REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



To the Board of Bcgents : 



Gentlemen : I have the honor again, at the commencement of your 

 annual session, to present the report for another year of the opera- 

 tions of the Institution intrusted by the General Government of the 

 United States to your special care. 



So much public attention has been absorbed during the last year 

 by the exciting events of the war that we might at first suppose 

 that little or no thought could be bestowed upon purely scientific 

 subjects, such as fall within the province of this Institution to culti- 

 vate, or indeed upon any kind of knowledge which has not an im- 

 mediate bearing on the special requirements of the times. But even 

 in the most sanguinary and gigantic warfare the responsibility for 

 the important plans which are to determine the result of the conflict 

 devolves upon the few, and leaves the many to fall into a condition 

 of comparative mental inactivity. 



As a relief from the tedium of this condition, or a prevention from 

 falling into it, a large number of subordinate officers, and even pri- 

 vates, of the army have devoted themselves to pursuits connected 

 with natural history, or to the solution of problems of a theoretical 

 or practical character. 



Although the immediate object of war is the destruction of life 

 and property, yet a state of modern warfare is not a condition of 

 evil unmingled with good. Independent of the political results 

 which may flow from it, scientific truths are frequently developed 

 during its existence of much theoretical as well as of practical im- 

 portance. The art of destroying life, as well as that of preserving it, 

 calls for the application of scientific principles, and the institution ot 

 scientific experiments on a scale of magnitude which would never be 

 attempted in time of peace. New investigations as to the strength 

 of materials, the laws of projectiles, the resistance of fluids, the ap- 

 plications of electricity, light, heat, and chemical action, as well as of 

 aerostation, are all required. 



The collection of immense armies of individuals of different ages 



