THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-1855. 581 



manner in which the trust should be executed, if we look to his ante- 

 cedents and find that he was himself a searcher into the mysteries of 

 nature which science is laboring" to develop — not so much employed 

 in studying the pages of those who have written as striving to read 

 the unwritten pages of nature\s book — if we consider the plain and 

 obvious import of the simple language in which his wishes are expressed 

 and contemplate the benefits to result from one or the other scheme of 

 appropriation which have been in controversy; if we consider these 

 things we can not doubt that it is both the right and the dut}^ of the 

 Regents, resulting from the will of Smithson and enjoined by the act of 

 Congress, to appropriate such portion of his funds as they can advan- 

 tageously employ in scientific researches and the publication and circu- 

 lation of the results "'among men," wherever men exist capable of 

 appreciating them, while at the same time they apply another portion 

 of the fund, according to a sound and honest discretion, to the partic- 

 ular purposes specified in the act. 



Thus they will not depart from any plan devised by Congress and 

 prescribed in the act, as Mr. Choate seems to have erroneously sup- 

 posed, but will fill up and develop that very plan, of which only some 

 of the outlines were sketched in the law. 



It would be impracticable within the limits proper to this report 

 to go into the examination of the minute outline of organization 

 of the Institution submitted to the Board of Regents by the secretary, 

 and approved by them. It will be found printed in detail in the 

 appendix to the eighth annual report of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 published by Congress in 1854. 



A brief notice of the plan and of its results is all that we can here 

 present. 



The object of the plan is, first: To increase knowledge by stimu- 

 lating original research by the rapid and full publication of results; 

 by aid in procuring the materials and appliances for investigation; 

 and, if necessary, by direct rewards. 



Experience has shown that no other means are so effective in stimu- 

 lating research as the rapid publication of results; not in a stinted 

 form of abstract, and without illustrations (too often the necessary 

 condition of the publication of scientific labors) but in full, with illus- 

 trations drawn, engraved, and printed in the best style of art. How 

 many investigations are stopped for the want of instruments, of speci- 

 mens, and general appliances for research? How many are laid aside, 

 because, first of all, men must live? What more noble or useful object 

 for the Smithsonian Institution than to remove these difliculties from 

 the path of genius ? What more consonant to the intention of the 

 founder: An expedition is setting out and instruments are required to 

 investigate the magnetism of the earth, the temperature of the ocean, 

 the climate, soil, and productions of places explored, their latitudes 



