THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-1855. 549 



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It may be contended that researches and publications of a character 

 so purely scientific are not calculated directly to diffuse knowledge 

 among the great mass of mankind. 



This is, no doubt, to a certain extent true, and I shall be glad to see 

 the operations of the Institution made as plain and practical as the 

 nature of the subjects will admit; but it should not be forgotten that 

 the grand object of the Institution is to add to the sum total of the 

 knowledge now existing in the world, and to diffuse it "'among men,'' 

 rather than to scatter that more widely which is already accessible, in 

 a greater or less degree, to all. 



''Scientific researches," says a committee of the Board of Regents, 

 "are often supposed by the uninformed to be of little or no real 

 importance; and, indeed, are frequently ridiculed as barren of all 

 practical utility; but nothing is more mistaken than this. The most 

 valuable and productive of the arts of life, the most important and 

 wonder-working inventions of modern times, owe their being and 

 value to scientific investigations. By these hav^e been discovered 

 physical truths and laws, the intelligent application of which to prac- 

 tical inventions has given immense benefits to the world. The germs 

 of these valuable improvements and inventions have been found and 

 developed by scientific research, the original forms of which have 

 often seemed to the many to be as idle and useless as they were 

 curiovis. A proposition relating to the pendulum, which for many 

 years remained only a curious theoretical relation, ultimately fur- 

 nished a unit for the standard measures of states and nations. The 

 discovery that a magnetic needle could be moved by a galvanic current 

 seemed for a long time more curious than useful, and 3'et it contained 

 the germ of all that was afterwards developed in the telegraph. It 

 has been well remarked that numerous applications and inventions 

 always result from the discovery of a scientific principle, so that 

 there are many Fultons for every Franklin." 



Besides this, it must be recollected that Smithson restricted his 

 l^equest to no particular branch of knowledge. He considered all 

 intimately connected with the improvement and happiness of the 

 human family, and as an answer to whatever may be said against the 

 character of the publications of the institution, it may be stated that 

 they relate to precisely the same subjects as those which occupied the 

 life of Smithson himself. 



Now, sir, I will proceed to state what I conceive to be the true 

 origin of all the difficulties that have existed in the Institution. They 

 have grown out of the question whether the income should be used to 



