PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF REGENTS. 319 



the understanding that the time may come when the progress of science among 

 us would make it desirable that returns in kind should be expected. 



The Smithsonian Institution has now been in operation for twenty years. In 

 acknowledgment of its published Contributions to Knowledge it has received the 

 splendid library which now adorns the Congressional library. Is it not time that 

 the rights accrued in consequence of the distribution of specimens by the Insti 

 tution should be called in ; that this great outstanding debt, as it may well be 

 called, should be collected before the recipients of these manifold gifts have passed 

 away, and the benefits thus conferred by the Smithsonian are altogether forgot- 

 ten ; when the Institution might find it difficult to obtain, without new offerings, 

 that which at this moment it may claim as its due ? 



Should this Board approve the recommendation of this committee, no time 

 ought to be lost in giving notice to all the various institutions with which the 

 Smithsonian is in regular correspondence, that this is henceforth to be the regu- 

 lar policy of the Institution. On the other hand it is indispensable that we 

 should make the necessary preparations for receiving these objects, and also 

 determine beforehand the ultimate destination of the extensive collections which 

 no doubt will flow in as soon as we are prepared to take care of them. Your 

 committee is of opinion that the great hall in the second story of the building 

 should be used for the reception of these collections, and the smaller rooms in 

 the towers, as far as not .needed for other purposes, as laboratories to identify, 

 arrange, classify, and distribute these collections for the greatest advantage of 

 science among us, until suitable arrangements can be made for the organization 

 of a great national museum, to which the whole should in the end be transferred. 



It is self-evident that the collections likely to come in will soon outgrow the 

 capacity of the Smithsonian Institution and its ability to take care of them, with- 

 out applying its income to objects for which it was not intended. But the diffi- 

 culty of disposing of these scientific treasures is no sufficient ground why the 

 Smithsonian should surrender its large claims on other scientific institutions ; for, 

 in so doing, it would simply deprive the country of scientific objects, which other 

 museums would be glad to receive should the Smithsonian be obliged to give 

 them up before the country demands and organizes a great national museum in 

 Washington. 



To sum up these remarks, your committee recommends — 



1st. That the distribution of specimens carried on by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution be continued and extended, but that at the same time proper returns be 

 required whenever the specimens are not given out in aid of original researches 

 or for educational purposes. 



2d. That the expenses for such operations be limited to the resources especi- 

 ally appropriated for the purpose, and not allowed to encroach upon the regular 

 active operations of the Institution. 



3d. That the great hall of the second story of the building, and such other 

 rooms as are not required for the regular operations of the institution, be devoted 

 to the preservation of the scientific collections. 



All of which is respectfully submitted in behalf of the committee. 



L. AGASSIZ. 



