REPORT OF THE .SECRETARY. 77 



PKOFESSOR BAIKD. 



I have referred, at tin' bo^itiiiiiig of this report, to tlie death of the hite 

 Secretary. Both the greatness of the h)ss to science and to this Insti- 

 tution make lue feel the need of spealving again and more particularly 

 both of him and of his work. 



When, in January, 1887, the Secretary asked of your honorable body 

 authority to appoint two assistant secretaries to relieve him from the 

 growing' burden of his official occupations, it was doubtless with the 

 consciousness that his failing strength no longer permitted the contin- 

 uous attention to his varied duties which he had previously, with ready 

 zeal, bestowed. When, under the imperative orders of his physician, he 

 withdrew himself (as much as his active mental interest permitted) 

 from the executive operations of his position, the com[)arative relaxa- 

 tion of effort and responsibility seemed to have been accepted too late 

 to give him its expected relief and recuperation ; and his exhausted 

 l>owers continued to decline until he quietly breathed his last, on the 

 afternoon of the 19th of August, 1887, at the headquarters of the U. S. 

 Commission of Fisheries, at Wood's IIoll. 



In recognition of his distinguished services, a bill was introduced in 

 the Senate of the United States, and i)assed by that body February 10, 

 1888, making an appropriation for the erection of a bronze statue to 

 commemorate his merits. 



A bill was also introduced in the Senate for the benefit of his widow. 



At a special meeting of the Board of Regents, held November 18, 

 1887, the following resolutions were i^assed : 



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

 of Spencer Fullerton Baird was ended on the IDth of August last, the 

 Kegents of the Smithsonian Institution, now at the earliest practicable 

 moment assembled, desire to express and to record their inofound sense 

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

 which they personally have sustained. And they accordingly resolve : 



1. That, in the himented death of Professor Baird, the Institution is 

 bereaved of its iionored aiul elTicient 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 tiie 

 establishment — for the lastnine years as its chief executive olticer, under 

 whose sagacious management it has j^reatly i)rospered and widely ex- 

 tended its usefulness and its renown. 



2. That the National Museum, ol" which tliis Institution is the ad- 

 ministrator, and the Fish Commission, which is i)racti(;ally alliliated to 

 it, both organized and in a just sense created by our late Secretary, are 

 by this l)ereavement deprived of the invaluable and unpaid services of 

 their indefatigable oflicial head. 



3. That the cultivators of science, both in this country and abroad, 

 have to dei)lore the loss of a veteran and distinguished naturalist, who 

 was from early years a sedulous and successful investigator; whose 

 native gifts and whose experieiu^e in systematic biological work served 

 in no small degree to adapt him to the administrative duties which 

 billed the later vears of his lit*', but whose knowle<lge and whose inter- 

 est in science widened and deepeued as the o[)portuuities for special 



