JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. XXJtlX 



"The Executive Counnittee be^' leave res[)ectfnll.y to represent tbat in 

 the preamble and resolution accompanying the call of the Acting Secre- 

 tary for the present extraordinary meeting of the Board of liegents, they 

 suppose themselves to have sufficiently set forth tlie reasons why this 

 call has been so long delayed ; the reasons which dictate the expediency 

 of holding an extraordiiniry meeting at the present time, and tlierefore 

 the objects which may i)roperly engage the attention of the Board iu 

 view of the proprieties and exigencies of the situation resulting from 

 the lamented death of the late Secretary. 



Cherishing for the late Professor Baird the profound regard inspired 

 by his talents, by his great attainments, by his life-work in the cause 

 of science, and by his distinguished services to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, and not doubting that this sentiment is shared by every mem- 

 ber of the Board, your committee have thought that it was due alike 

 to the memory of the departed Secretary whom we all held in high- 

 est honor, and to our own sense of the loss which the scientific world 

 m common with this Institution has sustained in his death, that we 

 should proceed, at the earliest jiracticable day, to take that api)ropri- 

 ate action in the premises which is dictated by our intimate oflBcial and 

 l)ersonal relations with the departed Secretary, aud by a sincere desire 

 on our part to testify aud record our heartfelt admiration of the great 

 and good man whose death we deplore. 



With regard to any exigencies, actual or contingent, resulting from 

 the death of the late Secretary, it does not need to be said that first m 

 order and first in importance stands the electing of a Secretary. Though 

 the transactions had by the Board at the last annual meeting, in the 

 appointmentof theAssistantSecretary, who is now the Acting Secretary 

 of the Institution, may have simplified the solution of this problem so 

 far as ice are concerned, yet there are obvious considerations of delicacy 

 wliich, in the case of a sensitive aud refined nature like that of the 

 eminent man in <piestion, must preclude him from acting with otiicial 

 freedom, and with a full sense of executive authority, until the mind of 

 the Board shall have been definitely declared with regard to the sue 

 cession in this most responsible otiice; and in the mean time he natu- 

 rally shrinks from doing aught in his office which may seem to conclude 

 the final action of the Board in the ])remises. 



As to any possible exigencies which may have arisen in consequence 

 of the multiplied engagements of the late Secretary, who, besides his 

 duties as the executive officer of the Smithsonian Institution, was also 

 charged with the direction of the U. S. National Museum, of the Bu- 

 reau of Ethnology, and of the U. S. Fish Commission, we beg leave to 

 say that certain important questions of future policy, deeply concern 

 iiig theprosperity of the Institution and the cause of American scieii(!e, 

 may jmssibly be thrust upon the Board at this juncture in a way to call 

 for careful consideration, if not for immediate decision. 



It is known to us all that Prof. Joseph Henry, the first Secretary and 



