4 REPOKT OF THE SECRETARY. 



On the 2(1 of December, 1887, the eliancellor, Chief-Justice Waite, 

 under the provision of the law, designated Dr. G. Brown Goode as 

 Acting Secretary of tlie Smithsonian Institution during the absence of 

 the Secretary. 



If only from the ordinary need of a periodical revision, nearly every 

 department of the Institution has been the subject of examination, and 

 in some cases of considerable modification during the past year, and I 

 now proceed to speak of these in some detail, prefacing each with a 

 brief statement of such considerations as seem to me deserving of the 

 particular attention of the Regents. 



BOARD OF REGENTS. 



Meetings ofths Board. — A special meeting of the Board was held No- 

 vember 18, 1887, to take action in regard to the death of the Secretary, 

 Spencer Fullerton Baird, and at this meeting Samuel Pierpont Langley 

 was elected his successor. 



The stated annual meeting of the Board was held on the 11th Jan- 

 uary, 1888. 



A special meeting of the Board was also held on the 27th March, 1888, 

 to take action in regard to the death of the chancellor of the Institution, 

 Chief-Justice Waite. 



The journal of proceedings of the Board is given in full, as usual, in 

 the introduction of the Eegents' report. 



Changes in tJie Board of Regents. — Other vacancies than those already 

 mentioned have occnrred in the membership of the Board during the 

 year by the expiration of the legal terms of service. 



Senator Maxey's term ended March 3, 1887, and with the close of 

 the Forty-ninth Congress the terms of the Hon. 0. 11. Singleton, of the 

 Hon. W. L. Wilson, and of the Hon. W. W. Phelps, members of the 

 House of Ilepresentatives, also expired; and on the 19th of December, 

 1887, the President of the Senate appointed the Hon. Randall Lee Gib- 

 son, Senator from Louisiana, a Regent for the terra of six years, to fill 

 the vacancy occasioned by Senator Maxey's retirement. On the 5th of 

 January, 1888, the Speaker of the House of Representatives appointed 

 the Hon. Samuel S. Cox, of New York, a Regent in the place of the 

 Hon. Otho R. Singleton ; and on the 10th of January, 1888, he appointed 

 the Hon. Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama, a Regent in the place of the Hon. 

 William L. Wilson, and re-appointed the Hon. William Walter Phelps, 

 of New Jersey, to continue his service as Regent. Lastly, by joint reso 

 lution of Congress, approved by President Cleveland, February 15, 1888, 

 Dr. Andrew D. White, of New York, was elected a Regent for the term 

 of six years, to fill the place of Dr. Asa Gray, deceased. 



At the special meeting of the Board of Regents, held March 27, 1888, 

 Mr. Justice Samuel F. Miller, senior Associate and acting Chief Justice 

 of the United States Supreme Court, was eleQted to act as chancellor of 

 the Institution pro tempore. 



