Ii6 Memorial of George Broiv)i Goode. 



ing Squadron's exertions, containing a variety of interesting objects of 

 Natural Histor}^ and destined for the cabinet of the Institution, have 

 been shipped at Philadelphia, and are expected as soon as the navigation 

 opens. ' ' ' 



Here, again, Mr. Poinsett's prompt action told in the interest of the 

 future national museum. If he had waited till the navigation opened 

 he would have been obliged to treat with the Secretary of the Navy. 



The entirely unorganized condition of affairs in Washington and the 

 lack of experience in museum administration is shown by the fact that 

 Mr.W. McGuigan, curator of the Philadelphia Museum Company, thought 

 it necessary to write the following amusing cautionary letter, which was 

 printed in the bulletin of the Institution: 



It would be tinadvisable to break open the cases containing the articles collected 

 by the South Sea Exploring Expedition, until such period as they are intended to be 

 prepared for exhibition. The immense quantity of arsenic, and corrosive sublimate 

 necessary for their preservation requires imperativel}' that very great caution should 

 be observed, and that the handling and arrangements should be under either the 

 immediate inspection or personal attention of one fully adequate to all the details 

 connected with this subject. 



In the hands of inexperienced persons death might be the result. 



W. MCGUIGAN. 



Phii<adei,phia, February 6, 1841. 



Still another step was taken on March 3, 1841, the day before the final 

 adjournment, which I am also disposed to attribute to the forethought 

 and interest of Mr. Poinsett, which was the appropriation by Congress 

 of $5,000 "for defraying the expenses of transporting to the city of 

 Washington and of arranging the collections made by the exploring 

 expedition." 



The committee, consisting of Colonel Abert, Mr. Markoe, Mr. Dayton, 

 and Doctor King, appointed under a resolution passed at the stated meet- 

 ing of the National Institution on the 13th December, 1 841, which is 

 in the following words : 



Resolved, That a committee of four members be appointed by the Chair to 

 examine the subject of Exchanges, to propose a plan for that purpose, and to report 

 fully thereon to the Institution for its further consideration and action, beg leave, in 

 pursuance of the directions of the said resolution, to report — 



That the duty devolved on the committee by the resolution, is. First, to examine the 

 subject of exchanges; second, to propose a plan of exchanges; and, third, to report 

 thereon to the Institution. In reference to the first point, viz: "the examination of 

 the subject," the committee state that they have examined the subject, and that the 

 result has been a full conviction of mind that a system of exchanges is of verj^ great 

 importance in the accomplishment of one of the primary objects for which the 

 National Institution has been declared to be formed, viz: " the establishment of a 

 national museum of natural history," etc. Exchanges enter essentially into the 

 plan of every society constituted as the National Institution, and having like objects 

 in view ; and no occasion has been omitted to acquaint societies and individuals, 

 whose correspondence has been sought by or offered to the National Institution, that 



' Proceedings of the National Institution, ist Bull., p. 48. 



