ORGANIZATION OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. XXIII 



be preserved in the institution; and shall also discharge the duties of 

 librarian and of keeper of the museum, and may, with the consent of 

 the Board of Regents, employ assistants. 



SEC. 558-i. The Secretary and his assistants shall, respectively, 

 receive for their services such sum as may be allowed by the Board of 

 Regents, to be paid semi-annually on the first day of January and 

 July; and shall be removable by the Board of Regents whenever, in 

 their judgment, the interests of the institution require such removal. 



SEC. 5585. The members and honorary members of the institution 

 may hold stated and special meetings, for the supervision of the affairs 

 of the institution and the advice and instruction of the Board of 

 Regents, to be called in the manner provided for in the by-laws of the 

 institution, at which the President, and in his absence the Vice-Presi- 

 dent, shall preside. 



SEC. 5586. Whenever suitable arrangements can be made from time 

 to time for their reception, all objects of art and of foreign and curious 

 research, and all objects of natural history, plants, and geological and 

 mineralogical specimens belonging to the United States, which may be 

 in the city of Washington, in whosesoever custody they may be, shall 

 be delivered to such persons as may be authorized by the Board of 

 Regents to receive them, and shall be so arranged and classified in the 

 building erected for the institution as best to facilitate the examination 

 and study of them; and whenever new specimens in natural history, 

 geology, or mineralogy are obtained for the museum of the institu- 

 tion, by exchanges of duplicate specimens, which the regents may 

 in their discretion make, or by donation, which they may receive, or 

 otherwise, the regents shall cause such new specimens to be appro- 

 priately classed and arranged. The minerals, books, manuscripts, and 

 other property of James Smithson, which have been received by the 

 Government of the United States, shall be preserved separate and 

 apart from other property of the institution. 



SEC. 5587. The regents shall make, from the interest of the fund, 

 an appropriation, not exceeding an average of twenty five thousand 

 dollars annually, for the gradual formation of a library composed of 

 valuable works pertaining to all departments of human knowledge.* 



* The Smithsonian library was transferred to the Library of Congress under act of 

 April 5, 1866: 



"Be it enacted, etc., That the library collected by the Smithsonian Institution under 

 the provisions of an act approved, August 10, 1846, shall be removed from the build- 

 ing of said Institution, with the consent of the Regents thereof, to the new fireproof 



