824 The Smithsonian Institution 



narrow quarters, already overflowed, which it occupied, and 

 which were greatly needed for other purposes during the re- 

 construction of the Smithsonian building. The removal 

 would also relieve the Smithsonian fund of the expense of a 

 library, including salary of librarians, and the cost of binding 

 books, leaving so much more of the annual income free to 

 be devoted to the promotion and publication of original re- 

 searches in science. The latter having always been the car- 

 dinal object of the Institution, in Professor Henry's view, he 

 had early taken the ground that the collection of a library 

 should be kept somewhat subordinate, and confined mainly 

 to the publications of scientific societies and aids to scientific 

 study, leaving to the general government the more com- 

 prehensive aim of building up in the city of Washington 

 a library of universal range. 



On the other hand, it would clearly be to the advantage 

 of the Library of Congress to receive so extensive an acces- 

 sion to its collections; and the annual additions of scientific 

 transactions, through the Smithsonian exchanges, would com- 

 pensate for the expense of binding, cataloguing, and care of 

 such a collection, in the incidental saving of many purchases 

 which would otherwise be essential for the Congressional 

 Library in its progress toward completion. 



These views, after due conference and comparison of ad- 

 vantages, prevailed with the committee representing Con- 

 gress, as well as with the Regents of the Institution ; and the 

 result was the passage of the Act of April 5, I886, 1 with the 

 provisions following: 



"The library collected by the Smithsonian Institution 

 under the provisions of an act approved August tenth, eight- 

 een hundred and forty-six, shall be removed from the build- 

 ing of said Institution, with the consent of the Regents 



1 " United States Statutes at Large," volume XIV, page 13. 



