486 The Smithsonian Institution 



evidence of the public estimation in which the Institution is 

 held, that Congress has been so favorably disposed, even 

 during the depressed condition of the treasury, towards the 

 distribution of this document." 



It is difficult to epitomize the contents of these Reports. 

 During the early period of the Institution they were merely 

 reports to Congress, although an extensive appendix to the 

 Report of 1850 was printed. Beginning with the Report for 

 1854, the general appendix, so called, became a feature. In 

 speaking of this appendix in 1856, Professor Henry said that 

 its object was "to illustrate the operations of the Institution 

 by the reports of lectures and extracts from correspondence, 

 as well as to furnish information of a character suited espe- 

 cially to the meteorological observers and other persons in- 

 terested in the promotion of knowledge." Until 1865, many 

 important lectures by distinguished scientific men were de- 

 livered at the Institution, and their publication was a feature 

 of the Reports. It was also the custom of the Secretary, in 

 these Reports, to summarize the contents of the scientific 

 papers published in the other series, which will be alluded to 

 presently. There were added to the lectures, in each Report, 

 translations of articles relating to science which appeared in 

 foreign journals, descriptions of the organization of impor- 

 tant academies abroad, lists of prize questions announced by 

 various learned societies, reports of meteorological observers, 

 biographical sketches of distinguished scientific men recently 

 deceased, and a report of the progress of the science of 

 physics in recent years. Gradually, as the meteorological 

 work ceased to absorb so much of the attention of the Insti- 

 tution, less space was given to that branch of knowledge, and 

 more to North American ethnology and archaeology, con- 

 cerning which there are many contributions in the earlier 

 volumes of the Reports. 



