REPORT OF SAMUEL \\ EANGLEY, 



SECKETAKY OB^ THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, FOR IftW-'dd. 



To the Board of Regents of the S»iithsoni(XU Institiitioii: 



GentlExMEN : I have the honor to j)reseut with this the customary 

 report for the year ending' June 30, 1888. 



This year is memorable for the loss to the Institution, not only of its 

 Chancellor and of others to be mentioned later, but of its late Secretary, 

 Spencer F. Baird. 



I have endeavored elsewhere to characterize his character and serv- 

 ices, while yet feeling that one who has been so recently called to fill 

 his place is hardly the fittest person to adequately describe them 5 but 

 that may surely be repeated here which is no secret to any one, that 

 a most honore<l and useful life, which might have been prolonged for 

 many years, came to an end which can not but be called premature, 

 largely through a too self-sacrificing d(^votion to the ])ublic service. 



I shall also have to speak later of the loss to the Institution of its 

 Chancellor, the late Chief-Justice of the United States — a man whom 

 those honored with his acquaintance grew, in i)roportion to their 

 knowledge of him, to look up to and trust ; and of one of its Eegents, 

 Prof. Asa Gray, preeminent in science, but in whom, as in the Chief- 

 Justice, the qualities of the intellect were supplemented by others, such 

 that both inspired even in their official relations, a feeling not only of 

 respect, but of affection, which the formal intercourse oif public life 

 rarely brings. 



The past has, indeed, been a fatal year to the Institution ; but these 

 great losses have been spoken of at length in its necrology, and I will 

 now ask to be allowed to preface this and the rest of my report by a 

 few personal words. 



Although long acquainted with both Professor Henry and Professor 

 Eaird t had no official relationship with either until two years ago, when 

 the latter, in view of the end which he must have felt to be approaching, 

 asked me if I was disposed to assume a connection with the Institution 

 wkile continuing the scientific researches to which my life had been 

 chiedy devoted. 



The position then tendered me, and later at your hands, that of Sec- 

 retary, was accepted, from the knowledge that in your view such re- 

 searches for the increase of knowledge, no less than administrative la- 

 H. Mis. 142 1 ^ 



