760 CONGEESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



edifice by means of its south tower. This, with a groun<l floor of 90,000 feet, and 

 capable of the addition of a gallery containing 30,000 square feet, will furnish an 

 aggregate of 120,000 square feet, which it is thought will permit the proposed display. 



In the arrangement of the mineral collections referred to it is desirable that a 

 special area be devoted to the mineral products of each State, so that the resources 

 of all parts of the country may be shown to the inquirer or investigator, and that as 

 new mining localities are developed in different parts of the country their illustra- 

 tion, by suitable specimens, may be made in their appropriate places. 



The Smithsonian Institution was established on the bequest of a foreigner, who 

 left $542,000 in trust to the United States to found an establishment "for the increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge among men." Among the other duties specified in the 

 act of incorporation in 1846 was the charge of the National Museum, as expressed 

 in the following words: 



"Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That in proportion as suitable arrangements can 

 be made for their reception, all objects of art and of foreign and curious research, 

 and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and mineralogical specimens 

 belonging, or hereafter to belong, to the United States, which may be in the city of 

 Washington, in whosesoever custody the same may be, shall be delivered to such 

 persons as may be authorized by the Board of Kegents to receive them, and shall be 

 arranged in such order and so classed as best to facilitate the examination and study 

 of them." 



The Eegents were authorized to determine the plan of operations in other direc- 

 tions, and, through the adherence to the plan of operations authorized by the original 

 board and indorsed by successors, the Institution has become the leading scientific 

 and educational institution of the country, and perhaps, indeed, of the world. Its 

 expenditures are devoted to the prosecution of original researches, the publication of 

 important memoirs, and especially to the maintenance of a system of international 

 exchanges, by which the publications of societies in the United States, including 

 mechanics' institutions, agricultural bodies, etc., as well as those of the United States 

 Government and of the bureaus of the several Departments, are exchanged for the 

 works of corresponding establishments throughout the world, and resulting in the 

 most rapid diffusion of knowledge possible, and in the acquisition of the latest scien- 

 tific, technical, and industrial publications. 



The publications of the Institution are thus exchanged with those of all other 

 countries, and the extensive library it has thus acquired forms part of the Library of 

 Congress, where over 70,000 of the volumes of the most valuable character are to be 

 found. It will thus be' observed that the material result of these operations redounds 

 directly to the advantage of the Government in the improvement and extent of the 

 National Library. 



The National Museum, of which the Smithsonian Institution at present has charge, 

 and which occupies all the available space in the Smithsonian building, is composed 

 of the various collections brought in by surveying and exploring expeditions of 

 the United States, including those of Captain Wilkes and hundreds of others, with- 

 out taking into consideration the special collections made to illustrate the industries 

 of the United States at the Centennial Exhibition. 



This National Museum was originally in charge of the Patent Ofiice, and for its 

 exhibition there an appropriation Avas made by Congress, from about 1842. When, 

 in 1857, the Government collections then extant were taken charge of by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, the appropriations previously made to the Patent Office were 

 continued to the Institution, and provision has ever since been made for tlrat pur- 

 pose. It is, therefore, we conceive, clearly the duty, imder the law, of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution to take charge of at least "the collections of nature and art, and of 

 foreign and curious research, natural history, and of mineralogy and geology;" and 

 as all the material property of this kind is in charge of the Smithsonian Institu- 



