XII JOURNAL OP PROCEEDINGS. 



Dr. Wellius, i'l presenting the report of the Executive Committee for 

 the fiscal year ending- June 30, 1889, called the attention of the Board 

 to the stytemeut on page 5, under the head of International Exchanges 

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

 beyond the annual appropriation made by Congress, entailing annual 

 loss upon the fund of the Smithsonian Institution) and to the recom- 

 mendation that Congress be requested to make appropriations to reim- 

 burse the Smithsonian fund. 



On motion it was — 



Resolved, That the Eegents 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. 



The rei)ort of the committee was then approved. 

 On motion of Dr. Welling it was also — 



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

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

 to l)e expended by the Secretary, with the advice of the Executive Cou)- 

 mittee, upon the basis of the oi)erations descuibed in the last annual 

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

 tary as to items of expenditures properly falling under each of the heads 

 embraced in the established conduct of the Institution. 



The Secretary, in i)resenting his report for the year ending June 30, 

 1889, referred especially to the fact that the Smithsonian Institution is 

 now, and has been for some time, paying out an increasingly large i^or- 

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

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

 mate application for the immediate "increase and ditfusiou 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 

 paid the Institution $300,000 for the use of the present building alone. 



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

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

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

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



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

 atory on a modest scale, the building for which would probably cost 

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

 if this amount were contributed by private citizens and the building 

 ])laced on Government land. Congress uouhl make an appropriation 

 for purchasing the apparatus, and also a small annual appropriation 

 necessary for maintenance. This amount having been pledged by re- 

 s[)onsible parties, the Secretary had ordered some of the principal pieces 

 of apparatus which would take a long time t > construct. A number of 

 valuable pieces had also been loaned lo the Institution, and to supply 

 provisional needs, a cover for all these in the form of a small temuorarv 



