PROPOSED APPLICATIONS OF SMITHSON'S BEQUEST. 937 



/able talent can be enlisted, treat of history, natural and 

 civil, including the physical history of the various races of 

 men, and the gradual advance of each to its present state 

 of civilization ; of political economy in its practical connec- 

 tion with the every day business of life ; and, generally, 

 touch upon any department of useful knowledge not strictly 

 professional. 



By such means, we may reasonably expect gradually to 

 stir up a love of science among those in whose minds, for 

 lack of an awakening word, it now lies dormant; and by 

 directing the attention of the people generally to the rich 

 sources of knowledge that everywhere exist around them 

 and beneath their feet, by degrees to substitute, for the 

 deleterious excitements sought in haunts of dissipation, the 

 healthful and humanizing interest to be found in scientific 

 research. The inestimable importance of common-school 

 education, and the practical means of increasing and im- 

 proving it, might thus also be pressed home upon those 

 whose children have often no other means of instruction or 

 improvement. 



As an additional means of diffusing knowledge, your 

 committee suggest the publication of a series of reports, to 

 be published annually or ofterier, containing a concise record 

 of progress in the different branches of knowledge, com- 

 piled from the journals of all languages and the transactions 

 of scientific and learned societies throughout the world. 

 The matter of these reports may be furnished by collabora- 

 tors eminent in their respective branches ; and these should 

 be supplied with all the works necessary to a proper execu- 

 tion of their task, and paid in proportion to their respective 

 labors. Copies of these Smithsonian reports may be fur- 

 nished to the principal libraries and scientific societies of 

 the country free of expense, and sold to individuals at a 

 small price. 



Your committee beg leave here to remark, that with the 

 limited annual income of the institution, charged as it is 

 with extensive collections, to maintain which will prove a 

 considerable yearly drain on its funds, they do not imagine 

 or propose that all the recommendations here set down 

 should be carried out, at least simultaneously. These are 

 put forward as objects which your committee consider 

 desirable and strictly within the purpose of the bequest. 

 Such as may seem to the board the most important may be 

 first attempted. Other portions of the plan may follow in 

 their turn. And experience will gradually sift out whatever 

 is most judicious and effective. 



