JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE BOARD OF REGENTS 



OF THE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



Washington, D. C, January 25, 1872. 



A meeting of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 

 was held this day in the Regents' room, at 7 o'clock p. m. Present: 

 Bon. H. Hamlin, Hon. L. Trumbull, Hon. G. Davis, Hon. L. P. Poland, 

 Hon. S. S. Cox, Hon. P. Parker, Hon. H. D. Cooke, and Professor Henry, 

 the Secretary. 



Mr. Hamlin was called to the chair. 



The Secretary stated that an act of Congress had substituted the 

 governor of the District of Columbia as an ex-officio Regent, in place of 

 the mayor of Washington, the latter office having ceased to exist. 

 Governor Cooke was then introduced as a member of the Board. 



Dr. Parker, from the Executive Committee, presented a preliminary 

 statement of accounts. 



On motion of Mr. Trumbull, the report was accepted. 



The Secretary made a statement relative to the Virginia stocks held 

 by the Institution. It had been deemed advisable that the registered 

 stock should be converted into coupon bonds, because the coupons were 

 receivable for taxes, and the State had not paid interest on its stock for 

 several years. The transfer had therefore been made for the Institution 

 by Riggs & Co. 



On motion of Judge Poland, the Secretary was directed to deposit the 

 Virginia coupon bonds, now in Riggs' Bank, in the Treasury of the 

 United States for safe-keeping. 



The Secretary gave an account of the improvements made in the build- 

 ing during the past year. 



A communication from Dr. C. H. F. Peters, of the observatory at 

 Clinton, New York, was read, asking the Institution to defray the expense 

 and act as the medium of communicating discoveries of planets, comets, 

 etc., by ocean telegraph. 



The Secretary stated that he had applied to the ocean telegraph com- 

 pany for the free transmission of astronomical discoveries, but had not 

 received a reply. 



Several of the Regents expressed the opinion that the Institution 



384 



