PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 933 



facture, and of the finished products of manufactures and 

 the arts, may also, your committee think, be usefully intro- 

 duced. This would supply opportunity to examine samples 

 of the best manufactured articles our country affords, and 

 to judge her gradual progress in arts and manufactures. 



As chemistry was the favorite study of Smithson's life, 

 of which a considerable portion was spent in his own labor- 

 atory, and as it is, without doubt, one of the most compre- 

 hensive and important of the natural sciences, your com- 

 mittee recommend that this department be fitted up in as 

 complete a manner as modern science can suggest. And 

 for the purpose of encouraging in the young men of our 

 country original research in the same branch of science in 

 which Smithson himself successfully labored, and inasmuch 

 as many are now compelled, in order to complete their 

 studies as practical chemists, to resort to Paris or Germany, 

 your committee further recommend that there be included 

 in the building a working laboratory, somewhat, perhaps, 

 .after the model of that instituted by one of the ablest of 

 German chemists, the celebrated Liebig; to be opened 

 under proper regulations and supervision, without charge, 

 to those who may desire to institute experiments and pros- 

 ecute researches for themselves in that science. 



The gallery of art, your committee think, should include 

 both paintings and sculpture, as well as engravings and 

 architectural designs; and it is desirable to have, in con- 

 nection with it, one or more studios, in which young artists 

 might copy without interruption, being admitted under 

 such regulations as the board may prescribe. Your com- 

 mittee also think, that as the collection of paintings and 

 sculpture will probably accumulate slowly, the room des- 

 tined for a gallery of art might properly and usefully mean- 

 while be occupied, during the sessions of Congress, as an 

 exhibition room for the works of artists generally ; and the 

 extent and general usefulness of such an exhibition might 

 probably be increased, if an arrangement could be effected 

 with the Academy of Design, the Arts-Union, the Artists' 

 Fund Society, and other associations of similar character, 

 so as to concentrate at the metropolis, for a certain portion 

 of each winter, the best results of talent in the fine arts. 



The charter provides that the Secretary of the institution 

 may, with the consent of the board, employ assistants ; and 

 the items above enumerated touching a library, museum, 

 and laboratory, seem to demand, at the proper time, the 

 appointment of not less than three such assistants : one as li- 

 brarian, one as curator of the museum, and one as chemist. 



