474 JOURNAL OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 



Fourteenth. The Secretary has engaged the services of Dr. Foreman, late Professor 

 in the Medical Department of the Washington University, of Baltimore, to take 

 charge of the meteorological department, and to assist in the business of the Secre- 

 tary. The business has so increased that nearly the whole time of this gentleman is 

 occupied from eight o'clock in the morning until six in the evening. Half of his 

 salary, for meteorology, will be paid by the Secretary of the Navy, and the other 

 half by the Institution. 



Fifteenth. The Secretary has also been obliged occasionally to employ help in mov- 

 ing, unpacking, and cleaning apparatus. Mr. McPeak is not able to do all that is re- 

 quired of service of this kind, and at the same time to do the errands of the Institu- 

 tion. 



Sixteenth. Professor Jewett has entered fully on his duty in charge of the library, 

 and has also assisted in the duties of the Secretary, particularly in making out a list 

 of learned societies, libraries, &c, for the presentation of the Smithsonian publica- 

 tions, and in distributing the first volume of the Contributions. An account of his 

 operations will be rendered at the next meeting. 



Seventeenth. Two hundred and fifty copies of the " Hints on Architecture" have 

 been received from the publisher. By the terms of the agreement, five hundred 

 copies, less twenty-five, are to be delivered to the Institution now, and five hundred, 

 less twenty-five, after the sale of one thousand. The two parcels, of twenty-five 

 each, are to be presented to the architect. 



Eighteenth. The Ephemeris of Neptune, an appendix to the second volume of 

 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, has been published and distributed to as- 

 tronomers. The remainder of the edition is deposited in the building to be issued 

 with the second volume. 



Nineteenth. The Building Committee of the Washington Monument had informed 

 the Secretary that the furniture of the office now occupied by them would be paid 

 for by them. This room was originally furnished for the use of the Institution. 



Twentieth. The Chancellor and Secretary had sold, for the use of the Building 

 Committee, in accordance with the resolution of the Board of Kegents, on the 17th 

 April, 1849, sixteen thousand dollars of United States stock, belonging to the Insti- 

 tution, at 10 per cent, advance, less \ per cent, commission. Certificates to the 

 amount of two hundred and ten thousand dollars yet remain unsold. 



Twenty-first. The Secretary had sent fifty dollars to Miss Mitchell, of Nantucket, 

 as a premium for her discovery of the comet, known by her name, and had received 

 in return a letter expressing the gratification of the lady, and her thanks to the Re- 

 gents of the Institution. 



Twenty-second. The expenditure on the building for the month of April, 1849, was 

 $38,000. 



Twenty-third. Fifteen hundred extra copies of the annual report had been printed 

 for the use of the Institution. Extracts and explanations were given in these extra 

 copies, in order to render this publication an epitome of all the operations of the In- 

 stitution up to the present time. 



Twenty-fourth. The Secretary, under the instructions of the Regents in 1847, had 

 ordered a set of pneumatic apparatus from N. B. Chamberlain, of Boston. These 

 have been delivered by the maker, and were now put up in the Institution. Most of 

 the articles were of new patterns, constructed for the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 are of superior workmanship. 



Twenty-fifth. A number of memoirs have been received for examination as contri- 

 butions to knowledge. Some of these have been accepted, others withdrawn, and 

 others remain under consideration. 



The Secretary informed the committee that he had received a 

 communication from Lieutenant Lefroy, superintendent of the 

 Toronto Observatory, urging the Institution to procure a photo- 

 graphic self-registering declination magnetometer, which may be 

 purchased at an inconsiderable expense, and which would be of 



