564 TJie Smithsonian Institnfion 



cellaneous Collections," and "Annual Reports," issued in 

 1886, it might appear that the Institution has done little 

 toward the increase and diffusion of mathematical knowledge. 

 But no such conclusion can be justly reached in the light of 

 anything like a comprehensive view of the work of the 

 Smithsonian Institution in the advancement of science. It is, 

 indeed, essential, first, to understand this work as a whole be- 

 fore any of its parts can be duly appreciated. Relatively, it is 

 clear that mathematics, the oldest and most perfect of the sci- 

 ences, has been much less in need of encouragement during 

 the period in question than the physical and natural sciences. 

 Moreover, the necessities of American life have called, until 

 very recently, for the applications rather than for the abstract 

 theories of mathematics. It is a natural and logical outcome, 

 therefore, of the conditions of science and of American life 

 that the bulk of the work of the Institution should be found 

 in the physical and natural sciences. But these, in the aggre- 

 gate, require for their interpretation the whole range of 

 mathematics ; and since it is through the concrete that the 

 abstract is approached, the diffusion of mathematical know- 

 ledge has doubtless been greater by this indirect process 

 than it could have been by any direct means. Thus the en- 

 couragement and aid given by the Smithsonian Institution 

 to astronomy, geodesy, meteorology, and physics, especially, 

 must be rated as of great importance ; for mathematical 

 studies in this country have been cultivated hitherto chiefly 

 as a means to the attainment of the objects of those other 

 sciences. 



The history of the Smithsonian Institution is practically 

 coextensive with the history of the Naval Observatory, or- 

 ganized in 1842, and with that of the Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey as reorganized in 1843. ^^ these governmental 

 bureaus which make extensive use of pure and applied 



