The Smithsonian Library 283 



"Resolved, That we have learned with pleasure that Con- 

 gress, on the recommendation of the library committee, made 

 an appropriation for the practical testing of the plan in its 

 application to the Library of Congress, and that the work is 

 now in successful progress." 



In 1855 a difference of opinion between Professor Henry 

 and Professor Jewett caused the latter's retirement from the 

 Institution. Both Doctor Guild and Doctor Poole expressed 

 the opinion that Professor Jewett's retirement represented 

 the culmination of a struggle between science and literature, 

 in which science prevailed. It is hardly necessary to say that 

 a struggle between science and literature would in no wise 

 involve the question of a library. Science has much greater 

 need of books than has literature ; under the conditions which 

 prevail among scientific investigators of the present day, and 

 even of the earlier day, collections of books were absolutely 

 essential for the prosecution of their studies. It was not so 

 much a question of policy as it was a question of administra- 

 tion which occasioned the retirement of Professor Jewett. 



His name will always be held in grateful remembrance at 

 the Smithsonian Institution, as it is among all the librarians 

 of America. The Institution has more than carried out the 

 idea of the establishment of a great library in Washington, 

 by the very substantial aid that it has given to the Library 

 of Congress, and by its policy of cooperation with that 

 library, on every occasion, to make it a truly national library. 

 While it has abandoned the idea of publishing catalogues of 

 libraries, it has probably rendered a greater service to libra- 

 ries by the publication of a large number of scientific bibli- 

 ographies. 



Professor Jewett's retirement created a profound sensation 

 in the Board of Regents and Congress. Senator Choate, 

 who had been from the first an ardent supporter of the 



