18 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



of a museum at the exi:)ense of the Institution that he was not well dis- 

 posed toward the advance of natural history. But this misapprehension 

 can readily be removed by the consideration that natural history could 

 be much more effectually advanced by expending less than a moiety of 

 the cost of the building for the museum and the support of the collec- 

 tions, in original explorations, in collecting specimens not to be pre- 

 served, but to be distributed to all wlio might have the desire and ability 

 to investigate special problems in this branch of knowledge. The policy 

 in regard to natural history is that of making collections of large num- 

 bers of duplicate specimens to illustrate the natural productions of North 

 America, to make these up into sets, reserving one for the National 

 Museum, and distributing all the others for scientific and educational 

 purposes to the museums of the world. In every case in which appli- 

 cation has been made to the Institution by an original investigator from 

 any part of the world for specimens connected with his researches, they 

 have been sent to him as far as possible, assurance being given that the 

 specimens would be properly used and full credit given to the name of 

 Smithson. As the specimens are collected, as a general rule, they are 

 submitted to specialists in the various branches of natural history, who, 

 without charge, classify, arrange, and label them for distribution. In 

 this way the Institution has done much for natural history ; but it is 

 evident that it could have done much more had it not been obliged to 

 support a public museum at the expense of several hundred thousand 

 dollars for an edifice for this purpose. 



One prominent maxim of the Institution has been " co-operation not 

 monopoly," and another, "in all cases, as far as possible, not to occupy 

 ground especially cultivated by other establishments," or, in other words, 

 not to expend the money of the bequest in doing that for which provis- 

 ion could be obtained through other means. To gratify men of litera- 

 tm-e as well as to advance an important branch of knowledge, from the 

 first much attention has been given to anthropology, including linguis- 

 tics, antiquities, and everything which tends to reconstruct the history 

 of man in the past; this being a common ground on which the man of 

 letters and of science could meet as harmonious collaborators. 



From the foregoing sketch it Avill be evident that the theory of the In- 

 stitution is that of an ideal establishment for the collection of facts, the 

 elaboration of these into general principles, and a difl'usion of the re- 

 sidts among men of every race and of every clime. That an institution 

 of this character, in which the accumulation of ideas and not merely of 

 material objects is the great end, should not have been properly appre- 

 ciated at first in a country so eminently practical as ours is not surpris- 

 ing. But we are happy in knowing it has been from year to year 

 growing in public estimation, and we are encouraged to cherish the 

 belief that it will not onlj' realize the ideas of the benevolent founder 

 of the Institution, but also serve as an example of imitation, while the 



