PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 941 



honor on the office, not requiring to borrow distinction 

 from it. 



Your committee will not withhold their opinion, that 

 upon the choice of this single officer, more probably than 

 on any one other act of the board, will depend the future 

 good name and success and usefulness of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. 



A similar view, your committee believe, has been taken 

 of this matter by the principal scientific societies through- 

 out the world. Newton disdained not to answer, at much 

 length, the friendly and able criticisms on some of his the- 

 ories addressed to him by Oldenburg, first Secretary of the 

 London Royal Society; and the name of Arago, Secretary 

 of the Academy of Sciences, of Paris, is known and hon- 

 ored wherever science extends her sway. 



All which is respectfully submitted, 



Robert Dale Owen, 



Chairman. 



The following resolutions, appended to the report of the 

 committee and recommended for adoption, were, after de- 

 bate, passed by the board : 



Resolved, That it is expedient, and demanded by the will of the testator, 

 that, in our plan of organization, the increase of knowledge by original 

 research should form an essential feature ; that, in furtherance of this 

 object, premiums be offered at such times and to such amounts as the board 

 may hereafter decide, for original papers, containing positive additions to 

 the sum of human knowledge ; and tlaat these, together with other suitable 

 papers, be published in Transactions of the institution, to be entitled 

 " Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," and to be issued periodically 

 or occasionally, in quarto form, as materials may be obtained. 



Resolved, That it is within the strict purpose of the trust, and may mate- 

 rially advance its legitimate objects, occasionally to make specific appropria- 

 tions for definite lines of research, the results to be published as above. 



Resolved, That, with a view to the diffusion of knowledge, there may 

 properly be included in the plan of organization the issuing of publications, 

 in brief and jiopular form, on subjects of general interest. 



Resolved, That, with a similar object, there may also properly be included 

 in the plan of organization the issuing of periodical reports, containing 

 records of the progress of knowledge in its dilFercnt branches. 



Resolved, That there may also properly be included in the plan free lec- 

 tures, to be delivered by competent persons, on useful subjects ; and that it 

 may advantageously be made a part of the duty of the Secretary and his 

 assistants, to give, in the lecture rooms of the institution, at stated periods, 

 illustrations of discoveries in science, and important inventions in the arts. 



Besides the above resolutions, originally reported by the 

 Committee on Organization, the following additional resolu- 

 tions, submitted by a member of the Committee on Organi- 

 zation, as a compromise between two great conflicting 

 opinions, were adopted by the committee, and passed by 

 the board : 



