558 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



of Lorin Blodg-et for a remedy against the Smithsonian Institution 

 for hibor and researches in physical science, made for the benefit of 

 said Institution, and the petition of John Grable and sundry others, 

 citizens of St. Joseph, Mo., praying for the publication of a 

 monthly periodical exhibiting the progress of knowledge and of 

 society, and to be distributed by said Institution among the people, 

 beg leave to submit the following report: 



The short time allowed for investigating the matters referred to the 

 committee, and the pressure of other duties during the few crowded last 

 weeks of the session, render anj^thing like a full and thoroughly satis- 

 factory report impossible. The transactions to which their attention 

 has been called are so complicated in their nature and extensive in 

 their details that it was soon found entirely out of the question to 

 attempt to examine them with sufficient fulness and minuteness to be 

 qualified or justified in pronouncing or even forming a decisive jud;^- 

 ment on the merits of the questions involved. The evidence taken 

 and submitted will guide the members of the House to so much of a 

 conclusion on the several points and issues as the committee have 

 been able to reach. 



So far as the case of Mr. Lorin Blodget is concerned, the committee 

 would observe that he does not claim to have made any explicit con- 

 tract, in writing or in conversation, w^ith the Secretar}^ of the Board of 

 Regents; that the compensation he received appears to have been all 

 that was ever expressly or distinctly agreed upon; and that as it 

 respects the value of his hibors above the compensation he received, 

 or the degree to which he acquired any separate, private, scientific or 

 literary property in any papers or documents prepared by him while 

 in the Institution, they have been wholl}^ unable to derive any definite 

 ideas from his statements. In reference to his assertion that certain 

 equitable or legal rights are withheld from him, the committee can 

 only sa}' that, although the hearing afforded him occupied a large 

 portion of their time, he failed to make his own view of the point 

 clearly intelligible, and that it is utterly impossible for them at this 

 period of the session to enter into such an examination of the vast 

 amount of documents, resulting more or less from his labors, as would 

 be necessary in order to begin to form an opinion. An impartial 

 arbitration by scientific persons would, if the committee may be 

 allowed to offer a suggestion to the Board of Regents, probably be 

 the best Avay to determine whether there is an}^ foundation for the com- 

 plaints he makes, or for the claim of rights which he imagines himself 

 to possess. The committee feel it due to candor to say that they have 

 not been able to appreciate any clear ground for his claims, but due 

 also to justice to say that he is unfortunate in not having a facility in 

 rendering easily intelligible the ideas which he A^ery earnestly, and no 

 doubt very honestly, entertains on the subject. Indeed, a personal, 



