REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 3 
Tuesday after the first Monday in December and on the 6th day of March, 
unless that date falls on Sunday, when the following Monday shall be 
substituted. 
In accordance with this resolution, the Board met on December 4, 
1906; January 23, 1907, and March 6, 1907. The proceedings of the 
Board at these meetings will be found in its annual report to 
Congress. 
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
It is with a deep sense of responsibility that I have assumed the 
office of Secretary, and I greatly appreciate the honor conferred by 
the Regents in electing me to the position. Once before, as acting 
assistant secretary, I had administrative charge for nearly two years 
of a most important branch of the Institution’s work, the United 
States National Museum. I have been associated with the scientific 
work of the Museum for almost a quarter of a century, and for many 
years have been in close personal contact with other important 
branches of the Institution’s activities. 
I fully recognize the obligation resting upon the man who holds 
the position which has been successively occupied by Joseph Henry, 
Spencer F. Baird, and Samuel P. Langley. By a wise and conserva- 
tive policy, maintaining at once the independence of the Smithsonian 
fund and yet freely cooperating with the Government in securing aid 
in the development of its branches, the Institution has reached a posi- 
tion of eminence far beyond what might have been expected from the 
comparatively small endowment which it possesses. It has, moreover, 
on numerous occasions conducted in its initial stages scientific work 
that has proven to be of great practical value, and when the experi- 
mental stage was passed and their economic utility had been demon- 
strated, the organizations and results obtained were turned over to the 
Government. Through one or another of its agencies the name 
Smithsonian Institution has been brought to the attention of scien- 
tific workers in this country and in other lands and to those edu- 
cated people generally who, though without special training in 
science, desire to keep abreast of the progress of the world. It has 
abandoned projects which other institutions had undertaken, on the 
theory that there was plenty of work for all to do, and it has aided 
investigators throughout the United States and indeed in foreign 
lands as heartily as it has supported the work of its own staff. 
In other words, I feel that I have come to an establishment unselfish 
in its aims and willing to help all men in furtherance of the objects 
for which it was founded—an institution devoted fully to the progress 
and spread of knowledge in every field without limitation to one 
branch of science or to all science, but having within its purview 
the elevation of mankind through the increase and spread of know]l- 
edge. The heads of the Institution thus far have been specialists 
