BY THE ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC COMMISSION. 793 



1516. Is it wholly in the discretion of the Secretary to 

 accept or to refuse the reports of the commission ? — Yes, it 

 has been so. 



1517. Would you think it within the purpose of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, supposing you had the funds, to 

 make a grant for the purpose, we will say, of establishing 

 such a thing as a physical cabinet or an observatory ? — Yes. 

 I think physical observations are of the greatest importance 

 in the United States for observing the spontaneous pheno- 

 mena of nature, and also for original experiment. 



1518. I understood you to say just now that before the 

 fire took place you had a very good physical cabinet in the 

 building of the Smithsonian Institution ? — Yes. 



1519. Is there such a thing in the United States now as 

 what is understood as a complete physical cabinet ? — There 

 are several connected with the science schools. There is a 

 technological school in Boston which is well supplied with 

 apparatus, and the scientific school at Harvard is well sup- 

 plied, and also the one at New Haven, as well as that con- 

 nected with Columbia College, New York. 



1520. Was your cabinet open, under certain restrictions, 

 to any person who wished to make investigations ? — Yes, 

 but not very much was done, because it was not in a very 

 large place. My idea would be that if the funds were suffi- 

 cient, and men could be found capable of advancing science, 

 they should be consecrated to science, and be provided with 

 the means of living above all care for physical wants, and 

 supplied with all the implements necessary to investigation. 



1521. What means would you adopt to prevent any 

 arrangement of that kind from degeneration into a mere 

 support for idle people, who would not make use of their 

 opportunities ; because such things do happen, even in the 

 scientific world, that men who have abundant opportunities 

 immediately begin to cease to use them ? — Their tenure of 

 office should depend upon the fruit that they produce. 



1522. Do you think it would be desirable to connect with 

 all such appointments the duty of teaching ? — Yes, I think 

 that a certain amount of teaching is an advantage to an 

 investigator. 



1523. Do you not think that that may be one of the best 

 practical arrangements by which a man can be made to do 

 his duty in such a position ? — If he is required to teach a 

 limited amount, and especially to teach the branches that he 

 has been investigating himself; such a man always pos- 

 sesses an enthusiasm which he scarcely ever fails to impart 



