726 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



executive committee, and recorded by the Secretary of the Board; hut 

 his service as Regent shall be gratuitous. 



SEC. 5583. The Secretary of the Board of Regents shall take charge 

 of the building and property of the Institution, and shall, under their 

 direction, make a fair and accurate record of all their proceedings, to 

 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. 5584. 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 semiannually on the 1st 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 examina- 

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

 geology, or mineralogy, are obtained for the museum of the Institution, 

 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 appropriately 

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

 property of James Smithson, which have been received by the Gov- 

 ernment 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 $25,000 annually, for the 

 gradual formation of a library composed of valuable works pertaining 

 to all departments of human knowledge. [See sees. 94, 99, 100.] 



SEC. 5588. The site and lands selected for buildings for the Smith- 

 sonian Institution shall be deemed appropriated to the Institution, and 

 the record of the description of such site and lands, or a copy thereof, 

 certified by the Chancellor and Secretary of the Board of Regents, shall 

 be received as evidence in all courts of the extent and boundaries of 

 the lands appropriated to the Institution. 



