. 



January i6, 1896J 



NATURE 



257 





t/3 



NO. I36S, VOL. 53] 



The table in the adjoining column shows, in each case, the 

 number of instances examined, and the averages calculated from 

 them. R. J. Horton-Smith. 



T//E SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



Promote, as an object of primary import.-ince, institutions for the increase 

 and diffusion of knowledge : in proportion as the structure of a government 

 gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be 

 enlightened.— Georcie Washington, 1796. 



I bequeath the whole of my property lo the United States of America to 

 found at Washington an establishment for the increase and diffusion oj 

 kno%vledge among men. — James Smithson, 1826. 



Let the trust of James Smithson to the United States of America be 

 faithfully executed by their representatives in Congress : let this result 

 accomplish his object — the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men. 

 — John Quincv Adams, 1846. 



'X'HE name of the Smithsonian Institution is a household word 

 ■*■ in America, while in every centre of intellectual activity 

 abroad, it is regarded as the chief exponent of the scientific 

 thought of the people of the United States, thus representing 

 that which is deemed in other lands to be a chief glory of our 

 nation ; for, whatever may be thought of American art and 

 literature, or of American instituttons in general, the science of 

 America is everywhere accepted as sound, vigorous, and pro- 

 gressive. 



Its activities embrace every branch of human knowledge, for 

 it was the intention of its organisers that art as well as science 

 — the beautiful as well as the true — should receive its fostering 

 care. 



The Smithsonian Institution, although it bears the name of a 

 foreigner, has for half a century been one of the most important 

 agencies in the intellectual life of our people. It has been a 

 rallying-point for the workers in every department of scientific 

 and educational work, and the chief agency for the free exchange 

 of books, apparatus of research and of scientific intelligence 

 between this and other countries. Its publications, which include 

 more than two hundred volumes, are to be found in all the 

 important libraries in the world, and some of them, it is safe to 

 say, on the work-table of every scientific investigator. Its great 

 library constitutes an integral and very important part of the 

 national collection at the Capitol, and its museum is the richest 

 in existence in many branches of the natural history and eth- 

 nology of the New World. Many wise and enlightened scholars 

 have given their best years to its service, and some of the most 

 eminent men of science to whom our country has given birth, 

 have passed their entire lifetime in working for its success. 



The most important service, however, which the Smithsonian 

 Institution has rendered to the nation — intangible, but none the 

 less appreciable — has been its fifty years of constant co-operation 

 with the Government, with public institutions, and with indi- 

 viduals in every enterprise, scientific or educational, which 

 needed its advice, support, or aid from its manifold resources. 



Visitors to the city of Washington carry away plea.sant 

 memories of the quiet group of buildings among the trees in the 

 Mall, filled with the wonders of nature and art, and the trophies 

 of scientific discovery. Few of them, however, have had the 

 opportunity to visit the administrative offices and laboratories, or 

 to gain any idea of the real significance and value of the work 

 which is being carried on within those walls. 



It is probable that no class of the American people appreciates 

 the work of the Institution more fully than the members of Con- 

 gress. This has been clearly shown by the uniform liberality 

 with which, throughout many successive terms, regardless of 

 changes in the political complexion of the administration, they 

 have supported its policy ; by the care with which they dis- 

 seminate its reports ; by the judgment with which they .select 

 their representatives upon its Board of Regents, and, above all, 

 by the scrupulous care with which they protect the Institution 

 in its independence of political entanglements. That the Insti- 

 tution has accomplished so much in the past is largely due to 

 the support which it has received from these practical men of 



1 By Dr. G. Brown Goode. This paper w.-is printed for distribution at 

 the Atlanta Exposition, and has since been revised and extended for 

 Nature. It is based upon the author's essay on "The Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, " printed in 1885, in "The Ch:iiU.-iuquan " (vol. v. pp. 275-79), 

 and upon later writings, especially " The Origin of the National Scientific 

 and Educational Institutions of the United States" (Report American 

 Historical Association, 1889, pp. 53-100) ; "The Genesis of the National 

 Museum" (Smithsonian Report, 1891, ii. pp. 273-380), and the article 

 " Smithsonian Institution " in Johnson's Cyclopaedia, new edition (vol. vii. 

 1895). 



