THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 757 



dent of the United States, the Secretary of State, the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary 

 of the Navy, and the Commissioner of the Patent Office, 

 shall consent to the same ; but if the persons last named 

 shall not consent, then such location maybe made upon any 

 other of the public grounds within the city of Washington, 

 belonging to the United States, which said Regents may 

 select, by and with the consent of the persons herein named; 

 and the said ground so selected shall be set out by proper 

 metes and bounds, and a description of the same shall be 

 made and recorded in a book to be provided for that purpose, 

 and signed by the said Regents, or so many of them as may 

 be convened at the time of their said organization ; and such 

 record, or a copy thereof, certified by the Chancellor and 

 Secretary of the Board of Regents, shall be received in 

 evidence in all courts of the extent and boundaries of the 

 lands appropriated to the said Institution ; and upon the 

 making of such record, such site and lands shall be deemed 

 and taken to be appropriated, by force of this act, to the 

 said Institution. 



Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That, so soon as the Board 

 of Regents shall have selected the said site, they shall cause 

 to be erected a suitable building, of plain and durable ma- 

 terials and structure, without unnecessary ornament, and of 

 sufficient size, and with suitable rooms, or halls, for the re- 

 ception and arrangement, upon a liberal scale, of objects of 

 natural history, including a geological and mineralogical 

 cabinet; also a chemical laboratory, a library, a gallery of 

 art, and the necessary lecture rooms; and the said Board 

 shall have authority, by themselves or by a committee of 

 three of their members, to contract, for the completion of 

 such building, upon such plan as may be directed by the 

 Board of Regents, and shall take sufficient security for the 

 building and finishing the same according to the said plan, 

 and in the time stipulated in such contract; and may so locate 

 said building, if they shall deem it proper, as in appearance 



