138 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



for reconstructing the art gallery was obviated by the prospective 

 establishment of the Corcoran Art Gallery in a neighboring part 

 of the city. The erection of Lincoln Hall and the establishment 

 of a course of lectures, sometimes of a high intellectual character, 

 by the Young Men's Christian Association, did away with the 

 necessity of reconstructing the lecture-room. The principal im- 

 mediate drawback was that the building had to be reconstructed 

 at the expense of the Smithsonian fund, although Professor Henry 

 was not entirely satisfied that so large a building was necessary 

 for the Institution. 



The only serious burden which remained upon the Institution 

 was the National Museum; but the expense of its support was 

 now undertaken by the Government, and it therefore ceased to be 

 a charge upon the Smithsonian fund except in this indirect way 

 that the building which housed it had been paid for out of that 

 fund. No advantage would therefore have been gained by remov- 

 ing the museum unless the building was purchased by the Govern- 

 ment. The Secretary was, therefore, desirous of effecting such a 

 sale, but his views do not appear to have met with the entire con- 

 currence of the Board of Regents. The latter were not unnaturally 

 averse to seeing the Institution surrender its imposing habitation 

 and the associations which clustered around it. A very natural 

 compromise would have been for the Government to pay the Insti- 

 tution a suitable moderate rent for those portions of the building 

 devoted to the care of government property, but it does not appear 

 that this measure was ever proposed. 



The position of the Smithsonian building in the public grounds 

 led Professor Henry to take an active interest in measures for the 

 improvement of the city. Among his latest efforts in the direction 

 were those made with the object of having the old canal which 

 bounded the Mall filled up. Some may still remember a witty 

 argument with which he urged this measure upon the Board of 

 Public Works. "The great inefficiency of the Smithsonian had 

 been said by its opponents to be illustrated by the fact that, al- 

 though formed to diffuse knowledge over the whole world, it had 

 not diffused knowledge enough among the local authorities of the 



