REPORT OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 127 



FIRST REPORT.* 



Report of the Secretary of the Smithsonifui Institution to the Board of Re- 

 gents, December 8, 1847. 



Gentlemen : A statement of the financial condition of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and of the progress made in the erection of the build- 

 ing, having been presented to your Board by the Committees charged 

 with the care of these objects, it becomes my duty, as Secretar}^ of the 

 Institution, to give an account of what has been done relative to the 

 development of the plan of organization, and of the steps which have 

 been taken in the way of carrying it into operation. 



In accordance with my instructions, I consuUed with men of emi- 

 nence in the different branches of hterature and science, relative to the 

 details of the plan of organization, and arranged the various suggestions 

 offered, in the form of the accompanying programme. This, after hav- 

 ing been submitted to a number of persons in whose knowledge and 

 judgment I have confidence, is now presented to the Board, with the 

 concurrence of the Committee on Organization, for consideration and 

 provisional adoption. I regret that my engagements have been such as 

 to render it impossible for me to call ijpon many persons whose counsel 

 would have been valuable, but I hope hereafter to avail myself of their 

 advice in behalf of the Institution. I also regret that I could not give 

 the names of those whose suggestions have been adopted in the pro- 

 gramme ; the impossibility of rendering justice to all, has prevented my 

 attempting this. Many of the suggestions have been offered by differ- 

 ent persons, independently of each other ; and, indeed, the general plan 

 of the increase and diffusion of knowledge, as adopted by the Board, is 

 such as would naturally arise in the rnind of any person conversant 

 with the history of physical science, and with the means usually em- 

 ployed for its extension and diffusion. 



The introduction to the progi-amme contains a series of propositions, 

 suggested by a critical examination of the will ot#Smithson, to serve as 

 a guide in judging of the fitness of any proposed plan for carrying out 

 the design of the testator. The first section of the programme gives 

 the details of the plan proposed for the increase and diffusion of know- 

 ledge by means of publication and original researches. The second sec- 

 tion furnishes the details, so far as they can be made out at the present 

 time, of the formation of a library, and a collection of objects of na- 

 ture and art. These two plans combined, embrace the general propo- 

 sitions adopted by the Board of Regents at their last meeting, as the 

 basis of future operations. It is intended in the proposed plan to har- 



* Tlic first report of the Secretary was given in the second report of the Regents to 

 Congress, hence the number of the former is one less than that of the latter. 



