THE GENESIS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 297 



This iiHlorseiiieiit of the museum work of the institute is very cor- 

 dial and comprehensive, and very significant; is indicative of a de- 

 cided growtli in public opinion in regard to museums — a growth largely 

 due in the first instance to the suggestions and later to the fostering 

 care of Mr, Poinsett and his society, the National Institute. 



The hopes of the promoters of the institute were doomed to disap- 

 pointment. Congress adjourned Avithout making any provision for its 

 needs. 



On the 12th of July a new scheme was proposed for collecting money 

 from private sources by the efforts of trustworthy agents, and in De- 

 cember a committee was appointed to again memorialize Congress.* 



The movement had received its death blow, however. The failure 

 of the tremendous effort of April, 1844, disheartened all its friends. At 

 the next annual meeting Mr. Poinsett declined reelection to the presi- 

 dency. The society's publications were discontinued, and even the 

 annual address of Senator Woodbury, solicited for publication by the 

 society, seems to have remained in manuscript unprinted. 



No more meetings were held, no more bulletins printed, the magnifi- 

 cent list of 350 resident and 1,250 corresponding members began to grow 

 shorter. An effort was made to revive it in 1847, and a meager report 

 was made once afterward by the corresponding secretary. In 1855 it 

 was brought into existence for a time as a local scientific society, and 

 issued a new series of proceediugs.t Its glory departed, however, with 

 the first annual meeting in 1844, and the attention of Congress was 

 directed toward the organization of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The infiuence of the National Institute upon the history of science in 

 the United States, and particularly in educating public opinion and 

 the judgment of Congress to an application of the proper means of dis- 

 posing of the Smithsonian legacy, can not well be overestimated. 



If the Smithsonian had been organized before the National Institute 

 had exerted its influences, it would have been a school, an observatory, 

 or an agricultural experiment station. 



In 1840, however, the country was prepared to expect it to be a gen- 

 eral agency for the advancement of scientific interests of all kinds — as 

 catholic, as unselfish, as universal as the National Institute. 



The National Institute, after nearly five years of activity, suddenly 

 ceased to be a center of public interest. The struggle over the Smith- 

 sonian bequest, however, still continued. During the Twenty-seventh 

 Congress, 1841-'43, the Senate did nothing. The House of Representa- 

 tives appointed a select committee on the subject, and Mr. Adams as 

 its chairman reported a new bill, providing still more thoroughly for 

 the erection of an observatory and the publication of a nautical almanac 

 to be called the Smithsonian Almanac. Petitions continued to come 



*Proc. Nat. lust., i, p. 375. 



tProf. Henry was for a time an officer, and endeavored to Lave its name changed 

 to "Metropolitan Institute." 



