FORTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1873-75. 739 



Professors Dana and "Whitney. (Professor Whitney, indeed, 

 has resided in California of kite years.) Professor Dana is 

 i\. great authority on matters of mines and minerals, and his 

 life has been where a library and apparatus, making the 

 prosecution of his labors pleasant and profitable, existed. 



Now the name of Alexander T. Stewart, a distinguished 

 financier, has been recommended in the place of another 

 man of -wealth and a business man in the State of New 

 York, (Mr. Astor,) and the committee would have been de- 

 lighted to adopt that recommendation ; but we were in- 

 formed by a gentleman on the committee, from the State of 

 New York, that the state of Mr. Stewart's health is such 

 that it would not be certain he would be able to give his 

 personal attention to the business of the Board of Regents. 

 Therefore, because it was not a matter of personal honor, 

 but because it was a matter of supplying the wants of this 

 institution, we recommend in his stead the name of an emi- 

 nent man of science in the State of Pennsylvania, formerly 

 the head of a university in that State, who adds to the repu- 

 tation and capacity of a scientific man great financial ability, 

 as exhibited in the management of his institution. 



Mr. Wood. Will the gentleman from Massachusetts, be- 

 fore he sits down, please tell me whether Mr. Astor retires 

 at his own request ? 



Mr. G. F. Hoar. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Wood. I am sorry for it, for he is one of the best 

 belles-lettres scholars in the country. I w^ill say, further, that 

 I cannot see what practical service these gentlemen render 

 when they come here once a year for a day or two. 



Mr. G. F. Hoar. I am glad the gentleman has made that 

 suggestion. Suppose the gentleman from New York goes 

 to Professor Henry with a paper composed by himself or 

 some friend, or asking an investigation involving the use of 

 apparatus or other expenditure from the funds of the insti- 

 tution ; Professor Henry refers that paper or that request 

 for an examination to one of these scientific gentlemen ; he 

 sends it to him at his home, and he spends perhaps days or 

 weeks in determining whether the paper is one proper to 

 be published at the expense of the Smithsonian Institute, 

 or whether the inv'estigation is one fit to be pursued. This 

 meeting once or twice a year in Washington is but a trifle 

 to the labor which these five or six scientific gentlemen per- 

 form in the course of the year. There is residing in my own 

 city a gentleman, the librarian of the Antiquarian Society 

 there, who prepared by the labor of years a very interesting 

 and important paper upon the origin of races in thiscountrj' — 



