DISCOURSE OF W. B. TAYLOR: NOTES. 407 



executive officer. The charter seems to have intended that he 

 should occupy a very responsible position. - - - Your com- 

 mittee will not withhold their opinion that upon the choice of this 

 single officer more probably than on any one other act of the Board, 

 will depend the future good name and success and usefulness of the 

 Smithsonian Institution." 



The Board of Regents two days later proceeded to the election 

 of this officer: and the result was announced in the National Intel- 

 ligencer of the following day — December 4th. In i\ie Intelligencer 

 for Saturday, December 5th, 1846, the following editorial notice of 

 this important proceeding was given : 



"In a brief paragraph yesterday we announced that the Regents 

 of the Smithsonian Institution had fixed their choice of Secretary, 

 on Joseph Henry, LL. D. of Princeton College, New Jersey. The 

 appointment of this officer was one of their most important and 

 responsible duties. There has perhaps never been an occasion in 

 the literary history of our coimtry when so much depended upon 

 the decision of so small a number of men. The success of one of 

 the most liberal institutions in the world, depends much on the per- 

 sonal influence of the Secretary to be chosen by the Regents. Men 

 of the highest literary distinction as well as personal merit in the 

 nation were numbered among the candidates. It is no disparage- 

 ment to their attainments to point out some of the circumstances 

 which sanction the decision just made; for the statement of which, 

 and the reference which it embraces to Professor Henry, we are 

 indebted to the pen of a scientific friend. 



"Foremost among American savans stands the name of Frank- 

 lin; — a name which belongs to the science of the world, and can 

 hardly be said to have a locality. Second perhaps to Franklin only, 

 stands the name of the philosopher of Princeton. It is not now 

 the time nor place to enter into an enumeration of the extensive 

 advances made in physical science by his researches. The brilliant 

 dis(»very of Franklin of the identity of lightning and the electrical 

 fluid, might have been supposed hardly to have left room for a 

 gleaner in the field. Yet we venture the opinion that if Franklin's 

 favorite aspiration could have been realized — if he could have been 

 permitted to revisit after a lapse of half a century, the busy scenes 

 of human life, he would have found himself a novice in his favorite 

 science. A whole science — that of galvanism, (voltaic electricity,) 

 electro-magnetism, magneto-electricity, thermo-electricity, etc. has 

 been created since the time of Franklin. If the discovery of 

 Franklin enables us to make the lightning harmless, that of the 

 recent school of philosophers enables us to turn it in various ways 

 to practical account in the business purposes of life. If we ask who 



