Mis. No. 48. 11 



and cautiously, with such changes from time to time, as experience might 

 dictate. The Institution is not one of a day; but is designed to endure as 

 long as our government shall exist, and it is therefore peculiarly important 

 that in the beginning we should proceed carefully and not attempt to j)ro- 

 duce im.mediate effects at the expense of permanent usefulness. The pro- 

 cess of increasing knowledge is an extremely slow one, and the value of 

 the results of this part of the plan cannot be properly realized until some 

 years have elapsed. Independendy of these considerations, the fmancial 

 arrangements adopted by the Board of Regents, are such as to prevent 

 the full operation of the Institution until after three years from next 

 March; up to that time more than one-half of the income is to be devoted 

 to the erection of the building, and indirectly to the increase of the perma- 

 nent fund. 



It will be recollected that the programme embraces — 



1st. The plan of publishing original memoirs on all branches of knowl- 

 edge, in a series of quarto volumes, 



2d. The institution of original researches under the direction of compe- 

 tent persons. 



3d, The publication of a series of reports from year to year, giving an 

 account of the progress of the different branches of knowledge. 



4th. The formation of a library and a museum of objects of nature and 

 art. 



Publication of original memoirs. 



The first volimie of the Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge has 

 been published and partially distributed. It consists of a single memoir 

 on the ancient monuments of the Mississippi valley, comprising the results 

 of extensive original surveys and explorations by E. G. Squier, A.M., 

 and E. H. Davis, M. D. It is illustrated by forty eight lithographic plates, 

 and by two hundred and seyen wood engravings. The mechanical exe- 

 cution of the volume will bear comparison with that of any publication 

 ever issued from the American press. / 



In the publication of the first volume of the Contributions, the question 

 occurred as to the propriety of securing the copyright to the Institution. I 

 had not an opportunity of conferring with the Executive Committee on 

 this point, and was therefore obliged to settle it on my own responsibility. 

 I concluded that it would be more in accordance with thft spirit of the in- 

 stitution to decide against the copyright. The knowledge which the 

 Smithsonian Institution mav be instrumental in presenting to the world 

 should be free to all who 'are capable of using it. The republication 

 of our papers ought to be considered as an evidence of their importance, 

 and should be encouraged rather than prohibited. 



The fir^t memoir occupies an entire volume, and this accidental cir- 

 cumstance has given rise to a misconception of the plan. It has been sup- 

 posed that each volume of the Smithsonicin Contributions is in like man- 

 ner tc^consist of a sepa^rate treatise on a particular subject selected with a 

 view to popular interest. But such is not the case; each volume will gene- 

 rally contain a number of separate memoirs, on different branches ot knowl- 

 edge, similar to the usual published transactions of learned societies. Ihe 

 only reason why the first volume is occupied with a subject ot general in- 

 terest rather than one on some more abstruse branch of science iS; that the 



