TJic Genesis of the United States National Museum. 109 



The movement had received its deathblow, however. The faihire of 

 the tremendous effort of April, 1844, disheartened all its friends. At the 

 next annual meeting Mr. Poinsett declined reelection to the presidency. 

 The society's publications were discontinued, and even the annual address 

 of vSenator Woodbury, solicited for publication by the society, seems to 

 have remained in manuscript unprinted. 



No more meetings were held, no more bulletins printed, the magnifi- 

 cent list of 350 resident and 1,250 corresponding members began to grow 

 shorter. An effort was made to revive it in 1847, and a meager report 

 was made once afterward by the corresponding secretary. In 1855 it was 

 brought into existence for a time as a local scientific society, and issued 

 a new series of proceedings.' Its glory departed, however, with the first 

 annual meeting in 1844, and the attention of Congress was directed toward 

 the organization of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The influence of the National Institute upon the history of science in 

 the United States, and particularly in educating public opinion and the 

 judgment of Congress to an application of the proper means of disposing 

 of the Smithsonian legacy, can not well be overestimated. 



If the Smithsonian had been organized before the National Institute 

 had exerted its influences, it would have been a school, an observatory, 

 or an agricultural experiment station. 



In 1846, however, the country was prepared to expect it to be a general 

 agency for the advancement of scientific interests of all kinds — as catho- 

 lic, as unselfish, as universal as the National Institute. 



The National Institute, after nearly five years of activity, suddenly 

 ceased to be a center of public interest. The struggle over the Smith- 

 sonian bequest, however, still continued. During the Twenty-seventh 

 Congress, 1841-1843, the Senate did nothing. The House of Represent- 

 ativ^es appointed a select committee on the subject, and Mr. Adams as 

 its chairman reported a new bill, providing still more thoroughly for 

 the erection of an observatory and the publication of a nautical almanac 

 to be called the Smithsonian Almanac. Petitions continued to come 

 in, some urging action and asking for the establishment of prizes for 

 scientific essays, another for the establishment of an agricultural school 

 and farm in the District of Columbia. The National Institvite had 

 perhaps fallen somewhat into disfavor with Congress — or, it may be, had 

 become so prominent as to awaken feelings of opposition. 



The Twenty-eighth Congress (1843-1845) brought their deliberations 

 more nearly to an issue. 



The astronomical observatory bill (H. R. 418, Twenty -eighth Congress) 

 was again presented by Mr. Adams, but not acted upon. In the Senate, 

 both in the first and second sessions, a bill for the Smith.sonian Institu- 



' Professor Henry was for a time an officer [vice president] , and endeavored to have 

 . its name changed to Metropolitan Institute. 



