520 The Smithsonian Institution 



teenth century, and to the centuries that have preceded it, it 

 must be admitted that these great and significant changes are 

 to be attributed to a remarkable and successful activity along 

 the lines of applied science, rather than to a relatively greater 

 number of scientific discoveries of the first class. Indeed, the 

 present is the era of applied science, the foundations of which 

 were, in general, laid in the scientific discovery of fifty and 

 more years ago. 



In view of this fact, it might be assumed that the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, whose function it is, and has been, rather to 

 restrict its interest to what is generally known as " pure " 

 science (believing that applied science will not lack support 

 from other sources), has not been an important factor in the 

 establishment of the dominion of physical science which char- 

 acterizes the close of the present century. Such a conclusion, 

 however, would be quite out of harmony with the facts, an ex- 

 amination of which will show that the name and fame of the 

 Institution will be forever inseparably linked with some of 

 the most important conquests of original research or ingenious 

 and far-reaching practical applications of scientific principles 

 for which the period is famous. 



There might naturally have been created, in the early his- 

 tory of the Institution, through its first Secretary, who more 

 than any one else, or perhaps all others, determined its char- 

 acter and plan of organization, and who was himself one of 

 the most distinguished physicists of his time, a noticeable dis- 

 crimination in favor of physical science. Indeed, there are 

 occasional sentences in his early reports which show how 

 strongly his thoughts tended in that direction. In his first 

 report to the Board of Regents, submitted December 8, 1847, 

 in speaking of the fact that many important suggestions as to 

 the organization of the Institution had been offered by differ- 

 ent persons independently of each other, he says : " Indeed 



