THIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS, 1853-55. 617 



and printed in the best style of art. How many investiga- 

 tions are stopped for the want of instruments, of specimens, 

 and general appliances for research? How many are laid 

 aside, because, first of all, men must live? What more 

 noble or useful object for the Smithsonian Institution than 

 to remove these difficulties from the path of genius ? What 

 more consonant to the intention of the founder : An expe- 

 dition is setting out, and instruments are required to investi- 

 gate the magnetism of the earth, the temperature of the 

 ocean, the climate, soil, and productions of places explored, 

 their latitudes and longitudes, heights, &c. These instru- 

 ments are lent or furnished by the Smithsonian Institution, 

 and the results obtained with them become public property. 

 Means are furnished to explorers to make collections of 

 minerals and ores; of plants and animals; of fishes, reptiles, 

 and insects; and to provide for their transportation from 

 the field. These collections are submitted to the most suc- 

 cessful cultivators of the branches of science to which they 

 belong; to men who have made these objects their especial 

 study, and their investigations are made public. The speci- 

 mens are returned to the Smithsonian collections to be taken 

 care of, and, perhaps, to be re-examined at some more ad- 

 vanced period. By these and similar modes research is stimu- 

 lated. The provision of meteorological instruments, and of 

 instructions for their use; the collections of the observations 

 made, and their comparisons, have already furnished most 

 important information in regard to the climate and storms of 

 the United States, and the full publication of the results will 

 enable men of science, of this and other countries, to draw 

 from these materials most valuable inferences and laws. 



2. To diffuse knowledge, by the publication of the contribu- 

 tions, from researches and explorations, of reports on treatises 

 on different subjects or branches of science and its applica- 

 tion, of reports showing the history and progress of these 

 subjects or branches, is the second object of the " active 

 operations." These publications diffuse among men the 

 knowledge obtained by the agency of the institution, or from 

 without. The subjects which have been already embraced 

 in the Smithsonian Contributions, and in the different volumes 

 of reports, &c., have been numerous and well distributed 

 among the various branches of knowledge, the abstract and 

 the practical. The publications are widely scattered among 

 the institutions of this and of other countries, given to them 

 or exchanged for their proceedings, transactions, or other 

 publications, and accessible at moderate rates to individuals. 

 Of the impression made abroad by the Smithsonian Contri- 



