 1 will 

 now ask to be allowed to preface this and the rest of my report by a 

 few personal words. 



Although long acquainted with both Professor Henry and Professor 

 Baird [ had no official relationship with either until two years ago, when 

 the latter, in view of the end which he must have felt to be approaching, 

 asked me if I was disposed to assume a connection with the Institution 

 wkile continuing the scientific researches to which my life had been 

 chiefly devoted. 



The position then tendered me, and later at your hands, that of Sec- 

 retary, was accepted, from the knowledge that in your view such re- 

 gea^rches for the increase of knowledge, no Jess thau administrative la* 

 H. Mis, 143 1 ^ 



