XII .JOURNAL OF PliOOEEDINGft. 



Dr. Wt'lliij;,^ in i>iesoiitiii.u- tlio ivport of the Excciitivo Committee for 

 tlie liscal year eiuliii.i;- June 30, J«8l>, culled the attention of the Board 

 to tho statement on i)a^^e 5, uudcr the head of International Exchanges 

 (whieli sets forth that an amount has been expended in this department 

 beyond the annual api)ropriation made by Congress, entailing annual 

 lo.ss npon the fund of the Smithsonian Institution) and to the recom- 

 mendation that Congress be requested to make appropriations to reim- 

 burse tiie Smithsonian fun<l. 



On motion it was — 



Ixcaolccil, That the Regents instruct the Secretary to ask of Congress 

 legislation for the repayment to the Institution of the amount advanced 

 from the Smithsonian fund for governmental service in carrying on the 

 exchanges. 



Tho report of tlie committee was then approv^ed. 

 On motion of Dv. Welling it was also — 



livsolretl, That the income of the Institution for the fiscal year end- 

 ing June oO, 1891, be appropriated for the service of the Institution, 

 to be expended by the Secretary, with the advice of the Executive Com- 

 mittee, npon the basis of the oi)erations described in the last annual 

 report of said committee, with full discretion on the ])art of the Secre- 

 tary as to items of expenditures pro{)erly falling under each of the heads 

 embraced in the established conduct of the Institution. 



The Secretary, in presenting his report for the year ending June 30, 

 1880, referred especially to the fact that the Smithsonian Institution is 

 now, and has been for some time, paying out an increasingly large por- 

 tion of its annual income in service that inures either directly or 

 indirectly to the beneQt of the Government, rather than to its legiti- 

 mate ai>plication for the immediate "increase and diffusion of knowl- 

 edge;" and in this connection quoted the opinion of Professor Henry^ 

 expressed as long since as 1872, that the Government should then have 

 l)aid the Institution $300,000 for tho use of the present building alone, 



lie did not ask for any immediate action, but invited the attention 

 of the Kegeuts to this condition of the relation of the Institution's 

 affairs to those of tho Government, a general condition of which the 

 loss of the rent of the building might be taken as a single example. 



The late Secretary had intended to provide an astro-physical observ- 

 atory oil a modest scale, tho building for which would probably cost 

 not over ten or fifteen thousand dollars, and with the expectation that 

 il this amount were contributed by jjrivate citizens and the building 

 l)laced on Government land, Congress would make an appropriation 

 for i)urchasing the apjtaratus, and also a small annual approi)riation 

 necessary (or maintenance. This amount having been pledged by re- 

 spt)nsible parties, tho Secretary ha<l ordered some of the principal i»ieces 

 of apparatus whi(!h would take a long time to construct. A number of 

 valualdc jticces had also hvvu loaiu'd to the Institution, and to su])i)ly 

 provisional needs, a cover for all these in the form of a small temi)orary 



