JOURNAL OF PROCEEDlNi^S OF THE BOARD OF RF(iENTS 01 

 THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



special meetin(j (iv the ijoakb i)v kegents. 



October 21, 1891. 



Pnrsnant to a call by tlic Scciotaiy, a special incctiiigoftlio Board of 

 Kegcuts was held at the Jiistitutiou to-day at 1(>:.'>() a.m. Present: 

 the Honorable Levi P. Mortem, Vice-President of th(> United States; 

 tlie Honorable S. IM. Cnllom, the Honorable E. L. Gibson, the Honor- 

 able li. Butterworth, Dr. A. I). White, Br. J. (\ Welling, Dr. Henry 

 Coppee, Gen. M. O. Meigs, and the Secretary. 



The Vice-President took the chair and called the meeting to order, 

 and on Dr. Welling's snggestion, there being in) objection, the rea<ling 

 of the minntes of the last annnal nu^eting was dis])ensed with. 



The Secretary then stated that he had, sonn? months since, entered 

 on a correspondence with Mr. Thomas G. Hodgkins, of Setanket, Long- 

 Island, and that Mr. Hodgkins had intimated his desire to give a con- 

 siderable snm to the fnnd of the Smithsonian Institntion "for the in- 

 crease and dififnsiou of knowledge among men." Fnrther correspond- 

 ence led to visits to Mr. Hodgkins by the Secretary and by tlie Assistant 

 Secretary, and to prolonged conferences with him, the resnlt of which 

 was that Mr. Hodgkins offered a donation of .|2(K),(>()(), concerning 

 which the Secretary had telegi-ajthed the Eegcnts Jnne 22, and npon 

 receiving the individual approval of most of the Uegents to the ac(;ept- 

 ance of the snm named, Mr. Hodgkins had later, on September 22, at his 

 home on Long Island, given this annnint in casli to the Secretary, who, 

 in com])any Avith tin; Assistant Secretary, had bronglit it to Wasliington 

 and deposited it in the Treasury of the United States, with the under- 

 standing that an early meeting of the Regents would be called as a 

 body to c()nsi<ler as to its accei>taiu'e. 



The exact terms in which Mr. Hodgkins made this gift wonld, the 

 Secretary said, be stated later; but he gives .$200,000 to the Smithsonian 

 Institntion to l)e added to the Smithson fund piopcr "for the increase 

 and diffnsion of knowledge among men," with the condition that the 

 income of -$100,000 of the gift shall be used, under this general purpose, 

 for the especial one of the increase and dillusion of knowledge by in- 

 vestigating and spreading knowledge concerning all the i»henoniena of 

 atmospheric air. 



XI 



