XLII JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 



li. Resolved, That this Board do now proceed at ouce to tlie election of 

 a Secretary to fill the vacancy created by the death of Professor Baird, 

 and that the rights, powers, and dnties of the Secretary thus elected, 

 as well as his salary and emoluments, shall be the same as those pre- 

 scribed by the existing regulations. 



3. Resolved^ That the newly appointed Secretary is hereby requested 

 to make report in writing at the coming annual meeting, on any changes 

 which may seem to him desirable in the organization of the Smithsonian 

 Institution considered in its relations to the National Museum, to the 

 Bureau of Ethnology, and to such scientific aspects of the Fish Com- 

 mission as he may deem germane to the proper theory of the Institu- 

 tion, and which shall be capable of reduction 'under its wise and effi- 

 cient administration — that is, to consider and report how far the existing 

 relations between all or any of these adjuncts and the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution should be increased, altered, diminished, or abolished in order 

 the better to promote the original and organic design of the Institution 

 as established by Congress. 



4. Resolved, That a commitree of three shall be designated by the 

 Chair, to be composed of one Regent appointed from the Senate, one 

 Kegent appointed from the House of Representatives, and one Regent 

 appointed from the States, whose duty it shall be to investigate and 

 consider all the questions that may be suggested by the nature or ex- 

 tent of the relations now subsisting between the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion and any or allot l he other objects and adjuncts which are now 

 more or less definitely and completely under its administration, or un- 

 der the personal administration of its Assistant Secretary; that the said 

 committee, in maturing their views, be invited freely and frankly to 

 acquaint themselves with the opinions and judgments of the Secretary, 

 who, to this end, is hereby requested to communicate to the said com- 

 mittee, in the first instance, any recommendations which he shall sub- 

 mit in pursuance of the preceding resolution ; and, finally, that the said 

 committee be instructed to report to the Board at the annual meeting 

 appointed to take place on the 18th of January next, a digest of any 

 additional plans, i)olicies or methods of administration which they shall 

 judge expedient in order to meet any adjustment of relations that shall 

 "seem to be required by the best interests of the Institution committed 

 to our charge." 



The first resolution in the foregoing series was then taken up for con- 

 sideration, and on motion of Dr. Gray it was adopted. 



Messrs. Gray, Ingalls, and Welling were appointed a committee to 

 draft resolutions in honor of the late Secretary, and that committee, 

 through its chairman, Dr. Gray, reported the following preamble and 

 series of resolutions : 



Whereas in the disj^ensation of Divine Providence, the mortal life of 

 Spencer Fullerton Baird was ended on the 19th of August last, 

 the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, now at the earliest practi- 

 cable moment assembled, desire to express and record their profound 

 sense of the great loss which this Institution has thereby sustained, 

 any which they personally have sustained, and they accordingly re- 

 solve — 



1. That iu the lamented death of Professor Baird the Institution is 

 bereaved of its honored and efficient Secretary, who has faithfully and 

 unremittingly devoted to its service his rare administrative abilities for 

 thirty-seven years ; that is, almost from the actual foundation of the 



