140 ANNUAL HEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1916. 



mation to specialists and to groups of pupils from public and private 

 schools in Washington and elsewhere. 



The Institution aids investigators by maldng limited grants for 

 research and exploration. It advises the Government in matters of 

 scientific importance. It cooperates with all departments of the 

 Government and with many scientific and historical national organ- 

 izations. 



ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS. 



The Eegents controlling the policy and conducting the operations 

 of the Institution have always been men well known in public life 

 and in the educational and scientific world. 



Among the more than 150 eminent Americans who have guided 

 Smithsonian activities in past years may be mentioned Louis Agassiz, 

 the naturalist; Alexander Dallas Bache; George Bancroft, the his- 

 torian ; Salmon Portland Chase ; Euf us Choate ; James Dwight Dana, 

 the eminent geologist and mineralogist ; Asa Gray, the botanist ; Gen. 

 Montgomeiy C. Meigs, engineer; President Noah Porter, of Yale 

 University; Lieut. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman; and many 

 other men prominent in science and art and in public affairs in more 

 recent years who are still active as Regents or patrons or otherwise 

 vitally interested in the work of the Institution. 



Under such leadership the achievements in every branch of knowl- 

 edge have been notable and numerous. The Institution is practically 

 the parent of many of the scientific bureaus of the Government. Here 

 were begun researches in astronomy, physics, meteorology, geology, 

 botany, fisheries, aviation, and other lines, some of which, having out- 

 grown facilities and means immediately available to the Institution, 

 have been developed into separate Government bureaus, including the 

 United States Weather Bureau, the United States Geological Survey, 

 the Fisheries Bureau, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronau- 

 tics, and other Federal bureaus, with all of which the Institution con- 

 tinues in close and constant cooperation. To some of these bureaus 

 now belong the more economic phases of scientific work, Avhile the 

 Institution devotes its energies largely to the fundamental work, 

 researches in the domain of pure science, keeping in view, however, 

 the bearing of these researches on the welfare of mankind. 



To Joseph Henry, Secretary of the Institution, 1846 to 1878, emi- 

 nent as a physicist, the world of science and industry owes a lasting 

 debt, for it was he who in great measure made possible the electrical 

 achievements of the present day. " He married the intensity magnet 

 to the intensity battery, the quantity magnet to the quantity battery, 

 discovered the law by which their union was effected, and rendered 

 their divorce impossible." The intensity magnet is that which is to- 



