280 MEMORIAL OF josp:ph henry. 



orijrinal research for increasin<^ knowledge : and that this was 

 anijily sustained by the residuary grant of authority to tlie liegents 

 (under the 9th section of the Act) " to make such disposal as they 

 shall deem best suited /or the promotion of thej^urposes of the testator, 

 anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding," of any 

 income of the Smithsonian fund " not herein a})pr()priated, or not 

 I'equircd for the purposes herein provided." Henry's carefully 

 studied programme comprised two sections: the first, embracing 

 the details of the plan for carrying out the expli(;it purpose of 

 Smithson ; the second, indicating the proper steps for carrying out 

 the provisions of the Act of Congress. The first and jirincipal 

 section proposed as methods of promoting research, — the stimula- 

 tion of particular investigations by special premiums, — the publi- 

 cation of such original memoirs furnishing positive additions to 

 knoM'ledge by experiment and observation as should be approved 

 by a commission of experts in each case, — the active direction of 

 certain investigations by the provision of instruments as well as of 

 the necessary means, the appropriations being judiciously varied in 

 distribution from year to year, — the prosecution of experimental 

 determinations and the solution of physical problems, — the exten- 

 sion of ethnology (especially American), and in general the conduct 

 of such varied explorations as should ultimately result in a complete 

 physical atlas of the United States. As methods of promoting the 

 diffusion of knowledge, it was proposed to give a wide circulation 

 to the pulilished original memoirs or Smithsonian " Contributions 

 to Knowledge" among domestic and foreign libraries, institutions, 

 and scientific correspondents, to have prepared by qualified collab- 

 orators, series of careful reports on the latest progress of science in 

 different departments, and to provide facilities for the distribution 

 and exchange of scientific memoirs generally. 



It is unnecessary here to follow closely the slow steps by which — 

 through all the obstructions of narrow prejudice and ignorant mis- 

 construction, of selfish interest and pretended ])hilanthropy, of 

 friendly remonstrance and hostile denunciation, — the policy origin- 

 ally marked out by the Secretary Avas with unwavering resolution 

 and imperturbable equanimity steadily pursued, until it gained its 



