THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 147 



experiments on the electro-magnet, and other subjects relating- to 

 electricity. Under his guidance the Institution took shape. Its Avork 

 at first consisted, in the main, of the publication of original memoirs, 

 containing actual contributions to knowledge, and their free distribu- 

 tion to important libraries throughout the world; to giving popular 

 lectures in Washington, publishing them, and distributing them to 

 li1)raries and individuals; stimulating scientific work b}" providing 

 apparatus and b}' making grants of money to worth 3' investigators, 

 cooperating with other Government Departments in the advancement 

 of work useful to the General Government, etc. These were the 

 principal methods employed bv Henry to carr^- out the purposes of 

 Smithson, for the increase and diffusion of knowledge. Here, too, 

 were initiated certain studies which afterwards became most fruitful 

 and have resulted in important Government work, such as the present 

 "Weather Bureau, among others. The beginning of cooperation in 

 lil^rary work was at this Institution. At the same time many — we 

 might ahnost say most — of the present scientific activities of the Gov- 

 ernment have grown out of it or been stimulated by it. Experiments 

 in fog signaling, in the acoustics and ventilation of public buildings, 

 and in numerous other subjects, were inaugurated. In fact, in these 

 earlier days, with one or two exceptions, the Smithsonian was the 

 sole representative of active scientific work directlv or indirectlj- con- 

 nected with the United States Government. Its influence upon the 

 character of private scientific work, too, was very great, since half a 

 centurv or more ago the avenues for publishing were few, and the 

 funds for the purpose slender. 



Gradually, out of the collections which had been kept in the Patent 

 Office, the private collections of Smithson, and of appropriations of 

 his money made by the Regents, and largely also through the results 

 of the great exploring expedition of Captain Wilkes, there grew up a 

 Smithsonian Museum, one which was exclusively cared for from the 

 Smithson fund; but which, partly through the greater activity of the 

 Government surveys and partly through the gifts of private individ- 

 uals, and also through the valuable objects presented to the United 

 States Government by foreign nations at the close of the Centennial 

 at Philadelphia in 1876, brought about the establishment of what is 

 now known as the United States National ]Museum of the Smithso- 

 nian Institution, which is under control of the Regents of the Institu- 

 tion, for which a building was provided, and which now receives direct 

 support from Congress. This Museum has now the matter belonging 

 to the original Institution collected by the Smithsonian's own observ- 

 ers, with much more secured through the General Government, making 

 in all over 5,000,000 specimens, and is the foremost collection in the 

 world in everything that relates to the natural history, ethnology, 

 geology, and paleontology of that portion of North America now the 



