34 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



After recovery he returned to Eiigitiiid, where he married. A few 

 years hiter he came to the United States, and in 1830 established him- 

 self as a manufacturer in New York City. Such success attended his 

 business ventures tliat in 1859 he withdrew from active pursuits and 

 returned to Europe, where he traveled for some years. His heart, 

 however, led him again to this country, Avhich he had chosen as the 

 home of his early manhood, and which he now made the abiding place 

 of his mature years. In 1873 he bought a country place near the vil- 

 lage of Setauket, on Long Island, which he named "Brambletye 

 Farm," and which became his home for the remainder of his life. 



Those who had the privilege of a i^ersonal acquaintance with Mr. 

 Hodgkins saw in him not only a man of unusual judgment in business 

 affairs, of broad and far-reachiug philanthropy, and of deep sincerity 

 in his purpose to benefit his fellow-creatures, but they were struck by 

 the breadth of his views as expressed in connection with subjects gen- 

 erally held to pertain more exclusively to i^urely scientific research, 

 every domain of which he gladly sought to make contributory to his 

 earnest desire to benefit mankind. 



His life was simple and his wants but few, and requiring only a small 

 portion of the products of the home farm for his own use, he pursued 

 his long-established habit of systematic benevolence by giving the 

 remainder to those around him. 



Fulfilling also the purpose, formed long years before, to further the 

 good of mankind by all means at his command, he devoted the greater 

 part of his large fortune to various benevolent objects, reserving but a 

 comparatively small sum for his own support. 



His symi)athy for the helpless and weak led him to contribute largely 

 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and 

 to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He 

 gave $100,000 to the Eoyal Institution of Great Britain and $200,000 to 

 tlie Smithsonian Institution, stipulating that while the latter sum 

 should be included with the original Smithson Foundation, that the 

 income from one-half of it should be devoted to researches and inves- 

 tigations on atmosi)heric air in connection with the welfare of man. 



The death of Mr. Hodgkins occurred at his home in Setauket on the 

 25th of November, 1892. Those whose duty it is to carry out the plans 

 and to administer the trust laid upon them by the bequest of this man, 

 whoso simply and earnestly determined to make the world better by his 

 life, are glad to know that he had the satisfaction of living to see, and 

 to approve the initiatory steps taken in administering the Hodgkins 

 fund of the Smithsonian lustitution. A biography of him, in some 

 respects fuller and more personal, will be found in the minutes of the 

 Board of Regents for the present year. 

 Respectfully submitted, 



S. P. Langley, 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



