O REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



lu accordance with the instructions of the Board of Regents at its 

 last annual meeting, I requested the Conmiittee on Appropriations of 

 the House of Eepreseutatives to make certain changes in the assign- 

 ment of appropriations and the method of their disbursement. 



The following is the correspondence on the subject with the Secretary 

 of the Interior and with the chairman of the Committee on Appropria- 

 tions. 



Smithsonian Institution, 



February 29, 1888. 

 Sir: I have the honor to make the following requests in regard to 

 the assignment of the appropriations for the maintenance of the U. S. 

 National Museum for the coming fiscal J'ear: 



(1) That the items for "preservation of collections," "heating and 

 lighting," " furniture and fixtures" be transferred from their present 

 position in the schedule of "Estimates of Appropriations, 1888-'89" (p. 

 237), under the Department of the Interior, to a place under the gen- 

 eral head of "under the Smithsonian Institution," and along with and 

 in proximity to the other items to be expended under the direction of 

 the Smithsonian Institution or its Secretary. 



(2) That each of these items be placed directly under the subhead 

 " Under the direction of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution as 

 director of the National Museum." 



(3) That a special item be inserted under the caption "Public print- 

 ing and binding," providing the sum of $10,000 for printing labels and 

 blanks for the use of the National Museum and for the " Bulletins" and 

 annual volumes of the " Proceedings" of the Museum. 



In explanation of these requests, I submit the following statements : 



Theactof Congress establishing the Smithsonian Institution, approved 

 August 10, 1846 (Revised Statutes, Title LXXIll, sections (^579, 5594), 

 provided that all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, and 

 all objects of natural history, plants, and "geological and mineralogical 

 specimens belonging or hereafter to belong to the United States, which 

 may be in the city of Washington, shall be delivered to the Regents of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and, together with new specimens obtained 

 by .exchange, donation, or otherwise, sliall be so arranged and classified 

 as best to facilitate their examination and study. 



The National Museum, as it is now called, was thus placed under the 

 sole control and direction of the Smithsonian Institution, and has ever 

 since remained under its control ; Congress having, since 1858, made 

 annual appropriations for its maintenance. Untiri880, however, the 

 sums thus appropriated were inadc<piate, and the yearly deficieuces 

 were paid from the income of the Institution. 



In accordance with a practice of nearly thirty years the estimates for 

 the annual appropriations have been each year, at the request of the 

 Secretary of this Institution, forwarded by the Secretary of the Interior 

 to the Secretary of the Treasury for transmission to Congress, and the 

 disbursement of the appropriation has been made by the disbursing 

 agent of the Interior Department. 



This arrangement is somewhat inconvenient and cumbersome, and at 

 the last meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 

 the following resolution was adopted: 



'^Resolved, That the Regents recommend to Congress that the form 

 of the sundry civil appropriation bill be so changed in the terms relating 

 to the Museum and the Bureau of Ethnology«as to provide— 



