REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



To the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution : 



Gentlemen : It again becomes m}^ duty to present to your honor- 

 able Board the Annual Report of the present condition of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and of its operations during the year 1854. 



In this report I shall follow the course adopted in the previous ones, 

 namely, to state such facts as may appear to be necessary to a con- 

 nected history of the Institution, and to offer such suggestions as may 

 seem important in reference to its future management. 



At no period since the commencement of the Institution has it at- 

 tracted more attention, or given rise to more discussion, than during 

 the past year ; but, thanks to the liberality of Congress, who ordered 

 the printing of twenty thousand extra copies of the last report, to which 

 were appended all the preceding reports of the secretary, together with 

 sundry other documents, ample means have been afforded the reading 

 public to become acquainted with the will of Smithson, his pursuits in? 

 life, with the law of Congress establishing the Institution, and with all 

 the acts of the Regents in the discharge of their duty. 



That the disposition of a bequest of so novel a character, the inten- 

 tion of which was so briefly though comprehensively expressed, should 

 give rise to a diversity of opinion, or that the act of Congress in refer- 

 ence to it, which received repeated amendments, and was passed, after 

 a discussion of several years, b}'^ a small majority, should be difTerently 

 construed, is not surprising. 



In the language of Mr. Adams : "A British subject, of noble birth 

 and ample fortune, desiring to bequeath his estate to the purpose of 

 increasing and diffusing knowledge throughout the whole community of 

 civihzed man, selected for tlie repository!' of his trust, with confidence 

 unqualified, the United States of America. In the commission of every 

 trust there is an implied tribute to the integrity and inteUigence of the 

 trustee ; there is, also, an implied call for the faithful exercise of those 

 properties to the fulfilment of the purposes of the trust. The tribute 

 and the call acquire additional force and energy when the trust is com- 

 mitted for performance after the decease of him by whom it is confided, 

 and when he no longer exists to witness or constrain the effective fulfil- 

 ment of his design. The magnitude of the trust, and the extent of con- 

 fidence bestowed in the committal of it, do but enlarge and aggravate 

 the obligation which it carries with it. The weight of duty imposed is 

 in proportion to the honor conferred by confidence without reserve." 



" The principal purpose of Mr. Smithson was, evidently, the discovery 

 of new truths, the invention of new means for the enlargement of human 

 power, and not the mere communication of knowledge already pos- 



