302 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



information, or nnder that of the Institution, according to the cir- 

 cumstances of the case. - - - Many of those communications 

 are of such a character, that at first sight it might seem best to treat 

 them witli silent neglect; but the rule has been adopted to state 

 candidly and respectfully the objections to such proj)ositions, and 

 to endeavor to convince their authors that their ground is untenable. 

 Though this course is in many cases attended with no beneficial 

 results, still it is the only one which can be adopted with any hope 

 of even partial good."* 



The information given to scientific inquirers has been of an ex- 

 ceedingly varied and highly valuable character, not unfrequently 

 involving a large amount of research from special experts; who 

 have been accustomed cheerfully to bestow a degree of attention on 

 difficult questions thus presented, which would have been accorded 

 perhaps less ungrudgingly to others than to the universally honored 

 Smithsonian Director. As to the pretensions and importunities of 

 the unscientific, — such is the judgment pronounced after a quarter 

 of a century of laborious experience with them : 



"The most troublesome correspondents are persons of extensive 

 reading, and in some cases of considerable literary acquirements, 

 who in earlier life were not imbued with scientific methods, but who 

 not without a certain degree of mental power, imagine that they 

 have made great discoveries in the way of high generalizations. 

 Their claims not being allowed, they rank themselves among the 

 martyrs of science, against whom the scientific schools and the envy 

 of the world have arrayed themselves. Indeed to such intensity 

 does this feeling arise in certain persons, that on their special sub- 

 jects they are really monomaniacs, although on others they may be 

 not only entirely sane, but even evince abilities of a high order. 

 - - - Two persons of this class have recently made a special 

 journey to Washington, from distant parts of the country, to demand 

 justice from the Institution in the way of recognition of their claims 

 to discoveries in science of great importance to humanity; and each 

 of them has made an appeal to his representative in Congress to 

 aid him in compelling the Institution to acknowledge the merits of 

 his speculations. Providence vindicates in such cases the equality 



* Smithsonian Report for 1853, pp. 22, 23, (of Senate ed.) 



