90 REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 



On account of the delay in obtaining the interest due from the 

 United States at the beginning of the year, the foregoing accounts 

 for 1861 were made up to the 9th of January, 1862. 



It will be seen that the whole income during the year 1861 was 

 $34,660 14, instead of the estimated income of $38,626 14. This 

 difterence is caused by the failure of Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia 

 to pay the interest on their bonds, and by the treasurer not having 

 .as yet collected the $6 from the corporation of Washington. 



The expenditures during 1861 were $29,136 92, leaving $5,523 22 

 to be added to the balance in the hands of the treasurer on the 11th 

 of January, 1861, making $22,045 17 in hand for paying in cash the 

 expenses of the operations of the Institution as rapidly as the bills 

 are presented. 



The foregoing statement is an actual exhibit of the Smithsonian 

 funds irrespective of credits and disbursements which have been 

 made in behalf of other parties. For example : the Institution fre- 

 quently advances money to pay for the transportation of packages in 

 connexion with its general system of exchange, and in all such 

 cases the money when refunded is credited to the appropriation from 

 which the expenditure was originally made. Again: the use of the 

 lecture room is, in many instances, granted for charitable and literary 

 purposes without any other charge than that for the gas consumed 

 and the pay of the necessary attendants, the whole amounting to 

 ten dollars each ni2:ht. Half of this is credited on the books of 

 the Institution to the account of "lighting and heating," and the 

 other half paid directly to the persons employed. 



The appropriation from Congress for the preservation of the col- 

 lections of the exploring and surveying expeditions of the United 

 States has been expended as usual, under the direction of the Secre- 

 tary of the Interior, in assisting to pay the expenses of extra assistants 

 in the museum, and the cost of arranging and preserving the speci- 

 mens. The sum received from this source has been credited to the 

 museum, and has served to diminish the amount of expenditures for that 

 object on the part of the Institution, although it has by no means been 

 sufficient to defray all the expenses to which the establishment has 

 been subjected, on account of the preservation and public exhibition 

 of the specimens. 



The articles intrusted to the care of the Institution are in good 

 condition, and the work of the distribution of the duplicates of the 

 government as well as those of the Institution is in active progress. 



A part of the expenditure on the building is due to the introduc- 

 tion of the Potomac water, but a further expenditure during the pi*ies- 

 ent year will be required for the same purpose. 



Although the income of the Institution during 1861 has been 

 nearly $4,000 less than was estimated at the beginning of the year, 

 yet the Secretary, by a proper curtailment of the operations in view 

 of the unsettled condition of the times, has reduced the expenditures 

 to $5,000 less than the actual income. All the outstanding obliga- 

 tions of the Institution for works which have been commenced would 

 not exceed $2,000, ^so that the establishment could to-day wind up 



