234 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



and in this way a foretaste has been given of the fruit of the operations, 

 which will tend, in some degree, to insure their continuance. 



But if, notwithstanding all this, the Institution is destined to a 

 change of policy, what has been well done in the line we are advo- 

 cating can never be undone. The new truths developed by the 

 researches originated by the Institution, and recorded in its ])ublica- 

 tions ; the effect of its exchanges with foreign countries ; and the 

 results of the cataloguing system, can never be obliterated; they will 

 endure through all coming time. Should the government of the United 

 States be dissolved, and the Smithsonian fund dissipated to the winds, 

 the " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledofe" will still be found in 

 the principal libraries of the world, a perpetual monument of the 

 wisdom and liberality of the founder of the Institution, and of the faith- 

 fulness of those who first directed its affairs- 

 Whatever, therefore, may be the future condition of the Institution, 

 the true policy, for the present, is to devote its energies to the system 

 of active operations. All other objects should be subordinate to this, 

 and be in no wise suffered to diminish the good which it is capable of pro- 

 ducing. It should be prosecuted with discretion, but with vigor ; the 

 results will be its vindication. 



It was stated in the last Report that the Institution had been the 

 contingent legatee of a considerable amount of property. During 

 the past year the facts with reference to this bequest have been inves- 

 tigated, and it appears that Mr. Wynn, of Brooklyn, N. Y., deceased, 

 left a legacy to his wife, and the greater part of his property, valued at 

 $75,000, to his daughter, a child six years old, with the condition that at 

 the death of this daughter without issue, the property should come to the 

 Smithsonian Institution. In making this bequest Mr. Wynn says, in his 

 will : " I know no benevolent institution more useful and appropriate 

 than. the Smithsonian Institution at Washington." 



This circumstance is highly gratifying to the friends of the Institu- 

 tion, not because it offers a remote possibility of an increase of the 

 funds, but on account of the evidence it affords of the liberal views of 

 the deceased, and of his confidence in the proper management and im- 

 portance of the Smithsonian bequest. The will of Mr. Wynn induces 

 us to believe that the right administration of the Smithsonian fund will 

 cause similar examples of liberality on the part of wealthy individuals 

 of our country ; and in this point of view the responsibility which 

 rests on those who have the direction of the affairs of this Institution 

 is greater than that with reference to the good which the income itself 

 may immediately accomplish. 



Though it is scarcely to be expected that many unconditional 

 bequests will be made, yet the example of Sraithson may induce the 

 founding of other institutions which inay serve to perpetuate other 

 names, and increase the blessings which may flow from such judicious 

 liberality. Man is a s^anpathetic being ; and it is not impossible that 

 Smithson himself may have caught the first idea of his benevolent 

 design from the example of our countryman. Count Rumford, the 

 principal founder of the Royal Institution of London. 



Bequests for special purposes, bearing the names of the testators, are 

 not incongruous with the plan of this Institution. Lectureships on 



