.590 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



in their details, that it was soon found entirely out of the 

 ^question to attempt to examine them with sufficient fullness 

 and minuteness to be qualified or justified in pronouncing 

 -or even forming a decisive judgment on the merits of the 

 questions involved. The evidence taken and submitted will 

 guide the members of the House to so much of a conclusion 

 on the several points and issues as the committee have been 

 able to reach. 



So far as the case of Mr. Lorin Blodget is concerned, the 

 committee would observe that he does not claim to have 

 made any explicit contract, in writing or in conversation, 

 with the secretary of the Board of Regents; that the com- 

 pensation he received appears to have been all that was ever 

 expressly or distinctly agreed upon : and that as it respects 

 the value of his labors above the compensation he received, 

 or the degree to which he acquired any separate, private, 

 scientific or literary property in any papers or documents 

 prepared by him while in the institution, they have been 

 wholly unable to derive any definite ideas from his state- 

 ments. In reference to his assertion that certain equitable 

 or legal rights are withheld from him, the committee can 

 only say that, although the hearing afforded him occupied 

 a large portion of their time, he failed to make his own view 

 of the point clearly intelligible, and that it is utterly impos- 

 sible for them at this period of the session to enter into sucii 

 an examination of the vast amount of documents, resulting 

 more or less from his labors, as would be necessary in order 

 to begin to form an opinion. An impartial arbitration by 

 scientific persons would, if the committee may be allowed 

 to offer a suggestion to the Board of Regents, probably be 

 the best way to determine whether there is any foundation 

 for the complaints he makes, or for the claim of rights which 

 he imagines himself to possess. The committee feel it due. 

 to candor to say that they have not been able to appreciate 

 any clear ground for his claims, but due also to justice to 

 eay that he is unfortunate in not having a facility in render- 

 ing easily intelligible the ideas which he very earnestly, an 1 

 no doubt very honestly, entertains on the subject. Indeed, 

 a personal, laborious and patient examination, by direct in- 

 spection, of ^the records, tables, maps and other papers or 

 documents, in which he avers that he has rights that as e 

 withheld, and claims for compensation beyond what he ac- 

 knowledges to have received, will be found absolutely indis- 

 pensable to enable any one to understand precisely what he 

 means, or to determine whether there is any foundation for 

 his claims, either of authorship orfor compensation. The 



