778 EXAMINATION OF PROFESSOR HENRY 



edge ; wherever anyone is engaged in a special line of in- 

 vestigation and requires specimens to aid him, the Institu- 

 tion undertakes to supply them, and the only return asked 

 is that full credit be given to the name of Smithson for the 

 assistance afforded. The Institution has established a series 

 of magnetic observations and a system of meteorology, the 

 latter of which has now been in operation for twenty years. 

 It includes observations on the temperature, the pressure, 

 and the moisture of the air, the winds, storms, and rainfall. 

 The records of these observations have been placed in the 

 hands of computers, and are now being reduced and dis- 

 cussed, with a view to publication. I have here two maps 

 showing the result of all the observations on the rainfall 

 which have been made in the United States. The Institu- 

 tion has made many explorations in regard to the ethnology 

 of America ; has collected a large number of Indian vocabu- 

 laries; and published grammars and dictionaries of several 

 languages. The results of all these are published for dis- 

 tribution in a quarto form, denominated Smithsonian Con- 

 tributions to Knowledge. In this way the Institution has 

 done a great deal of good, and I hold in my hand a list, 

 numbering 1,568, of the foreign correspondents of the In- 

 stitution to which those memoirs are sent. 



1408. About how much is the annual income of the in- 

 stitution ?— It is now about $42,000. 



1409. And is that distributed specially for the advance- 

 ment of science, or is it told off to any particular branches 

 of science? — The Institution, up to the present time, has 

 been obliged to devote a portion of its annual income to 

 the museum and the construction and repair of the build- 

 ing. The remainder has been appropriated to researches, 

 to explorations, to meteorology, and to the system of inter- 

 national exchanges, and to publications. 



1410. The institution is under the government of a body 

 of regents, is it not ? — Yes. 



1411. Will you explain how this body is appointed, and 

 of whom, and of how many members it consists ? — The body 

 is appointed by Congress. There are three members of the 

 House appointed for the time that they are elected to Con- 

 gress, that is, two years; and three members of the Senate, 

 also appointed during the time they are in the Senate, that 

 is, for six years. Then there are six citizens at large, gen- 

 tlemen of influence, and three ex officios, the Vice-President 

 of the United States, the Mayor of Washington, and the 

 Chief Justice of the United States — the last of whom is 

 the only person that is in for life ; all the others are con- 



