800 EXAMINATION OF PROFESSOR HENRY 



and among its collaborators ; and in that way there is a con- 

 siderable diffusion of knowledge. 



1569. Has it ever been under consideration whether Con- 

 gress could properly make an additional appropriation in 

 aid of the funds of the Institution ? — Yes. When the funds 

 of the Institution came to America, they were lent to one 

 of the States, and that State failed to pay ; but Mr. Walker, 

 one of the Secretaries of the Treasury, established a rule 

 that all money coming into the Treasury of the United 

 States on account of the land sold for that State should be 

 retained until this debt was repaid by the State. The United 

 States, however, after eight years, assumed the debt, and 

 declared that the Smithsonian fund money is for ever in the 

 Treasury of the United States. 



1570. And there was no actual loss from it ? — ISTo, there 

 was no actual loss to the Institution, and now it appears 

 there will be no actual loss to the Government. The propo- 

 sition has been that the Government should take the pro- 

 ceeds of this old debt, and appropriate it to the establish- 

 ment of a museum, thus relieving the Institution entirely 

 from the charge of the museum ; and there is nothing to 

 prevent Congress doing so. 



1571. Are the annual applications in excess of the funds 

 that you have at your command ? — We could dispense a 

 great deal more than we do, but in order to satisfy the Re- 

 gents it is necessary that we should save a little for contin- 

 gencies, and show a favorable balance. 



1572. You accumulate every year, do you not? — Yes, a 

 little. 



1573. [Professor Huxley.) You have doubtless heard that 

 in this country the Government places £1,000 every year at 

 the disposal of the Council of the Royal Society, and that 

 the Council of the Royal Society appoints a committee, con- 

 sisting not only of its own members, but of representative 

 men of science belonging to other scientific bodies, and that 

 committee is called the Government Grant Committee. 

 All applications for portions of the money granted by the 

 Government, are made to that committee, and they are 

 practically decided upon by it. The committee consists en- 

 tirely and purely of men of science. It is in fact a sort of 

 scientific parliament on a small scale, containing the leading 

 representatives of every scientific body in the country. 

 May I ask whether you think that that is the better mode 

 of administering funds in aid of science, than through such 

 a body of Regents as you have in the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion ? — I should not like to say that it was better. On that 



