472 memorial of joseph henry. 



, Supplemental Note. 



[From page 459.] • 



The following statement by Professor Henry was made at the 

 request of the English Government Scientific Commission, June 

 28, 1870, during his visit to London. To the request that he 

 would give the Commission a general idea of the character of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, Professor Henry replied : 



" There was at firgt a great diversity of opinion as to the manner 

 in which the income should be applied to realize the design of the 

 testator, as expressed in the brief but comprehensive terms of the 

 bequest. The distinction at that time between an Institution for 

 the advancement of knowledge by the discovery of new truths, and 

 one for the teaching of the knowledge already jn existence, was not 

 60 generally recognized as it is at present, and Congress, after several 

 years of delay, placed the expenditures of the income under the 

 care of a Board of Regents, and directed that they should make 

 provision, by the erection of a building and otherwise, for the for- 

 mation of a library, a museum, and a gallery. It also gave fifty 

 acres of unimproved ground, surrounding the site for the building, 

 with indications that it should be planted Avith trees. Afterward 

 liONvever, though not without much opposition, it wiis concluded by 

 the directors that those objects, although very important in them- 

 selves, were too local in their influence to come up to the liberal 

 spirit of the bequest, which was intended not merely to benefit the 

 citizens of Washington, nor even exclusively those of the United 

 States, but maukind in general; and that the efforts of the direct- 

 ors should be to induce Congress to make a separate appropriation, 

 from the public treasury, for the support of the objects just men- 

 tioned, and to devote, as far as possible, the income of the Smith- 

 sonian fund to the direct increase and diffusion of knowledge, by 

 promoting original researches, and by distributing accounts of the 

 results of these to every part of the civilized world. In this the 

 directors have been in a great measure successful, though time and 

 much persevering labor have been required to produce a change iu 

 the policy originally contemplated. A large portion of the income 

 of the funds has been expended on the building. A library, prin- 

 cipally consisting of nearly a full series of the proceedings and 

 transactions of the existing learned societies of the world, has been 

 accumulated, the expense of the care of which has absorbed another 

 portion of, the income; {^museum has been collected, consisting 

 principally of specimens to illustrate the natural history and ethnol- 

 ogy of America, and also a collection of engravings and plaster 

 casts to meet the original requirements of Congress as to a gallery 



