JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. XIII 
Smithsonian Building, to approve of plans submitted by the Architect 
of the Capitol, and to certify to all vouchers for payments by the Treasury 
Department for work done or materials furnished for said repairs. 
The Secretary called attention to an estimate he had submitted to 
Congress at the beginning of the session in relation to an astro-physical 
observatory as follows: 
Astro-physical Observatory, Smithsonian Institution.—Maintenance of 
astro-physical observatory, under the direction of the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, within the limits of the National Zodlogical Park, including 
salaries of assistants and the purchase of additional apparatus (Sub- 
mitted), $10,000. 
Novre.—An astro-physical observatory and laboratory exists now 
under every considerable civilized government but that of the United 
States which has none, except that the Institution commenced one on 
the most modest scale in 1888, which now occupies a temporary struc- 
ture on the grounds south of the Smithsonian building. Private citi- 
zens have subscribed $10,000 for an astro-physical observatory under 
the charge of the Regents, in the hope that Congress would maintain 
it, and the Smithsonian Institution proposes, in this case, to contribute 
the most recent apparatus to the value of $5,000 more. 
The sum now asked is to be applied to the completion of the plant 
and to pay the current expenses, including the salaries of three assist- 
ants, to be engaged in researches of great scientific and economic value, 
wholly distinct in apparatus, methods, and objects from the quite 
otherwise important ones of those of the U. S. Naval Observatory. 
It seems proper to state that the present appropriation is not asked 
for as an introduction to a larger one later, but that owing to the scale 
on which it is proposed to found and maintain this small establish- 
ment, no larger appropriation is contemplated as necessary for many 
years at least. 
He stated that if Congress saw fit to make the appropriation asked 
for, even if it did not set apart a site in the Zodlogical Park for the 
observatory, it would be desirable for the Board of Regents to take 
action in accordance with the suggestions made in his estimates and 
annual report. 
On motion, it was— 
Resolved, That if an appropriation should be made by Congress for 
the maintenance of an astro-physical observatory under the direction 
of the Smithsonian Institution, the Regents will expend for this pur- 
pose from money already donated to them $10,000 for the construction 
of buildings for said observatory whenever a suitable site shall be desig- 
nated by Congress and obtained for the purpose, and will present to it 
suitable apparatus of the most recent construction, now in their charge, 
to the value of not less than $5,000. 
The secretary stated that the following bill had been passed in the 
Senate of the United States on the 5th of April, 1890: 
AN ACT to provide for the erection of an additional fireproof building for the 
National Museum. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That for an additional fire- 
proof building for the use of the National Museum, three hundred feet 
