302 BULLETIN OF THE 



an enlightenment so far in advance of tlie ruling intelligence of 

 former clays, and against the pressures of overwhelming prepon- 

 derance of even educated popular sentiment, courageously adopted 

 the programme of the Secretary and Director they had appointed ; 

 and who throughout his career, so wisely, nobly, and steadfastly 

 upheld his policy and his purpose. 



Fifteen octavo volumes of " Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collec- 

 tions" of a more technical character than the "Contributions," 

 (including systematic and statistical compilations, scientific sum- 

 maries, and valuable accessions of tabular "constants,") form in 

 themselves an additional series ; and represent a work of which 

 any learned Society or Institution might well be proud. And 

 thirty octavo volumes of annual Reports, rich with the scattered 

 thoughts and hopes and wishes of the Director, form the official 

 journal of his administration. 



The Bibliography of Science. — Among the needful prepara- 

 tions for conducting original inquiry, none is more important than 

 ready access and direction to the existing state of research in 

 the particular field, or its allied districts. This information is 

 scattered in the thousands of volumes which form the transactions 

 of learned Societies ; and its acquisition involves therefore in 

 most cases a very laborious preliminary bibliographical research. 

 To make this vast store of observation available to scientific 

 students, by the directory of well arranged digests, would appear 

 to fall peculiarly within the province of an Institution specially 

 established for promoting the increase and diffusion of knowledge 

 among men ; and was early an object of particular interest to 

 Henry. In his Report for 1851, he remarked: "One of the most 

 important means of facilitating the use of libraries (particularly 

 with reference to science,) is well digested indexes of subjects, 

 not merel}'' referring to volumes or books, but to memoirs, papers, 

 and parts of scientific transactions and systematic works. As an 

 example of this, I would refer to the admirably arranged and 

 valuable catalogue of books relating to Natural Philosophy and 

 the Mechanic Arts, by Dr. Young. This work comes down to 

 1807 ; and I know of no richer gift which could be bestowed upon 

 the science of our own day, than the continuation of this catalogue 

 to the present time. Every one who is desirous of enlarging the 



r<»putation ; nor by the collection and display of material objects of any 

 kind, that it has vindicated the intelliience and good faith of the Gov- 

 ernment in the administration of the trust. It is by its explorations, its 

 researches, its pnblieations, its distribution of spt-cimens, and its ex- 

 clianges, constituting it an active livinj:; organization, that it has rendered 

 itself favorably known in every part of the civilized world ; has made con- 

 tiibutious to almost every branch of science ; and brou^'ht, more than ever 

 before, into intimate and Iriendly relations, the Old and the New Worlds." 

 (Memorial to Congress, by Chancellor S. P. Chase, and Secretary Joseph 

 Henry. Smithsonian Report, for 1867, p. 114.) 



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