294 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



tution in which he found congregated ail the elenients furnished by 

 art, nature, and science, for pursuits congenial to his own mind. 

 There could be little doubt that in making this bequest to the United 

 States he had in view the establishment of some such institution as 

 the Jardin des Plantes in the Western Hemisphere. On this reason- 

 able supposition the present bill was framed; and to show that it con- 

 formed closely to that design he requested a description of that insti- 

 tution, which he sent to the table, would be read. 



The description was accordingly read, but being imperfectly heard 

 the substance only is here given: 



Jardin Royal des Plantes ou Jardin du Roi. — This institution owes its origin to Guy 

 de la Brosse, physician to Louis XIII. Richelieu, Sequier, and Bullion, intendants 

 of finance, enabled him to found a botanic garden, and to lay down the plan, which 

 his successors carried to perfection. This germ grew to maturity during the reigns 

 of Louis XIV and XVj and the other departments owed their excellence of arrange- 

 ment to the celebrated Buffon during his superintendence. His studies embraced 

 all nature, and he collected his materials from every portion of the globe. Since 

 his time, Dauberton completed the whole plan, and raised the establishment to the 

 highest degree of perfection. 



Distinguished professors exercise their talents in gratuitous lectures on mineralogy, 

 geology, general chemistry, botany, agriculture, natural history, the anatomy of man 

 and animals, and iconography. 



The building contains a copious library of works of natural history, fine collec- 

 tions of preserved animal specimens, vegetables, minerals, complete herbaries, draw- 

 ings of extraordinary merit, and a garden judiciously and tastefully laid out, in which 

 is combined the cultivation of indigenous productions with that of exotic plants. 

 The productions of every region of the globe are preserved in extensive hothouses. 

 There is a menagerie, a superb botanical garden, a splendid amphitheater for lectures, 

 and spacious cabinet of curiosities. Everything is open to the public gratuitously. 



Mr. Tappan in continuation expatiated at considerable length upon 

 the merits of the bill, and in proof that its provisions were calculated 

 to meet the wishes and intentions of the donor of the munificent fund 

 now the object of consideration. He doubted the utility of such an 

 extensive and costly library as had been suggested by the Senator from 

 Massachusetts; he doubted the possibility of laying out usefully and 

 advantageously $20,000 a year — or even more than $4,000 or $5,000 

 a year — in the purchase of books. It would be impossible to make 

 such a vast collection of books as $500,000 would purchase without 

 including cart loads, nay ship loads, of trash, not worth in reality 

 the cost of transport. There was the library of Congress, to the 

 increase of which $5,000 was annually appropriated, and it was well 

 known that this sum enabled the committee to procure everything com- 

 ing out in print worth procuring. Yet in this library, small in com- 

 parison to any of those foreign libraries alluded to by the Senator, he 

 protested there was more than half the books that he would not take 

 a gift of for the cost of transportation to Ohio. In conclusion he saw 

 no necessity for striking out the eighth section of the bill. If the 

 Senate approved of a more liberal provision for the library an addi- 



